Study Well !!!

This incident happened when I was traveling in a train back from home.

After having my evening snacks as I was getting back to reading, a man in his middle age passed by. He was selling cigarettes and pan supari.

A gentleman sitting next to me with his wife and a 5 year old son called him and asked him for a pack of supari. The seller gave him a pack and asked him for Rs.2.
The man was angry and he said that it was actually worth Rs.1 in the market. The seller obviously tired after long day’s work told him that he only earns 50 paisa on one pack as he has to give a share of the earning to the shop owner from whom every morning he collects the stuff for selling. He said he has spent almost 20 yrs traveling in trains like this selling something or the other.He pointed towards the man’s son and said his own son is as old as him. He said he leaves his motherless child everyday to come to work. Isn’t 50 paisa even worth his effort?

By that time the man sitting next to me had already reached for his pocket and was taking out money to pay to the seller. He initially refused and told the man to keep it. But after continues insistence from the man he finally agreed to keep it. Before leaving the seller kept his hand on the head of man’s son and said “Study Well!!”.

I realized that even such a poor man understands the value of education. He knows that the reason of all his sufferings is the fact that he was not educated. It made me appreciate the fact that I am one of the few people who have got an opportunity to study and make a name for my self.All the things that I heard from my elders in childhood about being committed to studies and only studies being the way to grow in life made sense to me.

This thought inspires me every time I sit down to study and stops me from criticizing my teachers and the education system. Well its rightly said
"Knowledge is power Supreme".