A Moment to Thank God

Yesterday I saw the security guard of my apartment sitting at the backyard having his lunch and my stomach stirred and my heart sank for the reasons below –

1)      He was sitting in the place where there the drainage outlet of our houses joined, of course it is closed and the place is very clean but you know what lies beneath!

2)      His lunch was nothing but the remains of yesterday from all our houses.

3)      He was sitting on a cement floor under the scorching sun. I am in Chennai and needless to say it is one of the most disgustingly hot city!

Our guard is a very friendly man from Nepal, he speaks Tamil in a very funny way and his innocent smile is infectious. I try to catch up with him almost everyday to check if everything was OK and if he spoke to his wife and children. He always says, “Haan ji!” for everything I ask and he is 8 years elder to me but treats me with so much respect. Today when I saw him eating in a place like that I felt really bad, so I took a bottle of cold water and went to the place he was eating. I handed him the water and asked, ‘Bhaiya, why are you eating here? You can sit under the shade bhaiya.’ I suggested a place that is inside our block below the steps which is pretty clean and quite a decent place for a man to eat and sleep.

‘Nahi ji! It will be a disturbance to others’ he said with his blessed smile.

‘Who says so?’ I asked.

‘Few people! I used to eat there when I joined and few didn’t like it. It’s OK I can have food here too! This is our apartment too’ He said without the smile disappearing from his face and went back to eating the food. I cannot believe that we had a heartless crowd in our apartment.

‘Bhaiya, come to my house and eat food with us.’ I said immediately. After compelling him so much he denied. And these are the times I go to the angel who created me for help so I went to her and asked her to invite him. She was more than happy to share our lunch with him. He had to give in when I snatched the food from him.

This was the moment I felt so blessed to have a life I am leading now! We sulk if the food is not hot, if it is not of our choice, if the same course is repeated another day in a week but imagine he is eating the food we wasted or thought did not taste good in a place that we will even think to sit for leisure. This was another moment that reminded me to appreciate the things I had in my life!

 Thank you God for giving me a roof and fresh food everyday!