THERE IS SOME ONE

 

THERE IS SOME ONE

 

            I am very glad to stand here once again after along gap, though some of you might not want to see me standing here again and again, this is a very special opportunity for me to share what I have and once again I would like to thanked aunty and the devotion in charge who opened a wide door for me.

            One morning when I was listening to 93.5 Red F.M, I came across this song called “LEAN ON ME” by Bill Withers, actually that morning was not the first time I was listening to this song. This is a very famous song also sung by Glee, but before, I never like this song and don’t listen at all. But when I listened to this particular one by Bill Withers, I really liked it and really touched my heart, since then I keep on playing the track.

            All of us who are present in this room came here to study. Most of us we don’t know each other before staying here though a few of us knew each other before.  For some, this may be the first time we are out of home, leaving our place, families and friends. It may be our first time staying in the hostel for some. So, once, every one of us were new here in this city.

            As we know, man is a social being/ social animal. We cannot stay alone. Though we might think we can stay alone, we can depend on ourselves, one day or the other we need someone to help us, or we just need someone by our side, and that’s the nature of our being. As a youth, or as a young boy, we all need friends. Specially, we the Mizo as a free society, we love having friends and we feel good to have friend. Actually, most of us feel secure having friend right? Some of us are good in making friends, while there are people who really feel difficult to make friend. And, I might be one of those kinds! We all know the importance of friends in our life, so I would not go deep into that part. Let’s talk about having no friends! There are times we are alone and we don’t have friends. As I said, we all are coming from different places, we all are outsiders. Imagine you are still new here in this place without having friends. You don’t have friends with you to go to the college; you don’t have friends who will go with you for shopping and others. Will you feel good? Sometimes, when we are much closed to our friend, if one is not going to class, the other also tends to skip the class; we don’t feel good to go alone right?

            Even this evening, some of us here might not have a good friend or a close friend. We might go to class alone, we might go to shopping, church and other places alone. We might feel bad of ourselves not having a friend. Sometimes because we don’t have friends, we might cancelled our plans, and also not proceed what we are suppose to do.

            Let me tell you here a short story of mine. The first time I was here in Shillong, I did not join the college from this hostel. First I was staying there in my cousin’s house in Madanriting. All my cousins were there since long time back. The first day of my college, my cousin brother dropped me in his vehicle. But from the next day as he moved down to NEHU Campus he couldn’t drop me anymore, at that time my class started at 8:30 a.m so the others’ cousins couldn’t drop me because they couldn’t wake  up early. And so I have to go by myself. I don’t even know from where to get the taxi which pass through my college. So I started walking by foot everyday from Madanriting to Anthony’s College, up and down. I was still very new to the city and I don’t even know any other besides my cousins. Even in the college, as I don’t talk much, I don’t have friends very soon. Most of the time, I was always alone. After 15 days, I joined this hostel. But after joining this hostel also, I didn’t make friends very easily. I hardly talk to others besides my roommates, at that time my roommates were Chhuanga and Zonuna.  I still continue to go to college by myself but much nearer.  Now, when I look back those days, sometimes I feel pity for myself going through those days all alone by myself. During those days, sometimes I feel bad that I don’t have a very closed friends whom I could go to college with them, during class break I don’t have friends to stay with or during lunch time I don’t have friends to share my lunch.

            Today, some of us might go through this entire situation. And what I would like to tell you is that, don’t feel bad. Don’t stop going to class just because you don’t have friends, don’t just stay in your room just because you don’t have friends to go with you to church or for other activities. Though we might not have the real friends which we can see, there is someone who is besides us. There is someone who would walk with us when we are alone; there is someone who would go with us to college when we are alone. Let’s just feel that there is someone who is there with us always. That someone may be “Jesus Christ or our God” for the Christians, for a Hindu, a Buddhist and a Muslim, that someone might be your own God who is higher and powerful than you. So let’s not feel bad of being alone here. Let this feeling of loneliness destroy us not and put us into a lazy guy. Keeping in mind that there is someone who is powerful than the human friends, let’s move forward and conquer what we have to encounter in our own ways. 

 

(This is not an article, but was my preparation for the Devotion Programme at Zawlbuk Hostel, Shillong, which I read out in front of my co-hostellers on Tuesday, 8 October 2013)