It has been few days and a face comes to my mind very often... A smiling, bright, shy, innocent face… He is Surendranath Babu… Don’t go by the name… more the name seems to be long and matured, you will find him more innocent, immature, loving and small… he is just 7-8 years (should be by now).. I met him while going for OUTREACH with Ma’am on Sundays to a village at Ettimadai near our ASB to teach Harizon children (these are children of all the workers and so called “Harizons”).
This village is full of sparkling kids with enormous energy and sweetness. Though they hardly take any breakfast but you can not see that on their face when you reach there on Sunday morning. Rather you will find all smiling faces eagerly waiting for you wearing the best dresses they have, nicely combed hairs and few girls with powders on their neck and chicks, lipsticks :-) ...Amazing! I can’t speak Tamil so in spite of being natural teacher (???) I was not able to teach many. But this boy seems to be liking me more and was my favorite student (U can say only student), he is very shy, loving with big round eyes, Flabby Cheeks, sweet voice and calm as compared to others. I used to teach him by pointing to a tree and saying out “Tree”.. Pointing to a House and saying “House”… Like this we used to communicate like this and this was our teaching method "see and Learn- Visual Learning :-) "… He also used to tell me many Tamil sentences.. But being a poor student I could not grasp much.. except “Teriyaade (Don’t Know)".. But he picked up a lot.. “Tree”, “House”, “Bird”, “Leaf”, “Leaves (He he he.. differentiating singular and plural and make him understand was also a big task J ”), “Dog”, “Grass”, “Sand” etc.. by pointing out and Many more from his book… He also used to narrate many things that happened with him in Tamil (though I never understood).. The interesting point was we were very comfortable with each other.. I used to teach him whenever I used to go to village, almost all the Sundays..
I find it really interesting. Two guys without knowing each other’s language, were so cozy and communicating with each other for more than hour, every week… He never used to go to anybody else. I mean Just think of a boy 5-6 years old.. is so comfortable with one non Tamil guy.. If both were matured guys its ok.. but how can a small boy just ignore all Tamil speaking guys (the other students who also used to visit) with whom he can speak his heart out, who could also understand and reciprocate. In stead he preferred to be with me always on Sundays. Later on it happened so that I used to go for him only to the village.
This made me realize of one very important thing about human life that it’s the unconditional love without any motive, the genuine care which made this unbelievable bond that never broke till I left college and not even till today. He is very clear in my mind.. Language had nothing to do about it. Language can never be barrier or a reason to hate somebody or not to be able to communicate with anybody or to discriminate any body. It’s just another way of expressing ourselves. We can not differentiate people on the basis of language. Love is more powerful language than any spoken one and the only language that can unite all of us on earth and can make us real Humans.
There have been many instances in my life where I have realized the same. But experience with this small boy was the most powerful and I deeply thank him for making me realize this. I am sure this faith in Love
developed
within me is one of those deep rooted values, which builds his/her identity to self, to world, to the supreme power.Let me tell you little more about what this boy has done to me. This was on a Diwali Celebration in the village and we (students) were there with children in the village. There were few races among these kids like lemon, short distance race etc. In one of the short distance races Surendranath Babu was also participating and I was just standing on the other side of the finish line to motivate him. The race started. I was encouraging him “Come On!” “Come On” ... He was running hard, not even looking at any body or competitors but me, As if his race was to reach me and he ran faster. When he almost reached the finish line, he just jumped, he jumped on me and hid in my arms by holding me with faster breaths. I can never forget that moment, He was not bothered about being first or second… he dint even look whether he was first or second or third he was just so happy that he could reach and be in my arms.
This particular incident has remained very clear in my mind and always gives me strength. If I consider myself as something that he really loved and wanted to reach, then I see this incident as big lesson for life.
This teaches me - to win what we need is focus on what we love and dream to achieve, its not about looking at the competitors, its about my own love for the goal, which will create the desperation to achieve, will give the energy to reach faster and finally to win without being stressed but by enjoying every moment of it.. and surendranath Babu won that race on that day, he came first.
His goal was to reach me, so he was very happy to reach me and did not bother whether he would win or lose.. he taught me one of the finest lessons about life. Life is not a race, If we consider it as a race then we can never enjoy the moments and we can not enjoy the result, we can not share it with others also because we will always compare ourselves with others. Then, what’s the point in being first or second. We need love and people to share our achievements and then a failure is also a success, other wise every success is a failure…
Its not winning or losing, its about doing what we love... If we are doing that, we are already successful, Winner.. otherwise, we are failure, does not manner even if my photo comes on fortune500 cover page. And unfortunately most of us don't know what we actually want, so we compare and start racing, we don't look back, we don't care for anybody, we become selfish. And one day when we are physically unable to do anything, we think why was I running, what was I running after actually! and then we start realizing how small things matter in life and how many moments we could enjoy in life!! Why do we need to study big case studies to know things better, while simple things can teach the best things! It’s that “Harijon”, the 6 year kid who taught me all these with such a small incident.
I don’t know what he will do after a few years; he may just be a simple worker in a dirty place. May be he wont even remember me and he should not because I have not done anything for him, I could not teach him to make him eligible for better work. I just left him selfishly to earn Money.. To make my life Comfortable(?).. Better(?).. When can I go out of this materialistic life.. I don’t know… But one day I will... if any of you meet him, show him the house.. he will say “House”.. or show him the bird and he will say “Bird”… I know he will.. even after 15-20 years...
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