Rainbow-Gift Of God

The car stopped under the portico. The all white doorman saluted them after they got down and advanced towards the reception. The room service boy takes the keys and the luggage and they follow him to the third floor of the three star hotel. Gaurav has specially asked for the south facing room to get the better view of the hills.  Heena enters the room and immediately moves towards the window. She moves the curtain and finds the sky very bright blue with white puffy clouds sailing across it like boats in sea. A green field is lying straight which extends upto the foot of the hills which seems resting in the sky’s lap. She smiled and turned back towards Gaurav and whispered “Dad…you are great!” Gaurav tried to smile and to hide his frustration looked towards Rohini and said “Heena is very happy today!” Rohini advanced towards her and caressed her daughter. Heena hold the window sill tight and stared out.

A month before-

It is raining heavily from the early morning. Heena is staring out of the window and seeing the dark grey clouds hanging from the skies. Her eyes were comparing the white coloured room with the grey colour outside. Rohini is sitting near her bed and going through the prescription which the nurse has handed her few minutes before. She has also given her a small carry bag full of medicines that Heena has to take every day at different times. Suddenly a white streak of light flashed cutting the grey clouds into halves. Heena moved her eyes towards her mother and then towards the door. At that moment Gaurav comes in the room with a smile in his face. He calls out loudly “My dear Heena, my sweet baby is going to our sweet home today. The car has come at the doorsteps. Rohini get her dressed up and I’am taking the things to the car.” Dr. Batra comes in the next second and says “How’s my friend now?”

Heena gives a dry smile and nods her head to the right indicating good. He pats on her shoulder and smiled in return.   He leaves the room with Gaurav following him.

Their rented apartment is half an hour’s distance from the ‘Stay Well’ nursing home. The nursing home staff wheeled Heena to the car and made her seat at the back seat. Heena stared outside but the grey coloured rows of concrete buildings in the grey atmosphere made her tired and she closed her eyes. Both her parents noticed this but didn’t ask her anything. Heena returned home with Rohini and Gaurav.

After they returned many of family friends and relatives came to see her. Heena paid a dry smile to everyone for some time and then went to sleep. The visitors left discussing in whispers about the disease of Heena, the trauma through which the family is going, the huge amount of money which has been spent to cure her. Rohini sat numb on the sofa. She couldn’t think of anything more. Doctor has assured her that Heena is out of danger and she too badly wants to believe it but everyone says there’s no answer to cancer. Is it going to be true or the doctor’s assurance is correct, she doesn’t know. What a lovely and lively girl Heena was until now. Everyone loved her; her friends, her classmates, her teachers, her relatives, her neighbours, with any unknown person she met. Now this illness has taken away all her happiness her lively nature. Rohini is not sure from when she may be able to go to school.

Gaurav was sitting on a chair and staring at the raining night sky. His life was full of colours with a beautiful wife Rohini and a sweet daughter Heena. He couldn’t ever dream of anything without them around him. He is a total family man doing all his duties perfectly and spending quality time with his family until now. But today he can’t say whose black magic worked on his life and it just became colourless. Heena first suffered from urine infection for which she was been treated for a long time in a famous hospital in Chennai. After doctors said she is out of danger the grey colour of life again became colourful. But the colours didn’t last for long when Heena was detected with cancer in the urinary tract. Maybe it’s in first stage but cancer is a deadly disease. Gaurav became mad knowing that. He just ran from one doctor to another to find a permanent cure for her. Every known person asked him to take her to Mumbai hospital for treatment. Gaurav arranged the required amount and rushed her to Mumbai. Doctors attended her with utmost care and assured him not to worry. Everything is going to be ok. On the fixed date they did the operation and it was successful. After a week’s observation they at last released Heena and they returned to their home in Bhillai. This whole procedure squeezed their life out of their body which restored a bit with the doctor’s assurance of full cure. He doesn’t know from when he was sitting on the chair and until when he would have sat there but Rohini comes and asks “Won’t you have your dinner?”

He asks “Did Heena had her dinner?”

“Oh yes! She had her favourite chicken soup”

“Then let us have our dinner”

                After a month passed one morning Heena asked her mother “Ma I’ve a wish”

Rohini was giving Heena her medicines when hearing her she said “Yes dear what is your wish?”

“I would like to see rainbow”

Rohini stopped and stared at her daughter. Heena is asking for such a thing which cannot be bought with any wealth. It is a rare gift from nature and only God can gift it if only he wishes. Rohini remembered when she was a child like her daughter rainbows appeared in the sky often after a shower. But today the pollution created by human beings is so dense that rainbows don’t appear now after a shower. Or maybe they appear but these particles mixed with the air don’t let us see. So pollution is snatching away many gifts of God and instead gifting us with illness. But this won’t fulfill her wish. So she consoled Heena by saying “Pray to God from deep of your heart. He may gift you with this rare piece”

Gaurav heard his daughter’s wish after returning from office at night and then he said to himself “let’s our wish be so intense that God fulfills us with his divine love”

They came to spend a week’s holiday in a least visited hill station and boarded a hotel. Heena is very happy and contented with the beauty of nature.  But every night she goes to sleep with a small prayer “God I wish to get your love. Please gift it in form of rainbow”

After Heena went to sleep; it started raining heavily. Rohini and Gaurav watched the rains and they too wished may Heena’s wish gets fulfilled. The next morning Heena woke up early at the sweet chirping of birds. She tiptoed out of the room and stood on the balcony facing the east. And then she squealed with joy. Both her parents jumped up from bed and rushed to the balcony and then they saw what made Heena scream with joy. A bright rainbow has appeared in the sky and it is just marvelous.  The trio joined their hands and thanked God for this gift.