Chiming Words by Kalai Selvi Arivalagan (inspirational books TXT) 📕

The bell rang exactly by 10 a.m. in the morning. Recess time. Once the teacher left the class, the little girls started to run around the hut that housed Class III. Every girl from the class took turn to chime the little bell that Rachel hung near the black board.

It was Sheila’s turn on that day. She chimed the bell. The rest of the girls clapped their hands and giggled together.

Sheila smiled at Rachel.

“Stop.” Rachel looked keenly at her.

“Don’t move. Stand still.” Puzzled, Sheila stood there silently.

Rachel picked a thin hair from her cheeks. “It is a hair from your eyebrow.”

“Open your right hand.” Rachel placed it on her palm.  

“Close your eyes. Now make a wish. Open your eyes and blow it high up in the air.”

Sheila blew the thin hair from the middle of her palm. It flew from her palm and drifted slowly out of the class sailing smoothly in the afternoon breeze.

“Don’t tell anyone what you wished. It will come true in 90 days.”

Even after four decades, Sheila remembered the incident. Childhood innocence always brings peace to a person’s heart and it made her smile.

Today things are different. Children are born with a matured attitude and never enjoy the bliss of childhod innocence. As they grow, they have nothing childish to count and they enter the adult life depressed and unhappy. Challenges and cut throat competition force them to work constantly and run behind materialistic wealth.

The alarm bell went on non-stop.

"Snooze.  I want sleep for ten more minutes." 

Not opening her eyes, Sheila dismissed the alarm bell.

To get up so early in the morning around 4:30 a.m., when all people in the neighbourhood were fast asleep, initially sounded a great idea.  But, when it became a routine, it changed into something that she hated and she could not help feeling depressed and unhappy.

"No one asked you to get up so early.  It is you who make everyone suffer for your sake." Her younger sister frowned at her. Next few minutes, she was fast asleep.

But, for her getting up so early in the dawn and watch the dissolving colors on the morning sky started the day with bliss.  Nature blessed her with the peace of mind.

The chiming of the door bell in the morning annoyed many at home.  The maid always left the milk sachets in the bag at the door-knob and pressed the bell only once.  Sheila always wakes up to get the milk sachets and leave them in the fridge.

Morning bells annoyed everyone to a greater extent. Life in a city engulfed with noise and pollution tested the patience.  Though we complain every day about all these issues, they get merged into our lives.  When we move to some other town, we tend to miss all these nuisance. 

There are days when someone knocks at the door during late hours, everyone wakes up with a shock to know what the news is.  Knocking replaced with the musical door bell did not shock or made anyone shiver.  It helped people to get ready to expect the unexpected.

 Sheila remembered the days when misfortune knocked their family at the doors.  Every moment turned out to be something painful and there were long days that stretched into agony finally ending in sleepless nights.  Never, and ever she would expect anyone to go through such a pain that could bring a permanent change in their brain cells.  Everyone at home walked around without talking or smiling.  Hunger was the only thing that communicated with them. Lost in the past, she blinked away her tears. No one will wish to live those days again that were lost in hunger and pain.  Enjoy your life to the full in the present.  But that needs a wiser heart.  Once again the door bell chimed.

"Sheila, I am leaving."  Her friend Kavya, who lived next door called.

"Wait, wait. I am coming."  She dashed through the doors to catch her for she did not want to miss the free ride on her bike.

"When are you going to get your own?" Kavya queried.

"In this traffic, it will be hell. I never want to ride on my own." Sheila sighed. The traffic congestion on roads in the morning will test the tolerance level of the riders and she felt it is always best to walk than ride.

"Leave me at the parlour." Sheila requested Kavya.

"Why so in the morning? Is it not late to the office?"

"No, we have a client meet in the morning."

"Carry on." With a smile Kavya waved her bye.

Sheila entered the temple when all the bells went chiming together.  It is the time for the evening pooja.

Chiming bells ushered her a better time.

For her everyone looked happy. Little children beaming with happy smiles kept running around the pillars at the temple.

A  bell that chimes from the temple or a church meant the same for her.  The morning bell that chimed from the church resonanated far and wide bringing hopes in her heart.  She felt some blessings are in store for her.

At the temple when the big, heavy bell that chimed on every special occasion to announce the blissful blessings brought by the chanting at the temple yards. She could relate her heart to the feelings that the bell chimes evoked in her and her eyes brimmed with tears, forget to blink for a while.  Not feeling ashamed if anyone would see her crying, she will silently rub the tears with her saree.

Life after ten decades still sounded challenging.  Years rolled with pain now seemed gigantic and she could not tell what gave her the mental strength to face all those struggles.

Even the challenges that she overcame during initial days of marriage looked trivial and she would have find out a better option to solve those family issues. Nothing except saving her marriage seemed to be the utmost important thing in the world. Sheila knew how her parents struggled to bring in an alliance for her and get her married. 

With her father's business ruined, they had to face days of hunger with less food or without food.  She remembered the days when her younger sister didn't even complain about not having anything to eat, but climbed the guava tree at the front yard and plucked some fruits and started to eat.

Thinking about those days, she was not ready to forget and forgive those who brought such an agony into their family that destroyed the peace at home.

The place looked crowded. Morning hours are never busy there. A very few clients preferred morning visits and Sheila found it comfortable for she need not spend much time waiting for her turn.

"Please stay still."  The lady with the twine thread twisted on her fingers, started to pluck the hair on the right eye brow.

Publication Date: 07-28-2018

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Dedication:
Eyebrow tweezers that change your look