"KAFAN KA KOI BRAND NAHI HOTA"



















“It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.”
-  Frederick Douglass
“All well?”… This is one of my favourite expressions. I use it every day when I meet people or when I talk or chat with people. I have rarely come across people with the response: “All is not well”!

Last evening, I met a man in the lift. I was the first to enter the lift… This man entered after me… We had some unresolved old issues… So, suddenly, the limited room inside that small lift turned tense… One could literally touch it! I pressed my floor button and then pressed his, too…

“Thank-you”, he said…

“All well?” yes, that came to me mechanically…

“Yes, all well,” came the reply!

By now, the lift had stopped on my floor… and, I walked out with a lukewarm, “Bye”.

As I walked into the same lift, last morning, the little space had sparkled-up with joy… Another man, with whom I had a very cordial rapport, was taking his two angels – boy must be about age 5 and the girl must be about 3 or four – to their school… “Wow!” I jumped with joy, “What a lovely smile darlings… You both made my day!”

And, I meant what I said… The two little kids were so charming, so giving in their smiles… that, they were purity personified… I expressed my joy before their father, with whom I had a cordial rapport, “You are blessed with amazing bundles of joy… May God bless them.”

“Thank you so much,” the man accepted my compliment… “All well, otherwise?”

“Yes, yes, all well,” this time, it was my turn to respond!

Often, I wonder, how we become so hardened… and why our so-called education  robs us of all our innocence and purity?  With the man I bumped into in the lift in the evening, an educated and grown up like me,  I had attempted to resolve issues from my end, several times before, and, then, given up… letting them simmer all along. Though I do not bear any grudges or ill-will towards this man, it seems, the time has simply not come… Adult egos are made of dumb stuff, you see.  It is tough to be childlike, all over again… yes, as tough as it is for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, as Jesus said…

“Life is too short,” is another favourite expression of mine… I keep saying that more to remind me of my own mortality and sins, my own ego and ignorance, than to remind others…

Early this morning, there was this video from Mavis, my cousin. “Good Morning, dattu,” she had wished me with this…




‘Dattu’ means elder brother in Konkani…  I wrote back to my sister:

“G. Mng Mavis… A very moving message… Packed in such amazing poetry. Thanks a lot and have a wonderful day.”

“God bless us all dattu,” was Mavis’ reply!


GERALD D’CUNHA

Pic.: Shripad Kulkarni
Video: YouTube/Vikas Jha 
Note: It's an amazing poem... Will mention poet's name once I find out.

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