Dear Friends,
I am withholding names of concerned people in the event I am going to narrate today.
Sister of a man aged about 38 came for help last year around this time. she wanted her brother to forget the girl he loved who refused to come out of her house to marry him against her parents' wishes, perhaps.
It was two years since there was heavy silence from both sides.
Boy seemed to lose interest in his life and was quite frustrated.
After work he would come home and even if he were to request for some tea, his sisters at home would tell him to go find a wife who would make it for him as they wont be around for long making him tea all their lives!
Which was true yet he wont budge nor look at any proposals his family would get for him.
Then one day his sister invited me over to her son's birthday party and the boy got talking to me. We were talking for the first time though I knew his background and about his refusal to get married to anyone else.
As we got talking he felt he should come to me for some counseling and advice.
I fixed a convenient time and asked him to air out whatever he felt. As usual he dint want to let down the girl he loved and dint understand why the girl dint have the courage to take a bold step when he was prepared to take her in as his wife.
Caste plays an important role in India and that was the primary reason for the girl's parents refusing to listen to any reasoning by the girl to get married to him.
I talked to him less and listened more to what he had to say.
When it was my turn to talk i reasoned out to him.
I pointed out that he was perhaps wasting his time waiting for this girl to come when she dint have the guts to take a few steps towards his house. Incidentally they both are neighbors and loved each other for more than 3 years!
I told him he was not getting any younger and that he needed a companion in life and it was time to get settled with the few proposals that still came his way.
His ideal time according to his chart cast by me was before July, 2009 and I told him so. I also pointed out that her parents were against her marrying him when they talked to me last about the matter, though I could never meet the girl who was always at home and there was always someone around. So no question of ever talking to her. I knew that this boy was wasting his time waiting for her.
I convinced him that he has to get married and the time was quite short and if not it could very well take even longer to find a suitable bride for him.
This was April, 2009.
In June 1st week the sister came smiling to invite me for her brother's marriage and gave me a generous compliment of turning around her brother to listen to reason when the same turned on deaf ears for so long however much his family tried to talk to him about it.
The wedding was fixed for July 6th, 2009 and the girl was his colleague from the same office he worked in.
This girl was also from a different caste from his.
Anyways the marriage took place and the girl was also in her mid thirties.
God is great. I see the couple happily going about leading a happy life from time to time. I am happy for them.
Yet I feel sad whenever I see or meet this girl who is still not married.
Her parents are now quite free of the tension from this boy who is now married. Whether they are going to take any concrete steps to get her married is to be seen and not discussed or talked about.
I watch silently with prayers in my heart for this girl whose parents wont budge to give her that happiness of selecting her own mate!
Only God can save such girls.
Take care.
Mahalakshmi
Showing posts with label Helping Hand. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Helping Hand. Show all posts
Friday, April 23, 2010
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
The Good Samaritan
Dear Readers,
This an incident which always touches my heart whenever I hear it from my cousin ( I heard it today also for that matter through telecon) or think of it.
My cousin who was a teacher in a school teaching higher classes was trying to better her education by sitting for her Masters in order to get a lecturer’s post in some college. This was the year 1970 in Hyderabad. She had already one Master’s degree but only with a pass in the 3rd division which was not considered enough for the post she was aiming for. So she took up Public Administration as a subject for her Master’s this time and wanted to get a second division with a hope in her heart.
She would appear as a private candidate as she was already working and could not attend regular college. She had to fend for herself and her only daughter at that time, though she had other kind of moral support from a big family on her mother’s side.
With only a crucial 2 days left for the exam paper on public administration and the prescribed book still not anywhere in sight (all the books were borrowed by the regular students of the Osmania University from the Library) her fear was real. She had not had the opportunity to even glance at the book anywhere and with the exam so close by she was feeling very frustrated and jittery about the outcome of this exam on which her future was so very dependent.
As chance would have it, our uncle who was the headmaster of the All Saints’ High School took her along with him to a book exhibition held at the Nizam’s college grounds that day. While going around the book stalls she chanced upon this elusive book and could not take her eyes off it. She kept turning its pages for a long time with no decent sum in her purse with which to buy it off the shelf. My uncle too never carried any simply because they dint have that kind of money in those days. Seeing her interest in the book the Muslim shopkeeper asked her what the matter was. She simply said that her exam was just 2 days away and this was the only book which can help her pass and she could not afford to buy the book as it was priced high at Rs.80/-.
The shopkeeper quietly packed the book in a brown paper sheet and offered it to her saying she can take it, read from it and then return it back to him at the stall after her exams two days later. She was overjoyed and surprised at the turn of events and in turn offered her wrist watch as security against the prized book which he politely declined to accept. It was simply a divine intervention.
She came back home and read a portion in a hurry promising to read it thoroughly the next and the only day left to study. She planned for her young daughter to be sent to our house to play for the day. Told the servant not to come for the day. Cooked a very limited meal and sat down to read the voluminous book. A few hours later, a knock on her door and a couple coming down from Bellary (her late husband’s dear friend and his wife had come to spend the day with the mother and daughter)! Of all days!! But we cannot turn our guests away, who have come from a far off village to meet us, so entertain them she did. She offered them an aloo bhaat (spicy steamed rice with potatoes), chatted with them but deep inside, her mind was on the time that was running out for her!
Then come evening the couple left as the little daughter had not returned even then. The daughter came home for the night, again preparing a meal and washing dishes and what was left was just one night and the next day was the exam day! After putting her daughter to sleep and a bout of crying, she began to read through quickly whatever she could in between nodding off.
The next day at the exam was also tension filled and somehow she wrote her paper that day hoping little to make it in the 2nd division this time around too.
