Oscar

          Coming from a town that is a 50km away from a metropolitan city, Mumbai, you don’t see many pets around here. Ulhasnagar is the town where I am from, it is mostly known for its Sindhi population, Jeans’ markets, awesome delicious mouth-watering Sindhi food and India’s own ‘Made in China’ products (you know what I mean). Getting a pet here is a struggle on its own. I first told my Parents and others in my family about my wish of having a pet and, as anyone in a joint family like mine, I was not allowed. Overtime I let it go.

          A few years passed by, I got enrolled in degree college. All excited about this new journey I was about to start. Many things were about to change in my life. Out of those many, one was me developing a liking towards cats. There were a number cats who used to roam around in our college. In those days of the semester, when there wasn’t anything particularly to do apart from attending practical and roaming around in the campus with friends, also since we used to bunk almost all the lectures, I started spending time with these adorable felines. I would gently pat them or move my hand over their head or scratch their chins, and they would sit beside me, sometimes purring. I grew more and more fond of them.

          At this point, I asked my family to pet a cat. They, as always, refused. But, this time, I was not going to take no for an answer. I was adamant and urged them again and again for a few months. Finally, my parents said that they would let me have a cat, if I managed to get a 9 pointer in my next semester (Ugh!! Typical Indian Parents). But, I was happy that at least they considered my wish, and I knew, that even if I don't get a 9 pointer, I would be able to convince them with a little bit more persistence. Also, I knew my father, he said that he would let me have a cat if I secured a 9 pointer, but the only thing he wanted was me concentrating on my studies a bit more. He succeeded in doing that, because, let's face it, we all work a bit harder, study a little more, when we have motivation. My father has a way of helping people find motivation (or giving them in this case) towards something that they themselves wanna do, or is good for them.

          Come next semester, I studied harder, but once you have tasted the sweet nectar of the fun you can have in engineering, there is no going back. I couldn't get a 9 pointer. So, now when I approached my family with the same wish, they had a reason for turning me down. I lost my will of persistence. Though I kept trying to slip it in between conversations from time to time, but to no avail. The only way out was to try and score a 9 pointer in the next semester (Ugh!!). I was mentally prepared myself for this. On the day following my birthday, I woke up to the noise of my parents asking me to wake up, that they had a surprise for me. My dad had brought home a lovely kitten, neither an infant nor a full grown cat, in a cardboard box. He found him in an ashram we visit, separated from his family. I woke up, opened up the box, and he jumped out of it and looked at us and meowed. I was so happy. I was on cloud nine. I couldn't believe that after maybe a year, I finally had a pet. I took him in my lap and he didn't even panic, he felt right at home. I was filled with joy. I had tears of happiness in my eyes. I couldn't have asked for a better gift for my birthday. I am so so grateful to have such a loving family. And now, there was one more member in the family, Oscar.

Oscar, on his first day at home

Food, Clothing, Shelter ......Family, Love

In school, we learnt about the three basic needs of life are Food, Clothing and Shelter.

Over the course of our busy life, we forgot these and rarely (or never) did we find time to be grateful for not having struggled to achieve any of this. But this Lockdown has showed us as to how lucky we are, to be born with these privileges. These mere 'Basic Needs' turned out to be 'Privilege'.

Also, this quarantine has taught us that we are even more blessed to have a Loving Family with us all the time. We haven't spent much time with our Family, we got too busy for them. Well, we have certainly pissed off Dominic Toretto who would say, "The most important thing in life will always be family".

I would like to Thank God, my Family, Friends and all those who have been a part of my life and continue to be a part of it.

Thank You All. 

Back To School

Hola Amigos!!

I used to consider blogging as something that is similar to a conversation, only in this conversation; I don’t know who is listening to me. Thus, being a bit of an introvert  that I am who tries to avoid conversations all the time, I never really got around to actually writing a blog, until TODAY.

         

And now is the time for the first problem every blogger comes across for his/her first blog. What should I write about? Thoughts are flooding in my mind as I write this statement. I settled to write about the first thing which we all go through and mostly forget about, as we age, School and the Schooling.

As kids, we used to hate the idea of punishment, but, little did we know then, that those were actually the tools used to make each and every one of us a better person.

Our days used to begin with the morning bell and if for some reason, we didn't make it to school in time, we were punished. Next came a series of lectures, some boring, other interesting and fun. If we didn't follow the rules, we were punished. Our favorite part of the school was next in line, the break. Here we were given 20-25 minutes to have lunch / breakfast, freshen up and relax a bit. And relaxing had a different meaning on different days. Playing was the most commonly used method. But some days it rained and hence we were bound to the corridors of the school and had to find different ways of enjoying, joking and insulting each other came to the rescue. Even during this break, if we didn't abide by the rules, we were punished. What followed was again a series of lectures and then we all got to go home. As if these punishments weren't enough, we were supposed to complete our homeworks daily on time and failing to do so resulted in even more punishments.

Now after 10 years, looking back, we see that those punishments actually shaped the way we became. Those punishments taught us the vital lessons in life.

The morning punishment taught us to be punctual. The punishments during lectures taught the to be disciplined. The punishments during the breaks taught us to have a measure of self control. The punishments of not doing homeworks taught us to always be prepared.

Let us take some time out and revisit those lessons we learned in school, relearn them and try to learn the lessons we might have skipped during school!!