This morning i sprang up from my bed. I had a long to-do list to toil at. I started prioritizing mentally.Other family members were busy doing their daily chores.
My uncle is an old man in his late sixties. He is partially blind due to diabetic retinopathy and suffers from chronic illness. He stays in a room next to mine and was calling loudly. None of us could pay heed to his word as all of us were preoccupied in our own respective work. He kept calling and retired to sleep after sometime. I coughed aloud in my room. He sensed someone nearby and started calling again. I went to his room half-heartedly. He demanded from me a blank sheet of paper like a child. I was wondering why he requires a sheet when he is blind and cannot write! I got irritated, however, I gave him a sheet to soothe his pressing need. I curiously stood near the door inorder to watch what he was doing.
He sat on his bed and lifted his mattress to grab a newspaper and a pen. He chanced upon them by sensing through his touch. In the meanwhile he displayed his sheet. Again he struggled and found the sheet near the corner of the bed. He assembled all his paraphernalia and was striving to split the paper into two halves. One he kept under his mattress for his future use. And again when he lifted his mattress, all paraphernalia got dispersed. He apprehended one by one through his touch and gathered them. He kept the news paper beneath the sheet for support and started writing from one end which he deciphered by sensing. I was amazed by his innocent effort.
I walked back to my room and wrote this piece.
I remember an old saying of a blind poet John milton, " They also serve who stand and wait".
In life one cannot take the credit of capablity at eighteen. But if one is capable at 60 it is ones souls own doing.
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