Angels in Cancer Ward

A friend of mine shared The Starfish Story the other day on WhatsApp. The young girl in the story is seen picking up starfish left on the beach by the tide one by one and throwing them back to the sea. An old man approaches her and says, “There are thousands on the beach….you cannot possibly make a difference”. The girl walks to pick yet another star fish and throws it back to the sea and then says: “It makes a difference for that one”.

Even as I read the story, memories of an incident in RR Army Hospital, Delhi came rushing to my mind.

A friend of mine was admitted there to undergo spinal surgery. It was a sunny Sunday and I was staying just across the road. My wife made something for the friend for lunch and so I just walked across to call on him. He was in good cheer and we chatted for some time before I took leave to go home. Instead of taking the lift, I decided to walk down all the three floors.

As I turned into the corridor of the floor below, I noticed three ladies standing by the side wall. Well dressed and holding themselves so graciously, I couldn’t help lingering my look a little while. Just then, one of them turned and happened to catch me looking at them. And, she smiled as graciously.

I bowed my head and said, “Good Morning”.

“Good morning, how do you do?” she said.

“I am fine, ma’am. I am Wing Commander Srinivasan. What are you doing here? Is everything alright?” I said.

“Oh, I am Mrs….. My husband is a Colonel. Well, yeah, actually things are not pretty okay for someone. So, we were just wondering what next?”

The chivalrous soldier in me rose to the occasion. Stepping forward, I said, “Can I do something, ma’am?

 She looked at me for a few seconds and then said, “Perhaps not. But you can come in and have a look”.

She led me then into the Ward with the sign board – Terminal Patients.

The ward was full of young and old, with everyone apparently having the messenger from the Maker standing at hand. Notwithstanding the life support or other medical equipment that surrounded their beds, each one propped, waved, raised a hand and smiled looking at the three ladies. Many of them called out “mai” (mother) in voices that were laced with love. Their eyes glistened and wherever the ladies stood, hands reached out and held to them.

The ladies in turn sat by the bedside, holding hands, placing their palms on cheeks and simply ruffling the few curls still left on those pates. Their eyes were also moist but they poured out a compassion that ran like a river, immersing everyone in the ward.

Even I stood there watching, my eyes welled. It felt though my chest was caught in pincer, squeezing a strange emotion that I knew not the name. I cried.

The Colonel’s wife came over to me and placed a gentle hand on my shoulder. Led by her, I went over to a bed where a patient was cocooned in a plethora of medical equipment. Ironically, it looked as though the plethora of tubes running around and through him were actually sucking the juice of life out of him. The scrawny, skeletal body screamed a song of pain, though his lips hardly moved. There was not enough fluid in him even to moist his eyes with misery. I was immobile, both in body and mind, even to think what he must be going through.

She looked me into the eye and guided my sight to a board that hung by the bed. The patient was on Chemo for over six months. And, now the light of life was exiting him, anytime. He was just 23.

I stood frozen in a cocktail of emotions.

All our life, we spend every neuron of our energies into controlling things around us. We seek constantly to embolden and fortify our lives with money, material comforts, power, position and accolades. We crave to bring newer vistas under our power, seeking them not only in planet Earth, but also in the Moon, Mars, and the universe beyond.

We have everything and have the power to possess anything that we set about to want. Yet, thins fleeting thing called life refuses to bow down in front of our colossal might. It enters and leaves our beautiful bodies at will, sometimes devastating this cage of bones and muscles in ways that no human eye ever wants to see. At least, never want to imagine affliction with one’s own body.

What use is that power which conquers the mighty oceans and mountains and vales, yet remains so vulnerable to a thing that eyes cannot see? What use is that power which conquers worlds beyond, yet is bereft of the power to understand the world within?

The Colonel’s wife gently touched my shoulder again. I turned and walked slowly towards the entrance door. As I stood there, she patted me gently, not needing words to communicate. Both of us remained quiet for some time.

As I turned to look at her, she said quietly, “Please pray. He will be gone any time now”.

I bowed my head and nodded as I left.

I pray every day, even though I know he is gone long back.

There are thousands of starfish on the beach. You may not rescue any of them. But when you pray, you do not know to which when you are making the difference.

PS: I have come to believe that there are angels on Earth, especially in Cancer Wards.

Christmas is the time for love

Christmas is in the air. In about a couple of hours choirs will fill the air with the name of God, the King of Kings and the Savior who came to help us show the way. Yes, Christ the King is born.

