sagar
Sagar was my guide once when I was staying in a village for a month. It was in real outskirts of Maharashtra. Some snippets which I know about Sagar is all this post is about.
Sagar is in his 30s. He is a tailor and he stitches five shirts a day. Gets 60 rupees per shirt. He is the key earning member of his family. His other family is into farming and cattle.
When I met him, he still used an an old phone with buttons – he has been using it for around 14-15 years. And he was not planning to change it despite it being not able to catch the signal in most parts of his village. It was a not a big pain point enough in life.
Sagar liked bikes and wanted to take one when his peers in the village bought one. But his mother never allowed. So till date he didn’t have one. So he still travels in the bus that passes through the village or the jeep which shuttles between the village and the closest town. His most travelled mode would still be legs.
He used to take me around the village a lot, hear my stories, tell me his stories and more than anything, explain the smallest things in the village like he knew it.
He knew when the common water was installed and how many times it has stopped working in past 10 years. He knew who in the village was doing what. He knew why a new shed was being built in one of the farms in the village. He knew that the guy from the other village will be down by the river around 4PM hunting for the crabs.
We chatted one day on dreams.
Me: What is your dream in life?
Sagar: What is there to dream? I have got my wife and two kids.
Me: So life is happy now.
Sagar: Life is happy now… If I have to tell, it would be like my kids should study well and get government jobs – but that though has lot of time left, they are still kids.
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We chatted one day on love. He warned me not to fall in love, because that will break my heart.
Love works like this sometimes, he added. You just have to put two hearts together. Your hearts start to beat together with time. He met his wife only twice before the marriage. But today she was the love of his life above everything.
How do you put two hearts together. It is not by sitting close - keep away the physical proximity out. It is not by planning for the future together or doing something together. It is by feeling together. Feeling the other is the key.
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He calls me once in a while and catch up. He tell his stories from the village and me from my work and life. Two worlds. Two entirely different worlds.
And that’s one human for you.
He was more happier, more calmer, more peaceful than most people I have come across in my life.
May be the key to that is having lesser expectations. And, sadly, the world around you have a big role in setting that expectations. The day we take that away from the people around, happier and content life is a closer path.
Nutty bites.