Today I am going to share an incident from my life that completely changed my perspective towards leading life for the good. I am pretty sure that after reading this even you would start contemplating your way of life. This happened during a campaign for Samagra Foundation, when we were donating clothes and blankets to the needy and the desperate, since winter season was only a fortnight away. During this campaign, we came across many different people as usual, such as beggars at a traffic signal, homeless people on the foot paths, etc.
Amongst them, we a met person had worn out clothes and footwear, long unwashed hair and beard, body covered in dirt and a peculiarly distinct odour. Observing him, as everyone would do, we deduced him to a beggar. Needless to say, even if he wasn’t a beggar; he looked like someone who could use our help. We went ahead and offered him some clothes along with helping him to clean up, but he politely refused. I was taken aback with his rejection and immediately started contemplating the reasons for him doing so. Maybe he was feeling shy, maybe scared, something….there must be a reason.It was the first time our team had experienced this sort of behaviour. Curiously, we all riled up towards him, demanding an explanation for not accepting the clothes.
He replied, “Thank you deeply for making an effort towards me. It made my heart swell; however, I can’t accept this. I am poor yes, but I am not a beggar. I am a rag-picker. I roam around the city all day every day, collecting scrap to sell to the recycling scraper. I work hard to make my ends meet. God is looking over me. I am not to do well but I am content with the way I am leading my life, able to stand on my own feet and most importantly, never having to bow before someone.”
His words struck us like a lightening bolt. I was completely baffled at his response. It made me wonder, there are people with abundance of possessions who don’t miss out an opportunity of grabbing something for free.(The moment they get the notification of open Wi-Fi, cellular data is switched off). However, amongst those was this guy, who despite of being in arguably bad conditions, is away from these temptations.
We all learned a lot from that incident and that person. Life is not about not falling ever, but about getting up every time you fall, always striving to move forward, not just complaining for your situation but working hard for changing it for the good and most important, believing in yourself. If you don’t believe or respect yourself, no one will.