Know Your Worth

Sometimes life plays a cruel game by testing us in every way possible. Only few fights and others surrender. Becoming a prey to the situation is never a solution. This is what the lesson Ashiq learnt from his life. His birth as an illegitimate child marked him as an unwanted child by the society. After the death of his Mother, he stayed with his grandmother who brought up him with all love and care she could. Life during his childhood without parental care was never easy for him and being mocked by the society as an illegitimate child and as an orphan added fuel to the fire. Man! why can’t this society just grow up? The poor child couldn’t even understand the comments people passed on him. Life went on for the child with his grandmother with never ending questions in his mind yet peaceful. He didn’t know what was awaiting for him next. Life is full of turns and twists. Sometimes the turns aren’t positive which you don’t deserve to deal with.

One day after returning from school Ashiq went to his home and found that the door was locked he enquired his neighbours about his grandmother but “I don’t know” was the only answer he got from everyone. He searched her everywhere days became a month, months became a year he couldn’t find her. Some said that she was found dead near a lake, some said she ran away from the place due to heavy debts but all this remained as rumours. No one including him didn’t know what happened to her. No one other than him really bothered. Poverty and hunger made him work on streets. As days went on, he understood the meaning of all the comments passed on him. A thirteen years old child couldn’t digest all this. Of course, no one could. He felt disgusted about himself.

Poverty, constant mocks from the society made him run away from his home town. What else the poor soul could do? New city, new people gave him new relaxation. Even the polluted air which entered into his nostrils smelt fresh. With great enthusiasm he went in search of a job everywhere around the city. Days went on, but he didn’t get a job. All the money in his hand was spent. Not a penny is left anymore. He starved for two days. Next day when Ashiq was walking on streets, the blazing weather took away all his energy. He couldn’t take it anymore, so he stumbled and fell on the ground. A man standing in the opposite corner of the street came running and lifted him who merely looked like a corpse. The man bought a bottle of water and splashed cold water on to his face which made him faintly open his eyes. He took a glance around before coming back to his normal sense. Sensing the reason for his weakness, the man bought him food from the nearby hotel. Seeing him devouring the food like a hungry lion made the man chuckle a little. After having the food Ashiq thanked the man and explained about his desperate need for a job. The man told him that he would let him know if any. He got the visiting card from the man and left the place. He again went in search of a new job. Finally, he got a job as a waiter in a hotel. He stayed in a platform.

After some days Ashiq went to the man’s place with the help of the address in the visiting card. He went near the entrance and showed the watchman the visiting card the man gave him. The watchman took the boy inside the factory. He informed his boss about the boy. Ashiq sensed that the man who helped him is the owner of the factory. He took a look at the factory which was small and only a few people worked in it. When the watchman informed the man about the boy who was waiting to meet him, the man told the watchman that he couldn’t meet him. The watchman informed the boy that he can’t meet his boss since his boss was busy with some work. But Ashiq repeatedly pestered the watchman that he wanted to meet his boss. Irritated by his constant pleadings the watchman told him to wait near the gate until his boss completes his work. He waited near the gate for more than four hours. After clearing all the bending work the man came out of his room and saw the boy standing near the gate. He asked the watchman to bring him to his room. The boy entered the room and greeted the man. The man nodded to his greeting and told Ashiq that he still couldn’t find any proper job to give him. He thanked the man for his kindness towards him and stretched his hand holding a cover towards the man. The man was baffled and gave him a questioning look. Understanding it, he explained that he came to meet the man to give back the money that he spent for him a few months back. Astonished by his behaviour the man thought of helping him in some other way possible. So the man offered the boy a place to stay because he knew that the boy can’t afford it on his own. The boy accepted the offer with the condition of paying the rent for the place he is going to stay. The man was enthralled by his behaviour now. Impression lies in behaviour.

Years passed on. Ashiq became the trustworthy person whom the man believed. Due to heavy loss in business, the man sold all his assets and went somewhere outside the city meanwhile the boy started enjoying his life. He had enough money to serve himself now. He made few friends who are trustworthy. Now he has become a grown-up man. One fine day when he was going back to his home he dashed a girl who was feeding poor children. The girl lost her balance and fell down. All the food in her hand got scattered on the floor. The boy now felt guilty for his action. Unable to control the anger the girl started to scold the boy with harsh tone. The girl didn’t leave him even after when he apologised to her. Ashiq got anger after sometime and started fighting back. “Adithi people are watching” one of her friends said. Only after that they both sensed that all people were looking at them strangely. They gained back their old nature and left the place. A week passed away but the boy couldn’t forget the incident. Even amidst the situation he noted the way she adjusted her strand hair which fell oh face. “What the hell am I thinking about? “ He thought. But little did he knew that he had already fallen for her. A week passed away but he couldn’t keep her off from his mind. He opened up his feelings to his friends. No need to tell what next. Yes! They boosted his confidence to open up his feelings to her. So, he searched her everywhere and finally found her residence. Ashiq did all the tricks to gain her attention so that he could impress her and open up his feelings for her. Adithi knew all his intention but just gave him “I never mind” gesture. After removing all the awkward feelings from his mind Ashiq decided to propose her on that day. He waited for Adithi on the same street he used to wait for her daily. As usual she gave her appearance on the street. He stood in front of her. His adrenaline rushed up to the sixth gear and so was hers. Finally, he proposed her and gave her the letter in which he poured his heart out. Adithi suddenly pushed him and ran away. Ufff… Disappointed man! When he was about to turn, she came running back. He thought that she was about to slap him and tried to defend him from getting slapped but to his great astonishment she took away the letter with a smile and ran away. Wow! At last life has brought him a fairy tale. The meetings on streets, passing love through eyes, feeling each other presence became a regular routine for them now. When he tried to speak to her, she always ran away. “What is with this girl and her running away when I come near her?” he thought. But deep inside, he loved her every action. He took the relationship slowly and gave have space to open up. Finally, one fine day Adithi opened up. He felt like he had taken a new birth and had got a new meaning to his life. He promised himself to give her a better life. Days went on like minutes for him when she was with him. Strange isn’t?? A year flew away just like that.

