JUST A CORK FLOATING IN THE OCEAN

I am a massive fan of Cristiano Ronaldo. But, I feel, I am not a blind one in that. Only ‘stars’ – legends, icons, heroes – yes, only those who have made name, fame and achieved something significant in life deserve to be admired with loads of fanfare… I have my idols, and one of them, certainly, is Cristiano Ronaldo.

Along with phenomenal fame and success comes social responsibility to these idols. Mercifully, many of these idols quietly do their bit to the society at large and for the causes dear to their hearts, in particular. Cristiano Ronaldo’s charity work has been talked about a lot. Most of it revolves around the children affected by terminal diseases like cancer or those affected by wars, as in Syria. Today, a friend of mine sent me this video…

I am not sharing this video, here, because I am a huge fan of Cristiano. Even if I wasn’t his fan, I would have saluted him for doing this noble work. To be honest, Cristiano and legends and celebs like him owe it to the society… The money, fame and success they have made have all come from ‘there’…Therefore, ‘there’ it should belong!

And, what about us – the lesser legends?

We, too, owe it to the society from which we have heaped whatever we have. So, ‘there’ it, too, should belong!

Early in the morning, today, another friend of mine had shared this touching piece by our own Irrfan Khan…

“It’s been quite some time now since I have been diagnosed with a high-grade neuroendocrine cancer. This new name in my vocabulary, I got to know, was rare, and due to fewer study cases, and less information comparatively, the unpredictability of the treatment was more. I was part of a trial-and-error game.

I had been in a different game, I was travelling on a speedy train ride, had dreams, plans, aspirations, goals, was fully engaged in them. And suddenly someone taps on my shoulder and I turn to see. It’s the TC: “Your destination is about to come. Please get down.” I am confused: “No, no. My destination hasn’t come.” “No, this is it. This is how it is sometimes.”

The suddenness made me realize how you are just a cork floating in the ocean with UNPREDICTABLE currents! And you are desperately trying to control it.

In this chaos, shocked, afraid and in panic, while on one of the terrifying hospital visits, I blabber to my son, “The only thing I expect from ME is not to face this crisis in this present state. I desperately need my feet. Fear and panic should not overrule me and make me miserable.”

That was my INTENTION. AND THEN PAIN HIT. As if all this while, you were just getting to know pain, and now you know his nature and his intensity. Nothing was working; NO consolation, no motivation. The entire cosmos becomes one at that moment – just PAIN, and pain felt more enormous than GOD.

As I was entering the hospital, drained, exhausted, listless, I hardly realized my hospital was on the opposite side of Lord’s, the stadium. The Mecca of my childhood dream. Amidst the pain, I saw a poster of a smiling Vivian Richards. Nothing happened, as if that world didn’t ever belong to me.

This hospital also had a coma ward right above me. Once, while standing on the balcony of my hospital room, the peculiarity jolted me. Between the game of life and the game of death, there is just a road. On one side, a hospital, on the other, a stadium. As if one isn’t part of anything which might claim certainty – neither the hospital, nor the stadium. That hit me hard.

I was left with this immense effect of the enormous power and intelligence of the cosmos. The peculiarity of MY hospital’s location – it HIT me. The only thing certain was the uncertainty. All I could do was to realize my strength and play my game better.

This realization made me submit, surrender and trust, irrespective of the outcome, irrespective of where this takes me, eight months from now, or four months from now, or two years. The concerns took a back seat and started to fade and kind of went out of my mindspace.

For the first time, I felt what ‘freedom’ truly means. It felt like an accomplishment. As if I was tasting life for the first time, the magical side of it. My confidence in the intelligence of the cosmos became absolute. I feel as if it has entered every cell of mine.

Time will tell if it stays, but that is how I feel as of now.

Throughout my journey, people have been wishing me well, praying for me, from all over the world. People I know, people I don’t even know. They were praying from different places, different time zones, and I feel all their prayers become ONE. One big force, like a force of current, which got inside me through the end of my spine and has germinated through the crown of my head.

It’s germinating – sometimes a bud, a leaf, a twig, a shoot. I keep relishing and looking at it. Each flower, each twig, each leaf which has come from the cumulative prayers, each fills me with wonder, happiness and curiosity.

A realization that the cork doesn’t need to control the current. That you are being gently rocked in the cradle of nature.”

Not only Life is short and uncertain, all its ‘frills’, too, are. Everything is short-lived, and, therefore, everything should be valued and revered. Our mortality is the reminder… What we have achieved has just come from ‘there’… and, ‘there’ it should belong. And, the bolt of awareness that strikes us in the face of death is the ultimate awareness… As Irrfan Khan weaves out through his pain, that, we are just a cork floating in the ocean with unpredictable currents… That, the cork doesn’t need to control the current…. Because, we are being gently rocked in the cradle of nature.

A small prayer for Irrfan Khan… A ‘thank-you’ to Critiano Ronalod…

GERALD D’CUNHA

Pic.: Internet

Video: YouTube