Lessons learnt

“Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” George Bernard Shaw

He trailed behind me as I entered the gate, into the campus, up the stairs.  Hastily, I rushed into the library. He paused at the doorway, and moved into the corridor, I peeped to watch him quiver along the stairs which led to the other sections in the Arts building of Pune University. He seemed young, perhaps he was in his twenties but lacked the ability to  coordinate his body movements. I returned the library books and came back only to find him outside the building in the dried woods where the cars are parked. I ran and got into the car and looked at him fearfully, but he did not see me,  he rushed back into the building again with the same look on his face, searching for what he had forgotten. His body pulled him apart and hurled him to another place in spite of his organised thoughts. Perhaps he was challenging life for the demands which had left him without the most basic essential in life, coordination of  movements.

She looked into the tank lovingly and told me there were four little turtles. I could see only one in it. There was a small water spout through which water trickled into a hollow place in the tank. She told me there was a shy turtle in the hollow place. When the water level rose I could see a very tiny turtle. I looked at her. She was constantly gazing at the turtle, there was a serenity as she spoke softly with immense love for the animal. I looked around the sprawling space filled with greenery, impeccably kept with a variety of plants. She told me that her in laws too had loved the place and would walk barefooted on the large lawn area. I felt they were blessed to have this tranquil place. I asked her whether leaving the place would  pain her. She smiled and said bravely that they had lived and enjoyed the beauty for two whole years and that being a part of the Indian Army had taught her the art of relinquishing with ease. This was Brig.  S P Goswami’s house at Pune. The soft spoken person was his wife, Mrs. Rashmi Goswami, whom I was meeting for the first time personally and since they were leaving Pune it was the last time. Brig Goswami had been the Chairman of the school where I had worked, we shared the same ideals and principles in the field of Education. I wanted to meet him once before they left for Delhi, he invited me home.  I dreaded visiting him at home assuming it  would be a very formal one but since I wanted to meet him, I went at the planned time, surprisingly it turned out to be a very unceremonious and pleasurable visit. While returning back I exclaimed about the well kept garden when they took us around. Me and my husband admired their modesty and  above all an example of credibility through words and deeds for people, the ones who had worked with them and those like me who no longer worked for them.They viewed their troubles as blessings determining their disposition through experiences discovering the richness of their internal strength.

It was early in the morning, the men in the shacks and shanties were rolling  the aluminium sheets and getting ready to leave the place. They tugged the sheets and rolled it, packed their suitcases and bags with their sparse belongings. They had lived here for more than a year building five building blocks with seven storeys each, and now the work was more or less complete. The builder was transporting them to a new place to begin building a new complex. They seemed happy while leaving the place and their half built homes. The new residents of the complex did not miss them nor acknowledged their role in building their homes while they remained homeless. Giving up for these uneducated daily wage labourers was  as easy as a saint though they were  spiritually neglectful.

These few incidents taught me numerous lessons to lead a bountiful life. The young lad with a lack of coordination of body movements taught me to lead a life with calculated risks rather than letting life move away in regret and misery. It taught me to experience pain and relish  joy.

My visit to Brig S P Goswami’s house taught me a lesson of letting go things effortlessness for life is incredible and bounteous when you believe things for what they are and appreciate its true meaning in God’s ways

The ease of letting go things as daily wage labourers taught me to recognise a change as an opportunity, leading a rewarded and actualised life, rather than a defeat while detaching  oneself from outcomes.

-Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will. 
Mahtma Gandhi