Excerpt from " From December to December - The Journey of a Lifetime"

I know you are watching….I miss you a lot.

What is this life, if full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.

No time to stand beneath the boughs

And stare as long as sheep or cows.

No time to see, when woods we pass,

Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

No time to see, in broad daylight,

Streams full of stars, like skies at night.

No time to turn at beauty’s glance,

And watch her feet, how they can dance.

No time to wait till her mouth can

Enrich that smile her eyes began.

A poor life this if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.

                                                      -     William Henry Davies

1

My eyes open, just about. Its dark around me – I feel dizzy…and weak.  I try to get up, but can barely move.  Don’t feel any strength at all.  My head feels like a ton of steel.  I slip back into unconsciousness.

My eyes open again; I don’t know how much time has elapsed since I was last conscious.  Or is it just my eye?  It’s still dark all around me.  I gag as soon as I realize a big instrument has been shoved down my throat.  I also struggle to open my right eye.  My immediate reaction is it has been removed.  I panic, and start getting restless on the bed.  I suddenly hear loud beeps emanating from a machine nearby.  I realize it’s a heart monitor – connected to my heart.  A woman appears from the shadows by my side, and tells me – “it’s ok Mr Trivedi, you are fine, nothing to worry about.  Please stay calm.”  I can’t see her, but I can just about hear her.  She holds me tightly on both my arms and slowly releases me as I settle down from the initial paranoia.  She presses some buttons on the monitor, and the beeping stops.  I am still in shock over the loss of my eye.  A feeling of morbid helplessness and acute frustration - those emotions are to become my bed buddies for the coming months; creeps over me.  I try to scream but can barely manage a weak grunt.  I gag again.  My mouth does not open.  Slowly I calm myself down.  I begin to take in my surroundings.  I realize I am on a hospital bed, and seem to be in the ICU.  I can hear some nurses murmuring nearby.  All of a sudden I am paralyzed with fear. A fortnight ago I was, like any normal person leading a normal life and looking forward to the great things life had in store for me.  Now it was all a cold, dark and frightening night.  And it had just begun….

Losers...??

"Obstacles are placed in our path not to be boggled at but to be surmounted"

...sounds inspiring, doesn't it? Do you'll know who said that? Adolf Hitler...yes, the same Adolf Hitler, who would today be unanimously voted as the worst villain of the last century, the man responsible for the start of a World War, and the man single handedly responsible for the murder of millions and millions of Jews.

Adolf Hitler, Hansie Cronje, Mohammed Azharudin, Michael Jackson, and maybe to a certain extent Boris Becker and Bill Clinton...today we discuss these personalities with regards to our mentalities towards them. All of them are today ridiculed, disrespected, hated, and even loathed, because of some act, or misgiving on their part.

We, as a people, tend to be too critical, too hateful, and too judgemental of others, especially of personalities who have been in the public eye. How many of us even know what it takes to reach the top, and be at the top? These people have done that...and been there.

I was earlier mentioning Hitler. Now he was a tremendous orator, perhaps the best of his generation, who inspired and motivated his people to no end. Under his leadership, the complex coding system developed for relaying messages during the war was so foolproof that the only way the Allies could mange to breach the codes was buying over German officers, and learning it. The missile and submarine technology of the Germans was far more advanced than that of the Allies. Hitler has been held responsible for the murder of millions and millions of Jews...how many of us speak of America in the same breadth and hold them responsible for the murder of millions and millions of Japanese? Not many, I'm sure.

Lets talk about Cronje...how do we remember him as? A greedy person, someone crazy about, and obsessed with money?, one who brought disrepute to his sport - cricket, disrepute to his country - South Africa, and disrepute to his family.

Do we talk of him as one of the greatest South African captains ever, the greatest one day captain of his era, a great team player, and a great motivator of people? Ditto for Azhar...how many of us know that to date, he remains the only batsman in the history of this over 125 year old game to score 3 consecutive centuries in his first 3 test matches?

Michael Jackson now....What do we call him and think of him? We ridicule him, hate him, call him a sexual pervert, a paedophile? Mind you, none of this was proven in the court of law.

This man, has written 80 % of his songs, and has composed music for almost all of his albums. His second solo album Thriller is the largest selling album of all time in the world. He remains the most awarded music artist of all time. But, who remembers all that?

I am not trying to defend or justify their actions, nor am I saying that what they did was right. But don't remember them by that one act, misconduct, or blot.

Don't look at only the black, also consider the white,

Don't rob them of their achievements,

Don't deny them their rightful place in history,

Don't deny them their footprints in the sands of time.