The saving grace
October 2012
In times of despair and desolation it helps to know that everything may be lost but never hope, says Nikeeta Bhargava
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As the story goes, a naughty little girl was warned never to open a box, the Pandora’s Box. Her curiosity got the better of her. She opened it, and set upon the world all the ills that prevail today. Along with illness, corruption, poverty, and crimes, out fluttered one tiny fairy called hope. I loved this story as a child although I did wonder why it was always a woman, like Eve, for instance, that wreaked havoc on mankind. Yet to come back to the story, I loved the fact that though there is ruin and despair, this solitary, tiny fairy (I imagined her as Tinker Bell of Peter Pan fame), flew around, bringing hope into hearts. She was just one, she was small, the troubles many, yet she was hope. She lives to date.
Today after years, I watched an old favourite film, The Shawshank Redemption. This is one of those films which takes its own time to unfurl its story. It builds up characters, and leads to an extremely satifying crescendo which fills you with good feelings. It leaves you with hope.
This film teaches that persistence, practice, and meticulousness, all pay off in the end. It shows you that it may take 19 long years. Yet in the end, your hope and working toward that hope, will take you where you want to be.
I have nearly lost all hope on several occasions. There were mornings I would wake up, not knowing why God kept me alive. I felt I was not needed by anyone. I would read about people who died, and whose bodies were not discovered for days. I wondered if I would face a similar death. Perhaps I would go out like a candle in the night, unnoticed. I could never figure out why I was born in the first place. My maiden family was complete. They already had two children, a son and a daughter. I was not needed even there. My son could live with his father after my demise, and gradually forget me. Mumbai is a cold and lonely city, much like New York, for people who are not right in the middle of a happening life. People are always rushed, and pressed for time. Couples need to make appointments to see each other. Friends are fly by night. Lovers forget you like used condoms. At night when I feel like that, I pull out Gone with the Wind, The Fountainhead, or Kane and Abel. I pore over them, drawing strength from the fictitious characters. I so want a happy ending. There are a lot of movies I watch at such times. The struggles of the protagonist of Count of Monte Cristo for one ( I just love both, the movie and the book), and I would think, if they could go through so much and be successful after all that they went through, why not me?
 Nikeeta Bhargava is a hypno-therapist, counsellor, motivational speaker and energy healer. She specialises in relationship counselling/healing. |
This question always awoke something in me. I think it was hope. Hope would be slumbering somewhere, and the magical sentence would wake her up. I made up a line for myself, during one of those phases, “I’m not just a survivor, I’m a winner.” From then on, whatever happened to me, made my autobiography fatter. I stored all the good memories to remember the days vividly so that I would be able to narrate my story later, and laugh about it. Every broken relationship became a dalliance that I could regale my grandkids with one day. Every day of penury became the day my clay was baked in the sun.
Hope does that to you. She told the dreamer and the writer in me that one day my journey would make a great story. Till then, I must collect all the anecdotes I can. Hope whispered to me that one day people would want to know my story, and young girls and boys would draw courage and think, if she could do it, so can I. Hope told me that she wanted me to be her friend. Only now there is so much despair in the world, she needs help. A few years later, she whispered the names of her helpers such as Doreen Virtue, and Louise Hay. She asked me, if I too could help. I said yes. Now I understand that night she was just working some more of her magic. Hope is a beautiful thing, and she is very real. If you ever feel she is not around you, listen carefully and you will hear her whispers in your childhood dreams and in the ideas and thoughts that come to you. She never does leave.