Ek baksho misti (A Box of Sweets)

Ek baksho misti in English means a box of sweets. Let me tell you the story revolving this box of sweets that was gifted to me by friend. There’s nothing unusual with gifting someone sweets, but I beg to differ. It holds a very special place in my heart. If I had not received this present I may not have known goodness, kindness, benevolence, I may have not known what true care or even true friendship is!

I come from a city quite different from Kolkata. I come from Delhi. The two cities are very much different in their tastes. When I came to Kolkata I didn’t know what true friendship was. Now three and a half years have passed, I have made many friends, made many acquaintances, fallen in love, know the pain of loving someone who seemed to be yours but was not yours, so I guess I know I can tell you something related to me and the people around me.

I will not hide it from you that I was in love with a girl for whom I cared and still I care a lot. But something was never right between the two of us. Everyday, whenever we talked we ended up upsetting each other. What I thought was love from my side was not love from her side. I cared for her day and night, told her everything I knew, never hid anything from her. But the magic between the two of us was missing.

Had it not been for my friend Akshay(name changed) I would have been not writing this story to you. This Bhai Phota when all and sundry were busy with their friends and families, celebrating family reunion, celebrating Bhai Phota with their brothers and sisters, I as usual alone in this city, Kolkata was sitting and giving tests in my tuition centre. I meet with this guy, Akshay only on weekends when we have our classes in tuition centre for five to six hours only.

After having attended Bhai Phota, he came to the tuition centre. That day he returned my notebook and alongwith it he gave me a box of sweets. It contained five different sweets one gulab-jamun, one Sondesh, one Kheer-Kadombo and two other sweets whose names I don’t know. I thank him form the depths of my heart, not as a courtesy but for doing something so noble. When all the people I cared for, I loved were busy with their life, with their festivities it was he and his mother who thought about me.

I have never met his mother but had talked to her on one occasion and by accident on that very particular day on phone for thirty three seconds. The mother- son duo thought about my loneliness, they thought about how miserable I feel when I am not with my family. He felt my feelings and this moved me, raised me to a new platform, made me realize that its time to move on in life, there are more important things in life than caring for someone who doesn’t even bothers to think about me. The girl I loved has had a tremendous change in her attitude towards me. She was not like this before and I know this has happened because I behaved wrongly with her. I tried to make it up with her but sometime everything that one does makes no effort what-so-ever.

This guy in this world cared for me, the one who was feeling very lonely on that particular day. He made me realize that it’s better to let go and not hold on to things over which you have no control. When you try to hold on to people, they make you feel miserable as they don’t value you. Once one of my friends very nicely said to me what the reason for your gloominess is. Why do you feel unhappy for someone you doesn’t see the real you. He asked me, “what is the precious thing that I hold in life?” or rather what is the most precious thing that all of us possess in life? This treasure is our mind. Do not borrow it to somebody or anybody. It is the thing that is yours only. Take care of it, don’t hurt it for anyone. It needs to be taken care of and nurtured very carefully.

The box of sweets for me was nothing short of a miracle it made me feel strong, it made me see that there are other people beside her who care for me much more than her. I should invest in them because thy are the ones who are going to make me feel special, they are the ones who are going to care for me, they are the ones who are going to help me when I am in trouble, they are the ones who are going to make me see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Adversities always make the best come out of us. It happens in my case atleast. This crucial period in life will not come back again. The past doesn’t matter even a single bit, it holds no significance, as you cannot change it. Live in the present and work hard, make yourself strong so that you have a nicely carved out future, so that you don’t have to beg to anyone. This life of ours is a one time affair, make the most of it because once the wick of the candle burns out you are not going to get another chance to light it up…

Where can one find ANGEls!!!

People go to temples, churches, mosques and other places of worship and religious places either to seek God or to wash away their sins. What many of us do not realize is that God, the Almighty does not reside in temples; he’s in our hearts. We just need to channel our energies in the right direction and we will experience the perfect bliss. My next question to you have you seen an angel or experienced a miracle or where can we find one? The answer to this all this soul searching is really not tat difficult to find and literally quite straight forward. What I think may not be correct, but one things for sure I have felt his powers by my side and they do assure me that all that is happening  around me is because of his bliss and when nothing will be their, the omnipresent will hold my hand and make me cross the bridge safely. Let me share one experience of mine with you all out there.

