Always, Shri Rakesh Mittal IAS was a question mark before me. Some time back he was regularly contributing to the Indian Thoughts column at a rate of one post per week. His capacity to relate his every experience with life aspects was commendable. He worked in Uttar Pradesh State cadre for some 35 years. He also was the founder of the Kabir Foundation. We do not know too much about Kabir the Great. All that we know about him is that he was born in a Muslim family in Banaras and later grew as a disciple to a Hindu saint called Ramanand. In a country divided for religious reasons, Rakeshji believed that the Kabir Foundation has a lot to do.
Rakeshji was a person who led a very disciplined and simple life from childhood. All the years he was in Roorkee university (1966-’70), he was the topper. Both his sons were too extra bright but passed away because of a very unusual physical problem, which medical science could not resolve. In spite of all these, all his life, he appeared to be happy.
He once told us the story of his Bombay High visit. Mumbai High is 200 kilo meters from shore. The platform is held by pillars fixed very deep in the ocean. Because of the intense pressure in the deep ocean, underwater exploration is very difficult. Intense training was given to those under sea explorers. Rakesh ji asked us to compare life to a wide sea and the pressure in our ‘Highs’ also could be as high as that in the Mumbai High. We need intensive training to face it and thus make living a pleasure. That is, those pains of reality are crossed by intense self-training.
