The girl who was dear to God

                                                                       Today morning i was looking out the window . Looking out the airplane window always flashes a myriad of thoughts . First always the obvious the beautiful scenery below the contrasting beauty of nature in the form of vast sea (chennai/mumbai airports are near the sea )  and the man made beauty of human civilization .  Then thoughts go to the engineering marvel in which i travel the airplane weighing a full 23 tonnes or more which is kept up sheerly by the laws of physics in thin air .

                                                                              But today was different .  After a few minutes enjoying these sights and the thoughts my mind drifted to the little girl whom we used to visit while we were children .  Slighly younger than me in age she was similar to me and my sister in so many ways  . In fact  a distant  relative she was similar in the way she was brought up, somewhat similar family background , good at studies  etc etc . Yet she was so different  .  She was the only  one  who was served a  death warrant at the threshold of her teenage  . She had  cancer  --a type of blood cancer  to be precise  and she never completed her teenage .
                                                                                   
                                                                                     Looking out the window  i  was thinking about my life with all its positive things  which  most of us  including myself take for granted  .  And i was thinking  what all this  distant little sister of mine had missed .  She  never saw the teenage years  with all its joys and sorrows  ,  the college life , the  first job etc etc  ....More than that i was thinking whether i am adequately thankful for all the things i have in life which i take for granted .  And i always  compare myself to this distant little sister who never had a choice but to leave life before enjoying whatever life had to offer .

Why i remember her face specifically was because whenever we visited her she was as serene as ever a person could be and greeted us cheerfully . It was not an artificial smile but a smile borne out of inner peace . I didnt realise it then but thinking back i think it is a paradox that she had that smile which is rarely found these days even among people who have everything that money could buy .  A very pious girl she was too and is one of the handful of people i admire now who has taken religion in its true sense to uplift the soul .

And like some truly religious say  : probably she was more dear to God than she was for us  : she went early to her maker .

Coming back to the 10000 feet  and the  airplane window and my thoughts i was in i think the message for me and all of us is to cherish each day gifted to us and if possible try to give back in the form of at least small things like a hearty smile or kind words to people you come across . In that way maybe the mission my distant little sister had in her short life to make people like me think would be accomplished .
Dedicating this blog to her who is known to everyone in my moms family  ......