The Light Of a Candle

Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, And the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.- The Buddha.

She  did not recognize my friend as she opened the door but she had a benign expression  that comes so easily to  the old even as she let us in. “Hello Marian”, said my friend Sushila. “ We came over to see you and your brother, whom you said was not well when we last met. I hope you remember me”. Sushila and I were  paying a visit  to Marian  and her brother, who were inmates of a Senior Citizens’ Home in the neighbourhood.  Both were single, with no families to look after them. Despite Sushila’s  introduction, Marian still had a perplexed, almost dazed look. For all Sushila’s prodding, Marian could not recall her meeting with Sushila  but it obviously did not matter. She  was overcome by the fact that  somebody had remembered her enough to come over to meet her.  With a disconcerted look on her face, she said, “You are Sushila, you say.  For a moment, I thought you were Rupa, you look so much like her”. She was totally disconcerted, a natural response when one has been living a lonely life for a long time and unexpected visitors spring unexpectedly.  

“ How’s your brother”, asked Sushila as she handed over the fruits that we had taken for them.” That’s him”, and she pointed out to a man, with a shock of white hair sitting on a cot further into the room, watching TV with an indifferent, almost blank look. It struck me suddenly with great force that  perhaps nobody had visited them in a very long time  and loneliness was an integral part of their lives. Marian went on gushing, “ You shouldn’t have brought so much. We really can’t eat so much, anyway I can  go out to do my shopping”.Her exuberance almost embarrassed me  as I also realized that nobody  perhaps visited them and brought them gifts for quite some time. Marian’s brother Donald still continued to watch TV indifferently, with his back to us, as Marian continued to chatter,. “ It’s hot. Let me switch on the fan”, and she switched on a rickety pedestal fan. “  My nephew Roy gave us this fan. He would visit us occasionally but now he is dead and gone. Wait a minute, I’ll show you his photo” and she delved into a  purse to produce a photo of an young  smiling man,   with a smug, content expression. Marian continued to sing Roy’s praises.”He was a good boy, Roy was but lost his job because of an injury in the leg”. Suddenly Donald, piped up with a, “ He was sacked because he drank” which made Marian look indignant. Changing the  topic, she said, “ I must offer you  something. Let me see....... I think I have some chocolates. And don’t say no, you must have some”, and she thrust some chocolates into our unwilling hands. “Today”, she chirped, “ I’m going to make a chicken and cauliflower curry; Donald simply loves it. At least today he ‘s looking okay; so I suppose he should enjoy it. Sometimes he looks so ghastly that I think he’s going,” she concluded darting a nervous look at Donald still  engrossed in the TV. After some chit chatting on this and that and looked into family albums, with Marian excitedly pointing out a sibling or uncle, who was special to her in some way. “ Now, however they are all dead and gone, she would end with a morbid flourish. As she chattered on and on nervously,  a sense of sadness swept over me." How lonely she must have been to talk like this to strangers"!

I came away, weighed down by my thoughts. I had not done anybody a service or favour, yet the few moments that I had spent with two lonely people had made them so happy because  somewhere somebody had cared for them. The gifts were not expensive in the material sense, but the love and care that Sushila had shown while buying them  had reached across to them.Our society is full of Miriams and Donalds  who are not asking for pity and charity but love and acceptance and the freedom to live and die with dignity. As I walked, I asked myself as will others whether I had it in me to  do my bit for the old.

Let each one of us light a candle. The flame will spread by itself.