Are you one of those people who ransack your purses when a beggar child halts beside your auto at a traffic signal? Or are you one of those who tell themselves, "its gonna end up with them buying drugs anyway"? (I know there are many other alternatives in between these two, but to make things simple I am going to use a lot of inappropriate binary logic, so brace yourself).
Either ways, look to your other side. Yes, thats right, right beside you, on the other side. That is me, sitting right there, and heres my problem.
If you belong to group a. this is how my mind works:
Unlike you, who seem to relate to the child's misery, I do not. I do not personally know this child and I cannot feel it's misery (notice the use of "it"). I can take a rational guess at the misery of starvation and scary, preying perverts etc. I can rate it on a hypothetical scale of 1 to 10. But in the minute or 2 of waiting for the green light, this calculation does not translate to me easing away my protective clutch from my purse and giving away a coin.
That is unless, you have trouble finding loose change. Then, as a friend, by which i immediately relate to ur needs and ur conscience, I will most efficiently produce an array of 1 rupee, 2 rupee and 5 rupee coins, leaving you with the option of picking any and all.
On the other hand, if you belong to group b., then this is how it works:
The child may or may not buy drugs. You have not witnessed this personally. Even if you have, you haven't seen a large enough number do it, to generalise the possibility. At that age, the kid is more likely to get his kicks from a sip up.
And besides, if all that is constraining you, is your parallel and equally important fight against drug abuse, then, i suggest that everytime you go to the market, buy 10-20 packets of 2 rupee tiger biscuits and carry one or two around whenevr you get out.
I tried this, briefly,
during a stint of general reforms in my life of waking up and heading to office early and dieting, for which very reasons, I mostly never encountered beggars and consumed the tiger biscuits myself after failing to curb my appetite. But there were rare exceptions.
Either ways, look to your other side. Yes, thats right, right beside you, on the other side. That is me, sitting right there, and heres my problem.
If you belong to group a. this is how my mind works:
Unlike you, who seem to relate to the child's misery, I do not. I do not personally know this child and I cannot feel it's misery (notice the use of "it"). I can take a rational guess at the misery of starvation and scary, preying perverts etc. I can rate it on a hypothetical scale of 1 to 10. But in the minute or 2 of waiting for the green light, this calculation does not translate to me easing away my protective clutch from my purse and giving away a coin.
That is unless, you have trouble finding loose change. Then, as a friend, by which i immediately relate to ur needs and ur conscience, I will most efficiently produce an array of 1 rupee, 2 rupee and 5 rupee coins, leaving you with the option of picking any and all.
On the other hand, if you belong to group b., then this is how it works:
The child may or may not buy drugs. You have not witnessed this personally. Even if you have, you haven't seen a large enough number do it, to generalise the possibility. At that age, the kid is more likely to get his kicks from a sip up.
And besides, if all that is constraining you, is your parallel and equally important fight against drug abuse, then, i suggest that everytime you go to the market, buy 10-20 packets of 2 rupee tiger biscuits and carry one or two around whenevr you get out.
I tried this, briefly,
during a stint of general reforms in my life of waking up and heading to office early and dieting, for which very reasons, I mostly never encountered beggars and consumed the tiger biscuits myself after failing to curb my appetite. But there were rare exceptions.
Now I didnt do this because I suddenly gained a heart, in all its sensitive, feminine glory. No, I have none of that. I have and always will relate better to stray dogs than strangers.
I did it because...because...I favour the notion of the implicit social contract of the human race. Ha! Don't eyeball me. This is what economics has done to me. I think in normal terms u call it "being nice". But 'nice' doesn't capture the selfish angle.
Here, the idea is that as a team, we will help each other out or play a fair game between us, humans, because of the favourable implications it has for ourselves. All this, is atleast what I told myself then.
But I suspect, this was not the real reason. It was possibly just an excuse for me to imitate the niceness of Nats and Sharru, to be just like them, minus all the feeling they possess in their actions. And that is the reduced, pathetic, honest self I have to live with.
I did it because...because...I favour the notion of the implicit social contract of the human race. Ha! Don't eyeball me. This is what economics has done to me. I think in normal terms u call it "being nice". But 'nice' doesn't capture the selfish angle.
Here, the idea is that as a team, we will help each other out or play a fair game between us, humans, because of the favourable implications it has for ourselves. All this, is atleast what I told myself then.
But I suspect, this was not the real reason. It was possibly just an excuse for me to imitate the niceness of Nats and Sharru, to be just like them, minus all the feeling they possess in their actions. And that is the reduced, pathetic, honest self I have to live with.
1 comment:
One thing that Economics definitely does to people is it brings out their skeptical self to the fore front.. But none the same nice one! way to go baby!
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