Dew Drops

This morning I saw a dew drop on my Tulsi leave. Dewdrop always reminds me of my Mom, Surekha.

We had a small terrace garden that she used to water regularly. One day, I went up in search of her. I saw her bending on one of the rose plants. She had a beautiful, serene smile on her face. I asked her, “What is it, Mummy? What’s so funny?” She replied with a smile, “It’s beautiful. “I asked, “What is beautiful?” She said ,”Smile on this rose.” I was shocked as any nine year old could be!! My teacher had never taught me that even flowers could smile!!

My mummy never earned any certificate from any school, but she was fond of reading. She read a lot. I just stared at her and questioned her statement. She pat on my head and replied, “Rupi, anything could smile. It depends on your perspective. Look at this rose. Can’t you see this shining dewdrop on it? Feel it. Imagine it. You will surely feel its broad smile.” Following her perspective, I too tried to change my perspective and observed that rose again. To my surprise, the rose was really smiling with its brightest shining teeth!

My mom was an angel who changed my perspective merely through the example of a dewdrop. She taught me that nature has the same language of dewdrop. It could smile with a shining dewdrop and could show its pain and sorrow with it. Nature could also cry and sob with it. She taught me to imagine with my open eyes. I understood the language of nature from her.

Many decades passed. Few years back, doctors found out the reason for her weakness and fatigue. She was constantly losing her weight. She was  diagnosed with multiple myeloma – a type of cancer. It was diagnosed at the stage of no hope.

After approximately eight months of suffering and frequent visits to hospitals (she used to inform me about her hospitalization with her undying sense of humor as “I am going to hill station”), one day a phone call came from my elder sister that she fell down in the morning and was admitted to hospital. It was as if mummy’s final call for her hill-station. We rushed from Valsad to Mumbai. She was lying on an ICU bed, unconscious. Her face was unrecognizable as her one eye was open wide and another was closed. I put my ear on her chest. It was moving and pumping very slowly. I couldn’t cry at that very moment. As if everything was on halt. Each member of family knew that now she is leaving. I requested them to let me be with her. Inside ICU, no one was allowed. I sat quietly outside and started chanting Maha Mrutyunjay Mantra silently.

Minutes were passing like decades. Suddenly, my eyes stopped on the glass window pane. Morning dewdrops were still resting on it and sobbing! It was as if Mummy was sobbing with pain. My prayers diverted. Now I started praying for her pious soul’s freedom. My eyes adopted those crying dewdrops. My eyes were shedding Mummy’s dewdrops. She was shedding through my eyes. She was going. She was kissing my cheeks through tears.

Dewdrops on that window pane were now evaporating and saying Goodbye.

Doctor called me to inform me that “Your Mom is no more.”

My Dewdrop had evaporated forever.

Rupal Desai