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- N. Raghuraman’s Column Compassion Is What Makes Us Humans So Special
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N. Raghuraman, Management Guru
I have been in Prayagraj for the last three days and I have not had lunch or dinner even once. Don’t feel sad for me because even without lunch or dinner, my weight has increased by one kilo, because I am eating something or the other in Allahabadi style.
Because he has his own style of feeding or serving food and he says it in the style of poetry or poetry like this, ‘Char Kachori four times, two again, two again, two again’ meaning if someone is feeding you shortbread, then You will have to eat 22 kachoris in one sitting! And I did the same at Anil Marwah ji’s house, local Allahabadi Anil ji, elder brother of my friend in Mumbai and I met him here for the first time. And his family members fed me so much as soon as I arrived that I could not eat anything for the whole day.
If you think that the people where you are a guest will only feed you more, then you are wrong because the hoteliers in this city are no less. When I went to Netram Moolchand & Sons near Anand Bhawan to eat kachori, the owner served the special hot black carrot halwa for which this shop is known.
It was at this place that two former late Prime Ministers of the country, Nehru ji and Indira ji used to come to have breakfast. This was not just about one outlet. For samosas go to Hariram & Sons at the Chowk or go to Nirala nearby for chaat, they will not only feed you what you asked for but will not let you leave without trying the rest of their prepared items. There is a different level of familiarity in this city, especially in the matter of food.
Research on this compassion is increasing worldwide, this quality also improves our personal and social well-being. This oldest and special quality was present in humans even before five thousand years. Evidence of this is present in the Archaeological Museum in Valletta, the capital of Malta, an island country located in the Mediterranean Sea between Italy and Libya in Southern Europe.
The museum houses a spectacular array of artefacts from Malta’s Neolithic period (5,000 BC) and one of the exhibits is a human femur (the longest bone in a human being, connecting the hip and knee). A student once asked anthropologist Margaret Mead, ‘What is the earliest sign of civilization?’
The student was hoping to get the answer, either an earthen pot or an abrasive stone or a weapon. But, Margaret said, ‘a healed femur.’ Society five thousand years ago did not have the benefits of modern medical science, and a femur injured or broken while hunting or gathering took more than six weeks to heal.
The healed femur indicates that someone lived with the sick man for more than six weeks, protecting him from wild animals, feeding him, and supporting him until the injury healed. Margaret then explained that where the law of the jungle (survival of the fittest survives) was in effect, no healed femurs were found.
So the first sign of civilization is human compassion, manifested in the form of a fine femur. Development is always seen through the lens of ‘survival of the fittest’, but this reflects selfishness. But when one looks beyond that lens, it is not the important factors that have brought generations forward, but love, care and compassion are the qualities that have allowed human civilization to advance faster than other species. Extended. It’s a different story that we killed other species to survive, which we no longer need to do.
The bottom line is that Let’s make compassion our partner of 2025 and take care of everything and everyone around us, which will definitely take us closer to God. Best wishes to all of you for the New Year.
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