October 2, Public Spiritedness and Mental Health

 The first week of October is a cause of celebration of Bapu across India and the world. However, since almost a decade starting from 2014, it has been continuing to be a loss of celebration and cause of void with repeated cycles. 

Every year the round of destined incidents, tragedies, personal losses revolving around me has continued with deep consistency. The sinusoidal graph of such a consistent rhythm has never let me down and has only allowed me to laugh more on the magic of life with only a way to look up in a self effacing and affable way. 

This year the first two days of October again came out with a tragic loss of a dear friend just like last year and years before that who in a short span of time had touched the deepest core of the dictionary of human empathy. He taught me about that core. 

My friend who was an epitome of deepest empathy for everyone around him was the victim of the destiny of mental health. In the last few years, destiny took away some more fellow empathetic cotravellers. Few succumbed to accidents, Covid,  few nonhumans to weird IVF but all of them had one aspect in common. 

They all showed Public Spiritedness either as a human or as an animal. Hence,  their spirits started where consistent rationality assumptions of economics ended. Therefore, they expressed compassion, emotion, altruism, anger, emotions, kindness, big heartedness, void egoless self with naivety.  They manifested so called examples of  irrationality which in a way were quite binding by cultivating a rules based rationality of practising Public Spiritedness for others including any human being around them. 

During the birth week of Mahatma, keeping aside the political consciousness of practising public spiritedness, these humans and non humans were not bounded by a consistent domain of rationality which defines self-optimising behaviour. They were not self centred, neither self aggrandising but a true practitioner of public spiritedness which a reactionary society of India needs deeply at this juncture.

As Ambedkar had mentioned that if without equality, liberty comes to Indian society there will be power and elite capture: and if equality is there without liberty in Indian society, individual rights will be jeopardized. 

The losses of these public spirited humans  and nonhumans only have left back a lesson to practise more in future. It is a practice of how both liberty and equality can be brought back together to the Indian Society to enthuse, infuse public spiritedness where rationality, bounded rationality ends and rules based rationality starts. 

I just wish,  I could change the sinosoidal graph of consistency and bring all of them back by changing time to practise more of public spiritedness. In a way,  it will cure the destiny and mental health of the society which took them away! It will be a true celebration of 2nd October then in 2023 and in the years to come.