Kalyanaraman Nagarajan

This is a real story that happened 10 years back, and thought of sharing now.

The one and only person working on time is our office tea boy..Sharp 10:30 am in the morning and 3:30 evening.. In-spite of the fact that the tea tasted more like water than milk, we accepted it. All we wanted was something hot just to get over our work stress..  this went on for more than 2 years…

Yesterday around 3:00 pm, I got an important call, so I just moved out from my desk to speak…. I was on call for more than 15 mins……while speaking I heard the sound of a cycle bell…..Our office security dropped his lathi and went to the place where he had kept all his dresses and boxes.. he was in search of something for more than 5-10 mins…

Finally he selected one big mug out of 3..He had a wide smile on his face . He felt so proud as if he had achieved something big.. Then he washed the cup with some powder and moved to his desk.  Again he started searching something, I was confused looking at him, thought of asking. But I didn't.

Surprisingly watched all the actions of security.. Again a big smile on his face with full excitement..because he got some added sugar in his bag which was kept near the generator room…I smiled silently..

 Then, the tea boy entered our office. Our security to get his attention said “Vanakkam Thalaivare”, the guy respond hmmm hmmm.. The total office was ready to sip that horrible tea at 3:30pm as we were in need…

I was watching the security with curiosity,  he had held the cup tightly in his hand to enjoy the tea. I was wondering why he was so interested in having that tea.. Once every minute,  he would go to the entrance of the office and back to his seat. He was waiting in his seat for that single tea for more than 15 minutes holding the cup with full tension.. That particular day we had  excess people in our office,  there was a chance he might not get tea…but, he    never lost hope..He was so determined in getting that tea…

At last, the tea guy came out and directly went to take his cycle.. But, security without talking anything he showed his mug to that guy for tea with so much of eagerness..The tea guy opened the jug and showed him…He had 1000 reactions on his face..

Security said, hard work pays…but not in my case…tea guy replied, sometimes we have to be  patient and go on in our life without any expectation..

It looked like he waited for this single tea for his entire life…security said, my wife is not well. I don't have money to get a single tea..so i waited for this tea from 12…

No reply from the tea guy…he put down his head and went away… Security went to the motor room and opened the pipe….

Sometimes, for some people,  water becomes part of their life….