The Voices... !

“You’re unusually silent, today. What’s up ?

“ How come you appear suddenly from nowhere ? I haven’t seen you for a long time, now !”

“That doesn’t mean I don’t exist, does it ? And that’s not the answer to my question anyway.”

“How have you been ?”

“ Pretty bad, because you’ve been ignoring me all these days. Leave it, answer me now. Why so silent ?”

“ Just some thoughts about life.”

“ Oh ! the usual. What’s the trigger this time ?”

“ Just the monotony of mundane existence troubling me. Nothing’s exciting anymore. It’s kind of depressing. ”

“ That’s a serious thing to say. Have you opened the chamber yet?”

“ The chamber ? Which one ?”

“The one in your heart. The home to your true self. That which knows the very pulse of your existence. The sacred receptacle of all that is you.”

“ Well, I haven’t. I have begun to doubt its existence these days. I think it has died down. ”

“ It doesn’t die so soon. You know it is very well there, full and brimming. It’s just that you are smartly ignorant of that.”

“ Perhaps I am . Do you think I should open the chamber ?”

“ Yes, it is the sanctum sanctorum of your heart. Opening the chamber and acknowledging the contents of the same will rejuvenate you. Rebuild your self esteem. I feel it’s high time you did that.”

“ But I don’t have the key any more. I guess I’ll have to let it be, then. And go on.”

“ Of course not. You can never lose the key. It’s very much within you. It’s not something that gets washed away in a deluge.”

“ I feel so incapacitated to do that. Fear of being compared and  judged grips my being , senses elude my thoughts, my soul turns devoid of happiness and….”

“ The arrival of the proverbial devil ! Chase him out. Locate the bright light in your heart . That will show the way.”



Image Credit : Morguefile



“ But…the key….”

“There you go again ! Didn’t I tell you, it’s within you ?  You’ll never lose it. Just take a break from routine, relax, sit back and introspect. You’ll find the key. I’m sure it’s still there.”

“ But what if I’m not happy after opening it ? What if it disappoints me ?”

“ Never. Opening it will liberate you in ways beyond your imagination. You will learn what makes you happy, what your heart actually yearns for, what should be forgotten, who must be forgiven, why should there be an internal cleansing. And much much more. You will learn to speak out .”

“ Sure ? I’m still apprehensive.”

“ It’s just the truth of life that you need to love yourself. That happens when you dust out and open the internal chamber of your feelings and peer inside.  A lot of healing happens that way.  Needless thoughts get wiped off. Positivism reigns. The dirty cobwebs are swept away.”

“ So you mean to say I’ll be a better person at the end of the whole exercise ? ”

“ An exercise, it definitely is. And you’ll indeed be a better person. Your depression will be history.”

“ Where do I get the key though ?”

“ Oh ! It’s inside you, dear. Faith. Prayer. Confidence. Courage. Determination. The keys to life! ”

“I’m amazed ! That’s so much of a treasure! Thanks for showing me all this. How do you know so much about me?”

“ Because, I’m inside you . I am you. You’re me . And we are the voices of your soul !”

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Linking this to Write Tribe's Wednesday Prompt ( A Picture prompt, this time).

Lucky !

This post is being linked to the 100 Words on Saturday 2014 - 7 Prompt at Write Tribe

The prompt for this week is s/he's the lucky one.
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"I’ve chosen him, Father", Rebecca stood near the fourth cradle in the row.

" Little John? Are you sure ? I hope you know his problems", Fr.Patrick said as he caught Rebecca’s

  eyes.

 " Yes. I’m absolutely sure, Father", she was firm .

 " God bless your kindness! Please come down tomorrow for the formalities", Fr.Patrick spoke in a 

   relieved voice.

   Rebecca thanked him and walked out of the adoption centre.

   Fr.Patrick looked at little John, the autistic child ,who slept on, unaware that he had found a new 

   home and family.

   "He’s the lucky one", he thought, "to have her for a mother."

A Wish , Not Lost ( 55 on Friday 2014 - 2 )

So, here we are, with the 55 on Friday Prompt 2 on Write Tribe.

This time, the prompt is " how I wished"....

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The most beautiful bride I had ever seen, looked at me, unaware of my virtual presence.

Her eyes were smiling, though sad.

How I wished to be there !!

But, a soldier’s life !

Thanks to technology, I could witness , with moist eyes, my daughter’s wedding on my mobile through live streaming.

God bless the lovely couple !!

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No longer invincible, Mr C !

*Warning - This is a long post*

She was so beautiful, so young, had so much of life in her spirits, dreamt of a wonderful future, yet…

Yet destiny decided to play on her the cruel trick, shrouding her dreams of life with an impermeable veil of  devastating darkness.

She was just 12 or 13 when she was diagnosed with Cancer.

She fought bravely for the next five years, not letting the threatening certainty that loomed ahead, gain on her emotions.

