Radheshyam works as an auto-rickshaw driver in Mumbai. He meets different people every day and some talk nicely to him and some are rough and rude. He is not bothered as he knows his profession does not engage with nice people all the time.
His auto looks like others and like many auto-rickshaw drivers Radheshyam sings while driving. He has a picture of a cute girl placed in his auto and while driving he keeps looking at her. Out of curiosity I asked him, “she is your daughter, right”. He smiled, “she is my FIRST CHILD, Koyal”. First child, I smiled, how many children do you have? I asked him. “I have only one child and Koyal is my first child”. “So how long you have been married”, I asked him. “I am not married. Actually I was married but not married now. My wife left me just two years after the marriage”, Radheshyam was smiling and talking. People often smile while talking about this state of mind. His smile had satisfaction and contentment of coming back to single status, the bachelorhood, but then this child.
Radheshyam was ready with a reply, “sir, I have adopted Koyal and she is my life-support. She does not know she has been adopted and I don’t tell her also. Why should I? I adopted her just 2 months after my wife left”. But my question was why he is saying “Koyal is the first child”. “Sir, I am adopting another child, this time a boy to complete my family. And the adoption is going to happen very soon. My mother and father take care of Koyal and they are keen to have one more adoption. I am their own son and they want to see me happy. Koyal has put life in my parents who were shattered the day my wife left me. Now they spent most of the time playing with her.”
“But what about your marriage”, I asked Radheshyam. “Sir, marriage is not on cards, I love this bachelorhood and he laughed.”
I was supposed to travel by cab and as it was getting late, I travelled by auto, never thought life comes across with such experiences in such beautiful way. Radheshyam dropped me at my destination but kept me thinking, “we do discussions and debates and deliberations but here people lead simple life and have their own way of streamlining their lives.”
I was seeing “VEDANTA KHUSHI” being implemented.
