The Revelation

If we want to learn about love, care and compassion, then we must learn lessons from nature. Humans are undoubtedly superior beings, who are equipped with unimaginable powers of producing eloquent speech and thought. Most importantly, we have the ability to ponder and reflect on our past actions or work towards our goals that our hearts desire.

While Ms Noura Hamid was lost in her stream of thoughts, she came to a sudden realization that we share so many things with our living beings which exist in the conscious world! This little hapless creature happens to be her cat, who just gave birth to her little ones. Following her maternal instincts, she would not bare to let anyone come close to the newly born kittens.

Ms Hamid was an accomplished woman. She was neither very young nor too old, but she has lived her life to the full, with the least fear of deception or delusion to leave little scope for any disappointments or revelations.

Ms Hamid migrated to the US in the early late 90s to complete her master’s degree in Molecular Biology, and then went on to pursue her Ph.D in Microbiology. Having brought up in a middle class North Indian family in India, she has witnessed the struggles and sacrifices her parents had made to save every penny for her education and secure future.

An immensely determined individual and unarguably one of the most diligent workers, Ms Hamid would spend hours working in her lab trying to develop new vaccines for unprecedented pandemics. She was praised and revered for tremendous efforts and dedication towards her work by her professors and colleagues.

However, despite the success and innumerable achievements, there was an inexplicable void she felt inside but did not know why. She didn’t have many friends and didn’t speak a lot. Perhaps, there is something more that needs to be discovered about our inner selves when we don’t find any answers from our external environment.

Migrating to a new place and getting use to its cultural norms is never easy. Hamid constantly lived up to her parents’ expectations and never let them down. But was she losing a part of herself during this journey? Deep seated insecurities and fear of failure or misfortune engulfs everyone; especially, when we know that there is no turning back, and we just need to keep striving forward.

Though we may try to mask our weaknesses to only show our strengths, we have a deep longing for people to understand and accept us for who we are. There are times when we want to let ourselves loose and unwind our inner thoughts to someone who we can trust dearly. But who should we trust? In this inhumane world, which only knows how to discredit someone or slander someone for things they were never responsible for.

One fine weekend, Ms Hamid was feeding her cat and recalled how she found the wretched thing abandoned in the deafening thunder and heavy rain by her callous owners, yowling and scratching the footrest desperately to be let inside. On further interrogation with the owner, it was clear that the poor soul was unwanted there, and Hamid became her foster mother and named her Zelda.  Zelda was famished and was frightened of every little movement or sounds which she encountered in her new home. Gradually, she developed trust in her new owner and became more comfortable in her new surroundings.

Noura remembered the days of her struggle when she first arrived to the US. She barely had enough to support herself, but she had just enough to pay for her course. So, she took up a part-time job as a waitress at a local restaurant in close vicinity to her university, as she did not own a car nor held a driver’s licence. She would attend classes during the day, and then return to her evening shift at the restaurant. She managed to receive 12 dollars per hour, adding up to 60 dollars per week. She was quite content on having enough to save for her daily expenses but would still have to ask her parents to send her money for the course.

Once while leaving from work, Noura stopped at her old residence where she stayed during her student days. Despite being so hard up on money, she was very generous and tried to help her roommate pay the bill. She also sometimes shared food with her but never expected anything in return.

As time went by, she became a familiar face at the university. Noura was part of the International Students Committee and many cultural and literary clubs on-campus. She came across many people from various walks of life during her student days, but no one really stood out in particular. She could simply sense an air of pretentiousness and superciliousness from a distance. She believed in being genuine and upfront and thought everyone around her would be the same; you may consider this to be her naivety.

However, there was someone who really took a liking to her. He was often referred by his last name, Hussain. He met her during the final year of their master’s program. Hussain came to the realization that Noura was not like everybody else, meaning to say, looking for a fling or easily giving in to temptations. She appealed to him for showing lack of flamboyancy in her behavior, and her abhorrence for meaningless conversations. Noura was too preoccupied in her studies to notice his presence and his conspicuous overtures to gain her attention. She felt he was like every other guy, who would just try to impose himself on her and would really never try to understand her inner self. Unfortunately, we forget that life keeps giving us numerous opportunities to seek happiness, but we disregard it in the fear of getting our heart broken again and finding it difficult to develop trust ever again.

