Goodness has poor publicity

Over the past few weeks, India found its way to my desk from four different directions. First came the news from near Lohagad Fort in Maharashtra. Ketan Agarwal’s death during a trek was being investigated as murder. Then I saw a video from Jaipur. A son was allegedly assaulting his elderly father. Before I could get past that, there was another report from Mumbai. A young commuter had been stabbed after an argument on a local train.

The stories were different. The feeling they left behind was not.

Then, on the IIT Madras campus in Chennai, I watched traffic come to a complete halt. Not because of an accident. Not because of a protest. A mother deer had emerged to feed her cub.

Cars waited. Security personnel waited. People watched quietly. For a few minutes, nobody seemed interested in getting anywhere faster.

That image lingered. Perhaps because it arrived amid a stream of darker stories. Perhaps because it reminded me that headlines and reality are not always the same thing.

Headlines have a natural bias towards conflict. Violence is reported. Outrage is amplified. Cruelty travels quickly. Kindness usually travels unnoticed.

Around the same time, I came across a social media post by an editor friend, Lachmi. “You need not be everybody’s butterfly. Be the bee. Collect honey. Sting when necessary.”

The line struck a chord. It summed up something important about living in today’s world. We cannot pretend people are kinder than they are. But we cannot become so cynical that we stop noticing kindness either. Like the bee, we have to recognise both the nectar and the sting.

Every day provides evidence for both. There are people who betray trust. There are also people who honour it. There are acts of selfishness. There are acts of generosity. There are moments that make us question humanity. There are others that quietly restore faith in it.

The difficulty is that only one side usually makes the front page.

No television debate is organised because a friend showed up when needed. No breaking news alert announces that a promise was kept. No viral video captures the countless small acts of consideration that help hold communities together. Goodness has poor publicity.

A friend who came from Philadelphia recently invited us for lunch. There was no newspaper coverage. Nothing remarkable on the surface. From sharing his location to the last cup of coffee, every little detail spoke of quiet attentiveness. I learn from everywhere. Men, too, are often known for their understated hospitality. It was simple, direct, with no drama or unnecessary noise. It is the kind of effortless grace anyone would appreciate.

Yet it endures.

That is what I took away from that brief pause on the IIT Madras campus. Not simply the sight of a deer feeding her cub, but the collective willingness of strangers to make room for that moment. Nobody argued. Nobody pushed forward. Nobody demanded priority.

For a few minutes, patience won.

In a country that had recently offered stories from Lohagad, Jaipur and Mumbai, that small scene from Chennai felt unexpectedly significant.

The question is not whether cruelty exists. It clearly does. The more interesting question is this. Why does kindness still survive?

Maybe the answer lies in the moments we hardly notice. The ones that quietly shape our lives. A promise kept. A confidence respected. A helping hand extended. A road shared with a deer and her cub.

The news often tells us what is broken. Life, if we pay attention, also shows us what still works.

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