#100sareepact Day50

I wore this Sanganeri block- printed saree ( a repeat) a week ago, on the 21st of September. That is a date that is etched in our hearts in acid. 24 years ago that evening, a happy, beautiful, bright-eyed, baby girl was given a vaccine to protect her from some dreaded childhood diseases. Within a few hours, the sparkle in her eyes was gone and her smile was not seen again over the next few months. Brain damage was the diagnosis. To use a couple of simplistic analogies, the circuitry of her brain was all tangled up and the ‘messenger’ chemicals functioning abnormally. Can you imagine receiving electric shocks, even though really tiny ones, a 100 times or more a day?
Today, I share with you a poem her mother wrote a few years ago, a promise to her daughter.

The Butterfly’s Dance – A Mother’s Promise

In the jungles of her mind
In a dank and dreary cave
Surrounded by much deadwood
Rarely the joy of day.
Only those creeping crawling vines
Twist in to hold their sway
Curled up in her little cocoon
My butterfly’s world is dark and grey.

Many try in vain to find her
And when almost there
The demons that surround her
Frighten them away.
Usually efficient messengers
Scramble here and there
Mixing up their messages
Angry lightning flashes everywhere.
Roaring thunder booms around her
All creation seems to shake.

But then she tries to struggle out
Is my butterfly coming awake?
Suddenly she smiles at me
Her smile lights up my day
As her wide, trusting eyes study my face
I touch her hand and say
Yes, my sweetheart, we’ll find an answer
I promise we’ll find a way!
We’ll turn this world upside down
And we’ll get you out of here.

With a sword of steel we’ll cut the vines
Of hopelessness and despair.
A single candle can brighten a cave
Dark for many a thousand year.
A stone, millennia under the sea,
Continues to hold fire.

On the wings of golden sunshine
Soaring ever higher
Blazing a trail of hope and freedom
For others who live in drear
From the jungles of your mind, you’ll fly
Into flower-kist mountain air.