At times, some everyday calamities around the globe evoke in me thoughts of great guilt about what I had been doing over the years, and this article is my way of atoning for it.

Over the years, many horrific incidents and heartbreaking tragedies worldwide have flitted across my eyes. I may have uttered a not-very-genuine 'sympathetic' remark on the occasion, and the next minute, I went back to my sheltered cocoon that most of us consider life.

Many of us, youngsters, today have shut out the black in the world to keep our lives stain-free. We crouch behind the translucent wall of money, stable families and even good luck that blurs the rough edges of suffering in the deep corners of society. Life is too short, why waste time worrying about problems that are so not ours? This is our mantra for our carefree attitude. Even if we notice that our countries are stuck in these unfair social ruts, we choose to dismiss them with a careless flick of our hands, and go back to watching our favorite happy-go-lucky teenage flicks, where the biggest problem seems to be a way to make your crush speak to you. If that is not lame, I do not know what is!

We can never know, nor choose to know, how bad it is not to have a roof over our heads or a morsel to eat, until it happens to someone close to us, or more frighteningly, to us! Only then does it dawn on us that such problems do exist. The case now seems to be, every man for himself. Even if the media does try to raise awareness about critical issues like child labor, honor killings, rapes or terrorism, we watch it, listen to it, or read it to pass our spare time, never giving a serious thought to the harsh truth behind it. The purpose behind the media exposure goes down the drain.

If we started looking at life the way we intently watch reality television shows, this world would be a better place. Just because we have curtained off suffering around us, doesn't mean it doesn't exist. How long are we going to run away from problems just because we are too self-absorbed to pay heed to them? For most well-off people, the world seems to have turned into an amusement park. They bring the luxuries of life into their homes and barricade out the plethora of sensitive issues.

I may sound preachy, and maybe I do not always practice what I preach, but this is a wake-up call. I am not even asking you to be sensitive to the problems or take a stand on them. I am only asking you to truthfully consider them. Is this too much to ask for? Give it a thought.