My Dad Taught Me What Richness Really Means

You all have heard this phrase "life is not bed of roses", several times. Yes this phrase. We all understand its deep meaning. Now, I want to make minor but deep changes in the phrase. Instead of using "is", I am using "was".

Maybe you all are wondering, why she is so keen to change this beautiful phrase?.

Let me tell you about myself ,I was born with a golden spoon. We had all facilities, all comforts. My father was very wise, smart and soft person. But he had very strict rules. Those rules made our life. I still remember he never shouted, yelled and slapped us. But his eyes gave us signal, a deep signal. Which told us everything.

When you are in your teenage and youth age, you hardly understand why your parents are strict towards you. You only understand when you became parent.

We siblings used to blackmail our lovely mother by refusing to eat until she fulfilled our demands, but it was impossible to blackmail our father. I tried once, but failed.

My father only fulfilled our wishes, when task was given by him. The good thing was that his task didn't have time restriction. He has his own way of disciplining kids.

Let me introduce my father. He was an honest man, I remember his whole life he never lied even it went against him. He helped needy people so quietly. We only came to know after his death, when shockingly lots of poor people came to pray for him. He was a man of his word.

He was not only a lovely and caring father and husband, but he was a devoted son too.

We had every facilities, never worried about anything. There were maids for cooking and cleaning. Driver who took us wherever we needed to go. They all respected my father deeply. It was not because of he always paid them on time, because he respected them.

I still remember during our holidays when we travelled from abroad to our motherland. My grand parents house was old style. No flush facility in the bath room, no shower and a tiny stove. Most of the time my aunties used to cooked on wood fires. The path leading towards house was tiny and uneven.

Honestly we never felt uneasy or uncomfortable. Instead their love made everything warm and comfortable.

My auntie, my father's sister used to tell us about his childhood. She described how he struggled during his education, when my grandfather was unable to pay the fee and their was a moment that they fear that their son would never have an education.

Time passed. Because of my father determination, parents' prayers and the hard struggle, he earned his degree.

One story always remained with me. My auntie told us that when my father got his first job, he was very excited and immediately bought a second hand Volkswagen car. But when he told about his car, grandmother gave him a small but power full lecture "if your neighbours are hungry and struggling, what is the use of this car? Go and return it, help the needy first".

And my father immediately obeyed grandmother, no question, no arguing.

This story changed something inside me. That was the moment when I decided to live simply. No more unnecessary cars, use public transport. Travel like every one else.

So I began making small changes in my life, slowly and gently. I realised how many people around us struggle with poverty. How many students wants to study but are unable due to lack of financial support.

As I grew older, I began to understand the deep values of my father lived by him. His life was not defined by luxury but by purpose, kindness and responsibilities. The more I learned about his struggles, hardship and scarifies, the more I realized the true meaning of life. I realized that true richness comes from they way we treat others. So I started changing myself, small an careful steps at a time, trying to live with the same honesty and determination.

By making these small changes in my life, I realized some thing extraordinarily important, that when your life has positive and strong purpose, it truly is "bed of roses" not "was".