Father’s Day True Story : Dil Me Jagah honi Chahiye by Arun Pandit

I firmly believe that the core difference between a man and a machine is emotions . Emotions subconsciously drive the world and the decision we make across our life . They are the essence of our personal and professional life . What we may consider as an objective or a rational decision is also somehow governed by our paradigms and experiences driven by emotions .

I am compelled to share a life changing moment that I had experienced with my father during my childhood . As far as I remember , I was studying in probably 5th or 6th standard Me and my sister used to commute to our school i.e. St Mary’s via a shared auto rickshaw . It’s a three-wheeler automobile extensively used for short travel in India .

Around 6 students from my locality used to go to our school in a shared auto rickshaw . One day the auto rickshaw could not come to pick us up due to a breakdown

I had to ask my father to drop us to school via our good old FIAT car .

He would have been late to his office but we did not have any other choice. We did not have many options like metro , Ola / Uber cabs or bike taxi Rapido at that point of time . While we were on the way to our school my father saw one of my friend Gaurav and his brother Sunny along with his two sisters waiting at the bus stand to go to school.

My father said “ Arun , your friend along with his brother & sisters are waiting for the bus at the bus stand . Lets take them along with us !’

I replied promptly ” Papa , how can we accommodate four more people in the car ! It will get all crowded here. We can leave them , they will come on their own . Lets quickly cross them they will not even notice that we crossed ! ’

My father replied immediately “ Beta dil me jagah joni chahiye , baaki jagah apne aap ban jaati hain !” ( In Hindi)

English Translation : “ Son , we just need a little space in our heart , the physical space gets created automatically after that ”

These words really gave me a 1000 watt shock and most importantly a key learning for life . I was very self-centered and mean. I realized the importance of sharing . That day I was saved from becoming a HU-MEAN instead of being HU-MANE.

I am grateful to my father for teaching me a valuable lesson and inculcating the sanskar / values like attitude of gratitude and sharing . I realized that as human beings , it’s the moral duty of the blessed of us , to help the rest of us until the rest of us also become the blessed of us .