Memorable view.

I don’t believe this. I never wanted this to happen. I mean, it was destined to be like this but, I never really thought…. so early!! All of a sudden, you know! It was quite unexpected in my part to believe what I just witnessed! Well, let me describe this in details.

In my class, I always like to sit in the first bench, for the convenience that it offers - one rarely gets disturbed there and it's easy to dexterously avoid small talk during lectures. So, I always used to sit there, even during "adverse"  situations such as class exams or boring lectures. However, a few days before my end semester exams (inter-semester vacations are on as I write this), a bunch of girls would "reserve" the entire first bench, for reasons best known to them. I had to change my seat to the second bench, by the window side. Well, initially it was a little inconvenient, until one day.....

That day, one of our lecturers ended the session early, 10 minutes early. So, we had almost 15 minutes free time (10 minutes+ 5 minutes for the next class to start). Almost everybody moved out of the classroom, but I remained seated and looked casually out of the window. And… what did I see? A lush green paddy field, splendidly beautiful, just amazing. It's beauty left me spellbound, really! I mean, it was simply fantabulous. That 15 minutes passed like a jiffy, completely lost in those greens. From then onward, whenever I had time, I just looked outside and got enthralled. I would contemplate the different colors of the paddy field whenever it rippled with the wind unleashing its different moods, as if it is uttering a hundred words to the breeze and murmuring rhymes onto the zephyr, prancing and dancing with joy sometimes, and sometimes……sometimes, with utter grief, unable to withstand the zephyr’s soothing melody. And, I slowly realized that now I don’t want to leave this seat in the second bench. I have started loving the place by the window, yeah I mean,I really did. I started doing my most favorite activity there, my favorite activity, writing! I carried my notepad to the classroom and whenever I could manage some time, be it 5 minutes or 10 minutes, I would write, inspired by the kaleidoscopic view  that the "outside the window" world portrayed. I wrote numbers of poems and articles and all of them had the trance of the fields. Sometimes, I just glanced outside and enjoyed whatever the fields tried to convey. I liked to do that many a times, just observing them. I was so lost in that reverie that I did not even realize that that vista had formed a certain sort a bond with me. It was November when…..

That day when I looked outside, I just couldn't believe my eyes! I mean, I couldn’t fathom anything. What has happened? Our lecture started and I couldn't properly discern the actual thing. As soon as the lecture ended, I looked outside again and I expected some magic to happen this time. Perhaps, whatever I saw earlier was just a hallucination or just a bad dream or whatever. I just wanted to see something pleasant. I looked outside and I realized, whatever I saw was no hallucination, no bad dream, but the bitter truth. Half of the field was cut and the paddy, so yellow, so pale, lay there. Perhaps, they also never wanted it. The wind blew but they lay still. The half of the field that survived the harvest, were also still and seemed so crestfallen that they too didn't respond to the zephyr. The zephyr tried hard to cheer them up but couldn’t. I couldn't believe how all of a sudden everything changed. Every time I looked, I just hoped that everything was fine, but it was not. That day, seemed like a day of disgrace. The next day, I again looked outside only to see that the whole field was destructed, looted upon. The lush paddy, that stood yesterday, was not there. Everything seemed so empty, so void. The breeze rustled but there was nobody to play with it, nobody to dance to its rhyme. The breeze, too, seemed doleful. The sun that blessed them seemed so harsh now, so dull, so gloomy. And, everything ended. I stopped looking outside and now, I don’t like that seat anymore, but I hope life again blooms there soon. Everything went on like they used to be earlier. Everything, but the paddy field.
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Heading Backwards

That day left me with a big question. Yes, I could perhaps never forget that day. In reality, in everybody’s life, many incidents occur which turn out to be the milestones and compels to think over the matter and this changes the way of thinking, in some cases. And to say it aloud, many such incidents have also materialized in my life. But that day something unexpected happened,…something that changed my thoughts and the way I perceived things. I actually never thought that I would take the thing into account and would actually think over it.

Well, that was a Friday. So, that Friday morning, I went to a nearby temple. I went walking. In my way to the temple, I was deeply immersed in my thoughts and was completely in ‘My World’…..my world of strange imaginations, absurd experimentation, weird thoughts, thoughts out of the world,…blah blah blah…..well nobody understands that. So, when I was in a Minerva of my out of the world thoughts, I was disturbed by something. I looked behind and it was a small girl who was asking for alms. She didn’t seem a beggar (I may be pardoned if I am being offensive), I mean she looked good, neatly dressed. I got irritated by her way of asking for alms. She kept on pleading. I strictly denied and shoo-ed her away by telling that I don’t have any change. “Oh God! These little brats…I tell you! They are so irritating. Why are they like this? Whatever!” I didn’t want to go off-mood. So, I ignored everything and went to the temple.

