Are we truly stressed?

You want to what “STRESS” really means, then make a visit to Tata Memorial Hospital (Annex Bldg., Ground Floor) where one can see a poor father who has come from his far-off village for the treatment of his child. He has no money, no home to stay in this city, no food (except some biscuits), no high-care hygiene his baby needs from the dust, no shelter from the rains on the street he has to stay at outside the hospital. He cannot afford to go back to his village and come back every 15 days for the half-day treatment scheduled over the next 6 months or even more. Some benevolent donor needs to deposit the needed amount in their account for the treatment/medicine in the free-ward, otherwise financed by the Hospital Trust. I shudder and shiver to think about what happens to them in the Torrential rains we saw last week with virtually no cover over their head through the night except some plastic sheets. My Dear friends, this is Stress, not what we experience in the luxury of our AC-rooms when we don’t pass an exam, or when our love is not reciprocated, or when our relationship of many years breaks, or when we don’t get the deserved promotion, or when we lose our job suddenly , or when we don’t get  suitable match, or when we catch a common cold or even an ailment whose treatment cost is well within our financial means, and within the control of medical science today, or when the stock markets crash, or when the currency is demonetised, or when our in-laws behave like out-laws, or when we have to deal with difficult parents or difficult children, or when somebody breaks our trust. Just visualise that helpless father with his seriously ill child on the pavement outside Tata Hospital battling the relentless rains, battling the fear of losing his baby due to lack of money, hygiene, shelter. I have seen this sight myself and I felt ashamed of my so-called stresses (in spite of having a huge house, bank balance, affordable doctors and hospitals for my family, health, family support, Guru’s blessings, God’s benevolence in every way… endless list).

My dear friends, what business do we have to feel stress? It is a vulgar expression of our ingratitude and unawareness of our unending list of blessings which we have taken for granted. When my young friends come to me seeking solutions for any stress, I suggest to them the following: 1. Take a window seat in the evening ride by our Local train from C.S.T. to Thane and watch the state of homes in which people live outside (instead of checking your ‘whatsapp’ and ‘facebook’); 2. Visit the nearest crematorium and see the hollowness of our problems; 3. Visit orphanages and old-age homes; 4. Visit also some marriages at Marine Drive or other halls to see the stark contrast of our insensitivity to other needs a single marriage cost can finance more than 100s of seriously ill children’s treatment giving them a new lease of life. But we cannot rise above our petty high-cost ‘vyavahars’ to see some groping realities of life around us; 5. And if nothing works, then I suggest that they should visit pavements outside Tata Hospital at night during extremely heavy rains. Your life outlook can change overnight. Mine did. Take Care.