After the heat had settled and the warmth of coffee had spread inside them, the three opened up to know the latest whereabouts of each other.

“Ojh, do you know Amogh Sir?” Shardul enquired.

“Amogh Sir was my teacher in Model School. One of my favourite teachers, if not the most favourite, I must add. And a versatile teacher as well – he taught us English, History and Civics! And as a class teacher of another division, he used to teach Moral Science as well!”

“And now he is about to teach us the art of peace! Where are we heading to, Amogh Sir?” Shardul asked as they took the exit from the eastern freeway towards Chembur.

“It all depends on you both. You can join me for a road trip. I am on vacation and am heading towards Konkan. I haven’t decided exact location, but as I have learnt, we figure things out as we move on. The important thing is to get started!” Amogh offered some wisdom.

“Do you always speak such cryptic philosophy, Amogh Sir? I like it, though. I think me and Shardul need some dose of this!” Ojh was revealing the secret admiration he had towards Amogh. “And since I am unemployed at the moment, I can as well take the road trip! What about you, Shardul?”

“Well, I too would like to join, especially to learn this new art. But as I said, I cannot afford such a luxurious trip. I come from a simple background where we don’t really look beyond public transport,” Shardul spoke from the valley separating aspiration and reality.

“You are very honest, Shardul! Don’t worry, the road trip is on me. I also come from a similar background and understand how it is being at your age. But now that I am a bit successful, I would love sharing my success with you guys. Afterall, real success is when others are also happy for our success. So. Okay, we are heading towards the great, the unexplored, the beautiful countryside of Maharashtra – Konkan!” Amogh announced, taking a rare deviation from his calm composed nature, to speak magnanimously.

***

“Hey Amogh Sir, how do we start learning the art of peace?” Shardul asked as soon as he had finished informing his home about his suddenly planned road trip.

“We start with two aspects – being grateful and facing injustice,” saying so, Amogh abruptly turned sideways, to avoid the fly-over. “And please stop calling me Sir… you guys can call me just Amogh! As an update, I am no longer in Model School too…I left it long back. After many varied occupations, I am now a Partner at Halls Chambers, the consultancy firm.”

Delight was all written on the face of Ojh. “Wow, Amogh Sir, that’s great to hear that you are now a partner at such a renowned consulting firm!”

Amogh, humble as always, expressed acknowledgements. “I must say I owe my growth to what I learnt during my teaching errands and various occupations later on! And of course, life teaches us so much! Please call me just Amogh…”

“Wait! Is it THE Halls Consultancy firm?! I mean, one of the global big three, as they say?” Shardul, too, couldn’t hide his excitement in front of the sublime company he was with, at that moment.

“You heard it right, Shardul,” Ojh said, “Right now, you are with one of the most successful, most respected consultants in the world! Not just a consultant, but a partner in one of the big three!”

“That’s awesome! I am standing amidst the partner in a great consultancy firm on my left and the CTO of a respected company on my right,” exclaimed Shardul, in a tone that reflected both shyness and awe at the same time.

“So, consultant Sir, both me and Shardul are delighted to join you on the sojourn to learn the art of peace! Where do we start?” Ojh asked.

“This way. Sorry for the abrupt jerk, but as I said, we start with facing injustice and gratitude,” Amogh continued, like a professor setting up practical training for the students. On exiting the flyover, they had entered a highly congested place underneath, with dense slums spread all over the narrow space.

Before either Shardul or Ojh could utter another word, they experienced another abrupt jerk, this time because Amogh had suddenly applied brake to avert an accident. Amogh had navigated the car briskly towards left to avoid a big pothole, before applying abrupt brake on noticing that he was about to hit two children sitting further left of what was already a very narrow road. In the process, to safeguard the children, Amogh let car pass over the pothole. The car stopped on its own on hitting the pothole, and Amogh knew the car had got damaged. Before he got out, he looked at his co-travelers, and grimaced.

“If only these poor people can unburden themselves from making ends meet with such hardship. The narrow roads are further increasing the hardship. It’s a sad sight.”

Amogh’s words took a few moments to register, but when they did, both Ojh and Shardul appeared to be dived deep into thoughts.

Amogh continued. “A good point to start with the art of peace is to start with being grateful. Understanding that we owe a heartfelt gratitude for what we already have. Look at these children – they are looking at us with awe. Behind this awe, there is also an intrinsic desire to be like us one day. But even these children know that most probably they can never be like us. When we look at the world from this perspective, we feel that gratitude. And with gratitude, don’t we feel at peace, at least for a few moments?”

Shardul, just like the children, was looking at Amogh with awe. “Hey, you do sound like a very good professor!” Once the momentary laughter that followed had concluded, he went into a discussion mode. “Amogh, my situation is somewhat similar. I look at awe towards people who can afford to spend on their education, without thinking twice. And here I am, who has got the talent to break into any ivy league college but was rejected by a crass coaching class tutor! I cannot feel grateful…” Shardul transformed himself into an angry young man in no time and wrenched out a fiery punch in air. “In fact, that lousy tutor should feel grateful that I didn’t hit him!” In Shardul’s imaginary world, knockout punch was delivered to the ‘lousy tutor’ in second bout itself.

Incidentally, the nasty punch almost got delivered on Ojh who had to move backward to avoid getting knocked out. Ojh experienced a rare phenomenon when one can laugh while recovering. Looking at Amogh, he said hilariously, “Congrats Amogh! Vice-Chancellor Shardul has now transferred the ‘Bachelor of Lousiness’ degree to his tutor!”

While a smile appeared on faces of all the three, Amogh, as usual, moved forward to bring context to what was happening. “I like you venting out in imagination, Shardul. And it’s good that you accepted the injustice. Same with you, Ojh. Going through injustice builds endurance and patience which are two of the important pillars of inner peace.” Saying so, Amogh bent down and pulled out the car stuck in the pothole.

“Coming to gratitude, Shardul, you are about to complete your engineering with flying colours.” Amogh continued. “Though you are facing troubles to pursue higher education, you must be among that two percent of the population who got access to a professional course like engineering! You are living the dream of 98 percent of the people who couldn’t make it! Isn’t that a huge reason for being grateful? I would rather live for those 98 percent of the people, to help them, to uplift them, instead of spending energy on hitting that lousy laggard! That would give me peace.” Amogh smiled.

In the listening process, Shardul had reached the summit of thoughtfulness. Seeking for a firm, warm handshake with Amogh, he acknowledged his new-found gratitude. “This is some enlightenment! From feeling unjust to developing endurance, patience, gratitude that I am living others’ dreams…and along the way, collecting peace for oneself! Wow! The remarkable art of peace!”

Ojh, too, was experiencing the thoughtful mood. “The words summarised by Shardul apply to me as well! And that’s, I think, is just the beginning of learning this masterpiece. What are the other pillars of peace, master?” Grinning mischievously, he added, “I too like playing with words!” and received an applause and a thumbs-up from his listeners.

Pulling out a packet from the car, Amogh went towards the children and distributed toffies. Looking at the happy faces, he smiled, once again. Turning to his pupils, he said, “Let’s get into the car. We have a long way to go. Pun intended.” He winked.