You could stomp on an anthill or save a drowning ant

Several years ago, I wrote a regular column for the JEANS section of 'The Nation'.  The editor of JEANS, Kusumanjalee Thilakarathna now handles the 'Littlestars' tabloid distributed with 'The Sunday Morning'. This is the fifteenth article for Littlestars.  Scroll down to find the full series of articles written for JEANS and the those of this new series.

Have you ever seen an animal struggle? It could be a cat over whose face someone has put a brown paper bag or it could just be an ant that has fallen into a bowl of water. You may have seen dogs harass monitor lizards, cats pouncing on cockroaches or spider scrambling to evade a broom. Creatures don’t have it easy. Even pets don’t have it easy.

In this world there are predators and there is prey.  And it’s not always about carnivores looking for a meal. The strong are often arrogant and the weak are meek.  

A few years ago I came across a beautiful poem written by Nazim Hikmet. Now Nazim was from Turkey. Indeed he is widely recognized as the best poet from that country and one of the best in the world. His poetry has been translated into many languages. Nazim spend more than half his life either in prison or in exile. And yet, Nazim never seemed to have lost hope; he never gave up on humanity. He always believed the world could be better. And no matter how harsh things were, he remained positive. 

Nazim once wrote a poem titled ‘Optimistic Man’. An optimist, as you know, is a person who tends to be hopeful and confident about the future or the success of something. Someone like Nazim. The poem was not about himself, though. Let’s read:

As a child he never plucked the wings off flies

he didn't tie tin cans to cats' tails

or lock beetles in matchboxes

or stomp anthills

he grew up

and all those things were done to him

I was at his bedside when he died

he said read me a poem

about the sun and the sea

about nuclear reactors and satellites

about the greatness of humanity.

It’s easy to be cruel. It’s not difficult to be kind. You can help the cat struggling with the brown paper bag, you can persuade the dog to leave the monitor lizard alone, you can be gentle when clearing cobwebs and you can easily save the ant that fell into a bowl of water. 

What’s important about Nazim’s idea is that regardless of how harsh the world has treated you, it’s still not a good enough reason to treat anyone harshly. No revenge or displaced wickedness. 

If you look around carefully, you’ll find many ways you could be wicked to someone. If you look around carefully, you’ll find as many ways you could be kind to someone. There’s always someone struggling with something or the other. It could be a math problem. It could be some kind of disappointment. It could be because he or she not been included in a conversation. It could be because he or she has a problem that is hard to talk about. It is easy to tell when someone is happy, but not everyone who is sad shows it. You have to look carefully. 

It doesn’t take much effort to put a smile on someone’s face. A word is enough. Sometimes a smile would provoke a smile. Sometimes all it takes is to be near, just so your friend knowns he or she is not alone. And if a poem is what is needed, then you can read Nazim’s poem about an optimistic person.  

Finally, if you are sad, and there’s no one to talk to, no one willing to listen and no one even notices, then also you could think of Nazim Hikmet and read this poem to yourself. 

Articles for THE SUNDAY MORNING

Have you ever been at boiling point?

A tree has clues that lead to a treasure

Listen! You will be rewarded...

Keep things sorted so you can wreck things more efficiently!

Is charcoal black, red or purple?

Homework can change your life, really

The language of chairs, pens and kites

Have you ever seen a worn-out grandmother?

Who really makes clouds and why do shadows keep moving?

Shall we try being differently-abled

Distance is a toy

There are games you can play with the rain

Articles for THE NATION
There's a secret friend waiting for you

Ignorance is an exciting thing!

Un-cluttering is an art

It begins with the first soiled spoon

You have loads of time, you know

A puddle is a canvas

Venus-Serena tied at love-all
Some jokes are not funny
There's an ant story waiting for you
And you can be a rainbow-maker
Trees are noble teachers
On cloudless nights the moon is a hole
Gulp down those hurtful words
A question is a boat, a jet, a space-ship or a heart
Quotes can take you far but they can also stop you
No one is weak
The fisherman in a black shirt
Let's celebrate Nelli and Nelliness
Ready for time travel?
Puddles look back at you, did you know?
What's the view like from your door?
The world is rearranged by silhouettes
How would you paint the sky?
It is cool to slosh around
You can compose your own music
Pebbles are amazing things
You can fly if you want to
The happiest days of our lives
So what do you want to do with the rain?
Still looking for that secret passage?
Maybe we should respect the dust we walk on
Numbers are beautiful 
There are libraries everywhere 
Collect something crazy
Fragments speak of a thousand stories 
The games you can and cannot play with rice
The magic of the road less-traveled
Have you ever thought of forgiving?
Wallflowers are pretty, aren't they?
What kind of friend do you want to be? 
Noticed the countless butterflies around you?
It's great to chase rainbows
In praise of 'lesser' creatures 
A mango is a book did you know?
Expressions are interesting things
How many pairs of eyes do you need?
So no one likes you?
There is magic in faraway lights
The thambilil-seller of Giriulla
When people won't listen, things will
Lessons of the seven-times table