QUITE often as a newspaper columnist I forget that instead of concentrating on the dim side of situations, to remind my readers, things are also bright and beautiful! Yes, they are!
A famous writer was in his study room. He picked up his pen and started writing: ‘Last year, I had a surgery and my gall bladder was removed. I had to stay stuck to the bed due to this surgery for a long time. The same year I reached the age of 60 years and had to give up my favourite job. I had spent 30 years of my life in this publishing company.
The same year I experienced the sorrow of the death of my father. And in the same year my son failed in his medical exam because he had a car accident. He had to stay in bed at hospital with the cast on for several days. The destruction of the car was another loss.’
At the end he wrote: ‘Alas! It was such bad year!’ When the writer’s wife entered the room, she found her husband looking sad and lost in his thoughts. From behind his back she read what was written on the paper. She left the room silently and came back with another paper and placed it on side of her husband’s writing.
When the writer saw this paper, he found his name written on it with following lines: ‘Last year I finally got rid of my gall bladder due to which I had spent years in pain…. I turned 60 with sound health and got retired from my job. Now I can utilize my time to write something better with more focus and peace….. The same year my father, at the age of 95, without depending on anyone or without any critical condition met his Creator…..
The same year, God blessed my son with a new life. My car was destroyed but my son stayed alive without getting any disability!’ At the end she wrote: ‘This year was an immense blessing of God and it passed well!’ The writer was indeed happy and amazed at such beautiful and encouraging interpretation of the happenings in his life in that year!
It’s not just we writers who don’t see the good, its all of us. As I look back over this year, despite Covid-19, I also see a nation of over a billion people having leadership that has tackled the pandemic situation well. It could have been a lot worse looking at the magnitude of the task, but India had men and women who rose to the occasion, and for that we are thankful.
Today, on the last day of the year, look back and maybe, put a brighter bulb to many a dismal situation we thought we went through the past year, and like the writer’s wife, realize, it’s not bad, ’tis good..!
