The most unexpected lessons in life are learnt through people, not in classrooms. In my 17 years on this planet, no textbook has given me insights into life the way different people have. Here is one such lesson I learnt.
Dadar station is a few minutes away from where I live and I study in Juhu, so I took the trains every morning. If I was late I took a cab to the station. No big deal except that amazingly, I got the same cab (known as the kali-pili — black and yellow) every morning. Amazing, because in a city like Mumbai getting the same cab everyday is rare. The same face drove me to the station daily. By the month’s end we were good friends and I knew his name was Ramesh.
During those 15 minutes in the early hours of the milkman we would share our joys, sorrows, beliefs and disbeliefs. Stories or events that took place after he left me were shared. Ramesh told me how he and his wife fought all the time, his children’s age, names, how they would fare in their exams and sports. He told me about his daughter, Meena, 12 years old, fair, short, stout... He spoke about her all the time.
Though she wasn’t all that good in academics, she bagged most of the trophies in the extra-curricular stuff. “She wants to be a pilot,” he told me, “but I can’t support her financially,” he cried.
Then, one day, I came out of my house ready to go to college, but Ramesh was missing. I asked the other cabbies but not a single soul knew anything. Many days passed by until I heard some cabbies talking about Ramesh. They said he’d lost his daughter to pneumonia. Shocked, I skipped college that unfaithful day. I felt like a tree losing its roots, like a block of cement made without water even though I had no “divine” connection with the cabbie.
Three days later he came back. Empty beer bottles and cigarette butts lay in his kali-pili. He didn’t talk much. Another three days went by and Ramesh was his old self again! He no longer felt sad; he had learnt what life is all about. He was moving on with life. He knew his daughter was still alive, in his heart. In his simple way, Ramesh taught me about living, loving and moving on.
The writer is a student of RIMS College, Mumbai