I miss the carefree days from my childhood. Running barefoot on the streets, chasing kites, playing Kabbadi in the park using our slippers to mark the boundaries, breaking windows while playing cricket, never mind the fact that i was the only girl among the 8 or 9 other boys playing the game. Never did the boys including my brother make me feel i was the odd or the fair one in the group, i got the same or rougher treatment. Eating those Kwality ice candies once a month was a treat as was the 5 paise worth of unwrapped orange candies. Even those loosely sold, unhealthily made jeera golis (cumin seed delights / digestives?) were yum and didn't even give me diarrhea. Festival times were even better when i would happily invite myself to various friends and neighbors home to eat the goodies. I remember eating more often at our home owner's house than my own. Sharing lunch at school was common and one of the best part of the day for me. Yes a lot it was around food but with food came the warmth people showed by opening their doors and hearts. My neighbors one year old son will come and knock on our kitchen door and ask my mother to feed him with his favorite rasam ( a tangy lentil stew) rice. We all belonged to different communities, spoke different languages and yet we were together.
At school, i spent the best years of my life. Never thought there was an outside world other than the place or country i lived in. My family and friends made it complete. Never mind that i grew up partly during the unfortunate Emergency rule in India. Not one bit did it effect me. I was oblivious of the world beyond my small world. Bata was the only company making shoes and slippers, Doordarshan was the only tv station airing the movies as well as the most boring programs. AIR was the only radio station. Delhi and Mumbai were possibly the two best cities because i lived in Delhi and traveled to Mumbai for summer with my brother and picked seashells at the beach and ate the famous bhel puri. Rajdhani Express was the best luxury train. Kwality served up the best ice creams. Fanta was the coolest drink. The "Corner Chaat Bandar" sold the best fast food, Levis was the only company making jeans, Indira Gandhi was the best leader in the world and the whole world was on one time zone.
As i grew older, i got more informed. The Emergency rule had been done with but we still had the Congress Party running the show. Bata had competitors like Nike and Addidas. HMT was not the only watch company,Titan and Seiko also made good watches. Maruti & Premier cars shared the road along with Ambassadors. India had won the cricket world cup. India and Pakistan continued to fight for Kashmir but now it was extending beyond Kashmir. But even then my world was small with a large group of friends. I continued to invite myself for food at all my friend's homes, continued to wear the "hawai" slippers to school and also to college later. Amitabh Bacchan was still the superstar along with Rajnikanth. Chitrahaar on doordarshan was getting a little more competition, Amin Sayani was still popular on AIR but the Walkman gave listeners an option. I thought Bud Spencer, Terence Hill ^^ and Clint Eastwood were the only Hollywood stars. Yes, Bud Spencer and Terence Hill made the list. All of the USA only had tall buildings. James Bond was the best thriller movies ever being made and thought the best books were written by P.G Wodehouse, Agatha Christie, James Hadley Chase and for comics it was Amar Chitra Katha and Tintin.
There was fighting but most of the world was still at peace or maybe that's what i thought.
I have been subjected to eve teasing and being called manly when i took up the fight to the teasers. My guts was hated when i stood in the college representative elections and i was threatened by an outside goon with a political interest. I have stood up for my friends and my friends for me when we were teased. I have confronted guys who thought they could touch and get away. Being a girl is tough, when not teased or touched there were snitching, gossiping neighbors, who would see peace only when there is fire in my home. All this happened but nothing dampened my spirit i chose carry on with life because there were so may lovely things and always believed "goodness prevails".
The cold war, the Iraq oil war, the fight for Kashmir still didn't show up as an alarm into my blissfully ignorant small world because i had the good fortune of knowing people with large hearts.
A few years later, i was out of college, working as a Money Market Dealer and that switched on my brain cells and my understanding of the economic and other implications of the war on the market, countries, systems got my working brain the benefits and i did well in my area of work. I got to read many more authors, different genres, more actors made the superstar list, pastas and subs also found a place on my plate, different channels on TV and radio entertained me. I went out of Mumbai and Delhi to Bangalore, Chennai, Pune. Got my first mild cultural shock. Reading about different food, customs, attire, language was all good but experiencing them put me on a different step.
Fast forward a few years, I got married and came to USA and was surprised at how wrong i was about my image of the country. The tall buildings i had seen on the screen were only in the downtown & big cities. Large plots, yards,abundant greenery, independent houses greeted my eyes. And the people were warm and welcoming. I was happy that people everywhere are the same, warm and caring. A small world consisting of people with large hearts and open minds.
Then the extremists took it beyond areas. The series of bomb explosions while i was working didn't shake me as much as it shook my family and friends. But life went on, people were back to work with the hope, it won't happen again. Then the September 9/11 happened and it happened when we were flying to Switzerland. Being on air and unaware of the catastrophe, the shocking incident shook an entire nation and many more people all over the world. We landed at a different airport and a friend took us to his home. When we made it back to our own home, i was heartened to see how much our friends here cared. We were surrounded by lovely people.
But over the years, multiple wars and continued killings have made me question the need for guns and other weapons. Innocent people, who worry about the next meal or the kids who want to finish homework so they can play, the joy of winning a prize or even the pleasure of cooking your first meal on your own, a little one's first step for parents, are now part of our current gruesome world.
I hide the newspaper most days from my son, don't switch on the news because most news are bad news. Women are raped, killed, trafficked in container cargos. Children are not being spared either. Shooting a girl on the head because she wants to get educated. A young teenager gets hold of a gun and goes off on a killing rampage in a school. Almost a school full of girl children kidnapped while the world is still looking. School full of children massacred by some people who want us to see their point of view while they themselves are running blind. Videos of men being slaughtered in unimaginable ways are liberally distributed. Religion and Region are the cited reasons for most of these fights and wars. Ethics and peace seem to be just words from a dictionary.
I am a parent now and i now realize and feel the agony my own parents would felt, every time i came back home, late from work or during the bomb blast in Mumbai while i was at work or during the flight to Switzerland. My childhood was mostly fearless and carefree but like many parents i cant say the same for the younger generations. Future is at stake.
I know i should make information available to my little one but what explanation can i offer to go with them? How do i explain the disappearances, rapes, killings & war? Isn't there enough to worry about, like Nature's fury or the fight against Ebola or flu?
Our little town which until now was mostly known for the basketball rivalries between the two colleges within few miles of each other made the news for a very sad unfortunate reason. Killing is never worth anything! Not even for a parking space!
The World continues to be Small but are open minds becoming narrow minds?
Guns ???
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