Just like Holy Grail is hidden at the ocean bed, so are life lessons — lessons learnt from the streets
This time is difficult for many of us, and most of us now have some time to reflect upon. Most of the time, we’re thinking and living on the surface, instead of living in the depths of our existence. To live from the spirit, we need to expose ourselves to others, and find those parts of ourselves which hold peace, love, and wisdom. Mostly this COVID phase made me think through these aspects of my life by reminiscing the memories I have from the past.
I believe that life’s greatest lessons are learned on walks, walks in stranger cities and towns or stranger parts of your own city. But you only learn something when you pause, even if it’s for a brief second. You can learn warmth from an acknowledging smile on an unknown face down the road, kindness from a madman sharing his stale meal with a stray dog, and business from someone who fails to take back a single meal for his waiting family. And when you think, you realize that all the problems you solved from those bundles of textbooks are not even real problems. Your mind takes a spin, and when it stops, you fall on the path of discovery.
On my journey, I met some great entrepreneurs, amazing humans, and kindest souls. But how do you enter their world? Just take a step forward because the doors are already open. Human connection is more powerful than you can ever imagine it to be. However, intent is essential. Are we ready to take out time from our busy lives to stop by a stranger and talk to them? Do we care about what they have to say? Or do we think they don’t know the secrets to success? Step back and listen for once. You will discover the answers which you didn’t know existed and take the tips because experience teaches a lot more than education ever can.
The moment was all; the moment was enough.
— Virginia Woolf
I am writing about the people I met on the streets who changed me in their little ways. Telling me things I would otherwise never find out, giving me perspectives that seemed too difficult to accept and taught me lessons that I will always remember.
Shubham, an artist in Shimla. He quit school in 6th grade because his family couldn’t get him educated. Ever since he has been on the streets doing odd jobs. He started painting under another street artist because it became impossible to find anything else, he learned the skill by observing others. He takes 5–6 hours to finish one painting and it gets sold for not more than a hundred bucks. And his share is only forty rupees. He said ‘I feel bad for not making enough money sometimes, but I get a lot of compliments and it kind of makes my day.’
I took his first-ever autograph, and he told me that he will not lose his spirit and asked me to wait for the day when I find his work in some art gallery.
Amit Kumar & Dilip Kumar, two brothers who run the Shalimar tiffin center in Secunderabad. They are famous for their Premium Tawa burgers which have made a big name for itself. This burger is creatively their own invention because it doesn’t have a patty. Yet, it will win the race among other branded burgers. With a small stall in one corner of the city, they managed to get an order of 1250 burgers for Amazon’s biggest event. Why them? Because they took something, added their unique magic into it and it turned out to be amazing.
When you do something you love, you do your best. And the happiness they get when they see their customers licking their fingers and asking for one more burger even though their tummies are full, but their hearts want more.
Mastaan Ali, a dhobi at the Mahalaxmi dhobi ghat in Mumbai. He is a man of pride because he knows he does an extraordinary job and that he is good at it. He has a contagious smile and knows his best angles for a perfect picture. He is the chosen model for all the photographers coming to get their perfect clicks, and he does justice to it. He is a secret celebrity who is yet to be discovered.
And if you ever come across him and ask him for advice, he will tell you “Keep your heart close, but your pocket closer.”
What is this really all about?
Sometimes to-dos are less critical than not-to-dos. Because you learn less from success stories and more from failures. Along with Bill Gates and Elon Musk, listening to these street vendors, your milkman, watchman, delivery guy made me look at things differently. They know so much which we keep ignoring because we think their lessons don’t apply to us. But we can learn something from every experience. Whoever said this, said it so rightly:
“What they don’t teach at Harvard is what you can learn from the streets.”
These amazing people who I met on the streets taught me a great lesson.
We are all travelling the journey of life with our experiences snuggled up in our minds. We are constantly painting the road ahead of us with the actions we do, the decisions we make and the people we encounter. And no matter how many boundaries separate us, which gods we believe or don’t believe in, which language we speak, what colour we are, and what we do to earn that meal, we are all human. This thread binds us all into one large family. We are all one despite the differences because we all want to be hopeful. Hopeful despite the hardships and struggles.
We all hope that there is light at the end of every tunnel that we pass through, and that is what matters.
