The Beautiful Heart

Arushi was only seven years old. Her cousin Rajat who was twenty years old, was studying medicine. Arushi thought he was already a doctor, so she called him Doctor Bhayia (brother).

One day she went to his room and found him studying a big book. She climbed onto his lap and asked, “Doctor Bhayia, what is this?” He said, “This is a picture of the human heart. There is one like that in all of us.” She looked at it curiously, as if trying to understand everything! He caught her little hand to place over his heart and said, “Can you feel how its beating? It works hard all day to pump blood. I am writing an article on the heart for my presentation.”

“May I help you?” asked Arushi, her eyes shining.

Rajat looked at her, hiding his smile and said, “Sure, you write something for me and I’ll put it into my work. Off you go now.”

Arushi sat down to work seriously. She wrote her article and gave it to Doctor Bhayia. On the day of the presentation, he read out his article that was a very good piece on the functioning of the heart. Then he said, “Sir, I seek your permission, to speak for another minute, to share with you, what my seven year old sister has to say on this topic.”

The Professor in-charge was baffled, but all the same he nodded his head in assent. This is what Rajat read out:

1 All of us have biiiig hearts. My heart does dhak-dhak all the time. My heart is red.
2 It is in circolatury system and pumps all the blood.
3 My heart loves all parts of my body. If my heart did not give love I would die.
4 My heart is cracked and breaked when people say a bad things to it.
5 When Raju break my dolly, a part of my heart cried and died.
6 When I get new toys my heart jumps.
7 My heart is soooo big, that I can put so many people into it.
8 Only God knows how to make new hearts so we should try not to break them.
9 Mama says God lives in all hearts. Then why do people fight?

There was pin-drop silence. Then the Professor rose up from his seat and started clapping One by one, everyone stood up to give a standing ovation. Little Arushi had seen beyond what doctors see. She had seen beyond the mechanics, the flesh and the blood. Truly she had understood the real functioning of the heart!