Big Mike reveals his best friend
“So Mike, who is your best friend now? I would guess one of the kids from your soccer team, or the twins – Digchi and Degoom?”
“Actually, my best friend is a kid who is not on my soccer team.”
“Really? Then, what does he play, baseball? I know you guys don’t have a football team yet.”
“Well, he is not into any sports. He only enjoys playing the drum at the temple.”
“Do I know this kid?”
“I don’t think so. His family moved into our neighborhood about a year ago. They live in an apartment on the west side. He is in my class. I think he will soon come to the Magnet class too. He is so smart! He gets straight A’s on all subjects. He writes so well. He is so good at Math. Even the dumb history teacher likes him.”
“What’s his name?”
“We all call him Gauti which is actually his nickname. His real name is Gautama Dharma. He once told me his parents came from an Asian country, but he was born here.”
“I still don’t understand what is so special about him, other than the fact that he is an excellent student.”
“Unc, he is so extraordinarily different. He is very polite and never speaks ill of anyone, including Ricky who tries to bully him all the time. In fact, he is always there to help anyone with homework or whatever. You see, all other kids love to be praised and appreciated. When someone is praising us, we can’t get enough of that; we wait out to hear more and more of that. But he is not that way at all. If you start to say anything good about him, he will simply smile at you and move on. He doesn’t care to listen to any of that.”
“You are right, Mike. Those people are always very special. They rise above all these petty things of life. They come to Earth with a special mission and they spend all of their energy achieving their mission. They are simply the embodiment of marvelous positive energy. Being around them makes us better people too. I am glad you finally found a good friend who will have positive impact on your life. Just sports and education are not enough – you need that special association, that special surrounding in life to feel good and positive about everything God gives us.”
“Unc, I always thought you are an emotionless person. Wow, you do have emotions, too. I am happy for you.”
“Are they rich folks?”
“Not at all. That is one thing that bothers me. They are really poor. I feel so bad that they live in a tiny two room apartment. His father works somewhere, but his mother stays home and takes care of his younger sister. Yet, he often says ‘my parents are poor but they have rich hearts.’ If I were that poor, I don’t think I would be very happy. I see how the other kids are – whatever they see on TV, they have to have all that right away, otherwise they will say something nasty about their parents publicly in front of their friends. Of course, my parents are wonderful so I enjoy saying good things about them too. Gauti always commends me for that.”
“Mike, you are lucky to have a friend like him. Such people are so rare on Earth. By the way, what did you mean by they are really poor? Give me an example that leads you to come to that conclusion.”
“Here is one that happened recently. One day during our lunch hour we were eating lunch in the courtyard. Suddenly Ricky and his two buddies showed up and started bullying Gauti. Ricky started making abusive comments like ‘you can only afford a peanut butter jelly sandwich; you show up every day with same outfit; we don’t like poor kids like you in our rich neighborhood, etc. etc.’ I told him to shut up but he would not because I dropped him from the soccer team. Other kids were afraid to take on Ricky as his father happens to be an influential politician. To make things worse, he then took out a pen from his pocket and sprayed ink all over Gauti’s shirt. I could see tears in his eyes. As those three rascals kept laughing loudly, he walked off mumbling ‘I have only two shirts to wear to the school.’ Meanwhile, he didn’t make one retaliatory comment.”
“What happened then? Did you guys at least complain to the principal?”
“See, the girls in our class also like and admire Gauti because of his nature and smartness. Paula is a real gutsy girl and is a good friend of Gauti’s. As Gauti was leaving, she walked up to Ricky and said, ‘Listen Ricky, if I ever see you bullying him or any other kid in this school, I will report to the principal. If the principal doesn’t discipline you, I will go to the local police station. Remember, my dad is the chief police officer there and he does not pander to any politician. I will also flood the internet with my story. Bullying is a crime and I will not let it happen in our school. I will do whatever it takes to stop you from bullying. This is your final warning.’ You know what, Ricky and his buddies got kind of scared and quietly pushed off. Everyone clapped and cheered Paula for her heroics.”
“So, what temple does he play the drum?”
“The new Buddhist temple on the west side.”
“They are Buddhists?”
“He was born in a Hindu family, though he follows Buddhist philosophy. It’s funny that his parents go to the Hindu temple while he goes to the Buddhist temple.”
“His parents at comfortable with it? That’s very unusual. Kids tend to follow in their parent’s footsteps in terms of faith. Honestly, I do not know of any other person who chose a different faith at such an early age.”
“He tells me his parents have no problem with that, although they will not covert to Buddhism. In fact, his parents kind of knew he would follow Lord Buddha.”
“What do mean by kind of knew?”
