syed imaad - class xi God Helps

In a small village somewhere in the Nilgiris region of Tamil Nadu, a young boy laying on a “charpai” stares at the cloudy night sky as he ponders his situation. Kannan was from an impoverished family, struggling to make ends meet. Though still very young, he had always felt a sense of responsibility to ensure that his family of four (which included his father, his mother, his one year old sister, and him) would someday be free of these shackles, at least partly. After much careful consideration, he had concluded that there was only one factor that would give him any chance at changing his circumstances. This factor was education, which, if he excelled at it, would land him a job in one of these big cities with tall buildings and wide streets and a constant water supply. He had done everything on his end (at least in terms of efforts), but it appeared that his shackles were still pulling him back. Everyday Kannan woke up around 4 am to help around the house, this included running back to the well and getting water, gathering some firewood, and also taking the animals out for feeding. Despite his best efforts, these activities never came to a halt before 6 a.m.

After which Kannan had to walk 7 kilometres to his school, reaching the school around 7:30 am everyday, even though classes started around 7 am and they had to be in school around 6:45 am, which was practically impossible for him. So he’d reach the school late, get scolded, and then have to stand outside the class for the first half of the school day. Thoughts of asking his parents to help change this did arise but disappeared just as quickly when he realized the amount of physical labour they already had to go through to stay afloat. He wouldn’t be burdening anymore than absolutely necessary. All this prevented him from getting the knowledge he needed to change his life. The very circumstances he wanted to change made it impossible for him to even attempt any sort of change, such was his conundrum.

At this point, only one thing seemed like it could help, praying. So every morning, he’d take out ten minutes and climb up to a small place of worship present near his village and would pray. This continued for two days, during which Kannan begged for things to be made easier, but alas! He was still not able to reach his school on time. He was certain that God would help if God knew his circumstances, so he reached the conclusion that maybe God was not able to hear him.

He went to one of his only sources of religious wisdom-his father and asked him how to ensure that God listens to his praying. The father responded “The only one thing tying all people close to God no matter from what religion they’re from is persistence in their faith and praying.”

Kannan understood and changed his schedule permanently so that every morning hewould go and pray for whatever time he was able to spare. He was still late to school every day. After a week, Kannan’s hopes grew dim as there was no change in his situation. Still, Kannan went to worship, and instead of closing his eyes, he stared at the statue in front of him, his eyes full of hope and helplessness. Kannan noticed something he hadn’t noticed before during this period of rebellious staring.

Something was etched into the side of the statue, a phrase: “Thaan ondru ninaikka Deivam ondru ninai kkum” (God helps those who help themselves). This made Kannan ponder and seemed to give him a plan of sorts—a truly reckless and bound to fail plan but one he’d try nonetheless. That morning, Kannan sprinted his way to school, still late. This continued the next morning, and the next, and the next, for a week.He was still late for school, but the amount of time he was late seemed to decrease every morning.

Finally, at the end of the second week, Kannan arrived at school around 7 a.m., indicating that he was on time. A minor victory for the teachers, but one of endless value for Kannan. Now to the average eye the reason as to why he was finally able to reach on time could be the fact that Kannan simply got used to running the distance, but to Kannan only one reason came to mind, it looked like God had finally listened.

Now he was certain of one thing. Maybe God’s help wasn’t as simple as just a miracle maybe it was more related to teaching humanity to perform miracles of their own with their own capabilities. He had certain ly performed one this morning and was sure he would continue doing so for all the days it would require it.