ANOTHER MIRACLE AT HARVARD
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Priya Nath Mehta
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It was my first year in Graduate School at Harvard and I was trying to get accustomed to the atmosphere there while concentrating upon my studies-- which sometimes left little time for anything else.
Since I was on a Scholarship, I paid my bills there through coupons supplied by Harvard.
Most of the students ate at Harkness Commons Cafeteria, where we paid for our meals with the coupons.
Time flew by fast , and before I knew it the Christmas Vacation was upon us.. The dormitories were empty as most of the students left for their homes. The campus appeared plunged in darkness.
I went for my breakfast to Harkness Commons Cafeteria and discovered that the Cafeteria was closed for the Christmas Vacation. The banks too were closed. My coupons were practically useless as I could not purchase anything with them.
I went without food the whole day long. And then came the night.
I went out into the Harvard Yard and found a street singer singing in the snow: "We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!"
I sang along with him, wishing my parents, HH Shri Bhola Nathji and Mahamateshwari, a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. They were thousands of miles across the ocean, but I knew my greetings were reaching out to them from the heart.
Then I returned back to the darkened dormitory, Perkins Hall, where there was not a single student in sight.
For some strange reason, I was not worried about how I would eat that night, having fasted the whole day long. Maybe I had found the food at Harkness Commons Cafeteria too unpalatable!! lol. And did not mind going without it.
But there was the 15 day vacation ahead of me, and that would be too much of a fast especially in the bitter cold.
As I sat alone in my room, without any thought in my mind, there was a knock on my door. I opened the door and a stranger stood outside. He said to me:
"Allow me to introduce myself. I am Kopr from Thailand and live in the dormitory opposite yours. I saw your light on and came over. I guess we are the only two foreign students left on this side of the campus! Can I invite you to have dinner with me?"
I knew it was HH Shri Bhola Nathji looking after me across the oceans. He had sent Kopr.
I explained my financial situation to him and told him I would not be able to pay him back till after the Christmas Vacation when the Banks opened.Thereafter his response was only a friendly thump on my back.
And he came dutifully to my room, three times a day, for breakfast, lunch and dinner, making me eat with him at the local cafeterias of the town.
After the vacation I went to his room to pay him for all the expense he had gone for my food. But he refused to accept a penny-- saying he was not business minded like the Americans, and in Thailand this was a simple gesture of friendship.
Many years later, when he and his wife came to visit me in India and met my father HH Shri Bhola Nathji, my father said to me:
"Your friend, Kopr, is a walking Angel upon earth!"
And that is who HH Shri Bhola Nathji had sent to help me out of a difficult situation in the US, one of his angels walking upon the earth.
You don't know in how many guises HH Shri Bhola Nathji may appear before you when he finds out that you need Him.
Priya Nath Mehta
Copyright
============================
Priya Nath Mehta
=============================
It was my first year in Graduate School at Harvard and I was trying to get accustomed to the atmosphere there while concentrating upon my studies-- which sometimes left little time for anything else.
Since I was on a Scholarship, I paid my bills there through coupons supplied by Harvard.
Most of the students ate at Harkness Commons Cafeteria, where we paid for our meals with the coupons.
Time flew by fast , and before I knew it the Christmas Vacation was upon us.. The dormitories were empty as most of the students left for their homes. The campus appeared plunged in darkness.
I went for my breakfast to Harkness Commons Cafeteria and discovered that the Cafeteria was closed for the Christmas Vacation. The banks too were closed. My coupons were practically useless as I could not purchase anything with them.
I went without food the whole day long. And then came the night.
I went out into the Harvard Yard and found a street singer singing in the snow: "We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!"
I sang along with him, wishing my parents, HH Shri Bhola Nathji and Mahamateshwari, a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. They were thousands of miles across the ocean, but I knew my greetings were reaching out to them from the heart.
Then I returned back to the darkened dormitory, Perkins Hall, where there was not a single student in sight.
For some strange reason, I was not worried about how I would eat that night, having fasted the whole day long. Maybe I had found the food at Harkness Commons Cafeteria too unpalatable!! lol. And did not mind going without it.
But there was the 15 day vacation ahead of me, and that would be too much of a fast especially in the bitter cold.
As I sat alone in my room, without any thought in my mind, there was a knock on my door. I opened the door and a stranger stood outside. He said to me:
"Allow me to introduce myself. I am Kopr from Thailand and live in the dormitory opposite yours. I saw your light on and came over. I guess we are the only two foreign students left on this side of the campus! Can I invite you to have dinner with me?"
I knew it was HH Shri Bhola Nathji looking after me across the oceans. He had sent Kopr.
I explained my financial situation to him and told him I would not be able to pay him back till after the Christmas Vacation when the Banks opened.Thereafter his response was only a friendly thump on my back.
And he came dutifully to my room, three times a day, for breakfast, lunch and dinner, making me eat with him at the local cafeterias of the town.
After the vacation I went to his room to pay him for all the expense he had gone for my food. But he refused to accept a penny-- saying he was not business minded like the Americans, and in Thailand this was a simple gesture of friendship.
Many years later, when he and his wife came to visit me in India and met my father HH Shri Bhola Nathji, my father said to me:
"Your friend, Kopr, is a walking Angel upon earth!"
And that is who HH Shri Bhola Nathji had sent to help me out of a difficult situation in the US, one of his angels walking upon the earth.
You don't know in how many guises HH Shri Bhola Nathji may appear before you when he finds out that you need Him.
Priya Nath Mehta
Copyright
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