Life - II

As soon as she saw the ward boy standing at the door, calling her into the doctor’s cabin, the lady broke down. Coming to terms with the fact that the infant in her arms was terminally ill with Leukemia is something even the strongest of mothers cannot do. As he saw this, another very young boy asked his mother what was so bad about going into that room – Why is that lady crying? Why is she clutching her child close and refusing to let her husband and ward boy take the child in? Isn’t this a hospital where people are cured of all illnesses? This boy who spoke was thin and weak and showed all the others signs of repeated Chemotherapy. As an answer to his questions all his mother could do was bury her face in her palms and sob.

I visited the Tata Memorial Hospital a few days ago. As I stood in the waiting lobby crowded with patients and their loved ones, all I could sense was helplessness and grief. I have been to hospitals and almost all kinds of wards before, but never have I felt my soul dry up and wither inside me. But ironically this heavy air of grief seemed to emanate only from the patients’ families. For despite the fact that they pained more - physically and mentally, it was the patients who seemed oblivious to the sorrow around them – who seemed to be living the most at that moment.

As I stood there and observed myself in that environment, I remembered a note I read the other day. It was written by a friend while she was traveling in a local train.

"I couldn’t get my eyes off the people in that Compartment who some term disabled, impaired, incapacitated, abnormal, physically/mentally challenged and what not. Have you ever witnessed their content faces, the smiles they share, have you ever got a chance to talk to them, have you ever noticed how they treat people around them….I have!! And that makes me think….All that you didn’t get is something you dearly wished for….All that you are blessed with in this life is something those people never had or lost….and still you blame it on “LIFE”. Seems you have been a little unjust on yourself.

Love yourself, Love your Life, Love the people around You….Live like you don’t care what’s in store for you tomorrow…"

As I thought of these words, everything in my life flashed before me - everything I am, have been and might be. I have never been as grateful in my life. All my materialistic complaints in life seemed pathetically insignificant as I stood there in that hospital lobby.

Many people have life-changing experiences and moments at some point in their lives. I guess mine was that visit to TMC. For since then, each time I get into a fit of rage or gloom over an argument with a loved one or the failure in attaining something, I realize the pettiness of the issue and let it pass by. It’s a simpler and much more realistic approach to life. It is bringing myself down to what I really am – not to myself but to the world around me. It is to understand and believe that this world is not set out to be bad to me and cause harm. If it had to, there were many worse ways in which it could have. My life is a gift and from this point on, I will not let trivial tribulations be obstacles in my happy journey to the end.