[MannoFr]

I give below the URL of a poignant account of goodness of human nature given by Brig(retd) Mehboob Qadir of Pakistan Army during his incarceration as a POW in India. How true his words are " Victorious or defeated, human sentiments are universally the same. Grief pains and happiness pleases without exception."
Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan

Regards,
Brahmanyan,
Bangalore.

[Lt_Apple]

namastae sir ,the thread , the article you started ,can make any one moved .its very touchy.each lines can make any one to view a clear picture in front of their eyes .the lines stated is very true. thanks for sharing with us.

[softy54534]

East or the West

Men are the best!!!

[brraverishhh]

Thanks for sharing this great news article with all of us here, Shri Brahmanyam.

Yes!!! It is absolutely true that "Victorious or defeated, human sentiments are universally the same. Grief pains and happiness pleases without exception."

I am reminded of an incident, that my father shared with us. It is about the shortest 13 days 1971 Indo-Pakistan war, following which, East Pakistan seceded as the Independent State of Bangladesh.

My father was posted in Pathaankot, Punjab Air Base, to keep the Fighter Migs off technical snags. On one night 3 Migs took off from the base along with 1 troops transporting Helicopter towards Punjab Province of Pakistan to carry out air strikes and to droop the army troop on the ground. When this operation was taking place, 2 Migs were hit by Pakistani Tank bombs and both the pilots safely bailed out. 1 Mig escaped the attack and returned to the base. The helicopter as well could only ground few army men and had to return to the base with few other men.

This happened at around 9pm. The two bailed out pilots and the other army men were terribly frightened and were suffering from thirst and hunger too, while wandering here and there to secure themselves. They arrived into a small village, totally exhausted and unmindful of any possible miss treatments by local village folks. Surprisingly, the village people rushed to them, took them to their common place and made them to relax, after inquiring about them and the incident.

These village men and women immediately started preparing lots of Rotis and Dhall and served them. It was around 1am at that time. They offered them lots of Lassi too. They provided safe hide-outs to these army and Air Force men until 5am. They took care of them very well and had very friendly conversation with these Indian defense personals. They shared with them the stories of their life and expressed empathy towards our defense personal's family members.

The pilots and army men were then safely evacuated by Indian Air Force and taken back to the Air Base, at wee hours of the morning.

While leaving the village after overnight safe shelter and kind hospitality, our defense people and the village folks were emotionally moved, hugged each other and got dispersed, sharing best wishes to each other.

"Humans force themselves to kill other humans as worriers BUT are not forced to lose their sense of humanity, at least when the enemy is help less and standing before you as a desperate fellow Human". This is what my father shared with us, that was explained to him and his fellow team members, while heading towards the border, to protect Mother India and her people.

[brraverishhh]

Oh Boy! Am I glad to see you Mr. Ravi!

I was feeling like the lone survivor after a major havoc!

[Big A]

Dear Sri Ravi,

Thanks for sharing the nice story. By birth human nature is wonderful.All things required for good living are provided in plenty by nature to share among living beings. The seeds of negative thoughts are sown by external forces inimical to goodness. Look at the Cinema world of today. Heroism is highlighted by unwanted death and destruction. Love is negated by lust. Sheer exhibition of such things influence many innocent minds.
I feel happy when I read such incidents which high light the goodness even amongst the enemies. I wish many such incidents are brought to the notice of members in our forum.
Warm Regards,
Brahmanyan,
Bangalore.

[TorryJens]

During my stay in Dubai I used to interact with various kinds of Pakisatnis-Punjabi, Sindhi,Baluchistani...

I did not find any type of rancor in them against India...

They were open , friendly and amicable..

They used to rue the politicians for creating the divide...

This means that not all is lost between the 2 nations.

I strongly feel that Hindustan, Pakistan and Bangladesh can one day start collaborating with each other fruitfully breaking the boundaries created by religious fanaticism and animosity.

[tgs]

I wish to share one of the most beautiful Stories Emailed to me recently:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An anthropologist studying the habits and customs of an African tribe
found himself surrounded by children most days. So he decided to play
a little game with them. He managed to get candy from the nearest town
and put it all in a decorated basket, at the foot of a tree.

