Thy need my friend, is greater than mine!

This is one of the stickers they have put up in the Delhi Metro and instantly attracted my attention.

 

 

Pushing my way in front through the crowd, I managed a hurried shot from my mobile phone. And surprise! Watching me taking the picture, a strapping young fellow got up and offered his seat to a woman of rather generous proportions. Was Delhi really getting to be more considerate, humane?

 

Thoughts flew back to the tale of Sir Phillip Sidney, read in childhood. Dying in battle, he is said to have given his flask of water to another wounded soldier, saying, " Thy necessity is yet greater than mine"! That made him more famous after his death and created a role model of bravery and generosity, of the Elizabethan age ..

 

Cut to the present age of unabashed ambition, greed and cut - throat competition. People rushing madly to the escalator after being disgorged from commuter trains on their way to work reminds one of the Charlie Chaplin movie "Modern Times", 1936. Harried people, rushed people, ruthlessly on the grind. And somewhere along this headlong rush to nowhere, we seem to have pushed the qualities of kindness and consideration far back into the recesses of our mind. Hugging our own comfort zones, busy browsing our own virtual world in those hideously big smartphones. Our own private and personal race to acquire, accumulate and maximise gratification.

 

And yet, a simple act like offering your seat to the old and the infirm will surely light up your day, infuse a spring in your step! Just give it a try!