“Oh, East is East and West is West and never the two shall meet/Till earth and sky stand presently at God’s Great Judgement seat/But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth/When two strong men stand face to face, tho’ they come from the ends of the earth” ‑ the concluding stanza of Rudyard Kipling’s epic poem “The Ballad of East and West”.
In the same vein can an “elite” Nobel Laureate serving as professor in Harvard University meet at the same platform with a “mere” Group D bank employee of Kolkata! No way as far as glamour social/official position world-wide recognition and personal CV is concerned!
However, my recent visit to the Central Kolkata bank enabled me to experience a sight involving that Group D employee who instantly transported my mind to a Nobel Laureate settled in far West .i.e UK! As I reached the counter to update my passbook and joined the queue, I noticed others expressing frustration. Then I gathered that there has been some sort of glitch in the computer! And the senior gentleman is trying all sorts of keys with output being nil! As time passes, frustration of the customers was increasing.
Now the gentleman stands up and approaches the adjacent cabin to seek help in resolving the problem. Viewing the man walking in a limping gait, one of the “valiant” customers remarked with utmost vitriol in his tongue — “This fellow can’t even walk straight. Yet these oldies are occupying the posts, earning huge salaries and assured of life-time pension as well. In contrast no jobs for the youth brigade”! All vehemently applauded his vitriolic talk!
Now the “oldie” returns with a “young colleague” to get the computer “normalised”! I could have stayed on, but my heart failed to stay there for a single second more in that vitiated environment because of the deluge of the caustic remarks directed at the vulnerable gentleman! Yes computer can get “hanged” anytime anywhere and it is not expected that all will promptly solve it!
Why such insensitivity towards those who are deemed to be weak! May I know which profession/sector/institution forms the model of accountability and performance! And do we all contribute to our best with utmost efficiency whatever be our profession! But far from demanding accountability from those who are in powerful seats, all are engaged in redirecting their frustration towards the vulnerable “oldies”!
Is there any guarantee that all “young” persons can promptly rectify computers if it suffers glitches! Is it a “sin” to get aged! And it forms the duty of Government to create jobs for the youth; not of any “oldie” employee!
Actually a society gets judged by how it treats its elders. And this is the exact platform where that Group D gentleman meets Amartya Sen in absolute equal terms!
Though that Group D gentleman and Nobel Laureate in Economics Professor Amartya Sen resides at almost opposite end of the earth with zero similarities, yet all differences of border birth and breed get promptly vanished when two aged persons draw the ire of their detractors rendering them to an absolutely equal platform!
