Feb 28, 2012

Today's Breakfast Special

I started going for morning walk with dad from yesterday. Today he introduced me to an old gentleman who runs a compact breakfast stall, with 4-5 items in those many small tin containers. Dad often brings breakfast from him. And I like his Poha, which is what I ate today.

He is running 79. He has never eaten in a hotel, he said, "and so I can bet I have no threat for next 10 years." His elder sister is 92 and still cooks her own meals.

He knows 7 languages. Talks English very confidently.

He runs the breakfast stall to collect money for his granddaughter who, he said, is so brilliant that who knows what will she become after she grows up -

"She's currently in 6th standard and has already collected around 50-60 certificates from school and outside. She recently made a hot air balloon that flies when she puts a candle inside it. And now she's going to get a certificate for herself and a trophy for her school for that balloon."

She has won a scholarship and the continuation of that scholarship depends on an exam that will be held in April. "..but she has already prepared whole syllabus for that exam."

She studies in a reputed old school in Pune, the same school my childhood hero (Faster Fene) from a fiction series studied in. I wonder if she has read those stories? She is at a perfect age for those books.

Feb 14, 2012

सुंदर मी होणार : I Shall Be Beautiful

Aah! Update time...

Boings! I left my job back in November. Spent three months preparing for GATE for doing Post Grad from one of the IITs. I gave GATE on Sunday. Messed up. So now I've got to think what to do next and how to do it better than this exam. :)

Last night I was thinking how it would be if life could be fast forwarded by some 10-15 years.. I'd be settled already.. I'd know how it looks to me.. I'd have a pattern set and I'd simply be following it. A contrasting situation from today. (Life begins at 40, eh?)

But of course life won't get fast forwarded that way! And there is no need to do it. And there is no point in doing it. If all I wanted was to find myself in a set pattern, I already had it when I had the job, didn't I? I think I was a bit worried last night. That's all. And that's ok.

Truth? This is a quite a phase. I don't remember when was the last time when I had absolutely no clue about tomorrow. And two days after the exam, I have no idea about what to do now. Oh yea, I've got some things to do to nicely spend my time.. but I don't know what to do when I come back from this vacation. When is the vacation supposed to end? Whenever I say so. Next week. Next month. Tomorrow.

It is amazing how we could work 14 hours a day and fit into that lifestyle. Or do no work at all and fit into that lifestyle. We get used to things. We find ways to live life. Still crib, yes. But live it as it comes. Shape it as it comes. Make a pattern out of it. Be it a 9 to 6. Be it total chaos.

This truth has another side. The thought that we could change our life. Choose a pattern. Maybe within the environment that's been provided to us. But we could. And then we'll learn to live it.

I do totally respect this phase! I feel so different. I'm thinking of the poem "Sundar Mi Honar" (I shall be beautiful). I will post it as soon as I find it. It talks about the changes in life. Rebirth. The faith in a beautiful future. Quite serene...

Just like this phase.




P.S : To whosoever 'duhed' my last post: I hereby mark my first real post in 2012.