I was feeling a bit low that evening after a some long hours of studying and after arguing with my parents for some trivial matter which got stretched too far . I looked down my window and felt more miserable watching my school batchmates play football and volleyball while I was in my room all by myself slogging it out and trying to act as if I was having fun studying these heavy medical books.
Dejected ,I sat down on an empty secluded bench in the garden cursing life .I thought to myself that I had really spoiled my childhood studying all day to top in my batch , not managing time to play , going through all the tough times and realities in life, seeing my parents struggle to establish a foundation, etc …In those 30 min, I had developed negativities in life cursing myself for not really enjoying my childhood and telling myself that I had a really tough and bad childhood .
The moment this thought came to my mind, I saw the shadow approaching towards me.
It was that of our area’s 16 year old breadwala…..a boy who had been giving bread ,pav, biscuits ,etc in all the buildings for the last 4 years. He was holding his heavy bags in both his hands ,each one of which would have really weighed around 12 kg each.
He came , put his bags down sat next to me and said these words,” bhaiya,aaj bahut tension mein lag rahe ho….kya baat hai ? Itnaa tension mat lo,tum sirf padhai karo aur tension iss chote bhai ke liye chod do….” These were his exact words which really changed my attitude towards life then…..that boy had just touched my heart deeply….here I was cursing my childhood which was by no means hard compared to what he was going through ,literally carrying life’s burden in his hands .I then thought about my dhobi , Pintu now 26 years who has been collecting clothes for ironing from my house for the last 16 years , my flowerwala , Manoj now 24 years who has been delivering flowers for prayers in my building for the last 14 years….what a childhood these three would have had yet coming daily to my house with a smile on their faces….
Those few words from that boy really changed the way I look at life now ,Im more positive and charged up to fight again in life for success ,stretch my hands for the stars and chase my dreams in life…….People are right…LIFE IS INDEED IS YOUR GREATEST TEACHER……
Abbe how many “building bacchas” have you molested in your life?
manoj, pintu, chintu, bantu, etc?