Persons or guys and girls like me who work away from home due to various reasons have to travel a lot. This time when I was traveling fromDelhito Pune, my place of work, the AC-3-Tier ticket that I had was an RAC. For those who don’t know what it means, it actually means that I would have to share my berth with another person during the entire journey of fourteen hundred kilometers. The journey began as all journeys should, but it had an experience in store for me that I had to undergo and it did leave an imprint on my mind. I did not ask the Ticket checker if any vacant seat was not available nor did I try to bribe him. I don’t know how to do all those things and for a Bengali like me honour comes first than money or stress. But an hour before Jhansi junction (a station on the way) was to arrive he came to my seat and asked me to remind him that seat no. 8 will get vacant and you an avail it for the rest of the journey.

Well this was nothing short of unusual and I was delighted, so when the mentioned station came, I went to search him and remind him about his words. But alas! To my utter disgust and disappointment, by rule it is in this junction that the ticket checker change duty. For me the ordeal started again but this time I had a thread to hang on to. I requested the other ticket checker about what the previous one had told me and finally I did manage to get hold of seat/birth no 8. I immediately shifted my luggage to that berth and settled myself down for the night’s sleep as it was already 9:30 P.M. by 10 o’clock I was already asleep.

Knock! Knock! The same ticket checker woke me up saying, “Bhai Saab! Yeh seat to book hai. Yeh dekho confirm ticket. Seat khali kar do please. ” I was taken aback, what the hell happened, checked my watch to see what time it was. It was just five minutes past midnight. Before I could ask him anything or come to consciousness, he asked me again to vacate the seat. The checker was adamant, “Nahi na. Dekho iss ticket pe inka no. likha hai. Jaldi se seat khali kar do.” Disappointed, disgusted and flabbergasted as I was about to get down from my upper berth seat, a gentleman in his late fifties very casually told the ticket checker, who was just standing their tha, “ Arre yaar, abhi to tere saath 8 no. seat lekhar baat ki aur tune fix bhi kar diya. Arre beta to hamare saath jar aha hai, usi ticket me 8 no likha tha . fir se dikhana padegya kya tere ko.”.  I could tell by the look on the checkers face that he was deeply confused and thinking had to recollect what the gentleman had just told him. He was just standing their, confused, when the man again said, “Kya hua ?? sab thik to hai na, abhi tosettle kiya tha, yeh to hamare saath hi jaa raha hai.” The checker was confused as he could not recollect so he just did what he was told. He looked at me and told me, “ Oh sai hai, thik hai. Sorry sirji, please go to sleep. Sorry to disturb you.”

The events that just happened were something that I could also not believe. This gentleman, who had just helped me in keeping my seat, just came out of the blue to help me. Before this interaction with the checker I had not seen him. He was the angel who had come there, only to help me. I can simply say he was GODSENT. I thanked him earnestly for what he had done for me and all those people out there who travel know what it means to have a seat for the night. Had it not been for him I would have had to vacate the berth and return to my earlier berth where once again I would have had to share.  But this man who did not know anything about who, who also like me had not seen me earlier, who had not even talked with me, helped me not for any reasons or gains that he might get. He just helped me.

 I am more than cent percent sure that angels walk through this earth in disguise of a common man and it is up to us only to realize that we have met one. Let me remind you I did not find him in temple, church, mosque or a synagogue nor did I find him in the most religious of places but in a train compartment as a fellow passenger who was on his way to some destination.  Many of you out their may not agree with me, will also argue with me when I say to you that I go to temple only when I feel like not every Tuesday or Saturday. But I am more confident than any of you that I will find help, that God will help me when-ever I am in distress. He will definitely come forward and help me whether in the form of a friend, an unknown person, a telephone call or any event that on cannot think of. I know that what I want in life, I will ask the Almighty for it and since my prayer is sincere he will give it to me provided the time for that thing has come. So I might have to wait but if there is truth and purity in your heart and when you ask for it your soul does not stop you will get it.

And last but not the least do not complain about the small as well as the big things, whatever the situation be. Please know one thing for sure, that there is power in this universe beyond our comprehension that will put together people, event, circumstances and time to bring forth to what you have asked for provided what all I mentioned above are true and you have started working towards it. In the end I can only say that ask for what-ever you want from the depth of your heart…….