Imagine there's no heaven - It's easy if you try ....

Few days back , I got up little late in the morning. Feeling  lazy i realized that though most of the days i have plan for ‘what to cook’ , apparently for that day though i had plan for what to cook for lunch, but i had no plans for breakfast! While brushing teeth, in my mind I checked fridge for If there was any Dosa Batter left – Nope, didn’t want to make Puttu, as Esther will be too slow to eat and will be late for school .. .. checking out all options I thought of making Aaloo Sabzi and Parathas – And it does not take much time to prepare .. while making the dough for Parathas I thought let me make some ‘Poories’, Esther can eat fast and its been long time , So I cooked Potatoes, fried some Poories for Esther – Lunch was Vegetable Pulav and Chicken curry – packed Esther’s lunch, saw her finishing the breakfast, took out my scooter and dropped Esther school. Came back around 8:20 am gave Ezekiel bath, around 8:45 Anil was ready for breakfast , made some more Poories for him and Ezekiel , we all had good talk over  lovely breakfast and Anil left for Press Club around 9:15 am.... I was happy to see Poories were over , Aaloo Sabzi was almost over, just little for Ezekiel 

Yannamma Ammachi – Ezekiel’s nanny came around  10, While Ezekiel tagged along with her, i cleared up kitchen,..  Around 11 am I heard someone at the gate calling out ‘Amma’ ... I thought to my self – Must be beggars , and I am not going to give any money and I will have to hear their abuses ....  I asked Yannamma what is it ? She said beggars asking for some help .. I peeped out from window, saw a old lady .. dressed in a old saree, more in Maharashtrian style – probably from Andhra ..  I said ‘There is nothing here’ , she showed gesture that she wanted something to eat – Yannamma told them that food is not ready, and told me that there is one old man also .. ...  .. I again looked at the old lady , and saw the old man also ... both looked very fragile ... I asked them – ‘Are you hungry ?Do you want food?’ – She looked at me and nodded .... I just thought, they must be really hungry, otherwise in past whenever I had asked any beggar if they need food , the answer had always been they need money , and if  I gave them 1 or 2 rupees they would abuse me for my stinginess and one instance the person threw back the coin. So as a family our policy has been, somebody comes begging, don’t give money – If they want money for medicine – we offer to buy medicine, if somebody comes with the certificate of ailment or orphanage, we say we will check with the doctor/hospital/orphanage and then will help , this is our way of helping... But today she was asking for food ... i just could not say there is no food .. how could I  see someone so hungry at my doorstep and not help  .... I asked them to wait ....

I checked in the kitchen,Since i am trying to diet we have stopped keeping snacks stock ,so that option was ruled out ....  I had made limited Veg Pulav for lunch but they were 2 adults ... I looked inside the fridge and saw Aata which I had kept in the morning after making Poories , enough aata for 9-10 Poories , I switched on the gas , kept the kadai, started making poories, took the Alloo sabzi, it was too little, i didn’t  think much about it , took one of the “Take Away’ Dabba, stuffed 10 poories, Alloo sabzi, there was no pickle, I was not sure if the Old lady was vegetarian or not, i decided to pack 2 pieces of chicken in the Dabba ... I thought they both need something to eat , all this took max 10 minutes , I asked Yanamma  if they were still around , She said  they were waiting ... I gave them the Dabba and saw the lady looking at it, the dabba was hot , she asked me if it was ‘Mutton’ infact she wanted to  check if it was beef , I told her its Chicken ... She smiled and so did the old man, both looked at me and folded their palms thanking me , then lady asked me if i could help the old man, i said i don’t have any money .. i can help you in kind ... both smiled at me thanked me again .... I didn’t want to look at them ... I rushed inside ....

That evening we had planned to go for a Rock show , performed by some musicians from Trivandrum, Old timers, and it was concert for  Peace – It was happening in a Auditorium, So i decided to remain outside the hall with Ezekiel and Esther , we met few of our old friends from Trivandrum, some of them are almost 20 yrs elder to me , and i saw them meeting lot of their ‘Old’ friends, all gathered to see the Rock show performed by their Childhood friends .. It was nice to see senior crowd , all hugging , laughing and freaking around :) around 8:30 pm we decided to leave, Ezekiel was sleeping peacefully , and  the song which the Lead singer was singing that time  –‘Imagine’ John Lennon

 

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people sharing all the world

You, you may say 
I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one
I hope some day you'll join us
And the world will live as one