Hindustan Times (Chandigarh)

Humility essential virtue for achieving bliss

- Dr Vidhu Mohan

against the bill. Irritated, the couple called it “rubbish”. I am a regular customer at the store and have seen the staff at the gate doing its duty devotedly. I tried to comfort her. I told her that she was performing her duty diligently, and her job was highly responsibl­e and has to be done with great care and caution. It is because of her efforts that cases of shopliftin­g could be checked. My words of comfort calmed her down and I could see her expression­s change. Before leaving, I wished her happy Lohri (it was the festival of bonfire the next day). This gesture brought a smile on her chubby face and mine too.

Though I started back, I knew the incident would not leave my thoughts until I find an explanatio­n for the impolite behaviour of the couple. Does education really make you forget being considerat­e and polite? No, absolutely not. Then what is it that leads you to be discourteo­us and arrogant. There are two plausible explanatio­ns that came to my mind. First, it’s our value system that determines how we behave in a normal situation like the one mentioned above. Our day-today actions are also, to a great extent, a reflection of our values that we basically learn from our home/family. Second, it could also be because of lack of sensitivit­y towards others. Insensitiv­e people do not realise that their words can hurt someone. I was satisfied with the two reasons for the time being and was reminded of the quote by Irwin Himmel: “No one has ever made himself great by showing how small someone else is”.

OUR DAY-TO-DAY ACTIONS ARE A REFLECTION OF OUR VALUES THAT WE LEARN FROM OUR HOME AND FAMILY

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