Watching torture scenes of the prisoners, thinking of the hunger deaths at many places of the world, looking at some merciless act around one's own neighborhood and sometimes recollecting the pain we ourselves get from our friends and our enemies -the thought that life can be very cruel comes to mind.

Recently a story appeared in Indian newspapers about an old man who came back from jail after 44 years. He was arrested in 1961 for a petty fight with a neighbor and was sent for trial. Before the trial could begin, he was found mentally imbalanced and sent to asylum. He stayed in the asylum till if I remember correctly, 1998 after which he was sent back to jail for trial. But all papers relating to his case were lost/misplaced by then. Somehow the news filtered out and judiciary was approached about this man's plight. This man was released recently.

I saw the photograph in the newspapers. It looked as if he was staring at nothing, or was lost in his own pain or something else. But nothing looked natural or happy. It was a photograph of a life lost. His family had taken him for dead since long, his wife had remarried his brother and life had carried on for them in struggle. What does this man do now? Who does he come back to? His wife of years ago is no more his wife. The long 44 years have battered him beyond recognition. What will he look forward to?

Pain changes a person beyond belief. The battering that one gets from life makes one lose faith in fairness of life. Some unfortunate people undergo so much pain that they no longer remain human beings. They turn in to some unknown specie that knows how to take pain, that accepts pain, that bears pain, that expects nothing good and that carries on from day to day like a dead person. They carry so much pain and memories of that pain that no amount of compassion can bring them back to the saner world. They have lost their faith in the world and don't want to return to that world again to receive more shocks of pain. They are more pained by the memories of the pain and they fear the thought of getting more pain than the pain itself. Life can be very cruel sometimes with some people.