What Cheese

The Village

How much further is Prakash’s house?

Sir, it is another two kilometres. You just have to walk straight up this hill and when you see a fully built up house with a big bell on the roof, you would have reached your destination.

Why can we not drive in our car?

The road is narrow and after about five hundred metres, there is a narrower bridge over a stream. There is no way any motorable vehicle can pass over without breaking the bridge and falling down in the cold water gushing below.

The Bridge

Karen, I told you many times not to plan for any holiday in India especially in the hills. Bloody floods have inundated the routes leading to our hotel and we are now stuck. One of my schoolmates lives in this Mangalpur district. He was a son of a farmer and while we were preparing for the competitive examinations, he was happy packing his bags to go back to the hills to tend to his father’s farm. We used to share the same desk and had our names etched on the wooden desks in almost every class we studied. Over the years, he did keep sending me letters but I replied infrequently. My work kept me so busy that his letters went below the pile of other urgent and important matters. Who knew a day would come when I would need to go to his house for shelter?

Karen smiled at her husband as he struggled to walk up the hilly terrain. She was much fitter than him for she would do her daily exercise and jogging while he stayed up late in the night at work expanding his business from a small garage to one that spread across to almost all corners of the globe. But, once every year, Steve would take a month-long break and they would venture to one of the many exotic locations they had on their so-called bucket list which kept expanding each year in proportion to the success he had at work. This year, they had meticulously planned for a trek to Kedarnath via the Valley of Flowers. Mother nature had other plans and while they were enjoying the beauty of the hills and the valley, there was a cloudburst and they were informed that their hotel on the banks of the river was badly affected. Some said that a portion of it had been washed away by the fury of the water. With no place to go to, they had decided that it would be best to find shelter in Prakash’s house for a few days by which time things would get better and then they could return home, far away at Maryland, US of A.

Nature Blooming

After almost two hours of exhausting walk, they finally got the first look at the house with the bell on top. It was a simple, small house. The two weary souls walked up to the main entrance and looked for the bell to ring, but there was none. A hairy dog started rushing towards them while barking aloud but as soon as he reached the place the visitors stood, he started going in rounds with his tail wagging. A wooden door swung open and an elderly man with glasses came out. He adjusted his glasses once to make sure what he was seeing was not an illusion….Shiv, my friend…and he rushed towards his friend and wrapped his hands around him and broke down. After a while he looked at the other visitor and said…Kiran, you look the same. It is so nice to see the two of you.

The moment Karen and Steve entered the house, two young men came forward and bent down to touch their feet. These are my two sons….Sanjiv and Rajiv…said Prakash… and this is my wife Manju…pointing to a lady standing beside him with her hands folded in namaskar. The two visitors wanted to take a bath after their harrowing time in the torrential rains and the walk up the hill. They were shown a simple bathroom in one corner of the courtyard of the house and water was heated with the help of an induction rod, which brought back memories of childhood spent in Delhi winters for the visitors. They were offered a set of clothes each to change as Manju immediately took to cleaning the soiled clothes with a bar soap, brush and a wooden contraption that appeared like a miniature cricket bat. Steve wondered if women’s cricketers in India have not got their rightful share of glory as compared to the men despite it having been played in every home over generations.

With a simple white kurta pyjama and a shawl to wrap around, Steve felt nice and cozy as did Karen in her silky salwar kameez and shawl. They were very tired and the hosts in no time had got dinner ready for them. There was but one problem… almost everyone in the village wanted to shake hands with Prakashji’s friend from Ummrika. After a while, Prakash asked the visitors to start eating and the later arrivals to the house looked at them with a sense of amusement and bemusement. Karen and Steve retired early and were given a room which, possibly, was the master bedroom of the house. Manju insisted on them having the best room while they shifted to the main hall on beddings placed on folding cots.

The bed and pillows were not usual feather filled ones that the visitors were used to but then, in this hour of calamity, they felt a sense of gratitude that they had a roof to sleep under and a family to take care of them. Steve was rolling and pitching when Karen spoke… I too can’t sleep. It is not that I am missing my luxurious bed and blankets but thinking about your friend. I am amazed at the simplicity of the entire family and despite living the way they are, they all seem contented and happy. I am sure they have their share of troubles and difficulties but the warmth and genuineness in the way they welcomed us and took us in makes me wonder about our family and lives.

