Yesterday afternoon, I had a late
lunch at a nearby Indian restaurant. Moving carefully along the slanted and
horrendously dangerous steps of the office to the safety of the ground floor
can be quite daunting too. Nevertheless, I must proclaimed that I am alive and
well, thank you very much despite the not-so-friendly wooden staircase at the
office. Never mind, it is an old wooden structure building with many facelifts
to cream its so-called beauty. Been at it for the past 20 years and climbing
the staircase every morning seemed to be the gauge for me to see if I still welcome
the challenge to walk those steps each day. I guess, for the time being,
whether I like it or not, I would still have to climb them.
But that wasn’t the point I wanted to
make. The point was that there is a slumped, dirtied and alcohol reeked smell
middle aged man at the doorway that hindered the doorway out of my office.
Looking at this man, he was most probably in his late 40s and he had two pack
of meals at his sides as he laid down on his stomach. However, he was so wasted
with alcohol that he was virtually incorrigible to what had been said to him or
what he said to anyone for that matter. He was clothed in a striped red and black
striped t-shirt and jeans. So, I took the next best alternative that is to
speak to the man and asked him to move to his side so as to not scare the women
and children folk. He was somehow oblivious
to where he was or what he was doing when I woke him up. Not rowdy nor violent,
the man just sat up but looked groggy. After a while, the man simply slumped
back on the cold hard five foot way near our office door making it very
difficult for the ladies in the office who are afraid of such people. Believe me, we have had to deal with such people before. Not
wanting to make it difficult for the man, I left him to be on his own as I
moved on for lunch.
After coming back for lunch, the
drunkard man was at where he was and I noted that he was still sleeping on the
hard floor while the elderly car park attendant near my office told me that we,
meaning our office guys, should call the police to look into this fella. Before
walking up the staircase, I had checked out the man and noted that he was still
very much alive but still smell a bit. Going up the stairs, I was thinking, “
Why should we call the police? The car park uncle could do it himself, right?”
left the thought as it was. Usually, drunkards and street people who sauntered
at our office door usually would be gone in a day or two as the alcohol effects
wore off. As the day wore on, it was soon time to leave work and go home. Again, at
about 6.10pm yesterday, I had visually checked on the drunkard man and I was
checking him out by sight if he was okay. I noted that his body rise up and
down in a steady fashioned. “Phew! He is still alive!” was what went through my
mind. Thinking nothing of it, I left for home but not before making a stop to
get some things done.
This morning, as I arrived at the
office, I noted that the man was nowhere to be found. “Perhaps this one is
different. He must have awakened and moved away” was what I had in mind today. Imagine my
surprise when at about noon time just now, the elderly car park attendant came
to the office to exclaim that the drunkard that was at the door since Monday
morning was dead upon arrival at the hospital.
He went on to exclaim loudly that we should have called the police and
so on. He just rambled on as I pondered that he too could have played his part
by rousing up this man and asking him to seek treatment or help. Instead, like
many of us, he heaped scornful remarks, unwanted remarks and did not give a
second glance at that man that day. We all did that, for the record......
Isn’t it ironic that we are all guilty
of such things each day? The poor, the destitute, the drunkard and the dirty
don’t even warrant a single glance from us. We are guilt of neglect, you and I
included. I felt sad just now and don’t give the bulls that “we will always
have the poor among us and so on” or "how man can we save and so on" sermon on this. The fact remained that my
colleagues, passer-by , general public and I did nothing to help this person.
Even I just made sure he was still breathing but did not even lend or extend a
helping hand. Instead, we labelled him the undesired people in our society and
just let him be as we moved about to do what we do each day.
Yeah, I am critical of myself too as I
took a good hard swipe at myself at this incident. A man died because we did
not care enough and a great shame to whatever we have learnt all these years. I guess,
when you are down and out and downtrodden, no one gives a two hoots about you,
huh? This is what that had happened to our society today. The more advance we
are in technology and in our fields, we had loosened and lost our sense of
humanly empathy and sympathy for others. We had become mechanical, methodically
robotic and ruthless in our daily dealings with people. Maybe, this is what the
world is all about. Maybe, this is just the ramblings of an old man like me,
the young may say. But verily I say to you that one day, the proud and cocky
young would grow old too and suffer the same actions and reactions. One forgets
that one’s youth remains only for a short period of time before the unstoppable
aging process starts and creeps in. Thereby, compassion, humbleness and respect
are the values of life we should nurture.
I am saddened that no one cares enough for
the poor, the derelict, the homeless and the unfortunate at times like this. It
is like “every man for himself” mentality and all the religious teachings on
human values just got flushed down the drain. I am ashamed today. I really am,
believe me. I really am ashamed today for my inaction. I am usually not like
that and I felt so ashamed beyond words as I also questioned myself on how I
have moved that far away from the values I cherished so much.
Yeah, I am affected by the death of
this so-call insignificant death episode of this drunkard because I did not
care enough to see him be alive today. Mind you, this is someone’s son, father,
husband, brother, uncle and even friend. Where have all they gone? I often
wonder….. I often wonder......
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