Never judge People by their Physical appearances

        Always (Never) judge the Book (People) by their Cover (Physical appearance)

For the Last three years I am living in a Semi-urban area. To know more or deeply about my surrounding, you have to give feathers to the birds of your imagination.

So, Ready?

India is a land of Diversity,(universal fact, Right?). After every hundred kilometres in our country the food, language, culture, folk songs changes, so imagine how vast this diversity is. But one thing that can give a neck-to-neck competition to this diversity is the “diversity in the professions” of the residents in our colony.

A milkman, a police inspector, a real estate agent, a factory owner, a journalist, a banker, a glass manufacturer, a Bike showroom owner, an electrical engineer, a PWD and an irrigation department government employee , a Brand (Marketing) manager, an income tax officer.

I can understand that after reading these professions your mind has given you a nice tour starting of North Pole to end of South Pole.

 Imagine we live in such sort of diversification.

I will tell you the Fun and adventure happens on a regular interval of time due to this diversification, but on some another day because today is the time to clear a backlog , which we all are taking with us unnecessarily and which is restricting us to open the whole new dimensions to learn more about each other.

So, let’s just address the elephant of the room (although this backlog has taken the size much more than an elephant with passage of time).

 How about a story?

But before the story, please solve a simple puzzle for me and choose the odd profession out of all the professions of the people of our colony. You guessed it right. It’s the milk man.

 Like you, we as the other residents also keep ourselves odd and disconnected from him and his family. This story is about the milkman so let’s discuss about the number of members his family. There are total five members in his family, the milkman, his mother, his wife and two kids. Their attire includes kurta and dhoti for men and kids and kurta and a long pleated skirt (Ghaghra) for women and girls of the house.

Their house includes only two rooms and the rest of the area was left for the Cows, buffalos and the fodder for them. It was a like outhouse but less equipped with modern and luxury items.

We all have been taught since our childhood that always sit in those group, or make friends which makes you look more knowledgeable, much smarter, so, to keeping up this learning (more precisely “a tradition”) I also enjoys (pretend to) my evenings or holidays with the rest of our residents because these people’s standard, way of living comes under that list of “SOPHISTICATION”.

On one holiday( Ganesh Chaturthi) we all were chilling at our house and giving our expert opinions on the country’s falling situation on politics, economics which were totally based on the fact(ke) news serving (can’t say Reporting, right Because they are not doing it) by the news channels.

This sophisticated (heated) discussion (argument) was stopped by the doorbell. It was the security Guard of our colony who came, taking my son in his arms, who while playing cricket with the kids was hit by the ball and was unconscious in his arms. We all become very worried after seeing him and immediately took him to the hospital by the car. The hospital was only three kilometres away from our house but due to Ganpati visarjan yatra , the traffic was literally stopped by the traffic police.

My son was still unconscious and not responding at all. With me, in the car, the income tax officer, police inspector were there. I was worried but got the assurance from both of them that they will take the permission from Traffic police to get the VVIP route, so that we can reach the hospital in no time. As said, they got the pass and we were standing at the entrance of the hospital very soon BUT as they say “All Sorrows come together”, there were no doctor present at that moment because all of them were on leave to go for the Visarjan yatra.

All three of us, used all our references, connections to arrange a doctor and the treatment of my son starts but all goes in vain because even despite trying their best no doctor could come before two hours.

My whole body’s energy was drying seeing my son’s critical condition. Suddenly I saw the milkman and his wife were coming on their bike in a rushing manner. They immediately came to us and asked about the reason why we are standing at the entrance.I told them about the situation while crying. The milkman hugged me and told me to not get worried. He said to his wife to call the IPS of this area to arrange for something. This was the first time since twenty years I first heard the voice of Mrs Milk man.While it was ringing on the phone, we informed Vijay( I do not even know his or her name before this incident) that we already tried to call him but his secretary told us that he is busy right now.

Vijay with an expression of assurance through his face,said that she is calling him on his personal number. After two seconds he picked up the call. Jayaji (Name of Mrs Milkman) had a very strong yet polite voice. She, with elegance and politeness explained the situation to him and after few seconds disconnected the call and said that the doctor is coming within 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes a helicopter came at the roof of the hospital and in the next two minutes I saw a Doctor with the supporting staff running towards us.

They swiftly took my son from my lap and ran towards the ICU (Intensive care Unit). After 30 minutes Doctor came out of the ICU and informed us that the patient is alright now. He said that it was the case of the concussion (a traumatic brain injury) and if he got no treatment for another few minutes, we would have lost him.

All this happened so quickly that I did not get the time to thought about what is happening. I hugged vijay and jaya ji with wet eyes. She wiped my tears with her Dupatta and told me to go to meet my son with a smile on my face.

Later in the Evening when everything come back to normal, I with my son came back from the hospital, my legs mechanically took me to vijay’s entrance gate of their house and my hands without thinking about the hygiene and other factors which has restricted me to coming at this jamb since ever, knock the door (there was no doorbell).

The kids came to open the door while running and jumping with joy, did the gesture of respect (Namaste) to me, I replied their gesture with a smile and caress their head with love and gave them blessings.

They, in their cute voice, asked me about my son’s health I told them that he is good know and will take another four five days to be fully recovered from the head injury. While saying this, a line of tension passed from my face, Seeing that, they assured me that the injury will be recovered very soon because in today’s evening prayer they wished for his good health. They said this in so much innocence that I smiled with a pinch of wetness in my eyes and pecked them on their cheeks.

 I asked them about if their parents were at home. They told me that father went to supply the milk and momma is cooking the food, after giving me a stool made of wood and bamboo to sit and requested me wait for a minute there. One of them went inside and after five minutes Him and jaya ji came with a glass of water. I took the glass and pay my gratitude towards her by saying a Thank you. Jaya ji told me not to be formal and said with affection that he is our soon too. If something had happened to my kids then you would have done the best you could do, right? At that moment Vijay also came and welcomed me with a smile.

 After some formal talks about snacks, tea, etcetera, I opened my box of curiosity to them and ask that how do they know the IPS of our town so closely. Jaya ji said with a smile that he was her Batch mate in the IPS training and they became good friends during that course of time.

“You are an IPS jaya ji”? I asked with surprise and before she could answer my question, asked another question, How come you are living this life?

After reading my facial expressions and curiosity, she said with a smile that she has taken an early retirement from his job to live this life. My family has supported me on every decision of mine. Apart from serving the country, my another childhood dream was to live a very simple life of a farmer, and my husband always wanted to open a stable of cows and buffalos(Tabela) so left his corporate job to pursue his dream. I also saw the initiation (starting process) of living a farmer’s dream in this work.

 We are very happy in this way of living. My morning starts with serving cows and buffalos the fodder, then bathes the cattle, then milks them. In the meantime, my husband prepares kids for school and makes breakfast for them. Then he went to supply the milk to our customers and I prepare tea for my Mother in law and then I read news and some articles from the newspaper to her and I prepare lunch and so on and on and on.

After some time I took their leave after inviting all of them for this weekend’s lunch.While coming to home my whole definition of Happiness was changed

I think it is high time to break this tradition of hidden shackles, by which we are tied to, since ages.

Last, I just want to say that “It’s not a crime to judge a book by its cover” but It is equivalent to crime to judge the people by their physical appearances. So,

“Never judge people by their physical appearances”.