The answer lies right here!
“Pardon
me, mom! Nothing can easily slide down my throat; I barely have any appetite.” Hearing
her twenty five year old daughter, Clara, say this, Lilly, who wore a worried
look on her face, as her dear child had not eaten properly since a week, sadly
slumped back into the sofa beside her. Silently witnessing the scene, Stephen,
Clara’s maternal uncle, who had just then arrived for his usual Friday pie and
tea, entered the hall, settled back into the age old teak chair , the family’s honor
that was passed down to them from generations and quizzed his niece, “ Honey!
What’s wrong with you? How can anyone resist your mother’s apple pie and milk
tea? Clara disinterestedly blurted with a faint tone,” Not when you’ve lost
your appetite uncle Stephen. However please don’t hesitate to enjoy your pie”. Lilly
served two huge triangles of hot pie with a big cup of tea to her brother with
an expression which suggested that she was deeply bothered about whatever had
just happened. Delicately reassuring his sister, Stephen took a huge bite out of
his pie and replied, “Oh dear! Don’t bother about me, I am shameless. But do
tell me, you seem to be quite drifted away from the moment. Is everything alright
Clara? Clara hopelessly replied, “Nothing seems to be right Uncle Stephen.
Every time I try to do something in life, there seems to appear a dead end and
I retreat to square one. Once, twice, thrice or at least some reasonable number
of times, it is possible to rejig the spirit and bounce back. But now, another
come back seems unlikely to me because these infinite and indefinite dead ends
have completely drained my appetite to live, leave alone eat.” Quietly listening
to Clara’s despondency, Stephen, the ever happy go lucky man, playfully
giggled, took a long sip of his tea and joked,” Seems like I’ve struck a
Jackpot today. Your lack of appetite allows me to gobble up the whole pie all
by myself. Thanks love!” This lightly cracked up Lilly along with Clara as she
too gave a subtle chuckle.
Wiping
his mouth with the napkin, Stephen asked, “Honey! First of all, since when did
you begin to understand that you need to do something in life? Clara, who was
already bemused, was even more perplexed by the question and tiredly answered, “Just
when my carefree times ceased forever. I mean the minute I was out of school, I
began to feel the burden of adulthood Uncle Steve. (Nickname for Stephen) Life
changed altogether from then on. Ever since I’ve stepped into the shoes of a
grown up, I feel everything around me is just sliding down south. Now I
understand why no one wants to grow up forever.” Steve pulled his chair closer
to Clara and whispered, “Hmmm! Its right here my love! I think the answer lies
right here!” Clara gave a weak look and buried her face in her hands. Stephen
quickly pulled her hands apart and excitedly replied, “Cheer up dears and
listen to this”. Both Clara and Lilly straightened their backs against the sofa
waiting for Steve to say what he had to.
Steve swiftly
gobbled up the last half of the second pie and began, “You both must be aware
of Jimmy, my neighbor’s six year old smart lad. A couple of weeks ago, he had
dropped in to play board games with me. Okay! Don’t be surprised, I am his
favorite game partner. The same day, we had a forecast for bad weather along
with terrible tornado alert. That being the reason, I wheedled the champ to wind
up the game half an hour earlier than usual, packed his things up and both of
us started towards his house. When I dropped him home and kissed him goodbye,
he hugged me tight and cautioned me to be careful while going back home, also
educated me about the facts that tornados can suck you up, spin you and throw
you somewhere far away where no one can reach you. Always swept off by his self-less
affection, I simply pretended to be frightened and thanked him for the
thoughtful caution. As I was finally returning homewards, I once again asked
him to quickly go in and lock himself up to which he calmly consoled me and
said, ‘Hey Steve! Worry not. It’s okay if
I get sucked up by the tornado. I am not at all scared as you’ll be there with me inside and both of us can have a fun spin together. And if it throws us to a
faraway place, we can have a free picnic time there without spending much
money. It’s going to be even more exciting, isn’t it partner?’ His
innocence simply made my heart
flutter. Unwittingly exercising the philosophy of simplicity, Jimmy noticed
only those facts that would make him feel good even while imagining himself inside
a deadly tornado that made the dangers which he himself warned me about a few
minutes ago, go unnoticed. With a melted heart, I walked back to him, softly
kissed him on his cheek, happily agreed that his idea was amusing and finally
returned back home feeling good.”
Jimmy’s
innocence had brought a broad smile on Lilly’s face and happy tears to
emotional Clara. Stephen smiled and continued, “So my love, now did you catch the
secret “code of conduct” we should imitate for a light and liberated life?”
