Its been a long time since I have posted something. Not that I have been keeping myself busy or anything. Don't mistake me and the nature of my job. Of late I have been whining about quite a few things -> my work, the strange thing with my stomach, so on and so forth. Just a few days back, a thing happened that just wanted me to put a stop to all this whining.
It was just another day, when i came back early from office at around 6'o clock. I kept the bike in the basement and was climbing the stairs up to the appartment when I noticed that our watchman's bags were packed.
We happen to be the 'Only' Bachelors in an appartment of families. So there we go, the odd one out. Once two of my roommates had a release and came late on a Friday night, the watchman looks at them for a minute or two, calls the appartment owner, who comes down, smiles and says "Friday Night Blues eh?? You bachelors..." Roommate looks at the owner for a minute and he struggles to find the right set of words, owner smirks and lets them inside.. So, all we have to do is pay the watchman 10 bucks every 3, 4 days for his Chai and Dhum and he will keep the door open for you forever.
Coming to where i left, our watchman's bags were packed. I happened to be one of the few people in our appartment knowing a little bit of hindi. He came out of his hut in the basement to arrange his bags. I asked him where he was going and the reply shook me to my core. If what I remember is right, he said 'mere bache ko kisi ne motal kar dhiya' .. I understand Hindi to an extent, but not to the extent of 'motal kar dhiya' .. I just said I dont get you and he came back with 'mere bache ko kisi ne maar dhiya'..(Somebody killed my sons) ..Then i Got it, i was lost for words.. And even worse was that he had to go by bus to his hometown and it will take some '4 days' to reach his place.. It was too much of a shock to me and I could not understand how someone can take this on the chin.. He did not even shed a tear.. Probably he was being a man now, but every minute in that bus journey will bring back memories of the past.. He was being what he is, a watchman, so far away from home, just to earn that extra 1000 and send it back home so that his kids don't starve..
This is when I probably realized that whatever I am whining about is just nothing when compared to what some people are going through right at this moment.. And I met a few other people who made my eyes water, The beggar who has probably had his eyes plucked without his knowledge and who has been made to beg on the trains.. A 90 year old lady whose spine is so bent she can't even stand for more than a few minutes, begging barefoot on a tar road..
There are a few lines that I recollect now.. This is from a Film Song in Tamil..
'Yaarukkillai Porattam, Kannil enna Neerottam'(Who isn't struggling here, why cry?)
'Tholvi indri Varalaara, Dhukkam enna en thozha' ..(With every failure, u get better, u will create history some day)
Every time we whine, we just have to probably think of the above two lines.. At this point I would like to quote one more line from another tamil song, which says,
'Unakkum keezhae ullavar kodi, Ninaithu paarthu nimmadhi naadu' (There is someone who is in a worse situation than what u are in right now, so don't lose it, don't lose hope)
If taken in the right sense, this will take you places.. Be happy with what you have, but dont be satisfied, always strive for more, but don't you whine about it..
