My Wanderings - 42. Short Story No. 24. The Secret of Madhsudan's Success

Those were the best of times. Those were the worst of times. The best of times because of the existence of human values , Love , faith and mutual respect  in the society. The worst of times in the sense that poverty and helplessness alongwith dearth and scarcity was rampant everywhere and even  ruled the roost.
Madhsudan Raina a small boy of twelve years then,  lost his father. He  had just completed his primary education and was dreaming of entering a  High school, when the tregedy befell on the family. His mother was desperate with grief. His other siblings a younger brother and a sister were too young to comprehend the gravity of   loss. His father was a titular employee in some Govt. Department, living from hand to mouth   in a small dilapidated ancestral house at Habbakadal and had not left anything for unforeseen contingencies of such nature. The people were not aware of terms like life insurance and compensation those days.
Hardly  after completing the days of mourning, Madhsudan was left with no other alternative but to leave the studies and look out for a job. One of his distant relatives helped him and got him appointed as a cleaner cum conductor  in a local Bus stand. His job was multifaceted. He had to leave his home early in the morning and reach transport yard and clean the buses in company of other small urchins of his age. Then after Drivers arrival he had to collect passengers for near by destinations, wherever the bus was scheduled to travel. He had to yell the name of destination several times  loudly to attract  passengers untill the bus was overloaded. Then he had to issue tickets and collect money from passengers. He had also to help the Driver in case of wheel puncture or any other fault developed in vehicle. In addition to this, he had also to work as personal attendant of Driver. He had to arrange for Drivers  food and booze. The  vehicle was plied  several times on the same route and in the evening, Madhsudan  had to handover all cash to the driver. The Driver used to give him a paltry sum of money on daily basis with which Madhsudan could feed his family. He would generally reach his home very late in the evening. Moreover, Drivers abuse and thrashing on filmsy issues had become a normal course of his life.
One night Driver abused  and beat little Madhsudan for no fault of later in a fit of frenzy after taking booze in excess and forgot to pay him his daily wages. Madhsudan felt very forlorn and desperate. While travelling towards his home on foot from Amirakadal  he entered Ganpatyar temple and sat in a corner with his head resting on his folded arms and began to weep intensely . After sometime he felt that somebody's heavy  hand on his head. He instantly looked upwards and was surprised to see an elderly man draped in a long 'firan' the bottom of which was touching  his ankles and wearing  a white turban on his head as headgear . The forehead of gentleman was pasted with vermilon and he was looking very affectionately towards Madhsudan. He sat besides Madhsudan and enquired about his whereabouts. Madhsudan told him everything about himself and ended his speech saying
Sir, I feel very dejected and desperate and sometimes I feel like ending my life
Old man said, " My dear son listen. These are the phases of life. If this is the bad phase of your life , good phase can not be far behind. Have patience,  leave negativity and have positive attitude  towards life. Self pity is the most damaging feeling in a person. If a person falls down in his own eyes, no one can help him to come out of it. You should be grateful to the nature for  whatever little he has provided to you and express gratitude for it. Start dreaming for yourself and your family. Nature will help you to realise your dreams. Nature has bestowed this universe with fortunes for every indudival born. But unfortunately most of the persons shut the windows and doors of their minds and fortunes after knocking their doors return back. If you  keep a positive attitude towards life  and express  gratitude for whatever little you have, Nature will bestow you with all the riches and fortunes of universe.
But sir, I don't want to become rich. Rich people are very wicked like my boss, retorted back Madhsudan. " No my Son you are mistaken" said the old man, "All the rich men are not wicked, exceptions may ofcourse be there, but most of the rich men have got the fortunes by keeping open the doors of their mind with positivity.
After saying this  old man took leave of Madhsudan and advised him to go home.
Madhsudan pondered over the advise of old man for days together but could not understand it fully. Then he wrote it down on a piece of paper and got it framed and kept it in his room. Whenever , he felt dejected with life, he would read the sagacious words of old man and try to find out its meaning. After some years, the life of Madhsudan began to show many positive changes. He himself became a Driver and  got married. He educated his siblings and also married them off.Then he purchased a Bus and constructed a new house for his family. Time passed and he became a Transporter,  owning a fleet of buses and trucks which were  plying on national highway from Srinagar to Jammu and vice versa . He also became the President of Kashmir Motor Drivers Association and  was a well known personality in political circles.
Though Madhsudan was not highly educated, but he was very intelligent and his suggestion always carried a weight. He was a personification of confidence and positivity blended together.