The world is a comedy to those who think and a tragedy to those who feel.
As humans we are supposed to be intelligent creatures. We are supposed to analyze and ultimately understand our surroundings. If we truly can understand, then we will understand that today’s world is certainly not a bed of roses. In fact, today’s world is quite the opposite, a bed of thorns, if I may. However that’s not to say that all those who can think and understand are doomed. But they can’t instantly separate themselves from the pains of the world either. We don’t just think we feel as well. Man is a moral animal. We feel not just for our kin or those close to us, we feel for the suffering of people anywhere. As a result it is impossible for any of us to say boldly and with consummate conviction that “I don’t care for the pains of the world. The happenings of the world do not touch me.” If any of us can say so, then it is a symbol of selfishness, a symbol of escapism. Not of thought.
How many of us can look at all the people dying in the wars, at all the beggars and destitutes on the roads, at all the people working day and night for a scrap of food and just laugh out loud, thinking it to be nothing but a mere joke. For those who feel the world is indeed a tragedy, a great one, far more powerful and moving than anything Shakespeare could have ever written. But for those who think, the world is still a tragedy, maybe a lesser one, maybe one that can be improved, but a tragedy none the less. If we think we can change that tragedy and make things just a little bit better for those who are a part of it, if we feel, then we can only sympathize with and console those who suffer. But even then, our thoughts, our feelings are driven by the desire to help people. Great scientists and scholars, people to whom we owe many marvels of modern technology, did what they did to help man in some way or the other. If they felt the world was a joke, they would not have had any such desire. If we cannot dispute that such people thought and thought greater things than any of us here, then how can we say, that the world is a comedy for those who think? Respected chairperson judges and dear friends, I leave the question to you.