An aspiring youth joined a daily as an apprentice. After three days of rigorous training and induction, his boss told him, “why don’t you go to the field and come back with a story worth publishing”. He roamed around the streets and tolerated the heat for close to six hours, but in vain. He was returning to the office with a sense of failure as he hadn’t collected a worthwhile story. He came to a junction where three roads met in a ‘Y’ formation.
He suddenly noticed two buses speeding towards the junction from the two opposite roads, oblivious of what they were heading for. An accident seemed almost inevitable. The young reporter used his presence of mind, ran to the two roads’ meeting point, vigorously waved both his hands, screamed at the top of his voice, and eventually succeeded in stopping both the buses just a few nanoseconds before the mishap. Hundreds of passengers from both the buses took the youth’s hand into theirs and thanked him profusely. He thought he got a fantastic heroic story to share with the world.
However, on hearing this heroic story from the young reporter, the newspaper editor sacked him, saying, “You missed a golden opportunity of a dramatic story worthy of headlines. We could have run this story for long.” Can you believe that?
We do not live in a bad world. It’s just that the bad makes news. In a world where the bad makes so much noise, we need more and more avenues through which the good too will begin to make noise. Smoking, drinking, chewing, and many other harmful habits are advertised enough; but what is available to ‘brainwash’ the world on good activities?
For instance, You may or may not like the monologue of PM in “Man Ki Baat,” but what I find remarkable is that at least he tries to flesh out some good stories from the midst of negativity around us. Did you hear about inspirational about Bhagirathi Amma, Ismail Khatri, Kamya Karthikeyan, and others anywhere else?
Go out into the world and speak all the good you know of all the people. Tell your friends about the virtues of your parents. Let everyone know how proud you are of your children. Join and support all positive associations. Stick a bulletin about all the qualities you admire in your teachers. Gossip more and more about all the extraordinary things ordinary people around you are doing every day of their lives. Write to your in-laws about how blessed you are to have their child as your spouse. Shout, scream, write, speak, blow the trumpet, and make noise about all the good you can see.
Let us together impress the world and impress upon the world that our world is good.
Thank you!
Credit – Mahatria Ra’s Unposted Letter
