Be The Ray of Hope this Summers!

Dearest Kyra,


Summer has to be my time, when I shed off the inhibitions that circulate around a girl who isn't 36-24-36. Unlike winters, summer is a time of brightness merry-making and colours! Wearing bright coloured clothes, nude shades of lipsticks and red nail paints is truly blissful!


But then, I am sure there are people who can sob throughout the entire day cussing the summer heat, sitting in air-conditioned rooms and sip lemon colas! I am so glad that it is that time of the year when I can run around in the streets wearing half pants and no one would object; when I can go to my neighbour's house and pluck some amazing mangoes from his tree and suckle on it till my heart's content! This is that time of the year when I can remember my aunt, and her beautiful smile and the way she filled my life with excitement and joy every time she hugged me!




Summers make me feel nostalgic. This aunt of mine wasn't blood-related but seemed as close as family. I met her when I went to an old age home from our school. This was six years back! I still remember how she was keenly knitting a sweater for her son, as I walked into the façade.She was so tiny and back-wrenched that she could be easily mistaken for a child, even though her grey tresses spoke of the wisdom and experience, her life had provided her. I can still feel her voice tingling into my ears as she narrated how her son dumped her in that old age home, and also kept stressing and over-stressing on how good her son is. I'd  been so upset- how could one's own child be this cruel, I wonder even today as I see thousands of such elderly men and women strawing out the last couple of years of their lives in some one-roomed boxes where they are left to make a "home" out of those houses.


I am not sure if the same happens in your country too or not, though I pray it doesn't! No parent deserves such a life, for all the sacrifices they make! This was Revathi aunty's last summer, as she passed away ten days back due to a cardiac arrest in her sleep. She left me a note: 


"Keep Smiling and Keep the Smile passing.
Lots of Love,
Revathi Aunty"






I always believed man cannot fathom his own time of death or re-birth. But aunty knew she was going. And she wanted me to continue what we did for the last six years. I will do it, not just for myself or for others, but for Her. Because she taught me how, by being that one ray of hope to someone, could mean immense transformation for many others. It is like, what you would have studied in the sciences to be the "Treble Effect".


While we gorge on mangoes, wear our bikinis and go for our summer games in the sun, I'd love it if you come along with me to the old age home Vishwas, where Revathi aunty stayed and the orphanage, Khawahish just adjacent to it. Every year, on the 3rd of June(her son's birthday) me and Aunty went to the nearby temple to pray and after that we bought stationery and cakes for the kids in the orphanage and took the elderly people from the old age to the orphanage and all of us celebrated the day-laughing, playing games and most importantly, spending time with each other. And every year she'd buy me a little token which she said was a token of thanksgiving for being a heralder of the Ray of Hope. 


And she'd asked me to pass it on to someone else, and who else for me but you Kyra! You have not just been a cousin, but rather a soul sister to me. We are not just pen friends and once we meet after you come here, we'll be closer than real sister, I promise! Come over and we'll have a great time together!




P.S.
I am sending you some gifts that Aunty had gifted me, the Lakme Sun Expert creme that will be the only thing you'll need once you land in here to beat the heat. It is special to me, because I love this product and of course, it is a gift from my dear aunt and I am sure you'll love it too! Also, I had recorded a song for her on her last birthday and she wanted me to gift it to whoever I thought could be the next heralder of the Ray of Hope. So I am sharing this song with you, and I am sure you will feel her around you too and remember her words!
See you soon, Kyra!






Loads of love and remember, Keep smiling and passing it on!Be the ray of hope for someone!





28th of May,2012

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