Dropped to Germinate

Ladies and gentlemen, if you dropped your phone from a high storey building, it is dead. If you
drop your wife from a high storey building,karma is waiting. But if you dropped an apple seed
from a high storey building, it is still alive. Yes, not everything that is dropped on the ground is
dead.

My grandfather was someone with silver in his hair, gold in his teeth, and bronze at his skin. I
loved twirling his long mustache and he loved playing his magic tricks with me. Yes, interestingly
he was a magician. He clasped one hand in mine and snapped the other bringing out coins out
of my ears. That's how we made money. We both learned dancing together - waiting for the
bathroom.I still cherish the morning love he fed me along with corn flakes. I was in 5th standard
then. Without a shadow of a doubt, he was the single most influential person of my life.

One morning, he did not feed me breakfast. So I ate some choco biscuits and hurried for school.
It was on that day that I was surprised to see my dad,mom and sisters already waiting to receive
me after school. I wondered if it was a surprise family outing. Nobody spoke a word. We visited
my uncle that afternoon.

I was surrounded with a cloud of confusion.Time passed. It became dark. My parents did not
start back home. It became darker. They did not move. As I eavesdropped, I got to know that we
were no longer going back to that home.For a mere financial argument between my dad and my
grandfather, we were thrown out of the house. My dad had to undergo a heart surgery. He
wanted to share the lump amount with my grandfather. My grandfather refused to share the
money and instead shared a piece of advice “You are mature enough to lead your life
independently, please(gesture)” he said. No food, no shelter, no clothing, no money. We
reached financial bankruptcy. Sometimes we feel that it's only our world turning upside down,
don't we? What we wore on that day was the only dress we owned. The coins in our pockets
were the only treasure we owned. A life that was progressing had abruptly fallen back to zero.
We experienced what it was like to be homeless.

Being a kid in her 5th std, I couldn’t understand the enormity of the situation. All that I was
worried about was- my school. I was worried that I had left my science book in that home. My
favorite choco biscuits? left them too. I remember flunking exams preparing incorrect subjects. I
still remember repeating the same uniform consecutively with the collar stains. I still remember
lighting candles every single day asking God to set things right. It is said “Fish and visitors stink
after 3 days”. Can you imagine, we were visitors for 2 long years!!

While my dad was broken, my mom stood strong. She knocked on the door of strangers in the
locality collecting funds for his surgery. Our first sign of happiness was when the surgery was
successful. My mom then managed to get a teacher job for 2000 rs salary. It was a huge sum
for us. We stayed in a house that we rented for just 1000 rs. We had to live on A 3rs. Curd
packet every day . We slept on sacks and piled up books for pillows. We were satisfied that
something was better than nothing. A few years later, my mom’s salary increased. My dad
started a business to support his family to the best of his ability. My elder sister studied and also
worked part time . We learnt to balance the expenses and the savings together. The happy days
were not far. Cots replaced sacks, pillows replaced the piled up books, I got a pair of new
uniforms and my favorite choco biscuits too. Somehow we embraced the new life.We stood
together united, cooperative, graduating out of college and finally stable. It took us 15 long years
to relive. By then my grandfather was on his deathbed. He wanted to meet us one last time. I
remember asking him why he let us go. Crying bitterly he clasped my hand. I wished then he
snapped his finger, played a magic trick to bring back those golden days.

Fellow Toastmasters and guests, Our life is like an apple seed, once the apple is eaten and the
seed is dropped onto the ground, it appears as if the seed has no value, but taking a closer look
at it helps us realize that it is the one that germinates, rises high, and shapes up to a tree. We
were dropped from our home that we hit the ground so hard. We had no basic entities for living
as we reached financial bankruptcy,but a closer look at our desire for living germinated us to
grow like a tree. If you have ever been dropped from your career, your marriage, your business
or any phase of life for that matter, and life hits you hard, so hard that you feel you can never
rise up. Think of the apple seed, take a closer look. You will find a burning desire. A desire to
prove yourself to everyone who’s ever doubted you, a desire to stand tall in front of everyone
who questions your ability, a desire to shout out to the world and tell them you cannot lose. Look
for that desire and we all would germinate like a tree.
Contest Master!!