Balcony

It is 10.30 am Sunday morning and I take my position “Standing along the balcony wall inside the house seeing the world outside with my hands over the wall and my chin on top of it”…Balcony was an extension of me. I would go to the balcony, in moments of sadness, happiness, despair, anger, frustration..... It was my place to go for anything and everything. It was my window to the world.

The moment I am out there, in that posture…my heart beats less and calmness enters the mind reaching. State of ‘stand-still’.No blinking of the eyes, but slow movements of eyes to observe and absorb the surrounding and the distractions. Distractions like these made my day. I remember I must have been 10 or 11 years old. Listening the noises around was an art. Seeing what I heard was the science. What I see: The dogs aimlessly walking around, like the sounds of goat’s walk on the road and the sweet noises of the leaves rolling, wonderful sounds of the marbles hitting (where children are playing marbles). Kids walking around kicking the fallen leaves. Suddenly I am distracted to those colorful kites streaming in the sky, kids hanging on the terraces and screaming on top of their voices. Their chatter...... was music to my ears.

Childhood they say have their own rules. Rules not only about their behavior, but how they observe, what they observe, what they conclude and how they learn. Attention and Distraction have no meaning in kids. They are constantly learning.

Today is Sunday. Every one is busy and rushing. Not knowing the beauty of a LAZY Sunday…TV volumes are high at neighboring homes, Mahabharata echoes, sound of washing and vehicle cleaning are heard. So many activities yet I am able to observe each of this activity with due diligence and focus – sure sounds are adjectives to actions around. zzzzzzzz….the wind blows and rrrzzzrzzzz the trees shake and phat phat phat the drying clothes drum..a little girl somewhere around recites the poem “Chubby cheeks…”. Millions of thanks to the creator for these wonderful activities…It is a dream world

Amma comes and breaks the dream. "What the hell" she screams. "You have been standing here more than an hour. Wasting your time." What does she know how much I have learn't in this one hour.

Thirty years later I still remember it, I can still see it and I can still experience it!!! I often feel sad, that these kids are consumed by the chatter of technology, echoes of Ipod and the experience of a world on the net.

But who knows my son will have a different story, thirty years later....