I am going to tell you a story today. This is a story of a child, who faced one of the most basic dilemmas that any immature and innocent mind can face. You may have read or heard this somewhere but I am writing it any way. I think that I came across this story at least a decade ago, so this comes from some remote corner of my mind, but still touches my heart.

Once upon a time, a little kid decided that he had to meet God. As he was told that God is the one who can solve all his problems. Therefore, he prepared his lunch-box and started walking on the road, away from his home. After wandering the streets for a few hours, he felt tired and thus decided to sit under the shadow of a tree. Hunger and exhaustion circled the poor guy; therefore he decided to have some of his lunch. Close to the place where he was sitting, he saw a very old and poor lady, who appeared to be very weak and needy. The child opened his lunch-box but could only eat a single bite of the delicious sandwich, as he felt pity on the old woman and decided to go and sit beside her. He facilitated the weak woman by kindly and gently putting the food in her mouth with his own hands. After he had given all the food to her, he noticed a sudden freshness on her face. He felt as if her pale and weak eyes became brighter and younger. He was happily surprised to see a unique and mesmerizing smile in her eyes.

When he came back home, he told his mom : ” Mother, I met God today. We had an amazing lunch together. Before coming back I even hugged God and wow what a beautiful smile God has. It was undoubtedly the best smile I have ever seen, but I was surprised to notice just one thing, that God was a bit older than I imagined and there were lines and marks on God’s hands and face due to the excessive work of handling the world and its affairs I think…”

On the other hand, that old woman when returned home, told her daughter : ” You know, I had a meal after several days today. I was starving from the last few days and was not praying to God for food, but instead I demanded in my prayers that God must come and meet me and see my plight. I asked God that since the whole world sang His praises and celebrates His mercy, He should at least pay a visit to this old woman who is also the part of His creation. And you know what, He came today in human form. He gave me food with His own hands and He paid proper attention to me and looked at me with love and mercy in His eyes. Though I found one thing surprising, God was much younger than I thought…”

The End

This is a simple story, no spices, no climax, no twists and turns. But it certainly reflects what an innocent child thought when he was introduced to the concept of God. He would have been perplexed definitely and facing a difficult situation. But what did his simple mind do? Did he just sit back in his home and let the time put dust on this question that was bugging him? No. He decided to stand up and face the problem directly with whatever little sense he had. He went to a certain limit and then when a very simple answer to a really complex problem stared him in the face, he did not ignore it.

Its another new year and the holy month of Ramadan has started yet again. If nothing else, then lets just ponder over the question of why are we fasting? What really is the purpose to it? Should we just ‘pretend’ to be behaving in a pious manner and keep our hands off the food for no particular reason? For once at least lets try to grab and understand the true spirit of this month with whatever little sense that each of us has…