KIRAN,
THE LIGHT
Inspirational words of
Swami Vivekananda inspirited many young minds to come over their trauma. Now I
have a stunning story how Swamiji’s few words changed the spirit of life of a
young girl. It was March 2006 ,I went to a reputed bank in Kolkata to open my
account. I was new to the city .It was as usual busy day for bank, I was
waiting for my turn to come. Someone
called me from behind hello ma'm, hello aunty. I was surprised who may call me
aunty in this city. I looked back saw a beautiful lady draped in sari; with
bank Identity card hanging from her neck. I looked at her smiling face and
sparkling eyes it reminded me of Kiran, my neighborhood girl.’ Oh my God! You
are here’ I said. She came to me and
hugged me, instantly my eyes glanced at her legs, she was walking gracefully.
She asked about my family, I also enquired about her parents. She said
"come to my room we will talk" She elegantly took me to upstairs in
specious room and asked me as why I am in the bank. I told her about opening my
new account. She called a peon and asked him to bring the required forms and
then we started talking about Ranchi. I was still living in Ranchi; she had
nostalgia about her childhood place. We were neighbors in an engineering
factory colony. She asked about every one of our neighbors. I was happy to tell
her that almost all of her friends have settled well. We talked for a long time
in between my formalities for opening account was done. She rang her father and
told him about my visit. Her father Mr. Sinha was very glad to know about me
and he requested me to visit them with my husband in the evening. I promised
him and left for my apartment.
While returning, flashback
memory of Kiran filled my mind. I saw her as a kid. Staying in the next block
with her family. Her beauty, her smile, her sparkling eyes and above all her
behavior enchanted us all. She was a girl whom everyone loved. Slowly she grew
up with other children of the colony. She acquired a name ‘talking parrot’ due to
her nonstop talking habit. She passed school board with record marks and
decided to study medicine, so she opted biology in high school. She was very
studious and intelligent but she did not like my subject chemistry. She used to
come to me for help and by helping her in studies I was promoted to Ma’m from
aunty. She always complained “how boring is your subject how you could manage
such a boring subject"? I used to smile and solved her problems and gave
her certain hints how to manage boring inorganic and organic chemistry.
Days passed by she , with
other children of the colony were preparing for their competitive examinations.
It was summer time I was taking out my
car from the garage for my morning classes.
Kiran came running to me and asked me
" Aunty can you drop me to the station? Her father also came and said that
Kiran is appearing in AFMC (Armed Force Medical College) examination which was
scheduled to start at 9 O'clock. The centre for the examination was at Namkom,
an army cantonment which is about 20Km from Ranchi town and they are not
getting any auto rickshaw for Namkom so they have decided to go by train.
Kiran’s father Mr.Sinha enquired if I
can drop them to Ranchi station so that they can avail a train to get down at
next stop Namkom. My husband came; he happily agreed to drop them at station and me to college. On
the way Kiran talked about her preparation and studies. We dropped them at
Ranchi station and wished her the best of luck for examination then went for
our destinations.
It was about 2 O’ clock in
the afternoon I was back from the college; I did not know what news was waiting
for me. What i learnt from my neighbour
was so shocking that I could not believe my ears. Kiran and her father
took the first train available at Ranchi station towards Namkom. They did not notice that it was an express train
which had no stoppage at the small station like
Namkom cantonment. When the train did not stop at the station the train
was running slow. Her father jumped out and called her to jump out. When Kiran
jumped out ;but by the time train already had crossed platform so she fell on
the track and one of her legs was under
the carriage, left leg was totally smashed she cried at the top of her voice
“Papa take me out, else my whole body will be under the carriage.” Stunned
father leaped at her and took her out from the track. She was in the pool of
blood and her left leg was totally smashed below knee. People came and helped
them to reach army hospital, treatment was going on but still she was
unconscious. I could not believe that the cheerful girl I saw in the morning
had met such an unbelievable accident. My husband came from his duty he was
also stunned to know about her. Whole colony was shocked. We went to Kiran’s
quarter but no one was there. We did not have courage to go to hospital to see
her.
