Monday, May 30, 2005

A Street Car Named Luck

This incident happened with me today and I realised something very profound from it.

I was driving in my Nissan to a nearby village administrative centre about 10kms away. On the way, I saw a group of old women in the road, walking slowly. I stopped to give them a lift. They were going to the same place as I was. After about half a kilometer, we saw another group of women, not as old as those in my car. In any case I couldn’t have stopped as there was no space in my car. As we crossed them, much to my surprise, the old women in my car started waving victoriously at them and the women on road, retorted back furiously with shrills and hoot. And the same thing happened, again and again, as we crossed more groups of women, walking in the same road. A deeper enquiry, revealed that all of them were going for collecting food aid from a near by WFP(World Food Program) centre and apparently they were all from the same village and had started together. But the ones whom I had given lift, were left behind in the journey as they were old and couldn’t keep pace! Since only the first few who reach, manages to get some aid, now, by virtue of me giving them lift, they would reach the centre first and surely get some food aid.

At first, I felt like god. But it didn’t take much to dawn on me, a profound truth. These old women knew well that they will never be able to keep pace with others. They also knew that they may walk the entire distance only to reach late and return empty handed! Yet, they chose to walk the distance. And from nowhere, a car reaches them from behind, picks them up and puts right in front, ahead of all others, the able, the faster, the fitter people. Imagine, had they given up enroute, or for that matter not started at all, then would they have got food?!!

We can extrapolate this realization to a greater depth. All of us in our long journey of life, get left behind somewhere. Somebody is always ahead of us somewhere. It doesn’t matter how fast you walk, but what matters is how fast you reach. The idea is to keep walking and never lose hope. For, you never know, the street car named luck driven by god may just be around the corner, waiting to give you a lift, a gentle push to propel you in front., ahead of others who think they are ahead.

Lastly, this incident must be viewed in the correct spirit and one must not reason out that luck is everything!

3 comments:

The Ignoramus said...

nice incident...

Anonymous said...

Hi there,

Came across your blog after seeing your profile on one of the matrimonial sites..Interesting and very profound, I must admit.

Cheers/"sums_2007"

The Soul Doctor said...

@ sums_2007

thanks. you are welcome :)

karthik