Letter to Aamu on completing nine wonderful years - Happy birthday love!

Dearest Aamu

Finally, the day is here...I know how longingly you wait for this…the countdown begins almost months in advance.

This year the day is going to even more special as you will be meeting your friends after almost two years…the pandemic playing spoilsport twice. Although you were ingenious enough to celebrate your previous two birthdays online…keeping up with the trend. Yet, nothing can beat the in-person meeting...the bonhomie of the girl gang and the way you and your friends run riot at the birthday venue…never ever thinking that it could be embarrassing for poor parents...you make us look so – oh, cannot face the other guests in the eye types!

Honestly, we love all these..although we do not tell you, but all of these makes us a child again!

The adult is us, at times, feels tired of being grown up, longs to be young again and hark back to the good ol’days!

This year, Aamu, as I sit down to pen this, I am inundated with myriad thoughts, what do i write to you?

You have completed nine years and stepping in your tenth, which means you are a grown up lady now. Your thoughts have started to show maturity – this is amply visible in the advice you keep doling out to your friends and sometimes to us as well. We adore them, not sure of your friends though!

So, this year I am going to take a detour…instead of writing the usual things that I discuss and talk about in this annual ritual now…I am going to tell you a story.

I can see your eyes sparkle…I know you love a good story any day…although today’s story might not be as interesting as the exploits of Feluda and Tapesh (from Satyajit Ray’s – The Adventures of Feluda) – I promise; however, it will be a true story!  Truth can sometimes be stranger than fiction, so sit tight darling, fasten your seat belt, close your eyes…and let your baba do the talking now.

A girl with dreams in her eyes gets on a train. She is a national level volleyball player and this train will take her closer to her dream of getting a job. Or so she thought.

As she settles down, and starts to pick up conversations with fellow passengers, a commotion in the farther end of the compartment bothers her. Not able to understand the matter, she volunteers to find out.

Now, you cannot imagine in your wildest dreams and neither could the girl of what is going to happen next – the next few minutes are going to change the life of this girl forever!

As she nears the scene of the confusion, she finds to her utter surprise that a band of robbers were asking the passengers to hand over all their jewelry, cash and other valuables at gun point! The moment they saw her, they simply asked her to hand over her stuff as well.

If I was in her place, I would have panicked and done as directed by the bandits. Not her, she being a national level player – she always had a mind of her own – decided to fight back!

Imagine a lone girl picking up a fight with bandits armed with weapons!

She was never a match for a group of armed bandits, finding her a nuisance, they push her out of the moving train! The very same moment, another train was approaching, she hits this train and fells down on the tracks, in the melee that ensues, the passing train runs over her left leg and she passes out!

She does gain her senses and then passes out again. This keeps happening for the rest of the night and no one comes to her rescue. Her searing pain – cannot be described in words, the fields rats run all over her, she feels them but cannot do anything. 

In between her coming to senses and passing out, she realizes she has broken other bones in her body as well! She wants to shout but cannot force words out of her mouth!

In the morning, the villagers discover her and take her to the nearby hospital from where she is moved to a bigger hospital and finally lands up in New Delhi, in the trauma center of India’s largest hospital.

The doctors are desperate to save her life, unfortunately, they are not able to save one of her legs – in a matter of few hours – a national level volleyball player becomes an amputee!

Let me pause here (my throat is dry and while I gulp down a glass of water;) I want you to think for a moment all that the girl went through in a matter of hours! I know it was painful, but at times, pain is the harbinger of something great, something colossus that it is difficult for the human mind to fathom.

This is how the next chapter of her life unfolds.

Lying on the hospital bed, this girl makes a silent resolve – of not just getting up and walking again but a moonshot of a resolve – of climbing the world’s highest peak – Mt. Everest!

My goodness, is she out of her mind – I am sure you are thinking the same, like her family and her friends thought too; at the moment; when she discussed this with them.

A girl without a leg (the doctors later fix a prosthetic leg on her) decides to not just crawl or walk or run but climb Mt. Everest – sounds fictional – I told you truth is stranger than fiction!

I am going to cut a long story short and will spare you the pain, the trial and tribulations of this girl as she sets out to achieve her dream – I am doing this not to belittle her struggles – of that I have deep respect – I am doing this more to keep this letter short and also to save you a lot of reading on her, I am sure you will find a quiet corner in your school library and read up all about her.

Now this is straight out of a movie scene – the lone girl who did not blink twice before taking on robbers laced with weapons in a moving train – the same girl with a prosthetic leg not just climbs Mt. Everest but goes on to climb Mount Kilimanjaro (Tanzania), Mount Elbrus (Russia), Mount Kosciusko (Australia), Mount Aconcagua (South America), Mount Denali (North America) and Mount Vinson in Antarctica! 

Now, now, do not open your eyes! I know you must be wondering who is this super girl. Just hold on for a few more minutes, my story is not over yet.

Let me take you back to the hospital bed in the trauma center where a lone girl makes a silent resolve. What do you think – how is it possible for a human being to achieve a super human feat?

And here is what I really want you to focus – when you make a resolve – and it has be a true resolve – you make a bond with your inner self – if your intentions are serious – the gods in heaven bless you – they go out of the way to ensure you fulfill your resolve – not that there is any magic happening here – you will have to walk on fire – you will be subject to intense tests – but you must stay put – your resolve needs to be steely, your spirit adamantine and lo and behold – you will find one day that you have done what you set out to do!

Hard work, grit and determination are what makes a human a super human! Others might call it luck. The super heroes do not wear a halo around their head, nor do the carry a Midas stone in their bag – they simply dig their heels in and fight back!

They have their share of detractors, their share of bad weather but they are hardened sailors and know well how to weather any storm. They know that dawn is just after the darkest hour of the night!

There ends my story. This is also my message for you on your birthday, my love. I am wrapping it with all the wishes and blessings and sending it your way – this, I want you to  know – if you believe it – you can achieve it! You can trust your Baba on this.

Love, you can open your eyes now, the story that I shared today is none other than Arunima Sinha’s – she is the world’s first female amputee sportsperson to do this remarkable feat of climbing all the tallest peaks in seven continents including Mt. Everest – the world’s tallest peak!

I know you will read more about her as you grow up. 

Once again, enjoy your day, have loads of fun, stay blessed, healthy and happy.

And whenever in doubt, remember Arunima, her story will always motivate you and urge you to do great things.

Love

Baba

30^th April 2022