WHEN ONE DOOR SLAMS...

In the Sanjay Bansali movie, ‘Black’, there is this scene. Michelle (Rani Mukerjee), the blind, deaf and dumb student of Debhraj Sahai (Amitabh Bachchan) has just shown some arrogance and disrespect. She has thrown away her books and is stubbornly refusing to repent. Her eccentric teacher doesn’t wait even for a second to beat her blue. She is dragged to the typewriter, and there she is, rage personified. Then, she starts typing the brail… Till then, Michelle couldn’t go beyond even twenty words per minute. Now, angry, mad, hell-bent, she goes about hammering the keyboard and when the watch stops, the teacher is astonished. “Fifty words per minute,” he exclaims as his student has vented out all her anger and sorrow on the keys of her typewriter. She is calmed down; she is ready to listen, repent for her actions. The teacher holds his student and begins to go out, telling her beholding mother, “It is time for celebration; time for an ice cream.” The mother asks with a pleasant confusion, “Ice cream?”

“Yes ma’am, ice cream,” mumbles Debhraj as he fondly escorts his student out, “Life is an ice cream… Enjoy it before it melts.”

Many years ago, when my own students, with full of stars in their eyes, used to come to me with their autograph books on their last day, I would struggle for some nice, catchy lines. One of the lines that I would invariably find there, already, would be this one.


“Life is an ice cream; enjoy it before it melts.”

Did I hear that?

Michelle can not see. But, even before it is going to snow, she is able to sense it… and, when it does, she would rise like a little child and would break into a dance. She cannot see, hear or speak. But, when the singer sings, she can touch the singer’s lips and understand the meaning of those lyrics, feel it and move her self to dance.

This movie is inspired by the life of Helen Keller, who, soon after her birth, had turned blind, deaf and dumb. It was this remarkable lady, that gave hope to millions of less fortunate souls like Michelle. Long before I watched the movie, ‘Black’, I had read a lot on the inspiring life of Helen Keller. During these years, I had come across the famous lines of Mrs. Keller:

“When one door slams, another opens;

But, the sound of the slammed door is so loud,

That, we fail to notice the door that gently opens.”

Life has been always like that. One door slams, and another opens. Never without this rule; never.

Sweaty, my student was only seven. Her younger sister was five and the elder one was fourteen. One rainy day, when the three girls and their mother had been out of station, their father, a simple shop owner, was all alone at his godown. In a freak accident, the entire load of stacked goods came down crushing the man underneath. No body came to know about this and he lay there, dead in the pool of blood, for two days. Life was smooth for the family, until then. Now, the door slammed on them, brutally. What would they do? They were not prepared for this shock. The mother had never been to the shop before and, did not keep well too. The oldest girl in the house was only fourteen. A few weeks went by, and the frail lady decided to take charge. The shop was situated in a male dominated market. But, the lady treaded there picking up the tricks of the trade soon there after. The forteen-years-old girl started helping her mother by sitting in the shop for a few hours when her mother went home for rest. Gradually the hours prolonged… The girl spent more and more time in the shop, completing her graduation along… and enabling her two sisters to complete as well.

Every time I meet this gritty girl, I come out a little more charged, a little more hopeful about life. She has done her graduation in BMS. “I want to be a successful business woman,” she declares. “Soon, I am going to do my MBA, and I have plans to set up a chain of retail stores,” she beams.


The new doors do open… That’s the unwritten rule of Life.


The other day, I had a very tough time dealing with a rough and volatile man. He was simply unpredictable, emotionally volatile and suffered from a deep complex. The interaction was quite an unnerving experience for me. I was frustrated, even scared. But, when I took it as a challenge for my own personal growth, for my own learning and toughening, the entire perspective changed. I softened my approach to this man, held his hand and said sincerely, “I am really sorry, if I have heart you,” and the bully melted… yes, like an ice cream!

Whoever said it, he said it right: “Life is an ice cream; enjoy it before it melts.”



GERALD D’CUNHA