Togetherness and The Human Touch
by Sneha Subramanian Kanta
(Mumbai)
For so many times in the journey of life, we’ve felt that all of it; living itself is a futile exercise.
For often, we’ve felt miserably unhappy, questioning and pondering the way it is all going.
We’ve all experienced moments, lonely as it can be, in the middle of the night, when everything is quaint and silent as though life itself has come to a standstill.
And then we look around us: at people, little incidents, and get on with thinking as we unravel pages daily in the book of our lives.
We realize that it is filled with little acts of kindness and small, memorable acts of benevolence and gentleness that fill us with joy.
I can never forget the day when I was feeling particularly low; and I made way to Mahim Church with a friend. I have always found churches peaceful; for the quintessential feel that they exude. After getting out of the place, I spotted a lady and her son; who hugged each other after the Novena and cried together. I cannot explain how it felt to see them. Their togetherness made me feel warm about life; which has the truthfulness of unconditional and pure love.
On a particularly cold day in Mumbai, about four and a half years back, I was walking all alone on a lonesome road early in the morning. I was engulfed with sadness, as something in life had not particularly gone right. As I walked a little ahead; I saw two children playing while their mother made some rotis for them. What was special was that although they lived on the road and did not have proper clothes to wear and less to eat; they had a little puppy that they fed. This touch of humanity and the feeling to help the little meek animal, shivering in the cold particularly had a long lasting impact on me.
While working as a special educator sometime back, I remember speaking to the grandmother of a young boy. He was a chubby, active and notorious child as much as I thought about him. I was shocked to see him after the vacations: he was walking on crutches. When I questioned his grandmother on what happened, she held my hand gently and started crying. She told me that he had gone on a bike ride with his elder brother and had met with an accident. Although she was from Ratnagiri, a small city in Maharashtra, she had come to Mumbai for her grandson, the apple of her eye. She worked as a domestic help in many houses to make ends meet and supported his education and lived in a dilapidated house. Still, the commitment of the woman and the belief that she would one day make her grandson walk properly, deeply touched my heart. It showed me how much human relationships mean in one’s life.
I do agree that relationships can sometimes be the most straining aspect of one’s life. We may constantly be worried about what someone may think about a particular action of ours. At other times, there may be questioning about the very purpose of life. However, if we all look around us, there are heart-warming moments that happen every minute. To put it metaphorically, like a warm ray of sunlight penetrating through a cold morning which keeps you not very warm, but warm enough.
It is always good to experience the human touch in the world around us. Amidst all the chaos, disruptions, violence and ill happenings, humanity still breathes in a corner. And I’m sure it just doesn’t breathe, it thrives. The togetherness and human touch that we all require at the end of the day can sometimes be the most blessed thing that one has in life. We just need to look around us to see what it means to be human!
The End