Dear Agony Akka,
I come to you with an unnecessary moral dilemma imposed upon me by my uncooperative and godless neighbours. I live in a first-floor apartment and I have a very small veranda in which I can grow only a few plants. So, for my daily puja I get some flowers during my morning walk. Our neighbourhood houses have large gardens with flowering plants like jasmine, oleander, hibiscus. I regularly pluck a few. Now one interfering neighbour is saying, don’t pluck my flowers. I told him it was for puja purposes only, but he is calling it theft. How dare he call me a thief? Please tell me how to make such people understand basic courtesies?
— Raging Over Barbarism
Dear ROB,
This is a delicate and complex ethical question you have posed. Should we steal the neighbour’s flowers? I was initially thinking I should quickly read one or two books by Gandhi in order to look for answers because as you know the old man tied himself up into knots over everything ranging from beef to beer, light bulbs to latrines, khadi to coitus.
Then I realised that Gandhi is not needed because after all he lived very long ago, and I have much more experience in dealing with today’s citizen problems. In fact, only last month Mrs. Reddy from fourth floor apartment in next building block has come to me to complain about borrowing neighbour.
It seems her neighbour is always asking for one cup sugar, two potatoes, three onions, and whatnot, so Mrs. Reddy was asking what to do. I advised her to slip in one or two rotten potatoes or add some water to the milk because people who cannot be assured of high-quality items will quickly move on to other sources. That’s the kind of quick philosophical thinking I am always doing which no Gandhi/ Sartre can do.
And anyway, I myself am always picking flowers, only difference is I am picking them from roadside. When I lay my hands on the flowers, they are no longer actually perched on the neighbour’s tree but have fallen off on to the public road. So, I am thinking they are now public property. Just like Delhi High Court has said that even inside of personal car is public space like that I am using strong logic for my actions.
Can we say the same for you? It seems not. The flowers seem to be attached to your neighbour’s shrubs when you reach out for them. Even when said flower is attached to a branch that is leaning over boundary wall and swaying in public space, origins of branch are still firmly planted inside neighbour’s property. So how to justify?
I know, I know. You are saying, so what is the problem? After all, you are using flowers only for noble purpose like puja. Problem arises because you believe in means-justifies-ends argument, but neighbour is asking how come you are using stolen flowers for holy purpose? Of course, our scriptures are delightfully vague about many such moral issues, but there are always bloody-minded neighbours who don’t understand such things because they are not reading the scriptures.
Only last week, my top-work maid brought three-four hibiscus for my drawing room vase. You can imagine my horror when she told me she had plucked them from the neighbour’s garden. Why did you do that, I asked sternly. Because they are not using it, she said. This was a strong argument, but I was not swayed. Next time pluck only one flower, I told her. Like that, you must also find compromise solution.
— AA
agony.akka@gmail.com
