You May Not Have Shoes, But There Are Many Who Have No Feet

The Malaysian Driving School Blog churns out articles connected with the field of driving, especially in Malaysia.

But as a person who loves to write, it’s only natural that from time to time, I would like to write upon other incidences which have occurred to me as a driving school instructor. As reiterated many times over, this instructor has been tutoring students for well over 42 years already.

Most of the articles which I write upon, are infact true life stories. Stories which I personally had experienced in my younger days. In my opinion, such tales should infact be written down and if possible, printed in my blog.

Such beautiful and touching reminences, if they are not shared with my blog readers, would tantamount to being a sheer waste indeed.

Today’s touching heart rendering and compassionate tale, I am attempting to relate, is in my opinion, not an easy story to write upon. In reality, this article, You May Not Have Shoes, But Do Not Forget There Are Many Who Have No Feet is infact based upon a short story told to our class, while we were in Form One and just only 13 or 14 years then, by our English Language teacher, Mr. James Pandian.

Permit me to relate to you the tale of an interesting story which Mr. Pandian once told us. As the story unfolds, there was once a very poor boy. As the Chinese New Year celebrations approached, the boy complained to his parents that he had no new shoes.

His mother, who was a very wise old lady, told his son, “Son, you might not have any new shoes, but don’t forget, there are others in this world who are more unfortunate than you. They have no feet.”

Coming back to today’s story or article, in the Ten Commandments, it is said, Thou Shall Not Gamble. In Islam, gambling is considered as being haram or forbidden. The Chinese have a popular saying, if you are a Chinese and you do not gamble, then you are not a real Chinese.

I am of Chinese descent. To tell my readers that I’m not into gambling, would amount to telling you a lie. The fact is, I do occasionally like to dabble in a game of toto, 4 digits and a game of cards. After all, I’m but only a Chinese. But I don’t play mahjong anyway.

A few years ago, to be exact, two or three years back, I went to a nearby 4 digits betting agent in town. I had parked my car a few steps from a popular betting shop. Like all gamblers, I was amongst the many people trying their luck to strike it rich or poorer that particular day. Well, nothing spectacular about that, you might say!

Before disembarking from my vehicle, what I witnessed that particular day, totally altered my concept about gambling.

On the corridor to the betting shop, I saw an Indian boy, about 13 years old, in a wheel chair. He was infact a crippled, an OKU (Orang Kurang Upaya) to be exact. He was I gather, a thalidomide victim. The person whom I saw, infact had no arms at all.

In place of normal arms or limbs, the Indian boy had only small fin-like protrusions, at his armpits. But what surprised me most of all, was this crippled boy looked so serene, smiling and contented.

What I saw after that, nearly brought tears to my eyes. And what I saw the crippled boy did, really amazed me! The crippled boy had a packet of nasi bungkus, (a packet of rice) which was placed upon his shoulders. Using only his mouth, this boy slowly worked in getting the packet of rice opened up. It took the boy quite a few minutes before he finally succeeded in getting the packet of rice opened.

What a struggle indeed it was! Trying to feed himself without the helping of his hands but only the nape of his neck and his chin, was more than I could bear to see. It was indeed a pitiful and touching sight.

One that I had never before witnessed. As I said earlier, this incident, believe me, almost broke my heart. And then it crossed my mind, how could human beings, who like me, are wholesome and Blessed by the great Lord almighty, with normal hands and legs, with good eyesight and health, can be so selfish as to be aiming for further wealth and luxuries in life by indulging in gambling?

That afternoon, after witnessing what I saw that day, I finally decided to abort my attempts to purchase 4 digits numbers. I felt, I should no longer gamble.

I told myself, that infact we should be thankful that God has blessed us as normal human beings. And that we should be thankful for what has been given to us thus far.

As my English Language teacher told us years ago, You may have no shoes my boy, but don’t ever forget, there are less unfortunate people in this world who do not possess any feet at all.

This eye-opening tale has played a great role in altering my view regarding material things in life. We should be satisfied with what we already have. After all, there are lots of people who are in worse off positions than we are!

Think about it carefully and in the process, who knows, you will eventually end up to be a better human being after all! If that happens, then the message of this heart touching tale of mine, would be deemed to have been successful!

It has taken me three years to write out today’s story. I am not a writer at all. Only a driving school instructor, with many years of experience. To get the exact and correct words to describe to you explicitly what I intend to say has been extremely difficult. If you have enjoyed reading it and it has touched your heart, then, I’ve been successful.