The Man In The Crowd

Do you see that man in the crowd? The man in striped white shirt and black trouser. No, you don’t? Maybe he is too indistinct. He is like every other man in the crowd. They maybe going to their workplace, and it’s the morning rush hour, or maybe they are out to find some work. He needs to be on time. The public transport are crowded as always. He vacillates, talks to himself and push people to make space. They push him back. They shout and abuse. He is too tired to react. He clamps himself and clutches to a spot to stand. He is lost in the jostling crowd. There is nothing about him that stands out. Maybe it’s the crowd. There is nothing remarkable about the crowd. You may not recognize him but you will almost always see him in crowd. Not that he wants to just that wherever he is its always crowded. You will see him standing awkwardly in the long queue while others crowd to catch hold of man trying to break the queue. There is always commotion. People want to be ahead. They are afraid to be left behind. Since they know if they are left behind there is nothing to wait for. There are empty shelves, dripping water, depleting food, and then if anyone is concerned, hollow words and petty excuses. They must therefore push, shove and shout to get ahead. It’s a never ending endeavor that defines his life; each life in the crowd. He is told to endow himself with skills to stay ahead or gain experience in the matter of staying ahead. The skills are designed and set to be just beyond him so that he is tantalized to work hard. Some in the crowd are offered depending on design and requirement, and they thank their blessing. They though remain a step away to be back in the stampeding crowd to eke a living. A slip is a slide, a mistake catastrophe, stray carelessness life threatening. It’s like jungle, maybe it’s not like a jungle since jungle has some rules to play by. Here it’s more of fate, the rules of bewildering happenings, of miracles and soothsayers. It’s a snake and ladder game where the rules are applicable to only the crowd; you are back in the crowd if you play bad or are not blessed enough. They therefore have to be constantly worry about their fate. They will be tutored to be extra humble to authority and memorize to fawn the power. Quietly learn to be exploited and abused, and if given an occasion ready to exploit and abuse. They crowd to earn fast to stay ahead of the hungry crowd. They learn new tricks, conceive new ways to cheat, steal and lie to amass money, property and riches. Still they will not feel secure. It is as if they are being constantly chased by the crowd. Sometimes they think the crowd is jealous of their riches hence want to bring them down they therefore erect taller barricades and put in more security.  

If you care to look you will see him in protests that spread across the street shouting slogans against price rise, sometimes throwing stones against corrupt, fearlessly accosting the armed police against state atrocities, or maybe he is a silent participant not sure of himself or anything that happens around him just that he needs to protest. And that he likes to be in the crowd. He learned to be in the crowd. He has come to accept his identity in the crowd, he cannot distinguish himself from the crowd, or maybe he has accepted it as his fate; he realized there is no escape from his reality. When he pass the reflection on the mirror he rarely recognize himself. He thinks and acts like crowd, and aligns his feeling for the crowd. Sometimes on rainy day he takes his head out of the crowded vehicle to feel the rain and breathe in the fresh air.