My Ganesha

I am a strong devotee of Lord Ganesha from childhood . May be its due to his cute and childish appearance or calm and cool posture, I have always a little more affection towards him. Whenever I close my eyes to pray , automatically his image comes to my mind .Hence I always keep a small photo of Ganesha in my wallet and a small idol in my bag pack .

It was the time of October in year 2015. After completing engineering I was placed in Infosys and posted at Mysore, Karnataka. For the first time in my life I was about to travel so far from home. My parents were busy in packing my bags from a week before and so I. Almost everything I had bought a new pair except my bag pack. As it was okay and carry able, I had thought of having a new one later . I think my Dad was not convinced as they say "A father always remains a father no matter how much we grow". On the day I was about to leave for Mysore, I had almost completed packing.In the evening my father came with a new bag pack and asked me to shift everything from the old one. I was happy and also in a hurry. I shifted everything except my Ganesha. He was there in a small pocket and unknowingly I missed him.

We left from home at right time and we're waiting for the train . The train had been announced and was about to reach the platform . Suddenly I realised I have forgotten my Ganesha in the old bag pack. I told the same to my father , but by that time train had already reached the platform and it was impossible to run back home and bring him.

My anxiety of joining my first job and shifting to a new city, suddenly turned into regrets and worrisome. For the first time I started missing my Ganesha and that bag pack and I was helpless .

It takes around 40 hours to reach Bangalore from my hometown. That night passed . The next day also this things kept running in my mind. My father tried a lot to divert my mind by discussing a lot of things as we were travelling and a train journey is always eventful. But deep inside my mind I was regretful and depressed. We reached Bangalore the next day evening. We had to catch a train for Mysore that night at 1 AM. After having dinner we were waiting in the platform . As it was the month of October and early winter time , the platform was almost empty at that hour of the night. Suddenly we noticed someone collecting something from the dustbin and wrapping them in a piece of paper . At first we couldn't understand ,but what we see after noticing him for a 10 long minutes, we couldn't believe our eyes . He was collecting the leftover food items from the litters and was about to have them as dinner . My Dad stood up and walked towards him. He offered him some food we had and some money . The person looked grateful and accepted them and started talking with my father . He was speaking in kannad and pointed towards a bunch of key rings kept beside him . So what we understood is he sells them in the platform to make his earnings and it was not sufficient to feed his stomach. Suddenly our train reached the platform and with much grief and sorrow , we had to say him a Goodbye. The train reached the platform and my father started lifting our luggage . Suddenly I ran back to that person and shouted , "Bhaiya, Aapke paas Ganesha ji ka key ring hai kya? (Do you have key rings of Ganesha?)" He was busy in feeding his empty stomach and pointed me towards his bunch to search for one. As the train had already started honking, I was desperately searching for Ganesha inside those Barbies, dolls and love shaped key rings, but didn't find one. I heard my father constantly calling me as the train was about to leave the station and finally I gave up. I stood up and was about to leave, suddenly a small ring dropped from the bunch. And yes, that was my Ganesha . I couldn't believe my eyes.

My father was already inside the train and I had no Money with me as I was travelling with him . I shouted him for some money and by that time train has already started rolling. That person could understand the scene and showed me a note that my father had already given him with the food and asked me to run. I was helpless and only with a grateful gesture I started running towards the train leaving him behind.

That night I was in shock. What happened in that 15 mins , I couldn't believe. I was happy getting my Ganesha back and at the same time I was grateful towards that person. From that day I have a strong believe that miracles do happen. That key ring seller, that empty platform and all those scene will remain in my memory forever.