And it is a good morning

“What on earth are you still doing with the damn newspaper” screamed dad as I sat up all groggy in bed. The grogginess, well… I think that story is worth another post in itself. So yeah…I dug out my phone from under the pillow to check the time and it was just 7 in the morning. My eyes hurt from having not slept properly in over 48 hours, but I knew that if I slept any longer, I was asking for some serious trouble. I hauled myself out of the comfort of my bed, oh wait, it wasn’t that comfortable anymore. The air conditioner had been switched off four hours earlier and it was as hot as hell! I adjusted my pillow leaving my phone under it for safe-keeping. Rule number 1: Never wake up with the cell phone in your hand, especially if your family can see you doing that.

Then, I see my brother walking into the room with the grumpy expression on his face and mumbling under his breath. Just as I was getting used to the light, my mom screamed for me from the kitchen. By now I was wide awake. I got around to brushing and then went to the most hated part of my mornings, milk. (Yuck!) I grabbed my coffee mug from the kitchen counter and moved to the balcony, away from everyone at home as they rushed about, trying to get ready on time. I settled comfortably in the easy chair (like a 60-year old as my mom liked to remind me) and opened the newspaper. And as always, I lost interest in the news that had been published after a mere fifteen minutes. I turned my attention to all the noise that was coming from outside.

It was almost 8’o clock. Most schools around this area begin at around 8.30 or 9 and I knew that there would be all the auto-wallas honking and screaming for the kids to come quickly lest they be late for school. I smiled to myself as I remembered those days when I was one of them, running around in a hurry trying to avoid being late to school. I paused to take in the scene around me. There was the usual middle-aged mother next door dutifully oiling her daughter’s hair and plaiting it. Was it my imagination or did the girl look grumpy? Well, it could be my imagination because back when I was in school, I was never happy with whatever my mother did with my hair. I would constantly complain about how my hair was standing up at the back or in front, phew… it was a bit of a struggle until 8^th grade after mother gave up on me and told me that I could do whatever I wanted with my hair. I felt like I’d won my battle with her.

Coming back to the present, I decided to focus elsewhere and noticed that there was another girl down near the compound gate probably waiting for her father to bring their car out. Meanwhile, the vegetable seller came in. The empty pavement was suddenly filled with women of different ages as they all hurried to get the best of vegetables at reasonable prices. They argued and pushed around for about fifteen minutes and when each of them had collected what they wanted, they started to move out leaving the vendor to count his collection for the day. He counted and appeared satisfied as he put the money in his tin box. He looked up at me where I stood watching and smiled. One happy man, I thought to myself as I waved to him indicating that we had the vegetables we needed for the day and would not be making any purchases.

He pushed his cart out and went to the next compound just as my mom yelled again from inside causing me to jump. I’d nearly forgotten about the milk I had brought. It was cold now, I tried to take a sip, but it tasted so bad that I couldn’t bring myself to drink anymore. I looked around to see what I could do when I saw Mouschi, the neighbor’s cat jumping into our balcony from the sunshade. J I smuggled a pan from the loft, poured my milk out into it and gave it to her. She lapped it up in no time and all I had to do was hide the pan till my parents left for work. I came back inside with the most innocent look that I could muster and that was the end of an eventful morning. One definitely worth describing. J

ALL IN THE MIND

I know it has been a while since I made any entry here, but I guess I can forgive myself by stating that working in the IT industry has barely given me any time to re arrange and make sense out of my thoughts, let alone write them down. But here I am, and the topic I have chosen for today is how much of life is built around what happens in the mind.

Let us take self belief for instance, when I begin doing something believing that I can finish it on time or successfully or whatever it may be, it makes a whole lot of difference as compared to me starting by wondering if I’ll ever be able to do justice to it. This of course applies to almost everybody on the planet. Realizing this is just the first step, there is a long way to go after this. I have learnt that confidence can be hard to build during bad times, but not impossible. Actually, with time, determination and effort, nothing is impossible.

Obviously this is one of the simplest examples. I, for one have started to believe that you are only as healthy or happy as you want to be. I have seen so many people including friends and family members suffering from various ailments. And the one thing that I have noticed in common is that when each of these sick people want to do something they enjoy, they are able to sit up and do it despite being sick whereas if it is some daily routine kind of thing that they are not particularly happy doing, then they are too sick to do it. I personally know of a person who cannot bring herself to do the daily chores at home. Her head hurts, she feels giddy, her legs and hands are swollen etc. But being the religious person she is, even walking a couple of kilometers to the temple does not hurt. Of course her argument is that God is taking care of her when she goes to visit him. I respectfully disagree. I am not an atheist, but I’m not a religious fanatic either. I firmly believe that God will not help if you were to sit in one place and just keep praying without lifting a single finger to help yourself. This of course can be another topic of discussion in itself. But coming back to the point here, what I am trying to say is that she is able to visit the temples without feeling as much pain only because she enjoys doing that and in her mind she knows that it will make her happy. If she were to employ the same thought process while doing other things as well, I am sure she will be loads better. It is easier said than done, because wallowing in self pity is something that comes naturally to us human beings. But then again, nothing is more dangerous than self pity. You lose respect for yourself and become miserable. That is precisely the moment when you cease to exist in the eyes of others.

The same is for happiness. If you choose to be happy, if you want to be happy, then there are hundreds and millions of ways to be happy. Constantly complaining about how things have gone wrong in life, and the number of obstacles you have had to face while walking to the path of success will only leave you weak and demoralized. Victory is sweeter when it comes after you have fought your battles like a true soldier. Life would be no fun if we were all to get what we wanted immediately. Every time something goes wrong, we must learn our lessons, pick ourselves off the ground and walk on with our heads held high. The past will remain with us, but we must use that to pave the way for a happier future, not as stories that we tell people to earn sympathy. We would do well to remember that today is the day and now is the time to be happy. We will never get these moments back, and every minute spent frowning or being unhappy is a loss in this short life that we lead. Atleast for me, when I go, I would like to be remembered as someone who smiled and did things the right way even when everything around her did not exactly favor her. I’ll finish by saying this, ‘The mind is hard to control. I am not saying anyone is an expert, but optimism must be the way of life’.