The Things We Take For Granted

My Meditations    <<< Previously

Before I start on this post, let me first clarify that there is nothing happening to me or to people close to me that requires a talk on such a grave topic.

And if I were to tell you (which I will in a bit) what actually triggered me to pick this topic, you would be like “I'm making a mountain out of a molehill”.

Have you ever thought or paid attention to how trivial we think of it to have correct details on our ID cards like Aadhaar or PAN maybe?

I haven't checked the exact details about the case that I am going to share but at a high level it goes like:

A girl about 7 or 9 years old is out of school at the NGO I go to teach at. And the reason I got from the instructor there was that she had some errors (Plural) in her Aadhaar card.

Her name was written as “Baby of Anita” – not her actual name. Her date of birth was incorrect. And her parents' names were put incorrectly in Aadhaar. 
These details are not matching her birth certificate.

Because of this, she is not able to get admission in any school. 

I tried to assist this girl and the instructor by giving them the details of people in my contacts who do Aadhaar Update as a profession but it was of not much use as I was anticipating. I tried to talk to Dhirendra ji in my society and he said he will provide me a number to call.

I doubt if it will be of any help to the girl or just another dead end.

I am basically out of words to express myself about what other consequences lie waiting for this girl ahead.

As I write this today, you have no idea how grateful I feel for my grandfather and my chachaji (younger brother of my father) – just for the proper documentation of my details!

~~~

Other things that I had in mind which we take for granted are the usual: air and water, simple acts of breathing and walking, ability to taste food, ability to see, etc. 

The reason I see these things with such importance today is because I have been thinking about death lately. Thinking about death as a way to refocus and reprioritize my activities and life. And as I had some cough and cold today, I thought about what it must be like for people who are not even able to breathe properly.
From there my attention spiralled to other senses, and simple acts like walking, eating, being able to talk to people we have valued in our lives – and whom you could still talk to (for me, I was thinking of my grandmother).

~~~

And all of this also goes for essentials like: electricity, shelter and schooling – all of which I thought my caregivers owed me. I was wrong – I got them through the conscious choice of my grandparents.

It requires a bit of awareness, a bit of gratitude, a bit of appreciation to rise above the auto-pilot mode of living, above the daily rut of our lives and see, appreciate and feel thankful for what we have – rather than complaining about what we have not. 

I guess that's all for today!

My message to anyone reading this would be: 
Consider the things you take most for granted, the simplest of simple things – those actually might be the things which make life worth living!