Miracles are happening all around us.

A tiny droplet of water, a ray of sunshine, a green chemical – all these are combined and a beautiful flower sprouts out – all over the world on farms to gardens to road side bushes.

Well is this not a miracle?

What about the miracle of life itself – which is inside the tiny grass leaf to a mammoth whale.

Anyway – that is science you will say.

Let me tell you the miracle we witnessed on March 1, 2022.

Here is the timeline.

Feb 2017 – My Sister, Brother in law, my aunt and I go to see Adiyogi being unveiled in Isha Ashram Coimbatore on a free ticket – on the day of Maha Shivratri. We saw the massive crowd, the energy.

We witnessed the Isha band sing Alai Alai and the crowd went berserk.

This is like the anthem for Isha. Go ahead and relish this. There is translation.

This was our first trip to Mahashivratri in Isha. Prior to that Akka and I used to stay up all night watching Isha Mahashivratri celebrations on Youtube – she in Coimbatore, I in Bangalore.

Around mid 2017 – My Sister gets diagnosed with Stage 4 Lung cancer. It shook us up. We did not have much time with her on earth.

Akka got solace from Isha. Whenever we got a chance we went to Isha Ashram.

Rounds of chemo and radio therapy continued – she was still walking around and enthusiastically mingled with us – but will get tired.

On 4th March, 2019 we go to Isha – to attend Maha Shivratri.

Akka danced for Alai Alai for one last time – the only song she ever danced for.

Things went downhill fast. By Sep 2019 she was no more.

Charu, my niece had completed her 12th Std and took her NEET exam – the entrance exam one has to take to become a doctor. But with all the turmoil at home and losing her mom – she didn’t score well.

Then she started preparing once again. Her 2nd NEET attempt in 2020 again came short.

We all thought Charu would give up. But she was determined to give one more attempt – to become a doctor.

It was her 3rd attempt and took NEET in 2021.

Then the wait began.This time she scored good – and had a good shot at bagging a seat. There were court cases, stay orders against NEET and the allotments never began.

It was a frustrating wait.

Meanwhile I booked tickets to Isha for Mahashivratri – for 1st March 2022.

Charu’s name did not come in the first admission list. Our only hope was her name to show up on the waiting list.

The Tamil Nadu council said, they will put out the list on March 1st, 2022.

It turned March 1st, 2022.

Charu,Prithvi,San and I started towards Isha. There was huge traffic jams in the approach to Isha. Till 5PM there was no sign of the list. We had data till then.

We parked our car, went through the check in counters and settled in our section. Because of the crowd, or they had kept cell phone jammers – we dont know – but our cellphone data was not working.

It was around 6:43 PM, Charu gets a call from her friend – the waiting list is out – login and check. But we couldn’t.

Charu called her dad / my brother in law who was at home. He immediately logged in and checked and there it was – Charu’s name had made it to the list. Finally!

I could not hear his voice properly – and I asked my Brother in law to repeat multiple times.

As the crowd was going berserk at that very moment.

Because Alai Alai was being sung at that very moment.

San was crying and dancing like crazy. Charu is standing there with tears flowing in her eyes.

If this is not a miracle – what else is.

You can say this is just coincidence.

But for so many things to line up so precisely – to the exact same date, to the exact same window when Alai Alai was playing – this cannot be a coincidence.

My Akka has sent a message to all of us through Alai Alai.