{"id":1775,"date":"2018-05-07T22:21:51","date_gmt":"2018-05-07T22:21:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ourauthenticfamily.com\/?p=1775"},"modified":"2018-06-24T13:32:33","modified_gmt":"2018-06-24T13:32:33","slug":"life-for-my-dying-conscience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ourauthenticfamily.com\/index.php\/2018\/05\/07\/life-for-my-dying-conscience\/","title":{"rendered":"Life for My Dying Conscience"},"content":{"rendered":"

My Dying Conscience<\/h2>\n

– by Rashmi Trivedi\u00a0<\/span>(author of Woman everything will be fine!)<\/span><\/p>\n

– Illustrated by Vanita Thomas<\/span><\/p>\n

Sometimes in the dark of the night,<\/p>\n

I visit my conscience to see if\u00a0 it is still breathing,<\/p>\n

for its dying a slow death<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Every day.<\/p>\n

When I pay for a meal in a fancy place,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

an amount which is perhaps the monthly income of the guard<\/p>\n

who holds the door open,<\/p>\n

And quickly I shrug away that thought,<\/p>\n

It dies a little\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

When I buy vegetables from the vendor,<\/p>\n

And his son “chhotu” smilingly weighs the potatoes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Chhotu, a small child, who should be studying at school.<\/p>\n

I look the other way.<\/p>\n

It dies a little.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

When I am decked up in a designer dress…<\/p>\n

A dress that cost a lot,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And I see a woman at the crossing in tatters,<\/p>\n

trying unsuccessfully to save her dignity,<\/p>\n

And I immediately\u00a0 <\/span>roll up my window.<\/p>\n

It dies a little.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

When at Christmas, I buy expensive gifts for my children.<\/p>\n

On my return,\u00a0 <\/span>I see half clad children with empty stomach<\/p>\n

and hungry eyes selling Santa caps at the red light.<\/p>\n

I try to save my conscience by buying some.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet, it dies a little.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

When my sick\u00a0 <\/span>maid sends her daughter to work,<\/p>\n

making her bunk school.<\/p>\n

I know I should tell her to go back.<\/p>\n

But, I look at the loaded sink and dirty dishes.<\/p>\n

And I tell myself that it’s just for a couple of days.<\/p>\n

It dies a little.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

When I hear about a rape<\/p>\n

or a murder of a child,<\/p>\n

I feel sad,<\/p>\n

Yet, a little thankful that it’s not my child.<\/p>\n

I easily\u00a0 <\/span>look at myself\u00a0 <\/span>in the mirror.<\/p>\n

It dies a little.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

When people fight over caste creed and religion.<\/p>\n

I feel hurt and helpless.<\/p>\n

I tell\u00a0 <\/span>myself that my country is going to the dogs.<\/p>\n

I blame the corrupt politicians.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Absolving myself of all responsibilities.<\/p>\n

It dies a little.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

When my city is choked.<\/p>\n

Breathing is dangerous\u00a0 <\/span>in the smog ridden Cities.<\/p>\n

I take my car to work daily.<\/p>\n

Not taking\u00a0 <\/span>the metro…not trying car pool.<\/p>\n

One car won’t make a difference, I think.<\/p>\n

It dies a little.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

So when in the dark of the night<\/p>\n

I visit my conscience\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And find it still breathing.<\/p>\n

I am surprised for, with my own hands…<\/p>\n

Daily, bit by bit, I bury it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Comments on this Poem<\/span><\/h3>\n

Yes, the Bible does tell us<\/p>\n

that our hearts are extremely deceitful.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

However, the good news is that our conscience can be awakened,<\/p>\n

but this is only possible by Jesus<\/p>\n

who died for us, and His Holy Spirit lives within us.<\/p>\n

He transforms our hearts to start obeying and loving!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This is what God commands of us human beings,<\/p>\n

that should be an outflow of our transformed hearts.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My Dying Conscience – by Rashmi Trivedi\u00a0(author of Woman everything will be fine!) – Illustrated by Vanita Thomas Sometimes in the dark of the night, I visit my conscience to see if\u00a0 it is still breathing, for its dying a slow death Every day. When I pay for a meal in a fancy place,\u00a0 an… Continue reading Life for My Dying Conscience<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[206,40],"tags":[213,212,209,134,210,208,211],"class_list":["post-1775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-awareness","category-justice","tag-conscience","tag-dying-conscience","tag-hope","tag-jesus","tag-justice","tag-life","tag-mercy","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ourauthenticfamily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ourauthenticfamily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ourauthenticfamily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ourauthenticfamily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ourauthenticfamily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1775"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.ourauthenticfamily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1775\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2310,"href":"http:\/\/www.ourauthenticfamily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1775\/revisions\/2310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ourauthenticfamily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ourauthenticfamily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ourauthenticfamily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}