Stories Of Life – The Secret Of Joy!

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I was walking back home last evening and was passing through the small play ground close to my house. There were couple of small groups of young lads enjoying their evening games. A few playing cricket a few other chose the local game of Gilli-danda*. What was common amongst all these kids was they were happy and upbeat, engrossed in their game, cheering each other. A sense of happiness prevailed.

As I stood there in one of the corners watching these boys play, one of the young boys playing cricket hit the ball hard and the ball rushed towards me. I just picked it up and threw it back. The boys cheered as it hit the stumps and they smiled. I just wondered how quickly with growing years we adults have lost this innocent smile.

I started to walk out of the ground when I felt someone trying to pull my shirt from behind. I turned around to find a young boy tugging at my shirt and pointing towards the tree. He had a grim face and seemed to be in need of help. I couldn’t initially understand his gesture and I tried to reason with him, what was the matter. A little later I realised the boy had speech issues and could communicate only with gestures. I was saddened and stood speechless for a moment. Then I tried following his actions and realised he was pointing at his kite stuck on a tree.

It’s been ages since I last flew a kite. I was now determined to help him out, checked that the thread tied to the kite was intact but the kite was entangled to one of the branches of the tree. We were both standing at a distance from the tree, I tried pull the thread hard to free the kite from the tree, then realised that if I was to pull it any harder the thread would snap out and the kite would stay stuck on the tree.

I took a moment and then decided to go closer to the tree. Loosened the thread and slowly tried to unbind the thread from the tree branches and with a tolerant and patient effort was successful in freeing the kite from the tree. And soon the kite started to fly high again in the open sky. The boy was delighted and started to clap with joy. As I handed over the kite lines to the boy, he looked at me one last time and smiled. The smile said it all, absence of words were never felt.

As I again started walking back towards my home, I had few thoughts which popped in my mind. Flying kite is just like our normal daily life. We sometimes have troubles and problems just like kite entangled to the branches of the tree. We at times make hasty efforts to resolve them with too much pressure and little patience. Ultimately find ourselves in deeper trouble, just like a broken kite. But however even the most complex of the problems can be resolved by trying patiently to resolve them. Sometimes most complex of the problems has simplest of the solution, but anger and tension masks clarity of thoughts. Solutions are just like unscrambling the kite lines (thread) from the branches of the tree. And we can always be happy just like a high flying kite.

-          VJ Says ~ cheers and peace!

P.S: * Gilli-danda:  An interesting city and village game of Indian soil which requires remarkable hand eye co-ordination. Player has to hit the Gilli with Danda. Final distance of Gilli is counted as point. It is usually played by using a long round stick. This is the Danda. There is another smaller stick, round in the middle and sharp at the ends. This is the Gilli.