The little Buddha as I would love to call him !!

"The little Buddha"  - as I would love to call him, was full of energy and light. The light (shine) that he transmitted was merely not a reflection, it was luminescence of inner peace. The calm in his eyes clearly, clearly provided a peep into the contentment that vested deep in his heart. The callousness and unawareness about the mundane stuff that we are in much endearment with, made him enlightened enough to ignore -  what doesn’t matter !  
The art of unknowing, un-bothering and un-fretting unnecessarily. 
 The kindness in his words and open acceptance for people/events made him remarkably attractive. He attracted you to talk to him, to be in awe of his loving glance, to look into his eyes  keeping aside all your wisdom and to listen to each and every word he used just to convey the futile thought which already has been conveyed from his eyes. 

He knew "thoda Hindi" , "partly English" , "Kannad gothila" and was adept in Tibetian , but he mastered a blessed language which was independent of words, it was a secret language which he knew and also the ones whom he chose to talk to.  He was destined to meet me , else why would he chose me to wake up out of a room full of yawning people in  a busy airport  lounge getting busier with each passing minute. He chose me to connect WIFI on his iPAD and iPhone. I woke up, bewildered and tried to help him but failed because of a the airport Wifi not being compatible with the MAC OS.  He was so warm and informal  in asking for help. He was not at all embarrassed in talking to a stranger and that too for a digital help in an age which coins the mastery of all the digital advancements - for no use. 

Then he started his conversation by asking where I am headed to on my journey. I fancied on the possibility of  philosophically answering my journey of Life to a monk but later I just smiled and said Pune and you ? He was heading to Leh, to meet his family which of course lives in a Buddhist  Monastery in Leh.  Then he enquired if I am a student in Pune. I joyed on the question (my weight-loss+workout plan works like wonder ;) )  and replied - 'no Sir , I work there!'
 He jumped on his seat crying - " noooo !!  you are so small, how can you work".  ( I told you his English was poor ;) ) I took this game of mutual admiration + surprises to next level to disclose that I have been working since 5 years. 
Man ! the excitement and the disbelief in his glassy eyes and his genuine broad smile was clearly captivating. Then he dropped a bomb by starting to talk in Hindi, I just didn’t realize that I too have replied in Hindi. Later, I asked  – "wait you know Hindi " ?   
He said oh! I love Hindi , how can people not talk in Hindi all the time , it's such a beautiful language. Indeed it is, but who accepts it? Definitely no one in these stereo typical societies of technocrats and corporate slaves. 

 He  was such a genuine and honest person. He accepted that he wasn't very good at English language and that I am very kind  that I am having a conversation with him.
 Then we went on talking about 
* loving one’s work
* being a monk
* how difficult was his renunciation
* about my visits to my parents 
* about my marriage and if I like someone
* about siblings
* about Tibetian markets and love of Indian women for the knitted woolens 
* about the diplomatic relationship and cooperation of India to Tibet.   
* about Soul, Karma , past and next birth
* about how they (monks)  feel that every enemy ( in current life ) could have been your worst foe  and vice versa.
* about how current parents could be just paying their debt of parenthood played by us or may be we have to do the same in next lives.
* about how Buddhism and Hinduism have so many common  principles 
* about how India - the origin for Buddhism has completely lost its valor while the rest of Asia hails in it’s light.

We talked and talked without realizing that we are two people with different nationality, follow different religious views and somehow are managing to converse on a common minimum distorted versions of the two languages – Hindi and English. We were tired ( physically) but still sought the rest in the conversations we were having. I stopped looking for a reclining chair in the lounge and was looking forward to do the security check – in when he said, let us have some tea and then we can take some walk. He wasn’t convinced that Tea and Chai are the one and the same. He believed when we order Chaii then they mix the milk else they give some kind of black tea. Silly, no ? So was he, in his knowledge about mundane worldly stuff. We had our tea in peace and over some conversation about Dr. Abdul Kalam (who passed away that very day) and Dalai Lama’s teachings along with His love for India. 
He said I am too wise ( about principles of Life) for my age :D and that I would make good progress towards achieving happiness and goals of Life. Amen, I said ! 

He said, I would get a nice life partner as I am a good person and also he would pray for the same. He told me about his family of 5 sisters and 2 brothers. How he decided to be a monk at age of 11 and his mother’s defiance towards his decision while his father’s support to bypass the conventional worldly way of Life. He was very passionate about his work – teaching Buddhism to his disciples. I asked him, if he ever found it difficult to keep his focus on this mode of life or the situations where he got attracted to worldly things. He honestly accepted that he used to get attracted to the beautiful girls ( like me he added :) ) but later, with practice and control he overcame this. He said he never regretted it, coz of the peace he derived out of it. We had another tea, as he insisted. 
Now, I wanted to check –in as it was 2:30AM already. He said, he would come along with me. 

As we were about to leave , there were three of DMRC officials who came to ask if we had any problem finding our flight or the respective gates. I complained about Air India not displaying the gate information  before three hours of flight. They checked the records and provided the info for my flight assuming that me and monk are together. I explained them that monk was heading to Leh and we do not come from the same place. I came from Lucknow and he was from Bangalore . It was hard to convince them that we met just a few hours back. They too, as expected were smitten by the shine and peace in the monk. They were telling + asking about  how beautiful is Leh , monasteries and if he frequently meets Dalai Llama. The Monk was not able to follow the fluent English of guys and looked towards me for all the answers. He said , she knows everything about me please ask her. Those guys were too smitten by his simplicity. They talked to us for another 30 minutes and parted after exchanging phone numbers   and taking some group pictures. 

Monk said let's move and we made the check ins together. He came to the terminal from where my flight was to take off. He said he wants to wait for me as his flight departs 40 minutes after mine. I found two reclining chairs and asked him to relax while charging my cellphone. While I caught some sleep, he went running to AI staff to ask when would my flight leave. When I woke up after a nap of 30 mins, he said  - "you can sleep more, I asked them (Air India) to wait for you till 4:30 as you were sleeping", with a broad smile.
 I replied  "thank you" ! 

He came to the last point to see me off, shake hands with me and said  - "thanks for being kind and talking to me for so long. I was feeling lonely". I said –" same here" and tried to return the genuine smile and compassionate look. 'Keep in touch' - he said.
" I will ",  I had to say!

#Journey_with_a_monk
#Unpredictable_Life
#In_conversation_with_a_stranger
#I_Love_Life !!