Mira’s eyes opened slowly as the sun woke her up with its bright light. It was time to wake up from the soft bed and get out of the cosy blanket. After a whole night of heavy rain, the cool air was running around like a child in a playground. She looked out of the window and saw the floral greenery outside, which would be enough to cheer her up on other days but not today.
She had been in bed for three days as she had lost her job. She felt that the comforts of a good life were coming to an end as she didn’t have much savings. She didn’t want to tell her parents as they would insist that she move back home from her rented apartment and she would lose her freedom. The thoughts of being judged by everyone with pity in their eyes clouded her mind. She had worked in that company for 7 years and was always rewarded for her professional excellence but recession shut down the company and all the doors that lead to Mira’s success goal.
As she finished her morning chores, the phone rang. It was her best friend, Tanya, who was checking up on her. She told her, “I won’t give you any motivational blah-blah but I would advice you to go out and take a walk”. Mira wasn’t keen but Tanya insisted. She said, “Anyways, you have to buy groceries; so why not go and get them instead of paying the delivery charge?” The fear of losing money struck the right chord as Mira thought she had become poor now and hence, she agreed. She decided to wear just a jeans and t-shirt and save her dresses for the future when she thought she wouldn’t be able to afford them. Her brain and heart were busy in the argument of failure and poverty.
With an umbrella and a carry bag, she stepped out of her house. As she walked towards the store, she saw that the rain had cleaned up the streets and footpaths and the sun had dried them. There were homeless people living on the footpath requesting people for money or food. She reached the store and began shopping, but today, her eyes kept going to the price label. She broke-up with her regular choices and opted for the cheapest options she could find. After checking out from the store, she decided to have a burger and a bottle of water for lunch from the food truck across the road. She was used to restaurant food and had never eaten street food. She placed the order and soon was given two burgers and two bottles of water. The food truck guy saw the look of curiosity on her face and said, “Mam, today is ‘Buy one, Get one free’ day and thank you for being my first customer. Thanks to you, now, there is a line of hungry people eager to enjoy my burgers. Mira was surprised and smiled as she thanked him and wished him good luck.
As she walked towards her home, she passed by a homeless child crying. His mother was begging people to give him some food. She thought, “What will I do with two huge burgers? I can barely eat one.” She gave the child one burger, who happily gobbled up half of it and gave the rest to his mother. The woman thanked Mira and, in her heart, she felt good. She realized that she wasn’t living on the street, didn’t have to beg for food and had people who loved her to depend on.
She moved ahead but a dog kept following her. The rain had washed and cleaned him. He seemed lost but she noticed a phone number, next to his name, Tommy, on his collar. She gave him a few biscuits and called up the owner, who came and introduced himself as Sam as he hugged his dog. He was very grateful and asked Mira how he could return the favour. She smiled and said, “I did it because it was the right thing to do. I don’t need anything in return. Once, as a child, when I was lost, my parents were crying and searching for me everywhere until they found me in the park.” Sam replied, ” That is very kind of you and you are very lucky. I grew up in an orphanage and always dreamt about sitting at the dinner table with my parents and enjoying the food and conversation. Thankfully, I have Tommy in my life and my friends too.” He bid her goodbye and this took Mira back to her childhood. She remembered how her parents used to take care of all her necessities and how upset they were when their only child was leaving their home to be independent. Gratitude flowed through her heart.
When she reached her building, she saw her neighbour, Jay, who was repairing his car and he seemed extremely tired. She handed him her extra bottle of water. He gulped all the water in seconds. He thanked her and then asked her, ” Do you know anyone who designs websites for a low price? I can’t pay a lot as my company is just a start-up venture.” Mira couldn’t believe her ears as that is what she used to do at her previous workplace.
She took the opportunity and told him that she was a designer and was looking for work. They spoke for a while, struck a deal and parted ways. As she opened the door, the landlord came and asked her to pay last month’s rent as she was late. She was a little embarrassed as the neighbours could hear him. She ran inside and somehow managed to find the full rent money after searching through all her bags and gave it to him. It also struck her that what Jay would pay her wouldn’t cover her rent. Suddenly, she remembered Sam’s dreams in his orphanage. Mira knew that it was time to call up her parents. She told them everything and as expected, they requested her to move back home.
Packing up took the whole day and when she reached her parents’ house, they were so happy to see her. They had kept her room exactly as it was when she left. Dinner was waiting for her. While the three of them laughed and narrated past experiences, she realised that her tiny gestures of kindness in order to be fair to everyone had wiped off her negative thoughts, silenced her ego fueled by fear and changed her understanding of freedom. She was now enveloped in happiness, love, gratitude, empathy, kindness and was free from the prison that she had built in her mind. As she slept on her soft bed and covered herself with a blanket, she said to herself,
“Fear can eat up your freedom to live;
By being fair to others, joy is what you bring;
To your table of life where you only saw darkness;
Now adorned with every positive and fearless thing.”
Vizzmaya is a wanderer in the land of stories and an explorer in the sea of poetry. She is 10 years old but her life’s experiences make her writing age faster but gracefully. She is awaiting for the release of not just her first book but all her 7 e-books via Amazon by the end of November, titled- Vizzmaya’s wonderland (parts 1 to 7) which contain poems, stories, write-ups and jingles. She hopes they add positive energy to the lives of everyone who reads them and is passed on to others for their betterment.
Vizzmaya Jalal, a Class 5 student of St. Francis ICSE school, Mumbai, is a poetess, a writer, an aromatherapist, a herbalist, a classical singer, a classical dancer, a keyboard player, a basketball and chess player and a linguist who speaks 9 languages. She is an iron girl who sees her bedridden mother medically suffer like hell each day and yet inspires and motivates her to fly higher with the help of my maternal grandfather’s positive energy and take others along with her beyond the clouds of earthly problems and pain to a peaceful place where spirituality and science live together in harmony; thus staying true to her name, Vizzmaya which means wonderment.