Kidwai

I was waiting in front of Kidwai Cancer hospital, along with two other friends, all three of us dragged from our night shifts. There was a mentally challenged girl (read little crazy) doing the rounds. I never knew she could scare the be-Jesus out of me, in spite of it being broad day light and having two adult men fit enough to protect me around me. (By Fit I mean physically, cause I dont think they had any mental inclination towards my safety, as one of them was alluring the girl towards me). I was missing my roommate very badly, she had gone home to Chennai, hence was not with us. I knew she wouldn’t have had plans to leave me alone with the crazy lady, like these two devils were having. All in all I was not feeling very good. My friend playing a chess game in his N 70 just to keep his eyes open, and me with my provogue t shirt and short hair, carrying two to three gift wrapped boxes, and loads of chocolates looked like aliens in the hospital verandah. This should have attracted the crazy lady I mentioned earlier. So, What were we doing there?It`s my friend`s birthday and this is kind of the surprise we had organised for her, a visit to the children`s dept of Kidwai cancer hosptial. She had been here before and had loved it. And we thought it would be the best birthday gift we could give her. As of now, we are waiting for her to enter the scene along with another fellow who is bringing her to the place(her eyes tied with my beautiful scarf). After both of them joined us, we went into the children’s ward to distribute chocolates, biscuits and fruits which we had bought for them. They had shaven heads, with blue marks all over their face, all of them were below ten years of age, and almost all of them had one or the other form of fatal cancer. I donno how much of a social worker lives inside of me, neither was I ready to feel sympathy cause I strongly believe that’s a useless emotion. But I just remember feeling one thing for sure, Blessed. The kids were in chemotherapy, their families spending their entire source of income with the slightest hope of getting their child’s lifetime extended. They had no life outside of the hospital, no thought other than fighting cancer, the entire 24 hrs of their day.I couldn’t do anything much for them other than giving a handful of money to the parents who came running to us but I came out promising myself one thing. Never ever to feel sad for all the silly reasons I usually feel sad for. For not being the mysterious girl whom every guy falls for, for not being tall enough, or for not performing good enough in an interview. I am healthy (masha Allah) and I get the food that I want to survive without any difficulty (other than climbing six floors to my canteen), and I am blessed. I still wonder what the girl we saw in the verandah would have undergone in life to loose her mental stability at such a young age.