You know Karen, Prakash was among the brightest boys in the class and if he had appeared in any of the competitive exams, there was no way he would not have reached the IIT. Who knows where fate may have taken him from there? But, he was determined to becoming a teacher and return to his native village. We used to meet at least once a month when he was studying in Delhi University and I was at IIT, Delhi. I tried to motivate him into dreaming and doing more with his potential. Later I even sent  him the famous book, ‘Who Moved My Cheese”, and also some key snippets like Change happens, Anticipate change, Adapt to change, Enjoy Change. He kept the book and, in his reply, said…Change has to Happen and we can make it Happen. It is only when you change the lives of others that you Enjoy Change. I told him that he was a fool and lived in a world of make-believe. He always wished me well and never complained that I moved from Delhi to Bangalore and then to the United States. 

Do you know, Karen, why he has a bell on top of his house? I asked Prakash about it when you were talking to Manju in the kitchen. He said that bell rings twice in a day. The first time it is manually rung at 10am to tell the children in the village to come to the terrace where Prakash helps the young boys and girls with their studies. The children are given a simple yet healthy meal at the end of the session that lasts two hours. The second time it rings at 1pm to announce to the same children to rush to the school that starts at 1.30pm. He is now the headmaster of the village school and in this village everyone below forty years has done matriculation. A vast majority of people below thirty have done their higher secondary and the most of the younger ones have also graduated. Prakash’s father had left him large tracts of land, a vast majority of which he sold off and created an education fund for the children of this village. This, Karen, is possibly among the only fully literate village in the country and all because of one man who, I thought, had stopped looking for ‘cheese’, but the ‘cheez’ he was dreaming and achieving was much more lasting and life changing for the people of his village.

Steve, you must contribute to Prakash’s foundation. What good is our money? Our two children got all the luxury of the world and look what happened to them… one is now in a rehab recovering from years of drug abuse and the second one hates us for not having given him enough time and attention when he was young. He is a rebel and plays games on his mobile and Playstation day and night. Look at Manju’s sons. Sanjiv is a veterinarian and tends to the animals in their small farm and all the other animals belonging to the villagers. They call him Daaktar Saab in this area. The second son, followed his father, and is a teacher in the secondary school in the district. He is called Master Saab. They also have a daughter, Nandini. She is studying nursing at Delhi.

The School

Karen, I did offer to contribute but Prakash refused. He says, his corpus earns him enough interest to support the children in their higher studies. Some of the children have done well in life and they have been adding to the fund as part of their giving back to the village and Masterji. The little tarpaulin covered school in the village now has a proper building. He has created a world of his own out of nowhere. While my search for ‘cheese’ and more ‘cheese’ made me invest time and money into projects that gave me such high monetary returns that today we can afford almost anything…..I changed many times the way to do more business and earn more money and live in style. I gathered so much cheese which was much more cheese than I ever imagined when I started this quest for glory and richness. Prakash has said that I can contribute to his project by coming here anytime and teaching the children. They need some people with new ideas and ways of teaching.

That is good. I don’t mind coming with you as well, at least, once a year.

Karen, today after seeing Prakash and his family, I agree to what he said to me then when I had gifted him the book and wish to share my learnings now:

What is the cheez you seek?

How much cheez do no need to feel full and satiated?

Will the cheez you seek give you happiness and peace after you have found it?

Is the cheez you seek and how you adapt to change is for your own self or more?

Morning in the hills

When the two weary travelers went off to sleep is not known but they were woken up by the loud bell ringing. Steve opened his eyes and looked at the watch and it was 10am. He woke up Karen and went to the living room where the entire Prakash family was waiting…. No, not the entire family as Prakash  himself was not there. He had gone to the terrace to attend to the morning class for children. Others sat down at the table for the breakfast….all were waiting for their guests to wake up and eat together. Keren and Steve felt quite embarrassed but just smiled as Manju served them piping hot paranthas with fresh curd. She said in fluent English, “These are paneer paranthas, I mean cheese filled paranthas. Hope you like them.”

SS

Photo courtesy: Mukesh Kumar