Love Song

Karan’s mother was expecting her second baby. She had told Karan about it and he used to lay his ear on his mother’s stomach to listen for ‘baby sounds’. When the baby started kicking, he loved to put his hands on Mama’s tummy and feel the baby inside. Karan used to sing a lullaby to the baby every evening before he went to bed.

When the baby girl was born, there was some complication and she had to be kept in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Despite the best of medical care the baby’s condition kept deteriorating. On the fourth day, the doctors told the parents, that the chances of her survival were bleak.

All these days, Karan had been pleading with his mother to let him see his baby sister. No one had allowed him to enter the ICU. The next day, Karan’s mother, jostled her way past the doorman at the ICU, holding Karan’s hand fast. She wanted Karan to see his sister alive, at least once. The doorman shouted in annoyance, but today mama was going to fulfill her son’s wish. Come what may!

Once they reached the crib where the tinny little baby lay almost lifeless, Karan started stroking her hair with his gentle hands. He started singing to his little sister, just as he used to, before she was born.

“Good night, sleep tight,
Wake up, bright in the morning light.
To do what’s right, with all your might.
To do what’s right, with all your might.”

Miraculously, the baby stirred, as if she was trying to respond to this, wonderfully familiar lullaby. By now even the nurse on duty was taken in. She encouraged Karan to continue.

A few days passed, the ‘little therapist’ as the paediatrician had branded him, would visit his little sister every day and sing to her, caress her and give her his love. The baby improved speedily.

On the fifteenth day, Karan sang the lullaby to his baby sister at their home; for she was as fit as a fiddle. This is the power of love and it is surely the greatest power on Earth.