...SO FAR

I know this is a little too long for a post, but somehow felt it was important to start off with this.

1987, December
…WHACK…as the tiny ass cheek hurt, a baby boy weighing all but 3.5 kgs gulped his first lungful of air and sprang into life. And then he started crying. As the nurses cleansed him of the blood, the doc conveyed the good news to the man responsible for the baby, standing outside with the characteristic anxiety. Hours later, as the man and woman responsible were gleaming at the result of their hardwork with pride; they hoped that everything would be as smooth as it’d been on that important day, and hope they still do…

1992, September
...the weekend cleaning and tidying was a rigorous effort even without a restless kid getting into the way. Finally when the dad’s nerves couldn’t stand it anymore, an order issued out with a growl followed the kid up to sit on top of ‘somewhere and be quiet’. And since the somewhere wasn’t specified, he sat on the weird looking grey box at the end of which dad was pulling some sucking thing (read vacuum cleaner). Unfortunately for him, the cleaner was switched on right at the moment he placed his tender lil’ ass on it (somehow he doubted the dad’s lingering smile later on). Imagine the shock a 4 year old gets when one of his most prized body parts is subject to mechanical howls. The kid’s always been wary since…

1994, June
…the kid wakes up one night at 3 and sees a light in the TV room. He rubs his eyes and curiosity picks him up from the bed and carries him up till the ajar door where he sees glued to the TV, his dad, watching the Football World Cup match. He walks up to dad and crawls onto his lap and makes himself comfy in it. He’s waiting eagerly for the customary pat and fondling but none came by. All he gets is a violent jolt when dad jumps up with joy when some white ball zooms into the net on-screen. The kid silently sits back and wonders why his dad is trying to match the crazy people on screen by jumping up and down-after all it’s the same man who had reprimanded him for making too much noise at 7 in the evening…]

1995, December
…finally dad listens to the kid who’s been saying there’s something wrong with mom coz her stomach’s been growing and growing and she’s been getting weaker. Dad wakes him up in the wee hours of the morning and says “mom needs to be taken to the hospital”. The kid silently thanks god for bringing sense into his dad’s head. He’s dropped off at a family friend’s along with assurances of frequent phone calls. As soon as he sees his friends he forgets all the worries and realizes it’s his b’day. And when he was in the midst of his celebrations, dad comes up all smiling and takes him off to the hospital. When queried as to why, dad replies he’s got a gift for him. The cheered up kid waits eagerly and a pleasant sense of surprise build on inside him as he went down the corridors of the hospital. And when those 8 year old eyes of his rested on his gift, an insuppressible sense of joy passed through him. It remained the most beautiful sight those eyes had the fortune of capturing for a long time. A beautiful doll which had life in it. Dad said it came from mom’s stomach. The kid checked and saw his mom’s stomach had grown back to how it should’ve been. And still he didn’t believe dad. He thanked god again a second time that day, for having remembered his birthday and for the gift…

1996, March
…and with swollen eyes (from crying) the kid stomped up the steps of the bus to his new school (and his home for another 8 years). And with the same fit of anger and sadness he picked a fight with a senior (who boarded from a later stop) who claimed his right to the seat the kid was seated on. The senior showed his age and understanding when he didn’t waste too many words with the kid-one tight slap across the left cheek did the trick and the kid was seen seated right next to the conductor for the rest of the year. The kid wondered whether there’d be any lasting marks from the slap. His fears were confirmed almost 12 years later when he noticed a marked difference in hair growth on his left side of the face. The senior had left his mark…

2001, September
...and as the grown up kid runs about the different venues to attend the numerous events for the Annual Creative Festival at his school, he passes by the main auditorium where he chances upon his classmate and very good friend singing on stage. Though he was very late for his event he stayed on to watch the entire song. He reckons he’s the one who clapped the most and loudest but fully realizes his hands never moved. He never bothered to check the results of the solo singing competition coz in his heart, she’d won the 1st prize. Life’s never been the same since…

2004, March
…and the house which was in a state of emergency (10th grade board exams), was home now to a ‘fire-in-the-ass’ chipmunk (the kid), a nervous-frowning-silent man (the dad), a touchy-arduous-God-devotee (the mom) and a where’s-my-doll-cute girl (the sis). Panic stricken nights, long session at the loo (stress relieving has its different forms), book strewn bed, long forgotten computer were the only reality shows that were viewed on this channel for a month. And when it had all come to an end (with a disastrous language they’d called French but actually meant ‘trench’) all was forgotten and out came the footballs, basketballs and a few other balls. But somewhere the kid didn’t want it to end so fast, for saying goodbye was not something he was accustomed to. But it was something he had no choice but to do for he was to be relocated to an alien land they called motherland. As he bid adieu to the people and surroundings that truly defined him, he searched for one face, not to say goodbye, but…

2006, March
…having accepted the last two years didn’t work too well (that’s an understatement), and fully realizing the importance of having to fill lots of papers with dots to enter into colleges where they engineer ones future, the kid heaved a sigh of relief when he walked up the gates of ‘home’; for now he had a chance of setting things right. It was like rebirth, for straight away the kid was thrown into the fast moving life laden with opportunities, happiness and friends. What the world held for him, he did not know; where life’s eternities would lead him he did not care; all that mattered was life was changing lanes…

2008, May
…success, happiness, friendship, hardship and failure had been tasted by now and something in the kid was yearning for more. Something, somewhere still cringed for that extra bit and he didn’t mind going the extra mile to do it. He knows what he needs to do but knows not where to start; he stands up and look forward. Never having been short on ambition, he never needed to look far to aspire or be motivated. Life’s been nice to him and in return he had nothing but love and respect for it-after all that is what we all live for right, love…