Age

Age is a just a number, allright. But its not infine and if you donot do the correct math with those numbers at the right and opportune moment, hoping it to be done on a better,  warm sunlit day, you will be the bird with the wings who never knew to flew.

The Aged Lady.

I have been staying in Bangalore for a couple of years.  I like this place (minus the traffic and bad roads) for the weather is awesome. And also because I meet many of my close friends here regularly as they often come over for work or pleasure.

Very recently, one of my very good friends had come over and we decided to meet at Brigade Road, which is flooded with cafes and bars in and around. It really is a good place to be.

Below is a word by word description of our meeting in a café. I knew he had been very sick and hospitalized some time ago and it was good to see him get back to  his old self.

I have asked him if I can write this conversation and he has kindly agreed.

In the café, for some time ,we were discussing friends, careers and the usual stuff. The topic of his health came up and this is what he had to say:

“It all started with a mild pain in my back which was persisting. I thought it was merely a backache. A few shots of pain killers gave me some relief but then it started again. I kept ignoring until I could hold on no longer. It felt as if my whole back and my tummy were on fire.

I tried to go to a nearby hospital which was only two hundred meters away from my home. I could hardly walk the distance and perhaps it was the most difficult and painful walk for me. I couldn’t walk any longer and thought I would just fall down. The security guard, whom I had never even cared to acknowledge, took me in his arms and brought me home. While in health we don’t realize, but when your body is flail and cannot cope, the whole world becomes a very difficult place.

My wife had just joined me and my son was just seven months old. Luckily my cousin brother was there and I called him. Seeing me, he didn’t wait and took me to one of the better hospitals. I was vomiting and couldn’t make myself to walk. We reached the hospital and the pain was so much that I couldn’t get out of the car. A person came to me carrying a wheel chair and gently placed me on it and carried. The person seemed a savior .

The pain was killing me and I remember myself to be crying out of pain.People whom I didn’t know and waiting for their Consultations gave way for me.  The Doctor ordered a CT scan and I was diagnosed to have Acute Necrotising Pancreatis, probably due to some stone blocking some duct.

I was told that I should have come earlier.  They ordered admission and I was admitted. I stayed in the hospital for the next 35 days.

I was very very sick, with lungs filling with fluid and ascites (fluid in the abdomen) which are compications of acute pancreatitis. My wife had to manage the child and other family members were still yet to come. I knew I was in for a hard and long battle. I knew exactly how precarious my situation was. Surprisingly, the mind works very well in these situations.  I was prepared for any eventuality. I knew there was hardly anything to do except to have patience.

Life, till then, had been very good to me. My father was well known in his circles and growing up for me has been quite good, easy and comfortable. I really didn’t know what hardship was. We lived in a 12 room palatial house. We had people to clean the house, to wash utensils, clothes and the cars. There were people to do the errands, water the plants, to cook and what not. For me, they were just some people who were destined to serve us. It didn’t matter to me that they too were human beings. For me, they just meant to be objects who worked and served us.

While lying in the hospital bed, fighting the sweat of pain and the coldness of despair, I was taken care by people, apart from the kind doctors, who till then had never an existence for me.

There was an old lady who would come to clean the room and tidy things a bit. I would chat with her a little bit with whatever energy I had. I was not even allowed to drink a drop of water for twenty days and I was being kept alive by the fluids running in my veins.

The old lady could perhaps realize what I had been going through. I was sick with despair and I thought if I could hold on any longer. I could not say these thoughts to  my family for they are already a worried lot.

I was thinking about my kid whether I would again ever see him.

I would fall in and out of sleep and I could see and feel the old lady placing her palm on my forehead and hair. I was wondering why was she doing t when at this age and time, it is difficult to call your own your own.

The old lady would comb my hair and did whatever possible for me to feel better.

Gradually, I was recovering and on the 35 th day, I was discharged.

When I reached home, I had to climb stairs which I could not without someone holding me. I couldn’t lift my child in my arms.

I was gradually regaining my strength and feeling better. I was thinking of giving something to the old lady who had taken such good care of me.

I went to the hospital after some weeks . I met her and presented her a saree and a thousand rupee note.

She didn’t take any of those from me. I could see her eyes moisten. She took my hand and said that I remind her of her son who had died some years back. She couldn’t save her son but said that her heart felt lighter and better when she took care of me.

I cant say how I survived. Maybe, one of the reasons could be the form oflove and strength that the old lady had in her heart for her son.

I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t want people to see my wet eyes. I mumbled something and ran away, placing the saree and money on a table. Never had I been swept away by this wave of such strong human emotions.

