Simplicity Is Beautiful

Every morning and evening, we would have sparrows chirping sitting on the walls of the inner courtyard of our home. Their chirping used to sound like they were discussing when the food would come. My mother used to call these sparrows her guests. As was her daily practice, she would make little dough balls to feed these birds. Then, as she threw the dough balls in the courtyard, the birds would flock down and have a party! In about 20 minutes, the guests would fly away satiated! Sometimes we kids would throw one dough ball at a time to see all the birds compete to get it!

But after feeding the birds, the first chapati that my mother would make would not be for us kids! It used to be for the cow in our house! Then it used to be our turn when she would give us the chapatis one by one. No one complained about waiting for their turn to get the next chapati!

And, after feeding the human family, there was one, and sometimes two, more members of the house that had to be fed. Our dogs! In India, we did not even know the term dogfood in those days. The dogs would get pieces of chapati in a bowl of cow milk. You could sense the happiness on the dog faces by seeing how long they used to continue licking their lips after they had eaten!

The cow’s fodder included the chapati and the pieces of the cut vegetables from the kitchen, besides the hay and other cow food. We used to bathe and clean the cow. I used to milk our cow with my hands until I left the house for college. The cow was a very integral member of the family.

But this connection with nature was not limited to just being with birds, dogs, and cows. We kids were prohibited from plucking flowers in the evenings. We were not supposed to climb or shake any trees or plants in the evening. Why? Because the trees and plants used to be sleeping in the evening! It would not be polite of us kids to disturb them! Such ideas may sound stupid to the western world, but if you look closely, you would realize how the parents would instill the love for the trees and plants and animals in the kids.

Such simplicity of life is unknown to the western world. For the west, nature is to be exploited instead of protected. The logical mindset has become so dependent on technology that it cannot function without it. With no thinking of our own these days, the simplicity of life is no more. Simplicity is joy. Let us hope and pray that the world will turn towards it again before it is too late.