Change is the Only Permanent Thing!!!

Isn’t it amazing to see how we grow from slapdash kids to responsible teens to caring adults? What happens in the course that makes us so responsible and mature now? Isn’t it like a seed which is sown in the beginning and which grows into a giant tree? As I sit here, thinking silently about my growth, enduring the growth, enduring the changes, I wonder about some questions which don’t have an answer. But it is because of these unanswered questions that I am able to narrate the endless journey. 

Friends, let me share a story that I read as a kid. It described a male bird that takes lots of pain to build a nest and the female bird takes shelter in it and lays eggs. After some time the offspring come out of the eggs. The entire nest echoes with the chirping of baby birds. The mother bird nourishes its babies with great efforts. When the birds learn to fly, they fly off to a different place leaving behind the beautiful nest their parent birds in it. It made me wonder…how they could so easily sacrifice their house built with so much effort. Well, friends, this is merely a story. A story, which includes the writer’s imagination and creativity but sometimes stories seem real.

Last winter, I got an opportunity to visit my friend’s native place Kasol. As I reached there via Manali, I was very tired. But the moment, I reached that place, I forgot about my weariness since I started revisiting the memory lanes of my childhood. I was on cloud nine as if I was getting one more chance to live my teenage.
I hired a car to reach my childhood friend. I found my heart pounding with excitement. As soon as the car halted, I jumped out of it like a vivacious damsel. But as soon as I reached the place… my eyes glued to the bungalow which seemed dilapidated now. The bungalow that would have trimmed lush green lawns on its either sides, breathtaking exteriors, amid picturesque natural scenery earlier showed how neglected it was. That grand bungalow with flaky walls, cobwebs in the verandah, rusty grills seemed to be down in the dump.

It seemed as if time had stopped. I began seeing dreams with my eyes open. I recalled how Jaya and I used to giggle while holding each other’s hand…rushing towards the green winding pebbled narrow paths, splashing the pond water at each other.  We would deliberately avoid her mother’s advice to be careful since that place would become desolate after 5 in the evening. The aroma of spices and homemade food emerging from her kitchen was still fresh in my mind. Suddenly vapor on my specs almost blinded me and this reminded me of how nostalgic I was.

I rang the bell and saw Jaya’s mom who adjusted her glasses and recognizes me.   Her wrinkled face narrated the long wait of her only child, Jaya who settled down in an alien land.  As soon as I touched her feet, she grabbed my hand and hugged me. This entire episode made both of us cry our eyes out.  Somehow, she managed to get a little box of delicacies from her messy kitchen. During our two hours conversation, the only thing she repeated a hundred times was, I wish to see Jaya before I die!

I spent a few hours with Jaya’s mom and then came back to Manali where my son and husband was waiting for me as I had to continue with our trip to Himachal. But let me share that the solitude of Jaya’s mother compelled me to reconsider my son’s plan to go abroad for further studies.

Friends, let me ask you all…why do live in a fool’s paradise throughout our lives? Like that bird, we too, build and decorate our nests without knowing the fact that we won’t be able to prevent our fledglings to fly to some unknown places…After all we all wish the same.

Take care and love yourself!

Mamta Sharma

www.miraartofsuccess.com