How can you call yourself a human?

Asked the mirror on the wall.

Just because you have two feet and walk tall?

Or is it because you have evolved more than your peers?

Or only because you can express pain and joy with tears?

Just because you have institutions you can attend and earn a degree?

Or because you can captivate animals in cages and walk around free?

Have you forgotten why has God made you, you?

To develop a brain, nurture a heart and to all creations be fair and true…

Only the deserving get a human life they say…

Please answer yourself – have you really lived up to its precious worth in any way?

I recently received a mail asking to sign a petition against some people in New Delhi who brutally blinded a pet stray dog and beat him up. Supportive of the fact that such cruel people are a greater threat than what we perceive them to be, I signed the petition and shared it on my Facebook wall. I learnt today that the innocent canine friend passed on. I feel unnatural coming to terms with the fact that those who can brutally murder a dog for just barking exist as ‘humans’ in this world. Every life is precious and no one has the right to destroy it. In a nation proud of its peaceful heritage such events, coupled with countless similar ones, is unnerving. I truly hope that justice prevails.