Ruminations

In October, I shall step into my fiftieth year and that’s as good a reason as any, to look back and reminisce about the path that has been trod and the experiences one has gathered along the way. (Writing this line makes me feel rather grand and old, which is strange because I don’t feel old at all – I am ‘childish’ as Uday puts it and ‘young at heart’ as I prefer to express it.)

I spent my childhood in Delhi. All through school and college, I think I missed the fact that it was a privilege growing up in a historically important, culturally vibrant and politically dynamic city. It is now that I realize what an enriching experience it was and what an exposure my sister and I got to events we would normally never have experienced.

Within two decades of being born, my destiny was tied for ever with a certain young doctor from AIIMS. Rather (in) appropriately, the fact that we would be marrying each other was decreed by both sets of parents on Raksha Bandhan day!

After Rahul was born, the three of us proceeded to Tripoli in Libya where we spent eight delightful years. While we were in Tripoli, Kunal came along as well. It can only be the enthusiasm of youth and the first flush of new motherhood that saw me through endless household chores, raising two boisterous boys (who amply proved the adage that one and one don’t make two – they make eleven) and a life devoid of ‘essentials’ like the telephone, television, newspaper, books. However, there was one thing we had plenty of, and that was time. The four of us spent a lot of hours of togetherness. If some divine cosmic voice had told me back then -  ‘Enjoy this period of your life -  there will soon come a time when your dedicated doctor will make himself scarce for twelve straight hours a day and your sons will fly the nest to make their own futures,’ perhaps I would have saved up all those precious moments.

We made Pune our home in 1992. I have to thank Pune for several things – a beautiful home, an immensely satisfying profession, the opportunity to indulge in multi hued cultural activities and the most amazing set of friends.

 I had decided not to go out to work till the kids were in primary school and so it was that in 1997 I agreed to work in Dr. Kalmadi Shamarao High School. It was a decision that irrevocably changed my life. I joined this most wonderful of institutions and immersed myself in revealing to my students, the joys of the English language. I tell my children that it’s a great privilege if you are able to make what you love the most, your profession.

For fourteen years I gave as much of myself as I could to my children (the ones on lease). I would be deluding myself however, if I thought that it was I who had done any service to them. For I gained so much from my school –unconditional love, an enduring rapport with my students, an  understanding of young minds and the privilege of being allowed to touch their lives. I grew emotionally, intellectually into the person I had never been before.

Today I’ve decided upon another course professionally. I have to be ready to give some more time to the elders in my family and my children (all three of them). As importantly, I owe myself some more attention and so there has been a change of tracks. It meant a lot to me that Uday supported me one hundred percent during this transition. (This praise from unexpected quarters is sure to perplex and surprise him). I get to meet new people, read a lot; I have a lot more independence and flexibility. In that sense, my work is certainly enriching and rewarding. I hope that one day it will be as joyous and fulfilling as my stint in school was, and that I can go into raptures when I talk about it - the way I still do about my school.

Well, that’s it then – a common account of a common life for any one who reads it but an uncommon narrative for yours truly because it is inhabited by the people who mean the most to me and recounts events that shaped my life. Adios till we meet again.