“The one YOU feed," replied grandpa!

On Words | Personal Reflections - IV

After reading chunks of precious inspirational nuggets gleaned from the masterspirits like Jidduji, Swami Vivekananda, Norman Vincent Peale, Osho, Robert Schuller et al, one would positively and convincingly feel for oneself, with all confidence, that there’s as much power in your words, as much as there’s power in your blend! (your cuppa coffee, I mean!) ;-)

Balmy words, words seasoned with love, words that are so positive, have such therapeutic power to them, Ain't they?

Be it to a friend, to a lover, to a teacher, to a student, to a kith or kin, or to our pavapetta junior or our kovapetta senior, and even towards children, when we use words of hope, words of love and words of positivism, we would sure see for ourselves how 'words' swainggg have such power and such therapy to them! 

Yes! When we use words, which, according to the Tagorean immortal dictum, words that come out from the depth of truth, from the depths of the heart, we will never have even the littlest or slightest intentions on our hearts to wound others even a wee bit with our words!

For instance, when we use polite, gentle and refined words seasoned with love to anyone with whom we speak to, we help in gently bringing out the boundless humanity contained within that person!

On the contrary, when we use words seasoned with anger, they not only inflict pain on the person, but also tends to take away the boundless river of humanity contained within him/her in a moment's time or even lesser! 

We all know well the story of the grandpa who was teaching his grandson some seasoned, wisened words for life and living!

It goes on these lines - 

Well, there lived an old Cherokee grandpa, who had always wanted to teach his beloved grandson some seasoned, wisened values about life and living!

“A great fight is going on deep inside me,” said the grandpa to the boy.

“It seems such a vigorous fight and it is a fight between two wolves. 

One wolf is evil – he is anger, envy,and ego.”

Grandpa continued, “The other wolf is good – he is joy, peace and love!

The same fight is going on inside you–and inside every other person, too,” he said.

The grandson, after having patiently listened to his grandpa, finally asks him, “Which wolf will win?”

“The one YOU feed," replied grandpa!

How true!

In short, when we treat a person cruelly, that means we treat them as lesser humans!

If ever we, practitioners of literature were advocates and votaries to these humane qualities, we would always treat our fellow human beings as much as we love ourselves our wish to be treated ourselves!

In this connect, let me share from memory, a film, that’s had such a great impact on me all of my life!

Yes! Of all the films I have ever watched, one film stands tall and stands high in my heart and soul, and I hope it would remain the best movie I have ever watched in all my life!

And that’s without a doubt, Anbe Sivam!

And please don’t try bringing up the metaphor of the two wolves, when I tell you that Nalla Sivam and Anbarasu are two conflicting personalities, the former an altruist, who loves human beings, while the latter (Anbarasu) is a self-centred egotist!

While Anbarasu is smart and young, he is quite self-centred and quite moody by nature, Nalla Sivam, on the other hand, inspite of being differently abled, and with such not-so-handsome looks on him, tries to spread happiness wherever he goes, every moment of his life!

There are any many scenes throughout the movie that trigger a tear on you all along!

One such scene that speaks to the power of positive words, is when, after the devastating accident involving a dog and the bus, many are killed, and only Nalla Sivam happens to have escaped, albeit with grievous injuries! In the next frame, he’s admitted in the ICU Ward, when Nasser and co appear there, and asks the duty nurse who’s attending on him, ‘Will Nalla survive?’

The nurse-sister replies, ‘Speak only positive words to him. Speak lovingly to him. Don’t talk for long. Only ten minutes! But please give him some hope!’

What beautiful words! What lovely words that ooze with such positivism!

In yet another scene, on the train journey, Anbarasu deliberately shuts out Nalla Sivam from the train in which they are travelling, (when Nalla gets down to fetch some water) and subsequently, loses all his belongings to a fraudster ironically named Uthaman, on his train journey! He soon hears the news from the TTE that the previous train had met with a huge accident and hence their train will be stranded right there on the tracks midway!

Now, Anbarasu gets down from his compartment, and walks all the way to see for himself, for the first time, the horrors and the intense magnitude of the devastating train accident right in front of his own eyes! He’s much troubled and much agitated within himself! Amongst the din and the commotion, amongst the heckle and the noise, a doctor could be heard shouting out earnestly for anybody with AB negative blood on them for a badly injured boy. Nalla immediately calls to the doctor's attention his unwilling friend Anbarasu, who's all along had a strong aversion for the very sight of blood! 

Anbarasu is now, quite surprised to see Nalla Sivam standing hear him! Nalla Sivam, after being shut out from his compartment on the moving train, while getting down to fetch water, had by now, somehow managed to come all the way to the accident site, and and joined in the rescue operations by helping out the injured! Hence Anbarasu asks him on a tone tinged with surprise,

‘How did you finally manage to arrive here?’

'I came here in an ambulance that carries donor’s blood! I have a lot of friends amongst doctors and nurses, sir,’ he says.

‘Look at you. All over the world you have only friends and friends. But for me, I don’t know whom to trust, and whom to believe! I am nervous when I see anything and everything. I am afraid when I see anything and everything! I thought I knew everything. But sadly, I don’t know anything!’ he admits to Nalla Sivam!

Nalla Sivam gently goes up to him, and says, ‘You are AB negative, but Be positive,’ and then proceeds to comforts him!

Anbarasu is soon taken to the ambulance where he gets to see the little boy who’s severely injured, battling for his life, and panting hard, wanting for blood!

Anbarasu realises that, he alone could act the saviour for this little boy, right now! right here! He alone had the power on him, and the ability within him to act now! To deliver! To volunteer! To save a precious life battling for  his life!

Finally, in one decisive move, Anbarasu, who’s all along had this aversion and nervous dizziness for blood all along, all through his life, the moment he sees the sight of the injured little boy writhing in pain and agony, immediately, opens up with all his heart, with such impulsive vigour, and offers to donate his blood for the boy, and rightaway.

(A beautiful message there is, on blood donation too!)

After Anbarasu has done his noble part by donating his blood for the boy, now they are all getting back, back towards the hospital, with the boy on the stretcher, on their ambulance.

They stop midway to buy a rubber ball for the injured boy, since he had asked for it.

All of a sudden, it so happens that, sister nurse calls them back urgently, back to the ambulance, since the boy’s condition has now worsened!

Now, Anbarasu couldn’t bear to hear anything negative on the boy’s condition!

That was the last thing he had wanted to hear, in all his life! Since he had given his precious blood for the boy’s life! He's now, at last, become an empath! 

And hence, he shuts up his ears so tight, not wanting to hear any hurtful news about the boy's condition! 

But soon, when finally he sees for himself that the boy had passed away just over a minute ago, Anbarasu, for the very first time ever in his life, he breaks down, and cries out loud with all his heart!

In other words, for the first time ever in his life, he knows for himself, and he has developed for himself, the power of empathy!

Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, on the other hand, presents a clear picture in contrast. Heathcliff, the antihero, has to live all his life with harsh words and cruelty all along. He is, something akin to a stray dog, who, although, he is fed, clothed and sheltered, is treated as less human all through! There is no single human being to encourage him except Catherine! Hence he says to Catherine once, “I have not one word of comfort!”

But unlike Anbarasu, who redeems himself in our eyes, transformed into another cheerful, empathetic being by the positive, therapeutic words of Nalla Sivam, Heathcliff, sadly, because of being treated ‘less-human’ and as a servant, and because of his resultant cruelty and anger, destroys not only himself but also all around him in the process!

So much for the power of empathy and the power of words on a person's life!

To be continued…