“Hmm! be like jimmy” replied Clara wiping her happy tears. Stephen smiled and
said,” Almost there honey! Let me help you get it right. Just think. When you
were a child, did you know that you were expected to DO something in life? May
be if we were guided by that thought, we certainly wouldn’t have done anything
at all out of our free will back then. I believe childhood antics are priceless
antiques. Antiques are preserved with great care isn’t it? They remind as well
as connect us with our roots. Preserving a “child’s perspective” within, also serves
the similar purpose.” Stephen paused, gazed at Clara who seemed lost in her
thoughts and questioned, “Love! Are you there with me?” Clara who was
apparently taking comfort in Uncle Stephen’s words instantly replied, “Don’t
Stop Uncle Steve! Go on I’m listening” Stephen nodded and continued, “So where
was I? Hmm! A child doesn’t know that LIFE is anything to DO something with.
It simply tries to take notice of everything happening around with basic
unprejudiced intelligence and sheer curiosity to witness some more of
everything. Many times, most of us would have brushed past a feeling of wanting
some hints and clues from the other world while feeling disconnected from this
world just to deal better with life isn’t it? The hint lies here, our “Childhood”.
Our initial years here, is the hidden guide for reconnecting to the absolute
ease of life as it is the actual way of life”
Clara
interrupted and innocently quizzed, “Uncle Steve, are you sure thinking like a
child shall help us sail through the testing times?” Stephen waggishly smiled
and spoke, “You can answer that question by yourself honey! Now think! As
children, did we have the understanding about the concept of time, purpose of
its existence, different emotions attached to varying times? I don’t think we
fenced ourselves with that many conditions; however you may feel free to think
differently. Going back to those times, I don’t remember bothering about the
relevancy of even clocks hanging at home. We barely cared to label any
situation to be testing or easy. Those were the times we lived with all the emptiness,
longing for nothing but a hearty laugh to feel fresh all over
again. Now listen! Not too many days ago, I happened to watch an interview of a
legendry chocolatier from France on Television. After tasting his variety of
fine quality chocolates, the highly impressed host opined that “constant
improvisation” must be the reason for such benchmarked quality. The reply from
the chocolatier left me spellbound as he humbly corrected the host by saying
that he never tried to improve the age old classic recipe of his ancestors but
simply fine tuned it to keep up with the times which is the secret of his
comfortable sustenance. So, my love! It is nothing but same. “Childhood” is the
classic way of life. Fine tuning the child’s perspective within us, to make it
relevant to the changing times should suffice for an emancipated journey and
sustenance. So, why grow up?
Lilly,
who was patiently listening to her brother till then, spoke for the first time,
“Clara, my child! Steve is right! Stop worrying about all the dead ends now. Here,
reading the tea leaves doesn’t make any sense. The only thing that matters is
how much you enjoy the tea. With time, we have believed life to be a rocket science
while it is a butter walk. It is fixed in our heads that all the simple hacks
for sustenance are easily said than done because when the untrue is repeated
time and again, it begins to seem true with time. But just by doing, we
understand that it is even more easily done than said. So, just step into
little Clara’s ballerinas to know how easy it is to dance to life’s tunes dear!”
Clara,
who had caught the essence of the whole conversation, playfully put one hand on
Stephen’s shoulder and the other on her mother’s and said,” Now both of you be
ready to deal with little Clara’s tantrums. And Uncle Steve! I pity that the
jackpot has slipped away from your hands, because the rest of the apple pie is
going to slide down into my tummy. But wait! I think there’s still a little
luck left with you! You are allowed to eat up another small piece for taking
the trouble and aiding me offload the unnecessary pressure. I can’t love you
more!”
Hearing the exuberant little Clara, both Stephen and Lilly let out a long sigh of relief and all of them had a hearty laugh together. “Hearty laugh may be the only thing we should long for” Stephen exclaimed.
A simple
thought to live well!
It was a
lazy Sunday evening when my aunt paid a surprise visit to our house along with
her twin grandchildren only to share with us, her freshly made mango ice cream which
instantly lifted our spirits. While we were happily chatting over a bowl of my
aunt’s popular treat, one of the twins, who was cheerfully playing in the
portico suddenly tripped and hurt her toe which was followed by bulbous tears
rolling down from her little eyes. While I was applying the antiseptic crème to her
toe, the other twin, just to make her sister smile, pretended the crème to be
ice cream and began acting like licking and relishing it. The little girl, who was
crying in pain, instantly chuckled seeing her sister’s amusing behavior. Every time
her sister pretended to lick the crème, the injured twin giggled and a couple
of minutes later, she simply got distracted from her injury and both of them jovially
ran behind one another.
This sweet
scene brightened my wit with a simple technique for survival. Just having a
little champ’s perspective shall effortlessly coax us and divert our attention
to only the feel good aspects from even the most gruesome pains.
So, think
like a child to simply unwind!
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