The helping hand

It's the holiday season here in Karlsruhe. The schools closed on 26th July and will start on 11th September. You can see people scurrying with bags and kids on all the bus and tram and train stations. The weather is also thankfully better than the last two weeks where the heatwave had gripped Europe again. With no vacations planned, T and I are in Karlsruhe listening to other people's plans of going on summer vacations in admiration and awe.

T suddenly took ill on Wednesday midnight when he puked twice. After cleaning up, we slept at about 3:30 am and as I had to go somewhere, I dropped him to the daycare run by the school during the first three weeks of summer holidays. He doesn't like it much there but I had no choice and he had to go there last week and this week. I got a call from the daycare at about 11:30 to pick him up as he was not feeling well. I got into a slight panic mode as I had an important appointment on Friday and I couldn't miss it or postpone it and T was not in good health to go the daycare. The other kids could catch it too and so it is usually discouraged. I didn't know what to do and there was no one in the neighborhood who could look after him for the whole day, ruining their own plans.

Thankfully he slept well through the night on Thursday without any problems. That was a good sign but I was not sure if he would make it to the daycare on Friday morning. I didn't want to pressurize him to go as his health was not good.

The only person I could think of was my Brazilian friend, Lucia whom I met during the Buddhist chanting last year. She is a very warm and loving lady. She is extremely open and always ready to help. I called her up and explained the situation to her and she readily agreed to look after Tanay while I finished my appointment. She came to pick him up in the morning today and also dropped me to the place where I had to go. She took him home, fed him, played with him. Her cat and her son played with Tanay too. I had called her to check on him at 12 pm and he was quite happy there and didn't want to talk to me on the phone.

I picked him up in the afternoon after I finished my work and he didn't want to come home. He wanted to stay at her place and play with her son who was 18 years old. Boys of any age bond with each other, don't they? I asked him how the day went and he exclaimed that it was a million times better than in the daycare. I knew in my heart that he was absolutely fine now and that we could go to Copenhagen as planned on Sunday.

I am not a religious person. I don't pray every day. I don't do any rituals at home. I don't know if God exists. But I know for sure that he comes and visits me in the form of people like Lucia. Earlier it was my Indian friend, Ajita who helped me a lot of times to babysit Tanay and now today God came in the form of Lucia. I can't thank her enough as I don't know what I would have done had she declined to help me. Life always surprises me and I am thankful to the Almighty that he keeps an eye on me and looks after me when I need him.

God does come in all shapes and sizes and forms!