Day 15: The Angel & the Dwarf

Many have written about you in this blog, some once, some many times. A few have even been invited to write. But what I am about to write can’t be written by anyone else. Even if they wanted to, even if they tried, they do not have my position, my point of view, my capacity, or my expertise on this matter. Only I have the power to put in print these words.

You will wonder why? What is it about you, which only I know to the largest extent? What is it that no one has experienced as much as I have? Which facet of this diamond have only I been deemed worthy of? I will explain.

You see, out of all your friends, past, present, and I am sure even the ones to come, I have been, am, and will be, the person who troubles you, irritates you, frustrates you, gets on your nerves, drives you to the edge, the most. And all this at the same time, not turn by turn.

The others? Well, they can’t even get close, even if they tried. And some have. But the good people that they are, I am sure they aren’t taking conscious efforts to do all of these things to you, like I am sure you have wondered whether I was, on occasions.

And so I repeat, only I can have written these words, because only I have tested the limits, the farthest boundaries, of your patience.

And you know what, even after exploring the vast frontier of your patience for the last couple of months (mostly, but I had started long before that, I know), even after putting the limits of your patience to the best or the worst of tests (depends, you know, from where you look at it), I admit that I haven’t yet reached them, even once. I mean I will confess, that once or twice, if I had used a set of binoculars to look for them, I might just have gotten a glimpse of the boundaries, but never once have they come within reach. So forget about crossing them.

Babu, your patience is so friggin vast; mankind can raise a whole civilisation in it, once we run out of habitable land on Earth.

IknowthattobetruebecauseIhavetriedtocrowdyourpatiencemorethanthegullies
ofDadar,orthebackroadsofDharavi,ortheshelvesofmyoverstuffedcupboard.But,
believemewhenIsay,thatthereisalwaysroomformore,alotmore…

You see how I don’t give you space, Sowmya? But you went through the whole thing nevertheless, didn’t you? Just goes to prove my point. Thank you.

Because that’s what you do. Stick together through it all. Until the person realises that he is in it deep and that he needs to come out. And then you help him come out. That’s your master stroke.

And it’s not as if you don’t have a choice. Or many choices, for that matter. Its just that for you there is no space for the wrong choice. That’s one thing your patience does not have a room for. Wrong choices.

(I’m sure you remember this joke we keep on repeating.

Once, a dwarf went to the doctor and said that he was getting tired of being so short and tiny and that it was getting on his nerves. So can the doc do something about it please? And quickly?

The doctor said, there was something that could be done, it was, in fact, very easy. The dwarf will just have to be A Little Patient.)

I’m looking for that dwarf, searching for him. If I ever happen to find him, I am going to introduce him to you. After that, looking at how patient you are, I’m sure he wouldn’t mind being A Little Patient, would he?

I know you keep on saying you are very impatient with me. And I know this reads like a very idealistic, fictitious article. But no its not. It’s true. You may be human in other matters, but when it comes to patience, you are an angel.

My angel.