Be The Change...!

 Be the Change!

              Nobody is perfect, knows Naveen. Yet he wanted to see a perfect world with right people at the right time, in right place, doing the right things. Naveen is a poor boy from a remote village near Villupuram about 150 Km from Chennai. He was 19 years old and he was studying B.sc, Zoology in a college in Chennai. Being a first generation learner he was the first person to come to the college from his village. May be because of this he had a high respect among his villagers and even the elders respected him for what he was and they approached him whenever they were in need of any intellectual help. 

Naveen was an intelligent boy but he belonged to a poor family. Money and intelligence often do not go together. And he felt himself very inferior compared to the other students in his college. He is a person who has experienced a lot of struggles and sufferings in his life. He always remembered the words of his loving father, Murugan, which was the propelling dynamism within. “Naveen, never give up; feel confident always”.
            It is because of the confidence and encouragement given by his father that he was able to come out of his inferiority complex and face the challenges in his small world. However, a strong desire to see a perfect world has been burning within. “Is a perfect world possible?” was his inner urge. And he believed that he can see a perfect world in the near future. He told his friends in the college about his desire and his friends fooled him telling “Come on perfect man, of course,you can see a perfect world!” They wrote on the black board in big letters “PERFECT WORLD” and asked him “Are you able to see a perfect world? See there!” While most of his friends in the class teased him, there was a girl who came to him and said, “Don’t worry, dear Naveen. You can see a perfect world – Keep looking for it”. And she told about a sage who lived in a small village and advised him to meet the sage.
            Naveen marched towards that small village. He never expected such a beautiful village near Chennai, a metropolitan city, wherein there are many scientific and technological industries and national and international corporate companies and where of course so much of pollution takes place. It was a nice experience for Naveen to walk on the banks of the riverbed on the way to the village looking for the sage. In spite of his troubled heart, his mind was bit smoothened by the silent breeze that caressed him in that place of natural beauty. But his mind was busy thinking! Was he really troubled? What was the reason for all his worries and for his longing desire to see a perfect world? Is it because that he lived in an imperfect world? What imperfection did he find in the society at large?
            As Naveen walked along the river bank, he saw an old man grazing the sheep and asked him “Where can I meet the sage?” Observing the desperate condition of Naveen, the old man said, “My boy, you can just cross over to the other side of the river and that old temple you see there is the place where he lives in”.With much joy in his face even if there was trouble within, Naveen approached the temple. It was an ancient temple with some huge idols placed outside. On seeing the giant idols, Naveen in his own humble way bent down and worshipped as he used to do in his village especially during the time of festivals. “Lord, help me to see a perfect world” were the words going on within Naveen as he bent down in worship.

             Hoping to get some positive result from the sage, he looked around to see where the sage was. For his surprise, the sage was inside the temple, sitting in a comfortable posture and Naveen heard some mantra being recited by the sage. Naveen was in a dilemma whether to disturb the sage or to wait for him. After some time he decided to stay there on the temple verandah until the sage comes out from his meditation. Having come from a long distance he was very thirsty and he searched for some water pot nearby and he didn’t find one there. So he just moved to the river and quenched his thirst. 

            As he came back to the temple verandah he found himself very tired and noticed that the time was past midday and he hoped that the sage might soon come out for his lunch. As he was rehearsing within the points that he wanted to share with the sage he just laid down on the verandah. Within a few seconds he fell asleep.As he was sleeping, his mind just went back to all his sorrowful life experiences in the past. It was a fine morning. And the sun was just spreading its rays from the sky. But Naveen was filled with a lot of anxieties. He was hopeless and being a small boy of just ten, he didn’t know what to do at the time while his mother fell seriously ill due to a heart problem. His father took his mother and admitted her in a government hospital.

 Naveen was literally begging door to door asking for some financial help from his neighbours and no one was willing to help him. “Akka (Sister)” he cried to a woman in the nearby house, “please give me some money. My mother is seriously ill and we need money to give her treatment in the hospital.” “Sorry, I can never give you any money” she said like a heartless devil, “you don’t have any property and how the hell can you return the money to me? Go and ask for the help from some others”. Having asked for help from almost all in the village, without getting any help from his so called neighbours, he hurried towards the hospital to see his loving mother. When he reached the hospital, he fell down at the feet of his father who sat near his dead mother in a stretcher. Tears trickled down from his eyes and his father didn’t have tears in his eyes and he looked as if he is also dead. “Appa, what happened to amma?” Naveen cried holding his father’s
hands.
            There was a long silence. Even the air didn’t have a kind heart to console the suffering souls. They were both soul stricken and seemed to be left alone without any one coming to their aid. After a long silence, his father said to Naveen in a melancholic tone, “My dear Naveen, we are poor and your mother died because we didn’t have enough money. These bloody doctors are asking for a huge amount which we can’t pay. Your mother is dead and gone my son.” Naveen thought within himself that only with money people can survive in this world. “Why do people in this world consider money more important than morals? when can I see a perfect world in my life?” these were the questions that arose in his mind when he was just ten years old. Having lost his loving mother, who was very dear to him, Naveen felt as if he had lost his own life.

