Few Unanswered Questions?

I was returning home after completing my last call of the day from Bawal Industrial Area, Haryana when I got a call on my mobile phone from an unknown number. Since I was driving on Delhi-Jaipur national highway, I could not take the chance to attend the call and disconnected it. Within next three minutes, I got five missed calls from the same number. Therefore, when it rang for the 6th time, I parked my car at the roadside and accepted the call and said: “Hello, who is this?” in response I heard my nick name spoken in a very heavy voice but I could not recognized the caller. He again said: “Charan, you have forgotten me, my friend? It’s me, your old friend Ramandeep Singh Grover from Calcutta”.

I got the biggest shock of my life, my childhood friend Raman, all of a sudden a very tall, thin, fair and handsome Raman’s figure came alive in front of my eyes and all the old memories started pouring into my heart and mind, one after another within flash of few seconds. In excitement, I even forgot to ask him his whereabouts instead I said: “where had you been all these years Raman, what a pleasant surprise, where are you calling from, my dear friend?” I asked so many questions in one go. He informed me that, he came in the morning to meet his client at Delhi and at present he is waiting at Delhi International Airport, his flight to New York City will take-off at mid night and therefore he wanted to spend some good time with me at the airport. Before disconnecting he told me that he got my mobile no. from my younger brother, who lives in Calcutta.

It almost took two hours to reach at the airport and after parking my Car I rushed towards the departure zone of Terminal-3 of the Delhi International Airport. I was frantically looking for Raman at the departure lounge but could not see him. I was about to call him on his mobile when a very bulky, fatty and a very heavy statured person tapped on my back; when I turned my back, I was literally amazed, stunned and shocked to see Raman in this condition, posture, position and status. Oh my God, is he my old friend Raman, what happened to him, he has put on lot of weight, must be weighing 100-KG plus with excess fat on his face, neck, hands, legs and tummy. But his face was having very bright smile and his nose, eyes, lips and cheeks were shining in the bright red color. He was wearing Gucci platinum frame with very thick bifocal pair of power glasses, Rolex-datejust watch, Montblanc pen, Louis-Philippe shirt & pair of trousers, Carton shoe and was holding in his hands ipad-2, Galaxy notebook and Blackberry mobile phone. Besides he was also wearing big diamond ring and gold bangle in his right hand.

His Samsonite-briefcase and American-tourister suitcase was laying besides him on the Airport-trolley. He was holding two soft drink cans in his hands and after hugging he was still holding me in his hands, he was staring at me and also laughing uninterruptedly. Meanwhile, he offered me one can of soft drink. Raman wanted me to go with him at the nearby Bar for few hard drinks but I refused by saying that, I didn’t take hard drinks or beer; after lots of arguments, we finally settled for coffee shop at the airport lounge.

We both completed our graduation in the same year and thereafter started our professional career in two different companies. He went to a healthcare unit and joined an automobile sector in Calcutta. We both were very good friends but we were poles apart to each other from all angles, aspects and aspirations. We were having different views in life towards everything ranging from our ambition, belief, dreams, goal, habits, hobbies, likes, ideals, love, dislikes, tastes, thought process, target, views and value system. He never believed in destiny, luck, love and religion, whereas, my day used to start with morning prayers at Gurudwara and it used to conclude with the last prayer of the day in one of the temples. We were a group of four friends who were regular on these places of worship except Raman who never used to accompany us at these places.

His rationale for not doing that used to be: “Only coward, lethargic and weak persons visit such places and wait for the miracles to happen in their lives. Such temples are flooded with cowards, defeated, defaulters and pessimistic people who does not want to face the world with their own caliber, capabilities, grit, power and strength instead they prefer taking short cuts to achieve success in their lives hence they take shelter at such religious places for comfort, safety, security and sympathy. The destiny and religious formalities are meant for disabled, destitute, poor, sick and weaker segment/section of our society who lacks confidence, courage and conviction to face the world with their own terms and conditions.