Then he called the children and suggested they play the game. When the
anthropologist said "now", the children had to run to the tree and the
first one to get there could have all the candy to him/herself.

So the children all lined up waiting for the signal. When the
anthropologist said "now", all of the children took each other by the
hand ran together towards the tree. They all arrived at the same time
divided up the candy, sat down and began to happily munch away.

The anthropologist went over to them and asked why they had all run
together when any one of them could have had the candy all to
themselves.

The children responded: "Ubuntu. How could any one of us be happy if
all the others were sad?"

Ubuntu is a philosophy of African tribes that can be summed up as "I
am what I am because of who we all are."

Bishop Desmond Tutu gave this explanation in 2008 :

"One of the sayings in our country is Ubuntu – the essence of being
human. Ubuntu speaks particularly about the fact that you can't exist
as a human being in isolation. It speaks about our interconnectedness.
You can't be human all by yourself, and when you have this quality –
Ubuntu – you are known for your generosity. We think of ourselves far
too frequently as just individuals, separated from one another,
whereas you are connected and what you do affects the whole World.
When you do well, it spreads out; it is for the whole of humanity."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Does this not sound familiar to us. Oh yes, for me, this is what we call as "Dharma"

Regards,
Brahmanyan,
Bangalore.

[tgs]

My son's luggage were not sent to UCLA (Losangels) by Lufthansa when he had been on an intern. Only the Pakistanis who stayed in the same complex helped him to communicate with the relevant officials and helped him to get back his luggage with in 24 hrs. That incident made me to believe that all pakistanis are not bad. All human beings are good and express their hospitality and courtesy when there is opportunity, irrespective of the nation to which they belongs.

[TorryJens]

I wish to share one of the most beautiful Stories Emailed to me recently:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An anthropologist studying the habits and customs of an African tribe
found himself surrounded by children most days. So he decided to play
a little game with them. He managed to get candy from the nearest town
and put it all in a decorated basket, at the foot of a tree.

Then he called the children and suggested they play the game. When the
anthropologist said "now", the children had to run to the tree and the
first one to get there could have all the candy to him/herself.

So the children all lined up waiting for the signal. When the
anthropologist said "now", all of the children took each other by the
hand ran together towards the tree. They all arrived at the same time
divided up the candy, sat down and began to happily munch away.

The anthropologist went over to them and asked why they had all run
together when any one of them could have had the candy all to
themselves.

The children responded: "Ubuntu. How could any one of us be happy if
all the others were sad?"

Ubuntu is a philosophy of African tribes that can be summed up as "I
am what I am because of who we all are."

Bishop Desmond Tutu gave this explanation in 2008 :

"One of the sayings in our country is Ubuntu – the essence of being
human. Ubuntu speaks particularly about the fact that you can't exist
as a human being in isolation. It speaks about our interconnectedness.
You can't be human all by yourself, and when you have this quality –
Ubuntu – you are known for your generosity. We think of ourselves far
too frequently as just individuals, separated from one another,
whereas you are connected and what you do affects the whole World.
When you do well, it spreads out; it is for the whole of humanity."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Does this not sound familiar to us. Oh yes, for me, this is what we call as "Dharma"

Regards,
Brahmanyan,
Bangalore.

Wonderful message Shri Brahmanyan....

Yes, we humans have interconnectedness with each other and thus are complete as humans. And are in dire need of the sense of Humanity, Love and Compassion with mutual acceptance, otherwise of which, each of us would have no meaning to survive as a human.

As you have concluded, the African tribal philosophy - "UBUNTU" is what we call as "Dharma". We go further and say "Karmanyevadikaarasthe Ma Phaleshu Kadhachana". That is, be duty bound with all your honesty, sincerity, love and affection without expecting the sweet fruits out of it in return, having interconnectedness with fellow humans on this land of human survival.

Such is the significance of human interconnectedness, without which, you can not claim you self as a complete human.

