Gratitude Towards God

“Desire is the cause of all sufferings.”

The statement stated above is a noble truth as preached by the enlightened one: Lord Buddha. Desire and greed causes everyone to work and work eventually leading to sufferance. Yet greed remains to be the main evil. We cry at the smallest things. Three years ago I also cried for my parents did not give me a Mobile having a front camera aided with a flashlight. I had caused a chaos at home as all my friends possessed one while I being the sole exception. I recall very well that it was hardly a fortnight after my birthday when I was given one of the trending Laptop by my father as a gift. I did not resist demanding for a new mobile phone. I still remember what a tough time my parents were having convincing me. Yet there hardships did not melt my metal heart. Yes, at the age of 11 yrs I was stubborn. The degree of being stubborn was so high that I feel ashamed of it even today when I recall those memories. I realize today how rude I was to act like this. I have a strong feeling that your minds are still puzzled about how such changes came in me, of course the maturity level gradually increases by this increase is always stimulated by some incident which makes one realize it. Let me not intrigue your brains more further, allow me to furnish you with the facts of the incident.

   As stated above I wanted the latest edition which had a better front camera with additional flash light while the mobile was the only one with such a feature. To add to its complication the mobile was not available easily in India as well. Out of the 3 friends, 2 were twins and were gifted this mobile by their uncle who resided in Dubai while the other friend had ordered it on an e-shopping site. I hope that by this description you must have understood what an impossible demand I had done. As kids we never think about such practical aspects of our demands before presenting it. Yet our parents tactically deal with such weird demands. This talent of my parents is nothing new to me, but this time while showcasing their talent they taught me a very important lesson which inspired me to never give up in life. Of course right now I am expressing myself in form of array of letters; hence you all cannot see me not noting my physical traits. To exemplify honesty, I confess that fit but fat, yes as a result of lack of physical exercise. Hence my father laid down a condition on me; if I go with him on a trek then he would fulfill my desire. At that moment of my life, I was ready to do anything in order to be enriched by such a mobile that I wish to be with me always. I was wondering where would my Dad take me for a trek, he had informed me that the trek is in Mumbai itself and my mind was looking out for a mountain made by nature amongst the mountains of concrete and steel. The excitement to solve this mystery was still there in my mind, but my father refused to provide me with any clue. I tried to use the internet as an ally in finding the solution. Yet, I did not even one step closer concluding that my ally was useless. I never had the spirit of giving up and so I did not even think to surrender to the mystery and I kept doing attempts. Till last I was not able to decode the mystery and the day approached for the trek.

     My birthday comes in September end, eventually the trekking day was a month post my birthday. The onset winter just started and the morning mist increased the glow and beauty of the small movement less creatures of the nature. I felt that this day was just the accurate day for the trek. The temperature at lower altitude was basically normal estimating that the weather will be cool and not cold during the trek. I woke up earlier for my eyes never open before 9 am on a typical Sunday but that day I was sipping coffee at 6:45 in the morning. By the time when the smaller hand struck 7 and the longer one was at 5 numbers ahead of its junior and the sun had been just ready to shower its light. I was ready wearing a breathable material made T-shirt and a wonderful track pant aided with a dark navy blue overcoat matching my sky blue t-shirt and the black track. The tough terrain shoes finally were found to be in my legs along with those non matching anklets. (My shoes were brown and anklets were aqua green). With a really small back pack and a bottle of glucose added water wearing a pair of glares I left my home with my dad dreaming of my phone in my hand.

        The trekking place was not much far from my home as per what my Dad said yet he preferred to go to that place by our car. The place where we were going was kind of a stranger to me so I thought that this trek is unique. When my Dad parked the car, the parking was just below a huge tree and till far no one was to be spotted. There are many nature lovers and fitness freaks in Mumbai so I wondered how come no one came here for a trek on such a gorgeous morning. To this my Dad answered that “they love nature not humanity”. The answer got me confused yet I ignored it as I always love to admire such a morning sitting on a cozy sofa and sipping into a Latte munching on some cookies. Yet, for a mobile, I can have a day of exception from my normal routine. When we started the trek, all I could see was rocks and trees so I took no pains to admire the nature and all I did during the first 10 minutes was to dream about all the features of the phone and thinking about the pattern that must be there on the back cover. When suddenly something appeared….

