“The
Red light – A symbol of danger” thought Neil looking at the red light above the
door of the operation theatre. Sitting right in front on a steel chair, he
looked normal with no expressions of fear or anticipation on his face. He sat
straight holding a bag of medical reports in one hand and a water mug in the
other. He looked calm and composed, only distracted by an ant crossing the
corridor. There was a group of people passing through the corridor and he was
following the ant’s movement, staring at it with eyes wide open wanting the ant
to cross the corridor safely. Sensing the movement of people approaching, the
ant started to move faster in a bid to cross the corridor. With its tiny legs,
the ant was crawling on the floor and speeding up to beat the hefty and giant
feet of human beings. Unaware of the tiny, helpless creature crawling across the
corridor, the group went past it, involved in their own discussions. Unable to see
the ant across so many legs and waiting for the group to pass by, he could finally
see the ant lying on the floor, lacking any movement. His posture erected and his face showing
signs of sympathy, he waited for the ant to move but could not see any
movement. He thought to himself – Was that it for the tiny creature? Was she
gone without anyone around to look after her? Did her life mean nothing to
anyone – her fellow creatures and human beings? While, he was feeling pity for
her, she made a slight movement and tried hard to crawl to the other end of the
corridor. Getting up from his seat at once, he held her on a piece of paper and
dropped her safely on a nearby plant where she could rest and recover.
Walking
to the nearby window, Neil felt a strange heaviness in his heart – a feeling of
helplessness. Looking into the infinite of the sky, he realized that the
thought of this feeble tiny creature was only a pointer to a bigger view of
this world in his mind. He had seen the long queue of patients sitting on the
floor outside the hospital, waiting in physical pain and mental agony for their
turn. On the way back from office one day, he had seen an old family taking
refuge under the flyover with an infant lying in a hammock made out of her
mother’s dupatta tied between the trees. One of the other kids wearing just underwear
and holding a worn out steel container, was begging for money. Among the so
many moving vehicles, he had seen smile on this kid’s face; a smile that seemed
like a drop of water in a desert.
Thinking
of the “survivors”, he had thought that the only absolute that kept them moving
was their WILL to MOVE. Their movement
defines progress and that is what the essence of life is.
Lost
in his thoughts, he heard the sound of a baby crying in the nearby operation
theatre. He approached the door waiting for it to open, when a nurse came out
and said, “Congratulations Sir, You have just become father to a baby girl.”
With tears of happiness rolling down his cheeks, he saw his baby moving her
legs and hands in the air.
He
held her baby in his hands, and keeping his hand on her head, he said – “Keep
moving baby, Just keep moving”…
No comments:
Post a Comment