At this time of great sorrow, it was his father who said “My dear son you must become great. You must fulfill the wish of your mother. She always longed to see you as a doctor. Your mother was not able to be cured because of the fact that we were poor. That desperate condition must never occur to anyone in this world. When you become a doctor, never deny help to anyone especially to the desperate and the poor”, his father told him holding him gently to his heart. Immediately Naveen said to his father with a lot of zeal and earnestness, “Appa (Daddy), I will become a doctor and give free medical treatment to all those who are in need”. Seeing the enthusiasm of his son at that very early age, his father replied, “My dear son, you will become great”. With that spirit of eager and enthusiasm, Naveen studied very well and scored excellent grades in the school. After some years, when he completed his plus two, to his joy and happiness he got the first mark in his school in the public examination.

            Having come up in his life from a poor background and having achieved this, he hoped that he would surely fulfill the deep desire of his loving mother. When the admission was going on for the medical college, he hoped that he would be given the seat on merit. With this hope, he went to a famous medical college in Chennai and when he met the admission officer there, he felt that the admission officer would praise him for his hard work and achievement and give a seat. But it happened on the other way about. He looked up and scanned Naveen and his father from top to bottom and asked them, “Where are you from?” Naveen said, “Sir, We are from a poor village near Villupuram. And I am from a poor Dalit family. Please help me sir. I have a strong desire to study hard and become a doctor in order to serve the poor people freely”.

            “Do you have money to give for the admission?” was the immediate question from the officer and Naveen and his father were standing silently without having words to speak. After some time he opened his mouth and said, “Sir, I am a poor boy. But I have scored the first place in the public examination. Please help me sir. I will be...” before Naveen could complete his words the officer called the security and asked him to send them out of the office. with much sadness and sorrow, feeling depressed he asked his father, “ Appa, why is it that I am not given an admission in the medical college even though I have high marks” “ My dear son”, his father said, “You longed to study in an English medium school but I put you in the government school. Do you know why? Everywhere they asked for money. And as you know your mother died because we didn’t have enough money. In this world of ours, marks or morals don’t matter, much money matters”. Telling these words to Naveen his father took him home.

Days passed on and after strenuous efforts he got a seat in a private college in Chennai. In the beginning of the academic year, there was a students’ union election held in that college and he noticed how money was used as a tool to manipulate the students and get the votes. He was
fully disturbed, when he noticed that the man who spent a lot of money won the election. He got wild and decided to do something for the society, which respects money rather than morals. “Why can’t I contest in the election next year?” as he was thinking, somebody tapped on his
shoulder and asked him, “Thambi (little brother), what do you want?” Naveen got up from his sleep and surprised to see the Sage standing near him and told him his quest for seeing the perfect world. After listening to the sad story of Naveen, the sage in his humble way said, “My dear boy, I was also like you and wanted to see a perfect world and at the end decided that I could never change the world, rather I decided to change myself and that has made me sacrifice everything and lead such a simple life based not on money but on morals. You must become the change that you want to see in this world”. As Naveen saw the sage, he fell at his feet and said within, “Why can’t I be the change that I want to see”.

For a moment he struggled whether to accept the reality or to change the reality. Then it became very clear to him that he should realize his dream of becoming a doctor. But how? He remembered the man grazing the cattle on the way – He should work, work and work more. He came back to his college, started working part time. With the money he earned he could study and earn not only a little money but also academic laurels. His mindset was to change the face of the world and to be a counter culture. He worked for a couple of years, he did win a scholarship and went on to medical school and became a doctor. All through the ordeal of his poverty and his being rejected by the moneyed people, his mindset that he could become great kept vibrating and that made the difference. He realized the world may not become perfect but you could become perfect and change your environment perfect. He shone as a beacon of perfect person in the world of darkness. He realized that when you want to achieve something you could harness the entire world power, which is within oneself, to achieve the dream. He is a great doctor, an internationally cardiologist today. For him money matters little but each people matters a lot. He is the sage in action.

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