[LottiFurmann]

I develop acidity and resultant heart burns when I was 25 years old. It was due to hectic work as Travel Consultant, every day. Almost all days I end up skipping my lunch and just have a mall pack of biscuit and Tea in the evening at around 5 or 6pm, as possible.

With having developed such a highly sensitive body, I came down to Dubai to work, for a better career prospects, in the year 2007.

Since I stay in bachelors accommodation, sharing room with Executive Bachelors, we don't have kitchen facility till today. Even if we have, none of us could spare time to cook our self and have our meals. So, I used to have my break fast, lunch and dinner only from Hotels of my choice, each day depending on my mood.

One night, on Februay, 2010, during dinner time in a hotel, a incident happened, that change my mindset for ever. I got seated, ordered my Rotis and Dhall and was eating. Withing few minute I started suffering sever heart burns and could not find water on my table. It was so painful that I had to struggle requesting waiter to serve me with water spontaneously. Unfortunately, all the servers were found bussy, running here and there and I felt that I am been ignored, having found few servers passing near me.

I had no other go to comfort myself other than, getting up and going to some other corner where I could find a filled up water jug to pour water into my glass. I was too irritated and annoyed with the level of service, especially when I was suffering. Since I was in anger, I just poured water in my glass like throwing it out by which plenty of water started spilling on my table and on the floor. I was unmindful of it deliberately and banged the water jug on the table, that again spilled lots of water.

Seeing this, when the manager of the restaurant asked me the reasons for my act, I explained him with all my anger. The manager started shouting on all the servers and more harshly on the server who was supposed to serve my table.

After finishing my dinner when I came out, I started realizing that I did a grave mistake. I should have not done it and made the server to suffer humiliation and insult by his manager in front of the crowd. I should have handled the situation and helped myself in a better way and should have not given a chance to hurt the server who serves all with Food to be eaten by others, with all his hardship. I suffered extreme guilty conscious and I prayed God to forgive me for my mistake without my knowledge.

I could realize that, in this country full of expatriates, working hard day and night, with hell lots of issues in their work and in their family back home, they are suffering a lot and would not deliberately avoid serving any one. They are humans too and expatriates like us and have their limitations. They are overburdened with their work, with limited staff employed by their employers.

From that incident onwards, whenever I could not catch the attention of a waiter and request him to serve me water, I just get out calmly, go in search of water and serve myself. Without any anger and complaints for the lack of service in my heart. Without regrets and without hatred.

I felt like expressing this ONLY to share such thoughts with many others, hoping, this may be a useful and sensible attitude to be developed and try to establish "Goodness in Human nature" within themselves and in others, by sharing with other known people in their circle.

[softy54534]

I understand goodness, but I will not tolerate unreasonable inefficiencies. In my work if an employee repeatedly fails, I have no problem in replacing him. In the name of goodness we have accepted shoddy workmanship. You have to draw that line somewhere. If a get an inattentive waiter it will show in the tip, or if the waiter is rude, he/she will be reported.

Goodness only goes so far, LOL

[Slonopotam845]

I like the sentiment of the thread and the posts of Messrs. Brahmanyan and Ravi. However I concur with Mr. Prasad that it is not clear that human nature is always good. To me it is 50/50. Sometimes good and sometimes bad. Hard to know what to expect. For every good Pakistani deed, there is a matching terrorist act from LET. It is hard to make a general conclusion.

On a smaller scale, I had an unpleasant experience today with a public school employee. She was unreasonably rude and nasty. I am sure others have had similar experiences with govt employees as well. Sometimes they can be good, but often they are bad. Unfortunately, humans have a dark side as well, and it is prudent to recognize that.

[S.T.D.]

The best behavior humans show is to their children, IMHO. And even then there are some unfortunate exceptions.

[radikal]

As an employer we can't take for granted the ineffectiveness, lethargic attitude and mischievousness of employees, in the name of human goodness. This would only mean that we are stupid and dumb and not fit to own a business.

We can not refrain from reacting suitably if a server, a co-worker, a shop keeper and any individual we come across in our professional and social survival, be rude or trying to cheat us.

