Sometimes I wonder, have we become too busy to see the beauty in ordinary life? In our race toward success, have we lost the very values that once made us human? These are not philosophical musings from a textbook but questions born from daily experiences, mine and perhaps yours too.
Each morning, I walk past a sanitation worker who greets me with the same silent dignity. He is dressed in faded clothes, hands scarred by labor, but his commitment is unwavering. He doesn’t ask for applause. He just does his duty. And yet, many of us pass him by without even a nod. How have we come to overlook the hands that clean our mess and the hearts that keep our systems alive?
We live in a time where we celebrate success but forget service, where we admire the glitter but ignore the grind. Our society loves designations; Doctor, Engineer, Officer, but forgets the people behind them. A teacher who lights a thousand minds quietly retires without anyone remembering her last day. A nurse spends sleepless nights beside patients, only to be yelled at when a report is delayed. A farmer who feeds us sleeps hungry during droughts. This is not the society we were taught to build.
What we urgently need is social sensitivity, a collective awakening. We must learn to appreciate the ordinary heroes around us. We need to create a culture where no one feels inferior, where a janitor is not looked down upon and a driver is not spoken to rudely. The dignity of labor must not remain a slogan we teach children in schools, it must become a living principle we practice in our everyday interactions.
This lack of respect is not just about manners. It is about the soul of our society. A system that ignores the emotional well-being of its people is bound to collapse. When a doctor is assaulted in a hospital or a teacher is humiliated in front of students, we must not see it as a news item, it is a symptom of something broken within us.
As a writer, I do not claim to have all the solutions. But I have learned that small changes in attitude can bring big transformations. A simple “thank you” to the clerk who helped us, a message of appreciation to a teacher, a moment of empathy for a struggling colleague these are not grand gestures, but they build a better society.
We must also bring reading and reflection back into our lives. Books are not just for exams, they are mirrors of our times and torches for our future. I have always believed that a society that reads is a society that thinks, and a society that thinks is one that grows, not just economically but emotionally, ethically, and spiritually.
Let us also question ourselves before pointing fingers. Are we doing our jobs with honesty? Are we being kind to those who have less than us? Are we raising children to be compassionate, or just competitive? These are not questions for public debates, but personal diaries.
I write not to preach but to remind. Because I too forget. I too get absorbed in routines and timelines. But every now and then, I pause, and that pause brings clarity. In that pause, I remember the debt we owe to the people who make our lives liveable. The grocer, the lab technician, the security guard, the librarian, the street vendor, all of them are threads in the fabric of our survival.
So let us choose to remember. Let us build a society where kindness is not rare, where respect is not selective, and where humanity is not optional. The world doesn’t need more powerful people, it needs more sensitive ones. And perhaps, in that sensitivity, lies our true strength.
Author is Library Futurist from kulgam. Email: [email protected])
