A Hard Lesson

Slouched in my sofa, when I sat to pen down my thoughts, I felt very much rusted. My thoughts were broken and scattered and the blogger in me was waiting for something which would snap me out from my self-imposed lethargy. To free myself from this melancholy, I finally I went to the nearby garden to breathe some fresh air.

I was deeply engrossed in my fancy world thinking about absolutely absurd things when suddenly an old couple sitting beside me broke my chain of thoughts. The lady with a wrinkled smile and gloomy eyes said to her husband in a heavy tone” humari life aapke retirement k baad bahut badal gayi hai , jindagi mein ek khalipan pan aa gaya hai”. ( our life has very much changed after your retirement, it has become very lonely).  Their conversation receded as to how, all those years, celebrations were organized by many favor seekers, so-called friends and relatives. How during festivals, people would drop in since morning with their precious gifts to their house. The old couple was feeling highly downcast and depressed with their change of fortune.

Their conversation left me totally awestruck and saddened. Then all of a sudden it reminded me of a story which I had read in a newspaper which I like to share- A donkey was carrying idols of Gods on his back for an important annual religious puja. The donkey passed through a no. of villages on the way. Villagers bowed to the idols of the Gods. In every village, a crowd would throng to pay obeisance.

The donkey started thinking that people were bowing to him and was thrilled with this newfound respect. After leaving the idols at the place of the puja, his master loaded vegetables on him and they started their return journey. This time, nobody was paying any attention to the donkey. The cold-shouldered donkey felt so frustrated that he started braying to invite the attention of villagers - who became irritated with his non-stop braying and started beating him.

For once, it made me feel, we all are ‘’ donkeys” in this so-called race. All the gifts and overt gestures of respect and obeisance extended to us are actually for the positions we truly hold and how we could be of use for somebody.

I went home thinking, how our feelings and emotions have fallen pray of this materialistic world.........