I have heard when I was young that my grandpa used to advise others, ‘when you are introduced and have to move with a new person, move with caution, thinking that he is a bad specimen. If he/she turns out to be a good one, it is your luck.’ I felt that the advice or statement was highly pessimistic, and no wonder, as my grandpa was a highly cynical man. 

But now, in retrospect, I think those who have crossed my long passage of life are bound to feel that what he said at that time is partly a bitter fact, though not fully. Unlike my grandpa, I always have trust in human beings. I also nurture the feeling that someone is good or bad because of circumstances and compulsions of life, as it is also a bitter fact. 

Nevertheless, today in the evening of life, after crossing and meeting a host of people, I too feel it is always wise to be on guard when you are introduced to a new person about whom you have no idea. 

I don’t want to talk about the ‘good old days’, notwithstanding my grandpa’s cynicism, there were ‘several’ good souls than ‘bad’, which is also not true. 

In the present-day life, social conditions are all driven by ambition, wealth, and its power, it is too hard to find a ‘genuine,’ I am not using the word ‘good’ person. It is not the individual’s fault; it is society that converted everyone into an individual with a  king size ego, and greed for wealth and power. 

Society and its values keep changing, which is natural and unavoidable. But, at the same time, India, a country which boasts of its great filial affection, morals, and values should try to infuse and make the importance of goodness, sincerity, and honesty among the public and on the new gen. 

But it is not done. Instead, every person is trained to behave like a motivated animal. Today, the value of one’s life is determined (even in those good old days also) by the wealth and power they wield. May be in those years that might had been minimal. Today, with the humongous population and nonstop publicity, they are open and visible. 

No wonder the results are dismal.