A Talk to Remember – Part II

IN THE LAST PART: We had gone on a survey for old people and met Mrs.Saroj, who was overly friendly and welcoming in contrast to the usual response we got. On talking to her, we had found that she too had a son who was doing MBBS and understood our ordeal. She even agreed to help us out to find more people through an NGO she was part of which was to meet shortly and had quite a few people of the age group that we were surveying.

PART II :

After this I asked her about her son just in case we are unable to find the place. That is when the world went upside down on us. She told us that her son and husband had met with an accident four months back and that they were no more. I didn’t know what to say to her. All I could blurt out was “I am so sorry!” and look down wondering why I had asked that question. It was she who broke the ice then. “It’s okay she said. All this is part of life. I am sure God must have planned something better for them than they could have in this life. The bad part is I get to stay back and bear the burden of this life alone”  she said with a little wit to it. I could not understand her reaction. It was so unusual that I guess I was too awestruck to reply. “All of us must do their part in this world. I guess mine is still left incomplete. Give I’ll fill your form”, she said smiling and extended her hand towards me. I handed over a form to her from my folder and my partner guided her through it.

It was easy to tell that she studied every line while replying to our questions. She was a member of three NGOs in the city working for the welfare of the poor, the elderly and orphans. She told us about what all they had recently done in their camps and what all they were about to do. It was heartening to know how much she was working for the needy even after having suffered so much loss at the hands of fate.

After she filled the form and returned it I checked as to whether she had filled everything. I was awestruck by some of her replies and didn’t know whether to trust them or not. Here are few of them:

• How much do you rate your life?                                                               8 out of 10
• Are you satisfied with your life?                                                                 YES
• Do you think your life could have been better?                                    NO
• Do you think that life has been harsh to you?                                       A LITTLE
• Do you believe in God?                                                                                   YES,ALWAYS HAVE
• How often do you have depressive thoughts, bad mood, etc.?     SELDOM

I still can’t understand how come she answered these questions like this after all that has happened to her.

The next day when we met her I could not believe my eyes seeing the way she went around joking and facilitating the form-filling. It was as if life had somehow not been able to affect her anyhow with its harshness.

Living here away from my home and family, I often realize how much they mean to me. One little problem or illness they have makes me so restless that I find it hard to do anything. Just yesterday itself three of my friends’ fell ill and slept early leaving me to spend the later part of the evening alone in the room. It felt so bad that and depressing to see them ill is hard to convey in words. That is what prompted me to pen this article. We in our lives get worked up with such little issues as losing games, failing in exams, not being able to impress our crush and so on and forth that we never think about how much life has blessed us with. Many of us think that life has been harsh on us and get depressed and worked up about it but here is this lady, to whom life has been harsher than I would like to imagine and who still stands bold and undeterred by its wounds with a smile on her face and spreading happiness all around. I feel we all need to learn a lesson from her, never to allow our spirit to live life happily as it presents itself. Salute to her spirit and her courage. As she said, “All of us our here to do our part which we surely must do” I guess mine was to tell this story to you.

                                                                                                                    CHEERS TO LIFE!!

Note: All characters in his story are fictional and any resemblance to person, place or time is merely a matter of co-incidence. However, I wish to state that the message is still true and holds valid whatsoever. There are such people in this world. It is just a matter of luck whether we meet them or not. None the less, we should learn our lessons from them.

Thank you! No hard feelings please! :p

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