“His mother once told me this incredible story about his birth. A few weeks before he was born, his mother had this astonishing dream that Lord Buddha was reincarnating on Earth. She was unsure if the would-be child was the reincarnated Lord. In any case, they decided to name him Gautama which is also Lord Buddha’s birth name. She insisted she never disclosed her dream to Gauti though. His parents are okay with his new faith as long as he does not neglect education. They are very education oriented.”
“That is truly incredible. Did you ever ask him what he wants to do when he grows up?”
“We walk back together from the school up to the Main Street junction so we chitchat about different things. He often tells me he wants to write books that will make this world a better place. He often reminds me that the reason humans are divided is due to multiple religions. He will advocate a common faith he is thinking of calling ‘The Faith to Divinity.’ This new and common faith will reunite all people and end the self-inflicted misery of mankind. Nobody will therefore think his or her religion is superior to the competing religions. Of course, he is very respectful of the other religions and their respective Godheads. He always addresses them with the right adjectives like Lord Christ or Prophet Muhammad or Lord Krishna, etc. I sincerely hope his writing wins him a Nobel Prize. He recently aced the short story competition in our school. The Magnet teacher read out his winning story to us. It is unbelievable that a ten year old could author such a beautiful and well-composed story. Amazingly, he is so good at Math too.”
“Mike, if he wins the Nobel Prize, he will also receive several million dollars. What do you think you would do with that money?”
“Actually I once asked him the same question. He laughed and said he would use it all to take care of the poor blind children in poor countries. His theory is that the poor blind children in those countries are at the bottom of the ladder of suffering and are most at risk of being easily sacrificed. Unc, when his books come out, please buy them to help his cause. Also, ask your friends to do the same. I know he will not squander a penny on himself. He thinks of doing only good things for others. He wants to return vision to the poor blind children so they can they can go on to live a normal life on their own.”
“That shows his character. That tells me how different he truly is from the rest. Why doesn’t he join your soccer team, Mike?”
“He said he used to play soccer in his former neighborhood. Since there is a Buddhist temple here, he prefers going straight to the temple after school and participating in the prayer. He doesn’t sing like the other devotees, instead he plays the drum during the prayer. He learned playing the drum only after he moved here. Now he is so good at it that the devotees expect him to show up every day and take charge of the drum. He loves it too.”
“How do you know that he is so good at it?”
“He once invited Granny and I to their Saturday prayer. We arrived there a little late so the prayer was underway. We sat at the back as we didn’t know how to participate in their prayer. There he was playing the big drum. I tell you Unc, between the somber beats of the drum and the melodious songs of the devotees in front of the gigantic golden statue of Lord Buddha, the place seemed so peaceful. I could see even Granny was tearful. At the end of the session, so many devotees came up to Gauti and thanked him for the wonderful job he did at the drum.”
“Mike, I understand he doesn’t have any time for soccer. Does he mingle with you all outside of the school time?”
“Yes, he does. During the summer vacation we invited him for the lemonade stand party. He came and spent the day with us selling lemonade and iced tea. He also attended the summer snack party I organized in our backyard. I didn’t invite Ricky because I didn’t want him to come to my house and bully Gauti. Let me tell you the incredible incident that took place during that party. We were all sitting on different branches on the guava tree. Suddenly a big fat snake showed up, passing slowly alongside the wall. Everyone was terrified and we all started climbing up the higher branches. Gauti was sitting on a lower branch very close to the wall where the snake was. He sat there totally unafraid. As the snake was passing by him, they kind of smiled at each other. We were all astonished. Gauti later explained to me that snakes attack out of fear of being harmed. The snake was able to sense that Gauti was not offensive after all, so it decided not to attack back. But I realized even the reptiles could feel the positive energy that radiates from him. He is so much of joy to have around. I am sometimes worried that he is not going to last much longer in our neighborhood.”
“Why? Did he mention they would be leaving?”
“Not clearly like that. But one day last week he indicated to me how this great recession is hurting their family. From next week his father’s job is being downgraded to a part-time one, cutting back half of his hours as well as the health insurance. With that, I don’t know how they could survive in our expensive neighborhood anymore. His father took this job and moved down here from East coast because of our schools. Given their changed situation, I am sure Gauti would probably ask his parents to move back to East again. His father could find a full-time job there while Gauti would avoid all the abuse he endures here. The only holdback would be the temple. It would be difficult for him to live without the daily rituals he is now accustomed to at the temple.”
“Mike, we will soon be out of this recession and I am sure his father would be hired back full-time with insurance, etc. I see our factory orders are picking up so I am very hopeful that things would start to turn around soon. If the topic comes up, tell him not to rush to any judgment.”
“I certainly will. But I am sure he is not very happy with our school. Anyway, if he someday grows into a Saint, I know I will proudly become his first disciple. Being around him is so much joy. I just don’t understand why some folks are so abusive to him. I guess that’s the price one pays to carry a special mission from God.”
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