A WALK WITH A FROG

Oh!  What a piece of joy,  i was flabbergasted. My eyeballs almost rolled down when i saw this tender and so vulnerable little thing hopping on the walking track of my society. Just few days back, i along with my son, were gazing at hundreds of tadpoles in the small water body adjoining the walking track. This place seldom had water. It's monsoon time and rain had been kind enough to fill the place and the result was these hundreds of babies. Tadpoles are also babies, Isn't it? They looked happy discovering themselves as new swimmers but there is more to discover, we both kept wondering but i knew this standing water would be cleared in few days. How many rising sun would these miniatures see? Will they discover the joy of finding their own adulthood? Will they live to see how God has bestowed them with those special stages? Will they experience metamorphosis?

The water may be cleared tomorrow or day after. This little fear or maybe some kind of odd feeling instigated. Maybe, this was an instant connection. We both prayed for their fate as we kept watching them fighting their own battle, a fight for survival, using every inch of that little water. That's the way life is. It doesn't hold a guarantee card but we always extend friendship hand towards it still being aware of our mortality. And these tadpoles teach me this.

Several minutes passed sharing my thoughts with my son and listening to his and as expected of a typical mom, a teacher was soon born in me looking for an opportunity to make my kid learn and this time the subject was 'Lifecycle of a Frog'.

I kept coming back to watch them grow following evenings with a hope of still seeing water there. The stink shouldn't come into any one's notice, i kept praying. Suddenly that stinking water had become important to me which on other days prevented me from coming near it but today,  It was nourishing lives,  so many of them. Isn't life more important than filth? Sun should show some mercy as i watched the level of water declining each day. Will they see their adulthood, the same question in my brain each time. I remembered that princess from the story who could turn the frog to a prince with a peck.

And today, while walking towards the same place with the same goal, my eyes spotted this tiny, little handsome prince hopping on the track. Might be that magical peck. My old friend looked new, hopping around with an air of confidence just like some person who had just got a beautiful makeover. My little friend showed same emotion.

I hadn't seen such a tiny frog in my life. I didn't miss the opportunity of holding it in my hands with some effort as i wanted to give it a close look but the prince was in no mood of respecting my feelings and quickly jumped. I could understand its zeal to explore its new world and body. But i had to show this amazing creature to the one i shared these moments with - my son. I could see the same happiness and astonishment in his eyes as well. As we moved ahead, a full army of these tiny frogs treated us.

I helped my son in catching one of them to make him taste a fraction of joy that i feel seeing him grow each single day as my tadpole is slowly becoming a frog.. .....

In an Airport

A loud, weird hiccup in the queue and everybody turned back giving that man a feeling of a bullet hitting him. I was among them contributing equally in creating an awkward moment for that unknown man standing at security check point terminal in Schipol airport. Soon my mind reminded me of social mannerism and i rather focused on the security check , just like a teacher always stops those moving heads during some speech or assembly in school.

I was accompanying my husband in his official tour to Netherlands. We were pretty happy coming back to our country, India after spending a couple of months in the foreign land. Its always good to be home. So we both were in happy space while sitting in the boarding area. It actually amuses me to sit at common places where so many strangers hailing from different parts of the world are sitting, few next to me and few facing me. Some with their heads buried in books, some sitting in pride looking pleased with themselves for travelling in an international flight, few careless munchers and few dignified ones, few prefer talking and few wtsapping and the moms bearing little ones sharing same emotion...desiring for a sleeping child during journey. Some new relations are made, even contact numbers get exchanged which soon evaporates from brain just like clouds after the rain.

I and my husband fall in the category of music listeners with our earphones on during timeouts but the only difference being me still watching the actions around.  Among the crowd, my eyes chose to settle on an endearing elderly Indian couple, looking very fond of each other sitting two rows ahead and the very next moment i found myself sitting with them. During our conversation that lasted for about 10 odd minutes, i realized that they had come to see their son who was blessed with a baby boy. The happiness was visible on their faces and i also became a part of their emotion for those minutes until boarding call interrupted us and announcement regarding the change in the gates was made due to some unknown reason. We parted with kind words but not without exchanging phone numbers which i knew will fizz out with each step as we head towards destination. Without wasting a tick, we hurried towards the new gate which was a little far. During this time, we both shared a common thought if we should have asked the couple to come with us or helped them if they wanted.

All this time our eyeballs were swinging left and right searching for them just like a pendulum. This feeling of guilt grew stronger with each step as the couple was no where to be seen. We didn't have much time to go back. Maybe they have headed to wrong destination. We started to figure out the possibilities. We felt sorry for them but soon this feeling back stabbed us when we saw the same couple standing way ahead in the queue. On seeing us, they hand gestured inquiring where had we been for so long? We looked at each other with appalling yet happy smile and our eyes conveyed our state without any word. It was like some very unexpected  random classmate has beaten us for the first rank.

