Thank God for “What We Are”

Let me start this blog, by thanking the almighty for making us “What We Are”. This context is prevalent to the Current Level of Existence that we are in, or in other words we should grateful for the hundreds of things that we get or we live with and as simple as roti, kapda and makaan.

At times, due the rat race that we run, called life, to ensure we are on top of things, that we choose are the best if we have, like, a grand apartment, a good sedan, a few million in the bank, we just don’t realised how privileged we are to be what we are now.

You might now start to think, why this blog is so philosophical or why am giving gyann and there is solid proof or reason for it. In India, we shoo away beggars on the road for many a reason. We don’t stop by to look at whether he is digging into the garbage just for anything that he might get to eat to survive or whether he/she is wearing tattered clothes, ragged on the road with nothing to eat etc. All this happens while we run our rat race and we don’t have time to look at them, some say there is a mafia behind the beggar community (There is even a movie with that concept), some say its their fate and so on, but we never look to help them in the real sense (Giving them alms, how much ever it may be or Anna Dhanam is not a help, it is done for our selfish reasons in most cases) and even ponder their existence. I am not complaining as I am one, just like the person who is reading this blog currently, who actually does nothing. Another thing to ponder here, is, most times we visit a temple we offer our hundial, or we donate a lot to temples, why can’t we donate it to the poor or do some charity. All the money that is given to the temple just rests there or is used by a useless administrator or politician for tasks/ circumstances that certainly have an ulterior motive. The best is that, we donate in the temple, because we want something to happen or because something that we wished for what happened.

I guess I can write a book on how we don’t actually do the right stuff (I know there is no right or wrong in life, just used it contextually and this is for all my ontological friends, reading this blog), but let me state the context of why I chose to write this blog. People who have worked with me, a few friends and of course my wife, would guarantee that it would take something special for anything to touch a soft spot in me. I am naturally assertive, at times tending towards aggressiveness, but realistic and practical majority of the times, that emotions don’t get the better of me. But what I was touched with today, is the way some people live and behave even in London. It’s not uncommon to see a beggar or an urchin on the road, but some people are different or life is difficult for them to do the acts am about to mention below.

On any common day, you would take these people to Londoners, as they are comfortably clothed and do not look like in need, but to my surprise this afternoon, near a café I found a bunch of people waiting for the café to place their trash bags in the corridor next to the shop, only for these waiting people to dig in to find unused or food that has just been expired. I can’t determine the word ‘just’, as I really do not know the date on these food packets or sandwiches etc, but they dig in to eat them. On every retail pack of food in the UK, you would find two dates. One for display and one for expiry, and if it has only one date, then it refers to both. But I was stunned to see people dig in. you can argue with me about their clothing as their common wear, when compared to the Indian beggar. But trust me I would not do that and thank god for not placing me in that position and of course am sure he would not so, in the future.

The next thing that really startled me was, when I was outside a café to get a coffee and there is this ‘white man’ walking on pavement and searching for cigarette buds thrown on the floor. He would select the one he wants and pick them up and place it in the box he is carrying. Again this man is well clothed, with nice jerkin to contain his warmth and cover him from the cold, whilst his companion stood there, with a decent hand bag, waiting for him pick the buds. I noticed that, this guy picked only the ones which were round or not flat, as people would normally stamp on to them after they have contained themselves with their puffing. Now this happened throughout the pavement and he carried on till he went off my sight. I could not contain my curiosity and asked a British colleague of mine, on what was the context; this man was picking up the buds that too very selectively. He told me that, this is common in UK, as these people pick up the buds that are round and go home and open them up to use the leftover tobacco for them to make a cigarette for themselves. I know that cigarettes or tobacco cost a fortune in the UK, but I never witnessed people stooping to this level. You can ask why does he need to smoke? , now that’s his choice, but look at the level that this man goes to survive.

Not only this, I know so many people, seen TV shows, where these people have lost their jobs in the last few years, thanks to the financial bubble burst, be subprime lending rates or credit issues, end of the day, these people have to survive and support a family without a job.

Looking at the above two incidents, am really ‘Thankful to GOD, for what I am currently’. Take a moment and look at your life. You currently have a computer with internet connection to read this blog, which certainly means you are comfortable in life. But we continue to worry about the things we don’t have and how bad life has been or treating us. Please step back and look around you; you are blessed to be “What you are”