“Why are you calling me now, How many times I told you not to call me during office hours” he shouted. “I am fine, I will come home as soon as my work gets over” and hung up. He saw the time in his computer, it was 11:30 PM. He continued working on the project that he had to complete that night. He took several coffee breaks in between, chatted with friends online at that hours and finally finished his task at 1:30 AM. He called the cab and waited in the reception area. As soon as the cab came he went downstairs and started for home. At around 2:00 PM he reached his apartment. He rang the bell. His father opened the door and smiled at him. He did not reciprocate and went inside his room and kept his bag, washed his face and came back to dining hall. His mother was dosing with the dinner at dining table. She had prepared many dishes and most are his favorite dishes. He only had little food and said “I am tired, going to sleep”. His mother said “Take some more, you are working so hard, you must have proper food”. Father started advising “You should take care of your health, Health is wealth. What is the use to hard work when you can not even enjoy your food for one time at at least? Your mother prepared all these only for you”. He immediately responded “You don’t know how much competitive this world is. This is not like the government job you used to enjoy, where people hardly work. Where merit has no meaning. We have to use our brain all the time and do hard work to enjoy what I am having now. Do you want me to be a failure? I own a house now at the age of 25 only because of this.” then looked at his mother “Why you cook so much unnecessarily for me. You both should take food at 9:00 PM and go to sleep. Do not wait for me. If you continue doing like this then, better you both go to our hometown” he shouted and went to his bed. His father was still having his dinner. They both started talking, how hard their son is working and not taking proper food. This may affect his health badly. They both finished dinner and went to bed. But what they did not discuss is how much they were hurt by their son’s rude behavior. This was a regular story. His parents used to stay awake till their son returns, take their food when their son takes his food and worry all the time. Son was hardly bothered about what his parents are thinking.
Today he is a father of a Son. He has started worrying about others. He used to get tensed when his Son’s school bus comes 5 minutes late and calls the driver, if it is more than that. He gradually started realizing the feelings of his parents and how he completely ignored them when they were with him. But they were no more in this world. There were no opportunity to tell them that he finally realized how much pain they had gone through to bring him up and make him a successful man.
Life does give opportunities but usually they are time bound. If you miss them in time then you will never get it. I read an interesting and true saying:
Age 5: My parents know everything.
Age 10: My parents know a lot.
Age 15: My parents know nothing.
Age 25: My parents know a little bit.
Age 35: My parents know a lot.
Age 45: I wish I could ask my parents. They knew everything.
My father tells me an interesting story. Once a young man was going to attend a function, where he will be felicitated. He bought a pair of new shoes specifically for this occasion. While starting from home he realized that, it is cold outside, so did his father. His father quickly went inside and brought a nice Kashmiri Shawl which he bought long back from Kashmir. His father never let anybody use his favorite shawl till date, not even his wife. His son took the shawl, said ‘bye’ to his father and started walking. He was about to reach the venue and suddenly he stepped on mud that was there on road due to previous day’s rain. His shoes became dirty. He took out his Handkerchief but he realized that this a brand new handkerchief. He immediately took the shawl and wiped dirt from his shoes using the inner side of the shawl.
This shows how much importance you have for your own things than the ones that you either inherited or gifted by others. I am sure my father tell me this story because, many a times I forget the importance of anything in the class of ‘Father’s shawl’.
We hardly value emotions or objects which we get without our own hard work. But when we grow up and become parents then we realize their importance. But by then, either the opportunity to reciprocate the emotion is lost or objects are lost.
We have inherited a great culture of this great country. We are lucky to be born in an age, when we rule ourselves. Preserving it in its true form and respecting it now is very important. Otherwise when we will see our kids suffering we will have only one option to blame ourselves.
– Stray Dog
Life as Sakti 