Saturday, September 8, 2012

Some food for thought

           I remember being once told by a teacher of mine that going to the temple in Kalyug will amount to "punya" or good points equivalent to praying daily in any other time :P
           I wondered if God had some kind of excel sheet with our names and entered points against it. :P Years later the same thought came back to me. Only the situation and people were different.
         
           On Tuesday ( For loss of memory on what special day that was, I will refer it as a special Tuesday :D ) there was some game scoring event in the court of Lord Ganesh.
           If you fast on this particular day, it is equivalent to fasting on 18 tuesdays. Or so they say.
     
           One of my very God fearing and religious friend decided to take advantage of the situation. The day started with a positive note for her as she could not finish her breakfast :P
           The rest of the day she could snack on "upvas" chips. Yea, the same ones which also can be eaten as "diet" chips. Get the logic?
           I asked her why she was keeping the fast and she replied, " It is equivalent to fasting for 18 days and also I get to eat special sweets once I go home."
           Come lunch time and the canteen fellow made Sabudana vada for the religious and starving students. Do I need to tell he make a good profit that day? So my friend devoured on the Sabudana vadas for lunch followed by dessert. I questioned the hypocrisy of the whole situation only to be shut up by another one who said " Aye, Upvas me ye sweet dish chalta hai". Point to be noted- The said sweet dish is a Bengali sweet laiden with calories which exceed half the the calorie requirements for the day.
           The day at college ended with a fruit to have enough energy to board the train back home.

           some other day.
             Three of us stood at the platform waiting for the train. I had a packet of peanuts in hand. I gave the other two half of them. A little girl came begging to us.
            The fasting, religious one gobbled up her share at the sight of the girl. I gave the girl my packet of peanuts. The other friend offered me half the share of what I had given her, while someone tried to swallow with difficulty :P
           It saved us both the calories and a little girl snacked happily on our share of calories :D

           Rather than starving yourself (which you obviously do not), feeding someone else is more fulfilling. Keeping accounts of punya is not your job and there definitely is no monsoon sale on it going on! 
                    
           Recently I heard a radio jockey say, " The value of money increases when you share"
           If you buy lunch for yourself for Rs 1000, the value of that money is just Rs 1000.
           If you buy lunch for 4 other people in that same Rs 1000, its value increases to Rs 5000 because you are feeding not just yourself, but 4 other people!
           Beautiful thought, isn't it?
           Share while you have the capacity to share. Its not in everybody's destiny to be a giver :)