In the past one month, a friend has gone through an earth shattering experience. An inconsequential nagging pain in the leg turned a week later into a life threatening condition that not only baffled the medics but also got tongues wagging. In one week, this simple guy who just woke up everyday to look to improving his business and went to bed with the same commitment and zeal, suddenly was having the fight for his life against God-Knows-What. To cut the whole story shot, he is fine and well, but a changed man as well. It brought to mind one particular thought. Men are so fickle, so much so that they will gang about you when you are buoyant and free spending and might keep around when you get a small trifle but when bad turns to worse, especially at the point where nothing but moral support is all one can offer, most of us would rather beat it and leave no trail. To fear to be by the side of an ailing friend is one thing but to become the source of baseless rumour, invoking with confidence how such a man’s fate has already been sealed with drastic connotations is just as banal as man can become. Thirdly, it is difficult to understand men who spend their hard earned money to spread such dangerous gossip, by and large to friends and relatives of how someone is finished financially and physically and how everything is crumbling down in their life. It reeks of jealousy, the man-to-man kind that is at best, only comparable to voyeurism. For those not in the know, a voyeur is someone who is obsessed with knowing what their neighbour is doing in their bedroom for no particular reason other than, just to know. It makes one wonder whether a man can stoop as low as fail to have anything to do or for that matter, put their life aside so that they can save another time to find out about other people, not for any reason but to have their tongues wagging left, right and centre. It sometimes looks like an investment into hate against others, for no reason whatsoever. I have always thought that humans are capable of anything good or bad, but it takes a good investment of time and a mental will to develop into any of the two extremes. The root of a typical voyeur’s problem is usually in themselves. They say it takes a thief to catch a thief. If someone has got a super talent in identifying and spreading ill of other people, this is usually a sign of rot in that particular person’s mind or heart, depending on where you believe such things reside in a man. It doesn’t not pay to build hate within and then try as much as possible to infect others. Everybody has potential to feel hate, but if so let it be channelled in the right places. If you hate dirt, clean up. Likewise, if you find that you so much hate for one individual, begin by cleaning yourself up because the problem might just be you. If you hate someone, avoid them and the trouble that they are and if you discover that someone is particularly serving you with a decent dose of bad vibe on someone else, ask them to take it to the person themselves or just get them to shut up. Despite all the swirling of mostly false rumours and predictions that had been served up by perceived friends, my ill friend is as fine as a workhorse, instead all these guys are now cowering around town with a tail between their legs wondering what happened to their prophesying talents. Otherwise, have a hate-free Sunday! kelviod@yahoo.com
