Funda

I am feeling very wise all of a sudden. So I am going to share with you a story I had picked up a few years ago when I actually used to read and think about what I had read and share those thoughts with people. You know.... before I got a laptop, and DC and gtalk had come into my life.... Yes, right.... very very long ago....

Once upon a time in a land far far away (:P) there lived a very learned and rich old king. He was frequently consulted by his subjects for all their problems, and he always obliged.

A young man who was about to set sail to faraway lands in search of treasure, came to him for his blessings. The king decided to teach him an important lesson and entrusted him with a simple task. He gave the young man a spoonful of sacred oil and asked him to walk around the palace while guarding it carefully for the next two hours, such as to not spill even a drop. The young man walked around with the spoon with unwavering attention, never looking away from it once. He returned to the king at the end of two hours.

The king admired his diligence. Indeed, he had fully applied himself to his task! But had the young man explored the beautiful palace with it's sparkling chandeliers, huge fountains, lush green gardens and exotic flowers? He hadn't, as he had been too busy with his task. So the king asked him to look around every nook and cranny and come back whenever he was done. The young man was mesmerized. Never had he seen such a beautiful place! He felt like a child on an unexpected treat. After many hours, he returned to the king and excitedly told him how lovely the tour had been. The old man was amused, and pointed out that the spoon was empty.

Such an important lesson, so unforgettably put.

It's so important to explore the palace and also so important to guard the spoon. Perhaps it would be fine if we spilled a few drops, and didn't really discover every secret the palace held.... as long as we did them both. But we usually go through life after having chosen either of the two....

Reminiscence

I miss school so much. I miss the place where I had learnt to read and to pen down my thoughts.... only it was so much more to me that it cannot be put into words. It was the place I discovered that I could write.... and the place that encouraged me to do so.

I had to be back home really early.... around 8-9 I think. I could't imagine midnight strolls. Or night outs. (I still think that they are highly overrated.) I love the fact that I can do these things now. Even then, what would I not give to spend a single more day in that school with all the people present there like nothing had changed.... yes even the ones I hated... how wonderful it would be! Let that remain a rhetorical question. Perhaps, now, if actually given a choice I would choose a more lucrative option, which would in turn leave me a lot less happier.

I remember so many first times.

I remember my transition in the seventh standard from a quiet little good girl to someone who doesn't shut up. I owe it all to my best friend in school. And of course under her influence, I remember the first time I had to stand in the morning assembly holding my ears. This used to be an honour conferred on those few who had succeeded in pissing off the class monitors the most that week. It had indeed been a proud moment! It had signaled the birth of a new me.... who wanted to talk and talk and talk about everything on her mind.

I remember having close friends who I thought would stay... but they didn't or perhaps I didn't... it could't have been just them... But I guess I don't even give enough credit to the few who stayed by throughout.

I remember being made a prefect in school. How easy it had been at that age to fill me with pride and to give me a sense of achievement! I always seemed to have found reasons to be happy and feel fulfilled. We always get sadder as we grow older, don't we?

And do I remember home cooked meals! Yes I do! Never appreciated it much while I had it.... but now.... every time I go home, I seem to come back 5 Kgs fatter! I love home cooked meals- they are the most wonderful things in the whole world!

I remember a birthday party in school, when my friends had brought a whole cake for me! I still maintain that it had been the most awesome birthday surprise ever! I remember feeling like the most popular person around with the best friends ever, who loved me so very much! Yes, that's a lot of superlatives.

I remember that I had wanted to be Head Girl, though I never said so.... and I remember being so disappointed when I wasn't chosen. Small things mattered then. Or maybe, it's just that what is small now, wasn't small then. Our perspectives change... and so we keep telling ourselves how we used to be much better off, when probably we have been the same all along.

I remember my first shy furtive glances at a guy.... followed by the immediate feelings of over-consciousness on being discovered.... then getting over it and trying again.... and of course getting caught again. I remember my first date.... and the innocent blunders that made it so perfect. Followed by many other firsts....

I so vividly remember each of our Annual Functions that I used to wait for so eagerly! Sometimes I try to reconstruct our practice sessions in my mind. They used to be a treat! You could miss as many classes as you liked and no teacher would ever say a thing!

I remember the last day of school, when I being one of the unworldly few, could not figure out what everybody was so sad about. I couldn't imagine a life outside the one I had already known, one that didn't consist of the people I met and talked to every day. But as it turns out, everybody was right and I was wrong. I am glad that life isn't the same any more and that it's going to change even more drastically in the next few years. But I cannot help the fond recollections.

I might dedicate a blog to college life some time later, when I am stuck somewhere in a job I don't care the least about with a boss who makes me want to kill myself.

Childhood

Do you remember the times many years back when you were not scared of the rain? When you were forcibly deprived of an afternoon of showers and puddles and newspaper boats, so that you wouldn't catch a cold? Remember the times when you sneaked out anyway? And what about now? You have probably forgotten what you had once yearned for, and now that there is no one to stop you from getting drenched..... you stop yourself. And others too, if you get a chance.

I loved being a child.

In fact, I am often told that I am still a child. I think so too! I know that I can be overtly sentimental (ha ha ha... need I say more!), and very often most impatient, and at other times simply a pain in an intimate body part.

You know what I like most about children? You obviously don't and so I am going to tell you.

I love their honesty and the sincerity of their emotions and the fact that they are so very curious! Yep... I love their curiosity! I love the way that their minds are so devoid of prejudice and that they simply see things as they are... and definitely not as they should be! A little child will ask you such uncomfortable questions! She won't take it for granted that your maid should sit on the floor and not touch the furniture. She won't look away from the beggar on the street who's eyes you tactfully try to avoid. She will tell your best friend exactly what you think of her, so remember to keep your mouth shut when she's around. She will stare at the ugly and call it ugly in it's face and she will duly appreciate the beautiful even when she's not supposed to.

But then she learns to behave and to be polite (to the right people of course) and also to hold back anything even remotely spontaneous. And, she learns it all without knowing that she has. And then passes it on.

What if we could all be like children? Doing whatever we wanted, saying whatever we actually felt, and free from all preconceived notions. Wouldn't it all be a much better place? After all, every one of us was once pure, untouched and ignorant. We all once had our eyes wide open.

Bikes!

Don't you just loooove bikes!!!! Well, I know very little about them and have been on one only once (yes once.... spare me those incredulous looks... I've seen them already)..... and that once was only 2 days ago..... (yes I'm 21 and it was my 1st time)....... but I am so much in love with them already!

Well, you picture the perfect bike ride as one where you are hanging on to the love of your life in the most enviable way possible and whizzing past your more unfortunate friends who jealously tell each other how it won't last..... don't you? Sure you do! You just don't say so. Well, the good thing for you is that my ride wasn't anything like that. Being kind of chicken-hearted I had protested at the idea of 3 people and no helmets, but had obviously been overruled. I started off by making funny noises and holding on pretty hard for my life to the person in front. My whelps even convinced some street dogs that I was being kidnapped and they gallantly ran after us to rescue me (as interpreted by my 'friends' on the bike).

Half way around the campus, I started loving it!!! Totally!!! And that's when I wanted to go faster and faster! The wind just felt so wonderful and everything felt even more wonderful and I am sorry for my limited vocab because I would really like to use some other nice word in place of 'wonderful' but I can't think of anything right now. (Looks like GRE mugging was even more worthless than I had realized.) Thankfully our driver wasn't too wild and so we survived scratch-free. We had 2 'wonderful' rounds of the campus. :P

That's all I had to say about bikes. That's all I know about bikes actually. And thanks so very much for the ride!! :)