BORN ON PHOOL’S* DAY
(*PHOOL means a flower in many Indian Languages)

Or should I say “Reborn on phool’s day”. The wrinkles on his face are an outcome of the artistry fostered through an entire era of service. Every gray hair has been painted in the dye of experience. Short in height but insurmountable in stature, such is the appearance of a living legend called “Ramniklal Gosalia”, about whom a few but know. This Fool’s day he fooled destiny once more not through treachery but through service as he turned 80 years ‘young’.

April Fool’s day is a day to enjoy some practical joke on your friends and family and this young heart is no different. This ‘karmavataar’ has year after year fooled all his friends and near one’s shattering dreams of the lavish birthday parties, which have become synonymous with flirting and drinking and taken them for human service.

His destination for celebration is a bit different. It’s a small place called “Ashadhaan”, started by Mother Teresa. His birthday begins with a large family of more than 350 people encompassing everyone from abandoned and retarded children with innocent tears, withdrawn HIV patients to aged contemporaries who were once pillars of this strong building called ‘society’, but have now been deemed unfit to be there by its new custodians.

Fool’s day is the most awaited time of the year for these unfortunate ones, for its time to feast, its “Papaji’s” birthday. This day is no less than a Christmas or Diwali for these as he has been celebrating this way for decades. Even the gifts that he receives in return for his work are nothing less than priceless. The innocent smile on a child’s face with a mark of milk round his lips far surpasses the sophisticated laughter at the parties.

It was the day I realized the importance of good company. Tears rolled down my heart as a true hand of blessing touched my head. The sincerity of this blessing exceeded even those of from the greatest of sanyasis and yogis. It’s here that I realised what Shri Krishna meant when he said,

“Karmanye Vadhika raste, ma Phaleshu Kadachin” (Your duty is to do your work and not to worry of the outcome)

or what Jesus meant when he said,

“Not those who saith my name, Lord, Lord…. But those who worked to the will of my Father reacheth me.”

With a heavy heart, I left the most fabulous birthday party I had ever attended. Though there was a satisfaction for being part of a philanthropic cause, I was left thinking about it on my way home. I was thinking of the remaining 364 days at “Ashadhaan”. I thought don’t we have even 365 individuals in a city of lakhs, who would like to spend a day of their life with them. I have already found one, will try to be the second and I looking out for the remaining 363.

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Chetan Bhadricha