DIGNITY!

Today I saw two contrasting scenes in life which reminded me of the word called 'Dignity'. My mother always used to stress on living life with dignity. Now that's vague,I never used to understand what it meant. You obviously tend to ask what is dignity?Who defines dignity? and many other unanswered questions.

I think its left to an observer/individual how he wants to interpret the word and wants to relate to it.Now coming back ..

I was travelling to office in the bus today and at a busy street junction there was a lone man standing holding a board 'Am hungry and homeless,Please help me'. He was an able looking guy with no physical deformities and in tattered clothes. He was doing nothing he just stood there on the busy junction with vacant tired eyes holding the board. When i looked at him I had a series of questions popping 'He is able,cant he find some sort of work instead of holding a board like that?' 'Can no-one offer this man anything or is he not trying?' 'Can i ever stand holding a board like that in a busy street' 'How painful would it be to leave all your dignity(I used this word deliberately here) and stand like that with no hope and waiting for someone to bail you out?'...
I pass the scene ..


I normally go to a sandwich shop called 'Pot Belly' in the afternoons to have my lunch.There is a sort of small attic there where some singer will be strumming a guitar and singing a song.Its very much like Phoebe in the friends serial singing in 'The perk' cafe.They keep changing almost every other day,some are good,some are bad,but i think this potbelly joint provides employment/entertainment/encourages talent with this job position. Today I happened to be a bit early and there was no singer,so i sit eating my sandwich watching the people passing by.In the crowd of people I see an old blind man feeling his way through the crowd using his stick, I don't know for some reason I have always pitied the blind people the most in my life,being a photographer/traveller/admirer of art/movies/nature I have always felt the most for blind people in my life,I hope to open/sponsor a foundation for blind people someday in my life.Not digressing .. I follow the path of the blind guy who feels his way around and gets on to the escalator and comes to the floor wing in which I am sitting and he slowly makes his away across to the potbelly joint I am sitting. He stops very near to the entrance of the pot belly and keeps looking straight as if waitng for somebody! Suddenly a guy inside the joint spots him and goes out and takes him by the hand and leads him in. He directs the old guy to the small ladder which takes one to the attic,this old guy has a guitar hanging by his shoulder,he feels his hands and legs around the ladder and slowly climbs up and gets on the top and feels the chair and mike and positions himself. He starts strumming the guitar and starts singing. He was not the greatest singer but I was completely moved by the entire scene and felt a deep respect for this old blind man.

I just happen to co-relate the scene i saw in the morning to this one and somehow a meaning seems to dawn upon the word 'Dignity' ...