A person who don't know how to behave and be a trouble maker would definitely not be spared by a befitting counter reactions and acts.


We should develop some good attitude towards fellow humans who could not perform well out of his/her incapability, though we had to take a bit hardship because of it, such that either we speak to them and make them understand or just keep calm and ignore them.

There are many many circumstances in our day to day life where we fail to realize the hardships of others and take them into task, justifying our intellect and our need. Such that, we fail to realize the justifications on their part. Their justifications may not be right considering the rules of this human world, but may be very much reasonable as a Mere Human with many many unique mental, emotional, physical and financial complications.

When a person has erred unintentionally at times, and that has not made us to suffer grievously or when the things can be handled by ourselves, we can keep our calm, not create scene and make the defaulter suffer humiliation, insult and mental agony.

I know, this tendency in humans can not be expected to be present widely. But, personally I am sure, there are some humans who can think on the same lines and follow this in their life. I would only wish if lots more people could develop such attitude, realizing its significance.

[softy54534]

Today as I was being driven in the National Capital Region of Delhi another car kissed our car to overtake us..Immediately we noticed that the front bumper had a deep scratch...We stopped the other car & I tried to reason with the car driver who looked to be the owner of the car..

It was in the middle of the road where traffic was very heavy..He challenged us to file an FIR & tried to speed away...

We tried to follow that car & had it stopped near the Toll Gate...The guy did not have any remorse,was not ready for giving compensation ...Took a snap shot of the name plate of the car in my camera phone...There was no point in calling the Traffic police as the Guy would come after 30 minutes & I had an important engagement which I cannot miss.

Was feeling miserable after this...Do fellow Indians have the feeling of Goodness to one another during adversity..I doubt it...

[radikal]

Today as I was being driven in the National Capital Region of Delhi another car kissed our car to overtake us..Immediately we noticed that the front bumper had a deep scratch...We stopped the other car & I tried to reason with the car driver who looked to be the owner of the car..

It was in the middle of the road where traffic was very heavy..He challenged us to file an FIR & tried to speed away...

We tried to follow that car & had it stopped near the Toll Gate...The guy did not have any remorse,was not ready for giving compensation ...Took a snap shot of the name plate of the car in my camera phone...There was no point in calling the Traffic police as the Guy would come after 30 minutes & I had an important engagement which I cannot miss.

Was feeling miserable after this...Do fellow Indians have the feeling of Goodness to one another during adversity..I doubt it...

In this world, in any geographical location, we can find plenty of humans who don't have the feeling of Goodness to one another during adversity. Every one wants to protect their interest. No one want to lose their money as a compensation to others, despite their own faults. Evey one wants to escape!!!!!

Many start following the same strategy, having experienced such bitter experiences, personally..

That's why there is a dire expectation to find humans with their sense of Goodness...

[softy54534]

Today as I was being driven in the National Capital Region of Delhi another car kissed our car to overtake us..Immediately we noticed that the front bumper had a deep scratch...We stopped the other car & I tried to reason with the car driver who looked to be the owner of the car..

It was in the middle of the road where traffic was very heavy..He challenged us to file an FIR & tried to speed away...

We tried to follow that car & had it stopped near the Toll Gate...The guy did not have any remorse,was not ready for giving compensation ...Took a snap shot of the name plate of the car in my camera phone...There was no point in calling the Traffic police as the Guy would come after 30 minutes & I had an important engagement which I cannot miss.

Was feeling miserable after this...Do fellow Indians have the feeling of Goodness to one another during adversity..I doubt it...

You did the right thing.Its better not to deal with such individuals.
Once a similar incident happened a few years ago here when a woman asked a man who had knocked her car to stop.
Argument became heated and he shot her dead.

Some even carry swords and hockey sticks in the cars to bash up people..so if anyone knocks us and drives off its better to ignore.
Don't take chances cos some might take revenge later.

Don't feel bad..be thankful that guy didn't assault you.I know the feeling sucks but be thankful you are in one piece intact.