THE STORY OF MR NOBODY…..

The human race is narcissistic and a condescending one. Self preservation is one of our best qualities and we do it better than anyone else. And this sense of self preservation makes us a little too distant from everyone else’s problem. In my quest to tell stories I met a humble man named Hussain. He dear readers, lost the race that all of us are running in, and here is his story.

I’ll be paraphrasing,” I used to be a content man. I had a beautiful wife with a smile that could turn anyone’s bad day into a good one, and our two children meant the world to us. I had four acres of land which gave me everything from food to shelter and most of all my happiness. And one day it was all gone, just like that. My village became a victim to drought. My green fields dried out, the smile on my wife face slowly disappeared, and it did not show up again ever. My two sons left us and moved to Bangalore. Poverty came into our home as a guest, and now she is a member of our family. Rain did not show up for some time. When we looked up to the government for help they gave us a meager five thousand per acre. That money wasn’t helpful in sending our guest out of our house. Three months passed by, my health was getting worse day by day, and my children were in no situation to come back. So I thought of visiting them and get a medical check up done with their help. As I left my village I made a promise to my wife that when I return, I will be fit and fine. A little bit of happiness blossomed in me as I was excited to see my kids, but to my surprise that wasn’t the same with my kids. My kids sent me out of their home. With no place to go and no money to travel back, I sat on a footpath. A person passing by dropped a coin onto my lap, that’s the movement I became a beggar. I started to beg everyday and made do with what I received. A meal a day to keep me alive and street for my shelter. I often think of going back, but then I made a promise to my wife that I will return only when I am well. To forget the pain that my body suffers and to get over my lost dignity I started drinking alcohol. In my village, I was a respected man, everyone knew my name, but now I am a nobody.”

The short conversation I had with this man left a lasting impression on me. A man could lose anything but not hope. Hope is what drives man to move on in life. Even though he had lost everything the man had a very humble heart. He wished me goodbye with a big blessing that made my day. Thank you, Hussain Saab for that.

-Chandrashekar.C 😊

Superheroes Without Capes

Heroes aren’t born, they are forged. Forged from a sense of duty, honor and pride towards their country. I am here to share a story of one such hero. He served as a technician in the Indian air-force. His name is Ravindra N Badgi, who hails from north Karnataka. And this is what he said,

“When I was in seventh standard my senior had come back to our village from his basic training in the Indian army. I could see a lot of changes in him, his language had improved, his physique had improved. So this motivated me to join the armed forces. I started my preparation right from ninth standard, not just physically but also mentally. I prepared everyday for three years. All this hard work paid off the day I cleared my exams with flying colours. I was allocated the electronic and communication stream on PUC basis. On first October 1980 my basic and trade training started, it lasted for fifteen months. During the training I had a lot of challenges to overcome and I faced them all and came out as a officer. I was posted in central air command, Allahabad. There I met a lot of people from various states and I was able to bond with them”

“During Sri Lankan Civil War I was posted in Sri Lanka as part of Indian peace keeping force. The civil war was between the Sri Lankan government and LTT rebels. Rajiv Gandhi, our then Prime minister was very keen on extending our help to the government of Sri Lanka. We went there as a peace keeping force, but actually we were there to fight a war. LTT forces were well versed in Guerrilla warfare and our Indian soldiers weren’t trained in those tactics. We were lucky to catch some LTT rebels, but they committed suicide by consuming cyanide. Even though we had many disadvantages on our side, slowly but steadily we learnt the LTT’s ways and we were able to win the war”

“In the war we lost many of our own soldiers but we were committed to the cause, which has made us to loose fear in our hearts. When one of our soldier fell, there was someone else to fill his shoes. For a soldier’s life is a just a small price to pay to our mother land”

 Whenever we take names of great personalities we talk about Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Dr Ambedkar etc, but we fail to acknowledge the soldiers of our country, who stands guard day and night for us. In a nation where people think twice before standing up when they hear national anthem, we have some people who don’t think before they give life to their motherland. For I salute every Jawan who is there for us in every situation. I salute to everyone of those unsung heroes of our country.

-Chandrashekar.C

The Paradise of Books

A library is a gateway into other experiences, lives, the hopes and dreams, and most of all it is the palace to all of humanities endeavors. The most important assets of a library are the people in it. This story which I’m going to share is of a man who spends most of his time with the company of books. His name is Mr Hanmant Hondadakeri. He hails from Haveri district and has a master’s in library science. He is working as a librarian in the public library of Sahakaranagar for the past fourteen years. This is what he shared with me.

