Empathy in the times of our EGO

"I think we all have empathy. We may not have enough courage to display it." Maya Angelou

It has been awhile since I sat down to pen my thoughts about issues that have been grabbing the lionshare of my mind space and the lack of EMPATHY is something I see everywhere, around me, in me and amongst others. The last time someone spoke to me about the E word was when I was in a tribal block in Attapadi with a member from a grassroots non governmental organization who was arguing with another colleague of mine, when he said that its amazing "how much time it took for the media to become sympathetic towards this growing issue of malnutrition!" At the mention of the word sympathetic, he quietly corrected, "we want empathy, not sympathy" and very aptly chastised my boisterous colleague.

That is when I pondered when was the last time that I took that all important step back and wondered if my next action or inaction will put a smile or a smirk on someone's face? I realized that very often it has been my ego doing the talking or the texting. I wondered if I could ever actually put my own faults in front of me and be truly critical of myself. I ruminated if I could in equal measure be as  acceptable to someone else's faults the way I accept mine. And then perhaps if I could react.


I realized it was indeed a daunting task, a very tall order.

Could I rise above my now overtly pampered  ego aka (evil E)  (trust you me all journalists have a BIG EGO) and take a moment to analyze my actions and my so called instinctive reactions? So while I know that I will not be in 99/100 cases be able to shut my ego away, I need to attempt at giving it a shot and see if I can be completely patient and tolerant. Why do I feel so much about the Big E you may wonder? Because lately I feel that my lil 5 year old daughter has truck loads of E while I am brimming with evil E. Of course innocence can be a factor and experience can be another and while I cannot unlearn, un-see all that I have,  can I re-look what I see from all angles?Can I truly look at another POV without my evil E prancing around in my mind. I wonder if evil E rules the brain, while E struggles to find a corner in the heart!

So I get it when Maya Angelou says that E is within us but we don't have the guts to actually show it. Even as I struggle to get around it, I know that E will always bring with it some peace. And we all cannot get enough of it, right?