Certain people and incidents give you a fresh outlook on life. You meet them every day. You come across such situations once in a while; simple events that are life changing or at least that make you think.
I was in India recently. One morning at my father’s house I was woken up by someone talking in broken English. The voice was saying, “I go Canada. You coming?” Curious, I opened the door and looked out. Sharif, my father’s man servant was standing in the middle of the living room and talking loudly. “I no care what I do there. But I go Canada.” Sharif was practicing his English on Flora, my father’s French bull dog.
Flora sat with a puzzled expression on her face. After some time she shook her head and lay down with both paws on her head. My mother told me later Sharif started practicing English in the hope that I would take him back to Toronto.
Sharif had a very simple outlook on life. He does not think about the past or the future. My father says he does not think at all. Every day when I was there he used to take me out shopping. He drives calmly leaning on the horn every 10 seconds. He has infinite patience for all the vehicles and animals that come in front of the car. He never uses mirrors. In fact he had folded both the side mirrors. He says he does not like to look behind. The past is past for him. He has no worries about the future either. He only sees what’s in front of him and the car. God help the rest of the world. He accepts life as it comes to him.
Slowly he opened up to me. In 2009 he lost his house to the Tsunami that hit the east coast of India. The family lost everything. His father became bed ridden after that. His mother finds it difficult to work anymore. His sister remains unmarried. She is past 40. Yet he continues to smile, every day to every person.
Life is like that. A box of chocolates. Till you open the wrapper you have no idea what you are going to get. Most of the time you get the bitter ones. Sometimes you get the beautifully shaped dark chocolates that melt in the mouth. You need to close your eyes to enjoy it. The soft filling that oozes out and fills your heart. It’s even better if the filling was brandy or rum.
I used to get anxious thinking about anything that could go wrong. It’s people like Sharif that reminded me to embrace life with open arms and a wide smile. After meeting Sharif I thought I’d take life easy. And I did take it easy till my next road trip.
I was visiting friends in Bangalore, a four hour journey from where my parents lived. It was about 10 in the morning when I reached there Two of my friends picked me up from the train station. They came in a small car; slightly bigger than a smart car. I sat in the middle at the back of the car and started talking about the good old days. We go back a long way, to college days. Within minutes we reached the highway. I could see these big vehicles coming straight at us and swerve at the last minute. I started breathing again after we left the highway. The road started winding up and down. At one stretch there were stone walls on both sides. It was wet from the rains and the green moss gave it a cool countryside effect.
From where I sat, in the back, between my two friends, through the small windshield, I could see the road climbing up steeply. The road was freshly paved and the yellow line separating the narrow road was newly painted. The car was climbing up and I could see the top of the hill. I was holding on to both the door handles. As we came up on top of the hill my friend stopped the car with a screech.
We came up the hill and right in front of us in the middle of the road was the massive buttocks of a giant cow with a huge sack of milk bouncing between her legs. The tail was swishing from one side to the other like the windshield wipers of our car.
There were two cows walking one behind the other on the yellow line in the middle of the road without a care in the world. To them the road must have seemed like the catwalk in a Paris fashion show. I burst out laughing. I was laughing all the time when my friend started the car and drove around the cows.
Life is like a box of chocolates, my friends. You don’t know what you get when you wake up each day. But whenever I feel depressed I bring this piece of memory from my mental archives and play it over and over again.
I was in India recently. One morning at my father’s house I was woken up by someone talking in broken English. The voice was saying, “I go Canada. You coming?” Curious, I opened the door and looked out. Sharif, my father’s man servant was standing in the middle of the living room and talking loudly. “I no care what I do there. But I go Canada.” Sharif was practicing his English on Flora, my father’s French bull dog.
Flora sat with a puzzled expression on her face. After some time she shook her head and lay down with both paws on her head. My mother told me later Sharif started practicing English in the hope that I would take him back to Toronto.
Sharif had a very simple outlook on life. He does not think about the past or the future. My father says he does not think at all. Every day when I was there he used to take me out shopping. He drives calmly leaning on the horn every 10 seconds. He has infinite patience for all the vehicles and animals that come in front of the car. He never uses mirrors. In fact he had folded both the side mirrors. He says he does not like to look behind. The past is past for him. He has no worries about the future either. He only sees what’s in front of him and the car. God help the rest of the world. He accepts life as it comes to him.
Slowly he opened up to me. In 2009 he lost his house to the Tsunami that hit the east coast of India. The family lost everything. His father became bed ridden after that. His mother finds it difficult to work anymore. His sister remains unmarried. She is past 40. Yet he continues to smile, every day to every person.
Life is like that. A box of chocolates. Till you open the wrapper you have no idea what you are going to get. Most of the time you get the bitter ones. Sometimes you get the beautifully shaped dark chocolates that melt in the mouth. You need to close your eyes to enjoy it. The soft filling that oozes out and fills your heart. It’s even better if the filling was brandy or rum.
I used to get anxious thinking about anything that could go wrong. It’s people like Sharif that reminded me to embrace life with open arms and a wide smile. After meeting Sharif I thought I’d take life easy. And I did take it easy till my next road trip.
I was visiting friends in Bangalore, a four hour journey from where my parents lived. It was about 10 in the morning when I reached there Two of my friends picked me up from the train station. They came in a small car; slightly bigger than a smart car. I sat in the middle at the back of the car and started talking about the good old days. We go back a long way, to college days. Within minutes we reached the highway. I could see these big vehicles coming straight at us and swerve at the last minute. I started breathing again after we left the highway. The road started winding up and down. At one stretch there were stone walls on both sides. It was wet from the rains and the green moss gave it a cool countryside effect.
From where I sat, in the back, between my two friends, through the small windshield, I could see the road climbing up steeply. The road was freshly paved and the yellow line separating the narrow road was newly painted. The car was climbing up and I could see the top of the hill. I was holding on to both the door handles. As we came up on top of the hill my friend stopped the car with a screech.
We came up the hill and right in front of us in the middle of the road was the massive buttocks of a giant cow with a huge sack of milk bouncing between her legs. The tail was swishing from one side to the other like the windshield wipers of our car.
There were two cows walking one behind the other on the yellow line in the middle of the road without a care in the world. To them the road must have seemed like the catwalk in a Paris fashion show. I burst out laughing. I was laughing all the time when my friend started the car and drove around the cows.
Life is like a box of chocolates, my friends. You don’t know what you get when you wake up each day. But whenever I feel depressed I bring this piece of memory from my mental archives and play it over and over again.
2 comments:
Hi Madhav!
Thank you for this entry. I hope it is ok that I read it. Youw rite very well.
:)
Nisha
Absolutely Nisha. The more readers the more heart-warming!
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