HOW DO YOU DO IT?

“How do you do it?”

I hear someone or the other asking this question everywhere, every time… I hear me asking this constantly…

“How do you do it?” Means, I am awe-struck… I am wonder-struck. You are too good at it, too brilliant… too amazing. And, above all, you leave me inspired!

I find myself asking this question endlessly… when I watch little kids, young ones or ladies sing, dance or act on stage during the ongoing Ganeshotsav… when someone hosts the programme with charm… when I watch a young one and even a little one so good at handling the computer or smart-phone… when I see someone so good at keeping the house or workplace so tidy and clutter-less… when someone like my 80-plus mom remember birthdays and anniversaries of all her sons, daughters-in-law and grandchildren … when I see someone like my friend, Austin, coming out with lovely caricatures each morning… when someone can do the same with a story, poem, essay, or a video… when someone like my friend, Meenu, can serve even a stranger with such sumptuous meals literally with ‘nothing’… when someone can offer warmth to endless guests in his all-in-one-room humble-home… when someone can amaze me with grace, dressed in the simplest of clothes… when someone can be so patient, so tolerant, so determined, so focused and committed, so quick in forgiving, so good in mending, mentoring, grooming… so generous and honest in appreciating, encouraging, knowledge-sharing and even earnest in learning…

“How do you do it?” I find myself asking this question while taking my morning walk, all alone at 5… I look at the silent sky which speaks straight into my heart… through the chirping birds who have just woken up in their tree-houses… through young boys who have come so early to quietly wash those cars… through the night watchmen who have guarded us when we had a good-night’s sleep…

I look at the lonely crescent moon, million little stars and waking sky and ask – “How do you do it?” Yes, standing here down, I feel so small before such colossal vastness… So small, so overpowered, that I find myself asking this question right in the midst of even a deadly deluge, storm, earthquake, or a building crash!

Nothing escapes… Nothing leaves without ‘touching’ my soul… without making me feel ‘small’… without sending me on my knees!

“How do you do it?” Such spotless smiles and such clean laughters of babies… Such glorious wrinkles on the faces and hands of our elderly…

“How do you do it?” I find myself asking as I dream… as I love… as I live!

GERALD D’CUNHA

Pic.: Suyog Surte