Remembering a forgotten wishlist
Last weekend
I was walking down the road from my office to a client meeting when I saw this
young boy of about 8 years who was selling balloons and toys by the road side. Amongst
all the colourful wares he had there was something that caught my attention. It
was a small white bottle which had soap water to make bubbles. Something in that bottle made me stop in my
tracks and go back to him
I held that
bottle in my hands as it took me down the memory lane, to a time when I was a
child. I used to ask my mom to buy this for me, and she would never let me buy
it. Its ganda… its chee… you will get infections. Look at his hands they are so
dirty etc were the various reasons I was given and I never understood them.
With a sad face I would start walking home with them promising myself mentally
that the day I would begin earning the first thing I would do is buy a bottle
of soap water and blow loads of bubbles.
Time passed
and I grew up leaving behind this wish somewhere along with the innocence of
childhood as I began running in the race to survival. Today when I saw this
thing again it reminded me how in chasing the bigger dreams of life I had
forgotten the simple joys of life which once were the world for me. It’s been
almost a decade I got my first pay and I never bought a soap bubble water
bottle with it. So much for surviving! That moment made me feel there were so
many such wishes buried deep inside my heart which I never let come out till
now.
Eating innumerable
ice creams, buying as many books as I wanted, watching TV till late, getting up
late, hogging on your favourite food, buying gas balloons and letting them off
in the air, sitting in a merry go round for back to back six rounds till you
are tipsy, watching movies in a theatre all alone undisturbed, eating at your favourite restuarant without worrying it is time for lunch / brunch / dinner / hi tea… Ah! The list was long and I suddenly felt all invigorated just with
the thought of all these wishes which I wanted to come true at the
earliest. In that one moment I realized
that at times in life it is important to dream and then at one stage it is important
to act to make those dreams come true. My dreams were just there, waiting for
me to stretch my arms and touch them.
Having
chosen to be on a path to exist somewhere I had forgotten the way to the path
to live. And this young lad sitting here was a God sent reminder to me for
living instead of existing.
“Yeh chahiye?” (Translation: “Do you want
this?”) His voice brought me back.
“Ha…. Char chahiye” (Translation: “Yes I
need four of them.”) I smiled and bought four of them, just to cover up on the
lost time and left that place with a promise to be back for some more time and
again.
P.S: This is
a very old post and yes I do all of these things always. Actually that is
exactly where I spend all that I earn. :)