Who is our soulmate? That’s a great question! The concept of health being our only soulmate is a metaphorical one and highlighting its unique and irreplaceable role in our lives is the need of an hour. The question, although clichéd and threadbare, is still quite significant, seminal and timely. Most of the people have ready answers and would say in one voice: our spouses, our siblings, our intimate friends, our parents etc. Although these answers are not wrong, but at the same time they are not relevant in some situations. We should rethink about these answers. We should pose this question to ourselves individually in isolation, for isolation is highly meditative, educative, and enlightening. Health, they say, is wealth. The dictum is quite connotative and veritable. Let’s substantiate this dictum. Simply put, a healthy man, as we know, enjoys everything in life. He relishes and enjoys even mediocre things and bland events of life. In comparison to a healthy man, a sick person always feels himself isolated, betrayed, dismal and negatively obsessed with himself. Sumptuous feasts and glamorous events sound to him dull and dismal. A healthy man easily befriends other people and vice-versa. On the other hand, an unhealthy person always finds himself behind a glass ceiling that separates him from the rest of the world and thereby remains caged in his own world.
Relatives and relationships matter in life. Without them life is but a joyless event. Relatives and relationships beautify our lives and make us feel emotionally strong. We share our secrets, sorrows, and joys with our friends, relatives and relationships. But the question that needs an address here is: Are our relatives, our relationships, and friends our soulmates? The answer to this seemingly quotidian question is: No with a capital ‘N’. It is our own healthy self that is our soulmate. Why is our own healthy self our only soulmate? Because when the health of a person cripples he becomes a kind of burden to his family. Most of the people will strongly disagree with this proposition. The disagreement of the people with this proposition stands deconstructed in present times. Denying the fact is but a kind of arrogance, dishonesty and namby-pamby sentimentalism. We know what was being done to the so-called soulmates in the COVID-19 pandemic. That pandemic has made us kind of untouchables and racists. We distanced ourselves from the infected.
When the health of a person deteriorates in any way, the relatives, relationships, and friends start distancing themselves from him. It is a bitter truth and a stark reality. This reminds me of the novel “The Metamorphosis” by Franz Kafka. The novel is very interesting and emotional. The main character of the novel is Gregor Samsa, a travelling salesman, a sole breadwinner in the family. One morning, when Gregor Samsa wakes, he finds himself transformed into a horrible vermin. He is not able to stand up. The focal event in the entire novel is how his parents and his sister, on seeing him changed into vermin, loath and betray Samsa. Samsa used to love his sister very dearly but as the health of Samsa deteriorates, the same sister insists about getting rid of him. The sister no longer takes care of him. He is quarantined in a separate room and he dies of starvation and thirst. This is the sad part of the story in the novel. Who is the soulmate of Gregor Samsa? His own health. His parents and his loved sister desert him at a very critical juncture in his life.
The Gregor Samsa event in the novel deconstructs the old and false idea and definition of our soulmate. Most of the people feel themselves like Gregor Samsa when their relatives etc. abandon them at the time of their health deterioration. Nobody except our health is our soulmate. Every relationship abandons and betrays a person when something bad happens to his life. Relatives and relationships in the words of Allama Iqbal are: butanay wahamo-guman (the false and fake idols).
By citing examples from literature I am only substantiating my argument. I am not discarding the notion of relationships, I am only trying to make you re-think the older notion that we falsely harbor in our minds about the taken for granted term soulmate. We should take care of our health every time. We should act reasonably in order to save ourselves from every calamity that is out to eat away the vitals of our life. Nobody is our soulmate except our own health. When wealth is lost nothing is lost. When health is lost everything is lost. So, let’s take care of our health, let’s treasure this treasure. We should take care of our health on priority basis. Bravery and sanity lies in saving one’s life not in imperiling it. Thereby hangs a tale!
Postscript: Time and health are two precious assets that we don’t recognize and appreciate until they have depleted. Denis Waitley
Dr.Bilal Ahmad Dar is an English Lecturer. He has done Ph.D and M.Phil in English Literature from AMU .He can be mailed at: [email protected]
