We are each an island

This morning my daughter read out to me an email sent by a close relative to the staff of the very successful, well known and reputed Institution he built over a decade and a half. It was to share the news of his stepping down to tend to  his wife suffering from a serious ailment that requires them to move to the USA for a year for medical treatment.

I could write paragraphs of this relative, his maturity and his graciousness. That is not my purpose today. I am hunched over a laptop, sitting in a balcony of   a fourth  floor apartment in one of Gurgaons better known gated communities. There is a still a nip in the air, as a delayed winter makes its parting calls. All is silent and a deep comfort envelopes me.

I am aware we are each a very personal, very unique being and can never , ever feel the pain and emotions of another, however , much we may believe the stories and movies encountered in our lives. What to me may be a supreme sacrifice, to my close relative is a no brainer decision.. What to me is the tension of a years stay in a foreign land and the enormity of the expense involved, to my relative is an act that requires no review. What to me is the uncertainty of the future post the  return to India, is something that is not even in my relatives mind.

I can only from my  cosy comfort zone pray to the Almighty for their welfare. I also recollect the truth of this dialogue from a Hollywood movie..

Love is not a place where we come and go as we please ,it’s a home we enter in and commit never to leave .So lock the door behind you , throw the keys work it out together and let it bring you to your knees.

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