Down the memory lane

When I remember my childhood I can think of so many happy memories. One such memory which always will be close to my heart is  listening to the childhood stories of my dearest aunt who is the eldest sister of my father.

So I thought of sharing one of my favorite story of her childhood.

This story dates back to somewhere in the winter of 1948. She was 8 years old at that time, my grandpa was a teacher at a school and  just got transferred to Dhing (it's a place  in Nagaon district of Assam India).

One evening grandpa went out to the market to get some groceries and vegetables. In those days shops were few and far between. The nearest shop  was about half a kilometre away from their house for which they had to cross a field and then had to reach the shop by a small gravel road.

 That day he took a total money of 8 ana consisting of 1 ana 2 ana and 4 ana coins (6 paisa was equal to 1 ana And 16 ana was equal to 1 rupee. The shopping that could be done with 8 ana is equal to the quantity  of shopping that we can do today with approximately Rs 1000).

After sometime he came back home empty handed. He was sad, tensed and worried and was walking briskly from one corner of the verandah to the other. Seeing him like that my grandma asked him what happened. He told her that there was a hole in the pocket of his kurta and he lost all of the money that he took with him. And hence he could not do the shopping. He searched the money all the way back home everywhere but it was not found anywhere.

My aunt was listening to this whole conversation. She was a little girl with a great wisdom. At that young age she knew the value of heard earned money and could not afford to see her parents in tension.

She is a firm believer of God. For her God is nothing but a constant integrated awareness. Grandma used to tell her that no matter what if we pray to God with full devotion, he will always come for rescue at the difficult times.

The whole night she constantly prayed to God that if the coins had fallen in the way to the shop please keep it safe and make it sure that I will find it out. And she planned to wake up as early as possible the next day and to go out and search the coins. She was sure that it will be there somewhere.

As planned she woke up early in the morning, took permission of grandma to go out and she set out for her search mission. It was a foggy morning, as she was walking she was enjoying the chirping of birds, the fresh air, cool breeze and dew drops everywhere. She searched everywhere but what she got was only disapointment as she did not find the money. So she came back home.

She was a very determined, self motivated and optimistic girl with high hopes. So she went the next day and the day after that day. But she was not successful.

When she went out to fulfill the mission on the forth day, after walking a few steps on the gravel road, a pile of cow dung on the road caught the attention of her eyes, as something was sparkling very brightly from inside of that pile of cow dung.

When she went to take a close look at it she saw a dung beetle had made a crack in it and then her face got lightened up and her happiness knew no bounds because she got what she wanted, the coins were there inside of the cow dung and it sparkled because of the reflection caused by the sun rays.

Immediately she took the coins and out of happiness and excitement she ran as fast as she could.

That day her belief in God grew more stronger. She knew that it was God who helped her through out the search mission and he kept the money safe and protected by covering it with cow dung. That was the first miracle out of many miracles of her life.