Companion of 18 years
Eighteen
years ago, which does not seem to be longer than eighteen months, I got married
to a girl selected by my parents. After
a few months of marriage I realized that my wife is not inclined towards various
prayers, fasting days, donations to priests, temples and other religious
rituals.
She
was not disrespecting to any of these things/acts/places but she was not in to it. Her disinterest did not raise any eyebrows in
my house, as the family members were liberal and democratic by nature.
Later
on, eyebrows did were raised but for different and pleasant reasons. The reason was my wife’s nature of extending
impromptu help to any person. Sensing
anybody in trouble her mind starts working frantically to arrive at a solution
or help. And it does not matter an iota
that the person in trouble is not known to us.
I
first experienced about her helping nature after a few months of the
marriage. We went to see off my parents
at Delhi railway station. They settled
in their compartment and we were standing on the platform, doing the usual see
off talk. An old lady, sitting in the same compartment, near window was
cleaning her specs with her sari. A
sudden movement of train resulted in loss of balance for the old lady and her
specs fell down out of the window and below the train. The train had started and the specs could be
retrieved only after the departure of train. No relative of that old lady was there at that
moment, so retrieving the specs after the departure was not making sense. Train was catching up the speed. Suddenly my wife started running along the
train asking that lady to give her phone number. The old lady could not understand but my
father understood what my wife was saying.
He immediately took the name and Delhi phone number of the old lady,
scribbled it on the back page of a newly bought magazine, tore it and threw it
out of the window. My wife took that
paper and we waited for the train to depart completely. After the departure I got down on the rail
treks and took possession of the specs, which fortunately were not broken. Later on we called the relatives of old lady
over phone and soon her son came to our house and collected his mother’s specs.
I
was bowled over by her immense desire to help and the great presence of mind.
In
later years I witnessed many such acts like taking out a tiny stray pup from
the gutter, least bothering about, spoiling the hands. Once she decided to
remove all the plastic litter from Aarey Milk Colony in Mumbai. Yes, it is true, with the help of two hired
hands and myself, she set on a mission to make the Aarey Milk Colony litter free
and we 4 people in 6 hours cleaned 250 KG of plastic litter from that paradise
in Mumbai.
A
recent act amazed me once again, even after being witness to so many acts of
hers. She found one of the watchmen of
our housing society very weak and pale.
She inquired and the watchman told her about his fever and medicines he
is taking. She asked him about his diet
and soon realized that the diet which the watchman was taking was at all not
nutritious. She asked some more questions
and was sad to note that his financial position did not allow him a better
diet.
She
made a plan, discussed with me and implemented.
She decided to provide one glass of milk and two glucose biscuits to all
the 16 watchman everyday at 8.00 AM. 16
steel glasses were bought the same day and from next day the process
started. She gets up early in the
morning, fetches 5 liters of milk and at 8.00 AM 16 people are served some
nutritious diet. She confessed to me
that a bigger satisfaction for her from this program is generating faith among
the under privileged about the helping nature of mankind.
With
her by my side, every day, a saying crosses my mind which says ‘Hands that help
are far greater than lips that pray’.
Once
I asked her about her disinterest in worshipping in temples and she replied,
‘Human beings are created by god and god is created by human beings, it is
better to worship the creation of god rather than creation of human beings’.
This
is how my companion of 18 years is.
Sanjay
Bordia