My friend Raman got whatever he wanted in his life but against a very heavy price. And to achieve his pre-set goals and objectives he exercised all the formulae, modes, methods, power, tools, strategies and schemes which he acquired and learned during the journey of his life. He never got scared of anyone and did what he felt was right at that point in time. He had no regrets in his life, so far. He became an entrepreneur at the age of 32. He was running a Healthcare company with the overall strength of 150 employee and a group turnover of Rupees 250 crores plus, having branches in all metro and mini metro cities of India besides five overseas branches abroad. He has divorced his wife few years back and having only one son as a family, who has completed his MBA from Stanford University, California, USA. At present looking after overseas operations of his company based at New York City.

His Branch Head of North zone draws more salary and owns bigger car than me. He has built a big Bungalow in Calcutta besides a farm house in the outskirts of Calcutta, having all the big brand of cars which includes: Audi, BMW and Mercedes. He visits abroad almost every second month for business and merry-making. His wife, after separation, lives with her parents at London; she visits India once a year during winter season to meet her only son.

I am finding myself in an absolute mess and confused state of mind. For few seconds, I felt as if my Life is going out of my hands. I was standing at a cross road of my life where right or wrong, Good or bad, Holy or evil makes no impact, impression and relevance on my day to day affairs/activities, any more. I have seen many of my relatives, friends and well wishers doing extremely well in their personal and professional life and earning lots of money and having fun-filled lives; they do everything possible with the money power, they go to discothèque, keep many social friends, enjoy late-night parties and don’t mind making easy/fast money. But I have never done any of these activities in my life. Earlier I could not afford it and later when I became capable of buying such luxuries, my ideal, principles and value systems came in between and restrained me to step forward on that road with a very Big-NO.

During our long conversation at coffee shop, he asked me few very probing questions: “Whether I still believe in my ideals, principles, value system and living under same age old rules, orthodox views, keeping conservative approach and living disciplined life under pre-set rules and regulations. He even asked me about my religious activities and thoughts”. At the end, he also asked me few very personal questions: “Have I ever tried hard-drinks or drugs? How many social friends I have in my life and finally: How much wealth I have generated for myself and my family??

Although I could easily answer all his questions with facts and figures but I preferred to keep quiet for the time being. He had already declared me an emotional fool and categorically told me that I was unnecessarily carrying weight of middle class etiquettes on my head. I was hundred percent confident that he will again abuse me, laugh and shout at me after listening to my straight forward, frank and honest answers, explanations and views. But I wanted this discussion to end with a happy note because; I was not sure whether we will meet again. But in this process, he has definitely disturbed peace of my mind and had literally engulfed me with his so called philosophy, principal and views of his modern-life-style.

For the time being, I stopped thinking, looked around and evaluated his philosophy with an open-mind, more logically, practically and rationally and within few minutes, I came to the conclusion that every person is free to live his life the way he thinks right, belief and trust and I am nobody to put any condition or question-mark on the authenticity, legitimacy, sincerity and sanctity of their philosophy of life, per say.

Therefore, I took a deep breath and within seconds I came back to my normal-self and in original form with the help and assistance of my will power, inner voice, strength and blessings of my Lord. I firmly believe in ethics, ideals, middle-class-etiquettes, principles and value system which were so strong that it has pulled me out of this dilemma and severe crisis without much hassle, hurdle and problem. Otherwise, I would have been in a real mess and could have been standing at such a cross road in a fix, which route to follow. Moreover, neither I have the interest nor any inclination to think otherwise at that very moment, I am honest about it.

But deep down in my heart, I know that I have got much more than all the materialistic life that he has been leading, everything so elegant, costly show pieces, and a wealthy look to show off. But a person like me who is at peace with himself will know and only feel sorry and sympathize with him that all his life was spent amassing the wealth, which no doubt brings material comforts that life can offer but gradually spent in maintaining physical health. But the actual freedom, peace, salvation and true wealth is available within us. We have to simply start inner-journey in order to reach our destination. So that we can become the part and parcel of the Supreme-Power, where our existence becomes non-entity and with the blessings of the God Almighty, we amalgamate with the Supreme-power and get released from the cycle of birth and death forever, Amen!

With prayers

Gurcharan