The other Side of madness

Some days ago, me and my friends from my college visited this orphanage run by the missionaries of charity (yeah right the same one started by Mother Theresa). It was really some kind of "mixed bag" experience; you know the type where you feel an array of emotions at the exact same micro second. There was happiness, irritation, frustration,the feeling that you are doing the right thing, of course the pride that you have great friends and last but the not the least “I don’t made the baby cry" feeling. Tina, my soul sister, who I lovingly call "TT"(pronounce it as if u are saying “T” twice) came up with this idea to visit an orphanage which of course is not part of our lousy Engineering syllabus. Any who, there is this saying "Well begun is half done" (or something like that I am not sure about the starting part but I am pretty much sure any idiot with a second grade education can crack this code and understand what I meant), but screw the people who invented the proverbs, you know me (No you don't, but maybe someday u will) I was doing the thing I do best that day, being Lazy. And Aneesh who I lovingly call Chuku dropped by, just to kill me because I was not answering his calls and my mom actually discovered a new way to accidently make the phone "out of service".

He dragged me out of the house and took me to the Spencer food world and we bought some fruits (I saw a lot of apples man, different names but you know they were just red to me, some were pale, some were really dark, but eventually just say apples are red and there colours make the difference at least wallet wise), the international brand of light drinking, “Tang" and some chocolates for the kids. We entered the premises at about 11:30. The looks from the other side of the blue gate, the one where the real world is, was I guess a bit different, you know. I was just having these mental frames where we were giving the fruits and niceties to the children and some boy with a red T-shirt punching me on my crotch, screaming "We don’t need fruits any more even if it’s part of the diet plan"(sorry for being insensitive, but damn me and my inner Cinema, I really have to shut it down). Team "Fruit Basket" got in the compound.

It was vaguely decorated with all this xmas spirit still occupying the noon air, and there he was the boy with red T-shirt (damn this inner Cinema), he was coming to me, O dear Eiywa, my crotch. He stretched his arm and waited. It took me a while to actually understand the situation, I mean with this long film stripes running inside your head, it’s actually hard to register the twist in a story. Any how I came to my senses eventually. I understood the 2 year's language. He wanted me to lift him up, and funny thing was that there weren’t any of that hypocrite's crap of saying hello or a good afternoon, or how do you do? A simple gesture of an outstretched hand is all that is required to break all the ice. I obliged and he was way up in mid air with just me, a total stranger supporting him and strangely enough the boy did trust me. We spend some time together, all the while, he was enjoying the view from 5 feet 6 inches above the ground.

His name is Ratheesh, cute fellow and I don’t know if he can pronounce or as a matter of fact remember my name, and I am not sure what was going through his mind all those 1 hr he spend with me,(maybe a hope that I will stay, or maybe a hope of a new life or may be nothing, I really am going with nothing because, (1) he is a 2 years old and all the love from him is without a want and, (2) it really makes sense). He touched ground at about 12:30 and rushed for lunch.

There were about 37 children there, but irrespective of the sex or the level of cuteness or the ability to walk or talk, every one, I mean every one of them is a Ratheesh, all beautiful, all small, all in need of the love they deserve, all Children of God. There was "Thumby"(U as in Universal and not Umbrella) who couldn’t talk, yet, who took a special affection towards Rohith, Lima who would pass that very beautiful flying kiss(She was adopted by a couple but they gave her back because according to them she has a temper. Would you believe it she is just 1 or 2 yrs old and you are judging some tiny tot, after all she is not a commodity, to replace if it has some defects) to each and every one of us, a Saranya who was about few months old and clasped my pointing finger with all her tiny fingers which actually made me realize what Ross's dad explained to him in Friends season 1. There is a Muthulekshmi who is now doing her 8th standard, and Nimisha who always had a strange look on her face as if she didn’t trust us, and whenever one of us tried to break the ice, she cried and she really cried hard (She was with her mother till recently and well now she is here and can't blame her for not wanting to share company), and this cute,adorable, nameless beauty who is just 1 week old to whom Sadath was singing a strange lullaby. The world around us was I should say the paradise, for Jesus says “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.
(Matthew 18:2-6 ESV). We left the place at about 2 and I must say that was one of the best days of my life.

But I am just wondering if I showed them too much love. Now hold on a second before you judge me. I mean think of those beautiful shooting stars which you see just ones and you wish you would see it again or that it was too short.Why should I give such love to them to those I am sure I won’t be able to give it permanently, may be its just me and my weird sense of love, or maybe I am a product of that Victorian cliché of "charity creates idle men", maybe my brain is protecting me from a bigger truth, that I really care for this tots. The best thing I can do about it is that I can visit Ratheesh,Lima, or Saranya whenever I can or I can write about my experience so that someday maybe a friend or a friend of friend who will read this simple chapter, may also feel the same way.

Any way merry xmas and a happy new year friends