Recreation

God!! That’s a frightening thought. I don’t remember what I was like when I was a baby. With only pictures and memories that my parents recollect it’s the part of life that my parents cherish more that what I do. From what I see with babies now if I were baby again I really don’t know what I would gain but I certainly stand to lose a lot of things. Where is the freedom? Freedom to wear to what I want to, go where I want to, eat what I want to… the list goes on not to forget if I were a baby again I should grow up again and in the process write all the exams all over again … Don’t tell me !!! That’s definitely not my cup of tea.

Anyway I am going to try and be a baby now … let me see how a day in my life would be like.

Early morning: It’s still dark. The other two other people (My parents obviously) in the room are still sleeping.

Me: God, I am hungry…. Get up ma. Get up. Ok!! These grownups don’t respond to my thoughts. Its time I make some noise. WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA………

My amma wakes up cribbing.

Amma : Ok !! there goes the alarm. Wait ..wait …let me get you milk.

Me: Oh yeah!! It worked as usual.

Amma would bring some milk in a bottle, while she drinks her coffee.

Amma: Here you go. Drink it and for God’s sake Dont cry.

Me: Yikes!! I hate the smell of milk. Damn! Why don’t they give me coffee.

Amma starts her daily routine. Appa is still asleep. That’s not right, is it? I crawl next to my Appa and somehow manage to wake him up. Appa gets up and hugs me happily and brushes his unshaven cheeks on me.

Me: Somehow I laugh every time he does this and yeah that familiar fragrance with Appa – divine.

Appa gets up and starts his daily routine which also includes giving me a bath.

Me: Water!! Yeah!! This man sure knows how to keep me happy. But damn, this soap keeps irritating my eyes...WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA………..

Breakfast time: While they have all the idlys and dosas …poor me, I am given something mixed in milk again.

Me: God this tastes sweet .Grrrrrrrr…why don’t they give me something spicy and why is that amma never finds a smaller spoon to feed me.

Appa starts to office, Amma carries me to the gate, takes my hand and waves it to my appa … TA TA. I start my work with newspapers, and to all the other things in the house that are within my reach. From keys to remote everything has a taste of its own you see. Amma struggeles to keep things away from my reach

Me: Phew.Thats too much work. I am tired, Time to sleep again.

Lunch Time: Dhal with ghee is the recipe.

Me: chicken would be good. But that’s ok Dhal is not bad too.
After wandering around for some time I am put to sleep again. This time because Amma is tired.
Evening: The best part of the day.
Amma chats with her friends in the neighborhood. One or two talk some nonsense and some make funny faces.

Me: {Sulk} Can you please maintain some distance? Amma come with me .Don’t talk to all these lunatics. Let’s get inside.
Amma doesn’t listen.

Me: WAAAAAAAAAAA….

Amma spanks me … but in a split second realizes that she need not have done that. To make up for it, she cuddles me, points fingers in all directions, diverting my attention.
I forgive her. After all it’s Amma. No issues.
Finally she takes me inside and lets me play around with my toys. Both of us wait for Appa to come back from office.
And then the hero enters (Appa).
He lifts me at once, makes some funny faces and calls me by some names. That joy is back on my face. And then it happens. Appa puts his shirt back on.

Me: Yes …I’m going out. Finally!!

The trip to the neighbouring streets with Appa is always the highlight of the evening. I am shown all the dogs, cats, bikes, cars…anything and everything under the moon.
Finally the day comes to an end. Amma puts me to sleep again. Nothing can be more comforting than her gentle hands patting me in regular intervals.

I have become very good at procrastinating my work these days. So much so that I call it an art!! There is simply no bias at all. From eating to sleeping, from studying to working the tendency to procrastinate knows no bounds. Over the past year or so I have completely mastered this art .Not that I wasn’t good at procrastinating earlier. The talent was always there, but without people around pestering me to do things at the right time I have become a better exponent of this art. I will try and share my valuable insights in mastering the art of procrastination here. Hope it helps some of you!!!

