Saturday, April 9, 2016

Thank you India

Mcleodganj is one of my favourite places to visit. It was about 7:30 in the morning, I was walking on the streets on the way to Dharamkot. On the way, I saw a local person typical Tibetian short height man carrying bread and milk in his hand for breakfast. He was continuously chanting some mysterious mantra. Couple of dogs in street made me look little worried. As I was hesitant to go ahead, he told me 'Don't worry, they won't bite'. That little disturbance made me closer to him and hence we started talking. I asked him 'What are you continuously chanting' He said 'om mani padme hum'. It is the mantra that is given to him by spiritual teacher Dalai Lama. In 1959, China took over their place and they got exiled from that place. He is one of the refugees who got settled down in India in 1959.
Dalai Lama got settled in Mclodgeganj and he helped his people to get settle down. He talked with government and arranged houses for everybody.
Although, I was listening to him pretending to be very intellectual and understanding but somebody got entirely uprooted from the place of their culture and that pain is still alive in their hearts after 50-55 years. It was hard to understand that pain for me. In fact, that entire culture is uprooted from its original birth place. His story was so heartfelt. So far, I had only read this kind of stories from books, newspaper, magazines. But this time it was directly coming from a person. This means, my real travelling had just begun.
'Have you seen 'Thank you India' written somewhere in this area' He said.
'Oh yes I have seen the one written at Dal Lake in Nadi.' 'Yes! It is gratitude shown by Tibetian people to India for letting us stay in your country and thank you preserving our culture.'
I saw some kids playing in the street, laughing badly doing some notorious things. Unaware of the fact that these moments of laughter is result of long struggle of few people. Sometimes I wonder how much granted do we take happiness in life, whereas it might be the result so long hard struggle of our parents, culture, society we live in.  We can only realize it when we see others in pain.

By the time his house came, he said 'Come on in, Lets have breakfast.' I said 'No! Thank you.'

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