Skip to main content

Chiquitita

ABBA


“Chiquitita, tell me what's wrong /You're enchained by your own sorrow.”  Thus begins one of the songs that kept me bewitched for quite a while during my youth when I was passing through a tough time.  ABBA had sung it long before it crept into my veins like a soothing intoxication that ached my soul dully.  I was enchained by my own sorrow.

Like Chiquitita, I was always sure of myself until the confidence was shattered by a deep disillusionment that broke me irreparably.  “You’ll be dancing once again,” ABBA sang to Chiquitita.  “Let me hear you sing once more like you did before / Sing a new song, Chiquitita.”

I learnt to sing my new song.  That was my redemption.

We have to learn to sing a new song after each heartbreak.  The world loves to break hearts.  That is the way of the world.  That is how it is.  The storm is far too mighty for the feeble wings of the gentle birds.  The tide in the ocean can wreck the steeliest of ships.  The raucousness out there always resounds drowning the new song that you sing.  Yet you have to sing your song.  Only the song is yours. 

The sorrow is yours too.  As natural as the storm in the sky and the tide in the ocean.  But the moon that shines in the darkness is natural too.  So is the warble of the nightingale. 

Come to terms with your sorrow, Chiquitita.  Isn’t it partly your own creation?  You can’t help the raucousness out there.  But you can help yourself.  You can sing your own song.

PS. Third post in Blogchatter A2Z Challenge



Top post on IndiBlogger, the biggest community of Indian Bloggers

Comments

  1. UnknownApril 3, 2018 at 8:45 AM

    Teacher like u is a great blessing for me.
    Thanks for teaching me new
    lessons of life.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sapna DhyaniApril 3, 2018 at 4:20 PM

    Your own song- what a wonderful thought! And songs by ABBA are amazing. If you like ABBA , do watch the movie " Mamma Mia ". A musical with ABBA songs!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalApril 3, 2018 at 7:43 PM

      I watched that movie long ago. Don't remember the story now, but the songs still echo in memory.

      Delete
  3. Tina SequeiraApril 8, 2018 at 8:08 PM

    Wow! I love how you summed up the conclusion..the last two paragraphs ..short and impactful :)

    The sorrow is yours too. As natural as the storm in the sky and the tide in the ocean. But the moon that shines in the darkness is natural too. So is the warble of the nightingale.

    Come to terms with your sorrow, Chiquitita. Isn’t it partly your own creation? You can’t help the raucousness out there. But you can help yourself. You can sing your own song..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalApril 9, 2018 at 9:26 AM

      Some things are so much part of your heart that feelings come naturally while writing about them. Thank you for your touching words.

      Delete
  4. SubrotoApril 9, 2018 at 8:08 PM

    Wonderful! What lovely sentiments expressed in this post.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl
47 comments
Read more

The Little Girl

The Little Girl is a short story by Katherine Mansfield given in the class 9 English course of NCERT. Maggie gave an assignment to her students based on the story and one of her students, Athena Baby Sabu, presented a brilliant job. She converted the story into a delightful comic strip. Mansfield tells the story of Kezia who is the eponymous little girl. Kezia is scared of her father who wields a lot of control on the entire family. She is punished severely for an unwitting mistake which makes her even more scared of her father. Her grandmother is fond of her and is her emotional succour. The grandmother is away from home one day with Kezia's mother who is hospitalised. Kezia gets her usual nightmare and is terrified. There is no one at home to console her except her father from whom she does not expect any consolation. But the father rises to the occasion and lets the little girl sleep beside him that night. She rests her head on her father's chest and can feel his heart...
19 comments
Read more

Sardar Patel and Unity

All pro-PM newspapers carried this ad today, 31 Oct 2025 No one recognised Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel as he stood looking at the 182-m tall statue of himself. The people were waiting anxiously for the Prime Minister whose eloquence would sway them with nationalistic fervour on this 150 th birth anniversary of Sardar Patel. “Is this unity?” Patel wondered looking at the gigantic version of himself. “Or inflation?” Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi chuckled standing beside Patel holding a biodegradable iPhone. “The world has changed, Sardar ji. They’ve built me in wax in London.” He looked amused. “We have become mere hashtags, I’d say.” That was Jawaharlal Nehru joining in a spirit of camaraderie. “I understand that in the world’s largest democracy now history is optional. Hashtags are mandatory.” “You know, Sardar ji,” Gandhi said with more amusement, “the PM has released a new coin and a stamp in your honour on your 150 th birth anniversary.”  “Ah, I watched the function too,” ...
15 comments
Read more

Being Christian in BJP’s India

A moment of triumph for India’s women’s cricket team turned unexpectedly into a controversy about religious faith and expression, thanks to some right-wing footsloggers. After her stellar performance in the semi-final of the Wormen’s World Cup (2025), Jemimah Rodrigues thanked Jesus for her achievement. “Jesus fought for me,” she said quoting the Bible: “Stand still and God will fight for you” [1 Samuel 12:16]. Some BJP leaders and their mindless followers took strong exception to that and roiled the religious fervour of the bourgeoning right wing with acerbic remarks. If Ms Rodrigues were a Hindu, she would have thanked her deity: Ram or Hanuman or whoever. Since she is a Christian, she thanked Jesus. What’s wrong in that? If she was a nonbeliever like me, God wouldn’t have topped the list of her benefactors. Religion is a talisman for a lot of people. There’s nothing wrong in imagining that some god sitting in some heaven is taking care of you. In fact, it gives a lot of psychologic...
17 comments
Read more

The wisdom of the Mahabharata

Illustration by Gemini AI “Krishna touches my hand. If you can call it a hand, these pinpricks of light that are newly coalescing into the shape of fingers and palm. At his touch something breaks, a chain that was tied to the woman-shape crumpled on the snow below. I am buoyant and expansive and uncontainable – but I always was so, only I never knew it! I am beyond the name and gender and the imprisoning patterns of ego. And yet, for the first time, I’m truly Panchali. I reach with my other hand for Karna – how surprisingly solid his clasp! Above us our palace waits, the only one I’ve ever needed. Its walls are space, its floor is sky, its center everywhere. We rise; the shapes cluster around us in welcome, dissolving and forming and dissolving again like fireflies in a summer evening.” What is quoted above is the final paragraph of Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s novel The Palace of Illusions which I reread in the last few days merely because I had time on my hands and this book hap...
11 comments
Read more