“Good morning Ma’am, kaise ho?
Breakfast kiya?”
He asks ritualistically while I verify
reports of patients in the laboratory every morning. We call him ‘Tasleem’, a
young lanky boy of seventeen from Assam who is quite the songbird. There is no
tune that he is not familiar with; there is no Hindi song that is not in his
playlist. When I hear him sing, I get perturbed thinking about his job as a
housekeeping staff in the hospital, such raw and beautiful talent in the wrong
place.
Yesterday when he wished me so,
there was a subtle change in his tone. I looked at him and smiled.
“What happened Tasleem,
everything fine?” I inquired. His reply was something that made me
think there is more to this boy’s charm beyond his adolescent silliness.
“Bina paani ka naav jaisa hai
mera life Ma’am” he said and smirked.
I thought about it all day. There
are a hundred wise sayings and quotes about boats on shore and how they need to
be sailed. But what Tasleem told me was beyond all that. At times we learn from
people whom we least expect to teach us. I am grateful to him for that, of course he does get a word or two from me every other day on how he needs to grow up ;-) We all need water, don’t we? Something
to use our oars against. While most of us at some point cry and complain of the
battles of routine, there are some who find it difficult to find even that purpose
in life. What if there is no water, no battle, no purpose? Eerie feeling!
Hope you all find enough waters
to sail, a merry good weather and lots of sunshine. And do take care of your
boats. Have a good day :-)
-R
