Pakistan, Aug. 22 -- There are places in life where the noise around us suddenly becomes quiet. A hospital room late at night is one. A prison cell is another. A graveyard is the quietest of all.

In each, something we once considered ordinary becomes precious. In a hospital, we discover the value of a body we barely noticed. In prison, we understand the meaning of a freedom we never thought to name. In a graveyard, we begin to understand the value of time only after it has run out.

Most of us learn these lessons in the wrong order.

We notice health when illness interrupts it. We discover freedom when a door closes behind us. We begin to appreciate time when we realise there is less of it than we imagined.

A hospital has a peculiar way...