Kushboo

 

In response to a request made in my post Election 2012 – Yes on Bath Crayons, Jacinta Correa sent me a beautiful tribute she wrote to Kushboo, a student in her school whose life was intertwined with hers in a very powerful, very personal way...

Mid June is ‘back to school’ time in Mumbai, but in June, 1998, Kushboo and I didn’t make it to school on reopening day. A couple of weeks earlier, my casual medical check-up at a local clinic had revealed a malignant tumour…and even as my family and I reeled from this initial shock, we were told the cancer was in a fairly advanced state. I was hospitalized immediately.

It was in hospital that I heard about Kushboo, the little fifth standard child from my school who had been diagnosed with leukemia and was also in hospital, also battling for life. “Every morning at the school assembly we pray for Kushboo and you” my teacher friend, visiting me in hospital, told me.

Two years, several chemo sessions and a surgery later…a miraculous remission…and I was back in school.

And two months after that, we joyously welcomed back a beaming Kushboo. Her father, mother and little brother, all bursting with happiness, distributed sweets in school. It was a beautiful day.

But our joy was short-lived. A couple of months later, Kushboo was sick again and back in hospital.

And again the entire school stormed heaven with prayers as the child struggled painfully with chemotherapy and radiation. But the brave little girl, after fighting back valiantly for almost a year, finally lost her battle against cancer.

I was spared and sweet, innocent, twelve-year-old Kushboo wasn’t. Why?

Indeed as the Bible says: “How unsearchable are His judgments and how inscrutable His ways!” (Romans 11:33).

I’d like to share this tribute of love I wrote for Kushboo, for her classmate and friend to read out, at the school assembly.

(P.S:  Kushboo in Hindi means fragrance) 

Kushboo

Fragrance filled the morning air,

As each day,

We lifted your name to God, in prayer.

And asked the Heavenly Father above

To protect from pain the friend we loved

As quietly in your bed you’d lie,

The pain, we know, sometimes made you cry.

And with anguished hearts we asked God: "Why?

Your little one you so sorely try?”

What His purpose is, we do not know

For a mother’s heart to be shattered so.

For a father’s heart to be frozen in grief, 

As he waited...in vain… for a little reprieve

From a cancer that was taking a terrible toll

Of a beloved daughter and a father’s soul.

While a brave little brother shed silent tears,

His world a blur of anxiety and fears

Three long years you battled on…

Your strength weakening; but your spirit strong.

And in each of our hearts you carved a place.

Our lives have been touched by your courage and grace

And as, once more today, we lift our hearts in prayer,

Kushboo fills the morning air.

And the sweet sad fragrance, all around us, flung

Is the fragrance of courage in one so young.

It’s the fragrance of innocence,

And incredible endurance.

Kushboo, you touched our hearts…

Kushboo, you MADE A DIFFERENCE.

Postscript by Minoo 
Life asks us to be bigger than ourselves; bigger than our limitations of birth, wealth and talent, bigger than our ambitions, sometimes even bigger than the devastating financial, health or relationship setbacks and blows that may strike us at any time.

This tribute to Kushboo stands out to me as a shining example of someone “being bigger than themselves”.

While Jacinta could have focused on herself and the fearful diagnosis that had been handed out to her and all she had been through as a result of it, she instead found the words to write a tribute to Kushboo, the little girl who had lost her life too early.

We all have it in us to be bigger than ourselves.

And it will come out at one time or another.

If you can’t recall a time in your life when you were bigger than yourself, don’t worry.

There’s plenty of time up ahead.

When you do find yourself responding to life’s challenges by being bigger than yourself, I would be honored to hear your story.

As I am honored to hear the stories of so many people who have been bigger than themselves.

My post Lessons From My Personal Heroes tells of a couple (dear friends of mine) who were bigger than themselves in spite of a devastating loss; and my post How to Let Nothing Come Between You and a Fulfilling Life tells of people who have not let their limitations limit their capacity to lead a fulfilling life.

And there are also many untold stories.

Whether it’s my aunt in Delhi teaching her maidservant’s children, my friend Sangeetha in Chennai getting involved in her tailors’ lives, Walnut creek couple Ann and Jim attending to the podiatric needs of the homeless in San Francisco, my friend Anita cleaning the bathrooms of the Buddhist temple in Bangalore, Mercy, the Catholic Charities volunteer visiting my Mum twice a week while I was at work, or people in my own family putting the needs of others first, these stories are uplifting, heartening and have been a shining light to me.

I salute you all and thank you for your example.

Jacinta, I would like to thank you for this beautiful tribute.  

Dear reader, Jacinta will be guest-posting again next week and I have donned my journalist hat (a new hat, for those of you who have read my post “What I Think About When I Wear My Different Hats” and my post “Dare to Share”) to get a brief bio from her and find out what a few of her favorite things are to include with that post.  So do come back again next week.

As always, thanks for reading and have a great day.