I don’t know what gripped me, but I crawled on my knees, across the expanse of my empty living room. It felt difficult, my knees already felt weak, and a rising pain shot through my leg. “What’s wrong with you?” I said to myself. “You could do this even as a kid!” Fortunately or otherwise, I had grown up. And little things like crawling and so many other things, weren’t practical anymore. I laughed at myself. “Grown up! Yeah, right!” Grown up meant having to make plans, and even worse, make them happen. Grown up meant to keep track of every cent you spent, and still be dumbfounded with the mystery of the missing five hundred bucks when the spreadsheets didn’t tally at the end of every month. Grown up meant being condemned for making the silliest of mistakes. Grown up meant having hurried lunches and dinners and breakfasts. Grown up meant forgetting birthdays, even your own, even worse, not believing in the celebration anymore. Grown up meant saying things you hardly meant, and hearing ...
In my little porch, as I rock on my chair, faint memories seem to come back. The vast blue sky, the far away twinkling stars, the beautiful moon, as though beckoning me to that world where I reigned once upon a time. I had just got married, and went over the seas with my wife, for a new job. We settled in with a family who agreed to rent us a small part of their house. Life was so blissful then. The romance that comes with the excitement of a new marriage, the enthusiasm of a new place and job, the carefree life. The family we stayed with was nice to us, and we happened to become best of friends. They had two young girls, with whom me and my wife would love to play and spend time with. When my wife was pregnant for the first time, they arranged a lovely function at our place, with all the festivities, just as though in India. I video taped the entire celebration. Now, I am so glad I did that. Time flew by. It was in the winter of 1992 when I had an unbearable ache in the back of my hea...
Sometimes we take pride in being busy. When a caring friend or family member asks us, “How have you been?”, we retort without a thought, “Busy!”. It’s not a competition. There is no joy in being busy when you cannot take the time to reflect on yourself, pause to admire the new word your kid’s just learnt or be patient to listen to your spouse’s full question before blurting out a response. Instead, let’s take pride in being free. Let’s take pride in being able to make time.
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