  In front of me was a man, a teen more probably, not much taller than 5 ft and 8 inches having a equatorial inhabitant’s skin wearing a red t-shirt, pretty old one and a three- fourth pant which hardly covered his knees. I did not know why but the t-shirt looked somewhat familiar. To what I still do not know. He was gesturing to my father with respect, more appropriately saluting while my father waved back as if he was younger relative of my father. There were many thoughts that were running faster than a Cheetah n my mind which did not allow my senses to interrogate my father, our brain does that many times, doesn’t it? And we continued our trek. The climb was a steep one and caused me to give an extra effort. I f you recall I had mentioned that physically I was overweight. After approximately 18 minutes I was too tired, leading me to sit down on a rock which was pretty large. I drank almost one third of the glucose solution and I and my father gulped down on half an energy bar each. I was really tired but when I looked at my father, it looked as if he flied up effortlessly. I knew my father was fit but I realized that day that he was too fit. After this refreshing interval, we started and climbed for more than 17 minutes. The second half had me filled with enquiring about the pending length of the trek to my father. I completed my trek to see something completely different and unique, something which I never dreamt of to see on a hill top, something which was neither obvious nor apparent.

  I saw a typical hut made of bamboo, mud and straw, the dark brown color of the house and the yellow ochre hue of the shed was just like the hut that we used to draw in the Primary section in the Art period under the topic “Village Scenery”. Next to the hut was a frame of a bamboo, tied together just using ropes, enclosing a rectangular block. The lower half was covered with mud; apparently it was a hut under construction. There were many kids playing with a plastic bat and a ball, their clothes were shabby and their description was just a carbon copy of the teen that we met during the trek, the only difference, they were relatively much younger, smaller than me too. There were some elderly people as well all sitting together and talking. Some young men, whose legs were stained with mud, were sitting next to the incomplete hut sipping some fluid from a steel glass. There were some people spectating 2 young men painting some pictorials on the wall of the huts, the pictures were a bit weird yet unique mostly they were some god and Goddesses and other religious images. Suddenly some of the hut builders, probably the eldest of them roughly 23 yrs saw my Dad and stood up followed by each and every one of them and joined their hands and saluted my father. The approach makes one realize that my father knew them from before. I just looked at my father and he read all the facial gestures and answered “Son, these are tribal people living up here in the hills of our national Park. One day I just saw one of them these teens and I followed him up to see the settlement, where these people live for decades yet they are availed of no facilities that we get: no clean water, electricity or even education. That day I conversed with them and decided to fight for their rights.” My father is a lawyer and he had appealed in the Sessions Court for the same, since then they have been availed these facilities. Everyone in my house knew about this except me because my father wanted me to witness this visually, so that I know about the hardships in life. Another mystery was solved. When we were coming, my dad had taken a bulky back pack which is not advised for a trek. This bag was bulky as it contained various biscuit packs, although simple ones, but as my father gave each child a packet of biscuit, they had a wide smile on their face, which even a Billionaire may not be able to buy.

       I later realized that my Dad has been doing this since a year and that was a reason he did not celebrate his birthday but donated the entire celebrated amount for the construction of that hut which was a small school for the children living there and a toilet to build sanitary habits in them. That day I gave up my desire for that smart phone. I was inspired by them for they lead a really happy life although they have restrictions to luxury and on the other hand we are there who have everything to lead a happy life, sometimes even excess yet we cry for the smallest things in our life. These people thank the Almighty for all the blessings that he showers on them. They inspired me to thank God for all that he gave me and keeps on giving me. I hope that by reading this story even you will be inspired to thank God. From that day onwards I do celebrate my birthday in school but I have stopped celebrating my birthday at home. I also refrain from taking gifts from my relatives but urge them to donate for such a noble cause. Another lesson that I learned that day was that emotions are more important than materialistic pleasures, as apparent from this incident. From this inspiration I hope you resolve to donate too, maybe to an orphanage or an old house but do donate. Do not increase your greed and eventually your sufferance but give someone something that they need and smile along with them, eventually seeing the world smile.