It is not easy being selfless. Even more so in the current age of materialistic competition, envy and ambition to move ahead of others. Altruism and self-less service are equally elusive for the same reason. As so vividly dealt with by Gurcharan Das in his famous book (Difficulty of Being Good), it is very difficult to be good in the true sense. Goodness is in deep scarcity.
Still, time and again, some stories emerge and tell us that goodness and compassion are not entirely dead. Such is the story of one Ram Bahadur Neupane. I came across the story today on OnlineKhabar.com. His is a story of compassion and love, for animals. In the current age when even people do not get rightful attention and compassion, Ram Bahadur showed exquisite compassion for stray bovines abandoned by people in different locations in the city.
A city where even human beings are being abandoned, ignored and left to die destitutes, no wonders that cows, the national animals, are left unprotected and exposed to abuse, starvation and disease. Even infant calves are abandoned by people to save their share of the milk. Old cows beyond the age of milk production are also similarly abandoned. While they are protected against deliberate slaughter for meat, their abandoned lives are sometimes worse and death. Stray on busy roads, left to scavenge on the roadside rubbish dumps, forced to forage in garbage and drink out of dirty drains, the cows have a miserable life.
It is in this context that Mr. Neupane toiled day and night to give he cows protection and shelter. While he himself was ridiculed and even called a madman by people including his own family, he toiled on and established two protection homes for cows at Pashupati and Kavre. He left his job and devoted his time for the service of the cows. Collected them from across town, reared them, fed them, healed them and made them an integral part of his daily life.
It needs special guts, courage and compassion to do such deeds. Deeds without any benefit for the doer. Deeds deemed ridiculous, callous and thoughtless by the general society. Deeds ignored and dismissed by authorities. Deeds plagued by dearth of resources and funds. Still, people like Ram Bahadur Neupane overcome all these odds and show that such deeds are possible if you have compassion and will to do good. Hats off to Ram Bahadur. Society needs people like him to remind itself that goodness is not dead.
Thursday 31 October 2019
No comments:
Post a Comment