Today, their number might have fizzed out but their hand gesture is still alive still forcing us to think that where had we been for so long?

A RENDEZVOUS WITH RAIN

What a delight, today morning it was a not a usual Geeeet Upppppp!!!!! through my alarm but the sweet rhythmic sound of the falling rain played that part. Rain must have taken some more time to wake me up today than in my childhood when it was a much easy piece of work. A loud but still pleasing pitter-patter of rain drops falling on that blue fibre-glass sunshade outside my room always invoked a sense of melody and calm. My ears still long for that melody no less than a song of a cuckoo bird.

Every time it pours, a child is born in me, stretching my hand from the window to feel that love again and it still feels the same as if drops whisper in my ears " Stop Growing". Today the view is different for me but some child out there must be still making those balls of mud and aiming them on those umbrellas moving hurriedly in the street and somewhere some child who has never prayed must have joined his hands making a wish to stop rain as its time to play. This rain somehow makes me realize, how same we are in our springhood. That one jump in the puddle would feel like the luxurious bath ever. Rotating umbrellas just to see those drops fly off was all the umbrella was meant for and hosting a competition between those sliding droplets on the window glass was a duty. It would be a scary sight for trees to see us on a rainy day as they know that again its time to experience a mightiest shake to give us that extra feel of shower. I still remember that blurred vision from my school bus-window which became a drawing pad for my finger pencil.

And today when i stand in my balcony, i know some child out there in that school bus must be a busy host, hosting a competition and the other must have become a finger-painter. So many emotions buried in these droplets, so many children reborn, so many memories come to life. Few old, Few new! atmosphere is full of this tender emotion and i can feel this tenderness in these pouring drops of rain. I will wait for this pitter-patter again as many memories built, many more to be built with the child inside and the one outside.

RELENTLESS BUT MY PRIME COMPANION

Its 6 in the morning and my clock starts to shout at the top of its voice as if i am enjoying the calm mountain view and somebody from behind pushed me relentlessly down the precipice. Just 5 more minutes, i gently snooze my clock, these 5 minutes will give me a sleep of lifetime. That soft pillow under my head is still caressing me, the blanket had never been so warm before,  the tenderness of mattress is still fresh. Oh! I don't wanna get up. But who cares, these 5 minutes run so fast just like a deer running for his life from a lion. I am sure my very dear clock has some special most powerful battery running in it which refuses to drain.

But in this fight, the clock wins and in happiness and pride looks at my sad, sleepy  face as it knows that now it has all my attention and who doesn't like this feeling.

Being a wife and a mom, fixed time for everything. The tick-tock keeps running and so does my never ending duties. Time for my son to go to school,  time to get him back, time to eat, time for this and that........and in this whole process who is most happy to make me dance to its tunes- MY VERY HEALTHY CLOCK, popping a question everytime i look at it.

For my clock, i must be a very down-to-earth fellow as it has always seen me  pleading whether in the examination hall where i would see it 300 times in just 3 hrs or in kitchen or during sleep. But yes, it has seen me change, grow up from a daughter to a mom , seen me laugh, cry.. . but what hasn't changed is me still standing in front of it evey single day and gazing it with different expressions at different times still pleading and abusing that little super battery peacefully resting in the clock. Sometimes i thank God that it doesn't have a mouth but today when this tick-tock died, i hurriedly revived it with another super power battery to get my relentless but prime companion back to life so that it can tick-tock with me again.

Isn't it the funniest relation in this world-"me and my clock".

A 5 MINUTE VOYAGE

Taking those few steps from my kid's bus stop to my apartment in the morning everyday is the time when the list of whole days work starts generating in my mind.
But today, it was a different day as i decided not to let that list knock my mind and instead treat my eyes with nature. So i gifted myself those 5 beautiful minutes of life to see the first love of my childhood - plants.
Watching those leaves in their morning attire of dew drops conveyed me their happiness and took me down the memory lane of my childhood days when i would get a new dress. Oh! What a grand feeling that was. All i wanted from this big wide world - A New Dress! A dress i would dream about for months which should make me look like a fairy. Haha! Flaunting that dress in front of friends gave me a sense of pride. I could not wait for that moment to come. WHAT A FEELING! And i know many of you would identify with this feeling and i got to live that same emotion through leaves who might also be longing for early morning everyday waiting for their share of water for sure. A fresh dress of dew drops every morning with a new pattern. Wearing it would be giving the same sense of pride to them.
With a smile on my face, i got drowned in the figment of my imagination only to be pulled out by a sharp pitched sound of good morning by a morning walker. I happily gestured and took to my way off home but not without looking back one time at those same leaves again with a smiling eyes promising to return tomorrow.

Until then.....