We are humans first

The inspiration for this blog comes from Mahatria’s today’s thought received from my friend. It says:

All of us need endorsement from the world for a few aspects. If you need endorsement from the world for every aspect, then you are not happy about yourself, you have not loved yourself, you have never respected yourself. If you have never loved yourself, if you have never respected yourself, you will keep demanding respect from everybody on some ground or other like I am the boss, I am the senior etc. You will hide behind the label.

It’s a beautiful thought and while we can deny this being applicable to us, what we can’t deny is that all of us would have come across such persons in our day to day life experiences. Why there are so many funny and not so funny folklores around boss- subordinate relationship? Ditto senior-junior! And this list can be expanded to include combinations such as rich-poor, husband-wife, topper- laggard, weak-strong etc.

There’s an old saying that respect has to be earned and not given or demanded. In today’s world, we are all interdependent! An entrepreneur needs people to work for him for which he pays wages ! And this can be extended to any relationship- boss and subordinate, buyer and seller, cabbie and passenger, our drivers, security guards, maids – we pay them for the services availed of them! Does this automatically entitle employer, hirer, boss, senior, landlord et al to be respected? Unless there’s a larger purpose linked to our action and our acts are selfless, we will be entitled to be respected not for our own self but because of the position we hold!

Let’s not worry about being respected but try and become humans first. When we pay for a stuff or service, it’s a transaction; when we do something without expecting anything in return, it’s the larger purpose! When we applaud Corona warriors and supply them with PPE kits, masks and hand sanitizers, when we pay salaries to our servants, maids, drivers, employees during months of lockdown instead of laying them off, when we donate for PM Cares, Aamphan and Nisarga victims, when we stand behind our soldiers braving the enemy brutality, in short, when we selflessly think about community, society, nation, city, underprivileged, weak without expecting anything in return or recognition, we become eligible of being respected by no less than the almighty himself, leaving no desire for being respected by ordinary human mortals!