The day of surprises
Last night I slept at midnight and wakeup today by 5am on the Day Two of my penniless walk from Mumbai to Delhi. I tried to sleep more but I guess the universe wanted me to call it as early morning.
As I woke up, I saw my phone and coincidently, this morning the first message on my phone was of my dearest friend Pragya Yadav, who wished to buy a pair of shoes and gift me. She decided to travel from Bandra to Thane with the new pair of shoes so I can continue the journey properly. You can call it a miracle, big heart, generosity or you can say that the universe wanted us to meet and share stories. Her friend Mr Sanjay offered to help her out in travel and they travelled more than 50 kilometers on Sanjay’s bike to deliver shoes. Their generosity didn’t stop there. Sanjay decided to buy me a cup of tea and Pragya did an advance payment to the restaurant manager and said to him ‘Let him eat whenever he hungry!’
Someone said it right, “Let us all flow in the river of generosity and kindness so that each time we swim we will by default get wet in the water of prayers.’ In the meanwhile, till evening I meant few interesting people. I started my morning from Gurdwara with a cup of tea and parathas. As soon as the food was ready, I was the first person they called for the breakfast. Chefs – Mr Sonu and Mr Narendra Singg, said to me, “Eat as much as you wish!” I ended my breakfast with a big smile and started saying goodbye to the people. The head script reader – Mr Komal Singh and the guard – Mr Jawant Yadav, requested me to check if I could stay two more hours. They wanted me to see the wedding ceremony that was going to happen. Unfortunately I had to say no as I wanted to stick the plan and walk as much as I could. I left gurdwara at 7.15 am started walking with the motive to cross 40 kilometers before I finish the day. Soon I realised that I may not able to reach my target and made my mind to walk till my legs says thank you for the day.
Around 12 noon, I rested by a fruit and vegetable stall. After 10 minutes of rest, I requested the owner – Mr Sandeep Patil – to feed me, as I was hungry and explained everything about the walk. He happily gave me three bananas and wished me luck for rest of the journey. Before I left, I asked him about what makes him happy. And he gave a big smile and said, “What I just did makes me happy.” I thanked him and started walking.
An hour after, I took shelter in a small restaurant as the universe started poring water from the sky. The rain stopped in 5 minutes and before I could leave one of the guys at the restaurant asked me the deal with my backpack. I explained him about the penniless journey and started walking. Before I could leave his place, he offered me to have Vada pav. Before I could finish the vada pav, he asked his brother to serve me another vada pav and a cup of tea. Before I could finish all these, he asked me if I wish to have rice. With a big smile I said thank you, as I am full. As I was about to finish the food, both the brothers – Rajendra Prasad Yadav & Mahendra Prasad Yadav – wished me safe travel and started serving other people.
By now, I was into the sixth hour of walking with several small breaks and I realised that today I will not able to walk more than 20-25 kilometers. So I decided to take stop at Fountain Hotel on the Thane-Ahmedabad Highway. At the same time, I requested Pragya to meet me the Fountain Hotel.
It was 4.13pm and I could see the big smile of Pragya with shoe bag in her hand. We spoke for around half an hour and updated each other with the latest things happening in each other’s life. It is always good to meet friends on the journey and in recently times Pragya did made me inspired with her actions and talks.
After Pragya and Sanjay left, I went to the desert shop at the Fountain Hotel and started chatting the guy who takes care of the counter – Mr Rajkumar Gupta. During our talks I learned that he makes all the deserts, which I could see there. He cannot read or write, he can only write his name, sign and do number calculation. When asked about how did he learnt to make all these? He said, “It took me just 10 days to learn and I learned it with the help of Internet. This is the third month and I am happy with the process of the business. I am a 50 percentage partnership with the hotel people and the asked me to give them share of profit only once I started generating good amount of profit.”
When I explained Mr Gupta about my journey, he said to me, “Please give me your number. I will make sure the day you finish you walk in Delhi, someone will come and feed you sweets and desert for the success.” He touched my heart with his words and we kept on talking. Thank you for reading my today’s experiences and I shall write more soon about the journey.