The Wake Up Call

Given my complete dislike of Wednesdays *, I make very exotic excuses about catching five minutes of extra sleep. The best part is I never remember these amazing things I make up in my half conscious state. My poor husband bears the brunt of hearing these blatantly nonsensical statements early in the morning.

But today morning I woke up with a bad case of migraine. I felt someone had opened my skull, removed my brain, filled it with pebbles and was using a ladle to stir the pebbles in the cavity. I had a tap dancer on my eyebrows as well. On the whole a very unpleasant experience, I should say.

After loads of Vicks, warm water and tea, I managed to drag myself out of the bed. Migraine and Wednesday is an amazing combination for me. (I turn sulky and move around like a disgruntled polar bear.) Anyways I hail a cab, after complaining to my mom that I’m sick and the whole world seems to be unperturbed about it. Thank fully she was accommodating and did not point out that “Kazhuthe(donkey),You are not the epicenter of the world.And rest of the world has better stuff to do in the mornings than worry about a whining you.”

          The cab driver was a very friendly man. He told me that Indian women are very beautiful and that they look like princesses when they smile. Needless to say I was flattered and told him,” Today is not a good day. Loads of work to do and I have a migraine”

He said,” Even my daughter has it. Poor thing.” And as an afterthought he asked me,” How old are you?” I told him my age.(Aiyya,you thought I’ll tell you my age just like that? :P)

“Oh, my daughter is 30.You are younger than her.” He said smiling.

I’m bowled, the man driving the car doesn’t look a day older than 40 and he is telling me he has a 30 year old daughter.

“But you look very young” I blurted.

He laughed,” My daughter is doing her final year Bachelors of Music. She is blind by birth. She doesn’t know how I or her mother looks like.” I am shocked for the second time. He passed me a magazine with an article about his daughter.

Rebecca Koh, 30 years of age, is blind from birth. When she was about six her father (my cab uncle) finds out that his daughter is exceptionally talented in music. He sold his musical organ to fund her music studies. She has never seen our world and cannot comprehend the concept of colors. But she has a brilliant memory and can play piano and guitar. When nature took away her vision, it opened another door. It opened the door to a gift which is God given and can never ever be acquired or taught .Music. I can teach you a song; I cannot teach you how to sing.

 

The cab driver told me his wife is suffering from depression and he has a full time maid to look after his wife and daughter when he is working. To fund her studies and other expenses, he drives for 16 hours a day.

He told me,” We cannot have everything in the world. It is foolish to want that. God never intended us to have everything anyways. So let’s live with whatever we have and not worry and fret about what we don’t have.”

I was in awe. I really respect him for the serenity with which he accepted his life. His complete dedication to his family and his belief in the existence of a supreme being in spite of the hardships he has to face every day.

It was a wake up call for me. I was whining over my work load, insensitive organization and Wednesdays. It was as if God wanted to tell me,” Lady, you better wake up and start counting your blessings. Stop whining and fucking get back to the wonderful life I have given you.”

So today is a different Wednesday. I smiled at people through my migraine waves. And this “smile” is for you.

* Wednesdays are the longest days of a working week.It takes away the memories of the weekend past and is far far from the weekend future.It is a "stuck-in-the-middle" day.

Trivia: I was born on a Wednesday.