Stream O' De Profundis

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It was about ten past two in the night, we finished watching the telugu movie 'Happy'. I went out onto the balcony of our flat with a glass of water in my hand. I heard somebody crying... a man's. I went inside and informed the others (Dharma and Arnab) of what I heard. We came out to enquire. I thought that some drunk pedestrian must have fallen on the road, and must be crying. In the next instant female sobbing sound followed. We got down the stairs apprehensively; Arnab with a steel rod. I tried to stop him when he was speeding toward the road. Dharma also protested, "Man! What is he doin? At this time in the night it's not wise to be out this way". However, Arnab nearly reached to the place of incident.

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Our colony's road directly meets with the main road. There are some trees and a fence which blocks the sight of the road, from the colony. The sound was coming from behind the fence. We rushed toward it.

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On the ground a man in sitting posture was holding a lady in his arms. Two girls, one around the age of 14 and the other around 16, were crying and scooting without knowing what to do. I saw Arnab rubbing the lady's palm. Arnab shouted, "There's no pulse. Do something!.. Call Pratyush!.. Bring our cell phones!"

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I ran to our flat, picked up phones and went back. We called our friend Pratyush. Pratyush is local over here. He stays at his aunt's house. She always helps us out of trouble. We all call her Mausi. She's our messiah.

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In the mean time Arnab ran toward Mannu's flat. Mannu and Lokesh recently shifted to a house near our's. Arnab sprinted back on a bike. He and Dharma, then rushed for an ambulance. We do not have the number, so, it was better to get it personally. I called Pratyush for the second time. He said that nobody is receiving the phone at the hospital.

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Manu came. I had no time to explain to him, what had happened. Moreover, i had known nothing other than that there was a woman lying on the road, that she had no pulse, and that she needed to be taken to the hospital as soon as possible. What exactly had happened, we still have no knowledge of it! [Edited on 7th September 2007: Later it came to my knowledge that she had 'myocardial infarction', which is commonly known as heart attack.]

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I saw one more bike approaching it turned out to be an acquaintance of Manu. He also rushed for an ambulance.

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A little later an ambulance zinged past us. It was so fast that I failed to recognise and stop it. However, it came to a halt at about 150 meters from us. I asked Manu to approach the driver and get it back to where we were standing.

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They took her.

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It's 3:30 a.m. Everyone is out and I’m alone at the flat waiting for the others to return, as I decided not to disturb them by calling. Night.

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Yesterday, I just finished typing when they returned. Doctor pronounced her dead. She was already dead when we saw her.

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Though, we had wasted no time on taking action, I feel as if I behaved selfishly. At first I was hesitating to go out and look what exactly is happening on the road. Thieves often play such counterfeiting tricks to enmesh pedestrians. Furthermore, the world is so nefarious that we have to carefully observe things first, get into its depths, and verify, before taking any action. There's deceptiveness and fraudulence everywhere.

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For example, take the last part of the movie I was watching seconds before this incident. The young actress was scurrying towards the railway station on a two-wheeler to stop her love from leaving her for ever. She hadn't expressed her love to him, and she would loose him forever if she gets late. It was raining and then, on the road a woman stops her for help. The woman tells her that her husband is in a hospital and she has to get there as soon as possible. Without any other word, this girl asks her to sit behind her and rushes towards the hospital. Midway they are stopped by the police. The woman turns out to be a prostitute. The actress is then taken into custody. Its like "do good, you'll suffer".

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The most important thing everybody should remember is that nothing called God is gonna help them when in trouble. Even if God exists, he'll never come! That is why proverbs like "God helps those who help themselves" subsist. The only people standing by you will be your friends and family members. Miracles never happen to every Tom, Dick and Harry. You should stay away from trouble as far as possible. In case you get entangled into it, you should be smart enough to get out of it yourself. Or else embed this in your mind: "Caution, stay away!"

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We too are animals. So, we are also governed by the rules of nature. Nature wants only the strongest and the most intelligent. This is to improve quality. Every species keeps on improving itself. "Nothing but change is permanent". In the animal kingdom the weak and the unintelligent deserve to die. Eventually the smarter beings move forward. Only they enjoy the sweetness of life. Do good or bad it won't affect your future state, unless it's antisocial. Antisocial activities rarely go unnoticed. However, ipso facto, what would one loose if he/she helps somebody in distress? A few disgraceful coins? Time and energy? Ah! We have them in plenty to spare a little.

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For instant take this example. There are three people. Let them be Alias, Richy - a rich man and Richy's daughter Ravisha. Alias comes to Richy and tells him that he is suffering from a fatal disease. He asks him for monetary help. Ravisha who overheard this conversation told her father that this guy Alias is a big fraud. She asked her father not to believe Alias. Instead of her warning Richy gave him the amount Alias had asked. Later, Richy finds that Alias had lied to him and that he used that money in boozing and gambling. Ravisha on getting aware of all this, reminded her father of the warning she gave him, and that he should have believed her.

