It was a very normal morning at a busy junction.....traffic coming fro m four regular directions, a haggard traffic police sweating in his tight-fitting police uniform, his two arms flying in all possible angles to drive some sense into the unruly traffic. My bus, in which I travel to office everyday with my colleagues, too was in middle of this jam. I sat in it, looked out of the window with a practised detachment to the chaos. Nothing unusual. The shops, the people at the bus stand...the school college buses...and my dry, boring thoughts of the challenges Nature/destiny/others have thrown into my life. My Happiness tells me I have this unique skill of killing my joy by conjuring up possibilities of tragedy in my life. I was almost on the verge of scripting a new tragedy, when my eyes caught something unusual....I saw three gentlemen communicating to each other. Two of them were nodding in affirmation...as the third gentleman....used sign language to communicate to the other two gentlemen. I thanked the traffic jam .....
All of them were talking in sign language ... not sure who had a challenge to speak....but as I leaned forward towards the window and watched them 'talk', one of the gentlemen caught my gaze. He gave a faint smile and got back into the discussion. They looked serious. I was not sure if the discussion was heated or not. They smiled and the next moment knitted eyebrows, nodding in affirmation and all the while using gestures, sign language! They were cut off from the din around, they were cut off from the melodies of sound, they were not gifted to hear music, they could not express verbally .... YET they were taking CARE to communicate. They managed to overcome their challenge and were grown-ups, managing their lives!
And here I am....gifted to hear....gifted to talk....gifted to express my feelings....yet...yet mulling over my so-called unfairness thrown at me by destiny/nature/others around me. I fail to SAY no, when I was supposed to...I do not care to SAY 'I like you' to my dear friends...I forget to SAY 'Take care' to my parents when I leave home....I do not care to SAY 'Life is beautiful' as sun rises everyday....I only SAY 'This is unfair'...which is not what I should be SAYING, with all gifts from Nature!
I thank the traffic jam, as we inch forward....and give one last look to the three-GIFTED and BLESSED gentlemen, wishing them a good day and a great life ahead....and a big THANK YOU! :)
3 comments:
Good One K
Nice Post! I had a similar experience with a co-traveller who was hearing imapaired. Instead of sitting back and observing the "fortunate" ones in their world..(like I wrongly assumed most of them might) he communicated with every single person travelling with him (with a huge scoop of perfect sense of humor, i must say!) and in turn teaching us his sign-language and making the visual communication completely noisy and energetic and happy by the end of the journey!:-)
My learning: Being hearing impaired is not always a disability; it can be the strength to enpower other people around you to communicate differently.
Just visited your blog and this was the first one I read. Real good one. You "SEE" things. Keep going!
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