Being in love...

 

The kind of sights which make your day! There are moments that make us aware of how much our child means to us. Having a baby in the hands was joy. But do we experience that joy throughout their childhood? 

Sometimes, don't we forget to see that he/she is a kid? Still a child, who can still be taken in the lap and hugged. Do we realise that they would soon outgrow our cuddling and leap into adulthood in the nick of time?

I mean do we acknowledge, appreciate and enjoy our child's childhood? Or are we letting it slip through our daily worries? There can be moments that can be the balm to our everyday worries.

In June, one day, I was dropping my child off at school. Before leaving, I turned once again to see her walk away. She is a kid, a child. An odd realisation.

Do we think like, oh she is only 9, just 9?

Seeing her stride away happily, became a moment...preserved...which may flash upon my mind when I think about her childhood long afterward down the time lane.

It was after that I began to notice parents lingering there outside the gate. May be thinking the same thought that I thought, pickling and preserving moments unknowingly.

A child can change your life. Can bring out the fighter in you. To run that extra mile which you may not have stridden otherwise. I see mothers hurrying on their scooters ferrying children to and fro. The reason for some of the mothers at least, to learn to ride a scooter is their children. To make the children comfortable. The driving force of life.

Summer in Hyderabad

 It took me a while to muster the courage to drive through the highways in Hyderabad. It was the small-town girl’s fear of the city, the blasé attitude of the citizens, and the hurry. At the same time, city offers the freedom, to fall, get up and try again. Because… nobody really cares.

 If you get hit on the car’s bumper or rear-view mirror it’s just a matter of waving a sorry or faking ignorance. Who has the time?...

But it is something, in fact empowering, to get behind the wheel and steer away into the unknown. It is to this ecstasy the GHMC intercepted. The city corporation with utmost care placed speed limits wherever possible. Now wherever I go I see 40s and 30s marked in circles on posts. What is the fun in driving if all I can do is look out for cameras and speed limit boards?

It became harder when summer came with its bouquet of blooms. It started with so-far-unnoticed trees, turning gorgeous all of a sudden, in copious bunches of joyous yellow flowers and beaming out from the sides of the road. It felt like suddenly noticing stunning models here and there propped on either side of the way when you are focused on the road.

Golden yellow trumpet trees, that’s what they are called. I came to know later. 

Then came the Gulmohars. “Wildfire” ablaze all along the highway.

What all one should take care of! Speeding cars, bikers, traffic signals, speed boards, hoardings, and these distracting flower trees all the while when trying to maintain a speed below 40km/hr.

Sometimes I stop the car and walk along the footpath to take a glance at those bountiful blooms. Bliss.

Dear Wordsworth, now I know. The Golden Trumpets and Gulmohars have shown me how you felt when you saw the host of golden daffodils, beside the lake, beneath the trees. And…

"For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;"

FAITH

 Faith and religion are not the same. being religious and being spiritual are also different.  Are they the two sides of the same coin? No. It is not necessary for a believer to belong to any organised religion. One can be religious, do the poojas and chant the slokas. being spiritual is to be a seeker. Faith and worship are empowering, not in a magical way but in a psychological way. The act of prayer or being in faith is what matters. Whom you pray or what chants you chant doesn't matter at all. At all! 

I am not coming to the oneness of God. One can worship a stone, or a laminated picture of a deity or a formless god which you believe listens. People even worship gurus alive and dead, animals, the mother who hasn't lost her virginity, imaginary forms like Ganesh and Narasimha, etc, etc. It is from the very act of faith that one drains strength and courage.

These thoughts came to me when I attended a yoga session that I believed was a secular enterprise. I realised that the trainer is a devotee of the founder. The founder is of course a spiritual person who came up with certain techniques of breathing exercises. In that sense, he is an entrepreneur and yogi which doesn't qualify him to be worshipped though he deserves respect. This made me think, why not I worship my mother, who wishes only goodwill for me, or a teacher I respect, or a writer I adore? 

Then, the gods which I worship who come in the religious literature, aren't they flawed? Aren't religious institutions flawed? Does justice always prevail? Are they listening to my prayers? Or is it me myself invoked to act in the desired, or feared way through my own act of prayer?