CLOUDS COME TO ADD COLOUR TO OUR SUNSET SKY















Pic.: Shreeshay Patel


“If you want to see the sunshine,
you have to weather the storm.”
- Frank Lane

I had invited a dear friend of mine for our Sunday’s Dawn Club function. My friend is blessed with a wonderful family and he had been doing extremely well in his profession, too. So, to the world, it would appear as if there was nothing to complain about in my friend’s life… He only  had  things to be grateful for…

And, that’s how my case, too, may appear to the world… I have a wonderful family… I am doing well in my profession… So, what else is there to complain about in my life?

Let me correct myself… Not ‘to complain about’… But, ‘seek help’. Yes, help to sail through many silent storms in my life…

Are there storms?

Yes, plenty in our lives…


I think, in everyone’s life, there are these storms… And everyone gets weighed down, anxious… Everyone needs a helping hand… everyone needs God’s grace… We only do not talk about them in public!

So, on Sunday night, my friend sent me a message: “Sorry sir, I couldn’t attend the function. Had walked from Vashi to Siddhivinayak yesterday. Legs were paining.”

I smiled. “What was the need my friend?” No, I did not ask that… There ‘was’ a need, I knew… and, that need was all known to my friend alone… and, yes, to Lord Ganesh!

The next day was Monday. There was this compelling urge in my heart to close everything and visit Mount Mary shrine at Bandra. I just surrendered to that call… Shut my things down at 5 in the evening and headed towards Mount Mary…

It was a bright and breezy evening… I sat inside the church, all alone, for an hour… Around me there were so many… They belonged to different faiths. They just sat quietly there… some with their heads bowed, some kneeling down, some holding candles in their hands… and some, like me, tears rolling down their cheeks!

Did I go to Mother Mary to seek her help or to thank her?

To do both… I had so much to thank her for and I wanted her help to sail through so many of my silent storms…

“Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm,” said Rabindranath Tagore, “ but to add color to my sunset sky.”

GERALD D’CUNHA

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