A Quest for Life!!
There as I sat mulling over my mundane existence, searching for answers about life, imagining how nice a place this big bad orb would be if there were no miseries or none of us people were selfish… my good friend sitting next to me in my shuttle back home tried to pep up my mood – “Stop thinking, keep yourself busy. See, you have so many options – u can sketch, try to find things that interest u”
“No Shru, I dono y, but I am just don’t have the zeal or enthu left to do anything” and I know there a thought would have crossed her head – “Radhika you are just impossible!!!!”
The incidents or happenings in mine and my friends’ life over the past few months though trivial looking at the bigger things of life left me a little depressed. The constant cajoling, persuading of my sis and a few friends made me definitely get out of it , but left me with numerous questions in mind!!
I got down the shuttle and walked slowly back home and asked my dad to accompany me for a walk in the green, probably the best anti-depressant when required.
(Sorry I know am talking like an 80-year old who’s faced the most horrendous happenings in life, here comes….)
As if to have read my mind, my dad narrated a real story of his friend(though dint give me the answers I was looking for, definitely made me feel stupid to have set out searching for them when I actually hadn’t seen life at all…!!!)
And now I narrate it to all u guys:
This is one story which brings out in us awe and respect towards a person, who lived with dignity and strength even at the worst phase of his life, who oozed positivity when life itself stepped on him.
Its also abt confidence, faith, true love and above all it’s a great lesson to learn from for ppl like me…
There was a gentle-man, a philanthropist from a middle-class family like most of us, who worked in a bank. He lived his life happy and good till life struck him at his ripe age, after his retirement. His wife met with an accident and passed away. Just not out of this, when he lost his daughter and grand-daughter in a plane crash.
Tragedy struck him the third time in the form of his son the brilliant IITian, the only family member left with him, attacked by a rare disease which only 1 in a million get. The disease rendered the son limbless to move around in a wheel-chair. Like father, like son, this didn’t bog the son down in any way. He went on to develop software which took him all over the world on business trips!
Then came the time that the son had to be married, and a frantic search followed. But not a single person came forward to get married to this guy. But as they say ‘every cloud has a silver-lining’ the black cloud looming over this family had one too. A really nice girl fell in love with the son and proposed to him for marriage setting an example for true love, which goes not by looks or circumstances, and is just plain pure love.
With his son’s life taking a good turn, this gentle-man indulged himself in helping the less-privileged people out of their miseries; to the extent that he sold the entire jewellery his wife left behind and donated it to a spastic society.
One thing that’s commendable is with all these incidents in his life, he never looked for sympathy, in fact he dint like if anyone sympathized with him. His answer would be, “no, I am fine… I am strong enough to face it”. Strong enough to face all this, I am dazed!!
And yes the good part of all this was, he realized who his true friends were, who stood by him through his pain, seeing him through it.With all this, when he had gone visiting another friend of his, the lady in the house served him some nice goodies and asked him if he wanted anything else. He named some special dish he wished to eat and lo!, the lady prepared it and sent it to his house immediately. Such small gestures are the one which touch anyone in life, simple pleasures that give you unbound happiness.
But thankfully a peaceful death awaited this man, who passed away in his sleep, without much pain. And my dad said his son’s words still lingers in his ears. He said “Thank god, he at least had a good death; otherwise he’s faced so much when he was alive.”
Huge number of people from different walks of life, a humble sweeper to an upmarket executive attended his funeral and wept on the loss.
As truly said, how successfully u lived your life will be measured by the number of people who weep on your death, he undoubtedly lived a brave, successful life and still lives on.
He lives on, to teach amateurs in life like me, who think they have lived and faced life enough to set searching its meaning.
With a refreshed mind and a renewed desire to live life fully and happy, I held on to my dad’s hand with a feeling, “I have the world’s best dad - why don’t I enjoy the good things that I have, rather than concentrating on things that I don’t have?”
“No Shru, I dono y, but I am just don’t have the zeal or enthu left to do anything” and I know there a thought would have crossed her head – “Radhika you are just impossible!!!!”
The incidents or happenings in mine and my friends’ life over the past few months though trivial looking at the bigger things of life left me a little depressed. The constant cajoling, persuading of my sis and a few friends made me definitely get out of it , but left me with numerous questions in mind!!
I got down the shuttle and walked slowly back home and asked my dad to accompany me for a walk in the green, probably the best anti-depressant when required.
(Sorry I know am talking like an 80-year old who’s faced the most horrendous happenings in life, here comes….)
As if to have read my mind, my dad narrated a real story of his friend(though dint give me the answers I was looking for, definitely made me feel stupid to have set out searching for them when I actually hadn’t seen life at all…!!!)
And now I narrate it to all u guys:
This is one story which brings out in us awe and respect towards a person, who lived with dignity and strength even at the worst phase of his life, who oozed positivity when life itself stepped on him.
Its also abt confidence, faith, true love and above all it’s a great lesson to learn from for ppl like me…
There was a gentle-man, a philanthropist from a middle-class family like most of us, who worked in a bank. He lived his life happy and good till life struck him at his ripe age, after his retirement. His wife met with an accident and passed away. Just not out of this, when he lost his daughter and grand-daughter in a plane crash.
Tragedy struck him the third time in the form of his son the brilliant IITian, the only family member left with him, attacked by a rare disease which only 1 in a million get. The disease rendered the son limbless to move around in a wheel-chair. Like father, like son, this didn’t bog the son down in any way. He went on to develop software which took him all over the world on business trips!
Then came the time that the son had to be married, and a frantic search followed. But not a single person came forward to get married to this guy. But as they say ‘every cloud has a silver-lining’ the black cloud looming over this family had one too. A really nice girl fell in love with the son and proposed to him for marriage setting an example for true love, which goes not by looks or circumstances, and is just plain pure love.
With his son’s life taking a good turn, this gentle-man indulged himself in helping the less-privileged people out of their miseries; to the extent that he sold the entire jewellery his wife left behind and donated it to a spastic society.
One thing that’s commendable is with all these incidents in his life, he never looked for sympathy, in fact he dint like if anyone sympathized with him. His answer would be, “no, I am fine… I am strong enough to face it”. Strong enough to face all this, I am dazed!!
And yes the good part of all this was, he realized who his true friends were, who stood by him through his pain, seeing him through it.With all this, when he had gone visiting another friend of his, the lady in the house served him some nice goodies and asked him if he wanted anything else. He named some special dish he wished to eat and lo!, the lady prepared it and sent it to his house immediately. Such small gestures are the one which touch anyone in life, simple pleasures that give you unbound happiness.
But thankfully a peaceful death awaited this man, who passed away in his sleep, without much pain. And my dad said his son’s words still lingers in his ears. He said “Thank god, he at least had a good death; otherwise he’s faced so much when he was alive.”
Huge number of people from different walks of life, a humble sweeper to an upmarket executive attended his funeral and wept on the loss.
As truly said, how successfully u lived your life will be measured by the number of people who weep on your death, he undoubtedly lived a brave, successful life and still lives on.
He lives on, to teach amateurs in life like me, who think they have lived and faced life enough to set searching its meaning.
With a refreshed mind and a renewed desire to live life fully and happy, I held on to my dad’s hand with a feeling, “I have the world’s best dad - why don’t I enjoy the good things that I have, rather than concentrating on things that I don’t have?”
Comments
why don’t I enjoy the good things that I have, rather than concentrating on things that I don’t have?”
very true....i follow the same....