How many times have you got upset over not getting something you've always wanted?How many times have you disregarded the life you're living asking for a better life perhaps,without even really looking deeply into each and everything which you do have in your life??Cried because you didn't get a PSP but got a PS3 in return??Thrown a tantrum if something is getting done in a way may be minutely different than your own??Wanted to ditch your well functioning hand-set for a much more socially-preferable Blackberry?? Cribbed for having to wake up early in the morning after signing up for an expensive academic course??Well,if you have in fact, got a chance to do any of these things you should consider yourself extremely lucky ! Because not everyone can afford the luxury of doing so......
This was something which always stayed as a recurring thought at the back of my head since the time i was in school.....Everyday on my way home i would pass a traffic signal where my school bus would have a good 5minute halt...Looking out of the window i always saw something that amazed me to such an extent that,it in fact, is making me write this post today!
Considering the poverty,unemployment in India, there are thousands of people who can't even afford a home-something we would regard as a basic necessity...let clothes,etc!Such people would tie up tents at the signal and live there.And each family having at least 2-3 little kids-unkempt,in clothes we would probably refrain from using as even rags!! With one biscuit in the hand and having it to share it with 2 other siblings! With unbearable heat scorching down their backs from the blazing afternoon sun..with broken glass pieces along the road,yet barefooted.....Kids of an age at which we probably wouldn't even picture staying away from our mom's even for a second, being taken care of by someone hardly a year or two older than them....Kids of an age where you might have learnt holding a pencil with something in their hand to sell to cars which stop at the signal.....and yet in spite of such severities,all of which cannot be imagined in one-whole picture,there is something about such people which make you feel despite of such a life, they might be happier people deep down than we are!!
In the span of 7 years that I spent at my school and the countless times that I might have stopped at that signal I have ALWAYS, each and every single time seen them with a smile on their faces. I don't remember seeing otherwise ...EVER!! And it always amazed me because the kids did not have fancy toys to play....unlike me,they played with twigs of trees,leaves...Things you would probably walk over while walking down the road....They didn't eat chocolates or all those things i would fight with my mom to give for lunch.....they ate left overs of what people gave them....and they shared it equally...what ever little they ate..Most of the kids played by themselves...and even though the times that I have seen the kids with their mom is very few, the sight of them hugging their mom has brought tears to my eyes...It's incredible that in spite of a MASSIVE difference of life-style between us and them somethings things in life don't change.....A mother who stays on the pavement would care for her children with the same love, the same compassion that someone who would stay in a bungalow, for that matter would.....Materialistic things DO change a lot in life....But somethings remain untouched and unadulterated irrespective of any factor!! Such things are the things in life which are truly important...things which are to stay...for a lifetime.....You might lose your money and be bankrupt but love and relations remain and knowing this, I now know that those people staying at the signal had a big enough reason to be smiling always!!
They had NOTHING compared to us....and yet we find it so difficult to let go of things and smile at least for the sake of what we will surely rely to have for a life time....A few materialistic additions and subtractions are not what make life ,LIFE....there's a lot more to that....and such things in life can be learnt by looking at people who despite of not having anything ,do have the most important thing you require to live a good life- Acceptance !! And every time i pass the Signal i get a reality check and wonder...is it that difficult to Smile??? So life is not perfect all around...but don't worsen it by forgetting to cherish those emotions and moments which we are internally made up of...emotions which make us human!!!
its a very beautiful thought, but then at some point i feel that it is they themselves who are to be blamed, they run from villages in search for money and jobs little realizing that its not gonna happen in the city!!
ReplyDeleteYep bt thats like saying they cnt dream big for themselves....and somewhere der r less opportunities fr such people to cm up in life too....I feel it's nt wrong on their part to explore but it's sad on the government's part tht a large section of people r deprived of a lot of things that others consider basic.
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