A Touching Incidence

In life, we are generally pretty dissatisfied about how our life is progressing. The dream and fantasy for getting more than what we have, never stops. Whatever be the circumstance we always find some or the other ways of cribbing about our situations and blame various people for our present state. I too fall in this category at many times in my life. Today, I came across an incident which moved me to quite a great extent. During our tea breaks in office, we generally go down to a stall outside our office campus. As I approached the place, I saw a very old man sitting on the ground. He was very shabbily dressed and looked quite ill. The delhi winters were at their peak and he was shivering. The chaiwalla handed the old man a cup of tea. The old man had hardly had a few sips of tea, when suddenly the plastic glass fell from his hand. The hot tea burnt his hands and dirtied his clothes. He just kept staring at the fallen cup and his expression changed to full of pity. In a few moments he burst out crying, very sorrowful at his state. The chaiwalla then offered him another cup of tea but the old man got up and started leaving. After a great deal of persuasion, he took the cup of tea and drank it. In a couple of moments he was gone.

After he had left, I felt a deep sense of guilt within me. I had stood there watching the situation but couldn’t do anything about it. Even if I would have given him money, it would have just given happiness for a few days. But, I could not, in any ways support him for a long time. It made me feel very helpless in life.

The incidence made me forget my cribbing and dis-satisfaction. We tend to always forget people lower than us and keep competing with people who are better than us in terms of materialist wealth. This has made many of us very self centered in life.

Today’s incidence may not have made a tremendous difference in my life. But it has definitely made me a more compassionate person.