On her blog, she made a bucket list of all that she wished to do, the places that she wished to see in her life, and the causes that she loved to fight for.

She wrote long posts about every day that she survived and every time she accomplished something, she would strike that off in her wishlist, to show the world that she was not yet defeated.

Her social media pages drew followers by the million.

Finally, when the big C won the final battle on January 12^th , 2013, Alice Pyne was not just a victim.

She was an epitome of strength, will power and the spirit to fight.

It's been one year since she left the world, but her spirit lives on .

Her family continue  working for all causes close to her heart , A Bone Marrow Register topping the list.

Cancer.

The Big C.

I really don’t know since when this word has gained a place in our daily vocabulary, so much so that not a single day passes, without it being mentioned at least once.

We get to read about brave souls who succumbed to his grips, or inspiring stories about those who fought the monster and survived his attack.

And much more about the dreaded C.

When the Write Tribe feature on Cancer came up, I decided to chip in with my share of personal stories.

When my paternal grandmother, seemingly healthy at 64, expressed her concern on not being able to swallow her food with ease, she was taken to the doctor.

Doubtlessly enough, she  was diagnosed with some ‘growth’ in her food pipe.  

This was followed by as many phases of radiation, as her health permitted.

Yet, the effect was only marginal, and she lost the battle in a year.

I was 13 when this happened, and I still remember weeping at the sight of her weakened body, emaciated by the doses of injection and medicines, as it lay waiting for the final journey.

From a very healthy, plump woman with an enviable thick mane of waist length hair,  she had been reduced to a skeletal frame with absolutely no flesh on the body and dry, coarse hair on the scalp.

That was my first brush with the Big C, and now I knew the havoc it could wreak in our lives.

That was when I felt like learning more.

And that’s when I got to know the amount of research being put into the prevention, cure and survival of the disease.

That someone could actually survive the brutality came as a relief to me.

Years flew past, and with it grew the mankind’s fight to release the world from the clutches of Cancer.

Research into the field gained new dimensions.

More and more awareness was created, and more and more survivors came out to speak to the world, about their conquest of the monster.

When I was in 12^th Standard, I had a classmate , S. We were a little more than just ‘hi-bye’ friends during the initial days. Later, we learnt how similar we were :  tamil-speaking Keralites, single-with-no-siblings, from middle-class families and students of Commerce. So that kindled some kind of a friendship, and though she was in another class, we would chat a lot when we met in common classes.

When we left school, we joined different colleges, and the connection snapped.

Those were the pre-mobile, pre-facebook, pre-orkut days. Heck, we didn’t even have email accounts back then.

We remained connected through some common friends, though.

Sometime during the final year of graduation, I got to know from some friends that the Big C had attacked S. She had been taken to the skin specialist for some inflammation on the skin just below her neck, and it turned out to be C.

But she was a tough girl.

She survived the attack with all her might. And that was indeed a great comeback.

Later, when she could attend college, she wore a wig and travelled in the local bus. As she was a daily face on the bus, the conductor asked her where she had been for a long time, and why her hair looked different.

She replied happily, “ Oh ! You didn’t know ? I was down with cancer, but now I’m ok. But I need to wear a wig, till I sprout some hair at least. I don’t want you to deny me my students’ concession, because you don’t recognise me !”.

The conductor and her co-passengers were left speechless for a moment; the next moment she was being congratulated for her brave spirit !

I was so happy for her when I heard of this incident from another friend of ours.

I met S a couple of times after that, and she was very warm, lively and enthusiastic about life ; of course, she had won it for herself, hadn’t she !

We’ve been out of touch for a while now, but to me she’s always my brave friend !!

The Union for International Cancer Control founded the World Cancer Day , marked on February 4^th, in support of the goals of the World Cancer Declaration. The theme for the World Cancer Day , 2014 is the 5^th Goal in the WCD, being 'Reduce stigma and dispel myths about cancer', under the tagline,  “Debunk the myths”.

 

A write-up on Cancer is incomplete without the mention of  Dr.Siddhartha Mukherjee, an Indian-born American physician, and an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Columbia University.

His efforts at detailing the  evolution of the diagnosis and treatment of Cancer from ancient Egypt, to the latest developments in the area, through his book, The Emperor of All Maladies : A Biography of Cancer, won him the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-fiction in the year 2011.

This book is said to be one of the must-reads in understanding, fighting and surviving the disease.

Reading this book will be my next step towards understanding more and more about the enemy to be vanquished !!

 

The pain that cancer causes is not just physical; its emotional, psychological.

It leaves the survivors with terrible emotional scars, and even those physicall unaffected with a numb mind and an aching heart, if we don’t learn to stand up and fight.

With Science and Technology advancing every second, I sincerely wish there’s more and more innovation happening in Cancer treatment and therapy.

 

All prayers for a Cancer-free world !