Blessed!

As you may have guessed from my previous post, things haven't been going too well this week, and everyday something goes really wrong and I feel stressed and irritated, and like I said, provoked.

Today was one more such aggravating event... aaah, its not exactly the world's biggest emergency, but I happened to have twisted my ankle really badly and now am unable to walk around and have to be in bed nursing myself back to normalcy...

But I'll tell you why I'm not feeling aggravated, and not feeling like I'd throwing myself under a moving bus or something! (Because believe me, this stupid sprain has really bad timing!) It's because I've been blessed with these people who've taken great care of me! Thank God for small mercies!

This is how it all began.. I got off the bus this evening and was crossing the road to the other side to catch my connecting bus home.. there was a huge pothole kind of thing in the middle of the road that I didn't see and promptly, my high heeled shoes (there's just 1.5 inches!) caught in the middle of the freakin hole and my ankle twisted 180 degrees totally, and I lost my balance... luckily I managed to catch myself in time (by only some wonderful stroke of luck, due to which I wasn't looking like a total fool splayed across the road!) but I was knocked out of breath! Anyways, the pain wasn't that bad then and I managed to make small talk with the guy who came to help me... now this is very interesting... some sense of humour these people have.. I was just regaining control when this guy asks me "Are you Indian?"... I thought, fine time he's chosen to make polite conversation! But I answered yes, and he's like "Yeah... don't know how to walk in high heeled shoes, do ya?!".... !!!! Although I laughed right back at him and pointed to the offending pothole, I was bewildered by his joke! Hehehe... anyways, he's obviously not one of the people I was blessed with this evening, so lets move on...

I'm staying at a guesthouse right now, which is run by a young couple (lets call them J and D) who are really great people, very friendly and cheerful! There are other guests also, infact on Sunday we all had a barbeque and had a lot of fun talking and enjoying a nice fall day together! Anyways, I called J shortly after I realized that I couldn't walk 5 steps without getting paralyzed with pain! I explained the situation to him and requested if he can pick me up, because I just would'nt have been able to manage the walk from bus stop etc... he was so wonderful, he came right away! unfortunately I was waiting on the other side from where he parked his car, and my otherwise loud voice carried no further than 5 feet when I called out to him! He left by the time I wobbled to the other side at top speed, and then I found him 10 mins later on the side that I'd just left!! So ofcourse, more wobbling, panting, paralyzing etc took place but I didnt catch him in time... anyways, finally he called me again and picked me up, inspite of having made 3 trips from his house to the bus station already!

Back home, his wife took care of arranging dinner etc for me and making me comfortable... had the food delivered to me at the dining table, which is a rare or almost unknown thing here, especially for those not in the same family!

And then one of the guests came in... she'd been through this before, and knew exactly what to do... because there was nothing available at home right away, she walked to the nearest pharmacy and bought me an icebag and bandage, all of her own accord! Then she helped me with putting it on.... and finally, when it was time for me to go upto my room (it doesn't help that I stay on the 3rd floor!), she actually carried my laptop bag, my handbag and my shoes upstairs for me! And from nowhere, J produced a pair of crutches (he'd also sprained his ankle a few months back), and they both taught me how to use it... and slowly but steadily I hopped, skipped and jumped upstairs, and now am safely tucked into bed.. delirious because of the painkiller I was finally forced to eat, but happy to be resting!

And it makes me ever so grateful to see how much out of their way these literal strangers went for me! I am alone in this city, as in these people are not my friends in the real sense... we just met a week back! But I'm just so touched with their kindness, that I feel blessed! I consider that I could be totally alone, trying to cope with the whole thing myself (which I could do, but its miserable!)... but I have all these people to take care of me.. didn't make me miss my family for a bit, in a time of trouble!

And I thought people didn't care anymore. Misconception. Especially if you reach out for help instead of trying to do it all by yourself (I would in normal circumstances be too shy to ask for help, and would rather have taken the bus in agony than "bothered" these people).

Nice. The pain is there. But I'm not miserable. There is a God, somewhere! (everywhere!)