Yesterday I spoke to a dear friend who just returned from the US. Her father is very ill and her entire family is having a hard time.
She sounded harrowed, frustrated, and I felt empathy swelling up within me, as she related her experiences. It transported me back to the two times my dad was hospitalized.
Looking back, I realise that those among my friends who were most empathetic, have seen the same suffering of family at close quarters, experienced the gloomy, chaotic, unpredictable world of hospitals, doctors, mediclaim, blood banks, and the long, tedious wait for some sort of eventuality. Empathy has an equal place next to action, when it comes to tragedies like these.
For a change I knew what to say, and feel, sans the stuttering and empty questions we tend to ask, when trying our darn best to console friends, in their darkest moments. We may have the best intentions, but sans action or empathy, we really can’t do jack.
In a place like Mumbai, it is so easy to be divorced from the hardships experienced by others. I don’t blame people – I was in the same place before, awhile back.
