Overcoming Arduous Situations
An incident I heard a long time ago is an excellent example of successful person. A twelve-year old boy came running home one evening hoping for something to eat. He was ravenously hungry. His mother looked at him sadly. “I’ve nothing to give you,” she said. “There’s not a thing in the house to eat, and I’ve no money to buy food.” She began to shed tears of despair. Her husband was a poor man—a daily labourer—and when days passed and he could not find work, it meant that everyone went hungry. The young boy thought for a moment, then asked his mother if she didn’t even have twenty-five paise. “I do,” she said, “but what can you buy for a whole family with just twenty-five paise?” Her son told her not to worry and begged her to give him her last coin. Too weary and hopeless even to argue with him, she handed it over and he rushed outside with a look of determination on his face. He collected a bucket of drinking water and a glass on the way out, then bought a piece of ice from a nearby stall and cooled the water with it. Then he made straight for a cinema queue where people were standing in a line, sweating, waiting to buy their tickets. He started walking up and down the line shouting, ‘Water! Cold Water!’ and soon attracted the crowd’s attention. People gratefully began buying his glasses of cold water. Some kind souls even paid him more than he asked for. With part of his earnings he bought more ice, and went back and sold more glasses of cold water. He kept this up indefatigably until the queue had disappeared. By this time he had managed to earn fifteen rupees, with which he went home triumphantly to his mother.
From then on, he started selling something or the other every day. During the day he studied hard at school and in the evening he would go out and do his best to make money. He kept this up for ten long years, somehow managing to study while he met the household expenses.
Now he has completed his education. Although employed on a monthly salary of Rs. 850, he is still continuing with his side business in the evening, and, thanks to his hard-earned money, has now even been able to rebuild his house. His neighbours, friends and relatives respect him and his parents bless him.
Difficult circumstances can be used as a spur to success, provided that such arduous and trying periods in one’s life inspire in one a new sense of determination and one is not overwhelmed by a sense of frustration. The really important thing in life is to make a proper start. When an individual is willing to start his journey from the right point, every step amounts to making progress. Nothing then can stop him from reaching his goal. It only takes “twenty-five paise” to start your journey—something which is surely possible for all of us. Such a journey cannot lead anywhere but to success.
