Letter to My friends- 4

Hello Friends,

I pray to God that this letter finds you in best of your health. It’s long since I have mailed the last letter. The days are hectic here but it is still full of joy, learning and happiness. My class is progressing at a good pace , kids are learning new things and teaching me more than what I teach them. It feels great to be with them, the day finishes as if a couple of hour have passed.

    Today I would talk about a different thing not about kids, nor about the leadership forums, nor about my experiences at Teach For India, but I will share something that many of us must have felt at different modes of our life.

It was the celebration of Ganesh Visarjan, which is celebrated with full enthusiasm in Maharashtra and my first year at Maharashtra. So, I was out on roads to watch the culture forgetting Swine Flu, without a mask I was with a crowd nearly 10,000 people. Roads were blocked for kms. everywhere just one sound “Ganapati Bappa Morya...” It was first time I have seen such a massive and dedicated crowd gathered not to see a politician or a celebrity but to sing and pray together. Everything was fine but all of a sudden I found that the sound of “Ganapati Bappa Morya...” was lowering down in my ears, though I was standing right there, my soul was there but my mind was somewhere else. There was all together a different thought going in my mind and the question was:  Why is the man mad in the rat race of money, when real happiness lies somewhere else?

I messaged the question to few of my friends but no one replied, it might be no one knew the answer or everyone is after money. I also don’t know why was I thinking so, but that question still annoys me a lot. Over there I was seeing people dancing, singing, enjoying forgetting all their sorrows and misery they were enjoying life, I too was very engaged until this question crept in my mind. All these thoughts were floating in my mind but then also the scene over there was mesmerizing and at last after a long time I decided to go back home. It was a wonderful evening.

     But there was a lot to see today. As I was leaving from there, in the very next lane there was a lottery shop, wide open and people drinking and gambling there. You can understand the adversity of the two tremendously different situations. Once again it portrayed the diversity of our society, how different the conditions are for people from different strata’s of our society, one side it is Lord Ganesha and the other side is the gambling corner. These conditions often disturbs my mind but trying to change the things around him man starts living in those conditions and becomes a part of it.

  It was not the end, I saw something and that sight was new to me, the scene was like a hammer on my mind. I realized that real scene and  something read in a book are quite different and they have different impact also.....

              Its long for now and I know that many of us avoid such long mails.... So, will continue in the next and this time very soon.

Till then reflect and suggest me the answers.... !!!

All the Best