Where are the Game-Changers?

The other day I was watching a documentary on CNN which showed the queasiness of human life with a close perspective. Malnourished kids living in over crowded and unhygienic mud huts; lack of adequate drinking water and whatever was available, I believe, contained virulent strains of E Coli. This scene belonged to interiors of Bihar and I was, literally, taken aback at the apathy that the society bears to them. I include myself in the list of culprits. I took few resolutions to make a change in those precious lives which have been turned redundant by the sharp turn of fate.

How beautiful the world had been if before uncorking a packaged bottle of drinking water, we could have stopped for a millisecond and thought about those fragile females who have to walk for miles to fetch a bucket of water from the contaminated well.

How beautiful the world had been, if in spite of wasting hundreds of hours over watching mindless daily soaps, some of us would have determined to devote that amount of time doing social service.

How beautiful the world had been if we stopped for a millisecond before feeding the leftover to our kitchen bin, and thought about millions who had to sleep hungry last night.

Cricket and cinema make us go brouhaha; why don’t we face life? Why the suicide of a farmer doesn’t affect us deeply? Why don’t we get moved watching little kids glancing at the garbage to find out something to eat? Why should we spend on 5 star meals if some of our people are a rupee short of purchasing a paracetamol tablet? We pay income taxes to the government; why shouldn’t we be taken in confidence while making budgets and executing policies? Is the current system the best one? Where are the policy-formulators, the revolutionists, the game-changers?