To be or not to be…!

There’s one impressive dialogue from the movie TROY where Achilles tells Briseis, “Let me tell you a secret, something they don't teach you in your temple. The Gods envy us. They envy us because we're mortal, because any moment may be our last. Everything is more beautiful because we're doomed. You will never be more lovely than you are now. We will never be here again.”

I had forgotten this very thought that we are doomed, not because I felt like GOD, but with lotsa work and worked up thoughts I doubted the very purpose of my life. Mechanical and monotonous living is the order of the day. I call it organized living. But for our skulls and skins, we are nothing but machines. I may sound like a philosopher or a theorist but this is what lies deep within. We are mortals and why don’t we love the things we do? However, there had been one period of my life where everything was beautiful even without the thought of knowing that we are doomed. Childhood!

Be it pebbles or parker pens, caps or cars, flies or flowers… Everything was beautiful. I loved everything I did sans recourse. ‘Fresh’ thoughts and ‘unfresh’ memories. We never remembered the bad and never forgot the best. But now it is contrariwise. How I wished the Curious Case could happen to Lokesh Vasudevan instead of Benjamin Button. I am an expert baby sitter my self but I have been missing all the “free will” reactions of kids for a while. Recently there had been several encounters with kids that had made me a happy.

1) Deepak, my friend’s cousin. Highly energetic kid. Quiet as he was initially, but later the ray of energy was shining from every smile. Somehow I always get to blend with kids and after a really long time I felt amazingly close to this kid, unfortunately for the very little time I spent with him. From that day, I’ve been a big fan and ofcourse he’s going to be my wingman!

2) A small kid sandwiched by parents in a two wheeler, stayed focused. Incredibly focused on the competitor (that’s me) riding beside. I couldn’t take my eyes of that kid. Was it anger or enjoyment? But as I retreated, a wonderful smile followed and the thought too, upto the destination.

3) Harshi, my niece, who has been mimicking several people, is the love of my life. This incredibly talented kid has a blog for her stories. Recently she has been faking to my parents that it was some other person over the phone and not me. I’ve enjoyed this fun factor.

Coming to the most important reason; this movie I watched last week, “Pasanga”. This is Kollywood’s answer to Taare Zameen Par. No delicate dyslexia involved, but a simple theme where the cornea of the kids has been used as the camera. The Child artists have done an incredibly good job and all seniors please from these kids. Nobody can rate any other movie of recent times better than this. It took me back to my school days. Friendship, jealousy, sport, fun, fight, competition and uncanny emotions. I laughed so loud in the cinema hall that everybody gave me a weird look, as if I was an alien with a big head and a puny body. Just then I realized that I never bothered about others when I was a kid. When I laughed, I laughed aloud.

Everything “seems” to be beautiful now, but when I was a kid everything “was” beautiful. I always wish if I can rekindle the kinder garden age. To be a kid or not be is a matter of choice and not compulsion!