Tuesday, October 31, 2006

What a noble idea!

Mahak is suffering from a life threatening illness. His days are numbered. His only wish was to become a police officer one day and punish all badmaash people!

His wish was indeed granted.

It's incidents like this, which make you believe that the world is after all not such a bad place. There is hope...lots of it!

23 comments:

pavan kumar said...

I read about it.. paavam! though no details were given as to what the ailment was..

the toughest thing to do is to deal with a person (and here it is a kid! he might not even perceive what death is) who would leave after a known amount of time

Anonymous said...

I did not know what to say, but i second pavan.
i think i do have something to say... dont meant to be cynical...but...what about the others? I know I know.. silly question :) ... we do what we can.

Have a nice day~

Shark said...

@pavan: Yes Paavam indeed :(
But on a brighter side, All of us have to leave this world one day or the other. Some are fortunate lo lead a complete life, some are not.
Atleast in this way, when you know that a certain person is going to leave us, the least we can do is fulfil his wish. And to fulfil a child's wish is not so difficult. Atleast make whatever moments they have on this earth a little worthwhile.

@sojourner: If you meant others who are dying the same way...
"Ideally" we should heed to all their wishes. But is that feasible? Nopes. We do the best we can. And I really appreciate the NGOs effort in this particular case. Hats off to them!

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

yes... they do deserve an appreciation.. i applaud that.
but..
ok..
this is tough to explain.. because I have not put this in words before.. so am gonna think aloud:
people who help, should do it 'functionally' - i mean, they should do that because it is the necessity and NOT because they want to get a good name or give false impressions.. if they do so, then they are just creating a different kind of a problem... a more fundamental one:

The kid, as we see here, is not someone who knows all about death.. think about it, he is just a kid.. he does not have the concept of "dying without living fully"... now by publicizing this, what is done? we have instilled such a concept in him and all those who read it and it will probably be passed on for generations.... Life and death are natural. Sickness too and sadness too. We try to live healthy. When we fall sick we try our best to heal. But where does it involve fulfilling a life's wish? when we die, does the deceased care about "not having his/her wish fulfilled?"... The kid does not even know it! It is us who have the feeling... are we not imposing the artificialness where none is necessary? making an innocent yearn for something which does not exist? Are we not exaggerating the facts? I am not saying we are robots.. i am just saying we need not over value things...

If we talk about someone dreaming to "do" something... an act of creation...or evolving an idea.. you know, the things that that cant be accomplished in a life time, but through multiple generations... then it becomes necessary to pass on the torch to continue the work... in that way, the kid's dream to "catch bad guys" can be thought of as an inspiration being passed on...may be some kid in some distant village will read it in a piece of trashed news paper and set his own life course... But the topic of "bad guys" is in itself another issue :)... lets not complicate it.

I am just saying that,we should be aware that we need to do what is needed and then don't exaggerate facts or over appreciate things... or even in exaggerations, see what is the real thing.

I am not saying that this post exaggerates nor the news article(perhaps it was not important for them to have cared to exaggerate or may be they really did not want to exaggerate... i don't know:). I am just saying that this part of the deal, of "why we do good?", is almost never mentioned... perhaps "not saying anything about why it was done" is the best way to ensure that its not exaggerated.

Am I making any sense?

pavan kumar said...

sojourner: nice to get some views that are generally labelled as "not-political". you are right, mostly.. but the simple underlying point is this (that a mad-grad like me could gather):

the world revolves around pseudo-happiness. none wants to confront the truth, but things tend to be escapist in nature.. we dont know (and prolly dont wanna know) our time of death, and as this kid now knows, we give him some pseudo happiness (like a candy) so that he can forget the big pain (if he knows how painful the death might be). We, inturn, live with the hope that we shall make it barely past 75 and anything beyond that is "lucky", though that doesnt rule out any untimely event (am I being too pessimistic?). But we have a hope, a thing that drives us, which the kid has lost as he knows who is gonna lose this game, and when. So, such small things will keep them occupied, and try to fulfill some things that he might have taken 20 years to achieve.. it is like trying to live 50 years within a span of 5 years.. hence the carpool lane and priveleges!

Anonymous said...

makes sense pavan :) thanks.

Kavi said...

That was so touching ! Some wishes do get fulfilled ! I am glad this one did come true

Anu said...

Interesting! Goodness still seems to exist in this world..But, it's sad that the kid's suffering from such a disease! :(

Mrudula Sreekanth said...

A very nice thought indeed!

Priya said...

Thaz very sad and touchy!!!

