Wednesday, August 24, 2011

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.

20 comments:

  1. Lovely read!!:)
    BTW Same pinch: I was also born on a "stuck-in-the-middle" day :D

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  2. That was a great read, especialy about the talented girl. Its people like her who remind us to appreciate the things we got.

    You know how to make us keep on reading!

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  4. Once when I was getting my haircut, the very chatty barber,probably aged sixteen or seventeen, kept telling me that he would be an engineer some day. After school, he snips hair till 7 in the evening at the shop, and then goes to work at a construction site till midnight.... all this to fund his school fees, because his parents cannot afford his education. These people, like the musical prodigy you mentioned, are the real heroes, fighting with everything they've got... while we keep cribbing about our seemingly inconsequential lives :) :)
    Great post, Ma'am, I follow thee :)

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  5. first time on your blog and such an eye opener well written post! Thanks for sharing the experience and such a graceful man....god bless him..and the family!

    Hope you are feeling better too now...we so get carried away with our lil thoughts & issues...before reading your blog I was troubled about how I do not have a good Twitter DP! SAD! :|

    Cheers...

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  6. The saving grace of Wednesdays: Ladies' Night! And this is why, Thursday mornings are nightmares.

    And thanks for the perspective, Mr. Taximan. And to think, I was upset because no one "liked" a joke I put up on Facebook the other day...:|

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  7. Sometimes the best gyan comes from unexpected sources and zaps us back to life. these are our real-life-heroes. Loved your explanation for disliking Wednesdays.

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  8. @Nirvana:It was a real eye opener for me.
    @Red:We all are so busy whining that we don't have time to count the blessing.Good to know you enjoy it.
    @Sushmit : Your barber and my taxi uncle are very determined to make the best of what they have.Well,it's nice to meet people who remind us how privileged we are.

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  9. @Chintan: Tell me about ,It's like the poem I read once.
    "I had those blues that I had no shoes
    Until upon the street I met a man with no feet"
    @Nirvana:Thank you dear
    @Zephyr: So true.I prefer wednesdays to be the holidays.4 days of work split into 2 parts..

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  10. I find Wednesday as a poor Indian middle class man.. who is under the load of hell lot of expectations from parents..(Monday and Tuesday)... hell lot of responsibilities from spouse and child(thursday and friday).. and hell lot of demands to perform from social contacts(saturday and sunday)...btw.. even i was born on wednesday.. interesting post!! keep writing and keep posting!! :)

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  11. What serenity in the face of adversity.
    That guy is really amazing.
    I like your blog, followed :)

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  12. @Rindo:Ladies Night grace marks to wednesday,though wednesday doesn't deserve it.
    @Himanshu:Hahhaa.Liked your definition..
    @Cricketfreak:I was trying hard not to cry and embarass both of us.He is a true hero.

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  13. This is such an astounding post. The story of the cab driver is not only emotive, but also thought stirring. Perhaps we can never imagine what the cabbie and his wife must be going through! Someone has rightly said that there is ability in disability. We just need the eyes to see it. Also, your post reminds me of the gratitude that each day we need to show to the god who gifted us with a beautiful life.
    Lovely post! I am following your blog. You may like to follow mine.
    By the way, your name blue lotus is beautiful and imaginative. I am sharing one of my posts that I wrote on the flower lotus. You may like to read it.
    Thanks
    Barkha Dhar
    http://dharbarkha.blogspot.com/2011/01/be-lotus-in-life-hindustan-times.html

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  14. And doesn't it make you whether it was a chance meeting or preordained?

    Life and it's lessons never cease to surprise.

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  15. True! We, by nature are always complaining and unsatisfied. May be thats the core design of the human mind.
    Just love this post and I'm sure it will be an eye-opener for many disgruntled people like me.
    Many a times its very late when we realize that our life is much better & special in its own way.

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  16. its such a wonderful post...depicting true facts of life with a true example.....
    I should follow you....rather I should say...I follow you....

    http://ideas-forum.blogspot.com

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  17. really nice dearrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

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  18. @barkha:We are all so blessed and we don't realize it.
    @Purba:Tell me about it.It felt like a tight slap. :-)
    @LeoPaw:We never count our blessings till we meet peoplw like uncle sebastian.

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  19. @Soumyadeep::-) welcome to my world
    @Sonal:Thanks dear...

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