Days passed by whole colony
were in grief as everyone loved her so much. After fifteen days or so she was
brought to our factory hospital for further treatment. After few days we went
to see her in the hospital. When we reached near the cabin we could here loud
cry ”Pl. leave me alone I can’t, no I
can’t” anther voice came “You have to, I will not listen to you, you have to”.
We reached the cabin to see what was going on, only to see that doctor and
nurses brought crutches and asking her to stand with the help of those
crutches. We went near her bed, her face little brightened but immediately she
covered her face with blanket and started weeping. I sat near her bed and hold
her tightly; tears rolled down my eyes too, could not utter a word. Doctor
called me outside the cabin and asked me to request her to start her new way of
her living with the crutches. Her parents could not motivate her to use those
crutches if I could help him. I was not in favor of pressing her to come to
terms of the tragedy. I said” Give her some time let her mind calm down I can’t
press her for walking with those crutches.” I went to her and sat beside her
and simply hold her hand without uttering a single word. Her father and my
husband talked about the progress of her treatment. After that day we went
several times to the hospital to see her, sometime she talked sometimes she
kept mum.
After about a month she
came home with crutches. I usually visit
her afternoon time, after coming back from college. I used to see her always in
a depressed mood. She talked very little. I felt very bad for her as she was
such jovial girl full of life. One day I took some small booklets of Swami
Vivekananda sayings and kept them on her side table. I did not tell her
anything about the books.
After few days I went to
see her again. I saw her sleeping. I sat beside her for a while and when I was
coming out of the room, suddenly her she extended her hand and caught hold of
my wrist, I looked at her and said ‘Oh you are not sleeping I thought you are
resting. Surprisingly she asked me “What are my strength ma’m? I am only a
crippled girl I am useless in this world is not it”? At first
I was very much surprised, instantly I could realize that she had read
one of the booklets of Swamiji which were lying on her bedside table. I replied
by Swamiji’s words only ‘You have great strength. You have your intellect which
is not snatched away from you; secret. Don’t brood on your weak legs. You have
to show the world that you are the bravest girl among us. She looked at me with
eyes filled with tears. I took her syllabus books from her study table and kept
them on the bedside table I smiled to her and said “Start from the most boring
subject, the mystery of Chemistry. Can I help you?” She did not utter a single
word; I sat beside her for awhile then went to see her mother in kitchen.
Days passed by she was
recovering, although slowly, from the shock. I used to visit her very often and
tried to cheer her with humorous stories. Her father decided to take her to
some hospital where artificial limbs are available. Family then shifted to
Poona for her treatment. That time cell phone was not common so we could talk
over STD calls once or twice in a month. In one such conversation she quoted me
Swamiji’s words “Purity, patience, and perseverance are the three essentials to
success and, above all, love”. I have learned this, so I am not afraid of my
disability. I have to have only patience and perseverance. I have new legs now. May it be artificial but
I can go round the world with this. I can do anything I like. I have started my
life again. Thank you aunty, for helping me to come over the trauma I was
facing. Booklets of Swami Vivekananda quotes you gave, are my companion now. I
am recovering not only physically but mentally too. Listing to her my heart skipped a bit and delighted as I had some guilt feeling because it was I
who had dropped her to the station.
After this conversation
slowly the link faded with time and I had no idea of where she was and what she
was doing. After so many years again the little talking parrot was in front of
me: composed, elegant and beautiful.
In the evening when we met at their house she told me the story of her struggle with her trauma which was not so easy to overcome. While her treatment was going on she started again with her studies. This time she opted for commerce graduation course. Although it was totally new subject for her yet she adjusted with it. She learned walking again but it was without the help of others. This gave her much strength. She realized that strength is life, weakness is death. So she started her fearless journey towards life.
[ALPANA GHOSH]
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