Casual encounters can reveal truth


The other day I was in search of a handy man. .I mean an honest hardworking person who everybody would appreciate and to whom I would offer extra money for honesty and hard work. These values are becoming rare to find and looking for one so inclined can be such a pain in the neck that one eventually gives up and needs must do with slipshod jobs that we are all too familiar with. Well this is not only my complaint but that of many women who have to undergo the rigmaroles of having to take care of home hearth and work.

Even those with their better halves complain — so logically there is

much more to complain about for women who live alone, and that too

in present day Nepal, where daily life

is a bag full of untoward events dampening every step forward.

Well, I decided to visit a church in search of this person. And that

has much to do with my convent

education where hard work and

honesty were taught to be the sine qua non of success.

The few moments of my conversation with women by the gate was

a revelation of how much wisdom and strength there is in simplicity.

These were ordinary women who told me of their faith, the splendour

and goodness of life offered to humankind, the blessings bestowed upon us all, and our duty in return.

I came back wiser and better prepared to face the challenge of the

day — rather than whine about

the loss of values.

Well other encounters that leave foot prints in the heart are to be

found in the least expected places — like a recent visit to Calcutta — a city avoided by many who unfortunately interpret poverty a crime of the poor - brought me face to face with reality and human acceptance .

The acceptance of the contrasts of life and living reminded me of words that I have often heard from the better off. “We should be thankful that we are so blessed” — a common smug comment which makes me wonder if in that smugness lies an emptiness of heart and a loneliness of sorts. Warm hearts may not have warm hearths — but they sure play gently on our heart strings to sustain our belief in humanity and bounties to be shared. As Mahatma Gandhi has said “There is sufficiency in the world for man’s need but not for man’s greed”.