Cares

“Take Care” is a phrase I learned first time from a letter my undergraduate classmate wrote to me

while she was in US for her postgraduate studies. Yesterday evening, I started seriously thinking

about the subject, when I started realizing the careless attitudes of my family members.

Indeed I think it is very convenient to be careless, because thinking requires some effort, that we are

most often unprepared to do and hence are rather lazy. It is much more comfortable to be careless

then to take care. I think that was the case with my parents, who went on producing many more off

springs (seven in all) then they could really take good care of. I remember my father saying

sometime that one of them might be instrumental in bring good luck in his family. But, thinking a bit

I think they were really careless, for example, I could never get sufficient care/love because they

were constantly more busy in taking 'care' of my younger siblings; I am the eldest, so may be I got

the maximum attention for two years, till my younger brother was born. I think, I was much more

lucky to get a better education too, because late my parents could not afford similar education for my

younger siblings. May be that led them to be much less careful then myself, because I felt the

responsibility of the eldest brother much longer. I had to be content with much less prosperity, till a

few years ago when we all started earning for ourselves and taking care of the family too, My father

passed away some thirty years ago.

Now perhaps I can tell what led to my this train of thoughts. It started when I realized that one of my

sisters about 12 years younger to me, that is, about 50 years old, who is teaching nursery classes, has

developed into a careless lass, she cares two hoots about the security of the household she shares with

me, she thinks there is nothing in the house that may tempt a thief to steal. I believe she has a history

of careless attitude. ; she chose the men she married very carelessly, one divorced her and the other

who was addicted to drinking, died very recently and that is topped up by the fact that she is a cancer

patient. I feel she has all the freedom to be as much careless as she wants, if she is living

independently, but not while she is sharing her life with others.

Well, I myself have not been perhaps, as much careful. If I were indeed, I would have approached the

right quarters, at right time, to get a regular employment, something I never had, even though I had

demonstrated sufficient merit throughout my educational journey. May be then I would have got

married and raised a family of my own too. I spent seven years to earn a Ph. D. degree, and indeed

was careless in choosing my thesis supervisor, who was a novice, and hence very little influence and

experience. In retrospect I think that if I had made the 'right' choices at the right time, I would have

been a very senior academician, may be a director of a institute or may be even even a Vice

Chancellor of a university, as several of my colleagues are now. But I have no regrets indeed, That is

my character!! But, caring has been embedded in my character perhaps, may be because of my

present state of legs, which do not allow me an uninterrupted walk of more then 100 meters. I have to

be careful for each step that I take.

No one can be really careful all the life. So, may be I should not resent the carelessness of some of

my family members, and get along with life as everyone does. May be every one inherits a certain

attitude And recite the following poem of a

poet William Henry Davies

What is life if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare..........

I enjoy that privilege now!!!

Rakesh Mohan Hallen