To master the art we should never, ever have second thoughts about being lazy and the next important thing is to find some kind of reason or a lame excuse if I might say to procrastinate. Let’s face it. Being lazy is no big deal, is it? Nothing can replace that feeling of being lazy. But the challenging part is to find a reason to support our cause and to convince ourselves that the reason is really reasonable. Once you are through this difficult part it’s all bliss. My day yesterday could be used as an example to explain the art. I got up around noon with the list of things in to do like laundry, cleaning the house, studying for an exam, writing a blog but actually ended watching TV whole day doing nothing else. Here I am finally writing a blog hoping to finish it at the earliest and hoping that I tick off at least one task from my To Do list. The reason was a TV channel was celebrating first year anniversary. They threw a party by playing “Friends” all day. That was good enough reason for me to postpone all the other work.

I am thinking about starting a community in ORKUT to try and get inputs from all the other exponents of the art. I have been thinking for a long time though. But topic being procrastination it won’t make sense to create it immediately. That’s a valid reason to procrastinate, isn’t it?

I am also looking at taking a New Year resolution – I should never procrastinate. Problem is I have been thinking which year should I start 2010 or 2011.After all there are only 365 days in between!!!

I asked the taxi driver to take us to the A.J.Hackett Bungee jumping site. He said “get in mate” and added that he had very often taken people to this site but he has never had to pick them back from this place!!! J I started feeling a bit uneasy and restless.
We watched a couple of people jump. Both came out smiling and looked as though they enjoyed it.To be honest it didn’t look that scary .So we paid for the jump.We had to sign some papers saying we were undertaking this jump at our own risk and A.J.Hackett is not responsible if anything untoward happens!! Phew….
We took the stairs to get to the top of the bungee site. With every step that I took towards the top I felt I was getting a bit nervous. I felt my heart beat was a bit higher than normal. Halfway through I glanced down. It wasn’t encouraging. J I asked my fried if his heart beat was high as well…. Fortunately he said “Yes”! All sorts of thoughts came up to my mind. Barely 15 days back had I read news on Indian express saying a Techie died in Bangalore while he attempted to Bungee Jump. Scenes of “Final destiny” flashed through my mind. I wondered if there would be any hospitals around. But the place looked deserted, almost a forest. In an attempt to relieve my tension I tried to be humorous. I told my friend to ask Shreya goshal not to wait for me in case something untoward happens…both of us didn’t laugh L All this while I was thinking if I should go first or let my friend jump before me. Finally I made up my mind that I will jump first so that I can get over it in a flash. But I suppose my friend had the same idea. He insisted that he will go first. He jumped first. I didn’t see him jump. While he was hanging in air the guys who were facilitating things tied the Bungee cord to my legs. It was really tight. Still, I wasn’t sure. I asked them if it was tight enough. One of the fellows said, it only going to get tighter. Then he asked me sarcastically if this was the first time I was going to jump? I said yes. He gave a wry smile. L
The ropes were really tight and since both the legs were tied together I found it hard to move. I did move somehow. I moved to the edge. I told myself that I am not going to look down. But unfortunately that was the first thing that I did. God! Believe me 164 feet is really high. It was scary. It was really scary. My mind went blank. I surveyed the whole area. It was all green. The same pond which appeared very beautiful while I was at normal altitude didn’t look that pretty now. In fact nothing was pretty. I was scared, excited, confused, tensed…all at the same time. It was as scary as Anna univ results. J
One of the fellows asked me to wave to the camera (I am happy I managed to smile).Then I heard someone say that on count of five I should jump. I am pretty sure I did hear 5...4...3…but nothing after that. I didn’t jump…. He asked me to move a little forward. Part of my foot was in the air!!! He started counting again. 5…4…3…2…1 and jump…I did jump this time. This moment is what you pay for. The free fall, hoping that the bungee cord will hold you. It was awesome. I am not going to try and explain the feeling because I don’t think I will do any justice. The cord did hold and it took me up and down a couple of times. The scary part was done. I did manage to get on the boat finally and got back to normalcy. I felt a deep sense of relief and achievement. I am a certified “Bungee jumper “now.
By the end of it I did say that Shreya Goshal need not worry any more…and guess what?? both of us did laugh this time... J Teri ore , Teri ore , Teri ore …hay Raba.