The miracle worker

“Don’t you read the papers.. It’s all rape, murder, bloodshed.. Bad defeating good everyday in every way. Besides, we’ve started creating clones, we’re unearthing new galaxies and systems… look at you and me. We can identify diseases based on molecular defects even before the child is born. I’m telling you it’s all about human beings evolving.. There isn’t a divine element in all this. ”
I stared at him and the old man sitting behind him, visible from the periphery of my eye.
“How can you say that ?” I asked.
“Dude. I’m an atheist. I don’t believe in God.” he replied.
I smiled. Cheeky rascal.
“Look, we all insult and blame God , in much the same way we insult Gandhi, but it’s not like God doesn’t exist. It’s just a matter of what you imagine him to be and how please you are with his work.”

The look told me I wasn’t getting through to him. He took up the newspaper on the bed and tossed it to me. “Show me the work of God.”
I looked at the last page, which was lying face up.
“Well, I can see the wonder of God right here.” I said, pointing out Amisha’s two finer assets.
He glared at me.. okay, not in the mood for comedy apparently. ( What is it with atheists that make them behave like religious fanatics when we question their non-acknowledgement of God ? )
“Look, you can’t just toss me an entertainment supplement page and expect me to find God for you. The least you can do is give me the main paper.. like say, that one over there.” I said, pointing to the previous day’s paper.
The old man’s smile escaped the eyes of my friend. He knew I had read the paper. He knew what I was upto. As usual.
My friend gave me the paper.
“You sure I can’t convince you that atleast Gemma Atkinson’s assets are divine ?” I tried, showing him the photo.
“Bet you they’re Silicon implants a.k.a. the work of a doctor.”
“Hmmm…” I pretended as I glanced through the pages, slowing inching towards my destination.
“Let’s see.. Hayden called Bhajji an obnoxious weed and he didn’t react.. No? Not a miracle for you ? Ok, Prince Harry’s been in Afghanistan for 2 montths at the battlefront and noone knew.. wow..one hour massages by discrete bollywood type english speaking decent women.. sounds like heaven to me. Call Mariya.”
“Look. Give up, man. There’s nothing in there…”
“Wait.” I said.
“Now what ?”
“Read this” , I said handing him the article which had caught my imagination the first time I’d heard about it.
He read silently.

It was an article of a pregnant woman on board a train late at night. She went to the bathroom and while using it, went into labour. With the door locked, she fell unconscious and delivered in the bathroom. The newborn, placenta et al, fell through the commode of the running train and onto the tracks. It would be another 30 minutes before her co passengers would come to seek her and find her unconscious in the bathroom, bleeding and with no child.
In those 30 minutes, 2 more trains passed over those rails.
4 hours later, a passerby heard a baby’s weak cries as he passed the tracks. He would find the child, blue from the biting morning chill… but alive.
He took the child to the NICU ( neonatal ICU ) where the child was resuscitated. By the time the story reached the papers, the child’s condition was declared ‘stable.’ And of course, mother and child were reunited.

My friend looked at me.
“Don’t even start.” I said. “You and I have seen enough newborns die of far less than what this child suffered. It fell off a moving train, was run over by 2 trains, height notwithstanding, faced the extreme cold which is incompatible with life for any newborn and is declared ‘stable.’ Nothing less.. stable, man.”
“As you said, the train’s lowest points were to high to touch the child so that hardly matters. The rest.. well, the kid was lucky, that’s all.”
"And the cold ? No newborn has the ability to make up for extremes of temperature."
"Just lucky, I guess."
“If you don’t see the miracle in this story, then there’s really no point in talking further… there is no science that would allow that kid to survive what it did and you damn well know that.”
“That’s one incident.. one incident in a whole paper. The rest is all about minors getting raped, killed etc.”
“Sometimes one incident is enough to make you believe. ” I rallied.
“Yes, and a thousand to disbelieve in him, right ? Whatever, man.” He said as he got up to leave my room. Behind him, I could see the old man shuffling to his feet too, behind him. "I'll see you later." I said.
The doc left first, the scoff in his lips telling me I’d failed to convince him. I turned back to the old man as he too moved towards the door.
“How do you manage it ?” I asked.
He smiled. “Manage what ?”
“Day in and day out, you listen to us insult you, tease you and bitch about you. After all you’ve done , how do you remain cheerful seeing so many people remaining atheists, so many people turning into atheists before your eyes, even as you continue to perform pure miracles ? Basically, how do you not feel like hurling down lightning bolts when you see people like him putting you down ?”
The smile never left his face as he continued. I figured he hadn’t heard me ( wouldn’t be the first time ), but as he reached the door, he turned back and cocked his eyebrow.
“ Dude. I’m God. I don’t believe in atheists.” He said as left the room.
I smiled. Cheeky rascal.