Nobody’s fault:

I recently got into a rickshaw at Vidyavihar-w and immediately noticed that the meter was not working. When I did point it out to the driver, he looked back and mumbled something. I told him to let me get down if he was not sure why the meter was not working and he assured me that it was all good. When I did reach my destination, he demanded Rs.15 whereas from my experience, it should not have been more than Rs.12, which is the minimum fare. And in the ensuing argument, I mentioned to him that when I did point out the issue with his meter, all he did was mumble. To which, the gentleman had a very interesting retort, “Neither is it my fault, nor is it yours”, he said. “The entire fault is that of the meter.” I was too shocked to say anything but was adamant I would not pay the extra Rs.3. Finally after showering me with the choicest vituperations, he left.

Though the incident should have left me angry and flustered, I found myself laughing. Many a times, just to prove ourselves right, we come up with silly reasons and excuses. The human tendency to save one’s skin is so powerful, the self-preservation instinct so strong that we forget the implications of some of our extremely negligible actions. What seemed like a minor altercation between the rickshaw driver and me left him poorer by Rs.3 and left me with a hurt ego. Had he been kind enough to accept his mistake I would not have taken the issue personally. But then, his instinct to preserve himself led to the misadventure.

And so is the case with our everyday lives. We simply refuse to accept our weaknesses and our faults. Some term it ego, but I term it our natural instinct. I had initially posted about accepting our life as our own. And if we learn to accept our life, it shouldn’t be difficult to accept everything that comes with it. Our goods and our bads. But is something which is our own, so difficult to accept? And if it is, then why is it?

Digging deeper into the human psyche, we realize that the answer to the above question, is fear. It is the fear of being reprimanded that makes us run away from our own deficiencies and our drawbacks. We are afraid that the world would not be very encouraging about defects within. And that is correct to a large extent. But then, ruining away and not facing our fears is not the answer to our problems. After the initial sinking feeling, it would be much easy later. Once we find the courage to face our fears and our drawbacks, it will be a much better world to live in.

Finally to wind up and round it all up, all I can point out is to stand up for yourselves and not the world. A point comes wherein it is easier to stand and face our fears and stop running away from ourselves. Acceptance comes with embracing all the good and the bad within. It’s time to accept, our fault, when it is our fault.