Nature AND Nurture

This incident goes back to last summer when the Gharoli team and I were conducting home visits. In one of the nearby lanes we saw a group of children, between 5-7 years of age, chuckling in excitement. ‘What fun! How I wish I could join them!’ I thought to myself. However, soon after I heard a yelp, a loud painful one. Again and again! It grew faint, before it finally died out, in the din of the joyful voices of the children. A fearful voice within me screamed, ‘There’s something not right there, run!’ I rushed towards the children.

Around the children lay 6 puppies, maybe I should say 4 dead and 2 struggling to survive. On asking I realized that the children thought the pups were toys and twisting necks of the vulnerable, the voiceless was an exciting activity. I was filled with anger against those children and wanted to actually whack them. Whoever said we were all born kind, like angels and gradually the environment shaped and labeled us as good or bad. In a flash of a second I junked the nature vs. nurture theory. Something was constantly buzzing in my head. No! There were human voices somewhere in the background, saying something that didn’t make sense and just like you snap out of a trance- I broke out of my dark thoughts. A few parents of those children had gathered around me and were complaining how their children didn’t listen to them and look at what they had now done! To ensure that the ‘powerful’ continue to dominate over the weak the parents slapped their children a couple of times and sent them home. A while back, when all the ‘fun’ was happening, the same parents were looking on, basking in the sun, while the pups silently passed away into eternal bliss. All this when I thought the four legged were the animals! In a few minutes I saw who the ‘real, scary, wild’ animal inside each one of us standing there. It seemed like eternity, but all this happened in a flash. I had to save the remaining two pups and I shifted my focus towards that.

Is there heaven on Earth? Yes, we soon discovered that our own center was and the CDC students were the real angels, who I thought didn’t exist anymore. Two boys immediately took charge; they knew a vet close by and decided to take the pups there. They left on a bike leaving behind a cloud of dust, but it cleared soon after, or maybe my mind did! Nature vs. nurture! Maybe a better way of putting it would be nature and nurture! I realized that yes! Each one of us indeed had an animal and a human side to ourselves and the environment just externalized that, for us to see, to know and to change. We are beautiful from within us and nothing will stop us from bringing that forth. Although we couldn’t save the lives of the pups, something in me became alive; I know hope did- to see the compassion in the two youth, I knew that not all is lost. I will always be grateful to them for this life changing experience and for reviving hope in each one of us who were part of this incident.

Tulika Mehra

NIIT Foundation