Desperate Times!

Alteast once in our lifetime, we have been through desperate times which comprise of those unique moments when we are desperate to change the world with all that we got, without caring, but not unaware, about the consequences. With all that adrenaline running through our blood, from head to toe, we are enthusiastic, energetic, focused, if not ambitious, but desperate to do what needs to be done. But what makes these moments so special? In normal situations, we may have to make decisions which are morally or ethically right, but during desperate times, we have to go for desperate measures, which in normal scenarios, might be considered unethical, immoral or simply wrong.

Imagine a situation, where you witness a road accident and the victim is mildly injured but couldn’t walk himself to the nearest hospital. If you help him by taking him in your vehicle to the nearest hospital, then police might enquire you about the whole scene and may even keep an eye on you or on repeated enquiry until the case is closed. Your heart says that you should help, but you don’t want to get involved in any of the enquiries. Although, it seems morally right that you should help the guy all the ways possible. But do you think that deciding otherwise makes it wrong? There are many others willing to help right away, even if you couldn’t. These are the desperate times which call for desperate measures. Here, you need to make a decision that might impact your life as well. If you flee the scene, it would seem morally wrong, but is it really?

Let’s take another scenario which I have experienced many times. Let’s take the case of street beggars. In Mumbai, I see little kids wandering with a small child in hand, going signal to signal, waiting for vehicles to stop so that they can beg for money. Some of these kids are part of an organized system where they collect money and deliver it to someone who sits on their earning and controls their lives by providing them livelihood from the money they collect by begging or roads, traffic signals, and streets. Now, if a kid comes to you asking for money, what will you do? If you give him money, and if the kid is part of some such organization, then that money goes to someone else, and not in his own pockets. If he is just a kid who need money for filling his stomach, then giving him money that buys him a meal or two is the right thing to do. Giving money to the kid seems morally right, but not giving him money and encouraging him to go to school and get education also seems to be the advice he might be looking for. It aslo seems wrong if you realize that you are filling someone else’s pockets who encourages these kids to beg on streets rather than facilitating them with education. Giving a few coins to the kid might not impact your life much, but might change his life, if he is doing for the right reasons. These are desperate times for the kid begging for money, and in these desperate times, he is taking all the desperate measures to survive another day.

Both these scenarios tell us that there are some situations that we witness where desperate measures need to be taken, that go beyond normal decisions taken under normal circumstances. So once again, what makes these moments so special? As the saying goes, “Desperate times call for desperate measures”, we need to learn to harness courage from unfavourable conditions and keep aside the stereotypes, to make some harsh decisions which go beyond the categorization of right and wrong so as to follow a path that might lead to freedom, salvation and success.