I AM BLESSED...

“How are you?”

Let me tell you very honestly. I had asked this man, casually, as I generally do.

“I am blessed,” was this man’s response.

And, it hit me like a bolt, suddenly!

I looked at him… into his eyes, particularly. Why did he say that? Was he saying that mechanically, the way I did?

“I am blessed!” Wow, what a way of telling the world, “I am fine”!

I knew this man. Last year, he went through a hell lot of problems… He lost his young wife to cancer, and then, he lost a huge amount of money in business. After that, we lost contact.

Last afternoon, when I met him, I never expected him to respond the way he did. There was loss, there was pain… and it wasn’t so easy to recover… It wasn’t easy to put oneself back on track, so fast… So, if someone had asked me in such a state “How are you?” would I have responded the way this man did? I wondered.

It wouldn’t have been that easy for me!

“I liked the way you said, ‘I am blessed!’ ” I told him feeling very happy on what I had heard.

“I am blessed; I am,” he said quickly, “Without His grace, without His Blessings, nothing is possible sir; nothing.”

“Oh! Yes, sir, I fully agree,” I told him. This time, I wasn’t telling him that mechanically.

Some say, “Halleluiah”

and some say “Praise the Lord”.

Some say, “Vayu Guru Ki Kripa,”

and some say, “Insha Allah”

or “Ishwar ki Kripa”.

I myself say , very often:

“By the grace of God,”…

Yes, I have heard... I have said.

But, last afternoon, I felt it, like a fresh breath of life…

“How are you?”

“I am Blessed”!

GERALD D’CUNHA

THANKS:

The brilliant images used in this Post are by Ashok Ahuja. He is a professional Photographer and a very dear friend of mine. He is also one of the founder members of The Dawn Club, and, along with his gifted-artist wife, Sudha, has been helping me, and the Club, right from its inception.