26 July 2019

A Housewife On the Road

Had a breakfast with a Thai this morning. Happened to know she plans to stay in Bodhgaya for 3 months. She is the only person in her family who is religious and faithful to her belief. Her wish is to be a caretaker in one of the many temples in Chiang Mai. She looks younger than her age. She claimed it is because of meditation. Everyone here calls her Mama though. Despite not fluent in English, she has been travelling everywhere around Bodhgaya, from Rajgir, Vaishali,  Dungeshwari cave temple to the ancient university of Nalanda, sometimes side sit on the back of a motorbike, other times on a tuk-tuk, nothing dissimilar with the usual scene you see in her home country.

It kind of drawing my attention to learn that a housewife who had been taking care of her family for 30 or so years is finally leaving her house as well as all sorts of familiarity back home to travel to this semi-remote region in India, alone. Well, in the name of Buddha. It still amazed me. I joked that she abandoned her husband and daughters for Buddha. She laughed. A woman who is finally pursuing what she really wants in life after 30 over years of living for others, isn’t that something worth mentioning?

After all, we live for ourselves. We don’t and shouldn’t live for others. If others live for you, tell them don’t. Do you agree with me?

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