Cupid Naka

My friends never forget to remind me that I am the biggest pessimist they have ever seen in their entire lifetime. They taunt me saying the sun must have forgotten to shine on the day I was born; hence I never seem to see the brighter side of life. What they don't know is that I came into the world in the darkest hour of mid-night. I used to feel that the hour I chose to make my entry into this earth was ominous of the dark and dismal life destiny had chosen for me. And very recently I took a personality test quiz in facebook and the result confirmed what my friends told me all the time, "Nobody likes you. You walk like a zombie…….." I stopped reading any further, pessimist that I was I didn't want it to ruin my entire day.

But the tremor of 21st September, 2009, that shook the whole eastern Dzongkhag changed the way I looked at life and people living it. May be God leaves its signs in awkward places so that we can earth it at the most unlikely places at the most unlikely hour. It gave the insight of the dark side of Mother Nature when she shook with her anger which seemed to have filled to the brim. So strong was her wrath that people started talking of more of her fury to follow. Following the cue, we chose the open fields to take us in its embrace to save ourselves from her wrath. It was way past mid- night but sleep had eluded the eyes of the people who had gathered in the public ground. People from all walks of life had bundled up in that ground, seeking mercy from the changing mood of Mother Nature. I cuddled up beside my seven months old baby, partly to keep her warm and partly to suppress the tremor in my heart (I was scared, really scared that day). "Are you new here? I've never seen you around here?" a male voice reached my ears. I turned around wondering who could be asking me that question. In the darkness I couldn't see their faces but the way they sat facing each other, I sensed their bodies speaking volumes about the unease they were feeling in being so close to each other. I realized the question wasn't intended for me. I wasn't eavesdropping but since they were quite near to me, my ears caught up their conversation. I came to know that the shy girl was a baby sitter who lived in the hospital colony and had come out because of earthquake but otherwise was never allowed to tread outside her employer's house. The boy was a sales boy of the most popular shop located in the heart of the town. Many easy talks and giggles later, I understood that the two had already discarded their uneasiness and had professed love so true to each other. As love seeped deep in their heart I felt my previous inhibitions about the earthquake changing and slowly I found the goddess of sleep blessing me with her hand

On that day (should I say night?) I remembered Helen Keller's Nature in not always kind and just couldn't help seeing the positive side of such a disastrous day. Nature had been cruel to many of us but for these two people who found each other in such hour, Ap Naka had become their cupid. Had there been no Ap Naka they would have never met each other.