The Blind Right Turn

Screech!!!

I picked my blazer and bag and left my work area with heavy eyes and a light heart. As I took the stairs instead of the elevator I was recapitulating the day and planning the next day ahead and suddenly a thought struck me and I was stopped from moving ahead.

Where am I heading? I have no life, every day the wheel of monotony is just orbiting and twisting me along with it. I dropped my car keys and unconsciously walked down the street. As I walked across the crowded bunch of people moving hither and thither for something or the other I found myself one among them. I took a blind right turn which led me to a crowded metro, without even thinking I got into it and moved towards a dead end or a new beginning. As I sat down I found an old couple deeply in love enjoying each other’s company with leaps of laughter and many times just sitting and watching each other that brought a genuine smile on my face. I don’t know after how long I smiled and it was an old couple that brought it for me.  As I turned my face outside the tinted window, I could see a beggar relishing a piece of loaf sitting on the platform in rags, yet enjoying the contentment. That made me realize how discontent I am in life with a thick wallet, a big house, the most expensive car and no emotions to witness.

I got down in the next station and continued walking, a clearer path now. I reached out for the cigarette packet in my blazer pocket and pulled out a fag and started making rings in the air and again I was smiling, second time in many days. Wow!!! Something as small as this made me smile, I enjoyed watching those rings forming and again vanishing into the source. I started playing with the punk on the road. I was wondering whether I was actuallllyyyy doing it. But I continued doing it as it made me happy. I was pushed into a standstill when I reached a bend on the road where an old blind woman was selling toys and everyone just passed by her as if she was invisible; even I must have passed by her many times unnoticed and ignorant. I took a break and sat on the rough dingy roadside bench and kept looking at her intensely as she kept on marketing her product with no buyers and hardly any spectators. My heart melted and moved towards her, kept the bundle of money that I had in my wallet, thanked her and left the place with the basket full of toys. I was wondering what to do with the basket when I found a bunch of kids playing with stones on the road. I called them and gave the basket to the kids and the divine expression on their face cannot be compared with any success, failure, money, and not even any other emotion. It was certainly heavenly to have seen those beautiful smiles and the way they played and caressed the toys.

As I walked down towards my home, finally; I asked myself as to what is the use of my masters’ degree? What is the use of the salary that I draw, the car that I drive and all other luxuries that I indulge into, when I don’t get to feel the emotions of other people? When I look at myself now I feel that I could have done much more when I have done and contributed very little, to myself. I reached home and switched on the light, and I could see everything clearly…very clearly.

I walked through the untrodden and decided to walk on the least trodden to make the difference, first in me and then for the others. There is no use of a life gifted by God, if we don’t understand the other gifts of god…