Seasons in the Sun

As a child I used to eagerly wait for holidays. Summer holidays...Diwali holidays...Christmas holidays. Summer holidays were prefered because its longer plus the academic year ends so no studying till June.

I remember, every year, on the last day of my exams, after I came home from school, my mother or my grandmother used to take me to my cousins place. My bag was packed and ready, before I even got back from school and after quick lunch (so excited that vacations have begun) off to my cousins place.
Every vacation that I can remember, I have spent at my cousins place. I loved to go there. Firstly, since there were very few children in my building (maybe 3 including me)
and no girls around my age whereas at my cousins place there were so many kids (complex like building with many wings..and many many children) And I had my cousin. Being the only child, I liked being around my cousin and imitating her ways (yeah she is elder).

Playing games, from house house..teacher teacher to hide and seek, red letter and sakli (to name a few), the teams ..whos on whos side if any fight takes place..the "i'll tell my mother.. go tell im not scared", fighting on why it always has to be my dine and treatening not to play sensing someones cheating, fighting for whos chance it is to ride the cycle..who has taken how many rounds, discovering some weird shaped stone and spreading weird stories about it, running
around in rubber bata slippers and poking the strap into the hole each time the strap came off while running during a game.

After some years things changed...we were in secondary..the girls wouldn't play with boys, the boys wouldnt play with girls...the boys played football or cricket, the girls just hung around the building corners..talking (about boys..girls...fashion....anything).
Then, in college we were too busy meeting college friends and going for movies, shopping...the playground was taken by the kiddies.

Now everyones grown up..moved elsewhere...married..settled..lost touch with all the children I ran around with..now they are probably running after their children.

I think about that playground...I think about those times...I feel nostalgic.

We had joy, we had fun, we had seasons in the sun...but the wine and the song like the seasons have all gone.

So Shallow

Such coarse sensibilities, yet such nauseating lives.

- Cyrus Merchant.

We always give so much importance to ourselves ...but do we care about others in the same way?

Little things annoy us...we vent out our frustration on others...do we care if we've ruined another person's day.

We think of our convenience, even fight for it...but we don't bother to think that if life seems unfair to us it maybe the same or even worse for the other person.

We do things for others and expect so much in return...when we do not get anything from the same people we're so disappointed...we resolve not to do anything henceforth .

We want people to be there for us and understand us...are we there for them?..do we understand them?...we think we do, but do we really..without expecting anything in return??

We label people by the clothes they wear and by the people they talk to...we don't know what they are going through or why they do what they do...maybe its easier to label than to understand or to accept them for who they are.

We ask for opinions...yet we are not ready to accept the opinion we asked for, if it doesn't match with our opinion. We are so affected by criticism, we get offended so easily, we take things personally even if it wasn't meant that way.

We pray that we dont run into trouble, we want an easy life...all lessons may not be easy...when will we pray that we grow and understand the fullness of life. One setback and we are shattered...how fragile we are...dreaming big but lacking courage to fight for our dreams...we give up so easily...it only shows we don't deserve it.

We don't reach out to people, we always think of it as "going out of our way"...why don't we make it our way ??

We smile, we can see the smiles on peoples faces too...but if we bother to look in the eye, we'll see their tears...but our tears blur our sight.

I Live, I Learn

Life is like a book,
Every experience, a new chapter
Living is not enough, we must learn.
Learning is not enough, we must share.
When we share, we learn from others too.
But, most importantly, we must live, implementing what we have learnt.