When was the Last Time we Looked at the Sky?

The headline appears bizarre. I am well aware of it. But this question has been bothering for sometime now. While leading a sedentary lifestyle, we forget our own existence mostly, leave apart others.

We are always running. Each time seems to be faster than the previous one. And, the efficacy to please others also gains momentum in the process, and gets better with time.

Addressing my headline directly, why on earth should we bother about the sky? Or the green trees around us? Aren't we actually doing a great favour completing 9 hours of work and then managing household chores everyday?

I was enjoying this ‘favourable’ privileged stage, when my year long mindset was shattered by this gentleman I met on my recent trip. He had the perfect getup of a gardener. His clothes were soiled, he wore no shoes and was bare bodied at an extremely cold temperature. My immature and egoist self labelled him as an uneducated villager, one that was talkative and loud as well.

I dismissed his presence and marched forward in my expedition to explore the world. Thus, meeting more  people and exploring different cuisines. On this trip, I decided to pamper my sweet tooth and had several cheat days invariably. Until one day when my vocal cord choked and I had to discard my butterscotch ice cream cone. A high fever and severe body ache followed soon after. We were in the outskirts of the city and getting medical aid seemed impossible. Meanwhile, I contracted and deliberately hoped for someone to help!

Moving a little ahead, I found a 50 something person staring at me blatantly. He could fathom my uneasiness and asked us to follow him. We did, as we didn't have a better alternative, and there was hope still left inside. He got us an antibiotic, an anti allergic and a cough syrup. After explaining the dosage and the frequency, he disappeared somewhere inside the woods.

I woke up the next day with a minor headache but the cold seemed a lot better. I remembered losing my senses and popping in pills by that 50 something man. But how did he give me the accurate medicines much before I told him my symptoms?

While I was pondering over these countless thoughts, I saw the gardener approach me. He leaned forward and enquired about my health, telling me that I developed fever out of the cold weather, and since I wasn't accustomed to so much cold.

What just happened? Was it the gardener who prescribed medicines? How was that possible? He didn't appear educated in the first place, then how could he know so much about medicines? Was he a d-d-doctor? On enquiring the locals, I learnt that he was a doctor turned monk, who renounced all worldly affairs to satiate his thirst for spirituality. The look of a gardener was a disguise! Or so it seemed.

The next day, I went up to him to ask for his cell number, so that I could contact him in future. He smiled and said, “No need of that. Just look at the sky and state your problems. They would be taken care of...”

After coming back to Mumbai, I realised that I had severed my connections with the sky long before. In fact, I couldn't even recall the last time I looked at it.

I am trying today. It's been a week since, and it doesn't seem to be as difficult as I thought it to be.

Not that difficult!

Somehow, post that I feel less burdened and de cluttered...