Hope And Faith

Dear Friends,

I thought I should share this incident with you all today before I forget it altogether.

I used to travel a lot between Hyderabad and chennai as my kids were studying in Chennai while my husband was working at Patancheru, near Hyderabad between the years 1987 and 1991.

In one of the train journeys two men from different backgrouds and I were talking about life in general. One gentleman who worked for the railways, was narrating how his life took a positive turn even while at school.

His granny had to bring up him and his sister as his parents died one after another when they were just around 5 and7 years old. He being the eldest had to do chores to be able to live with his grandma who was too old to work anymore. They were very poor. she could not afford to send him to school. But he was so much interested in going to school that he would go and sit outside class II and hear the lessons going on inside the class. Soon the headmaster caught him sitting there and upon enquiry found out that he was not a pupil of his school.
He took pity on this poor child and allowed him to sit inside the class for a few years until middle school. This boy studied very well.
His life was not easy either during non-school hours.
He recalled how he used to fill water from a well into a huge container in a rich man's house in the village from 5.30am. Those were days of no tap water.
The lady of the house would then give him the previous night's leftover rice and buttermilk. He would take it home so that his granny and sister could also share what little he got to eat.
Then he would have just enough time to have a bath and rush off to school. Come evening he would to odd jobs at some other houses and get to eat some food in the evening too.
When he reached 7th standard he had to pay fees and he had no money. His headmaster called him aside and told him he cannot help him anymore unless he paid his annual fees to attend his classes from then on.
A miracle then happened when he got money order to pay the annual fee each and every year without fail. The kind donor never revealed himself to this boy at all till the very end. He passed his 12 standard with good marks score.
Through an anonymous donor yet again he enrolled into college and finished his degree successfully, all the while working to keep the home fires burning through jobs at the village houses.
He then had an ambition to work in the railways and his joy knew no bounds when he got selected for a post in the signals department. His job was to teach and train workers on the signal systems in the department.

He said he got married and had kids. He got his sister married to a decent guy and she also had kids.

He said he never knew till date who was the donor of the fees every year. I said i guessed his head master could be the benevolent soul yet he was not so sure who did it and why he/she did it without taking any credit for such a noble act.

He was settled in life yet there was not a single day he would pray for this invisible, unheard and nameless soul.

This inspired me to think that there are so many good people around who just help out and dont bother about getting recognized or rewarded for such acts of kindness. May their tribes increase and make our world a loving and caring place to live.

Take care.
Mahalakshmi