JESUS SAVES LAKSHMI’S MONEY…

Ten days ago, I was at Indian Institute of Management ( IIM) Indore. When I arrived there, the first person I met was the reception officer of the Executive Residence in the front desk, a man in late thirties but with early balding. He was neatly dressed sporting a tie. The moment I saw him, I thought he was a South Indian. But he would not give you the least chance to identify himself so. Every time he detected my slightest curiosity, he put it down with a stony smile by slightly twitching his cheeks but firmly holding the lips together. Every time I experienced it, I gave him in my mind a new name- ‘unfriendly’, ‘arrogant’, ‘stoneface’ and ‘musudu’. 

The last day when I was preparing to leave settling my accounts at the desk Mr. Stoneface of the IIM, surprised me with a big friendly smile showing all his teeth. Now, I only wanted to reciprocate it by a tight lip plastic smile. As the car didn’t arrive, I left the luggage at the desk and walked towards the dining hall for taking a cup of tea.

But Mr.stoneface came along into the dining hall and very eagerly offering to speak and help me with a tea. I was annoyed. Without me listening he spoke: “Sir, like you, I am a Christian… I thought I must talk to you before you left.” This further annoyed me. But I said,” You look like a South Indian.” He said,” I am Rao from Mysore… you know I have married a Jabalpuri Christian girl. Jesus has blessed me with a beautiful child… do you want to see?” He showed me the photo from his cell phone. The child was really beautiful, about two years old. “You got converted then?” I asked.”Sort of so, but what I wanted to share with you sir, before you left is that I feel the continuous presence of Jesus in me.”

“You stopped going to temples?” I asked him. He said, “No… You know what happened during the Lakhmi pooja at home? I left a bundle of ten thousand rupees in front of the deity leaving the incense stick burning near it. We both, I and my wife left locking the house. As I reached office, I suddenly realized that the notes would be burnt. I can’t go home from work. I prayed to Jesus and forgot about it. When I went home in the evening the incense sticks had burnt only four notes and stopped. I got them exchanged in the bank next day. It is not a big miracle sir I know, but it is really the presence of God that day that kept me happy and without anxiety.” As I shook hands to leave, I didn’t ask “Which God?”

But I cursed myself for having tried to put him into a category. Lesson: “Do not cast aside unsmiling faces in public.”

But do you know which God keeps Rao’s peace?