Day 3: Justice or Revenge?

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We all believe in justice. It is the foundation of a civilized world—the idea that right will prevail and wrong will be punished. But sometimes, justice takes too long. And sometimes, the lines between justice and revenge blur until they become indistinguishable.

Years ago, I knew a man—kind, hardworking, the sort of person who never raised his voice, even when wronged. He built a small business from nothing, spending decades nurturing it with honesty and perseverance. But the world is not always kind to good people. A powerful competitor, backed by influence and money, saw him as an obstacle. Through deception and corruption, they ruined him—stole his clients, tarnished his reputation, even manipulated the legal system against him.

And so, he lost everything.

At first, he tried to fight within the system. He believed that truth would eventually win. But truth, it seemed, was not enough. Every door he knocked on was already closed. Every plea fell on deaf ears. Justice remained an unfulfilled promise, while the one who wronged him thrived.

Then something changed. The quiet, kind man became someone else. He no longer spoke of fairness—only retribution. He waited, watched, gathered information. Slowly, methodically, he struck back. He didn’t break the law, but he found ways to make his enemy suffer—exposing hidden fraud, whispering secrets to the right ears, using the same manipulations that had once destroyed him.

The competitor eventually fell, not by law but by carefully placed ruin. My friend regained his lost reputation, but I noticed something in his eyes—an emptiness, a weariness. He had won, but had he?

Was this justice, or was it simply revenge?

And is there a difference?

If the system fails, do we have the right to take matters into our own hands? Or does fighting wrong with wrong make us no different from those we stand against?

Rajat Chandra Sarmah

Guwahati , Assam , India

09/02/2025