Monday, September 3, 2007

Opportunity lost...Smile regained

It is so difficult to give someone an opportunity...an opportunity that could change a person from being mediocre to becoming a star...
But
Sometimes opportunities that come in 'satisfaction guaranteed' or 'You are sure to become succesful' packages are deceptive...
Some opportunities come in ugly disguises but turn out be most fulfilling in terms of success...
There was once a boy who was uneducated, unemployed and spent days in hunger yet did not want to beg
He went into a temple and found that the temple required someone to ring the bell...he thought he would make a wonderful bell-boy. He asked the concerned person. The boy was sure he would fit the role and his heart filled with joy. But he was rejected on grounds that he was uneducated. He cried and kept crying all day long.
After he cried out his pain, he remained quiet for sometime and decided he would pedal goods from house to house and in this way he would earn enough money to buy himself some food. He started selling flowers. People would ask him to buy goods for them from neighboring shops and he would deliver them back home. With the money he earned he opened a mobile shop; on cycle. He soon opened a small shop in his village selling all sorts of amenities. His business picked up and he kept growing. At one point in time, he owned a chain of retail stores and was a leading business man. He was extremely famous, earned lot of respect and once during an interview someone exclaimed "You have grown so much without education. I can imagine how successful you would have been, had you studied."
With a big smile he replied, "I would have been a bell-boy."

The boy had an opportunity to ring the bell at the temple and earn money but he was not given that opportunity. And thank goodness for that!

Lot of us go through this in our lives. I have not been given so many opportunities. They could not feel the pain I went through. They could not see my tears...They could not see that my heart bled...they wanted some 'education.' Some superficial qualification. They failed to see the heart's yearning to learn. But...I know these are opportunities that ultimately do not give you any satisfaction or joy.

I don't know if this post is well written and I don't care because when I started writing this, I was crying uncontrollably but now I am smiling.

And that is what matters.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

very nice post.. it shows how mature u r to have written positively when u were crying so badly.. way to go.. all the very best.