BARGAINING FOR LIFE
These pictures of a logger cutting down a tall teak wood tree were taken by me fortuitously a few days back when I was gazing through my study room window after a stupendous lunch. Though it’s a common occurrence in my part of the world, I got an adrenalin rush when I saw him climbing such a tall tree without any thought for his own safety and even more so without taking a single safety device. These pictures had to remain in abeyance in my computer until today morning when I read a tiny two paragraph news item tucked away in the top left hand corner of page 2 in Malayala Manorama newspaper narrating the accidental death of a timber cutter while cutting a tree at Nalanchira in the suburb of Trivandrum. It is of no surprise that, this relatively insignificant death of a man belongs to the downtrodden classes of our homeland has evoked no any amount of interest to the readers amid other gibberish but space hogging issues based on Harthal, Murders, dirty politics etc...etc.. But then, it’s not new that human values are least important in our modern day society.
Iam not here to talk about the media ethics or for that matter other intrinsic values in the evolution of newspapers but something different about the bizarre life of a few people living among us engaged in a wide variety of deadly jobs which we couldn’t even imagine how this could be possible yet we deliberately avoid seeing them since we couldn’t afford to spend our pretty valuable time that of citizens of a nation often described as economist’s delight.
I often wonder how many people do ever think when they leave for work, this could be their last day of life and from tomorrow onwards they will be in their children’s memories? Not many, I’am sure. But there are among us even today, as there always have been, those who venture out of their houses with no assurance of returning alive. No, I’am not talking about those highly trained elite commandos engaged in deadly covert operations once in a while or those highly paid professional motocross riders who envisage life threatening accidents or for that matter, those highly admired space travellers who knowingly and wilfully put their life at risk to quench their thirst for new discoveries, but a few souls living right in the middle of us untrained, sparsely paid and never admired by anyone, risking their lives for few pennies to meet ends. Yes I’am talking about those who surmount greater obstacles, often life threatening ones, to get out of the peril of poverty.
They are those timber cutters swinging their axes by balancing on a slim stalk, those road construction workers in peak summer under scorching sun engaged in paving hot mixture of asphalt and coal tar pitch, workers hanging from scaffolding on a skyscraper site, labours who dig into the sewers to clean your drainages, etc etc etc. Our lives would not be possible if it weren’t for these men who are willing to embrace the coldness of death for a few denominations of warm currencies. Whose lives have no value at all... Nobody would even notice their death, no flags will be at half mast, no obituaries will be written. Aren’t they more deserving of our respect than those self-interested and corrupt politicians of modern world? Throughout my armed force service I have been to several such occasions where it needs me to deal with people who don’t care if they lose their life. But then they were terrorists who don’t care about the lives of others too. They are those who are willing to take the coward’s way out under the name of some false ideology. We can’t compare them with those brave hearts I’am talking about. These men and women are part of our life and are willing to risk their life for our meagre comforts. They are those real unsung heroes living around us.
Often we haggle over paltry wages with these people to climb a tree while on the other hand we have no qualms about splurging impulsively on ultra modern gadgets or most extravagant parties. While we bargain for a couple of hundreds, what they are bargaining for? Their life? They may tell you sometimes in a subtle voice, “Sir, it’s after all a gambling with life...” You agree or not, they will still climb the tree because he can’t handle seeing his children standing outside the class room for not paying the tuition fee or for that matter seeing his wife reeling in pain due to some undiagnosed ailment. A day without work would be too big a trouncing for him. They know very well that a simple slip of leg or being hit by a fallen trunk would ultimately ravage a whole family like what had happened at Nalanchira yesterday. Unofficially recognised as world’s most dangerous job, timber cutting demands you tremendous physical fitness, courage, skill and more than everything else, that important factor which is not at all in your control, luck.
Would you ever think taking such a risk for such a paltry wage? We should strive to prevent such incidents from happening again by ensuring minimum safety measures before giving a deal to a person who at times may be not much bothered about that. After all we too have some responsibility towards a clan that are living among us. The task is not easy. The reality that prevails is far different from what we see. Let’s hope such incidents would not recur in future.
P.S- No queries from environmentalists will be entertained....
