Pity for Poor Africans (1788)

I own I am shock'd at the purchase of slaves,
And fear those who buy them and sell them are knaves;
What I hear of their hardships, their tortures, and groans
Is almost enough to draw pity from stones.

I pity them greatly, but I must be mum,
For how could we do without sugar and rum?
Especially sugar, so needful we see?
What? give up our desserts, our coffee, and tea!

Besides, if we do, the French, Dutch, and Danes,
Will heartily thank us, no doubt, for our pains;
If we do not buy the poor creatures, they will,
And tortures and groans will be multiplied still.

If foreigners likewise would give up the trade,
Much more in behalf of your wish might be said;
But while they get riches by purchasing blacks,
Pray tell me why we may not also go snacks?

Your scruples and arguments bring to my mind
A story so pat, you may think it is coin'd,
On purpose to answer you, out of my mint;
But, I can assure you, I saw it in print.

A youngster at school, more sedate than the rest,
Had once his integrity put to the test;
His comrades had plotted an orchard to rob,
And ask'd him to go and assist in the job.

He was. shock'd,sir, like you, and answer'd -- “Oh,no
What! rob our good neighbour! I pray you, don't go;
Besides, the the man’s poor, his orchard’s his bread,
Then think of his children, for they must be fed."

"You speak very fine, and you look very grave,
But apples we want, and apples we'll have;
If you will go with us, you shall have a share,
If not, you shall have neither apple nor pear."

They spoke, and Tom ponder’d -- !I see they will go:
Poor man! what a pity to injure him so
Poor man! I would save him his fruit if I could,
But staying behind will do him no good.

"If the matter depended alone upon me,
His apples might hang till they dropt from the tree;
But, since they will take them, I think I'll go too,
He will lose none by me, though I get a few."

His scruples thus silenc’d, Tom felt more at ease,
And went with his comrades the apples to seize;
He blam'd and protested, but join'd in the plan;
He shar'd in the plunder, but pitied the man.

By William Cowper.

A Pleasant Discovery

I wonder how many of you remember the poems we studied at school. There were all sorts of poems. Poems about rain, rainbows, God, daffodils, Pied Piper, pirates, arithmetic, Man, children, historical places, cities, soldiers, travelers... The list is a long one.

Many of these I remember because I have kept old text books. However, my collection has one textbook missing. For many months now, I have been searching for a particular poem which happened to be in the missing textbook. Even Google failed me. A few friends vaguely remembered the poem but nobody could manage to entirely recollect it. An uncle who recalled the title informed me that the textbook did not mention the poet. That turned out to be a dead end as well. Due to the change in syllabus, the said textbook's contents are entirely different from what they were 10 years ago.

I had almost given up on the poem when suddenly, a line from it came to my mind - '...had once his integrity put to the test...' And then Google did not fail me :) But what I found hugely surprised me. Apart from changing one word in the first line of the poem, which happens to be the twenty-second line of the original poem, the syllabus setters also changed the title of the poem. No surprises here because what we studied was only the second half of the original poem under the title 'Principles Put to the Test'.

Of Rejections, Frustrations and more

Note: This blog is not going to make sense to anyone. Its completely random.

I woke up all fresh and energized to start a brilliant day - a long day with exciting work and a nice cup of steaming coffee at the near-by cafe in the evening with a friend. My idea of a perfect day. But apparently, Someone up there (I don't really believe in these things!) had other plans.
When I came to work, I found out that a colleague had a major argument with the boss last evening. He is not very happy about it today. Looks like I am about to lose another colleague soon! (Just 2 days back, another colleague resigned). I checked my mails only to find that my application for MBA had been rejected. Met a couple of friends online. All of them have been worried sick about:
1. Current jobs
2. Finding new jobs
3. Exam results
4. Finding new place to move in
And now I am worried sick about:
1. My company closing down and locking its shutters (and literally mean shutter because we don't have a door to enter. Just a hole in a shutter which needs to be unlocked and is usually accompanied by a lot of clanking sound of rusted iron!) for ever.
2. In which case, I have to start looking out for a new job.
3. My MBA applications
4. And my career! (Thats what everything is all about)

Then I got into an argument (friendly) with a colleague who said, "All guys think about how to make money. And all girls think about how to get guys with money." Ridiculous nonsense!! See, this is what is exactly called mind-set - something that is difficult to change. People just don't understand that some people can be different, can beg to differ. Because I do. I want to make money. Enough so that me and my family can live comfortably. I don't even want to talk about the husband-earning-for-all-too factor. I don't even know if I will marry, yet. And even if I do, what I earn is what I earn. I have sentiments, a feeling of great pride attached to it. I am financially independent. Yes. That's what I want to be. Financially independent.

But this is not what I am blogging about. Its just that about a week back or even less everything was perfect, just perfect. I would not have imagined that things could go so TWANG in the span of a week!! What happened? What happened? Why the sudden sullenness, dejection, frustration? This is the first fortnight of the new year. Things, events, people are supposed to be good during this time (at least according to me). Then why are they behaving otherwise?

I don't like all this. I want to go to bed tonight and wake up tomorrow as though all of this was just a bad dream. Alas, this is my reality. Such is Life.