One day Adithi told Ashiq that her parents were making arrangements to marry her off to someone. So he decided to speak to her parents. After gaining all the gut feeling he spoke to her parents about the feeling they have for each other. But their parents being typical Indian parents never accepted their feelings. He pleased her parents to get her married to him, and he promised to do anything to marry her. Adithi’s father made a condition to Ashiq that he had to settle himself well with a house and some money within six months and only after that he could think of accepting their relationship. The poor soul knew that it was impossible to become stardom overnight. He pleased her father to reconsider his demand. Her father was so stubborn that he would never reconsider it. Even the girl knew that it was impossible for him to do such things within the given time. But they decided to give it a try.

On that night the girl came to his place and gave him confidence that he will get a better job with a better salary if he goes and works in some cities outside the town. Even after that if he wasn’t able to fulfil her parent’s demands, they would think of convincing them in some other way. On the very night he packed all his clothes and started his journey hoping to bring betterment to their life. Her smile, her voice, that longing look in her eyes, the hope she had for him pushed him to make a move. He went to the city and found a job. Later he worked day and night in several places. He knew that it was impossible to earn all the money he wanted within the given night but always her voice as an echo drew him away from those thoughts whenever he was fed up. He worked there for months and one day he met his friend Veer on the way to his work and told him about his situation to him. Veer was utter shocked and never knew how to open up the news to him. Sensing his reaction Ashiq asked the reason behind his confused look. Veer told him that Adhiti’s parents took her to their native and she was married a month back. He felt that the whole world stopped for a second and his head started spinning. Now he couldn’t contain his emotions and started crying his heart out which was bottled up for years. His friend consoled him to stay calm. But he couldn’t. Her eyes filled with longing look flashed on his mind every second. The thinking about the torchers she would have undergone made him vulnerable. “What did I ever do to deserve this?” he asked the god but silences was the only answer he got. He got very angry and went to Adithi’s native and somehow found the address of their house. He directly went to Adithi’s father grabbing his collar Ashiq question him why did he forcefully married off Adithi to someone without her consent. Consent! Does that really matter for parents like them? Adithi’s father pushed him and said that it’s none of his business, and he is not bound to answer to someone who doesn’t even know to whom he was born. What more is needed to prick his heart? He went away from the place even without uttering a single word. For months he couldn’t get enough sleep, every single sound entering his ears questioned him to whom he was born.

A year later the owner of the factory returned to the town where he lived once and he thought of meeting Ashiq. Before asking a word he took a brief look at Ashiq. When the man saw him, the enthusiastic, ever charming young chap was fully gone. He waited for the boy to open up. All of the sudden Ashiq hugged the man and cried out loud. The man didn’t say anything and just patted his shoulder. For the first time Ashiq felt the warmth in his life. “Is this the way how it feels to be under someones care?” he thought. After his cry baby session, he told everything to the man and also said that he now desperately wanted to know and show the world who his father is. The man asked him why he wanted to show the world who his father is. Ashiq told the man that he no more wanted to be tagged as an illegitimate child. The man said to Ashiq that there is no use in showing proof to the society unnecessarily. Moreover the world doesn’t care about to whom u were born, why you were born matters the most. These words made sense to him. After a small conversation the man left the place bidding a bye. Now these words started echoing his mind and he started to find answer to his question.

Twenty years later, a hall was crowded with a lot of people, press people were active preparing questions. A man in his late forties appeared in the dice. The whole crowd stood up with respect. After a brief speech he started answering the questions asked by the press. A reporter stood up and questioned him “who are you?” The whole crowd went silent. He came in front and asked the crowd, “Who am I?”A part of crowd shouted, “The best Entrepreneur,” some shouted. “The best motivational speaker" and others shouted, “The best social worker.” He gave “did u get it?” look to the reporter. She again asked “who are you according to your opinion?” “I’m still searching it” he answered. After completing the session that female reporter went hurriedly to get an autograph from him. After signing it, he gave her a genuine smile. The girl looked at him and said “In my opinion you are a warrior.” At last the world got its answer he thought and walked away. The reporter looked at the signature and spelt ASHIQ.