Little Observations

I started this blog last month. Then, I was observing that the climate of my city was slowly changing. The heat waves started vanishing and they are getting filled with cold winds. These days I am observing things. Daily it takes around three hours to travel to my work place. So during my journey I get a large amount of time. And yes, large amount of time makes anyone an observer of life.  It gives you the ability to be the interested observer, to sermonize and waggle fingers at the world. It feels much like the world is putting up a show and you have the time to sit and watch it peacefully. Thereby giving your own input your own pros and con’s. It also affords us a lot of time to examine the many holes in the fabric of our lives. It also makes you realize that the people around you have uncanny ability to harm themselves quite substantially.

Last week while going to office, my cab driver was oozing while driving. Seeing his condition, I was  horror-struck. All I did was made him to stop the car and enquired if he had proper sleep/food. He said to me that more than proper sleep, it was hunger that made him weak; however he had bought some food which his wife prepared for him but due to lack of time he could not eat. I felt bad and asked him to eat first and it’s pretty okay to me for wait for a while. And I being the only person in the cab and also it being early morning around  5 30 AM, I was just observing him. When he unpacked his food, I observed some over burnt chapatti’s black in color with some pickle. Within few minutes he completed his food and we resumed our journey. During our later part of journey, I casually asked him that how could he ate that muchly over burnt chapatti. In reply to this he said something to me which made me nostalgic and of course emotional.

Infact his reply made me remember an incident of my childhood. "When I was a small kid, my mom used to make dinner every night and I remember one night in particular when she had made dinner after a long, hard day as our maid was on a 2 week off (paid leave). On that evening, my mom placed a plate of tomato onion curry, and extremely burned chapatti in front of my dad. I remember waiting to see if my brother yelled out of it, because he is always keen about the taste and stuff! Yet all my dad did was reach for his chapatti, smile at my mom, and ask me how my exam that day at my school. I don't remember what I told him that night, but I do remember watching him nicely removing the over burnt part of chapatti and eat every bit of remaining part savoring it! 

When I got up from the table that evening, I remember hearing my mom apologize to my dad for burning the chapatti. And I'll never forget what he said: 'Hey that’s okay, I love muchly roasted chapatti' 

Later that night, I went to Daddy to wish him good night and I asked him if He really liked his toast burned. He wrapped me in his arms and said, “Aditya, your Amma put in a hard day at work today and she's real tired. And besides-a little burnt toast never hurt anyone!' 

You know, life is full of imperfect things.....and imperfect people. I'm not the best housekeeper or cook. 

What I've learned over the years is that  learning to accept each other's faults - and choosing to celebrate each other's differences - is the one of the most important keys to creating a healthy, growing, and lasting relationship.