KHIDKI TAK HI ACHHA HAI
In
the morning, today, I was going down from the fourth floor to the ground floor.
The lift stopped on the second floor. Our lift has a collapsible door inside
and a light wooden-type door outside. When the lift stopped on the second
floor, I saw no one from the glass window of the door. Suddenly the door opened
and a short elderly house-maid got in.
“Mausi,”
I said playfully, “aap toh dikthe hi nahin
the andhar se.”
“Saab,
mere ko Bhagwan ne khidki tak hi rakha hai na,” mausi explained
to me, understandably being used to my-kind of mild teasing about her height.
She was such a lively woman, so full of warmth at her ripe age, that I felt happy
for people she served.
“Bhagwan
ne aapko dil bada diya hai mausi,” I complimented her.
“Aur
kya chayiye saab,” mausi was content to hear me, “Khidki tak hi achha hai.”
By now, we both were
out of the lift. I walked with her for a short distance before she went to her
next house. In this short period of time, she told me why she was thankful to
God… starting from her health to her daughters and grand children. “Khidki tak hi achha hai.”
My overall enthusiasm
and spirit had been very low today. But, somehow, this brief encounter with mausi
in the morning kept returning to my heart to rekindle my spirit…
Often, our day is made
by simple people and simple incidents around us… and not necessarily by ‘tall’
people and ‘big’ events…
Inside, despite my ‘tallness’,
my spirit was low… To rekindle, there was a simple soul outside, just below the
window!
GERALD D’CUNHA
Pic.: Sagnik Ganguly
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