Koi Samjhega Kya

Keeping up my promise to myself to listen to more meaningful and introspective music, I am listening to ghazals ..reviving that exhilaration.And the last one that touched my heart is from the unparalleled album of Jagjit and Chitra, Someone Somewhere –

Koi samjhega kya raaz-e-gulshan
Jab tak uljhe na kaanton mein daaman

How true these lines are…experience is the only real thing in life.Being in the thick of something,undergoing something, living through something , and seeing your loved ones going through something …those tough but real times teach us so much about life and things we never think about in normal conditions.Its doesn’t have to be a huge revelation but just being aware of one small thing that we see, hear,read each day and yet discard as irrevelant.
But again,its too bad that we forget the lessons once the time takes a leap forward –camouflaging,fading and finally erasing those memories. One thing that comes to my mind in this context is my awakening towards blood donation.My husband had always been a Red Cross member and an active blood donator, but I could never relate to it ,though I never stopped or discouraged him from doing it.
And then one day a dear relative of mine was struggling for life and needed more blood than was available for his blood group.And the blood banks didn’t sell blood, they exchanged one bag for another.All of us, friends, relatives gave blood to exchange for the right blood type. And that was the first time, the selfish me did that. And God is great, so he was saved and the importance of donating blood got etched in my mind.
And soon after that there was a blood donation drive at my workplace. I who was always passive and dormant at such events always, but that time, I was a vehement protagonist, the enlightenment just fresh in me.I urged all my colleagues to go ahead and donate, even women who were afraid of the needle prick, I told them that one needle prick can amount to saving a life and was able to persuade, not hundreds, but at least a couple.
That experience didn’t make me a messiah or philanthropist, but just made me feel the pulse and made me aware.