#100sareepact Day50<\/p>\n
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?
\nToday, I share with you a poem her mother wrote a few years ago, a promise to her daughter. <\/p>\n
The Butterfly\u2019s Dance \u2013 A Mother\u2019s Promise<\/p>\n
In the jungles of her mind
\nIn a dank and dreary cave
\nSurrounded by much deadwood
\nRarely the joy of day.
\nOnly those creeping crawling vines
\nTwist in to hold their sway
\nCurled up in her little cocoon
\nMy butterfly\u2019s world is dark and grey.<\/p>\n
Many try in vain to find her
\nAnd when almost there
\nThe demons that surround her
\nFrighten them away.
\nUsually efficient messengers
\nScramble here and there
\nMixing up their messages
\nAngry lightning flashes everywhere.
\nRoaring thunder booms around her
\nAll creation seems to shake.<\/p>\n
But then she tries to struggle out
\nIs my butterfly coming awake?
\nSuddenly she smiles at me
\nHer smile lights up my day
\nAs her wide, trusting eyes study my face
\nI touch her hand and say
\nYes, my sweetheart, we\u2019ll find an answer
\nI promise we\u2019ll find a way!
\nWe\u2019ll turn this world upside down
\nAnd we\u2019ll get you out of here.<\/p>\n
With a sword of steel we\u2019ll cut the vines
\nOf hopelessness and despair.
\nA single candle can brighten a cave
\nDark for many a thousand year.
\nA stone, millennia under the sea,
\nContinues to hold fire.<\/p>\n
On the wings of golden sunshine
\nSoaring ever higher
\nBlazing a trail of hope and freedom
\nFor others who live in drear
\nFrom the jungles of your mind, you\u2019ll fly
\nInto flower-kist mountain air.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
#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….<\/p>\n