Red and Blue Truck

Today being cleaning day, I attack sandy’s room with a duster , mop  and all that paraphernalia. Open his cupboard, and start the unending cleaning process. As I remove his old toy box which is filled   the with cars that he used to play with when he is little,  an old rickety plastic red and blue  truck falls out.

 His favorite truck which now has 3 wheels . That truck was a part of all our holidays, a permanent fixture right next to him when he slept, ate or bathed. Sandy and his red and blue truck were inseparable.

Now it lies in that old cardboard box with the rest of toys

The red and blue truck gets me thinking. All our growing up years we have those special inseparable toy, , pillow ,bike ,etc which at that moment seems to be our world, can’t live without it , an extension of our personality,  though inanimate , is our comforter , our confidante..

Then somewhere down the line we outgrow it, the red and blue truck gets replaced by a new obsession. Forgotten on the bottom shelf of your cupboard, losing its special status, that red and blue truck lies with the other toys.

It gets me thinking; doesn’t it happen even with us human beings. That special friend in school who meant the world to you, that special relationship which was like oxygen and you couldn’t live without. 

  As you move on , they become memories, they lie locked up on the bottom shelves  losing that special status in our lives. We may visit them as memories at times but they will never ever become the same obsession.

Maybe at times its good to open those locked doors, reach out to those last shelves, step back in time , relive those memories ,smile at the good times ,marvel at how that crazy obsession now seems so trivial now. Guess you will also be amazed at the resilience of the spirit as you dealt with the obsession and moved on

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When I am a doddering sixty year old, when people find me boring ,when my friends are long gone and sandy has a life of his own……

Maybe my cupboard full of red and blue trucks will get me by……….

Seriously Who Needs A Sunday

Well its Sunday morning and I’m still in bed enjoying the luxury of  lazing,  the day ahead has a promise of   relaxing possibilities – leisurely  sipping chai while reading the paper,and of a long overdue hair oil massage…….

Suddenly there is an incessant door bell ringing, I groan , get up ,open the door …its my carpenter holding the milk packet and newspaper reminding me that I had asked him to come home on a Sunday.

While I am still dealing with  the carpenter, my eyes fall on a competitor publication and we have  missed an ad to them . That’s blasphemy in our business, I’m hoping to god I get all my reasons in place before boss can ask , I reach for the phone and he has already seen the paper ….

As if so much drama was not enough, mom-in-law walks in with kheer , tutting about my pajama look and muttering  something about rising early…She then proceeds to my kitchen to search for her ‘rasam patram’..While I listen to carpenter ,about what he plans, to the accompaniment of the constant clang of vessels and parallely messaging office 

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 It’s a huge relief that the the rasam patarm is found ……Releasing I’m late for sending an office report,  I open the laptop to send it out,  Just then sandy wakes up all hungry, he is on some crazy diet of sautéed peas(where the peas hv to be boiled for an exact time and sautéed with turmeric , garlic and green chillies).

 Stalling for time I ask him to drink tea, he says he’s acidic, I plead to him, to give me 5 mts to complete the report, He whines about how office is more important than him…. to keep him engaged I ask him to peel the garlic , he tries ,and asks me if he can smash it  … In my frustration ,I say yes go ahead and the next I see from the corner of my eye the kitchen floor is covered with flecks of white garlic peel, I dash to the kitchen  put the peas to boil…Sandy now suffering hunger pangs is rummaging through the fridge, and pulls a two day old take away packet which has some roti and loudly telling me that all he gets in this house is mouldy  roti pretends to eat it..i chase him and  wrestle it out of his hands. The report is still unfinished so between making the peas and report ..my white phone has turned yellow and all the alphabets on the keyboard are various shades of  yellow……

In all this confusion carpenter has made me agree to his design ,got an advance and gone home. Sandy got his soft burnt peas, my report went late and I stress ate mom –in –laws kheer……. So much for a Sunday, I want my crazy weekdays back…