Sunday, March 14, 2010

Looking below the Cover

I was on my way back from office and was waiting at a signal. There were two little boys selling magazines at the crossing. They were going to every car and reading out the long list of magazines they had in an effort to sell a few. None of the people at the signal seemed particularly interested in their magazines.

The two boys came to me and started repeating their long list of magazines. Like all other people at the crossing I too shook my head. They kept standing by my car for a little longer than usual and then slowly moved ahead. Surprisingly, they did not approach the car behind mine and stood at the rear of my car. I heard the younger one tell the older one, "Go ahead! Ask her. She won't say anything." The older one hesitated a little but then came back to me. "Isn't this the Nano, the cheapest car?", he asked. I was quite amazed at the awareness of the boy. I smiled and answered, "Yes, you're right. How did you know?" The boy pointed to the magazines in his hand and said, "I read it in the magazine." He then told me that he went to school in the morning and sold magazines at the signal in the evening.

Somehow I felt very happy that this little boy could read the magazines that he was selling. He had empowered himself to read, study and be aware. Though he did not have much, he was still making full use of the meagre resources that he had.

How many of us would have made a similar choice? Would we have had the inquisitiveness to look below the cover or would we have just blindly sold the magazines and earned a few bucks? Is it about being too busy to learn something new or is it just not feeling the need to learn any more?

12 comments:

  1. Good One . Its time for introspection for us.

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  2. hmmm..not me for sure...mere jaisa jugaadu kahan milega..kaam ho gya fir goodbye....
    opened my eyes..bt how cn i improve??

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  3. @tapu: I too wouldn't have taken the pain to read the magazines. I agree with Agam that we need to introspect. We are pretending to be so occupied with "work" that we are losing our creativity. A person who loves the work that he does, would definitely "look below the cover". Inquisitiveness is inherent in all of us. When we were young, we were never scared or bored of trying new things. We need to rediscover that flame. My mind is still clouded about the "How" though.

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  4. Nice one :)

    Little things .. but these little things carry a message so strong that we cannot forget for the rest of life .. I don't think u can forget this incidence even when it was so trivial ..

    And about inquisitiveness .. u said it all in ur comment @Tapas.

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  5. Nice one Divya! This line esp:
    Would we have had the inquisitiveness to look below the cover or would we have just blindly sold the magazines....

    My friend used to point out to people who would seel these posters on the road side that had captions about Success.. I'm sure you've seen those... but he often asked why is that those people did not buy into the message themselves and turn their life around? I guess the kid at the signal is the popcorn that popped!

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  6. hmmm....that gives me a lot to think.

    I think inquisitiveness comes from interest in the job that we are doing. If your interest and job are inline to each other...we won't just look inside the cover but we would look inside out for whatever we can get from it....I think the small kid is lucky enough to be interested in books and at the same time he is in the business of selling books...

    It seems obvious that a bookshop owner should have enough knowledge about the books but most of the times it's just a business..whatever book you ask he'll give it to you.

    but suppose there is a book owner who himself is a bibliophile and is a voracious reader....this person will add a lot of value to your book buying experience.

    and this will be the person who'll look inside outside and upside and each and every side of that book..


    Cheers to that small kid....but please tell me that after this incident you bought that magazine from him...

    You bought it na?if you didn't please do it the next time..may be he gets a share of it to buy stationary. :)

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  7. @Gaurav: You're absolutely right in saying that a person interested in his job will be inquisitive about it. I was thinking and I realized another thing...it doesn't have to be your job alone...it can even be an interest in learning a language, or maybe learning to play an instrument, or joining dance classes, or the gym maybe...something not even remotely related to your job...Would we have any interest or will to do something new or different? The answer of this question for my case isn't an outright 'yes'...

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  8. Nice one NANO waali Madame.... :P..lolzz

    A very small but a strong feeling....one such topic is what i feel and am writing on is the...LINGUISTIC ISSUES IN INDIA.....lets c how the effort goes!

    Till then...happy blogging!

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  9. @Saurabh: I'll be waiting for your post!!! :)

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  10. A perfect inspiration for appreciation, hardwork and introspection!!!
    Keep writing...
    ---
    Deepjot

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