Have you ever felt the presence of God so close?

A few years ago….

October 20, 2.45 pm

Isolation Ward, Ernakulam General Hospital, Kerala

I went to the Isolation ward of the general hospital to write a story on the plight of patients who were abandoned by their families (I am a journalist by profession). When some were too poor to take care of them, some did not want to take the burden.

Most of them were older people suffering from cancer, HIV, mental illness. Inside the ward, I saw a man lying on a mat in the middle of the room. His cheerful face pulled me towards him and I knelt beside him to know more.

He was Anwar Hasan from Karnataka. He could neither sit nor stand. There was a red kit placed near him which was full of devotional books. Every day, he reads them religiously. And he was lying there for the past two years. My eyes welled with tears.

But his pleasant face surprised me. There was no ranting and raving and no regrets. He was a lottery ticket seller. When he was paralyzed due to an accident, his family abandoned him.

I was so surprised that he never complained about them and said “ My father was also bed ridden and my mother had to spend her whole life looking after him. My father is dead and she is too old to look after me the way she used to look after my father. How could she be of any help to me? My brother is married and I do not want to be a stumbling block in his life.”

He continued and surprisingly with no moistness in his eyes “You know why I have to endure this for I never prayed before. Now I do. And God comes to me every day. Yesterday too ‘ Easappan’, (Malayalam word/slang for Jesus) came and talked to me. Allah loves me. Lord Krishna loves me. What do I want more from this life? I am his child now. Earlier, I was not.

He was not stoic or trying to cope with the tragedy that struck his life. He was speaking from the heart and I could feel it. When he said Jesus came and sat beside him and spoke to him, I could feel 'HIM' kneeling beside him and talking to him. I felt may be, I was sitting where Jesus came and sat the other day. I know, I sound incredible and for some of you, I might sound frivolous too. But that was what I felt. I am not religious but spiritual and I felt it, truly and honestly.

(Just dusting off some of the memories)