Tell me, how does a midget talk about the lion? Can a glow-worm comment on the sun? Is it right for a random fly, to write about the mighty eagle?
No. Right?
That is exactly how I feel Sowmya, when I undertake this task of penning down a few words about you.
However, though the task might seem difficult, it is definitely not impossible. Let me explain why…
Imagine an arid land completely devoured by famine. Nothing survives but a longing for rain, an unquenchable thirst for that highest of all blessings, water. But seasons come and seasons go, without as much as a drop of water falling from the sky. There is no hope anymore; no one even looks up to the sky in utter despair. And then suddenly, without even the slightest of hints, rain arrives! And how! Forget a drizzle, or even a heavy downpour. The land is blessed by the attack of the rainstorm.
Now, if you ask this land to express what it feels about the rain, the task will surely be difficult for the land, won’t it? Such too, is my condition. But you will observe that, though I say that find it hard to find the necessary words, I already seem to have written about 200 :-)
But you see, even from the midst of this madness, this utter helplessness, this self-contradiction, there will come out some semblance of sense, some structure of logic, I promise. I know I have been rambling on in vague analogies, haven’t I? You have to understand that when it comes to you, there exists in my already dysfunctional head, a slew of emotions, feelings, thoughts, waging war with each other, finding ways to express themselves in one way or the other.
I know that the first thought that will come to you, Sowmya, when you read this, is that I am exaggerating. That is only natural. What with my blatant use of this flowery, convoluted language, you are bound to think so. But you know, don’t you, how prone I am to saying the same thing in ‘n’ different ways. But try to go behind the lines, or in between them, and you will understand what I am trying to say. That all this is true, that in reality there is no exaggeration.
Give it a thought Sowmya, if what I say is not true, why else would a bunch of people, who lead what they would like to believe are busy lives, why else would they take out an hour every day to write ‘articles’ about you? Why else would they prolong your birthday gift for 20 days, when the whole thing could have been over in a day?
Just think, Sowmya, haven’t we celebrated the birthdays of some 3-4 people of our group already? Did anyone of their gifts last for more than a day? Did anyone of them have people fighting over who will write a particular day’s article? None of us even got an article, forget 21 of them!!!
Ergo, contrary to what I know you will continue to believe even after reading this, you really are special Sowmya. Didn’t all of us (Shazia, Avishkar, Avinash, your sister Mansa, and I), come up with the same name for you, independently? That is what we recognise you to be. That is what you are.
An angel.
I know what you’ll say now (or at least I think I know what you’ll say next).
“But I don’t do anything. You guys do it all on your own. I didn’t have to do anything extra or different, to help you. It was all you. You realised what had gone wrong all by yourself. I was just there.”
But that’s it, Sowmya. THAT is what you do. Be there. Always. You don’t have to DO anything.
The truth is that you simply exist. And us. We try and live up to you.
Happy Birthday!!!
