The Real Business

Ramlal was a successful businessman of Raipur. He dealt in spices and earned huge profits. He used to say that if everything went as per his wish, then soon his name would be among the top businessmen of his town. It was true also, because he had an amazing capacity of assessing the situation and taking correct decisions. His decision never went wrong. Apart from that, he always remained ready to take risk and that was one of the reasons of his success. Once he felt that he should stop doing business of spices for some time and buy food grains from the market. It was his characteristic that once he took a decision, he would never turn back, and he lifted all the food grains from the market and stashed them all in his storeroom. Seeing this, his opponents said that he had become crazy and made fun of him in public, but he did not mind them at all, rather kept on doing what he wanted. In some days, his store house was full of food grains. That time none of his fellow businessmen could understand why he was doing so, but very soon, they came to know of it when the weather suddenly took an unexpected turn and became dry and arid. There was no rain for months. All the water bodies like well, ponds and rivers got dry. They had to walk for miles in order to dig the river bed and get a few droughts of drinking water. The sky dried, the land and air dried, but one thing that did not dry was the hunger of the people, and along with it, did not dry their hope of life, but it required food and grains, without which no one could live.

So, tortured by the unpleasing ghost of hunger, the poor and the rich alike ran hither and thither in hope of getting a morsel of food and fell down and their soul left their dried, weak and fragile body and went up and saw from above that there was not rich, no poor …but all equal, all hungry and all wanted to live. But who would bring them food? There was no food anywhere, and they were falling like mosquitoes and after making convulsive movements left their body and rose higher and higher in search of a drop of water, but except dry dust particles and death nothing could they embrace. Then, suddenly the flood came. No, it was not of rain, but food. The large and strong doors were flung apart, and there was abundant of food grains. Ramlal…Ramlal was no more a businessman, but a human…a true human. No, not human, but higher than a human, a savior and God, who sacrificed his life’s earnings for saving the humanity. Today he is no more but every person of Raipur recalls him with respect. His name is taken proudly before all the businessmen of his time.