30 days of homecoming!
Boredom started taking a toll on an otherwise boring self. Here, where I was defying impatience by saying to myself " This is a much needed break, such a chance won't come my way again", someone else taught me the real virtue of patience today.
9.04.2013.
Meet Mrs Arati Bajla: An effervescent lady in her mid 30's. The most voracious reader I have come across, a repository of interesting tales about the quaint little town, a fashion enthusiast, a keen lover of arts and crafts, a traveler and a truly a lady of substance.
Meet Tushar Bajla: A young lad, unfortunately suffering from acute Cerebral Palsy but possessing the ability to charm any lady around with his banters, his innocent ways and with his positive outlook towards life!
Kabir Bajla: A young 6 year old miscreant,adopted by the family, who wonders why is he the odd one out with a darker complexion! To which his mother replies: " Lord Krishna was born with a similar complexion and you my child, are the Krishna of our family" . Words which will make sense someday, for now he perhaps buys this as a genuine conclusion.
Not knowing, what the experience would be like, I set foot into Greenwoods, the residence of the Bajla family alongwith my sister, who was keen on me meeting them . Having been led straight into their garden, I met Tushar, painting on a canvas and his mother engrossed in reading a book. "Hi Tushar", I said. He didn't seem to respond. When my sister said the same, he cheerfully looked at her and broke into a smile. Having finished with his painting, he asked his mother to clean the canvas, so that he could start anew. She ensured that he cleaned the painting on his own. After coaxing him hard, she finally managed to get him into doing so.
Kabir had been using dark colours to bring to life figments of his imagination. It was 3 days back, that he told his mother " I cannot see completely. I can only see faint,dark outlines." His mom was shattered and devastated, as this is the first time in years he told her he couldn't see. The doctors told her, that apparently the nerve connecting his eyes to his brain was dead and he had not been able to see anything at all, throughout the years! He according to them had been imagining figures, a claim that perhaps cannot be substantiated. Imagine the plight of his mother, who through home tutored classes, promoted him to class 8, oblivious of the fact that he had not been able to see anything at all, only the verbal lessons had so far made sense to him.
Coming terms with reality, she has now discontinued his schooling, but is now looking for novel ways to teach her son, what a normal class 8 scholar should be knowing. Tushar is yet to be told this, till then he is enjoying whiling time in the company of his pillar of strength, his doting mother. He has never seen television, but loves listening to music! His younger brother has joined violin classes and perhaps, this supposed fire cracker of the house, will someday turn the sound of melancholy into symphonies of cheerfulness.
While leaving, he did not say me goodbye! But, he said some of the most inspiring unspoken words!
The patience with which he cleaned the canvas, the child-like way in which he finished off his melted ice cream and the whimsical way in which he answered his mother, has surely left an indelible mark in my heart!
I have no sympathies for him, as he is way above needing any! I only have utter respect for his being and the way his family has made him lead the most amazing life, he could have ever imagined.
I have some inner guilt for most of us seem to be living in a make believe world, where impatience is the call of the day!
Inadequacy of oxygen, at the time of his birth, is perhaps the reason for his plight, but he is the one who is breathing life into this family.
I have not been able to put across exactly what I experienced today, and this definitely is one such instance where words have failed to be by my side!
Life sure is beautiful is you deem to see it that way!.
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| Tushar and his shades of optimism |
