“10 rupees for 10 guavas; 10 rupees for 10 guavas “………….. Squeaked three little boys running alongside our car. They held a small packet of freshly plucked guavas and the boys were virtually poking their heads inside the car to make a sale ………. .
I was sitting in the back seat of my car half asleep under a pile of sweaters and jackets which I was using to batter the Saturday eve mist of Munnar. Jostled from my sleep I could see my mom making the purchase from one of the boys. As the car was taking a stiff turn the other two boys kept on running and my mom was in a fix trying to explain that she didn’t want more. As the car picked up speed slowly I heard one of the boys ask “Mam do you have a pen; a pen he was virtually yelling!!”
The car finally moved on and I was fully awake now .We moved on for half a km and I was still thinking as to why the boy wanted a pen in the middle of nowhere and then it hit me …………… The kids were out there selling guavas they had plucked from the forest to buy a set of pen for their school. Maybe because I was raised on the parable of the Good Samaritan all through out my life that I ve always tried my best to be one ; or that being a boy scout in school; that age old scout ritual of …. ‘One good deed a day ‘ has still stuck on after all these years i asked the driver to stop and I got out to see if I could go back to give them some money to buy the pen but they were not to be seen . Tears welled up in my eyes all of a sudden ……………….there I was sitting behind my car enjoying the niceties of life and there outside were a couple of kids running around on a Saturday to gather whatever they could to buy a pen ……..of all things .
I got inside the car and I just sunk into my seat …………….. and the first thing that came pouring into my mind was this
One of my fav quotes ever
I cried because I don't have a shoe until I saw a man without feet.
It’s so true we all cry and whine about our sneakers and clothes and wat not
Oh these shoes suck ……………. I wish I had a Gaitonde
Oh boy I wonder who stitched this dress.
Oh the coffee aint hot enuf .
The service at that hotel stinks..
I hate the café food they serve ……………
See we whine and we whine and we whine .The lives we all lead can be summed up in a sentence
Gimme a million dollars ………….. Well u cant make me happy but can make me a millionare .
Well I guess that’s the blatant truth --- eternal happiness comes when we learn to open our eyes and look around and take a count of the innumerable feetless people crawling around us. It’s just that we all carry our own loads; only when we try to lift other people loads that we realize that god has given us only what we can carry. Let’s face it ; life might be a tough journey but it’s up to us to face up to it .I guess in the long run we’ll realize for sure that the “ Juice Is Worth The Squeeze”