When I was a school going kid, today meant tricolor flags, Red Fort on Doordarshan, A.R. Rehman's Vande Mataram and the movie Roja.
Also, today could mean I getting dressed, my brother taking a bath, my failed attempt at tying the knots of Rakhi and our favorite cylinder-shaped Gulab Jamuns.
In general there used to be a feeling very much like the festival we were celebrating.
Today, however, the feeling was of a 24 hour break from the routine that I follow begrudgingly of going to office, being the corporate stooge, coming back to the house and dealing with the unpleasant flat-mates in a space crunched Mumbai apartment.
Actually, scratch that. The feeling was of waking up in my cousin's home, amazing meals of methi parantha, home made hummus & wheat pita and suji ka halwa.
Accompanying the taste bud pleasers was a very interesting conversation of what my 13 year old cousin aspires to study. The answer is History. And I'm proud of her. I could immediately see her in a futuristic version of Dan Brown novels.
While growing up, Social Studies never seemed to me as a subject for occupation. I guess many of my fellow countrymen had the same limited views and we have built an army of doctors and engineers and MBAs. No rants from my side, as I am one of the soldiers with two of these qualifications. In-fact, I am very happy with the way my academic life has been.
Aim is to have a similar, satisfying life ahead. One tiny bundle of joy making my life better one day at a time is my baby niece. By the way, ever since she started crawling, my brother- her dad- has this saying- "time, tide and kaki wait for none!"
And time flies! Here I am talking about my childhood & school, while also looking forward to next week when my other cousin- who's my age- is getting engaged. Surely YD is one of the first of many more nieces and nephews to come. Golly, and to think I used to go to school till a decade ago.
