Miracles Do Happen

Sometimes I wonder whether miracles do take place in our everyday life, or is it just our imagination wanting to please us. Miracle is a word used in regard to me very often. It is the word which made a lot of difference to my personality in my childhood. I was born feet first at the time when women would not go to hospitals to deliver kids but give birth in home with help of midwives. They say it is a miracle that I did not slurp off my mother’s life. Thank God for that. Then it is a miracle that I could walk with my disability and also run in time to come. With their hopes soaring, it was a long wait for my parents for a miracle to cure me which never happened. They even shifted to Whitefield so that the miracle would be close at hand to them.

They always told me have faith and it will happen. “In seconds you will see that the disability has just disappeared. Pray intently. God is kind to small children. Have faith. Or else you will be the loser”. I did not believe them. I don’t know what was wrong with me. I just thought that it can’t be like that. I am born with a disabled foot where it is twisted, they were saying that suddenly it is going to be like a normal foot, which was not easily digested by me. I forced myself to have faith, pray intently but inside me the doubt always lingered. So I gave up. If they were telling the truth then there was no chance of me getting cured because I couldn’t have strong enough belief and faith. The doubt lingered in me. If they were lying, even then the result would be same. So I gave up the effort.

 I grew up with my disability. But it did not control me. I had it under my control. I walked, ran, jumped and did everything I felt like doing and my disability just watched me helplessly unable to stop me. Then one day I found it was not there anymore. It had just disappeared like my parents told me. The miracle had taken place. And who worked the miracle? It was just a simple person, a friend, by name Hema.

She was the lady who made a lot of difference to my life. I met her when I was going through a very rough time. I had so much of burden on me that I felt sure that God wouldn’t let me down because if he did, then the burden would fall on his shoulders and he would not want it. I was almost on verge of blaming God for not being fair to me, but then she stopped me. The lady who had mobility in just one hand, yet so calm, smiling and that too in such a genuine way that it deeply entered my heart, asking me to be comfortable, she just did it. She not only had me seated comfortably but made me feel so comfortable about my whole life in general. It would be a shame if I blamed God after meeting such a wonderful creation of his. It was her calm approach that impressed me. Not blaming anyone, she was so grateful to everyone for the wonderful way they had treated her. Whereas I was complaining that my parents took me to a holy man and waited for the miracle to happen, she mentioned proudly how her parents had carried her to every temple in the hope of getting her cured. She saw the love in their behavior whereas I could only see their silliness. She had the wonderful sight to see only the better side of every situation, where as I did not posses that sight. I saw her paintings, embroidery, handicrafts, and also got to taste the food prepared by her. Nothing stopped her from living her life to the full. Yet disability to move three limbs should be disadvantage for anybody, no matter what they are made up of.

I never missed any opportunity I got to meet her. We developed some strong bond between us. We exchanged our ideas and at times we argued a lot. But we never tried to change each other. She always was so calm and accepting and I was a rebel. We became very good friends and remained that way for a long time. Then I had to shift to Byndoor and we could not meet again. One day I was shocked when my mother called me and announced that Hema was no more. My mother had also developed strong love for Hema and wished to meet her, somehow it never worked out.

In the short time we shared together, Hema just made sure that I was cured of my disability. Where everyone had failed earlier, she had succeeded. She worked the miracle for me. It had just gone away. I never felt that I belonged to the category of the disabled anymore. I realized this when I was coming back from after meeting her one day. I was on a crowded bus when a stout lady, looking very tired, got in. I was seated on a seat reserved for the disabled, and when she looked at me with hope I just stood up and offered her the seat. Earlier I always thought I deserved to be seated no matter who was standing, because even I had difficulty in standing for long time with my club foot. Standing there I realized I had been cured of the handicap.

I heartily salute the wonderful person, who, in her short time taught so much that I am a totally changed person today. She was not just an ordinary person born just to go to school, get a degree, marry some guy, bear some kids, get old and die someday. She was born to prove to the world that 'where there is a will there is a way'. You can be grateful to God no matter how he has created you. You are special in a unique way. She was born to teach me the best lesson I ever learnt. Though she is no more with me, her calmness lingers around me even today.