THE SUN ALWAYS SHINES AGAIN

 




“History will judge us by the difference we make

in the everyday lives of the children.”

Nelson Mandela

 

I was up by 4, this morning. I hadn’t blogged for a few days. The ongoing war – even though it wasn’t happening in our country – had cast a gloom over my mind, too. My last blog was about the war, which I had posted just as the war had broken out...

Now, even after a week, the war is only escalating... “An eye for an eye only makes the whole world blind.” Well, we don’t need a Gandhi to make us see how blind the whole world has become...





Some days ago, I had visited the residence of a very elderly person (85). He and his elderly wife (80) lived all alone. When I walked into their house, what surprised me was this: the TV was on, full blast... the relentless images of war, the anchors screaming hysterically against the frightening sounds of the sirens... Yes, this elderly couple was glued to this endless poison dished out by these TV channels without realizing, how cunningly they (TV channels) had turned the viewers into gullible. Even after I visited them, the super seniors were reluctant to shut the TV off... The war had already entered the elderly minds... I felt sorry for them...

Even if I do not wish to let the poison walk into my mind, the poison awaits right there as I switch on my phone and laptop. TV is kept off in our house, you see. The phone and the laptop seem even deadly toxic sources...

But, at the end of the day, who makes the choices, and whose life is it, anyway?

Hence, at 4 in the morning today, when I decided to write something, I chose to watch not the war news, but, the songs of little children... I watched them one after another, just as I would have watched the war news, one after another...

“Sir, this kind of news is not good for our mind,” I had gently told the elderly gentleman, “watch some good music videos.”

“Send me some, I would love to,” the response seemed quite sincere.

The same day, I sent a couple of YouTube videos of some wonderful songs to the elderly couple and hoped them (beautiful songs) to substitute the toxic bombardment...

Muhammad Ali once said: “Children make you want to start life over.”

Ali was old and very sick when he said this. He had fought many a bout... won many, lost many. But, the presence of children was now making him want to start life all over...





War is the death knell...  Presence of children in our lives is a new lease of life...

 

GERALD D’CUNHA

 

Pic’s: 1. www.pixels.com   2. CNN World

Video: Abby & Annalie

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