Paradigm Shift

If you go and ask an automan why he wouldn't reduce the charges even after the petrol prices have gone down much, you shouldn't be surprised if he replies, "Recession". This word has spread around the world much that everyone is claiming to be struck badly by the recession. We cannot blame them. Starting from the prices of petrol cans to the cost of vegetable greens in the market (I wonder why!), the prices have soared up. Thanks to recession!

Everyone knows that IT sector has most deeply been affected by recession. If that could affect the jobs of the IT employees, then it has affected the future IT prospects as well. I am not talking about the recent graduates from colleges but am talking about the future college prospects. It seems that in the present counselling for the engineering seats, students are opting themselves out of the Information Technology field.

Five years back, when I, one amongst fellow batchmates, was sitting in my school auditorium for a workshop on job opportunities, the guy in the dias looked at us and asked us how many of us want to be a doctor. Almost the entire bio group students raised their hands. That would be around 110 students.

Two years back, the demand for medical seats got too less and the demand for IT seats were at the peak. Are students inclined to choose the course that is always at the top or do they choose it with complete interest? Students tend to choose the field that will keep them secure. We cannot blame them. Fruits like mangoes, water melons comes only during summer season and not during any other season. One cannot see them in the roadside vendor stalls. Just because they don't come in the other season, you wouldn't begin to hate them, would you?

Move on?

Earth completes a single rotation in 24 hours. Man seems to be moving faster than that. He is so agile that he doesn't care to stop in between. Does man need to stop? Why should he stop? Should he move on to make him secure? Should he move on to stay in the race? Or should he stop to give a lending hand to those who have fallen down in the race? Should I emphasize that this race is only for the humans and that we have already pushed the animals far behind? Now should the man run in the opposite direction to save the animals too?

As far as I have known, only animals create a stampede. Now recently, humans also create a stampede and all those as wild as the animals itself. The cause of the animal stampede will be due to fear and survival but the causes of the human stampede has always been greediness or desire for more. He has to survive and move fast to get what he wants no matter what happens in the surroundings. He is sideways blindfolded and he doesn't bother to remove it.

Man also invented machines and unfortunately, for animals, they too have to get adapted to the machines. Some don't get adapted and die as a result of their misfortunes with the machines. Many months back, one such dog was there lying in the streets wanting to die and not letting a human interfere with its life. One of the automen in the city stopped to help the animal to the hospital but after seeing the bloody state of the animal, he refused and left the place.

One of the attenders of a famous animal shelter almost shouted at the automan before he left, "Can't you help a poor animal? Who will help, if not us?". He was a nice guy, not just for his kindness but also for his boldness and bravery. Such animal shelters need more of such guys. Earlier that day, that guy asked his fellow attenders, "There is a dog that needs help. Would you like to join me in helping?". One of them replied, "No way. It might have rabies. I am not going to touch that". The attender gave back a scorning look and said, "No worries. I can handle it myself". I was curious enough to ask the question, "How can you be so sure whether the dog has rabies or not?". He replied, "A rabid dog has excess drooling and will keep on biting something. Also most importantly, a rabid dog won't let a human near it". It did growl at us but I knew it was for its own security.

Was this attender taking risk by letting himself exposed to the diseases that man could not prevent? Should the other attender be blamed for his carefulness? It is not a big surprise as I have even seen vets refusing to attend to an injured stray pup. "Why do you people bring these pups? It looks like a rabid dog!". Not being a biology student in my high school, I myself knew that the dog was not infected by rabies but I trusted his words although I didn't like it. I have heard vets discouraging people to help stray animals just because they are prone to getting diseases. "Take care of yourself first!" is what they imply.

Should those animals be let to die just because they couldn't cope up with man's inventions? I heard from an helping automan that the animals are not the only victims. "Yesterday I went to a govt hospital to check on my relative. There was an old man lying down outside the hospital shouting in leg pain. No one bothered to help him and the hospital staff has been refusing to admit him because the old man had no relatives to admit him. No one is there to help humans. I was glad to help because you people were helping a pup".

Though man and rest of the animal kingdom belong to different species, the case is always the same. Not every man wants to give a lending hand. The question remains the same, "Do you want to stop? Or do you want to move on?"

Here is a famous video from MJ about the need of protecting the world. The video and lyrics are really great.