Christmas is the time for love, sacrifice, family and faith.

Christmas is also the time for us to look inside and find our own "Christ" in our hearts. It is a time to contemplate the shortfalls in our thinking, of the numerous ways in which we have taken others for granted or even exploited them, of the times when we have abdicated being our selves for mere material gains. It is a time to atone by redeeming our faith in the Lord and seeking His strength to be our selves.

When He taught from the Mount, He said:

• Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

• Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.

• Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.

• Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.

• Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.

• Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.

• Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.

• Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

• Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.

• Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

• Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.

• Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.

• Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.

• Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

Christ taught us to see the light of God in our hearts and therefore shine forth the light on to all of humanity. Today, in every corner of the world we have raging wars, famines and calamities that are consuming lives. Not all these man made calamities are based on ideologies or matters of principle; even those that are, are driven by market forces from behind the scenes channeling private profit into select pockets. Human lives have no value in such scheme of things for common people are considered expendable for profit. We see men of same religion fighting to destroy each other; we see women and children being ravaged and orphaned; we see 'human rights' being the victim of every such violence. The irony is six billion peoples merely watch while few hundred thousands run the puppet show that profits their private treasuries.

Can this chaos come to an end? Not entirely, perhaps. But if each of us believe that the cause of God is to uphold humanity, then things can change for those whose blood is filling the streets.

For once, let us pray and pray sincerely, giving wings to our soul so as to reach His ears:

Grant us Lord that we can change what we can, in howsoever minute the way it may be; 

Grant us that we are as loving of men of any faith, as we do of our own; 

Grant us that we can seek and relieve the pain of another so that You may hold my hand in my pain. 

Grant us the will to love and by your grace, Love unconditionally.

Amen.   

May her wish come true...

We were just walking down to the bus stop when my friend suddenly stopped in front of a gate.

"Hello, Jay", she said to some body. So I also turned around and looked at Jay. She was a girl of 14 or 15, dressed in a T shirt and skirts, her hands holding a bunch of hay about to be fed to a cow standing in her yard, already chewing her cud. Her hair was unruly, her forehead shone with sweat but.....the smile was brilliant. The other wise could-have-been-awkward birthmark across her forehead actually seemed to accentuate her wide grin. Her eyes lit up seeing my friend and she hurriedly pushed the hay into the opening mouth of the cow. Wiping her forehead with the back of her palm, she sprinted to the gate and unmindful of the cow's spittle on her hand shook my friends hands vigorously, her grin widening.

"Meet Jay", said my friend and it was my turn to be bestowed the vigorous handshake and infectious grin. Since I did not speak the local language, I queried her in English as to what did she do.

"I", said Jay, emphasizing it with a touch of her bosom, "I...student!!"

"Great", I told her, "and which class would you be in?"

"Class...oh, yes...I know..class..." then she simply counted nine on her fingers and held them up to me so that I had no doubts as to which class she was at school. The grin too was as wide as her two hands!!

All this while, my friend was looking at her indulgently. Turning to me, she asked: "Do you know what jay wants to be?". I blinked.

"Jay wants to be a wrestler!". Watching my eyes widen, Jay simply put both her hands half up, squatted in the classic wrestler's pose and then tapped both her thighs. I could not miss the sudden change of her expression into that of a wrestler in the ring, eyes focused on the opponent and breath coming in short spurts. Looking up to me, Jay managed her thoughts in English:

"Want to play for India....me good, you know....coach tell me...lot of practice..."

Some one else would have said in volumes what she told me in four short expressions. The grit and focus of a keen wrestler showed. I wished her all the best and blessed her by touching her head. As both of us left the gate for the bus stop, I was lost in thoughts. My friend asked me quietly,"you are thinking of the child's background and wonder how she would achieve her dream?"

I sighed in answer. Jay lived in a small house with parents both of whom were ordinary labour. They had one cow and two bulls, but no land. She went to the government school, because there is no fee. She ran errands for neighbours and earned pocket money to both help her parents as well as pay to her coach. Any other girl child in her place in India probably would have been 'given' in marriage at her age. Her parents, the simple labour folk, would not dream of doing so. They were content that their daughter was happy doing what she did. Knowing that sports coaching takes a lot of money and even sponsorship, all I could do was to sigh. Wish I had the money and contacts to sponsor that child. My friend only said, "Amen".

There are hundreds of children in this world who are capable of doing the impossible. They say, the path makes itself for those who tread with grit. Jay knows the path and I pray that the path makes itself so that she could travel to her destiny. So grant her God! Amen.