VOCATION OF SOCIAL
RESPONSIBLITY
An inspiring incident that lightened my
vision towards life. It was in this passing summer, in the month of May, when I
was travelling back to my home at Vasai for my annual holidays; I encountered
Riya.
I rushed in the Virar local from the
crowded station of Dadar fighting for a seat. I got a seat and the feeling was
of a victorious nature. Ofcourse! it has
to be. Looking at the people
sitting around a seat, my eyes caught the attention of a notorious and stubborn
nine year old Riya. With such attitude, she managed first to get the attention
and then the sympathy of a man sitting on the window seat offering her to sit
on his lap. Feeling delighted she got up from her father’s lap and started
approaching towards her window seat.
That was the moment which caught the
attention of the people around me. She struggled while approaching her seat. We
witnessed that her right leg was supported by various steel rods. Some went
into her ankles others into her knees. The look itself gave a pain to us.
Very soon, we started enquiring about this
accident to his father. The sharing of the father touched me. He said that she
fell down from the school steps in the school break. The sheen bone broke and
had come out of the flesh. Her father than took her to a private hospital but
the treatment given to him on his financial incapability made a deep scar on
him, losing his respect for the doctors and he almost lost hope on his
daughter’s well being. They asked four lakhs for the operation. They were poor
and could not afford it even in their dreams. With some friend’s advice, he
then approached the Sion government hospital. He said that what they did regain
the respect for doctors which he had lost. They first did the emergency
requirement. They calculated the required cost of one lakhs and assured him
that his daughter will be completely alright within six months of treatment
after surgery. Today is the sixth week, he said. The daughter stands and walks
with those rods attached. She was getting better.
As he was talking, we all looked at Riya.
She was happily looking outside the window and viewing the developed face of
Mumbai. I asked her that how did she feel about this whole thing. She
innocently replied that this pain doesn’t pain me as much as the pain I get
looking at tears in the eyes of my parents. She now wants to be a doctor who
can help all such affected children. I looked in her eyes. Her eyes spoke with
full of honesty which we hardly find in most of us. Somehow, in our lives ambition
creeps in at the cost of social service. I admired her joyous nature which
cared little about the pain which she was going through. It thought me that
instead of getting over concerned at my small inconveniences, discomforts or
pain I need to be more concerned about the greater horizon of positivism and optimism.
It also made me realize that whatever our profession maybe; it definitely has a
vocation if seen through the lens of social responsibility. What is your
vocation?
