Is it a Miracle?

Hi Friends,

I do not know how I should start narrating my personal experience. Let me begin how I got to be a heavy smoker. I studied in a local industrial suburb school in company of some students quite older than the rest of the class who came from families of factory working parents and even they had to put in labor work whenever required. These mates smoked Indian 'Bidi' (tobacco rolled into dried leaves, burn out quickly within a couple of puffs). We all other students were always in awe of them. These guys offered their 'Bidi' to anyone who was ready for a revolt. I though reluctantly tried was soon having fun many times.

Then I joined university graduation. I had to daily travel from one end of the city to the other end to attend college. Naturally, I would start early and return late in the evening. The long hours made my parents offer me a hefty pocket allowance. The loose change soon started vanishing in buying cigarettes. It started with one in the morning at the bus stop and gradually rose to about five to six by the time I returned home.

The graduation was completed and I landed with a job in a government owned financial corporation offering term loans to industry and generally promoting small and medium scale ventures. That was in seventies, the rise of small industry as the backbone of economy. I was a twenty year old appraising seasoned entrepreneur and had to impress I was not a novice. Soon my shirt pocket bulged with a pack of ten cigarettes and a lighter before I realized that I had become a regular smoker. I continued to smoke about fifteen cigarettes a day till I turned forty five.

I turned a heavy smoker after a change of job in 1996 when I was forty five and joined as general manager in charge of mining, production and exports of granite processing industry. My daily consumption increased to about twenty five cigarettes. Fortunately, I continued to enjoy very good health. Smoking was not creating any problem. However, I had started realizing soon I would have to quit smoking if I was to ensure trouble free old age. There were many failed attempts. The longest spell without a smoke was for about fifteen days. I had started accepting that neither I can reduce or stop smoking.

In the year 1999 my company thought to open a new mine in the Aravalli Mountain ranges. I shifted my base in the remote mountain range and geared up the infrastructure and had the first dimensional granite block produced within three months. The entire gamut involved not only mobilizing various resources but to also deal with the local village administrative body and state government officials from various departments besides, planning and implementing processing at the factory about 80 kilometers from the mine. I was stubbing out my last cigarette before I stretched on the cot to grab some sleep late in the night and light the first one before I hit the ground from the cot in the morning. I could not even count how many packs I was finishing daily, may be six or seven.

Though the entire mining setup was working at good speed, we were finding it difficult to keep the delivery schedule for the mockup at Singapore. There would be some minor or major setback daily eating away precious time. Then we had to decide airlift 8' x 6' x 20mm fifty slabs, each weighing about 200 kilos to Singapore. The cargo packed in secure iron "A" frames was safely delivered to the Airport. The next day our custom house agent informed that due to an accident while loading, some 17 slabs were broken into pieces, and the whole lot could not be airlifted.

A heavy gloom descended at the mine and the processing factory. Our headquarters at Mumbai were clueless. Slowly the word started spreading in the surrounding villages that a giant company like ours was at the mercy of their local deity. There was a belief amongst those villages in the mountain ranges that nothing could succeed without the approval of their warrior deity who ruled the mountains five hundred years ago. There was a shrine up atop a hill and everybody must seek his approval with bowed head.

In the late afternoon a village elder approached and I being in sole charge of the entire activity, advised me to offer prayer to the deity next day in the early morning and seek his approval. My 'Poclain' operator immediately grabbed the opportunity and next day at about five in the morning arranged hot water for my bath, got me a good breakfast and drove my jeep to the hill. While we were climbing, he told me not only to ask for trouble free mining for the company but also ask something personal. Then very humbly he asked me to request the deity to help me give up smoking. I realized that in hurry to arrive at the shrine before sunrise, I had forgotten my pack of cigarettes in the tent.

We offered our prayers for a couple of minutes. I prayed for the deity's blessings for success in mining and my giving up smoking. We started climbing down and soon reached the camp and got lost in the daily routine.

I have not smoked even a single puff of tobacco in any form from the moment I offered my prayer till today. Suddenly the desire to smoke was permanently extinguished.

Our mining progressed and we started exports regularly.

I am now sixty three and though retired from the granite industry, I am keeping excellent health and fully active in various other activities. I am certain if smoking had continued I would have been a crippled by now.

Is it a miracle? Is it a coincidence? Is it my emotional state and belief that got rid of my smoking?

Mahess