WHY IS THE SKY PINK?
During our last three summer programmes on Personality Development, I had shown to our young ones the talks by Aisha Chaudhary. Among dozens of so-called motivational videos, Aisha's, always, stood apart. She was a teenager... barely 15-year-old when she started speaking from public platforms... Standing sometimes , sitting sometimes. But, alert and awake, always.
Who is Aisha Chaudhary?
Through her talks, I and our young students had gathered some details about this young girl... How she was born with a rare immune deficiency disorder - for which at the age of six months, she had to undergo bone-marrow transplant in a London hospital... and, how, when when she was a 13-year-old, the side-effects of chemotherapy came in Aisha's life in the form of an acute lung-disease called - Pulmonary Fibrosis...
Well, all these details, and how passionate Aisha was about life - her fondness for dogs, passion for sketches and paintings, love for music and scuba diving etc... But, none of us knew about the human drama behind the scene... Her parents - Niren and Aditi Chaudhary - and her brother Ishan had to be the pivotal characters in this drama. It's not easy for parents when they have to invest so much emotionally and financially in a situation like this... where it's all bleak ahead... where it's impossible to predict what comes next...
This drama is shown very movingly in the latest Hindi movie - 'The Sky is Pink'.
Aisha, undoubtedly, is the reason why her parents' and brother's stories assume significance. It's not easy to deal with the inner guilt for parents... It's not easy to deal with the fear, anxiety and anger. That's why, when a mother goes overboard to give her dying teenager 'everything' before the latter goes - yes, it can give the mother a severe nervous breakdown. To see this happening to Aisha's mother, in the middle of one such night, was heart-breaking!
Then, when after investing so much of their emotions in their child, when Aisha is gone, at 18... how would the father, with a stupendously prosperous career ahead in London, and a mother, steeped deep down into the abyss of her daughter's death - yes, how would they face the reality now?
Two people do not react to death and the loss in the same way...
But then, one has to grieve... one has to feel the fear totally, you see!
Probably, young Aisha had woken up to this truth much before her parents had... and much before we all had. It was evident from Aisha's words inscribed on her grave:
"I am fearless when it comes to being fearful."
Why is the sky pink, but?
I suggest you watch this movie. Even before that, I urge you to watch these two videos of the real-life Aisha...
GERALD D'CUNHA
Pic.: www.bizasialive.com
Videos: 1.INKtalks 2. TEDx Talks
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