Silver Lining in the Sky - A Story

Silver Lining in the Sky

We often come to here the proverb that life is not bed of roses. It may seem the old and overused statement, but, it really is true. We often judge happiness pleasure in lives by economic prosperity, which does not holds true for all the cases. People may have a lot of money, but, are still unhappy and have forlorn because they feel that money cannot buy everything for them. and in case of lack of prosperity, the life itself became difficult because a person fails to fulfill his dreams and cannot buy or get according to his wishes. People may have experiences that may change affect their whole life and transform them to a completely different one. Such experiences can either make a person a sad loser or transform him to a successful and wise person, these results are dependent on the personality of the person and how he sees his situation o r world.

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I have listened about and observed a person who with the power of optimism and hopefulness changed his miserable and depressed life into the a shining example for everyone. This narrative is about one of the sons of our maid Zainab, who used to work in our since our childhood. I have not seen anyone so honest and dedicated in her life, as Zainab. When I was toddler, she was a middle aged woman and had two sons and one daughter. With the time she spent I our home and the long time for which she worked, she was considered the most entrusted servant of our house and we use to leave our house in her supervision alone and go for hours, but, never found anything misplaced or stolen.

The long detail about Zainab is actually related to her son also. My mom told me that Zainab was not always the same poor and unfortunate women. She herself belonged to an uneducated and mediocre family, but, her husband was a really rich man and against the Arabic traditions, he married Zainab without consultation from his family, that’s why his family stayed away from him forever. Her husband used to work as the successful broker in stock exchange, but, unluckily, he invested in a unsuccessful company hoping that later it will bring more money to him, but his plan failed and he lost all money. This happened after eight years of his marriage with Zainab. A few weeks after that the family was travelling and they got into accident, her husband died on spot her elder son Khalid apparently bruised his legs only.

The death of Khalid’s mother came as real loss for the family, with no sources of income and lack of education, unfortunately Zainab had to go to peoples home and work as maid. She used to work her in several homes to feed them. Khalid was seven, when his mother started working as maid. Initially he got really depressed, when he had to see his mother sweeping the floors of others because he himself led the life, where people used to do work for them. Khalid became really quiet after the death of his father and also really sensitive. Being the eldest he realized that he has to take care of his siblings, but, still the difference in lifestyle and daily routine put a lot of pressure on the nerves of the child. He was always a happy and confident child, but, he started having nightmares and never wanted to leave his mother’s side. He used to wonder why all this happened to him and his family.

It was the time he started getting lazy and also started complaining about pain in his legs. Initially everyone felt that he could not adjust in accordance with the present circumstances. His complaining did not stop and with the passage of time deformation in his legs were observed. Later his mother took him to doctor. After looking at his condition, the dr. inquired, whether Khalid was vaccinated for polio, the mother denied any such knowledge. After tests, it was revealed that Khalid had polio and had become paralyzed for his life. It was another shock for the family, but, his strong hearted mother always consoled him and taught his to see silver lining in the sky. With the passage of time Khalid learned that life without hope s useless. But, he was still young boy at that time. Lives without father and also as a paralyzed person seem to be really difficult for him. The real shock came after world. When his father lost his fortune, most of their acquaintances left them on their own, like they had contact ad acquaintances with them only because of their fortune. Even their family friends left them. He used to wonder, why people stopped meeting them and coming to their house. He didn’t realize anything until his father died and they were left alone in the world and without any financial aid.

Soon after his mother started working as the maid for people, the remaining people stopped their contact and even forbade their children to play with them. They also have to shift in a smaller place, which was in a slum. Their new friends and acquaintances were the people of that slum. When he got polio, even his new friends started teasing him for his present condition and used to call him by the names of handicap, disfigured and game legged. Hearing such words and being called by his fellows was a real pain for him. He was also fond of soccer before his disability; the pain that he cannot play soccer for ever brought his more pain in the heart. The main issue was that due to lack of finances, he did not have clutches or wheelchair. It means that he was totally dependent on the other for his movements and the daily routine. Most pain came from the fact that, in the slums people were illiterate and had no knowledge of disease polio. Most of the people thought that it was an infectious disease and told their children not to visit Khalid again. How much pain the little boy might have suffered after losing fortune, father and later his friends, who were the only hope at that difficult time?

