SOULVEDA | FEBRUARY 16, 2024
A twelve-year-old boy came running home one evening hoping for something to eat, for he felt ravenously hungry. His mother replied to him sadly. “I have nothing to give you,” she said. “There is not a thing in the house you can eat, and I have no money to buy food.” Tears of despair began to fall from her eyes. Her husband was a poor man—a daily labourer—and when days passed and he could not find work, it meant that everyone went hungry. The young boy thought for a moment, then asked his mother if she didn’t even have a little money. “I do”, she said, “But what can you buy for a whole family with only a few coins?” Her son told her not to worry and begged her to give him her last few coins. Too weary and hopeless even to argue with him, she handed it over and he rushed outside with a look of determination on his face. He collected a bucket of drinking water and a glass on the way out, then bought a piece of ice from a nearby stall and cooled the water with it. Then he made straight for a cinema queue where people were standing in a line, sweating, waiting to buy their tickets. He started walking up and down the line shouting, ‘Water! Cold Water!’ and soon attracted the crowd’s attention. Gratefully, people began to buy his glasses of cold water. Some kind souls even paid him more than he asked for. With part of his earnings, he bought more ice and went back and sold more glasses of cold water. He kept this up indefatigably until the queues had disappeared. By this time, he had managed to earn rupees fifteen, with which he went home triumphantly to his mother.
From that time onwards he started selling something or the other every day. During the day, he worked hard at school, and in the evening, he would go out and do his best to make money. He kept this up for ten long years, somehow managing to study while he met the household expenses.
Now he has completed his education. Although he is employed on a modest monthly salary, he is still continuing with his side business in the evening and owing to his hard-earned money, has now even been able to rebuild his house. His neighbours, friends, and relatives respect him, and his parents bless him.
Difficult circumstances can be used as a spur to success, provided that such arduous and trying periods in one’s life inspire in him a new sense of determination and do not fill him with a sense of frustration. The really important thing in life is to make a proper start. When a man is willing to start his journey from the right point, every step amounts to making progress. Nothing then can stop him from reaching his goal. It only takes a few coins to start your journey—something which is surely possible for all of us. Such a journey will lead nowhere, if not to success.
