Strength

I was awakened by the ring of my cell. another reason i hate cell phones. The call was from home. i spoke for few minutes and disconnected and gave a glance accross the room. All the immortals had succumbed to the intimidating morning lazy breeze. Looking at them i wondered for how in the day will they be able to maintain such calmness on their usually grin faces. Some had to take their GF's for shopping and some had to prepare for their exams.

I searched for my small white and red life box (wills packet) took out a stick and ambled towards the door. There were few dew drops on the chair which i ignored (remember lazy breeze). I lighted my stick and then something caught my attention below the balcony. There was a old woman alighting from the auto with all sorts of leaves and vegetables (i am a pure non vegetarian so don’t know what those leaves are called).

Though i had seen her in action selling them numerous times, this was the first time i was observing her. She saw me and gave a smile. I took a long deep puff and smiled back. It always feels great to see smiles around in the morning. For another few minutes i puffed on with my stick while she was artistically placing all those leaves and vegetables.

Finishing my stick i turned towards main door but on the open space behind the tree there were so many leaves and vegetables thrown, left there prvious night. Then suddenly i realized that this woman hardly sells half of the stock she gets in the morning and usually throws the leftovers. I was wondering what makes that woman spend so much on them and invest when she has been suffering losses since two months. Immersed in these thoughts i did not notice my PG manager coming towards me with a cup of Tea in hand.

"She is wasting lots of money. if she cant sell them then why waste time. why cant she just stay home and look after her grand children." i casually remarked to the PG Damager ( yes for me he is damager. that’s another story). His reply put me in a state between amusement and disbelief.

This woman had lost her husband long back. She has 3 children and all well settled thanks to those leavegs (Leaves and Vegetables). There was a time she could hardly manage a meal in a day. But she somehow made a decision she would sell leavegs and borrowing 100Rs from a gentleman started her business. There was always some kind of rawness in her. You could feel that in the way she did business with her clients. these Levages enabled her ( or shall i say empowered ) to give it back on life. Today her eldest son owns a hotel in magadi , Second son has a factory, third one is into poultry business. all these was because the woman had enough strength and guts to take on life and its challenges. She can still stay home and lead a relaxed life but then she hates to do that. Its not the question of loss or profit for this lady. Its her way of staying close to her achievements and being proud. It’s her way of laughing at life. It reminds her of her inner strength.

I was looking at her with respect and adoration filled eyes. "Samy ivathu carrot illa. Nale baruthe." She informed me. She had always given me carrots for free and I used feel elated that she gave me enough respect ( and didn’t charge me at all ) . Now I felt I didn’t deserve that, at least not from her. She had 100 times more strength than me. She deserved lot of respect. She deserved happiness. She deserved her share of Pride. Because she had managed to come out of life’s test triumphant. She deserved it all.

I went back and could not sleep for a while. Something had changed my attitude. while i was immersed in these thoughts i got a call again from home. Life continues.

Strange. Life is different and each person in this world is fighting his own battle. If only we spare few minutes and look at others we may know what it takes to win this war. I had read somewhere “God knows your strengths so he gives u troubles u can conquer". So is troubeless and tension less life worth??? That’s a question for another day. Time for another stick.