There are some events and incidents that leave their lasting imprints on our mind and emotions. These events make us think from an absolutely new and better perspective. They show us those realities that might have missed our vision and realization. With the unending and continuous race of daily life, we get accustomed to a routine life that keeps filling the box of our emotions with the mud and dust of time resulting in a situation when we don’t utilize our senses completely or as per their merit and we keep running on a beaten track. While running on this routine track, we lose the taste of so many good things that might be happening in our surrounding. Any such event comes like cleansing water, cleaning our senses of all the mud and making us able to see the things in their exact and true shape.
Anyhow, a friend of mine told me this story. He had an informal meeting one night and was relieved when this long meeting came to its end. He was not feeling well and decided to immediately retire to his bed after reaching home. He came out to the road and started looking for a taxi. He knew that it would not be much easy to find a taxi in these late hours. After he walked for some distance, he noticed a taxi waiting for passengers. It was rather unexpected as taxi drivers usually return to their homes after evening. Anyhow, he came to the taxi, told him the address and finalized the charges.
When the taxi slowly started, my friend was surprised to see that the driver was having only one leg. Moreover, he was having only one arm and in his single hand, there was present one finger with the help of which he controlled the steering. On inquiry, he told his story according to which he lost his one leg and one hand and four fingers of the other hand in a land-mine explosion.
He was married and had a small family to look after but after this tragic incident, he lost his job and was no more able to support his family. Every passing day brought for him more difficulties. Then he made a self assessment. He knew that now he would not be able to live like normal people and if however he felt, his body organs were never going to come back. He started thinking and acting rationally and he accepted his condition as a reality. Then he came out of the gloom and sad feelings that usually grip people in such circumstances.
He decided not to beg from anyone and to find a respectable livelihood for himself. After much consideration, he decided to take a taxi as he was not going to be given a dignified job and he was not ready to accept a job that should be given to him as a charity, based on the pity at his condition. He found out that he could drive a taxi at night and he based his decision on so many wise findings. At night, there is very less traffic, number of taxis available is also less, traffic sergeants or officers can’t disturb him and his physical condition was also not going to be much visible for others.
Now he drives a taxi and his idea has worked out. He earns good money to run his family and he has a proud and contented life with his family.
When my friend reached to his place, he thanked the taxi driver warmly because his story had acted as an eye-opener for him and had filled him with new energy and hope. No doubt, he was a true source of inspiration for all those who heard of this brave man. This story is true and one can find the driver in the Yaka Toot region of Kabul.
In a gathering of friends when this story was being shared, another one came with similar story. There was a man who had lost both of his legs in an explosion but then he decided not to give up the hope of living a decent and dignified life. He opened a shop of property services and with his honesty, and other good qualities, soon started getting so many business transactions. As property dealers usually don’t tell the truth and thus try to increase their share in property transactions so people came to him from different corners of the city as he had earned the reputation of being a property dealer who never hides anything from his customers. Now, he has a very successful business and has made a lot of property out of this business and no one can say that all these works are carried out by a person who is working with only the half of his body.
A friend of mine had witnessed another taxi driver who did not have both of his legs and drove the taxi with his hands only. He had made a long stick that had a flattened end and with the help of this stick, he used to press the brakes and gas pedals.
The above three stories are related to one city. There may be similar energetic and optimistic people in different corners of the world. I once saw a person on television who was born without any leg and arms but even then he had learned how to best use the remaining parts of his body and he played many games, did regular sessions of exercise and swimming and lived a life full of energy and without any kind of disappointment. He had become a source of inspiration for millions of people around the world and he was given great honor and respect in the world.
There are also present among who may not be in similar difficult situations but who make small problems appear as too big and let the problems overcome their senses. In a way, they are enslaved by these problems and their different senses are hijacked by them and thus they no more remain able to think positively.
A philosopher had written in one of his books that, ‘when you don’t enjoy the good days of your life and make them gloomy by the small problems and your problems may not be so serious but you might have made them appear as big then you would definitely come to a situation when your problems will certainly get serious and these will be the problems that might not change by changing the style of thinking and then you will repent on not enjoying the good times when your problems were so small and now that they have grown so serious, you are no more able to solve them.’
Such icons of hope and inspiration are present around us. We need to give special attention to them and ignoring all their physical or mental limitations, we need to give them due honor and importance. No doubt, they are far better than all those who not only cry themselves but also make the others disappointed. They not only themselves smile but also make many of us smile and keep our hopes alive.