"Life is an Experience-Live it"

This is one of my fav stories.. it happened during a creative writing competition where one had 2 spin a story between 2 unrelated sentences. The story had 2 start wit ‘It was raining, I heard her scream’ and end wit ‘I finally had an ice-cream’. And this was my entry..

It was raining, I heard her scream again…..Being the only intern on duty, I rushed to her bedside. There she was lying helplessly on the bed, wriggling in pain of God knows what!! It was pathetic to see her suffer that way. Why were the medical interns taking such a long time to return from their evening walk? And if they were caught in the rain, they would probably take longer time to return. There were no other patients in the PHC (Primary Health Centre) to be taken care of, except for Anania…the little thing with an innocent face. Her pain was troubling her and that was clearly evident from her face. But then, there was nothing much I could do or for that matter anyone else could too. She was admitted here four years back or should I say deserted? When found, she was unable to walk, eat on her own and even unable to respond to others.

I could now see that her face was relaxing and my goodness, didn’t she look beautiful? By now the rain had reduced to a drizzle. Sanjana, one of the medical interns came back from her evening walk quite early and directly entered Anania’s room. She somehow seemed to share a special bond with Anania, always understanding what Anania needed and what she seemed to say. Sanjana helped Anania on to wheelchair and got her ready for an evening walk. They invited me to join them. Having nothing much to do , I joined them.

It was still drizzling when we stepped out, but then nobody seemed to mind the rain. Out on a walk with Anania gave me a feeling as though I was with a child. She held her hand out to feel the raindrops and then put it on her lips. Then, she smiled……a smile so loving, so innocent. How could her family forget such an amazing gift of God? She admired each flower that came her way, each petal was examined….All the while I was wondering why I had failed to notice the beauty of the flowers when I had actually walked the same path a hundred times already.....In this mechanical life of mine, I realized I had forgotten to appreciate and admire the simple yet lovely things God had provided for us to enjoy life. I was hurrying up in my life and Anania was teaching me to stop by and enjoy each moment as it comes by. I had failed to notice how wonderful everything around is, until Anania opened my eyes to the happiness of being ‘yourself’.

As these thoughts raced my mind, we came across an ice cream parlour. Anania wanted to have one and so did Sanjana. They asked me if I would have one too. I was surprised- Ice-cream in the rain??!! I politely declined the offer. Anania looked into my eyes and it seemed as though she was asking me to attempt eating an ice-cream in the rain. Sanjana seemed to read both mine and Anania’s thoughts and asked me to have one and know the joy of being different….the joy of having an ice-cream in the rain. Anania’s eyes seemed to say the same and so I let myself free, broke from all inhibitions and with them, I finally ate an ice-cream.

I fortunately won the first prize for this story :)

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