Warrior

Found this beautiful post and could not resist sharing: Anup Kumar Bedi's post:

Last week, on my flight from Delhi to Pune, I experienced a moment I'll carry with me for the rest of my life.

I had just settled into my window seat when a little boy, no older than seven, stopped beside me, holding his father's hand.

"Uncle...if it's okay, can I please sit by the window?"

Before I could answer, his father immediately said, "I'm so sorry, sir. Please don't feel obliged. He's been asking since we entered the airport. It's completely alright if you'd like to keep your seat."

I smiled.

"It's yours, champ"

His face lit up instantly.

He rushed to the window, pressed his little hands against the glass for a few moments, smiled..and then, just a few minutes after take-off, rested his head on his father's shoulder and fell asleep.

He slept through almost the entire flight.

About twenty minutes before landing, his father looked at me and smiled.

"I guess he didn't make much use of your window seat."

"That's alright," I replied. "He must be exhausted."

There was a brief silence.

"He is," his father replied softly.

"We've spent the last eight months in Delhi. He has been undergoing treatment for severe aplastic anemia at Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Institute and Research Centre. There were days we didn't know if we'd ever make this journey home. Today is the first day the doctors felt he was well enough to travel."

I looked at the little boy again.

Only a few minutes earlier, I had seen a child asking for a window seat. Now, I saw a little warrior who had spent months fighting for something infinitely more precious than a view above the clouds.

His father then asked me, "Do you know why he wanted the window seat so badly?"

I shook my head.

"He told me, 'Papa, when we're above the clouds, I'll be a little closer to God... and I can say thank you for making me better.'"

I didn't know what to say.

I simply looked away and quietly wiped a tear away from my eyes.

As we walked towards the terminal, his father turned around, smiled and said, "Thank you. You made his day."

The truth is - He had made mine.