Light up a Wish
Location: 31.9 N, 99.9 W
The trespassing wind whistled its way through the loose window hinge. It not only threatened to
let the angry storm inside, but also mocked the lone candle flame. The flickering flame, the only source of light, braved the sinister blows of the Arctic blast. The cold monster hungrily invaded the small attic in downtown Texas. Its frigid tongue crippled the state’s electricity grid to a numbed halt.
Ann, a jobless, single mother, desperately unbuttoned her bosom, getting the shivering, now blue lips of her baby close to herself. “Hang on. No, don’t give up as yet,” Ann pleaded to the vanishing candle.
A prayer, a wish, O’ candle hear,
Light up eternal hope, dispel all fear,
The trickling wax, flowing through my eyes,
Burn on endlessly. Use up my fuel, never die.
******
Location: 21.9 N, 95.9 E
Holding candles of gratitude, thousands of teary-eyed protestors gestured the three-finger salute in honour of their martyr ‘angel’, the nineteen-year-old Kyal Sin. Kyal had been shot dead by the Myanmar security forces, as she relentlessly spearheaded the anti-coup protests.
The blood-stained slogan ‘Everything will be ok’ printed on her T-shirt, mocked, as her body lay amidst bleeding candles and wailing flowers. Kyal’s mother froze all grief and emotions inside her heart. Her numbed mind closely guarded her faltering eyes, not letting out even a single tear. She stared at the thousands of gratitude-fuelled candles and said to herself.
A prayer, a wish, O’ candle hear,
Never be out, no one you fear,
Not one, not two, but my daughters all,
I gladly martyr, for my country’s call.
******
Location: 28.4 N, 77.0 E
On the premier’s ‘mitron’ call the entire nation plunged into momentary darkness, followed by the lighting of thousands of lamps and candles. It was a unified show of strength and courage against the doom spelled by the life-threatening virus.
Ramu’s noisy belly grumbled aloud. A migrant worker from Bihar, Ramu had been left hopeless in the ‘Land of the riches’. Gathering his sack full of belongings, he walked out of his makeshift shelter behind the garbage dump.
Ramu’s eyes widened at the sight of the upscale Gurgaon neighbourhood. A fairyland, it glimmered like a star-lit sky. Bells and conches reverberated, sending a thrilling current down his spine.
Hope smiled through those dancing flames. Though he did not have any candle or an igniting hope to light it with, yet he closed his eyes and murmured a wish.
A prayer, a wish, O’ candle hear,
Your dancing flame, a sight so dear,
Hope and light, not a mirage I see,
Your warmth, enlivened, the deadened me.
*****
Often we stand, separated and far,
With latitudinal boundaries and socially mar,
Yet a wish, a prayer, glims in the lighted flame,
Feeding on hope, burn all humans, same.
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