Travelling to Chennai from Hyderabad, that too, only for a weekend, can get tiring. But, I still do it.:) People who know me well would confirm that I am a very quick decision maker when it comes to going home, to Chennai.:P:P
Well, atleast this weekend I had a purpose. I had been home for a family wedding and the wedding turned out to be a mini reunion of my Devakottai clan.
For those of you who may not have heard the place, it is a small town near Sivaganga district in TamilNadu. I have spent a lot of my childhood times there at Grand parents' house and my heart still looks back to those golden memories.
"Childhood" - Well, that's part of the subject matter of this blog!
As I landed home, I spent some time chatting with my Grand Pa listening to whatever stories he had got to tell me. Well, that's customary for me. My day could probably start even without brushing teeth, but definitely not without chatting with him.
After that custom, I entered the kitchen to see what my mom was preparing for the day. I told her "It better be nice. Your star daughter has come home". For this, she gave me a bang-on answer....."Not when you keep coming home every alternate weekend. You are not giving us a chance to miss you. So, no star food.":(:(.
Parents have a weird mind. When children move out, they miss them. When children come home often, they ask "why are you wasting money like this? Start saving!!!" They always worry. But I guess that's what makes them the best people in the world.
After I heard that disastrous answer from her, I had lost all hope of receiving any royal treatment. So I decided to loiter around in the corridor thinking what to do next, when a very interesting sight caught my attention. I noticed this young boy, on a bicycle, trying all sorts of stunts he could, with his hands off the handle bar, speeding, skidding and what not!
That's when I suddenly felt, when I was a kid, I had done the same thing, not thinking about what will happen the next moment -Will I fall down? Will I be safe?. No worries whatsoever. I did that for the sheer joy of it. Will I do it now??? I really don't think so. Even before I would try my hands on it, I would probably have a zillion questions - What if I get hurt? What would people around think if they see me riding on a cycle like a maniac?
All of a sudden, I realized that I have turned into someone who has started to place a lot of importance on external factors than to what I truly want to do. In this sense, children definitely are more genuine to themselves than adults. We, Adults ( I reserve the right to categorize myself as one:D), try to mask our emotions fearing to face the repercussions if we be ourselves. We all crave for that acceptance from others who may or may not matter to us. Is that the right thing to do? That's for all of us to keep asking ourselves until we find a "genuine" answer.
As the day went by, I got busy with my routine activities of irritating my brother, picking up a fight with my mom and so on. All those philosophical thoughts that had struck me as a thunder a couple of hours ago had disappeared into the wind of a confused mind.
In the evening, I got busy doing some major family bonding with my close knitted and extended family members. Not to complain, I enjoyed every bit of it:)
The next day, I had to rush to catch an early morning flight to Hyderabad. This time, unlike the past, I had reached the airport a lot earlier, not because I was good at time management, but purely because I had mis-read the flight timing. Since I had a lot of time to board the flight, I decided to take a power nap so that I could keep my eyes atleast partially open for the next 10 hours in office.
After sometime, I woke up to the lovely voice of the Air-hostess, who's diction, I have never understood. After managing to get into the right flight, I noticed two kids sitting right next to me. I told myself "God damn!! Now I can't sleep with these kids squeaking in their little voices"
But, interestingly, it turned out that those kids brought back those dormant philosophical thoughts back into my little head. Throughout the one hour journey, they kept laughing and giggling about the silliest of things in this world.
Here is the snapshot of their conversation.
Child A: Hey! let us sing "Ringa Ringa roses"
Child B : No, let us sing "Jack and Jill"
Child A: Let us sing both together.
Child A and B: Ringa Ringa roses; Fetch a pile of water; Pocket full of roses; Jack and Jill went up the hill"
(both start giggling)
Trust me! This was just a part of their conversation. Their giggles echoed throughout the plane.
As they saw through the window, the beautiful sun rays falling on the clouds , they went on a "Wowwwwwwwwwww" at an extremely high decibel level. Well, it was indeed a beautiful sight and definitely deserved a "WOW".
Did they mind what others would say?? THEY GAVE A DAMN!
Would we do it? Well, we would perhaps, if noone was around. But, even that's highly doubtful.
These kids indirectly reminded me of what I had thought about, just a day back.
As the flight landed, people got ready to move out. So did I. As I kept a step forward, there was this lady standing next to me and she pushed me back a little with her fluffy shoulder. She stared at me as if I had tried to snatch the 24 carat gold chain that was strangling her neck. "Can't you see there is a line?", asked the lady. I stared at her for a moment asked myself "A line?? Where is the hell is that? Have I become blind?"
After few seconds, the philosophical side of my brain told me, "Chill! Sometimes, adults exchange roles with children without realizing it and end up arguing on matters that do not deserve any attention. While Children continue to grow forward, some adults tend to go in the opposite direction"
Life plays funny tricks on us. We can understand it better, if we are open to self-introspection.