And I’ll be paraphrasing: “The relationship between the books and me is similar to a relation between a child and a mother. How a mother takes care of the child in every possible way, we do the same with the books. When new books come into the library we register it and give it to the readers, once they read it they share their opinion on the books. Readers who come in don’t go for the same genre, some prefer for detective stories, others for novels, and some even for children’s poems. Readers who come here are not limited to a certain age groups, but they vary from a small child to a elderly man. I have seen kids studying forth and fifth standard grow to men working as engineers, but still they have the same love and compassion towards me. I have some readers who have invited my family and me to their homes for dinner, others gift us ellu bella on Sankranti and also wish us on Deepawali. I get to see children calling me library uncle with a big smile on their faces. I don’t think I need anything else in life other than this.”

“We have readers who suggest us new books to bring into the library. Some readers have donated their books and toys to the library, and some have given me their books to read. One such book was Amma Helida Entu Sullugalu, beautifully written by A.R.Manikanth. The book has a thought provoking articles with a really good message.”

“We have many daily visitors, and one amongst them is a old man, who is mute. He is the very first man to enter the library after the staff and also the last one to leave. He helps me with tying the newspapers together and also advice people against creating disturbances in the library with his sign language. One fine day he stopped coming, then, after a very long gap he started coming again. After asking him I came to know that he had fallen sick, and he had no family to take care of him. I was moved by his plight. The thing is that a few readers who walk in don’t have even basic ethics, I’m not asking them to help me, but atleast they should place the book back where they took it from. Even though this man was mute he showed  kalakali kalaji (Care) for the library. This quality of his made him dear to me”

“The emotional connection that the books and I share can’t be expressed in words. Library for me is like a university, where books are the faculty and offers only one course, that is, ‘The course of life’ and to pursue it we have to explore the books.“

The short conversation I had with the librarian left a warm feeling in me. It showed me how a small library can become a social environment, where books not only narrate the story inside them, but also the story of the readers. In the world of social media we tend to forget the little friends called books. A suggestion from me would be to take a day off from our cocoons called social media, headon to the nearest library, and read a book of your choice.

I would like to conclude by quoting Mr Hanmant Hondadakeri, “Books are like the air we breathe, we are the books and books are us”.

-Chandrashekar.C

A DAY IN A GATEMAN’S LIFE

As soon as you read the title you would have thought who this gateman is, what kind of profession this is. Basically the biggest question on your mind would be who he is? This story which I am going to share is about a man who’s job makes sure thousands of people are safe and sound but the saddest part, no one cares to even give him a simple thank you. Here I present you Mr Santosh, who has an undergraduate degree in commerce and is currently working as the gateman for the Indian railways and this is his story.

I’ll be paraphrasing. “I got this job through my father. He gave up his job by giving a V.R.S and passed  his job to me. He thought it would be nice if I work for the railways and also he was happy that the job is going down the family. “

“I have a twelve hour shift i.e we either have a day shift or a night shift. Our job requires us to be extremely alert and also to have a great deal of patience. Whenever a train is going to cross by our gate we get a call from the station master who tells us which way the train is coming from. After he informs us our duty starts. We have to close the gates and make sure the train passes without any hindrances. The main problem for me is not the big train but these random people standing near the gates. Sometimes people keep crossing the tracks even when the gates are closed, at other times some shout at us for not opening the gate fast. We should also bear the public’s heat when the train due to pass isn’t on time. But the only thing I really care about is that no mishap should happen on my watch.”

In my personal view this man who I interviewed wasn’t expecting thank you from the people, but just a bit of respect. We as humans tend to overlook many things in life, like the newspaper boy, the policemen on the streets, the cleaner who picks up our garbage but in the end we call them garbage men. A suggestion from me would be to take a second to thank every brave soul who helps us even when we don’t ask them for it because according to me a person saying thank you with a big smile on his face is the biggest gift for a job well done.

