This story is of March 2021, when the Covid-19 cases were on a rise.
It was 7th March, when a member named Rohit of our society revealed that he had been infected with the virus and shared his medical report. However, accidentally he also shared the date of his report. It was then that all the members got to know that Rohit was infected two days before he revealed his report.
What was left was a response from the society, which was given in the form of an emergency zoom meeting declared by our secretary. This meeting continued for more than 5 hours without concluding. There was a heated discussion over what should be done. Some insisted Rohit be punished while others wanted to forgive him. I wanted to punish him because he should not have thought of taking a risk by not letting anyone know about his situation. Finally, it was decided that Rohit would have to write an apology letter as a punishment.
Throughout the meeting, one thing that caught me was that Manish, the treasurer of our society was silent the whole time. I didn’t give it a second thought, as I was in great anger over Rohit and I continued with my opinion.
It was believed, now that the issue had been sorted out, there would be peace among all the members, but to everyone’s shock, the next day we got to know that Rohit’s neighbour was also detected to be positive for the virus.
Each member’s blood was boiling with this news. An emergency zoom meeting was declared again and this time it was not a peaceful one. This time we did not have heated discussions but heated arguments. Everyone wanted to punish Rohit with heavy fines, some even insisted to remove him from the committee.
It was then that Manish interrupted and gave his opinion before matters could go out of hand. He said, ” Dear members, I know that Rohit has made a blunder by not revealing his report on time. Of course, we could have taken precautions by sealing his flat, avoid going near his flat, etc. However, we are missing something. Only the wearer knows where the shoe pinches, which means that only Rohit knows about the pains he encountered. This is a time of hardships we must understand what pain and agony Rohit is suffering through.
These are testing times in which true friendship and brotherhood are highlighted. However, with great regret, I must say that we all have failed in this test by wanting to punish Rohit. This is wrong and I oppose this strongly. We should instead forgive him and help him in his needs. Rohit, my friend, I forgive you but I don’t know what the other members are thinking.”
After he stopped, Rohit started crying, while others were standing with their heads hung down in shame. Talking about me, well I was too ashamed of myself that I couldn’t even look into the eyes of other people. Manish consoled Rohit and what was more surprising was that, instead of Rohit apologizing for his mistake, the other members started apologizing including me. Thus, the issue was sorted out and peace prevailed.
What I learned from this incident was forgiveness.
We all thought about our health, while Rohit was in great pain. If Manish would not have been there, we all would have committed a grave mistake. We should not have been selfish and we should have viewed the situation according to Rohit’s view also.
“One should subvert anger by forgiveness.”
