The Hospital Window

Two men Zeshan and Mahinder who were both seriously ill, shared the same room in a hospital. Zeshan got a bed next to the room’s only window. Both of them were so ill that they could not get up from the bed and were completely bedridden

Getting bored in the hospital room together, the two of them quickly bonded and started talking for hours altogether. They talked about their lives, their job, children and wives. When there was nothing left to talk about, Zeshan whose bed was just next to the window started describing all the things he could see outside the window.

He told Mahinder that the hospital overlooked a lovely park in the mountain valley. It was spring season and there were flowers all around children came every evening and played till the sun went down. There was a river passing by the park where children use to sail their boats. People came to the park for their morning and evening walks. The window also gave a beautiful view of the city skyline. Every day he uses to describe the beautiful sunsets and rises behind the mountain ranges. Mahinder began to live for that part of the day when Zeshan would tell him what was happening in the city outside. Even though he was a bit envious of Zeshan, Mahinder uses to hear and visualize the world outside the hospital room.

Days and weeks passed by, one morning, a nurse arrived to examine the condition of the two patients sadly to find the lifeless body of Zeshan. Mahinder grieved the death of his roommate and as the day passed by he started missing the way his roommate described the view out of the window. Since life outside that small hospital room was the only thing keeping him alive, he always wished to peek out of the window and the beautiful world outside. Thus he requested the nurse several times to move him to the bed next to the window. After repeated requests, one day nurse moved Mahinder to the bed next to the window. He was very excited and happy thinking about the fact that he would finally able to see the beautiful park, the mountain ranges the sunsets, the sun rises and the city lights which his friend use to describe. As soon as he was comfortable in his new bed, the slowly and painfully propped himself to take his first look at the world outside, just to see a blank white wall outside the window. He was appalled and agitated and looking for answers. He asked the nurse that “Zeshan described everything so vividly did the hospital authorities construct new wall recently?”

The nurse shook her head and said “Perhaps he just wanted to encourage you and make you happy, Zeshan was totally blind”.

Mahindera realized that despite his own illness Zeshan was making him happy. He was aware of the fact that Mahinder was envious of that little window on the wall next to him so he decided to make him happy and started to tell beautiful stories about the view from the window. All this motivated made Mahinder and fasten his recovery process; it gave him a reason to be happy and live life.