Are We Lucky?????????????

ARE WE LUCKY???????????????

The big white Tata Sumo arrived on the pavement and stopped with brakes squealing.  Raj, Vicky, and Shil got out of the Sumo.  Bangalore was rain hit that day, gloomy skies hoovering above them.  It was about 6:00 in the evening and they were all ready to get to work.  They had their usual habit of coming to the office and before going up, having chai and the local bakery cum chai shop.  They greet Benzy and Sadath, who were already there.

The Hosur Road traffic was as usual maddening and very loud.  It was a very beautiful day however, the weather was really awesome.  Nobody felt like going to work, but unfortunately they had to.   Raj and Benzy ordered for coffee and Shil ordered for tea.  The usually silent Sadath said no to beverages and Vicky as usual wanted to eat something before having chai. 
 
The chaiwala was a bald, dark, lean man, who was very funny and comical, usually expressionless.  His aide was a boy, probably in the age group of 10-11.  Raj looked at him with admiration, but at the same time thought that he was lucky as he had a better childhood.

The chai shop was crowded with all sorts of people.  Most of the men hanging around there were from the same company.  A few middle aged men on the right hand side were talking about the local political scenario, which did not matter to their lives, but then that is what we call in our local lingo "chai ke dukan ke batan."  Neither of them cared about the country, but at the conversation table, each one sounded like a person who was in politics for more than 20 years.  The owner of the bakery was a well-fed, young man, who ordered the other boys in the bakery to work fast to serve his regular customers, yelling at the top of his voice in Tamil. 
 
The chaiwala, Raj guessed, had authority only over that small boy.  The boy had a very handsome face, cute rather.  He was dressed in a dirty moss-green colored shirt and shorts, which were probably never washed.  Amazingly obedient, he carried out all the duties he had to without even being told by his "master."  He was calm, expressionless, dirty, and yet with a twinkle in his eye.  He was one of those boys who never had anything good in his life to rejoice for, but at the same time probably thought that he was lucky enough to have a job on hand. 
Raj and his associates were talking about everything under the sun.  Raj observed that his collegues and he were complaining about many things like their job, food in the office, the infrastructure the office provided them with, the kind of treatment they got from their bosses, etc.  All these people who complained had good clothes to wear, slept in good warm beds, and ate three times a day.  Raj's attention went to that boy.  Some people called him "magu" meaning child in kannada, some abused him, some addressed him as if he had no name, and some just said "oye."  He had lost his identity, but the boy never frowned, never gave a dirty look, never reacted to the way people approached him, but carried on with his work.  At that age, Raj thought, they had a wonderful education, good clothes to wear, went to movies, enjoyed themselves, etc., but that boy was working; working for a family or himself, but he was working.  Raj thought, that was an age where the boy could make something out of himself, and he was working.  Raj thought that he was lucky.  He wanted to help the boy, but then thought to himself, he could have only if he had the resources, which he did not.  Raj was not very well placed financially and so he could only hope. 

He hoped that someday he would adopt a boy or a girl, maybe even more, if God gave him the strength and bring them up as their own children.

He looked at his group and himself and thought, "We always complain about everything we have ever had in life; when is it that we can learn to be happy with what we have?"  A question, which probably mankind has long forgotten.  Mankind's greed has never ended and looks like it never will.

Please ask yourself a question:  "ARE WE LUCKY?"

COMPARE YOURSELF WITH THOSE WHO HAVE NOTHING AND YOU WILL FEEL HAPPY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!