Anonymous said...

sojourner,

Your loud thinking made a lot of sense......Louder next time :)

shark,

Very nice gesture by Hyderabad police indeed. But, how practical are these "solutions" ? I agree that there's absolutely no harm in doing this. But, it's impossible to do the same things for N different kids who have been unfortunately diagonised with some rare disease.

At the end of the day, it's wonderful to browse through a blog, look at a great link, read the story and appreciate the kindness of all the people involved (including the blogger). But, really, is this a solution ? I doubt it.....

Shark said...

@sojourner: WOW! I have to agree, I never looked at it that way! You have really set me thinking... I have to agree with everything that you have said.
But don't we all live in a world of dreams? Some of our dreams are fulfilled some are not. But we atleast have the hope that it will be fulfilled some day (before we die). We all assume that we are going to live for atleast 60 years. So we dream.
But in these cases, it is known that the boy is going to die soon... if something makes him happy while he is alive why shouldn't we do it?

@pavan: That was a real neat explaination. Thanks!

@kavi: I am glad too...

@anupama: :( The world is full of such helpless victims.

@hardu: yes indeed!

@priya: You know what, as silly as it may sound, I felt happy when I read that article. I am sad that the boy is going to die.. but I am happy that he is happy before he dies. After all, all of us have to go one day... but if somebody makes our life worthwhile for the few years that we are here.. isn't that great?

@december stud: As I said in my earlier comment, it is definitely not possible to fulfil all dreams of all children. But we try the best we can...
This is not a solution. Infact there is no solution to avoid death. We can just make the journey towards death worthwhile. That's what these NGOs do.

Anonymous said...

had tears of joy after reading this story in 'the hindu'(your dad would have read it too). felt happy and sad at the same time.
but, the gesture was really priceless.
may mehak's health improve soon
best wishes
bellur

Ashish Agarwal said...

To make a child happy for some time when you know that his lifespan is very short is a very good thing indeed. One should not doubt what good it does. In an ideal world, we should be able to help everyone, but in reality it is good if we able to help as many as possible.
This was a good gesture.

Anonymous said...

you know what guys,
there may be another kid out there who sees this and wonders why no one did anything for him... shucks doesnt it?

Shark, as u yourself said, the "we" all have dreams and "we" all think we live 60 and "we" all feel bad about it, if "we" realize it will only be a dream.

I am sure that the kid would have been happy to have got a lot of time to play and enjoy his time here... love and care while he can still be loved and cared. Rest is all for our own sake. I think its wrong to make such a big gesture. It harms more than it helps.

Anonymous said...

I have changed my stance....

I so want to believe sojourner. He is convincing !!!

Anonymous said...

shark,
remembered a story after reading mehak's article.
a girl (18-20yr old) is diagnosed of heart problem and the docs say she will live for just a few days. her family, the docs and the nursing staff all try to keep the girl happy and want to fulfill her desires. she falls in love with a doctor. he is already married. but his wife knows the girl will live only for a few more days and tells her husband to marry the girl, in order to make her happy. but the girl goes on to live till 60!

Shark said...

@bellur: I also wish that his health improves soon...

@ashish: I agree, we can only do as much as we can...

@sojourner: I have to agree here, you are extremely convincing! I see your point. Ans yes! you are 101% right.
But think it this way, when the child dies... who is at loss more? The child himself? or the parents?

So, if the parents did something for their own happiness (as you call it) is it wrong?

@december stud: he sure is very convincing!

@bellur: Marriage and all is utter stupidity I feel... I mean, come on.. marraige is not the ultimate thing to do. What will happen if you die unmarried? OK. she liked the doctor.. so?
:) hope both the wives are getting equal share of their husbands now...

Anonymous said...

hmm.. sure the parents are the ones who have to bear the loss... but if they wanted him to be happy, and if they loved him and indeed made him happy when he was alive, then i am sure that they can be happy now... they did the best they could, didn't they? if they are not happy then it again points to the fact that they tried to make the child happy in their own way and exaggerated things for themselves.

Anonymous said...

Fascinating Story. The Make a Wish Foundation does great work. I have lived in Australia and there also, the foundation does similar sort of work. Excellent!

Shark said...

@sojourner: As I said before, I completely agree with you here. But isn't that too idealistic?
Don't we all have dreams? Don't we all try to fulfill them? If one of those was to see your son as doctor.. but you KNOW that he will die in a few days.. what do you do? Mock it up? I don't see any harm in this.
It's just a small wish.. and does not harm anybody.

Of course if the wish was to blwo up Taj mahal.. then yes you have to say no.. but small small things are nice :)

Life is beautiful only when you learn to appreciate the small pleasures in it :)

@sher: Welcome here :) Yes. I also feel it's a nice initiative.

Anonymous said...

hmmm...
Ideals...
I did not look at this from that way :). Interesting. oh well :).