Life is the best teacher. It teaches us the most profound lessons in the most unusual circumstances and in the simplest ways. When some things are easily at our disposal, we often tend to overlook their significance and it takes no less than a rude reality check to make us wake up to the gratitude we must feel for what we’ve been blessed with.
I, for one, got a taste of one such thing recently. A Jr’s school reopened this week after a long and seemingly never-ending summer vacation. On his first day the rain Gods seemed like they had gone into hiding in fear of the stubborn sun who had taken it upon himself to burn us all down, sooner than later.
While A Jr looked decent in his cap, I and Angel cutely resembled gun-wielding terrorists in our goggled, face-covered and scarved look. No one else does that, I wonder why I do it! Anyway, not knowing where his new class would be, I unknowingly parked my scooter at the far-end school gate and we had to walk down in the sun to the other side.
While dropping him off, the rush of making sure he gets in on time, running into known faces and basically dodging the justifiably confused crowd, I didn’t even realise the heat and briefly, paid no attention to Angel who was resting silently on my shoulder. However, while coming back, the hot air hit us in the face and made me run for cover, pronto.
Angel clung on to me tightly, meekly mumbling, ‘Ma, ta ta lag raha hai’ (Mom, I’m feeling hot.) and refused to look up. I remorsefully wrapped her safely in my scarf such that she wasn’t even slightly exposed to the sun and literally ran to my scooter, which was thankfully parked in the shade.
As I was putting her down, my gaze went to a beggar woman sitting in the shade of a tree on the other side of the road with a baby sleeping in her lap. The heat didn’t seem to bother her, nor was she trying to shield her baby from it like I was. As she robotically aired it with the corner of her dirty ragged sari, she seemed to be present somewhere else. Nothing of her surroundings mattered to her.
I don’t know why, but this scene hit me very badly. I quietly came back home after that but just couldn’t get it off my mind all day. When A got home that evening I narrated this whole incident to him and involuntarily burst into tears while doing it. I had a home and air-conditioner to come back to. I had means to make life comfortable for my kids. Had I ever felt any gratitude for it? No! 🙁 🙁
Can we imagine how people who live on the streets or even who are financially less-fortunate go about their lives? Have we ever thought what such parents go through when their kids want something and they don’t have the means to provide it? Parental love doesn’t belong to any economic stratum, does it? Shouldn’t we take a moment to thank God for showering us with his choicest blessings?
A hard hitting fact Varsha. We take so many blessings in our life for granted. It is only in the absence of them or when we encounter a scene like you did it makes us realise that we fret about such trivial things in life!
How true. Here I was, arguing about which car to buy and that woman had no roof over her head and nowhere to go. I cried and cried after remembering it. Even A didn’t stop me. He just said, “This is life. What can we do? Feel blessed.” 🙁
Gratitude is an attitude we should all inculcate !! Have a blessed day dear ????
Right, I agree. Have a blessed day you too, dear. ????????
Totally agree wholeheartedly with your words of Truth, Varsh and yes we have to be so thankful for everything that has been given to us and there are millions who are worse than us. Great words.
Thank you so much, Kamal. I saw so many people keep gratitude journals and all and thought it was highly overrated. Now, I know it isn’t. Everything we have in life has come to us by the grace of God whereas many many others aren’t as lucky as us.
Yes absolutely Varsh and we need to be at every step grateful. Welcome, have a great day.
My dad use to always say don’t ever forget those who don’t have as much as you.
We take so so much for granted and yet there are so many who can only dream of what we take for granted.
We need to be thankful to the almighty for blessing us with all we have .
Take care and be the way you are always ..you are a good human being.. god bless…
Perfect words, Bikram. Being thankful is most important. We can never imagine the plight of the underprivileged ones.
You are kind, Bikram, and from what I know about you, a very emotional and grounded person yourself. Be like that, always.
We all fail to realize what we have. Our lives of luxury are ones that we take for granted. We will never be able to understand the plight of the economically backwards section. How true it is, gratitude is something we should cling to more often rather than complaining over petty daily things.
Varsha.. whatever we say, we are always self centric…. maybe that’s how it is ..
We are hurt seeing them, but .,then what…something I often ask myself…
I know. Then what is a big question. We can only be thankful for what we have and pray that we never have to trade places with them.
I show and remind A Jr this, lot of times. Shelter, food, education and most of all loved ones to look after you is a luxury not all kids have. 🙁
Yup… it’s a good reminder not only for kids but for ourselves too
True.
Gratitude for all that we take for granted is one we tend to easily forget as we go on a complaining spree about everything that we do not and will not have. Thank you for the reminder, Varsha. I can imagine the pain you felt on seeing that helpless woman and her little child.
I couldn’t even find the right words for it, Perfy. Just said what I could. If I wrote this down on paper, my tears that day could somehow turn the whole thing into a flaky shapeless lump even before I finished. 🙁
I only learnt one thing: Count your blessings and take nothing for granted.
????????amen to that, V
If you know these beggar women are mostly on drugs and carry a child to get sympathy only. This is their occupation and a mafia. A responsible mother would rather clean dishes or houses to earn money and not take her kid to open roads
It’s experiences like these that make us realize that how we take our blessings for granted and how much we have to be grateful for. This post reminded me of an old saying, ‘I was complaining that I had no shoes till I met a man who had no feet.’
That’s really nice post, we all should be grateful for what we have then complaining for what we don’t have. Hope we all understand it.
We should Varsha. I personally practice gratitude mandatorily and genuinely a lot and find it very vital
The problem is becoming parents when one cant support themselves is a disaster!Sometimes they dont have choices like we do. Lack of education is a big problem.How can we make the world better for women and Children like these?Big question.
Beautiful post Varsha. We often miss out thanking God for his simple blessings. We have a house for shelter, good clothes to wear, food to eat and family to rely upon. We must feel blessed for his mercies.
It is sad but true hard hitting reality. I feel the same whenever, I see children at the traffic signals and think the same.
I can understand that feeling of gratitude and a slight pain for such people but one side of me also says that government and the people themselves too should be careful in planning their lives.
So true, We should be definitely grateful to what we have received in our lives, but ther is always a lot for everything.
This touched my heart dea! From now I will be more thankful, honestly i have never done this before. ?
We are actually blessed and should thank God daily for giving us this life so that we can give good and comfortable upbringing to our kids!!
This hit me hard when I see a kid playing around bare feet in scorching hit, riksha wala where we use to bargain for 5rs . In heat we rush to ac to switch it on what about the Poor’s who sleep on road side. I thank God daily for beautiful life,family and everything
The real picture is here Varsha, we are fortunate enough to choose our food and throwing it away if we dont like while some children somewhere is dying of starvation. This is hard hitting and the bitter truth of life. What you write touched my heart dear!!
Yeah! We should cherish the moments which we get by God grace. Showing gratitude is the smallest gesture for all what we have.
we have to be thankful for so many things we have in life. often we don’t realise how important these little things are in life.
Such a hard-hitting realization dear. We often actually forget to be grateful to what God has gifted us with. Btw my son also says “ta-ta” for hurting 😉
This is the hard truth that we don’t accept. We should thank for all the blessings that we have in life.
As I grow older I have realised how important to be grateful about everything around us. It really makes one feel much more content and give up in petty things we stress upon. Gratitude is very important
I agree there are so many things we take for granted rather than being thankful about, very emotional post