The end — only the beginning

The last few weeks have been really tensed, professionally. There was an air of uncertainty around. Everyone in the office was thinking about just one thing."Is it me?".”Will I be handed a pink slip and told to pack up within 15 minutes?" "If it happens to me...what will I do?"
While taking a rickshaw back home my mind too was filled with thoughts. I thought if it’s not me, it has to be someone else. So how can I feel good about someone losing his job? Then my attention shifted to rickshaw driver. He was about twenty four and clearly liked his work. I started a small conversation with him. Where was he from? What had he studied? Who was his family?
You will be surprised how everything changes with these three unhurried questions.
He said that he was from Uttar Prad
esh. Then, blushingly, he told me that next month he was getting married! I was delighted and congratulated him.
He thanked me, shifted to 4th gear and, with a glow at the thought of the young-bride-in-the-waiting, drove the rickshaw on the highway at full speed.
He had read about the bailout packages in the US, the shroud of rumor about the ICICI Bank, the layoffs in the airline companies and the impending slow down.
But he is getting married next month.
What can be a bigger act of confidence in the future than raising a family? Bringing a coy bride all the way from the village into the harried Mumbai city where this man would return to work - driving rickshaw for people whom he may never meet again.
I looked outside the passing cars to realize a simple truth: slowdown or not, people will marry; they will visit friends with the new bride with her hands covered in those white and pink bangles that notify the whole Universe about her change of status; they will celebrate; they will mourn; one day they will get up in the morning and wake the kids up who must now go to school; they will go to work; start a new business; they will cook a meal and eat; they will fight with their loved ones, kiss and make up and then sleep. Guess I found the answer to my question "What if I am fired?” It wouldn’t be the end of my world .I’ll get up, dust myself and start running again.