It was a sunny and hot day
in the sleepy village of Bheryal Lehri in Gurdaspur. Summer was at its peak and
the fiery sun was making sure that all were indoors. In the midst of this, the
Divine Lord had plans for instilling a seed of enlightenment in its pure ones.
A young kid was joyfully
running down the village street with a pair of sandals in his hand. He was
always happy running errands for his house and his sister had just asked him to
get her sandals repaired from the village cobbler. As he perched himself on the
dirty mat under the large tree next to the smelly cobbler, the kid was
overpowered with a nauseating smell of leather, grime, sweat and dust. The
wizened old man with heavily grayed hairs, sweating profusely and looking
untidy as if he needed a wash; looked like a picture of pity to the kid.
8 yr old Iqbal Singh felt
yucky since he hated leather and immediately collected himself. There was a
sense of being clean and superior to the poor man in front. The old cobbler
started mending the sandals and put a thread into his mouth while deftly sewing
loose scrappy ends.
Iqbal was curious since the
thread too smelled badly. He mumbled askance to the cobbler “what is it that
you putting in your mouth?”. The old man replied, “This is cow leather created
out of dead cows”. Iqbal was ready to throw up and winched his face contorting
with disgust and empathy “Chee
Cheee…Chamda (leather) in your mouth?”. The wise guy softly asked the kid
looking deep into his eyes “tu maa da
dudh pita hai?” (have you suckled your mother’s breasts?). Promptly Iqbal
replied “Yes, I have” with a glint of pride in him. “Taan oh chamda nahi si tere mooh vich?” (was it not leather in
your mouth?).
The boy looked wide-eyed as
if a thousand blows had been rained on him. His sense of superiority evaporated
instantly and it hit him with intensity that there is a subtle difference at
how you look at things.
Silent, brooding but not
hurt the young man nudged back home dragging his feet at the new learning that
taught him a lesson that no school or university could ever have.
This young boy turned over a
leaf in his life and later became Baba Iqbal Singh ji of Baru Sahib.
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