As I always say in most of my blogs " We don't need a designated teacher to teach us the lessons of life. People who we meet everyday can become our teachers. What matters most is to keep our eyes and ears open to learning"
Well, atleast this weekend I had a purpose. I had been home for a family wedding and the wedding turned out to be a mini reunion of my Devakottai clan.
For those of you who may not have heard the place, it is a small town near Sivaganga district in TamilNadu. I have spent a lot of my childhood times there at Grand parents' house and my heart still looks back to those golden memories.
"Childhood" - Well, that's part of the subject matter of this blog!
As I landed home, I spent some time chatting with my Grand Pa listening to whatever stories he had got to tell me. Well, that's customary for me. My day could probably start even without brushing teeth, but definitely not without chatting with him.
After that custom, I entered the kitchen to see what my mom was preparing for the day. I told her "It better be nice. Your star daughter has come home". For this, she gave me a bang-on answer....."Not when you keep coming home every alternate weekend. You are not giving us a chance to miss you. So, no star food.":(:(.
Parents have a weird mind. When children move out, they miss them. When children come home often, they ask "why are you wasting money like this? Start saving!!!" They always worry. But I guess that's what makes them the best people in the world.
After I heard that disastrous answer from her, I had lost all hope of receiving any royal treatment. So I decided to loiter around in the corridor thinking what to do next, when a very interesting sight caught my attention. I noticed this young boy, on a bicycle, trying all sorts of stunts he could, with his hands off the handle bar, speeding, skidding and what not!
That's when I suddenly felt, when I was a kid, I had done the same thing, not thinking about what will happen the next moment -Will I fall down? Will I be safe?. No worries whatsoever. I did that for the sheer joy of it. Will I do it now??? I really don't think so. Even before I would try my hands on it, I would probably have a zillion questions - What if I get hurt? What would people around think if they see me riding on a cycle like a maniac?
All of a sudden, I realized that I have turned into someone who has started to place a lot of importance on external factors than to what I truly want to do. In this sense, children definitely are more genuine to themselves than adults. We, Adults ( I reserve the right to categorize myself as one:D), try to mask our emotions fearing to face the repercussions if we be ourselves. We all crave for that acceptance from others who may or may not matter to us. Is that the right thing to do? That's for all of us to keep asking ourselves until we find a "genuine" answer.
As the day went by, I got busy with my routine activities of irritating my brother, picking up a fight with my mom and so on. All those philosophical thoughts that had struck me as a thunder a couple of hours ago had disappeared into the wind of a confused mind.
In the evening, I got busy doing some major family bonding with my close knitted and extended family members. Not to complain, I enjoyed every bit of it:)
The next day, I had to rush to catch an early morning flight to Hyderabad. This time, unlike the past, I had reached the airport a lot earlier, not because I was good at time management, but purely because I had mis-read the flight timing. Since I had a lot of time to board the flight, I decided to take a power nap so that I could keep my eyes atleast partially open for the next 10 hours in office.
After sometime, I woke up to the lovely voice of the Air-hostess, who's diction, I have never understood. After managing to get into the right flight, I noticed two kids sitting right next to me. I told myself "God damn!! Now I can't sleep with these kids squeaking in their little voices"
But, interestingly, it turned out that those kids brought back those dormant philosophical thoughts back into my little head. Throughout the one hour journey, they kept laughing and giggling about the silliest of things in this world.
Here is the snapshot of their conversation.
Child A: Hey! let us sing "Ringa Ringa roses"
Child B : No, let us sing "Jack and Jill"
Child A: Let us sing both together.
Child A and B: Ringa Ringa roses; Fetch a pile of water; Pocket full of roses; Jack and Jill went up the hill"
(both start giggling)
Trust me! This was just a part of their conversation. Their giggles echoed throughout the plane.
As they saw through the window, the beautiful sun rays falling on the clouds , they went on a "Wowwwwwwwwwww" at an extremely high decibel level. Well, it was indeed a beautiful sight and definitely deserved a "WOW".
Did they mind what others would say?? THEY GAVE A DAMN!
Would we do it? Well, we would perhaps, if noone was around. But, even that's highly doubtful.
These kids indirectly reminded me of what I had thought about, just a day back.
As the flight landed, people got ready to move out. So did I. As I kept a step forward, there was this lady standing next to me and she pushed me back a little with her fluffy shoulder. She stared at me as if I had tried to snatch the 24 carat gold chain that was strangling her neck. "Can't you see there is a line?", asked the lady. I stared at her for a moment asked myself "A line?? Where is the hell is that? Have I become blind?"
After few seconds, the philosophical side of my brain told me, "Chill! Sometimes, adults exchange roles with children without realizing it and end up arguing on matters that do not deserve any attention. While Children continue to grow forward, some adults tend to go in the opposite direction"
Life plays funny tricks on us. We can understand it better, if we are open to self-introspection.
As I always say in most of my blogs " We don't need a designated teacher to teach us the lessons of life. People who we meet everyday can become our teachers. What matters most is to keep our eyes and ears open to learning"
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