THE BREEZE AT DAWN

 



“The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.

Don’t go back to sleep.”


– Rumi

 

Have the stories dried up?

Come on… They can never be.

There are a hundred stories unfolding before my eyes throughout my day… I want to tell them all in my daily posts. In fact, since I posted my last blog on June 15, so many wonderful things have happened in my life… So many things –- both wonderful and awful –- have happened in the outside world…

The football world-cup had some underdog heroes… I started writing stories about them; but, gave up…

The deadly earthquake in Venezuela deeply moved me… Tried writing something around it; then, gave up…

My first blog book (of the ten-book series) was released at a grand function on June 21… My well-wishers shared images, videos and heaped praises; but, I didn’t post a single image or a word…

It’s a mystery, quite frankly, as to what makes me write…

A dear old student of mine (62), called some days ago… She was shattered… words were not coming out… “Sir, I have left my house with my two children (boy 33 and girl 25)… We have checked into a rented house.”

Then, this wonderful woman spoke for more than 40 minutes narrating the ordeal she was going through all her married life… “Sir, I don’t know what lies ahead for me and my children.”

What would an ordinary human like me could do to help this troubled soul… except lending a genuine, empathetic ear?

I don’t think, my dear old student was expecting anything else from me, that late evening…

Then, there was this young married woman. She had signed up for our recent summer programme (2 months) paying the full fees. But, the summer went and the monsoon came… The woman, despite my gentle reminders and nudging, did not attend a single session. She had problems in her married life, too… She had told me. She desperately wanted to be here in our sessions to regain her confidence… Two days ago, she wrote to me:

“Sir, I am extremely sorry; I could not attend a single session. But, Life is teaching me the other way… I don’t know what lies ahead for me; but, someday, I will surely come to meet you. Till that time, I am surviving through your blogs… I read whatever you share, and that’s my learning…  It motivates me. Right now, commitments are different and priorities are at peak. I hope you understand, Sir.”

Well, I understand, Ma’am…

There is hardly anything you and I can do to each other in our troubled times… except wishing and praying sincerely…

Like this little soul I sighted when the lift door opened on my floor, this morning. He was in his school uniform, holding a big folded umbrella in his hand and a heavy school bag on his back… “Good morning, Sir,” I said playfully.

The kid was surprised on hearing an ‘old man’ greeting him with ‘Good morning, Sir.”

So, puzzled, he looked at his smiling grandpa who was there to see him off…

“You’re in which standard?”

“First.”

“Going by the school bus?”

“Yes.”

When we got off the lift, I patted little one’s back and said, “Bye beta.”

We parted ways…

It has been raining incessantly since yesterday… People were sharing the disturbing images of a massive peepal tree which had fallen on a school bus carrying 13 little kids… One kid was crushed to death and many others were hospitalized with serious injuries…






I don’t know, what lies ahead for me, too… I am anxious, too… But, I trust, and leave home…

You see, that’s the only way to leave home… That’s the only reason why we need to greet genuinely to others -– anyone and everyone –- “Good morning.”

If it’s a little kid, “Good morning, Sir.”





“Gerry, how long are we to wait your blog to return?” An overseas (US) fan of mine (82) had nudged me, late last night.

“Ma’am, you may have to wait till the sun comes out here, tomorrow.”

The sun has come out… Rumi’s gentle words play around my heart:


“The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.

Don’t go back to sleep.”

 

GERALD D’CUNHA


Pic's: 1. Pixabay/Alfons Schuler  2. NDTV/India Today

Video: Farhan Akhtar/Onkar Suryawanshi

 

 

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