Heaven and hell, if they are God's way of dispensing justice—where would Mumpy Sarkar be now? When one throws crumbs in the rich man's world, the world heaps accolades—when one gives her life in love how are we to react?
Questions such as above and endless others, flashes through my mind as I write this saga with tearful eyes. This story is from Jhorpara village, West Bengal, India where a poor family finds them utterly helpless in the face of nature's adversity. A young son is diagnosed with failing kidneys, and the treatment is beyond the means of the family. And if it were not enough, the family's travail is multiplied when the father is diagnosed to lose eyesight, if not operated upon quickly.
12-year-old Mumpy listens as her parents discuss how the dual strike is going to impact their lives, and how a kidney transplant could make her brother whole again, and how an eye surgery could restore her father's vision. Alas! Only if they had money!
The story makes Mumpy sad, but she comes out with a plan—she would kill herself and donate her own organs to her family. She drinks poison, a common pesticide the farmer's use, and despite her family's desperate effort to save her life she succumbs.
Following Hindu tradition, Mumpy's body is cremated. The next day her father finds a note, that Mumpy had left, and only then he comes to know of her plan, only too late!
Or, is it really too late?
Is Mumpy's sacrifice really in vain?
If her story stops even one person for a moment to reflect on her ultimate gift to her family, if it gives even one person, a moment of glimpse of divine glory—God's unfathomable design, and if even for a tiny moment it opens a window in one's heart through which celestial light can shine—on just one person's life—is that not enough to say Mumpy's life was not in vain?
First published on Technorati