I prayed, did my puja and sat for sometimes in the temple steps. Sitting in the temple steps after offering prayers is considered to be auspicious. Again I harked myself into my world... continuing from where I left…..before the puja. Everything was so serene around there…so calm….just perfect for my thoughts. And I was enjoying all that was happening….I just didn’t want to come out of it. But I had to. I heard someone crying. Perhaps it was a small kid. As I hovered my eyes around the place, I saw a small boy who was sitting by the road side tree and crying very pitifully….as if he has seen a dreadful dream about some ghostly world or may be some kind of demon or something. I also noticed that every person present over there was looking at the boy who disturbed the tranquility of the area by his loud cries. It then became an issue. I mean, discussions started about the boy…. “Oh! Why is he crying so loud?”, “Why is he sitting by the road?”, “Where’s his mother?”,”How could she be so irresponsible?”, “When is he going to stop the nuisance?”, “Why don’t someone just go and stop him or console him?” …were some of the questions that were asked abruptly and meaninglessly. Some ‘kind-hearted’ persons over there said, “perhaps the kid is hungry”, “He is a cute kid. Oh why is he crying?”

The child was still crying. It has been two-three minutes now. The discussion has almost stopped. Perhaps the people over there had attuned themselves to the ‘noise’. Everybody now seemed indifferent. I was still looking at the boy and I don’t know what I was thinking. I was just looking at the boy. A sudden feat urged me to go and console the boy and ask him about his parents and all. But I didn’t. I was perhaps too lazy to care for my urge. I then thought, “if ever I go there and ask him, will he be able to answer me. C’mon he is so small. He is perhaps only two or three”. So, I stopped myself. Then, I saw somebody who was holding the boy in lap. Oh, she is the same girl who was asking me for alms. Why is she near that boy? She was feeding the boy with something that she had perhaps fetched from the nearby food stall. My urge now forced me to go there and ask the girl about the boy. I mean how does she know the boy? Is she related to him? So, finally I went to the girl and asked her,“Who is he?”

She replied, seeming very busy, “My brother”.

“What are both of you doing here?” “Where’s your mother?”

I asked her some more questions and from her answers what I deciphered: They used to live in a nearby village with their family; a joint family with parents, uncle-aunt and two cousins. All was well until the day when they had a major fight in their family; the kids don’t know why. After few days, their parents died because of a fire fury in their village with many other people. As they didn’t want to breed on somebody else's mercy, they both came here and now the girl is trying to earn a livelihood for herself and her brother.

I couldn’t understand what to do, how to reply. I took a glance at my watch and realized that I was getting late. So, abruptly I gave her the ‘Prasad’ and a ten rupee note and hurried away from there. Was I supposed to do that? I couldn’t understand what was I supposed to do then. I was void at that moment, perhaps. I mean, what I did? Was the ten rupee note enough? I mean no, not the money. Even if I would have given them a hundred rupee note or something, was it still enough. Was that the only thing I could have done? Something….something was needed on my side, something that should have been done to ‘actually rehabilitate’ them. But what is that something? Does there exist a proper answer to this question? Is there nothing that could have been done? If anybody adopts them….c’mon who would have done that? The people in the temple seemed such apathetic jerks. I myself was one of them. However, I would request anybody, reading this, to answer ourselves one question –“where are we actually heading?” This is 21st century and in this ultra fast era of super technologies, we are technologically moving forward, at a very fast pace. But at the same time, coming to our very own source of existence (source of we being ‘HUMANS’), are we actually heading forward or else…… Just think We don’t just care about anybody in the earth other than ourselves… oh not also our own selves…. We don’t care about our own selves, forget others. Great!!! We are turning into heartless demons or should I say ‘very intelligent HUMANOIDS’. You don’t want to be one….Right? 

JUST GIVE IT A THOUGHT.

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‘I Am A Servant’

“I believe that God has planted in every heart the desire to live in freedom… We need to use power to help people-for we are given power not to advance our own purposes, nor to make a great show in the world, nor a name. There is but one just use of power and it is to serve people.”

-George W Bush

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