From an unknown destination to a new Target picked up on course
Sitting and Staring at beach brings me a lot of calm generally , in fact day in and day out it does bring me calm, today was not one such day.I sat there at the beach going over what I had done that day in office , I had complained , screamed and then lost cool over a petty issue of not being noticed despite the hard yards I had put in.
The scene played over again and again in my mind.No matter what, it would just not go away,i tried to shoo it way with a regular routine of mine,closing my eyes and counting till ten , I couldn't even reach six.Finally I came to a conclusion that what I had experienced was unfair and I had every right to feel so and not calm down or perhaps carry the feeling as far it doesn't go away itself.
With such a disturbed mind I started to take a walk along the beach , the day had started to cool down ,Chennai can be hard on you on a summer day and specially in the month of may , I let the waves hit my feet and just sat down to get myself drenched.I just had no idea how long I was there sitting and thinking and ruminating about the day's events.
As it was getting dark , I started to walk back to the road, that is when I saw this incident , A kid with torn trousers was fetching stones from the beach and running to a guy who just took it from him examined it and then threw it away, this happened at-least for five to six times , I just could not suppress my enthusiasm and joined the guy,the boy used to run to us show the stone and then wait expectantly , the guy who asked him to get that would see it and then would just frown and then throw it away , the boy seemed not to understand , look apologetically and then run back to the beach and bring back another.From a conversation with him I understood that all he wanted was a shell.
Finally the guy left with the boy left searching for the stone.I stood there with my blood seething, I just wanted to ask the boy why would he go to such long stretches without understanding what he was doing, when the boy finally returned to find that the guy was gone he stood there for a long time with a long face, he did not know what to do , looking at his face I took pity and started to tell him that all he wanted was a shell not stones, he still was adamant showing the stone to me, I just shrugged my shoulders and thought that at-least I could help the kid and bought it for 20 rs. I put it in my pocket and reached my room.While changing from my wet clothes , the stone fell down from my pocket and there surprisingly was the shell...I was shocked to see that what appeared to be stone was layers of salt and filth that had covered the shell and it was the finest piece of shell I had ever laid hands upon.
The next thought that struck as lightning to me was the morning incident where I was the boy running to and from the beach to fetch the shells and the guy who demanded them was the one who did not recognize them. A smile came to my lips , I knew what needed to be done next .... I just had to know that the filth and sand has to be cleaned before presenting it to the guy( it may be any other guy/company/non-entity doesn't matter to me) who asked for it,for he might not even know what a shell looks like.....
I went back to the beach to find the boy, he was not there , may be he just bought his one night meal ... but he taught me a life lesson..
So what is it , I ask at the end of this,what is it that I am going to change,there-in lies my problem, too many ,one at a time my friend ,one at a time...and all in good time,the thought is all it needs ,to be done