HEY, IT IS BRAVE WHEN YOU KNOW YOU ARE AFRAID

Pic.: Malabika Ganguly

I had shared a very beautiful, and inspiring, video yesterday. A baby-bear, who is safe in his playful world, is, suddenly, terrified and on the run… A big lioness is after him… The little-bear tries every possible way to escape from the clutches of the big-cat… and, finally, is cornered… There is no escape route now; the cruel claws come on the hapless baby-bear… and, lo! Something dramatic – unbelievable – happens: the lioness panics, all of a sudden… turns back, leaves the baby-bear alone… and goes his way…

The mighty parent (dad or mom) has come to save the baby… “Dare you touch my baby,” the warning has been given, loaded with all the fire in the belly… The big-cat is scared to go any further, now…

A relieved baby-bear runs towards the parent, and the parent comforts and heals the blood-soaked face of the little-one by licking and nursing!

It was past midnight. I had settled down to write something after, almost, a week… and, as I had confessed in my introduction, that, incidentally, I wanted to write something to ‘beat my own fear’.

Today, a young-one told me that as much as she loved the video, she loved my confession, too: ‘”I wanted to write something to beat my own fear!”

I smiled…

“Look dear, I write every day not to change the world… but to change my own self,” I told her, “When  we see in others our own fears, we feel a lot reassured about life.”

Many a times, I had used the famous quote on courage in my class. The girl remembered it, now:

“Courage is not absence of fear;

It is doing a seemingly impossible thing

despite fear…

with a quaking heart.”

Every time I tell someone that I am as afraid, as mortal, as he or she is, it not only empowers me, it empowers him or her, too…

And I know how lonely and isolating it is whenever I try to play God…

“So true sir! Only if we concentrate on doing our best everything else falls in place,” Savita, a friend of mine, had commented on the same Post. She had added, “Fear is because we feel disconnected from the almighty God and the same disconnect doesn't allow us to do our best. So, fear becomes more powerful.”

I couldn't agree more…

Another soul was telling me, “Hey, it is brave when you know you are afraid!”

GERALD D’CUNHA