Helen Keller due to an illness in infancy turned deaf and dumb. She had no idea language existed. At the age of six, she met her soul mate Anne Sullivan and when she heard approaching footsteps she held out her hand, Anne took it. As Helen writes in her autobiography, “I was caught up and held close in the arms of her who had come to reveal all things to me, and, more than all things else, to love me.” Helen went on to study at Radcliffe college and travelled the world, writing and lecturing on behalf of the visually and aurally impaired. She has been an inspiration to millions.

There are moments when we all feel alone, frightened and frail. Letting our own fears overcome us and hold us in a vicious grip. We may look like adults, driving a car, going to work, wearing a tie, but on the inside we are five year olds. And scared of admitting it. We are all so easily bruised and hurt by things that happen to us. Those that make life look easy, like Helen Keller, are the real tough ones. Making it look easy is the hardest thing to do. Fragile moments come to us all... Think of the girl at the mall, at the cash desk, who is ringing you up but is slow and is being shouted at. The politician’s wife who is ashamed of her husband’s hand in many pies, ashamed of the newspapers exposing him. The famous actress whose husband walks out with a bimbo... These public figures seem to have lives larger than ours and even as we admire and envy them, they too have and hold fear close to their hearts. It is in those weak moments that we need the grace of god more than ever. One is never alone, the god living inside you is there to give you strength, to hold you up and to empower you. One can, like Helen Keller, make adversity a springboard for growth, courage and empowerment. For me, no story is more riveting than a real life story. Fear and doubt are nothing but the figments of a weak life state, demons that grow like smoke and can vanish just as easily.

My grandma once told me when you are miserable take stock of the little things in life and savour them. “Like what?” I had asked her. Like drinking a hot cup of tea, like looking at the Dahlias in bloom, like reading a good book, like sharing a joke with a friend... Force yourself to enjoy and savour the simple things in life and give gratitude. My grandma was a simple woman, whose house radiated a warm hospitality, almost as if the walls, ceilings and windows smiled down on her. How many afternoons I had spent there just drinking cups of hot tea, watching the pigeons roost on the ledge outside, feeling a quiet contentment wash over me. The "simple" truth was if I wanted to feel calm and happy, nothing stood in my way but me! How often we make excuses... I don’t have the money. I don’t have the time. I am too old now. I am too tired. He didn’t let me. People always get in the way... Circumstances can tie you down but excuses cripple you. Time to let things take their course. Bad things happen but let fear not stand in the way of tackling life.

Living life with fear is not living at all.

(The writer is a theatre director and novelist)