I never met her after that. I don’t know where she is now. I don’t even know if I can ever face her. I am too miniscule in front of her.

This lady made me realize how foolish, ignorant and selfish I had been. Here has been a person or persons who had held my hand when I was sinking. The security guard, the man with the wheel chair and the old lady had a role in changing my myopic beliefs and vision. The whole format of someone on top of the rung and someone at the bottom, is all but  temporary. It matters to be rich, but in the long run, the richness should be in your heart. It is ignorance not to give people their due, whatever be their position in their lives. If you respect people, you will get respect. The respect that you get by domination is just but temporary. It will cease.

When I look back now, I feel  , maybe, it was God’s will and my destiny to be taught a lesson. It has changed my whole life. I have realized that we should not take and make opinions just on appearances, for appearances are deceptive. Its  how your heart is what matters. Life is temporary. You are here today. You may not be the next day. Live your life well and fully. You can, if only you learn to respect.’

My friend and me we sat in the café for a long time. It was a realization for me too. I didn’t know what to say but I could understatnd that the whole episode had made my friend wiser and more modest.

Maybe, there are different ways in which we learn the lesson of life, and maybe this was one of them.

 

“If wishes were horses, beggars would ride.”

Day to day, in and out, I keep doing the same things, as like most of you.

I often wish that it would be great, if sometime, I take a few days off continuously and do a few things of my liking.

My wish really did turn true, but not really into a fine horse, but rather into a monkey or a donkey.

I have a bloody sore back, lying on the bed close to 2 days, not going to work. This is even more boring than actually going to work.

In short, dreams do come true, but the forms in which they come, may not always be desirable!

Oh, those looks!

Looks are deceptive. Sometimes the feeling when you meet some one for the first time, the belief that what you see is what he or she is, is absolutely wrong. More often than not, the interpretation of your eyes is incorrect.

Give some time to what you see. The flower that blooms might be quite different.

I have always followed what I have said. It has kept me in good stead.

Losing Greenery to Bribery!

The craze for land, houses and apartments is just phenomenal. It just doesn’t stop and neither our inhibitions towards plundering Mother Earth.

The balance of Nature is slowly getting lost..

In the long run, we are the losers though we don’t realize.

Get me those days back!

Some days, if not always, the feeling of idling around, doing nothing or doing things you like, some good music, a good cup of tea, a good read and some bright sunshine on a beautiful November day, seems to frequent my mind.

We have become so bound with routine that time just seems to fail us, just as sand escaping the grasp of your palm.  The  harder you try to hold, the more it falls.

Oh! If we just could pause time and feel them all over again.

Get me those days back!

“And that’s why, I never married!”

She, in her late forties, had been asked innumerable times as to why such a decision of not getting married and not to follow the ways of the society.

Her answer, “I see myself as a medium for larger things. Continuity of the race and a means of sharing your life, if that is the substance of marriage, are not for me. I don’t see myself as in that state, for there are others destined for it. I am, and I will, will see life and better it from a different view. Let me, for a change, unlike most of us, work for the upliftment of our race. I don’t want to be held back by what people say.  I may not have a child, but the child in your arms or the child yet unborn shall have a better life for I will work for it. The whole world is my life. If someday I feel to have made a wrong decision, I shall wait. The body perishes, but never the Soul. It will take a form and I will do what has not been done.”

Human Dolls?

As we keep on fighting on basis of religions, caste and creed, yet a clever political class which often are the instigators, are the winners. We have developed into human dolls and we do their desires. Life is too short and too precious to spend on these and them. We should be good human beings whose hearts don’t beat and breed on these differences but with the feeling that their is no difference between your beat and mine. That is the greatest religion and that is the religion that is going to always be the winner.

 

Listen to your Heart!

What ever you paint your heart with, be it the paint of religion, the paint of love or hatred, the paint of understanding or of indifference, yet when you talk to your heart, irrespective of the different shades, the heart will always tell the truth. It never lies. The mind often may, but not the heart. The mind is clever, the heart not so. Following your mind will keep you a step ahead.Following your heart may take you a step back, but it will be a step towards contentment.In the long run perhaps, maybe you should listen to your heart more.

Why Mother’s Day?

The greatest comfort that a child feels is when the he feels the warmth of his mother when she takes him in her arms. That feeling shows the presence of God in one form or the other. God never shows Himself directly. Its in a way through us only. And for a child , it is through his mother. The milk in her breast is the life that flows through him, which he understands in some way or the other.  So aptly put, we celebrate Mother’s Day.