Hardworking and trustworthy as Gaston was as field manager of a neighbouring sugar estate, the owner, wishing to help him, came forward one morning with a proposition:

“We’ll buy you a truck to carry sugarcanes to the factory. You won’t have to bother about anything. Labour and financing will be ours. A nominal monthly deduction will be made out of the income earned. Your salary will be untouched. By the time you retire, you’ll be better-off. Just think about it. This is your big chance.”

Returning home, Gaston discussed the matter with the members of his family. But they all stated it was up to him to take the final decision – whether to accept the offer of the truck or not.

Still young and unfamiliar with the harsh realities of life, Gaston as a bon-vivant was fond of going to parties with friends, eating, drinking and merry-making. He thought that the coming of the truck would put an end to his exciting social life; his salary was more than enough for him to live decently. The next day, Gaston met his boss to tell him that he would not go for the truck. The boss could only say the choice was his.

Years later, he retired with no other source of income except his pension on which to survive. He had to cope with end-of-life problems like so many of his friends in this cold, forbidding place the world becomes for many aged ones.

Regretfully Gaston never stops telling his grandchildren that he missed the boat when he was young; otherwise, life would be different for him. But nobody cared. Do what you like, missed opportunities never come back - like time that is wasted.

At the price of enormous sacrifices, many parents these days offer their children the unique opportunity of acquiring a university education so as to be successful and happy for the rest of their lives. However, among them, some drift and spurn their gilt-edged chance by doing things that are unbecoming for good students. In fact, youth is the best stage of ones’ life to get prepared for what one is to become – a success or a failure, a star or a disgrace. Elizabethan poet George Peele reminds us,

“Beauty, strength, youth are flowers but fading seen;

Duty, faith, love are roots and ever green.”

Any work done whether by a professional, labourer, trader or any other is an opportunity to serve and contribute to the progress and development of the nation. One thus gets the opportunity to help and make the distressed and the less fortunate more cheerful, to set an example of selfless service and be remembered long after retirement.

But some take advantage of their position to become rich at the expense of those they should protect and serve. Instead of being recalled with dignity and honour , their name is cited with disgust and shame . They simply lose their golden chance. It is their choice. Unlike statesmen who think of the next generation, most politicians think of the next elections. They overlook the big chance they have been given to make history by drying the tears of the poor and the helpless, the insulted and the humiliated. Some of them depart from their duties and responsibilities. Few of them are even seen in the constituency after elections. They lose their moorings.

Whoever you are - student, professional, worker of any grade, businessman, politician, you indeed get the rare chance to do something to raise others to a better position and to rise above the horizon leaving behind a legacy. Says Shakespeare,

“There is a tide in the affairs of men,

Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune ;

Omitted, all the voyage of their life

Is bound in shallows and in miseries.”

So seize the big chance that comes your way. Live your life happily and successfully without torturing regrets for wasted years or the burning shame of a haunting, dirty past. The choice is yours to make.

<B>Kaviraj SOHUR</B>