Evening Walk........

Evening walk was favorite pass time for my grandpa. His style of living and personality was nothing less than a class act. It was perfection personified.
Nice and clean white dhoti with no wrinkles, shining white plain kurta accompanied by Maharashtrian cap, nice carved tilak on his forehead, wonderful smile on his face with a walking stick in his hand and way he use to go for an evening walk everyday without fail.

His path never changed starting from our house it was the temple then the garden and back home again. He used to take me with him I became a bit old to skip walk and go for more exciting stuff like playing in the sand with other kids and race with each other to decide who can quickly climb a tree. We walked alongside the road with these huge trees sometimes healthy and rich and sometimes weak and poor. We used to reach the temple where he met his friends, and they use to have fun talking about all boring things like pensions, government policies, weather and trying to look for bride and groom for people who are of age to get married. I used to be like how can a person talk about same things for so many days ?

It was yet another day when I came back from school and off with my uniform plus school shoes ran into grandpa's room and told him this very nice story I heard.

"It was summer and everybody were happy, dancing and playing and so was the grasshopper. While playing his favorite tune on the violin he came down near a group of ants where he saw them working, gathering food, wood for fire and some wool for warm clothes. He laughed at them saying this is waste. Then came winter and grasshopper was nearly dying, when ants gave him food which they saved during summer. Moral of the story "it is always wise to plan ahead".



He was listening to me carefully probably was amazed by my expressions and twinkle in the eyes of small children because they don't have to try hard to be innocent. We went for a walk that day and looking at the trees I said to him, "Are they alive ?", "Yes" he said. "Why don't they save leaves from the time when they have plenty ? Are they grasshoppers ? Can' they plan for future ?".


His answer was the best one can ever imagine or think of saying, " No, they are not grasshoppers they are smarter than anyone. They are proving a point."

"What point ?" I asked.

He said, "One day everyone asked the trees what do you like doing the most ?" and trees replied, "We like to grow flowers and fruits for all animals and birds. Everyone said they could not do it forever and will never succeed in their task. Some went ahead challenged them saying they are no good and what they are doing is not correct, suggesting to get cut off and at-least be a log in the fireplace where they can be more effective. Some weak trees fell down to these constant biting but the one who were strong stood their ground and trusted their instincts and continued to believe in what they like. Then came spring and these trees had flowers, leaves and fruits. They reached their goal. Every year they are proving a point to themselves all those people who are biting them. In the end strong ones always succeed."

I was always attracted by the temple, river flowing alongside it and then the garden while I use to walk with my grandpa. But that walk taught me something special which I overheard in that age.
Probably I am getting exact meaning of his words now..

I should wait for my spring to come ....... :)



Cheers
- Kalps.