This is the story of days when he lived as a refugee in one of the cities of Iran. Government of Iran had issued an identity card for refugees and it was necessary to be renewed after regular intervals. Once again, the renewal of cards was in progress and outside the registration offices; one could see long lines of Afghan refugees waiting for their turns. Usually it took many hours before they could get inside the office and reach to the clerk.
People standing in the lines are evident from a far distant; it is clear right from the miserable look on their faces that they are refugees and are under the grave feeling of this. Some passerby also cut jokes on them and they also hate to stand in the line but it is obligatory and the card is the guarantee for their free movement and contented living in this strange land.
An Afghan decides to use a bit smarter way of doing this. He wears a very nice suit, polishes his shoes nicely, puts on a nice hat and takes a briefcase and directly goes to the entrance of the office. His confidence, his style and his assertive tone makes the guards think that he is one of the important government officials to have come for the inspection of the process and is taken in with due protocol and respect.
When he reaches to the clerk’s desk, the clerk stands up and asks if he could do anything for him. For this, he produces his documents and asks for their renewal. The surprised clerk says, ‘Are you also one of the refugees?’ To this, he answers, ‘Yes, is there any problem?’ ‘No, nothing at all’ is the urgent reply of the clerk who takes his documents and proceeds with the documentation.
This is another city of Iran and the same person is returning in a van along with some other workers. It is a bit late in night as they have got late from the work. On the way, they are stopped by police and discovering that they are Afghans, they soon suspect something negative from them and ask them to step down the vehicle.
They want to take them to the nearest police station for further investigation. When our friend steps down the vehicle, policemen become surprised to see a book in his hand. On their inquiry, he tells that it was a book of poems and he reads it in his free time. The book is the collection of poems of a famous Persian who is equally admired in both Iran and Afghanistan. This discovery at once impresses the policemen and they let them go.
At another occasion, he is travelling inside Pakistan. Although he carries the documents issued by the government of Pakistan but on main highways, police and other law-enforcement agencies don’t accept them and try their best to take some money out of the poor and harassed Afghan refugees. The friend of ours follows one rule very strictly; whenever he is travelling, he wears his best clothes and tries to appear noble and educated.
Before stepping on the bus, he buys an Urdu newspaper. He can hardly read the newspaper as it has much resemblance with Persian but he cannot understand anything at all. Whenever the bus stops on the way and some policemen enter the bus in search of a prey, he opens his newspaper, puts on his glasses and starts reading the paper.
Considering him to be one of the most educated members of society, policemen ignore him and step down the bus. Later on, he used to recall this event in these words, ‘If someone had asked me what I had read, I could have failed to tell anything at all but at that time, I was regarded a very educated and polite member of the society.’
There were so many other stories told to me by this clever and intelligent person but the above three would suffice to make a picture of the capacities being bestowed upon the human beings. But, unfortunately, we see that majority of people around us are too much common to act differently. The question arises, if a person or some people have special skills and talents, what about the rest of the people? Are they left absolutely devoid of any such natural talent and cleverness? The answer to this question comes in negative when we look at the equal distribution of nature and the equilibrium maintained in the universe. If we have all been bestowed with such surprising powers then why most of us never come to benefit ourselves and the people living around us?
Isn’t it a fact that majority of people around us are those who resort to common and accepted behaviors and tactics instead of doing something intelligent when confronted with any such situation? Isn’t it true that majority of us are not using the potential being given to us by the nature?
When we have a look at the people around us, there is not present any smartness, any cleverness and any newness. We think the same, act the same and this same perception is like a dark cloud that is engulfing all of us. At times, we are moved by a smart act of someone that surprises us and then we start thinking what could have been our reaction had we faced the same situation.
In a school playground, some children were playing with each other. They were pushing each other and doing similar acts. Sometimes, one of them fell down and started crying with the pain. One of them also fell down and instead of crying or making a sad face, he shouted, laughed and came running and joined the game. He fell many times and once I stopped him and looked into his eyes. They were full of tears and I asked about the reason, ‘Sir, it hurts as well’ but then he gave out a loud laughter and went running to his friends.
If this natural talent of acting cleverly and smartly in everyday life is a natural gift, then why it reaches to maturity in some people while it dries up in the others. There may be many reasons possible for that. First is the role of parents in providing such healthy environment to the children and this thing can be don’t by merely giving uncontrolled freedom to the children rather it needs good study of children’s behaviors by parents. When the base is formed, it can be further polished by habits of reading.
Increased knowledge about the extraordinary people and events in the world makes us discover our hidden abilities. And most importantly, is to strive to act differently from the majority public. Here, difference means to act better and more cleverly. If we have to do better, we will have to think better and we will have to act better. If majority of people are in habit of thinking the common things, one can be different by thinking higher than the common approach. It is said that majority of our sufferings are due to our negative thinking and our stupid acts and nature and other external factors can be very less blamed for this. If we act and think differently, we may be able to get the different result as well!