do WE deserve to live?

Well... i'd first thought of putting up a post introducing myself and my purpose of blogging here first up. But Then something happened today....
There are events that change your perception of life, people, your own self and life...Didn't i just say that? oh well.....
And one such event, a very insignificant (to most) event happened today....... a rat was killed in my office.

Yeah, well.. .i know - u would say- "Whoa! BIG SHIT huh!?!"
To be honest.. i don't even know the difference between a mouse and a rat and while i write this, it occurs to me that there just might not be one.. but that's not the point, what matters here is.. i know he had a life.. just like u n me... n that there was no reason to kill it... yet.....
We humans have come to a point in the evolution process that our brains have conquered the world and all its other forms of life.. and our desires have conquered the brain. Yes, it is sad that not many of us realize "what's wrong in killing a pestering rat?" or maybe think that "chickens were born to be fried and eaten". And it is extremely pathetic when someone (like my boss today) gets an immense amount of pleasure after ending an innocent little life (or even by getting it killed by an unwilling-but-scared-of-losing-his-job peon). After the disgusting act, He (the sadistic creature called my boss) hummed his favorite tune on his way out as happy as a lark, as proud as a valiant warrior after his brutal but victorious battle with the evil forces.. The event that disturbed me to the extent of feeling the rat's pain physically when he was swatted to death had just made my boss' day. There couldn't have been a better beginning to it for him. Why didn't i say anything? well.. i'm not the hypocrite kind.. I did.. In fact putting my job ( read no-stipend-training) at stake, i revolted.. and stopped him in his tracks... But he had a question to my "DON'T KILL IT"- he asked "well... what else do u do with it?" Then, he arranged for some unwilling office boys to be his allies in the murder. They cornered the poor thing which hid itself behind a fire extinguisher and tried to run out in different directions every now and then... all of the murderers tried to stomp the li'l thing to a painful death every time it tried to run for his life.... and a rat held no answer to its brutal encounter with the most powerful (and senseless) species on earth. The moment came... and all i could do was to run out of there in utter pain and disgust.

And as i write this, i can only imagine what a baby rat would have felt being crushed to death.. its inner organs pressing into each other, and finally giving in to the force, feeling his blood squirt out his veins, as if in slow motion... he would've screamed in pain and helplessness... but who was to hear a rat screeching in his death. A tear rolls out of my eye as i can go no further.. the pain is unbearable even in my thoughts....

Yes it was a baby rat... i could see the beautiful sense of life that prevailed in him while he hopped around, sprinted across the floor threatening to harm none of the selfish brutal humans around. But we, as a species, don't share that generosity with the other creatures on this earth. We think we ought to kill.... that there's nothing wrong in killing a rat if it sprints on the office floor even though we could easily spend 10 odd min catching it and putting it out of the area- ALIVE n Breathing....While the rat had sprinted in and out of my room all morning, i'd observed the wonderful life in him, the pattern in which it would visit places in the office rush back to the safe opening in the floor in my room. Needless to say, I let him be. As an animator, i observed the minutest of his actions, his run, his head turning to look at me to see if i intended any harm... the character he portrayed.... and then it struck me.. he would have the same fate. He would be killed... mercilessly and meaninglessly. Unfortunately humans lived upto their reputation once again.

Yes I am an Animator... and i am in a studio full of people - artists, who are thought to be able to see those aspects of life that go unnoticed to another human being. We observe walk cycles of people, animals, we notice their emotions.. their reactions.. their body movements.. their EVERYTHING to make our films as realistic as possible. Yet, nobody noticed the pain in the happening.. the absolute disrespect for life in the event. We toil for months and years to make an appealing movie, to make sure those 3 hours of entertainment make people laugh, cry, smile,.....but we cant afford those 10 min of discomfort that can be spent by the office boys to catch a pestering rat and leave him outside the premises of our leisure zones. Those 3 hours that we strive to make-perfect might touch some lives around the globe, maybe for a brief time... but those 10 min that we couldn't afford just ended a precious life forever. And this ... is just one of the millions of brutal tales that happen everyday!

The question is :: if we don't respect and care for lives around us... if we are so indifferent to life and proud of being so at the same time.... Do WE really deserve to live?


as i write this, i look down to watch out for the li'l thing as i did all morning to keep my feet from hurting the poor fellow... but there's no more life springing out of that opening in the floor... there is no innocent sprinting around. There are just cold, brutal humans all around who know nothing but their own tales of materialistic success and failure. I'm all alone.....