She had very little hopes of passing in the 2nd division and on the day of the results she cried her heart out for she had barely managed to scrape through with a second division in her MA, Public Administration.
Her journey as a lecturer in a government college started off with a better pay packet though she had to travel a long distance by the local train to a college in Dabeerpura on the outskirts of the city of Hyderabad to earn it.
Sbe did return the book to the good samaritan without whose help her dream of moving up in life would have got postponed to yet another year.
At times a power above gives us opportunities and also tests us for strength. We have to make the best of the time we have under the circumstances is the strong message that comes through. We have one life to live and it is 'now' that we can do something positive about it and give ourselves a chance to prove that we are worthy of ourselves.
This is all about a burning desire to achieve something in life.
This is about keeping the effort on to find that elusive something until we get it.
This is about being there at the right place at the right time.
This is about a stranger giving us a helping hand with no conditions attached and in total trust.
This is about those unexpected obstacles which come our way to test us.
This is about making up for lost time at the cost of a sleepless night.
This is about the dawn offering hope of light shining in our lives.
This is about making it against all odds.
This is about God's unseen hands lifting us mortals up with our spirits intact.
This is about divine intervention all the way through.
Since then my cousin has shared this incident with many of her students through the years and so will any who might read this.
Grab that opportunity and make something of your life! Move on.
You have nothing to lose except success!!
Cheers!
Mahalakshmi
This an incident which always touches my heart whenever I hear it from my cousin ( I heard it today also for that matter through telecon) or think of it.
My cousin who was a teacher in a school teaching higher classes was trying to better her education by sitting for her Masters in order to get a lecturer’s post in some college. This was the year 1970 in Hyderabad. She had already one Master’s degree but only with a pass in the 3rd division which was not considered enough for the post she was aiming for. So she took up Public Administration as a subject for her Master’s this time and wanted to get a second division with a hope in her heart.
She would appear as a private candidate as she was already working and could not attend regular college. She had to fend for herself and her only daughter at that time, though she had other kind of moral support from a big family on her mother’s side.
With only a crucial 2 days left for the exam paper on public administration and the prescribed book still not anywhere in sight (all the books were borrowed by the regular students of the Osmania University from the Library) her fear was real. She had not had the opportunity to even glance at the book anywhere and with the exam so close by she was feeling very frustrated and jittery about the outcome of this exam on which her future was so very dependent.
As chance would have it, our uncle who was the headmaster of the All Saints’ High School took her along with him to a book exhibition held at the Nizam’s college grounds that day. While going around the book stalls she chanced upon this elusive book and could not take her eyes off it. She kept turning its pages for a long time with no decent sum in her purse with which to buy it off the shelf. My uncle too never carried any simply because they dint have that kind of money in those days. Seeing her interest in the book the Muslim shopkeeper asked her what the matter was. She simply said that her exam was just 2 days away and this was the only book which can help her pass and she could not afford to buy the book as it was priced high at Rs.80/-.
The shopkeeper quietly packed the book in a brown paper sheet and offered it to her saying she can take it, read from it and then return it back to him at the stall after her exams two days later. She was overjoyed and surprised at the turn of events and in turn offered her wrist watch as security against the prized book which he politely declined to accept. It was simply a divine intervention.
She came back home and read a portion in a hurry promising to read it thoroughly the next and the only day left to study. She planned for her young daughter to be sent to our house to play for the day. Told the servant not to come for the day. Cooked a very limited meal and sat down to read the voluminous book. A few hours later, a knock on her door and a couple coming down from Bellary (her late husband’s dear friend and his wife had come to spend the day with the mother and daughter)! Of all days!! But we cannot turn our guests away, who have come from a far off village to meet us, so entertain them she did. She offered them an aloo bhaat (spicy steamed rice with potatoes), chatted with them but deep inside, her mind was on the time that was running out for her!
Then come evening the couple left as the little daughter had not returned even then. The daughter came home for the night, again preparing a meal and washing dishes and what was left was just one night and the next day was the exam day! After putting her daughter to sleep and a bout of crying, she began to read through quickly whatever she could in between nodding off.
The next day at the exam was also tension filled and somehow she wrote her paper that day hoping little to make it in the 2nd division this time around too.
She had very little hopes of passing in the 2nd division and on the day of the results she cried her heart out for she had barely managed to scrape through with a second division in her MA, Public Administration.
Her journey as a lecturer in a government college started off with a better pay packet though she had to travel a long distance by the local train to a college in Dabeerpura on the outskirts of the city of Hyderabad to earn it.
Sbe did return the book to the good samaritan without whose help her dream of moving up in life would have got postponed to yet another year.
At times a power above gives us opportunities and also tests us for strength. We have to make the best of the time we have under the circumstances is the strong message that comes through. We have one life to live and it is 'now' that we can do something positive about it and give ourselves a chance to prove that we are worthy of ourselves.
This is all about a burning desire to achieve something in life.
This is about keeping the effort on to find that elusive something until we get it.
This is about being there at the right place at the right time.
This is about a stranger giving us a helping hand with no conditions attached and in total trust.
This is about those unexpected obstacles which come our way to test us.
This is about making up for lost time at the cost of a sleepless night.
This is about the dawn offering hope of light shining in our lives.
This is about making it against all odds.
This is about God's unseen hands lifting us mortals up with our spirits intact.
This is about divine intervention all the way through.
Since then my cousin has shared this incident with many of her students through the years and so will any who might read this.
Grab that opportunity and make something of your life! Move on.
You have nothing to lose except success!!
Cheers!
Mahalakshmi
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
