The Radioman

“If you can broadcast, why can’t I listen?”

This is what I imagine the old man, with the radio, thinks. I have been meeting him for sometime now. Every evening, when I walk past the street to home, I meet him holding a radio in his left hand. And his right hand is inside his coat pocket. He wears a red hat. He does not look at anybody. He seems to walk slowly but aimlessly. Seldom he lifts his heads high and looks around to people and nature. He is calm, cool and innocent.

Around him are people rushing and yelling breathlessly as if their last day has come. You see vehicles honking and angry policemen whistling. You see beggars beating their drums and dogs barking. Your mobile phone rings and you shout to your friend on the other end. You eye a girl, painted like a statue, on the other side of the road and your toes hit the stone. You see drunken men going to the cloth shop and asking for beer. You see people carrying huge loads and others roaming the street like a king. The world is a busy one indeed. But the Radioman seems bother-less to all. He is in his own world.

Seeing him, I enter a crossroad in my life. I do not understand why some people rush while others do not. And for those rushing people, I do not understand what they rush for. If a man like the radioman can lead life without rushing, why can’t others? If a man like him can be happy without anything, why not us who have many things?

I turn once again to the radioman: look at him and find him satisfied with what he has. Simply put: he has no cravings. And as result he has no worries. This has given him happiness in rags. All that he has in life (as you may refer to as his greatest asset) is his radio. He must be wondering why people around him are rushing ruthlessly. I fear, he must be laughing at us too. 

This old man, who feeds on music as his food, has great many lessons to offer to the world. I am sure he has heard nothing about GNH, the mega philosophy that we have broadcast far. But in true spirit, I feel he demonstrates it. And this is what we need: doers and not hollow speakers.