WHY DO WE NOT EMPATHISE ANY MORE?

I was travelling in a train from Mangalore to Chennai.There was a big group of youngsters who boarded the train along with me.They told me with an air of cultivated importance that they are from MIT.It is not Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but Manipal Institute! As soon as they boarded the train at 12.30 Noon, they spread their beadings and started occupying the berths, without even waiting for other passengers to board.There was not an inch of luggage space left for other passengers to use because they were keeping the luggage of their friends who were not fortunate to get a seat in the AC coach.I managed to find an empty side seat as mine was occupied by a youngster one third my age and managed to find a space for my small handbag which would have been too humble in size even in an aircraft cabin.Then the high volume banter started, destroying every possibility for anyone else in the compartment to read, sleep or enter into any civilised verbal interaction.The topics of discussion were certainly nowhere near MIT class ! I was hoping against hope even after 8 hours of torture, mercifully punctured by bouts of daytime sleep of the youngsters, that will enhance the quality of their topics of concern, but I was not that fortunate.I wondered, if I were to interview these youngsters for my company, how many would have got 2 digit scores?

When it came to sleeping time, our young friends who already had their quota of sleep during daytime, did not want to sleep, because they would have simply missed the thrill of keeping all the conservatives awake.I saw two elderly men trying to throw most sophisticated hints at the brigade that they are too old and tired to be awake at that time.Nothing worked.Then I thought it is time to give them a taste of their own lack of empathy.I simply got up , asked everyone in the seat to get up ,pulled the seats up and allowed the elderly gentlemen to sleep.Perhaps the menacing look on my aggrieved face did the trick and the brigade froze and allowed the rest to continue the journey in peace.

In Kerala I distinctly felt an air of indifference, rejection of serious contemplation of anything, and an aptitude for easy life and pointless entertainment.Keralites have become a plastic society that projects material well being as the ultimate goal in life.It would have been fine if people were willing to sweat for this.No.

There is too much of baseless EGO everywhere and institutions like family and Marriage are taking a beating.People are not willing to see the other point of view and accommodate.Identities are watertight and most people simply lack the skill to manage multiple identities.

Any amount of Godmen and Women who are a dime a dozen in Kerala have not made a difference to the psychic health of Malayali minds.The formula is nauseatingly the same.The Ashram locates wealthy but soft people and target them by offering some vague solace to confused and wavery minds-for a hefty price of course.You cannot see even one distant clone of a Sreenarayanaguru or Ramanamaharshi there.If they are not criminals, they are either illiterate crowd pullers being exploited by corporate Ashrams, or quacks who make money from desperate ill informed common man, or business Swamys and preachers , who have discovered profitable business models based on the superstition market.

I want to link our lack of empathy to the irrational plastic religiosity that our people have accepted as a life model.We have become inward, keep out rational knowledge and are not worried about the society as long as the Vibhoothi given by the family Godman is there to save us from all difficulties.

This must change and the starting point is our children and grand children.

A..Jayanthram