Healing

Once upon a time, there lived two childhood friends. Ali and Bahishte. They both seemed to share a lot in common. Soul mates as villagers called them. 

Ali had a special interest in healing. He belonged to the family of alchemist. He had grown up seeing his father heal people through magical potions and mixtures. He had a keen interest in becoming like his father one day. 

Bahishte teased him often. "Oh God, you're just obsessed with healing and potions. You just see the world as so imperfect, jumping on the opportunity to heal. There is more to world." He would say. 

Ali would just laugh it off. His sparkle in the eyes won't dim even for a second when the topic of healing would ever come into any discussion. He indeed did seem obsessed. He would often bug his father to teach him the lessons. "I want to heal the world. I want to heal everyone. Imagine, everyone believing in Magic." He'd put his argument forward, enthusiastically trying his best to convince his father. 

His father, however, would always smile and say "Let the time come. You'd learn yourself. Till then, you can just watch how I mix these ingredients here. It is lesson number one. Watch."

And then, he'd watch. day after day, he'd just sit in his father's lab watching as his father would listen to people coming in; pouring their mysterious descriptions of unknown ailments. He admired his father's patience. That assuring smile that seemed capable of healing absolutely anyone perhaps. 

He would spend his early mornings in his father's lab and all evenings with Bahishte, exploring fields and mountains nearby. They'd often stop to chat with the kids from the other villages, collecting wood on the way for old ladies of their own village. 

One day, Ali noticed that Bahishte wasn't well. He seemed different. In pain. Upon insisting, Bahishte shared how he has been in pain since weeks. Unknown ailment. Possessed by the idea of helping his soulmate, Ali ran to his father's lab. Confident that he'd be able to help. 

He tried a mix of potions. He tried helping. But for Bahishte didn't seem to improve in health. Tired and feeling helpless, he went to his father. His father listened patiently. He promised he'd help. However, for Bahishte, nothing seemed to be working and eventually, the villagers had to take him to the city for further help. Ali was left behind. Dejected. Helpless. Nothing had ever torn him before as the feeling of being unable to help. He realized he did not have his father's magical powers perhaps. The ache of failing to heal his own soulmate seemed to be tearing him from within. So much so, that the pain shattered his life, broke him into million pieces within and changed his entire perception of Magic, pain and Healing. 

He seemed to have fallen ill himself. He knew he had been unwell since childhood. But he had coped it well knowing that he was a healer's son, he had kept himself intact. But now, the knowledge of his failure to heal, made me weak against his own system. With his perception of self failure, his immunity to his own ailment weakened. 

One evening, weakly opening his eyes, he felt his father sitting beside him. Warming radiating the patient smile. "Baba, what do you do when you fail yourself? When you fail to heal yourself and others? When you fail being what your really want to be? When you mess up?" 

Ali's father smiled. He took Ali in his arms, took his hand and put it on his Ali's heart and said, "You feel the pain here? You feel it. That is how you heal when you fail. When your magic fails, when your potion fails, when you fail, when you mess up, you don't let yourself die. You feel the pain to stay alive. You let it heal you. Yes, the pain heals you. You let it do its work. You breath it out by sending a prayer. By saying a prayer. Nothing is bigger than a potion of medicine as a prayer. Nothing would heal your soulmate as much as your prayer."

When all else fails, visit yourself, visit Bahishte, inhale all his pain, hold your breath. Run towards the Healer of healers. Exhale the pain in a whisper of a prayer. And watch the Healer repair what's shattered.