I have heard it so often said , from so many people that I am gradually beginning to believe in the truth of the saying that Life always gives you more than what you truly deserve.

Let me start with two of my brothers. One retired as an employee from the head-office of the SBI a few years ago. The other being the brother next to me. Let me reproduce what the first brother remarked, when I paid a visit, along with my family, to his apartment, in a housing complex in Paikpara, a prosperous locality some 35-40 minutes journey from our ancestral home. He told me in a very relaxed, leisurely manner, while handing to me the file containing all the details about his retirement benefits and all, how Life had given him more than he thought he deserved. He looked very contented with a life, which according to many, has been truly well lived.

The other brother, once a bright student, tried his hand at everything. He worked as the co-partner of a sports goods shop in Maidan Market, a prosperous market centre in central Kolkata for a number of years. It was a hectic life, no doubt. He would leave the house at around 7 in the morning and would be back at 9 or 10 most of the nights. At around the same time, he was also assisting the proprietor of Raj Caterers, a catering establishment. Strange as it might sound, this bro of mine was not really all that interested in doing a 9 to 5 kind of job. Later on in life, he started earning his living as the owner-cum-teacher of Bina Coaching Centre, named after our late mother, for giving tuitions.

He rechotiated what my other brother had told me earlier.  He intimated to me one lazy afternoon: “What more could I have asked from Life, Bappa (my nickname)? I bought a car  very early in life. I bought my own house by the time I was in my late thirties. Before that, when I was working with Jain (the co-owner of the Sports goods Shop) and Raj (the owner of the Catering Establishment), I had my pockets stacked with money. I spent money lavishly and enjoyed every bit of my life. Today, by the grace of The Almighty, my only son is an engineer working in Bangalore, set on making his mark. What more could I have asked for …….?

And I couldn’t but agree with him. Life never lets anyone down. They say that Life always gives back with interest. At the risk of dismaying the reader by my frequent repetitions, I feel like restating what I personally think about the issue. I sincerely feel that Life has given so much to an ordinary, insignificant person like me and I have tried to express my true feelings in my autobiography, CU’s Worst Student. But what I could not share with my brother was the content of an article published in one of the leading Bengali dailies some years back. The article featured a rickshaw puller whose only son was among the toppers of the Madhyamik, class-X Board Examination. Can you beat it? A rickshaw puller, his back bent low under the weight of the world, working day in and out for his mere sustenance and survival; sweating it out in the extreme heat and humidity of Kolkata with the faintest hope that like his favourite Bollywood hero in the movies, he might also make it big in life one day!

I do not know if his hopes and aspirations could be fulfilled by him or by his brilliant son, but as a parent he had every reason to be proud of his hard work and share of good fortune. After all, not everyone can be among the toppers in a Board Examination, at which nearly half a million students appear annually!

And this is not all. There are other people with their amazing stories of good fortune and success. It is therefore, no big deal to come to a true conclusion regarding the title of this piece. In my entire life, I am yet to meet a person lamenting: “Life is so very unfair. So very disgusting! I spent a whole life laboriously in the quest for making a fortune, yet I could never become Dame Luck’s favourite child! I did never have what I truly deserved.”

No one in my entire life! Of course, there were people like my late father. A bright scholar, one of the youngest Principals of a college in Bengal in his time, had to be confined to the easy-chair, in his late fifties, by a cruel stroke of fate! He could have gone miles, places. But he with his never-say-die attitude did not give up easily. The fighter in him preferred to keep his reputation intact, to the ignominy of having to go through the rest of life penniless! He fought against the Government of West Bengal, knowing full well that it needed real guts to file a case against the government, and normally the government seldom loses a case! The lethal case lasted for 17 long and painful years and by the time the verdict was passed in my late father’s favour, he was in his seventies! Life, unfortunately, had already left him far behind!

We in the family, rue the cruel tricks that destiny played on such a promising career. But not my late father! I consider myself extremely lucky to have spent a considerable amount of time in my late father’s company, during his self-imposed retired life, yet never did I hear him complaining against his fate! He was in the habit of chanting prayers, hymns and slokas in Sanskrit at the drop of a hat. He would often chant lines from The Gita, the holy book of the Hindus like no one else could. I will always cherish the memory of the sight and sound of my late father reciting in his resonant voice:

Karmanye  vadhika raste, Ma faleshu kadachana (One should perform one’s duties without keeping the thought of a reward in mind.)

But for a stray case like that of my late father here and there, I can hardly think of anyone from amongst my relatives, friends or acquaintances, who has not had his/her due share of the bounties of Life. Most of them have done so wonderfully well! Keeping aside my belief in Life giving us more than what we deserve, let me conclude this blog with the common understanding that we also need to play our part in the scheme of things. We have to practise the 4 Hs of A Healthy and Happy Life – Hard work, Honesty, Humility and Helpfulness (to all sentient beings) down to a T. Finally, we also need to have absolute faith in the ways of The Almighty, His sense of Justice, Fairplay and Mercy.