PETALS OF THE SAME FLOWER
“Bless us O Lord and these Your gifts,
which we are about to receive
from Your bounty. Amen.”
The Grace before meal
Incidentally,
two of my friends called me, last evening… Both of them with contrasting
reasons. And, let me tell you this, at the outset: I have no intention to judge
them… They are my normal, good friends!
The first friend wanted to check, if I had any ‘bottle’ to
spare at home! He knew I was a teetotaler, but occasionally sipped some sweet port-wine
(For that, this friend of mine, always teased me, calling me a ‘bachha’
who refused to come out of his playschool!). This brand-conscious friend of mine
seemed desperate, yesterday, and said to me, “Friend, in this time, even your port-wine
is scotch for me!”
Well, I joked and rewound the famous Asrani dialogue from
Sholay: “Jail me pistol?” … “Mere ghar me bottle?”
No way!
The other friend wanted to know, if any help was needed for
our maids. He and some of his friends, through a charity organization, were reaching
out to maids and house-helps, who were now locked in their houses, with
necessary groceries – chawal, atta aur daal. Overwhelmed, I gave
the contact numbers of a maid who was helping me in my classes and office and two
other maids who helped at my in-laws’ place.
“Phul nahi phulachi pakli”… The other day I heard our
CM, Uddhav Thackeray, saying in his speech, pointing to a little girl’s (from a
remote part of Maharashtra) little way of reaching out in this ‘Mahamari’
time. Yes, the time may be of ‘Mahamari’… but, the little help does matter,
maha-way! If we cannot reach out with a flower, we can, certainly, do it
with a petal… With phul nahi phulachi pakli!
So, this second friend of mine has, certainly, not done some ‘sensational’
charity. But, let me tell you this: he has done enough to sensitize my heart,
besides doing the ‘petal-size’ help to our three maids!
I am not judging my first friend, though. He is, like the
rest of the world, is in isolation. But, he is not an isolated case. Each one
of us is ‘bottled-up’ with our own concerns… I may not be desperate for a ‘bottle’,
but, I am desperate for my own ‘stuff’!
Another
friend of mine, this morning, shared this old saying:
“When fishermen can’t go to sea, they repair their nets.”
If alone, we understood the meaning of this!
We all are these fishermen who are, presently, unable to go
to the sea. Yes, the sea is rough, now… It’s the time to repair our nets!
Stephen Covey had classified this work – of repairing the
nets - as the 7th Habit, in his path-breaking book - ‘Seven Habits
of Highly Effective People’. He had called it: ‘Sharpen the Saw’.
All of us needed this ‘time out’; but, we kept saying - ‘We
are too busy’. We are now timed-out by Nature… We are left with our blunted
saws and broken nets!
Two
friends called me, last evening; and, another sent a message, this morning. They
all ended up being the petals of the same flower!
GERALD D’CUNHA
Pic.: www.pixnio.com
Video: Michael Jackson
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