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Respect




I am a frequent traveler of public transport in Bengaluru. The world is compassionate when it comes to senior citizen and elders. So we have separate seats reserved for them in all the public transportation system. While we agree with the difficulties they face due to age, I have observed this trend of elders rudely commanding youngsters to leave the occupied seats. Respect is earned by personality and not by age. Unfortunately, our elders think otherwise and consider themselves to be superior towards anyone who sits there.

Today’s youngsters are not the uneducated brats who would not offer the seat if requested. The basic sense of compassion is lost when we behave rudely with anyone younger to us. A small kid is made to adjust to the corner of a seat because we think the kid doesn’t deserve to occupy a full seat. As a child, I was always taken for granted and was one of them to be pushed away into those corners. The difficulty a child experiences owing to the crawled spaces are somehow easily ignored by the selfish elders around. Isn’t the child a human? Does he not deserve some respect? Just because he happens to be small, do we stand still while he painfully experiences the sharp edges of the bus poke him throughout the journey?

Although the general crowd has the same attitude 90% of the times, I have experienced the flip side of the coin too. On a rainy day, the seats in the insides of the public buses of Bengaluru are often soaking wet. I saw an old lady, sitting right in the middle of a two-seater once. I politely asked her to move for which she replied apologetically that the seat on the other end is wet. I understood the situation and stood quietly. While she felt bad and responsible, she insisted me to sit in the corner half seat and queried me of my journey. She proved that being polite goes a long way. Many times I have seen elders scolding youngsters of being lost in phones in public places. I ask, what gives you any rights to even lift a finger at them. Their sole explanation for their scoldings would be that they considered the victims to be their kids. Unless they are your own and you seem to have some kind of authority on them, we should treat every person, regardless of their age, with respect and compassion. We are often taught in our early age to respect the elders, while we should be teaching them to respect all, be it an animal or a human.

This may sound like a repeat, but Respect is truly earned by personality and not by age. Respect is a two-way street. Period.


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