Ramesh’s neighbours supported his family with love and compassion. His mother started working as a sewing machine operator in a neighbouring garment factory and Ramesh started selling newspapers in the morning and giving tuitions in the evening. They also got some compensation from the authorities because his father had died fighting some criminals in an attempt to save the life of his passenger and they awarded him for his bravery.

 

Time startd speeding past and soon Ramesh graduated from the college and started working as an assitant in a local cybercafe and pursued his MCA. His sisters also entered college and they supported Ramesh by joining him in giving tuitions.

 

Ramesh was a very good learner and he excelled in computers and internet. At that time, there were a lot of incidents of hacking and other cybercrimes. Ramesh put his heart and brain in finding a solution for this menace and after many a sleepless nights and after exhausting all his savings, he managed to make a software which made a computer completely secure from hacking and virus attacks. He also managed to take loans from some financial institutions and launched a website dealing with cyber problems and offering solutions to technical problems to global customers.

 

Luck shone on him and his business grew in leaps and bounds. He diversified into some new businesses and he just struck gold in whatever he did. All the luxuries of life were at his feet now. He lived in a big mansion and travelled in luxury cars. He was jetsetting all over the globe most of the time and in due time, he got his three sisters married to suitable suitors. His grandmother passed away after a while and he alongwith his mother lived in that huge mansion.

 

Once he went to London to attend a global meet on cybercrime prevention and he met Aarti there. She was a beautiful, intelligent, articulate and extremely ambitious NRI girl who worked as a cyberlaws specialist and took care of cyber matters of various American clients.

 

He was immensely impressed by her and by the time the conference was over, they were in love with each other. She was also very appreciative of the fact that Ramesh was a self-made man and felt that Ramesh must be proud of his achievements.

 

After he returned to India, they kept in touch through phone and emails. Two weeks later, he proposed marriage to her and asked her to come to India to meet his mother.

 

Aarti came to India and she loved his house and office. She was a little uncomfortable with a traditional mother-in-law who was also under educated but she said that she will adapt slowly.

 

They married soon after and Aarti took charge of the legal affairs of his business and she started giving Ramesh advice on all the business plans and activities.

 

Slowly she started delving into the financial aspects of the business too and she was startled to see that Ramesh’s firm spent 40% of its net profits on charity and social service. She complained about it and after a while, Ramesh also realized that social service was not his responsibility and by paying taxes he was already doing enough for the society.

 

His outlook changed and he remodelled everything according to Aarti’s advice. He started believing that he was actually a great businessman and he deserved all the success and money which came his way. As time went by, he lost his mother, got a couple of beautiful children and he became more and more engrossed in money making and business expansion plans.

 

One night he was returning from a party and on the way he almost knocked down a beggar. He got down from the car and shouted at the beggar.

 

“What the hell do you think you are doing? Why can’t you beggars disappear from this world?” he continued abusing the beggar who surprisingly kept mum.

 

“Come on honey, lets go from here. You don’t need to talk to such filthy people.” Aarti called him and they drove away.

 

A couple of months later, he was driving down the same road after a late night business meeting with some American clients. It was a very foggy and cold night and he found it extremely difficult to see the road ahead. Suddenly, he felt blinded by two sharp beams of light from the opposite direction. He did not remember much apart from the fact that his car was hit head-on by the truck coming from the opposite side.

 

‘He felt like he was falling into a bottomless pit and he shouted for help. Fear made him close his eyes.

 

“Papa, please save me. Papa please come to my rescue.” He heard himself shouting this.

 

Suddenly he felt a couple of arms catch him like a child. He opened his eyes and found that his father hands got hold of him.

 

“Ramesh, my son, why are you heading into this direction? Why have you forgotten the words of your poor father? Go back and remembering my words.” A very sad looking Shiv spoke as he throw Ramesh upwards’.

 

With a shudder Ramesh opened his eyes and found himself lying on a cot in a shabby cottage. He was shocked to see the same beggar, when he had abused a couple of months back, sitting beside him.

 

“Who are you? Where am I?” Ramesh asked.

 

“My name is Vijay. You are in my cottage and I brought you here after your car met the terrible accident. It was really good fortune that you did not suffer any serious injury although your car was badly damaged. You have just got a few business and became unconscious by the shock.” The beggar in chaste English.

 

“You seem to be well educated then why do you live like beggar?” Ramesh asked him.

 

“Its all life my dear. Do you really want to know my story?” Vijay said.

 

“I was a rich businessman in the Bhuj area. An earthquake a few years back reduced all my wealth and my family to ashes and somehow I survived. I was dejected from life and did not want to live. Then I met some missionaries and they made me realize that this life is not only for myself. When I was rich and successful then I never cared for anyone and was a very abusive kind of a person. After I lost all my worldly possessions, I felt that this life is from remembering God and trying to make a difference to the lives of others. I came to Delhi and by using the compensation money and also a little help from others, I opened an orphanage and devoted myself to the cause. Soon my orphanage ran out of funds and luckily an upcoming software firm sponsored it. All was well until the company owner got married and stopped supporting us. We all were forced to live on the road and I somehow managed to shift most of the kids to other orphanages and live as a beggar now.” Vijay narrated his story.

 

Ramesh did not say anything but he knew what he had done. He prayed to God to forgive his mistake and vowed to never forget his father’s words again. He soon opened a new orphanage and made Vijay the lifetime incharge of it. Aarti resisted a lot and even threatened to divorce Ramesh if he did not stop the charities but Ramesh turned a deaf ear towards her. He continued growing in business and wealth and was always known as the “Saint who ran a great business.”

 

(Ramesh learnt his lesson and made amends in time but will we?)