London Diary
Today, it’s raining cats and dogs in my city. Back home after six days, it feels good though still it sends a shiver down my spine. Seen a friend suffering very badly and almost nearing fatal end, she survived back.
Doory lane of my memory archives opens up a closed curtain today. A black silk satin curtain of not so rosy memory of a rainy evening. Back in 2005, I was walking back home in London. Canary wharf is a beautiful area near Thames River and I have been lucky to be able to stay there. Suddenly, I heard a faint cry. Turned around to see but could not locate anyone. It was getting dark and covered by famous London smog (smoke and fog), I increased my speed. The faint cry was louder this time. I could not avoid the sound. Looked around in nearby bushes this time to be shocked and awestruck. A newborn baby was kept. Still alive and struggling.
I picked up the child, shocked; I shouted aloud ” Whose baby is this?” My shouts went unanswered. I just was not able to believe, it is a country where single motherhood though looked down upon, is still not condemned. Why would someone leave a newborn child in such a weather to die?
My hands slipped through the baby and I shivered. The umbilical cord was freshly cut may be. I rushed as fast as possible carrying the baby to the nearby hospital. It took me half hour to complete entire walk and though I tried to reach the hospital in time, I was late. God called the baby back to him. May be the world would have been too cruel to little one.
I took a long time to let this incident go of my system. Sometimes, some memories leave permanent scars even if time is best healer. A recent incident has triggered a lot again and my heart blesses all those unborn who do not see this merciless world.
This is dedicated to all those fathers who disown a would be mother, forgetting that it takes two to make a baby and having an illegitimate child is not only woman’s fault.
August 21st, 2010 at 3:43 am
Truly deeply touched!
August 23rd, 2010 at 6:59 am
Thanx Abhishek,
My blog is honoured everytime you visit. Mean it.
August 27th, 2010 at 10:35 pm
Touched ! Had Goose bumps while I was reading it.
Thanks for sharing.
September 1st, 2010 at 6:08 am
Deval..Thanks…Keep coming back. My readers are my soul and sole motivators
January 24th, 2011 at 11:43 am
Hello Rama,
I’ve read all your blogs & find them so touching! I’m amazed at the experiences that life’s taken you through & most of all what you’ve absorbed from them. Just wanted to tell you that my soul’s touched reading all your blogs, especially this one. Count my prayers along with yours for all those who need it. Its the least I can do.
February 25th, 2011 at 3:02 am
This kind of anthology of portrayal of human pain, grief and life as lived through various kinds of trauma seems to remind me of Thomas Hardy’s remark in his novel ” Happiness is but an episode in the general drama of pain”. Rama’s impressive professional credentials, in my view, are really dwarfed by a dazzlingly very rare insight, empathy with what she has seen through her consciousness, in the deep reccecces of her being. Rama – have travelled along with you in this mystical journey more intensely to feel part of the orchid of tumultous emotions that you must have gone through.
This has resulted in excellent, literary characterization of people like Rahul, Bhagat, and others who stay long in the memory, particularly the man in Himachal who has been a kind of permanent image in my mind since last 3 days as it took me that long to digest and see it all again from Rama’s sensitive heart and mind. Her prose is truly poetic — A virtual El Dorado of riveting emotional experience, which, temporarily, numbs the mind, an experience akin to that of reading “Lost Horizon” by John Hilton when I was in Seniour Cambridge.
What an experience it has been , Rama, reading your finely chiselled “Dead Eyes Open”, “Concrete Lake”, the story of Sid and his kidney gift — all which bombard the senses which seem to beckon us to higher perception of sensitiveness as human beings. Please let such priceless writings find their way into the HR space oftener and as and when written, to enable all in NHRD network to travel roads less travelled in their careers. I appreciate this hugely – thanks.