In that time of despair, his mother used to tell him that how they were facing difficulties because she was not educated and did not have awareness about the necessity and essentiality of vaccination. He learned from his mother that a person can bring positive change in his life by studying because it is only education that can bring prosperity and happiness in their lives. He started taking interest in studies, with the help of one of his employers, Zainab sent her son to a public school. Initially the little boy also got rejected from most of his fellow students, but, his hope and vision of future did not let him go astray. Whenever he felt dejected, his mother was always there to console him. In spite of behavior of his fellow students, he continued to work hard and gave proper attention to his studies. He never felt ashamed that he as to ask a question again and again because he did not get that first time. His attitude helped him to clear his concepts, which later helped him in increase in his knowledge. At the end of that academic year, Khalid got second position in his class. It was after that, he felt that behavior of his fellow students started changing with him. He was listened to and was respected by his fellow students. This made him realize that how education can help him to earn respect.

But, still that was not the end of his misfortunes, the time in which he was supposed to take admission in high school, his youngest sister got really ill and the money that had been set aside for his admission in high school was spent on his sister’s treatment. His sister was playing when she tripped while running and a piece of metal entered her arm near wrist. That was a really deep cut and she lost a lot of blood. He used to love his youngest sister a lot and could not see her in such pain. He started thinking that due to lack of money he could not get admission in high school and his beloved sister could not get better treatment. They had to take their sister out of hospital early because they did not have enough money. In her home her stitches got infected, but, they could not take her to hospital. Later the infection spread in her whole arm and they had to cut it, in order to save rest of her body. This was another shock for Khalid, as he felt really helpless because he could not help his sister. He even thought of leaving further education, but, again the hope that his education can help them to survive in this world helped him to continue struggling. Khalid was really bright student and watching this, my father gave money for his admission in highs school. In high school, he worked even harder and passed with distinction. This gave him opportunity to take admission in college with scholarship.

He got admission in the college with scholar ship and chose accounting as the major. In spite of being the difficult subject, his hard work helped him to make it easier for him. This path was also not easy for him. Here also, he had to bear the typical attitude of the people towards handicapped. Some totally rejected him and some gave more than necessary attention to him. He always wanted to be treated as normal people, but, his wish was never fulfilled. He showed even better result here and later on scholarship got admission in Chartered Accountancy course. The path was although difficult for him, but was not possible to achieve. He believed that his hard work could help him to achieve whatever he wanted. But, in meantime, his mother got ill and they lost their source of finances temporarily. In order to feed his family and get money for her treatment, he had to take tuitions. But, the expensive were more and the tuitions that he used to give students could not get him enough money. Because of this pressure, he had to leave studies temporarily. He requested for his semester to be frozen and took a minor job at an office. This job along with the tuitions enabled him to give proper treatment to his mother. After the period of six months his mother got recovered and went on her previous job. He continued his studies, but, still gave tuitions because it helped his sibling to get a slightly better living.

His efforts and hard work gave his fruits when he passed Chartered Accountancy exam with distinction. His excellent educational record and personal traits like perseverance and hard work helped him to get job in on of the top accountancy firms of the country. He got two promotions in the time of five years and now he is working as a successful professional and his family is leading really good life with better lifestyle.

Their family still visits us occasionally and the company and the life of Khalid taught me that nothing is difficult in life. We may face difficulties and misfortunes, but, instead of giving importance to them, we should keep our focus on the silver lining in the sky. Khalid once said that his disability proved to be an actual opportunity in disguise. Because before this disability, he was not serious and determined about doing anything good with his life, later, with the encouragement of his mother he learned the importance of education and hope. He believes that life without hope is nothing. After watching him and listening about his journey, I came to realize that the difficulties in life cannot stop a person from doing anything good because when there is hope and will there is always a promise of better future.