With the passage of time, Noura became even more solemn and more selective in the kind of people she met. She always felt disappointed in the number of times she made efforts to make someone happy or ever helped someone in the past. She just wanted to be loved and understood. She was often skeptical about her conduct and the way she was perceived by people around her. She often thought to herself, “Why do people seem to get ecstatic to meet me at first? And then would start avoiding me when I try to get comfortable with them.” This made her even more judgmental in her perception about people.

Hussain felt like a fresh breeze of air to her initially. He knew that she resisted all negative feelings. He thought that she was too naive to confront anyone in spite of her being right and true to herself. But she would get influenced by other person’s opinions and would not argue, as in order to cause little damage to the dignity that each person is entitled to. He wanted her to stay strong and look impervious to feelings of insecurities and self- doubt. However, she felt his demeanor was heretical and devoid of any human feelings. She was unsure of his feelings towards her because he never liked to express himself, or he was afraid of how she might react after the disclosure.

It is often the case, that lack of transparency leads to ingenuity and misunderstandings if things are not sort after or not expressed lucidly. Thus, eventually they become the real cause of tumultuous relationships and irrevocable disappointments that will forever haunt us until eternity. They will consume our thoughts and feel like a heavy weight, that needs to be lifted off the chest.

One day, when she returned from her weekly grocery shopping, she was surprised to see Zelda running excitedly towards the door to greet her. Zelda rubbed against her legs and looked at her with so much gratitude in her eyes. It is pretty evident that language is not the only medium of expression, but animals too have a unique ability to express themselves in many different ways. In fact, they are capable of showing selfless love and devotion that humans rarely tend to express. It makes all your efforts worthwhile, as you spend time with your furry friends and show them that you truly care for them, with nothing but sincere love in return. Her kittens are now a few months old and are moving about freely in the open space chasing one another endlessly. They plead for food, and Zelda quickly hastens to Noura for more food with the most obliged look in her eyes. Zelda exhibits a sense of responsibility and sacrifice to ensure that her off springs are safe and healthy. She tries to do justice to all, so that everyone gets their share and eats to their hearts’ content. On seeing this, Noura becomes aware of the fact that we are all accountable for our actions. We may not necessarily get instant rewards of being kind and generous to someone. We may get disappointed in finding our noble efforts and intentions having gone unnoticed. Perhaps, we should be more kind to ourselves and stay content with what we are capable of offering to others.

We should be willing to except others despite of their shortcomings and learn to love them for who they are. Everyone is different and has the right to their beliefs and perceptions. Maybe their personalities may appear irreconcilable on the surface, but we should not be too quick to rule out someone because of his false demeanor. Instead, we should meet people with an open mind and an open heart, so learn something from them and discover ourselves through them. Let’s not lose faith in humanity because good human beings still exist, and we need to find the right people who let us bring out the best in us.

As Noura was looking at herself in the mirror pensively while she was getting dressed to head to the gym, her phone rang. She quickly rummaged through her purse to answer the call, and Hussain was on the line. Noura felt a rush of emotions run through her while he spoke effortlessly with complete composure.  She could clearly recollect those instances, after five years down the line, when he would show his concern for her reservation towards meeting new people, as she feared their lack of acknowledgment.  They spoke for several hours on the phone about general things and inquired about each other’s whereabouts. Then after a pause, Noura made up her mind and decided that he was the one she had been looking for all her life, but she never realized it before. She knew he admired her as person, but he was afraid to tell her and cared for who she was. So, she took the courage and asked him over the phone, “Should we go out to have coffee together when you are free?” Hamid was overjoyed and a tear rolled down his cheek. He sighed and gave her the location “Silver Sky Coffee Deluxe, Sunday, 3 p.m” And this was the beginning of a new chapter in their life.