We, my Monday Truclusions and I, welcome you once again with a new story and some of my experiences. Hoping you will relate to it. Here is how the story goes.
There was a young boy by the name Ajay who was very sick from a long time. The medics had told his family that he was not going to live for long. He had to be admitted in the hospital and he got to know that he was going to die soon. He was overwhelmed with sorrow and fear and lost his cheerfulness. Seeing how depressed their kid was, even the parents—especially the mom—lost hope.
One day the hospital authorities had invited a clown to entertain the kids in the hospital. The clown noticed that Ajay was not part of the group of kids enjoying the clown’s performance. Intrigued by the boy staying aloof from everyone, he went to the boy and asked him why he seemed so sad? After a brief silence, Ajay told him the reason of his grief.
Given that the clown’s job was to…
Spread Smiles And Happiness
…across, he thought of a trick to make the boy happy. He said that there was a separate heaven created for sick children. It was so much better than the heaven for parents and all the others. This was to compensate for keeping the kids ill for a long time. The boy listened to him keenly.
But one couldn’t simply get into that heaven and needed a special ticket for the same. The ticket came in exchange of lot of notes. The boy put a grim face again and said, “Then there is no hope as I don’t have any money to buy the ticket.” The clown smiled, ruffled the boy’s hair and comforted him. He told him, “Don’t worry my friend, it doesn’t take money to buy these tickets to the special heaven. It took something more than just money. You will have to fill the bag I give you with paper pieces, on which you will write the good deeds you did.”
“Each night an angel will check this bag and if you fill it, you will be given your ticket to heaven. You better speed up your work; you might not have enough time to fill your bag. If you fall short of time it really would be a shame.”
The Bag Of Good Deeds
In the beginning the kid didn’t know what to do and where to begin. At that instant he saw his mom and involuntarily smiled at her. His mother was extremely happy to see him smile after a long time. Ajay himself felt good. He wrote- “Made mom smile” in a piece of paper and kept it safely in the bag his new friend, the clown had given him.
Ajay began to spend time with other kids in the hospital, he would tell jokes and make them laugh. He would spend time with his younger brother and even the lonely old lady in the hospital. Every night he would write all the good deeds he did throughout the day and keep them in the bag.
In the morning when he saw the bag the papers were arranged in a way that it occupied minimum space in the bag and hence the bag didn’t fill for quite some time. What happened soon was that Ajay became the most beloved kid in the hospital. One day to everybody’s surprise the doctors discovered that Ajay was completely cured and could go home. Everyone wondered how it was possible; everyone had their own reasons. Some said as he had become the doctors’ favorite they put extra efforts to cure him. Some said the old rich lady who the boy spent time with sponsored his treatment.
Whatever the reason might be, the matter of the fact is that good things started to happen to the boy once he started to feel well from within. He was filled with positivity and he had hope for a better tomorrow in life. The clown was the soldier of hope for the young boy.
My Soldiers Of Hope
Now let me tell you about a few people who I know have done what the clown did for the boy in the story not only for me but many. Firstly my mother who has taught me lot of things in life, but the best thing that she made me learn was to live each moment of life to the fullest with hope and a smile.
The next soldier of hope I want to talk about is Madam Shanti Raghavan. The co-founder of Enable India- a non-profit organization which works to find employment for people with disability. A place not less than a pilgrimage for many. Led extremely well by Shanti, Enable India gives hope to the hopeless by getting jobs for the jobless.
The other person who I would call a soldier of hope is a physiotherapist and a personal friend. His name is Kanu Kaushik. He brings exercises and physiotherapy to the kids, while bringing hope to their parents. What makes him stand out from the crowd is his honesty.
The management of one of the hospitals he worked for asked him to purposely slow down the progress of his patients. The patients would come for more therapy sessions and the hospital could earn more revenue, a share of which he was offered. He quit that hospital immediately and started to give physiotherapy as a freelancer.
The last soldier of hope I am going to talk about on this Monday is an iconic personality and a huge name in inclusion. Taking her name humbles me, it is none other than the Managing Director of the organization I work for- ANZ, Madam Pankajam Sridevi. She is popularly known as PS. From being a discriminated employee in the early days of her career to becoming the MD of one of the world’s top banks, she has come a long way. If that is not enough she made ANZ pioneer the revolution of hiring people with disability specially who had hearing and speech impairment.
Now a little food for your thought, wouldn’t you want to play the clown from the story in somebody’s life.
Tomorrow
The ray of hope is never gone
Every dark night is followed with a new dawn
From the womb of pain new hopes are born
Each time you fumble
Don’t let your mind jumble
Life is only teaching you to be humble
Night falls to show that stars do shine
Challenges are to test the courage in your spine
If destiny has not yet given you a date
That doesn’t mean it is your fate
She wants you to know it’s worth the wait
If today has brought you only sorrow
There awaits for you a better tomorrow
Have enough hope for the world to borrow