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On harking this Richy said, "Ravisha, for a person of my status, the money i lost is insignificant. I'm happy that Alias is free of any fatal diseases."

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Think of this man's generosity and well-wishing nature! If Alias had been really suffering from a disease and nobody helped him, he would have died.

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So the question here is how to know who's good and who's fraud? Likewise, how to verify a situation similar to that i have faced yesterday? We generally don't get the chance to find out the truth. Sometimes it's good to help where we loose little.

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Last year when I was going home on vacations, at the Kharagpur railway station, I came across a well dressed middle aged man. He asked me for money saying that it is getting difficult for him to support the lives of two; his and his daughter's.

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I took out a 20 rupees note and gave it to him without asking any questions. When he asked for more, I added another 10 rupees. I know, this sounds scanty but I was helpless. If I had the intuition to know his genuineness, I would have surely furnished him with more money. We come across such people mostly at railway stations and bus stops. Recent movies like Traffic Signal have ostensively flashed light on such spurious and wily activities. After departing from me, that man might have straight away headed towards a bar! Who knows!

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I had already heard of similar occurrences. At the railway station a man approached my uncle and told him that his luggage and money has been stolen and he has left with nothing to travel and eat. Uncle gave him some money. A few days later uncle was flabbergasted on seeing the same man extracting money from others using the same tactic. Uncle unable to stop his emotions bawled out at him. He ran away!

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Keeping in mind such agitating incidents, we sometimes end up showing cruelty to people who really suffer with problems.

Remember, for the sake of few phony people we can't pull away our helping hands.

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The helpful nature of 'public' is visible mostly at railway stations and on roads. I remember an incident. Few years ago, my mom and aunt were going to some place on foot. On the road my mom was accidentally struck by a bull and she lost consciousness. A group of people rushed for help. They did everything they could, to bring her back to consciousness.

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In this case it was evening and people saw it happening. So no question of duplicity and guile. On the contrary, incidents such as the one I witnessed yesterday could be treacherous. The veraciousness of such incidents can be perceived only on reaching the site of incident. Upon conforming that the situation is safe to poke into, I wouldn't have deserted the woman. However, some situations require firm decisions and quick action.

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Different people behave differently in such situations. This is because of their behavioral patterns. Some people get excited even at petty matters. Some are full of emotions. Some get agitated. While, some get disappointed very soon. Yet some other feel low all the time. The thing is that people should learn how exactly to behave in different situations. In an emergency getting hurry-scurry can cause negative effects. For example emergencies compel people to ride bikes at exceeding speeds. Drive only to that limit till which you can handle it. You exceed, instead of helping you may need help. I must be sounding phlegmatic but this is the datum.

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My inner self curses me when I don't hear it. I feel I sometimes behave selfishly. I lack self confidence. I'm pusillanimous. I think a lot before doing anything, which sometimes causes adverse effects. I should learn to take quick actions. It's only because of guys like Arnab that people in trouble get help. Diffident people like me would probably demolish the word 'help'.

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We are the supreme creatures on this planet. So, we should be helpful not only to human being, but to animals as well. Their lack of speech doesn't show that they don't have emotions. Most of the animals have short term memories. They forget soon, but some remember for long. Legends say that elephants never forget their dead. Now science has backed it up. Elephants, like humans, attach great importance to the dead, feeling moved to touch them with their trunks and feet, and often revisiting carcasses. Even if they find an elephant that is long dead, one where the bones are scattered, they get tense and roiled.

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Birds, beavers, gibbons, marmosets are said to mate for life. After loosing its spouse an eagle stops mating for three year! Black Vulture and the Gray Wolf are some of the other animals which mate for life. However, infidelity always exists and so many males wind up raising other males' babies! "Mommy's babies, Daddy's maybes"!!

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I should stop getting into the details. It's getting non sequitur. I would probably write another blog on monogamy and promiscuity, sometime. ;)

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Apart from animals, man is more social and more emotional. He would never forget a relationship... and that is the reason why guys remember their old girl friends after getting drunk :D

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Yesterday, it was not the woman we were helping; we were helping those young girls and the man, their sorrow, their grief. Parting with the loved ones is a sorrow that can't be . The world becomes an impassive hell.

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One should possess moral and virtuous qualities like helping nature, kindness etc. Not because it's always tough to us, "do good and good will come back". Never expect this to happen. We should be helpful because we are social animals and because we can distinguish ‘good’ from ‘bad’. When the feeling "I should not do this" arises, stop proceeding. Conscientiousness is very important. Being good and doing good, makes one feel better. Good should be done for reasons indefinable. There are million things which can't be explained or which are out of our intuition. Paranormal elements exist. Think of it and you will feel insignificant.

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The world is full of evil. Both evil and good should coexist in order to keep balance. So we need to escalate helping hands to equalize it with the prevailing deceitfulness.