Readers' Reflections

I feel blessed that last week's Desktop Doodles, "Hear us in Heaven", touched so many hearts. Readers' comments, letters, and messages, in which they narrated their own, similar stories as that of last week's protagonist, filled the inbox, in what I call a "delightful deluge".

- DOLA MITRA

Reading them touched the heart. I cannot possible publish all of them here or in the comments corner because it would take up pages. However, I'll share a few of them with you today. Perhaps on another day, the others.

Our reader, Avinash Godbole of Dewar, Madhya Pradesh, wrote, "I too as an aspiring writer, wished that my story/letter would find a place in a well-known English daily or a magazine. Decades ago, we were regular readers of The Illustrated Weekly of India and another magazine for the youth, The Junior Statesman. My father was a devotee of Khushwant Singh's literary style and his views on religion, life and politics. That being so, it was his ardent desire that at least one of my letters should appear in this magazine. One week, the much anticipated letter did appear, but my father was not alive to seeit. By then, he had unexpectedly passed away due to some mysterious disease, despite the best efforts of doctors. On seeing the small letter which also had an accompanying poem by Cecil Frances Alexander, tears welled up in my eyes. I too placed the magazine in front of my father's black and white photograph, folded my hands and said to myself, "I wish you were alive to see this." I quote below the famous opening stanza of the poem which, despite the decades gone by, I still remember:

All things bright and beautiful, All creatures great and small, All things wise and wonderful, The Lord God made them all.