Being Lucky…

by NaSa

Didn’t win the last lottery? Couldn’t become what you once dreamt of becoming? Couldn’t marry your lover? Don’t have a son? Couldn’t get 110% marks? Fumbled in your debate? Couldn’t crack IAS or IIT? Couldn’t succeed in your fourth attempt as well? If you have these or such reasons to lament and feel unlucky, you surely have following reasons to consider yourself the blessed one. 

• Sound mental and physical health. Health is something that we take for granted till the time we fall ill and again continue to take it for granted when we recover from our illness. Remember those games that we all used to play in our childhood such as ‘langdi taang’ where one kid had to catch others with one leg folded or that one wherein one kid with blindfold had to catch all others. These and such games were games because we could run with one leg folded or a blindfold on our own free will but it’s no more a game when such things become a way of life. Remember that scene of the movie ‘Guzaarish’ where Hritik Roshan demonstrates his feeling about his vegetative physical state? Clearly, there is no other greater blessing in life than a fit body and mind.
• Enough to eat and clean enough water to drink. The other day I was reading a narrative by Mr. Narayanan Krishnan, who was a chef in a five-star hotel and was shortlisted for an elite job in Switzerland in 2002. Mr. Krishnan changed his direction of life when he saw an old man eating his own human waste under a bridge in Manglore. That day onwards, Mr. Krishnan has been feeding more than 450 mentally ill, poor people since past 14 years.
• A home. Don’t go by the Bollywood definition of a house as ‘sar pe chhat’ conveyed in any hit scene through a powerful dialogue. Real-life ‘jhuggis’ are not as romantic as it may sound or seem in films. If you’ve a decent home to live in from a ‘pukka makan’ to a mansion, you’re a blessed soul.
• Friends or even one close friend. I once saw a kid, one of those who you see begging roadside, alone and crying. There was no one to console him or ask him what his problem was or give him a shoulder to cry. It was a busy road, full of traffic and people but he did not exist for any of them. Fortunately enough, it was my son’s birthday and I had with me a packet of snacks that in any case had to give to a needy. I handed it over to him and moved. I watched from my car’s rear-view mirror, he stopped crying and was busy with the packet.
• Liberty to express yourself. We have got this in our country so it might not be a big deal for us but we can have a clue of it even by imagining ourselves in the era of Hitler.
• Parents. Apart from being a great pair of human beings who can sacrifice anything for you, they are magical shields that God has blessed you with. The magic of this shield is that you can enjoy the good on your own but if anything bad, it has to get to you through them and till the time they are with you, this world is safe heaven for you.
• Time and money for recreation. In today’s time we cannot imagine our lives without social networks, outings, get-togethers, parties and hobbies. And nothing out of all these is possible without money. I used to give eatables, clothes and shoes to a needy family who used to live roadside in a ‘jhuggi’. Once I was going somewhere so I thought of packing the extra food I had in my kitchen and giving it to them. It was around 7:45 in the evening and when I reached there and found them asleep. For me it was just 7:45 pm but for them, it was time to sleep because they neither had light nor access to fun.
• Resources to connect to the world. Don’t know about anybody else but I feel empowered when I post any of my grievance on FB or Twitter or spread my word on WhatsApp or get even one letter to the editor published in a newspaper. One day without phone, TV and newspaper can make you feel like you are marooned on an Island.
• Liberty to wear what you want. Liberty to wear want you want range from anything in the trend to traditional/conservative clothing like hijab. Even a three-year-old these days wears clothes of his choice. My neighbour once told me his  5-year-old son wears just one red jacket almost all the winter except for the days she washes it. Despite having a dozen other jackets of same and other colours, he chooses and is empowered to wear his choice.
• A school around to educate your child. It’s important for a child to get education in an affiliated school, branded or not.
• Right to vote. No matter how powerful political leaders are, they have to woo and win you over every 5 years, sometimes earlier also. So, the ultimate power lies in you, the voter. We should feel lucky to be living in a democratic country.