I made myself comfortable at the junction of two
coaches in the metro. I looked around at fellow commuters. As usual I found
people busy with themselves. With the advent of smart-phones, this has become
the favourite pastime of commuters in Delhi. People prefer to spend time on
their phones- either playing games, messaging, listening to music or simply
surfing the net. Old and not so old gentlemen and ladies, young college going
youths and children- they have become a slave of this gadget. They no longer admire
the beauty of nature- the blue skyline from the elevated metro, so fresh and
clear after a spell of rains in the second week of March. They even ignore the
beauty of the setting sun behind a piece of cloud at a distance. The orange and
red colour of sky merges with the blue sky and green trees below; making it a
riot of colours as if its nature celebrating the festival of Holi. They do not
find any joy in the chirping of birds outside or the in chuckle of a small
child inside the coach, who chuckles with all his innocence when he finds
himself at the same height as the birds flying across. They fail to note and appreciate
the innocent and refreshing smile on the face of a child that is capable of reducing
all stress and strain to a naught. These daily commuters appear totally
exhausted and bereft of any enthusiasm to appreciate such small pleasures of
life. Rather they prefer to unwind themselves using their smart-phones. I was therefore
quite surprised to find a couple, in their twenties, engaged in animated
discussion, as they appeared from a distance. Their hand movement and facial
expression raised my curiosity as these appeared more spirited than usual. This
couple stood out from the crowd that had got down to the normal practice of getting
busy with their smart-phone. On careful observation I realized that they were
deaf and dumb couple who were actually conversing in sign language. They
appeared quite happy in spite of the fact that the Lord God had deprived them
of the precious gifts of hearing and speech. I than realized the importance of
these invaluable gifts in our life that Lord God has bestowed upon us. I closed
my eyes to get a feel of such shortcoming- as if a blind man commuting on a metro.
It was a painful experience- even if it meant for a couple of minutes. I opened
my eyes and lo and behold! - The beauty of nature unfolded before my eyes. I
considered myself fortunate that Lord God was kind to me and to millions like
me who enjoy the precious gift of senses- speech, sight, smell, taste and hear.
It is indeed unfortunate that we do not make the best of their use. We often tend
to speak impolitely when we could be more polished and polite in our speech; we
tend to look the other way when we could help a person in distress; our ears
are receptive to listening ill of others when we could very well control what
we intend to listen. Life is a beautiful gift from God. I am reminded of Osho
who had philosophized: “respect life, revere life. There is nothing more
holy than life, nothing more divine than life. And life does not consist of big things. Life
consists of very small things.” I believe we must learn to enjoy these
small things of life and enjoy life to its fullest rather than becoming a tool
in the hands of a mechanized gadget. As I stood there, thinking over these
issues, my attention was broken by the announcement. It was Rohini (West) Metro
station. I got down and proceeded towards my home.
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