Life is certainly full of SuRpRiSeS

Its been close to 1 month since I asked you to keep visting my blog to check about the real story of the child soldier, Ismeal Beah. My readers might have lost the hope of reading it here as the time elapsed undermines the zest I showed in my previous post. Please excuse me for some more days because I don’t want the same to happen to a recent event which I want to share with you all at the earliest.

It was a beautiful day. Surprisingly, I woke up with the first alarm. I browsed through my wardrobe and without much struggle picked up just anything. I made tea while Gaurav got ready. I was very happy and nervous at the same time. Finally the day had arrived for which I had worked hard for last 1.5 months. It was my First Ever Candle exhibition.

I had never thought that I would get such an opportunity in my lifetime. If you say life is full of surprises, I would say this is the biggest and most pleasant surprise life has given me. Well, I had never made candles, and here I was, exhibiting my candles in a country that I had known only for last seven months, for an organization that I had known only for last two months and for a cause that I had known for last 25 years but had not done anything about it. It was an Artisan Fair organized to support cancer affected patients and their families.

We reached there on time. Gaurav helped me to set-up the table. Surprisingly, Gaurav was giving me better ideas that day. We decorated the table to the best of our abilities. He then went out to get me some change. I waited very anxiously for him for ten minutes and prayed that no customer comes before he comes back. I was feeling butterflies in my stomach. Gaurav then came back with my breakfast. He quickly finished his own and asked me to finish mine. But the butterflies were not letting me eat anything.

“Oh, that’s pretty” said the first person who came to me. She liked the floating roses and asked me how much they were for. We had decided that we’ll sell those for $6 for a pair but I don’t know why I asked $5 for the pair. “Is that all? You have must put in a lot of effort for that”. I was a little discouraged with the fact that I had under-estimated the prices but at that point I desperately wanted her to buy those. She purchased a few. Next one hour brought the maximum number of admirers and customers. I had also developed some confidence till then and didn’t feel nervous when Gaurav told me that he has to go for nature’s call. To any person who came, I offered candies, told them about the specialty of each candle and gave them my business card that had some candle burning tips. “ Ehh!! We didn’t know this” many of them responded after reading those tips.

For next couple of minutes we were wondering why isn’t anyone coming in. I realized how difficult it is to sell. Then, many of my friends came and bought a lot of stuff. The day was full of excitement and at four we packed up the things that were not sold. Me and Gaurav then went out to celebrate our success.

Today, I feel proud of myself to have successfully made through this. But more than that, I feel more proud of Gaurav, my brother, my sister, my parents and my friends who encouraged me and showed complete confidence in me. I wish and hope I get many more such opportunities where I can give back to society while utilizing my free time.

P.S. – I got a call today morning from a lady who met me in the exhibition and wanted to buy some more candles from me :)