ITS JUST THERE.....

"A beautiful baby" was the words that left my lips, when I saw that lovely child.

He must have been around two/ two and half years of age, and a wonderful bundle of boundless energy he was....looking at him jumping, and talking all at the same time, intrigued me no end.
It was a bus journey and took us a long time to get to my destination, for once I wasn't grumbling about the traffic snarls, the crowded roads etc., Little baby boy kept me amused.

He was seated diagonally  across the aisle and his whole world was his mother who was very busy with her phone, to pay attention to the little boys cuteness.

She held him firmly across his tiny chest and at times he tried to jump and get himself loose to jump on the seat ...fortunately the bus was empty and he did have a little space on the seat besides him.

What does it take for a parent to realise that the children will grow faster than they will every know, and no amount of money could ever buy such beautiful emotions.
The little boy was babbling and talking away to the mother ....his world, and all she was doing was talking into the phone.
Yes, it must have been something urgent she had to attend to, given the inclination towards technology, that society has nowadays addicted, she surely did miss out on the lovely boys antics and banter.

He did look towards me and was pointed his tiny finger to the TV screen quite excited.....

My thoughts were on various aspects of life, how we are missing out on the beauty all around us, the little boy's presence during the bus journey made many a passenger happy ..Of course yours truly included.

Look around and you will find  happiness in the most unexpected corners ..... the look on peoples faces, the smile of a child, the happy shouting of children when the bell has ended their day....just got to look ...no need to search.
                                            



                                

APPEARANCES ARE DECEPTIVE.

Everytime I walked past him, he was always glaring at me angrily...or just maybe thats the way I perceived his stare.

There is this tiny shop on the corner of the road, and  the man sells empty cans and old newspapers, magazines, he is always  busy sorting  his stuff, and has a keen eye on the road and the people walking.

I decided to try and find out if my perception about our man was true,"Do you have a  National Geographic magazine?"      I needed pictures to fix on the kids project and hence...

He gave me "That stare" and went face down into his bundles and with the air of a magician taking a rabbit out of his hat, he held a bundle of them.

My joy knew no bounds, and I tried to choose the best one suited to my needs.

The man, was not at all what I thought him to be, he was a committed man, and always focused on his job, giving him that angry look .

Paid him for the book, and with a  spring in my step...walked home.

We have heard "Appearances are deceptive" or "Never judge a book by its cover"

TOMORROW NEVER COMES

"Tomorrow never comes,"  My Mother never believes in keeping anything for tomorrow, whatever maybe the case.
But sometimes it has its flipside too ! look at the sales and if  you wait for tomorrow maybe, just maybe the price may slide down further..so what do you say ? should it be today or tomorrow ?
Sometimes, things have to be done, right here right now, and like the sales issue can have its advantages doing it late.
Its just all about the issue..how urgent it is.

A ROOMFUL OF TOYS.

She was in the shop, amidst all the toys any little child would want, (yours truly too !) she had a frown on her pretty face, and all the cajoling and pampering could not make her happy...the little girls mother was literally down on her knees  trying to convince her that the pretty doll together with the huge doll house was good, but she would not relent.

She just did not seem to be happy with that room full of toys !
I picked my purchase and headed straight on to the road. The sight, I witnessed on my way home, was the stark opposite of what I saw.

A mother, sitting beneath the tree with her little boy, If my guess is right around the same age.. the little boy was playing with a broken toy probably given to him  and he seemed to be having loads of fun with it, around him was his dirtied bat and a deflated ball, still he seemed to be having a blast and all under his tired mothers watchful eyes, who occasionally shouted endearing words to the little boy.
.
I tried to think ...maybe the little girl all she wanted was her mothers attention in a negative or positive manner, whatever, but she had them fixed to her for the few minutes, maybe that was her way.

On the other hand the little fellow had all the love and attention any child could dream of.
Are we compensating our kids with materialistic good? so much that they find a way to get to our hearts ?

MUMBAI ...TRULY THE CITY OF DREAMS

He is my regular fruit vendor, and has been since the past twenty odd years,  I have seen him grow from a single basket of apples and bananas to an array of exotic fruit in the past so many years.

His journey as I have mentally documented it is hard work equals success....nothing in between, maybe the odd corrupt cop and an irrational customer, besides that nothin...just nothing..

The husband wife  make a wonderful team, that most of us educated species can learn from.
They begin their work very early  morning, for most of us we have a luxurious two to three hours to wake up. They begin by  placing the picture of their God between the baskets, sweeping the place and setting up the fruit baskets, which most of the times the wife has procured from the wholesale market and is now offloading it from the tempo.Asked him why does his wife go and not him? the wife quickly replied that he sleeps at around 02/0230 am in the morning handling the various business transactions and hence .....

