I was very lucky the other day, I caught the lady with baskets full of snacks, sweets and food at the railway station. I did meet her once before last month by chance. She just came from Nakornsawan province by the early morning train. In the past, she could do a lot of business at the railway station (before the new railway station has been opened, this old railway was used by very few short local trains to nearby provinces.)
The last time I met her, I bought too little as I found out later that all her snacks and fermented fish were very delicious and good value. So, this time I made sure that I bought everything double the usual amount. This supply of sweets, snacks and home made food would last me four to five days. The vendor was very surprised to see me again. I told her I had to book my train tickets to get good seats. I asked her to give me a big carrying bag as I wanted to get lots of things from her bamboo baskets.
I couldn’t believe my luck, she had my favourite sweets made from rice flour and coconut cream with cane sugar. I got three bags of this delicious sweets. I didn’t want to get more as I knew I would finish them up faster than dark chocolates then my weights would shoot up the scale. Then, I went after the small bags of small crispy fish. The price was incredibly cheap. She told me she caught these tiny fish herself in the river. So, these were very clean and had no added chemical or preservatives. I told her she forgot to add the cost of her labour that’s why the price was so cheap.
There were home made chili and spices pastes which should be eaten with several herbal salads. Most local salads that people favoured in the north eastern area couldn’t be found in normal supermarkets. These salads were mostly medicinal as they were some kinds of herbs. These people could survive in forests as they knew what plants were edible and which mushrooms weren’t poisonous. I wished I had that kind of local knowledge; they would eat these herbal salads whenever they had fever or diarrhea. I really ought to learn to eat these funny looking leaves and probably growing some in my garden.
I also got some steamed peanuts which were a good source of protein. I bought five small bags of crispy fried fish, a bag of steamed peanuts, three bags of sweets. These seemed quite a lot but they cost me very little. So, I told the vendor to keep the change. She was very surprised and happy. I just felt sorry for her having to wait for customers in an empty train station. Life was getting harder for poor people who wanted to earn decent livings.
Because normal ways of making a living has become much harder for poor and less educated people, they tended to try drug trafficking to get rich quick and to get out of poverty. The news was full of first time drug traffickers who were easily caught by policemen. In rural villages, you could find local drug dealers who were ready to sell drug to teenagers and sometimes monks. I knew a nice young teenager who became addicted to ‘speed’ and got caught. He’s on probation and has decided to enlist in the army so that he could reform his habit and continue his education. Hopefully, he could overcome all the obstacles. Drug addict has become a terrible problem among youngsters in rural areas. I had my own ideas about the big fish responsible for the spread of drug addiction. It could not have been so bad without corruptions among the law enforcers.
Most hard working people were the parents and grandparents while the youngsters became drug addicts. So, I tried to support poor vendors who couldn’t even rent a stall and had to walk around with heavy bamboo baskets under the extreme heat in the city. Sometimes I wished I could afford to buy lots of their goods so they could make some money more quickly. There’s a viral clip about a man who went into 7/11 at night for his shopping. He saw an old lady in her seventies sitting with her bamboo baskets in front of 7/11.
He returned to talk to the old lady; she told him she couldn’t sell anything so she had no money to return home. So, he bought all her snacks and sweets. He put all the bags inside the car. The old lady was lost for words and thanked the young man profusely. He said he would distribute these goodies to his friends at his work place later. So, had told her to return home as it’s almost midnight.
I was so glad that there were many kind people with gentle souls around to help easing the pain of poor hard working people. Politicians were absolutely useless and non-dependable for solving problems for poor or underprivileged people. So, it’s left to ordinary people to try to solve the problems created by these unwitting and dishonest politicians. The greedy politicians with their cohorts worked very hard to move people to the new railway station. They created lots of problems and difficulties for ordinary people. Being passive and in awe of formal authority, no one came out organise a formal demonstration or protest.
More well off people wouldn’t travel by train as they were old and slower than airplanes. So, there’s no unity of perception of potential burdens on other class of people and the negative effects on travelers in the future. We had to live and cope with the results of our own passive response or the lack of courage to say what’s on our mind. Nothing is free, so for better or for worse, karmic rules permeate our society. As Krishnamurti said ‘We are the world. So to change the world means we have to change ourselves!’ This is very difficult and problematic. It’s easier to project the problem out there on someone else; a person needs lots of courage and honesty to really look at oneself. I found this process very painful and numbing. Praying for more courage and stamina in transforming myself!
Wishing you peace, good health and prosperity.
Stay strong and cheerful.
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