The Chiku (Sapota) tree with fruits in our garden is in the flight path of birds. Today I noticed three Bulbuls perched in three adjacent plants, longingly looking at the fruits which are yet to ripen! I felt fascinated by the sense of longing and anticipation in their look! They come for their daily bread ! They are unlikely to be without their daily bread even though the Chiku fruits are not yet ripe!
The Bulbuls would search for the next fruit tree in the garden or go elsewhere! They move around gardens for their daily bread! Birds are travellers and migrants.
Humans have become settlers.
But a new urge to settle overseas is common among professionals trained in India. With open doors of opportunities in many English speaking counters, the rush to go overseas to study and to settle there as permanent residents is a new aspiration among many.
This phenomenon in a post-COVID scene is worth looking at in terms of human behaviour. I remember a medical student telling me in the final year, that he is preparing to study in Britain and is getting ready to appear for the qualifying examination. Now after three years of efforts he is in Britain and is awaiting to get started with his post graduate training. When I met him recently I felt that he had an immense measure of fulfilment. He could practice medicine in the National Health Service where everyone gets equal attention and service. His aspiration was to practice in such an environment. He recalled instances when he had to send away patients to government hospitals as they could not pay the fees for service in a private hospital.
The disparity in the health care sector in India has widened. The government's attention to promote a national health plan has been a rhetoric rather than an actuality!
I feel alarmed by the contrast. The rhetoric in the political circle is that India has moved upwards to be among the first three global economies.
I wonder whether the planners, politicians and professional institutions pause to ask a question: Do we have asocial infrastructure in India where every one would have access to daily bread!
In a broader canvas it would mean, educational opportunities, a job, reasonable income, a place to live, good health care, social security on retirement, facility for senior citizens to live well....!
The Bulbuls came looking for food! They would now go elsewhere not having found the fruits ripe enough.
I feel disturbed when I look at the scene around. Professionals are migrating to greener pastures. The people in the lower strata of the social pyramid look forward to an upward mobility. About thirty percent in the lower strata seem to have moved to the lower middle class or upper middle class in the last 25 years in India. The remaining seventy percent in the lower income group, still struggle for their daily bread. That would be about 20 percent of the population of India.
A leading politician started his talk in the parliament yesterday by saying, 'let me talk from my heart to your hearts', which I thought was a sober and solemn approach to his discourse. But he soon drifted to an accusatory tone and finger pointing. I wish he had stayed on that mood to say, 'we have problem, is it that we are that problem'! To think that others cause the problem is an unfortunate way of perpetuating the problem!
I still look forward to experience respite from the existing mindset: 'I have the answers and you are the problem'!
A TV news item yesterday was about some activists coming together to rebuild a shop that was burned down, during the recent communal clash in Haryana state!
That is the first step towards ' loving our neighbours as ourselves'!
I am currently struggling with a neighbour who is alcohol dependent and is choosing to stay that way!
The three Bulbuls reminded me of the existential needs of people around me!
M.C.Mathew(text and photo)
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