Peace & Turmoil

Peace & Turmoil

Today also I had a quarrel with my wife and sons over the joint property that I had created in my foolish belief that family would remain united atleast till my death. I had ignored literally every advise given to me by my wife, throughout my life before I joined Government Job as well as during my tenure of a teacher in it, including her insistence on building house in such a manner that if need arose two sons with their families could live peacefully in it, even though separately. But I was influenced by this foolish dream of maintaining joint family even in the age of isolation and selfishness. The prospective failure of my project was troubling my mind while I was going in a bus to visit my niece, who was married at a distance of 30 kms away from the place of my residence. In the overcrowded bus I managed to get a seat, but this crowd was nothing to me, as if it did not exist, as I was completely absorbed in the thoughts of my turbulent domestic life. The nature of my work was such that I could not keep my family at my place of work- which was a primary school in a remote village- which made me to commute daily from a nearby town where I had constructed a house. Often I had to leave home early when children were sleeping and sometimes when I returned late at night they were already gone to bed, and even their mother used to be on verge of sleeping. I was helpless as I had to keep my family going and earning a livelihood but it was making an adverse impact on my son’s education, who were anything but bright, and I had no hope form them that they will be able to get a Government job in this age of stiff competition. Getting a government job was still considered a safe and secure livelihood in Indian society. And on the top of it my children looked down upon the govt. Job with contempt. Seeing the glamour and luxury of a few successful business man they were allured to that way of life completely ignoring this fact that successful businessman were only a handful minority as a great chunk of them were just managing to keep afloat.

            The sudden stop of the bus brought me out of the whirlpool of thoughts to realize that I had reached my destination. I got down from the bus and walked the rest of the distance to my niece’s home. I tried to look cheerful at my niece’s home but in vain my niece greeted me with the remark  ‘ another, terrible night’, to which I could only nod my head in approval. After the refreshing hot cup of tea I got news from her of the sudden demise of my old friend , who used to live in the village where I had spent most of the time of my career. Suddenly changing my plans I decided to visit this village . So I took my niece and her husband ina hired cab and commenced my journey towards this place to which I had devoted the best part of my life serving the people of the village by educating them and their children. As the journey  progressed I suddenly noticed that my old memories of my pleasant past were coming back like the herd of cattle and they were chasing away the thoughts of domestic troubles from my turbulent mind and a wave of peace started settling in my mind gradually as I did not know that when I started talking about my past days spent in this part of the country and stopped whining about my present conflicts. After a journey of two hours we reached the destination and as I got out of the cab and looked at a familiar landscape I felt a soothing sensation and a rejuvenating energy in my body. As I walked towards the house of my friend, who was a prominent man of the village, people gathered around me greeting me with bows in reverence and by the time we reached the house of my friend we were a pretty crowd of children and adults behind me. Some grown up even brought their children before me to take my blessings by asking their children to bow before me. One middle aged man in white turban suddenly leaped forward hugging me and uttering, ‘ Sahib I was a young child like this when you saved our family during heavy rains by giving us shelter in your room of the school’, pointing to a toddler playing nearby. Though I could not recognize this man at once but still I gave him an equally approving hug and smile and entered the house of my friend to meet his bereaved wife and son. When I came out of the house same man with white turban held my hand and requested me to come to his house. Despite the uneasiness of my niece I was helpless before the demand of this man and I could not refuse his request. As we waked towards the lanes of the village that I could clear remember we stopped before a house that belonged to this white turbaned man. Then it dawned on me that this was the place where my peon  Joshila,  who was a young boy of 18 years who used to come frequently to the school and bring fresh water for me from the well of the village, lived. I asked him in surprise, ‘ Are you Joshila’s  son how is he , is he alive ?”

White turbaned man’s eye drooped with sorrow and got misty as he mustered his courage to say, ‘ Yes sir, he is alive but in a very weak and poor condition, he can barely walk. I knew that you will not refuse my request though it is inauspicious to invite any person to his house who has come to condole the death of somebody, but I invited you as my father’s sincere wish is to meet you atleast once in life and I was not sure whether he would survive till your next visit to our village.’ While speaking he opened the door of the cottage and took me to a room where I confronted a skeleton of a thin man lying on a string cot. His son, the white turbaned man called him by taking my name and saying, ‘ Father, sahib has come to meet you.’  Slowly he turned his face towards me, and as soon as he saw and recognized me got up at once and fell at my feet saying in a barely audible voice, ‘ Our savior has come. Had it not for you sir our cattle, belongings and even our lives would have perished with the floods. You gave us shelter in that school building for the night and saved our village. Every individual of that village considers you as a saviour and father.’ I took his hand, as he stopped in the middle of his speech for the lack of energy as I enquired about everybody of the village. Joshila, his son and surrounding villagers were very happy to see me after such a long time and they happily answered my queries. They were grateful to me that I took time to visit them and I still remembered them. After bidding farewell to Joshila, who had come to see us off up to the place where our cab was parked, though with the support of the villagers, along with his son and other villagers we resumed our journey back. As we were speeding back to our place  I was forced to think that I did everything possible for my family and children through out my life and yet they were quarrelling with me day and night and here are the simple people of the village, for whom I had hardly done anything extra than my duty for which I was being paid by the State Government, still remembered me, came out of their houses not only to greet me with reverence but remained with me continuously till I crossed the border of the village. For Joshila it was nearly a pilgrimage accomplished to see my face after such a long time. Perhaps it was outcome of selflessness and selfishness. What ever I had done for my family and sons was with this selfish motive that I would get comfort and peace in my old life, while whatever I had done for these simple villagers was without any selfish motive, with the sense of selfless service motivated by wish to help these poor and needy people whose output was the tree of pure affection as they had not only treasured me in their hearts but they were even making their children know about me and attempting to transfer this message to next generation too.