The human called orphan!!

Have we ever wondered how it feels like to be alone in this world? For a moment just close your eyes and imagine that you have lost all your family and friends, doesn’t it send shivers down your spine?  We call this state of isolation as being orphaned. There is a difference in being orphaned since the time you are born and/or orphaned when you have a family but you are somehow separated from them due to certain situations. It could be that your family met with an accident and you are the lone survivor or you are separated in a stampede or you may be separated due to some kind of natural calamity. The situations of being orphaned could be many. So as mentioned before the difference in being orphaned at an early stage is you are already aware you have no one but when you are orphaned at a later stage you tend to know both sides of the coin and that may add to the dilemma.

If you ever had the chances of visiting an orphanage one important aspect we can notice is the twinkle in their eyes. They are delighted to meet us because they have already stored in their system that strangers bring lot of gifts and goodies. They have to behave their best in order to be the favorite of anyone they meet, whereas some may be way too shy as they are too self conscious and then you have the most notorious of the ones. A lot of them have a different perspective towards life, they are the ones who celebrate life to the fullest rather than us who lead a robotic life.

Recently I have had the privilege of being part of an amazing evening where we celebrated a dear friend’s birthday in an orphanage for children infected with HIV positive. As we entered the kids dashed among them to give us a hug without even thinking for a second that we are strangers. I was taken aback for a moment with this act of affection. It felt as if after a long and hard days work when you get back home and your kids are waiting for a hug. My friend visits them every weekend to spend some quality time and she being an ardent humanitarian wishes to devote her time to such activities. All the children know her pretty well now that she is frequent visitor. So the first thing I experienced after being hugged by the kids is that someone tapped me and demanded to be picked up. At that time I was looking back for my boyfriend as I wanted to see his expression knowing he would be happy to come here. She was a 6 year old girl and asked me if I knew what her name was. I asked her for a clue and she willingly answered saying that her name starts with “S”, later found that her name was Shabnam. On the other side her brother who was only 4 years old clung to my boyfriend the entire evening refusing to let him go. He wanted to be left alone near the window so that he could look at vehicles and when I tried to interfere his solitude, my cheeks were pulled.     

While being there I was keenly interested in their lives so I thought of asking few questions to these children. I found my interviewee in the form of Shilpa who lives there along with her brother. I asked her if she had her medicines to which she answered she was negative and her brother was positive. I was shocked to hear the answer thinking what does she know about being positive and negative. As per my friend her parents passed away due to AIDS and the only person left in this world was their grandmother. They were left at a hospital and Desire society took them under their wings. She wanted me to visit often and be in touch. The kids are not aware of their illness until they grow up to certain age where they can understand the symptoms, causes and consequences of it. They are then counseled so that it does not bring down their mental balance and they do not go in to depression thinking that there awaits death any moment. Their life span is maximum 20-25 years and I wonder how it is explained to them.  What I liked most about them is they listen to you intently grasping each things you say, storing it in their little minds so that they can narrate it to others. I was surprised at the level of their imagination and interpretation of different things. Like for instance one kid came up to my friend and asked her for a chocolate, now these children cannot have more sweets as it may affect them badly. So in order to avoid that kid from having more chocolates, she explained that her teeth may become big and fall off as her mouth would not hold such weight. Kudos to my friend for scaring away that child but the kid asked will her teeth become like a dinosaur? My friend had no clue how does a dinosaurs teeth look like because she had never met one!         

These kids are full of life, they bring a feeling of happiness within us, forgetting all our worries for some time. They are unaware of what will happen to them in a few years, what touched my heart is will they be able to dream their future? If we reflect life we can learn that our constant worries about future, success, money, making it big in life is nothing but dust when you compare it with their life. We should thank the Almighty for all the wonderful things he has showered us with. Unlike those underprivileged children, we do have a dream within us and we can fulfill it if we have a will. Next time you waste your food think for a moment there are hundreds in this world who go without eating. Mans basic needs will and always remain food, clothing and shelter. All that comes after that is nothing but luxury. Most importantly we should learn the “art of giving” which in turn will teach us the “art of living”!