Life teaches you
many lessons, but the best are those learnt in childhood. As we grow up, we
tend to loose the essence of those learnings. However, Nature has got a magical
way of bringing back Life’s crucial lessons to you by way of your kids.
“It is a funny thing about life; if you refuse
to accept anything but the best, you very often get it.” — W. Somerset Maugham
Did we not learn
this? Or we forgot it on our journey of growing up and encountering soul
battering experiences in life.
It
was on a bright sunny morning when, Nandika, her mausi and I, went shopping.
Well, having nothing particular in mind to shop, we just went around window
shopping. You get everything from clothes to footwear to accessories and all
there is. We explored the far corners of the market and realized that
Nandika is cooperating with us and playing along in our endeavour of aimless
shopping and their negotiations. So we decided we should get her something as
well. We approached a small establishment carrying watches of all kinds. We
were trying out a very pretty watch for her, when she said, “I want purple
watch”. My My… the shopkeeper did not have a purple watch but all other colours
were there. There were various watches, simple, sober, cartoon watches, bright
coloured ones but none Purple. So, we started moving further in search for a
purple watch. One, two, three and four shops down the line, we encountered
another shop having watches. We zeroed down on an interesting watch, which
could project Barbie doll images. Yes, She liked it too! But, to our utter
dismay, it was available only in pink!
Mumma
– “Nandika, shall we take this one?”
Nandika
– “Yes mumma, I Like this one, but I want a Purple Watch”
Mumma
– “But beta, it is available only in Pink!”
Nandika
– “But I want Purple.”
Masi
– “Beta, Purple is not available anywhere”
Nandika
– “But I want Purple.”
And
Tears rolled down her cheeks. Mausi’s heart melted. We started looking for more.
We were tired, but we went ahead forcing ourselves in the scorching heat in
the midst of the masses, for a purple watch! We kept on exploring shop after
shop for the purple watch, but without any success. We were nearing the last
few shops of the market and we decided to head back to the car, since, the
purple watch was nowhere to be found. As soon as we were at the last shop of
the market, we saw it! There it was, hanging and dangling from a thread at the
entrance of the shop. The projector watch, in Purple.
At
Last, Mission Accomplished, but the learning was too big to be ignored.
And in the words by John
Greenleaf Whittier,
Success is failure turned inside out,
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems so far,
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit
It's when things seem worst that you must not quit.
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems so far,
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit
It's when things seem worst that you must not quit.