-Chandrashekar.C

Face life with a smile 😃

In my previous post we met wonder woman Miss Gowramma, who’s life was nothing but inspiring. In my new article we are going to meet a man who made me realize no job is too small or big. Here I present you Mr Govindarajappa, who has an undergraduate degree in commerce (B.Com) and is currently working as an auto-driver. Here is a short conversation with him which I’ll be paraphrasing, ” I did my B.Com from B.L college, passed out in the year 1990. My hobby was to drive. At that time when I was younger I had a bajaj chetak scooter. My wife and I would embark on long journeys all across Karnataka and rest of south india on our chetak. Initially I worked at a private firm in Bangalore as a cashier, which had its main branch situated in Bombay. The September 11 attack on the world trade center forced the company for which I worked  to close, due to which I lost my job. My vibrant life started becoming dull.I started searching for new jobs in different companies but all I got was rejection. Unemployment stuck with me for 6 months.”

” Then one fine day my brother-in-law suggested me to drive an auto for living. Initially I was embarrassed to take up the job but then I had no other option. To buy a new auto I had to sell my dear chetak, this was really a agonizing moment for me. With the money from the loan and selling my other belongings I was able to buy a two stroke auto. At the beginning, the feeling of driving an auto wasn’t humbling to me but, later I came to realize that my hobby had become my job so I took this up with all my heart and devoted all my life to driving as I found bliss in it. Later with the help of my auto I gave quality education to my children and I’m able to live a wonderful life myself.”

In my opinion this man who I met is amazing and even though circumstances made him loose his job and  threw a curveball at him, it just so happened that it was something he loved and embraced his reality. He was courageous enough to decline a later offer for a desk job and continued to ride on……. The very last thing he told me was ”  Life puts many obstacles at you but one should always remember to never get depressed and face it with a smile “.

There is always tomorrow

In my quest of connecting to people and knowing their stories I met  quite a few people. Do you know what  I got at first?A bold rejection. After having many such rejections, I found a women who was more than happy to connect with me. Here I present you the wonder women Gowramma. She belongs to a very humble background and hails from Hunsur. Currently she is working as a cleaner at a cargo company. Let me give a glimpse on how we got connected just by talking and here is a short conversation bit as spoken by her, ” I lost my husband 12 years back when his presence was required the most. At the time of my husband’s death my daughters were aged 14 and 7. During this phase of my life the only thought running in my mind was how to run my family, fulfilling their education and making their future secure. Though my brothers came forward to take part in looking after my family I refused to seek their offered help as I had a  firm feeling to run my family on my own. Initially I started working as a sweeper at BMSIT college for 6 months, later I moved on to a garments factory where I earned rupees 600-700 per month, apart from work at the factory I also used to make garlands which too fetched me around rupees 600. Yes! Initially it was difficult to run my family with this paltry sum of money but I never gave up. “,

” This struggle of mine continued for many years to come but, with all these struggles and hard living I successfully married off my elder daughter to a good family. This was one of the most enthralling moments in my life. Recently 2 years back i married off my younger daughter to a family which promised to take care of her education further. Now I feel jubilant and relaxed as well as proud of myself that I have successfully reached my destination with flying colors “.

In my personal point of view this women whom I met was bold, independent and optimistic enough to lead her life on her own terms. She faced life head-on irrespective of what situation it put her in. I would like to end by quoting a inspiring qoute this women said, ” I always believed tomorrow to be better as I ended my hardship today “.

Are we really connected?

I started this blog with nothing on my mind what so ever, not knowing why I started this or for whom i started this blog. Then the other day I was youtubeing and I came across a Ted talk ,” Talk to strangers” by Danny Harris and during the course of watching this video Danny asked a couple of questions to the viewers, such as “If you left your home for a couple of days will anyone come knocking the door for you or will people even notice you are gone!”,”Do you know  your neighbors really well?”. These questions triggered something in me.Because, I didn’t know the answers for most of those questions. As I sat there watching Danny talk i wondered why are we disconnected even when we share this so called planet earth our home, why are we disconnected even though we are the same deep inside.This thought even stuck Danny years ago   when he had just moved to New York. This thought made Danny panic and so he came up with a website called People’s District where he shares incredible stories of common people. And there I was wanting to do something like that not because i wanted to become like Danny but I wanted to connect to people with whom we share this marvelous planet.So there you go my first post on why i started this small blog of mine and from now on every week I am going to reach out to people who are complete strangers to me and interview them and share their incredible stories with you guys not from my eyes but theirs!