Prejudices create barriers and divide people; our lives are so frenetic that we lack the time to observe and listen to other voices

We had organised a literature festival a few months back. Almost all the writers spoke about the stories all around us waiting to be put on paper. This set me thinking. If the life of each of us is a palette of stories of different hues, why is it that we do not hear more of these experiences? Does it have something to do with a life that is increasingly running at such a frantic pace that we have no time to observe and listen? Or is it the divides that we carry within us – social, class, caste, age, gender, religion, ideologies, and many more? I have met many people in my life. If I was asked to place them in two distinct categories, I would not hesitate to categorise them as extroverts and introverts. The outspoken are the ones who attract attention. It is the ones shy in expressing sentiments in public, who are a revelation to me. It only needs a nudge for their unexpressed and hence unheard stories to come out. Their life experiences are a myriad of emotions. I remember my first holidays in the mountains. The adjoining room was occupied by an old couple, who at that time may have been our grandparents’ age. One morning, as we sat outside, my parents sipping their tea, the couple also came out. My father asked us to fetch the chairs placed nearby, respecting their old age, and slightly bent backs. Our efforts were brushed aside, “We can still carry our own chairs.” Habits inculcated at a young age are difficult to break. I still get up to offer my seat to an older person.My paternal grandfather was hard of hearing. We children had to shout to make him understand. I did not realise that I had started screaming at anybody old, till the time I was told by my maternal grandmother, “Why do you shout at us. Our hearing is perfectly normal.” I now make a conscious effort not to speak loudly to an older person unless asked.My maternal grandfather was paralyzed on one side when he may have been 50. He was extremely slow, but insisted on wearing his clothes without anyone’s help, also brushing aside my grandmother’s efforts to do so, even if there was a time constraint when going out for a movie show.It is not that only the old want the young to respect their wish to be heard and treated with dignity and respect.I remember a cab driver who only needed a gentle query to tell me that he chose to drive a cab after he retired to keep himself active and for the opportunity to talk to willing passengers, overriding the objections of his children who were now much better placed than he ever was.Or yet another cab driver, who was bursting to proudly tell anyone willing to listen to him that his daughter had cleared her CA examinations in the first attempt and had been offered a job with one of the Big 4.There are many more who only need a gentle prod to express their unheard stories if only there is someone around to give them time without being judgemental. Their silence is a plea to be encouraged to narrate a life story that many might deem to be common but is no less extraordinary than that of the most successful celebrity. It is also important to be a story-listener! In Bryant H McGill’s words, “One of the most sincere forms of respect is actually listening to what another has to say.”

(The author is an electrical engineer with the Indian Railways and conducts classes in creative writing; views are personal)