Failure

I was sitting in a Tea Stall which in slang is called a tapri. Sipping tea in the small glass cup I was thinking about my failure. I had miserable failed in the last project I started. It had shifted me into a state of depresses ion.

Rains have started and the climate was wet. This was adding to the intensity of my pain and frustration. I saw a poor man digging beside the tea stall. He was sort of erecting some wooden columns so as to add a roof on top of them.

I strolled there near him and asked with curiosity
"What are you doing?"
"I am building my hut back, saab", said he not even looking towards me.
"Will you like to have some tea?" I asked but didn’t waited for his answer, and ordered "laalaa! One cut chaai here please."
Now he looked toward me with appreciation, as if he was thanking me with his eyes.

"What happened to your hut?" my question
"Yesterdays, rains washed away my hut and I need to re-build this before night"

I felt a connection between his situation and mine. Strange enough but he was also broke so as I. His hut was brought down not because of his fault just like my project failed not because of me. When you have to face failure from the situation where you are not responsible you always have a question "Why me?"

"Don't you feel pain bhaiyya? This is such a sad thing that you have lost your hut yesterday. I can feel the pain you may have inside", I tried to console him by showing my sympathy.

"Pain saab!, I cannot afford to be painful, I cannot afford to even think about the sorrow and why me stuff. I must work again and build this hut from the start as fast as possible so my wife and child can have some roof to-night to sleep"

Internally I felt to touch his feet for teaching me this lesson. Wow! Can I afford to be frustrated? What am I doing? Just sorrowing and doing nothing to proceed further.

Yes even I cannot afford to be painful and do nothing. I must proceed. I got my lesson that day from an un-conventional teacher.

Tushar Joshi, Nagpur