Pain, what pains us? Is the affliction of a malady or our unpreparedness pain? Our undeveloped, limited capacity to face situations? The more we know, the more ready we are and less we suffer: Nature of the malady does not change nor is it that its intensity lessens but we feel it less because we grow an understanding that has a wider encompass than the size of the pain and we are able to absorb it without being consumed by it. Unfortunately, the path to developing this understanding, what is also in 'bee in the bonnet' circles referred to as 'wisdom', is through encounters with a lot of pain. Almost like a rock in a ferocious river is rounded after centuries of erosion. Then, it simply lets the water pass over it without showing resistance and while it may still be eroded but the process slows down and the rock becomes a part of that universe of pain and changes the discourse where it ceases to be about pain.
Naseem, is a six year old girl. When I met her she was sitting on the charpoi with her mother and constantly clapping but without any mirth. Her hair was cut almost to her scalp. I was told that she was a miracle child, she had been suffering from severe acute malnutrition and her family and relatives had almost given up hope that she would survive but she had proven all stats wrong and was sitting right in front of us. Physically, she was on the mend but her mental growth had been irreversibly stunted. She did not respond to any movement, any gesture or sound, her mind was somewhere else... A little boy, hardly seven, sitting on the curbside on an otherwise busy junction but at 0100AM he seemed so out of place on that dark, deserted road. As we stopped at the traffic signal, on the road perpendicular to where he was sitting, my attention was drawn to his posture. His slumped back was towards me and as I watched, two cars stopped on the lanes furthest from him. He made an ...
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