Horton the elephant one day hears a cry for help from a spec on a flower. Soon he understands that the cry belongs to a Who and there is an entire city of whosville living on that spec. Though Horton can not see them, he decides to help protect the city and all the citizens of whosville. But this gives him nothing but torment from his friends, who think he has gone crazy and refuse to believe that there can be life on something so negligible. Horton, however stands by the motto that, "After all, a person is a person, no matter how small."Like many of Dr. Seusss' tales, this story too send out the message of helping those who can not protect themselves.
I saw a post on indiblogger the other day where a person left a message asking, why does no one help an accident victim? I was too busy to read the comments that followed below but, somehow the question left a mark in my head. It has been almost 2 months and the post is moved and so am I, asking myself, why?
Is it because we are too busy in our own world? Managing family and work as well as squeezing some leisure time with what we have? Or, is it because we have evolved to an emotional state where we do not care for another life any more. I doubt if any of my answer is correct. People do have time to slow the Monday traffic to a stand still if there is a movie shooting going on on the road. People do have time to know how Hritik Roshan's marital life is. Then what is it that stops us from hearing the "who"?
Some may say it involves money to treat the victim. "Why should I spend anything on a stranger?" Or, what if the police gets involved? We have seen way too many Bollywood flick to know Police is one thing to avoid. If that answer gets a nod from you, tell me, is money and trouble greater than the satisfaction of a good deed?
Going back to Horton, when he decided to save the who, every one ridiculed him. He was faced with many dangers, but nothing steered his faith. He could not see anyone on the spec. There was influence all around him that were sufficient to convince him to let go of the idea. But he still stuck to what he believed. He did not care how busy he was or, how useful the creature on that spec were or, fear the dangers he encountered. All he knew was he had to do what was right.
We all know what the right thing to do is any given situation and yes, there are times when the universe does conspire against us, stopping us from doing what is right. But the same universe that conspires against, conspires for as well. It conspires for by giving us the opportunity of being present in that moment. The universe conspires by making us a witness to the tragedy. The pity we have for the victim, isn't that our conscious's call to action? But the selfishness and greed to grow in the materialistic world that has made our IQ go high has maybe bought us down on the EQ levels.
And let me not limit the question to an accident victim. There is rape too. Something we see appear on the newspaper like the daily horoscope. If accidents get people circle around the victim, rape gets people turn a blind eye.
Crimes are many, but not more than the people in the world. A cry is being cried everyday. But do you have the ears to hear it? There lives a Horton is every one of us. A Horton that is asleep and needs you to jerk him up awake. Let that Horton in you take control. Let it make you do the right thing irrespective of the dangers, the shame, and the investment it may need. After all, what matters in who lives inside you. 
