1st August 2005, Unaware of what life in which way i wanted to create my desitny stepped on the gate of NITK Surathkal, dreaming to become a world class Engineer. One of the key reasons to choose this university was it's proximity to the beach. 500 mts away from the boy's hostel gate, the light house, temple, rocks on the shore, boats and ships driving on the horizon. All these things had just made my beautiful. Amidst all this and added bad food of the mess, always in the expedition to explore better eating joints. Living at NITK and if you don't sea food, then you are definitly a loser.
One fine day, a senior from college suggested to visit this hut, near the shore a couple of kms away for some good fish. The very evening three of us set out for dinner. It did take us a while to figure out the place. A small hut with a some space in the courtyard and a few mats alligned adjacent to the wall for people to sit. towards the corner a small cooking place and a door adjacent which is the entry to the house. A young lady in her 20's humbly asked us to sit on the mat. It was early evening we didn't find any other customers then. She then got a basket with a no. of fishes and we had to choose the one we wanted to eat. Soon she cleaned and cooked and we had a sumptous dinner. Just about to leave enters a tired looking man with a lungi and a half torn cream coloured shirt. By his pep talks with lady we could figure out that he was her husband. Anyway it was time for us to leave and when we approached her to ask how much did it cost, she said," Give as much as you feel like". "ha... " we were taken aback, Couldn't hear our own ears. Was she really not bothered about money or would she ask some other favours. Just then her husband interrupted and said, "we are just cook from what we get from the sea god and with that we share a little with the students, so any amount if you feel like please give". We were astonished, without knowing what to do we just left by giving him a 100 rupees note for three of us. That was a good deal for us.
The whole night i was lost in the thoughts. A poor man had found happiness in helping others and was content with what he had. It was unbelievable. Such a disparity where people kill each other for a few hundreds and here was a man who was actually happy. Expected less and gave more.
The taste of the fish took us back into the hut again and again. Though it did work out a good deal but we used to go back with compassion. It wasn't any other normal hotel, but we felt at home. Slowly as our visits became frequent and bond between us strenghtened too and we got to know about their backgrounds etc.. Things continued in a similar way for a year and half and the couple had a baby boy. There were so happy and we were happy just to look at them. Happiness being poured into their lives. In these days though fish was stopped for a few months, due the baby but we still kept visiting. After 6 months, everything was getting normal except for the added baby. Fish tasted even better. But gradually his expenses started increasing and the amount of time he could spend at work also reduced. During one of our visits we saw him trying to tie up the torn fishing net. We suggested him that he should buy a new one, from which he could fish better. Then he told about his economic crisis. We felt bad and tried to offer a little money that could help him, but his self respect stopped him from accepting. While we backed back from his place our discussions was totally on the fishing nets. On the guy had a better idea on nylon and fishing net and stuff, and we got back to our room and logged to net to find out the best technologically advanced fishing net. and this guy was going to abu dhabi next week, and he promised get a fishing net from there. We were happy too.
I couple of weeks he arrived and and brought a sophisticated net with so many specifications he blabbered which i couldn't figure out. It had a manual along with it too. He had studied and in the evening we were to visit the fisherman and hand over the net along with a few fundas.
He was very happy to look at the net, indeed his eyes filled with tears, we were touched. Though he was reluctant to recieve that but after our continued persuassion he accpeted it. We had a free meal that night and and a week after that we all left for home for summer break.
After three months got back to coll and i was in my final year. But more than this was more curious to know how the fisherman was doing, did the new net help him at all?
As we entered his place two plastic table with four chairs each were at the courtyard and the husband wife and the kid all smiling with good cloths. Oh!! must be a lottey or something. Next moment his wife was almost about to fall into our feets. We were embarassed. Tears dropped from her eyes and he explained that because of the new net his business has grown way better and amount of effort has also reduced a lot. This was such a wonderful feeling. A small help from our side changed his life and happiness in their face was worth a million dollars.
Things continued we continued to eat their for next few months and he never accepted money from us, and time had come for us to leave college and go in search of our peice of bread, but this man's attitude made a deep impact in all our lives, Had found happiness in helping others.
