The Young Paladin

The young girl stood in the scorching heat outside the train station in Secunderabad, her unwavering eyes looking into the distance. She took in the whole city with her eyes; the people swarming about everywhere… people increasing their speed as they came near her… just another girl on the street with four siblings to feed… her only goal after she wakes up everyday being to keep her brothers and sisters from dying of hunger. Would she have dreams? I am sure she would. She would dream to be a grown-up… and walk the streets without a care… without having to worry about hunger…or destitution... And then when she grows up would her dreams change? She might wish to be a child again… to return to innocence as the cliché goes… But as she stood in the scorching heat at the moment and scanned all the faces that were passing by her, she was looking for help… a vigilante… someone who cared… someone who could help and would help… someone who wouldn’t tread on her dreams… Maybe the young man wearing glasses could make a difference. He is the one who passed by her, trying not to stare at her when her unflinching gaze pleaded with him and made his heart skip a beat. She gave him a smile when he turned back to look at her after walking a distance. She hoped that he would indeed make a difference.

Two months later, the young man flew out of the country for his higher studies. He entered a multi-ethnic culture… shocking, exciting and racist all at the same time. The inherent chaos embedded in the depths of this new society was difficult to understand. Still, the young man believed that there was a pattern. It was all about co-existence… the rich and the poor… the majority and the minority… people with different ideologies… religious or otherwise… there were a million reasons for conflict. The young man believed that people always cite one of these reasons to start a conflict all the time. But what about the dreams of all these people… do these conflicts start because of the dreams and hopes in the first place? If so, yes we should indeed tread very carefully… The young man thought about the wars being fought this very moment… the dreams being shattered at this very moment… and the hopes being made at this very moment. Simply breathtaking…

Awareness is the key, and awareness of course comes with knowledge. With the media of today, it is indeed quite difficult to separate the truth from all the other gibberish. But if we have people who are aware of the basic reality behind co-existence, then we have our paladins. Maybe, they would be able to make some kind of a difference. Maybe, the young protectors of this world could start immediately so that the young girl and her siblings do not have to remain hungry anymore… and maybe, just maybe the young girl herself would prove to be a guardian to others… In fact, let us all become paladins… what is stopping us but our own torpidness? We have powerful people backing us… people like Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, to name a few… Let us make sure that those dreams come true… But let us all tread softly on the dreams lest we trample on the dreams of others… As W.B. Yeats poignantly said,

Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,

Enwrought with golden and silver light,

The blue and the dim and the dark cloths

Of night and light and the half light,

I would spread the cloths under your feet:

But I, being poor, have only my dreams;

I have spread my dreams under your feet;

Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.