An hour or two later, and which time our eyes are beginning to open  they are well into the business, the ladies who go to the temple are always buying the fruits.
He has a huge brood, and has happily settled his daughters, of which he speaks with a sparkle in his eyes, surely any father would be proud

His sons two of them one is almost a Chartered Accountant and the other a Mechanical Engineer.His wife is continuously wiping and polishing the fruits the pears, the apples, the peaches, the dragon fruit, correcting him in between our conversations.

The best part about him is his positivity, the gratitude and the compassion and kindness he shows the odd beggar who stretches his hand towards his fruit...

My heart sings a song for Him and His wife as I wish him a happy day...
Knowing that he and his wife have made it in the city of dreams ....Mumbai and nothing equals hard work...
                                            


                                               

 

MUM'S THE WORD

An adorable little cherub, and the mother was so proudly carrying the little boy, all dressed in his fancy clothes, he was the apple of his parents eyes was evident.

The mother was whispering sweet nothings into his tiny ears, and he was listening with rapt attention, giving a half smile and then a burst of laughter, what a joy it was to see the relationship between the two took  me back to memories of my childhood,where Mom was my world, until I reached the age where friends took a main part of your platform, BUT, still Mom was always there whenever I needed her, and still is a major part of all my memories and fun times that we still have.

No one, just no one can ever take the place of a Mother, her touch, her smile, her understanding, and even her explosions are one of a kind.It is the biological bond that the nine month gestation has done so well for us all, and hence a mother plays a major part in our lives.

Its is only after being a parent can you understand the depth with which you look at a crying child, its not just superficial, being a parent opens your eyes in more ways than one, your emotional side is more sharper.

If I look back at my teenage years, I always felt sad, bad, charitable so on and so forth....But being a parent completely changes the picture, and it is a happy picture.You look at the whole scenario in a totally different perspective.Kind of looking at a 3-D vision.How good is that.

Lifes like that

The husbands and my morning routines runs along a church, where the homeless and not economically well off are given a warm breakfast of coffee/tea and  freshly baked loaves.
Long queues so early in the morning of little babies and kids all waiting for that first meal of the day. The gentle souls who provide the sad and lonely with this wonderful meal, are surely blessed !
Not a day goes by without seeing a smile on the kids faces as they take the loaves and quickly pack it in their mothers bags to be shared with maybe many more waiting for that meal at their home.
Gives me a lot to think on my walking rounds, what is it that  makes one man to give so much of himself ? and sometimes in our own lives people pinch pennies for a basic need ?
There definitely has to be something divine in the man who cares to provide for a lesser fortunate one.
In my own life, I have seen people sharing of their very little that they have, they will cut it down to the last bit in order for  each person to taste it, or even just give it away like "Oh! Take this, I have tasted it before, its yours now!"
All I can say is How wonderful is the soul that can feel so deeply for them.
Flip the coin and there you have the excesses they come and just grab the piece that you are holding in your hands, happens especially during sales.
There was this home furnishing sale and the usual rush that we see around sales, I had seen this beautiful pair of cushion covers and picked them up and checked them for size etc., liked them and decided to pay for them, not without picking another piece of furnishing, it was a bed sheet, so for a split second let the cushion covers down besides me, to check out the bed sheet, people have eyes all over their bodies, and there came this lady, all complete with her designer bags, hair-dos and grabbed the set of cushion covers that I kept besides me,"That's mine, lady," I politely told her" OH ! you just kept it down"
with a very annoyed smile(If there is something like that) "I needed both hands to check this out," showed her the sheet," "Can I have them please they go so well with my bedroom,"she said with a huge glisten in her mascara painted eyes, "Ask the sales girl to help you out with another piece,"  Saying this I stretched my hands to get the cushion covers from her, but no she wouldn't give it, to me, "I will first check out with the sales girl, "
My first instinct was to grab them right out of her hands, but you got to be uncivilised to behave that way, went with my head reeling not so much for the materialistic want but for the uncouth behaviour of this opportunist, who without a whimper must have been watching me all along and the first opportunity grabbed !!!!
I explained to the sales girl, how things happened and she politely said that she should have another pair, maybe more colors too!
It was only then that the lady dropped it right besides her on the counter, and walked away without as much as a apology for all the trouble etc., etc.,
Just goes to show the more we have the greedier we get to go out grab and walk away without apology
Like my header says,"LIFE'S LIKE THAT"