The Bench!

I am fascinated by benches. Especially  the lone ones.  I saw this weathered beauty near the waterside, in a little seaside town,  near Edinburgh.  I've rarely seen an empty bench in India, because most benches seem much in demand in space starved urban cites, occupied as they are by couples trying to grab some 'together' time and a whole lot of each other in the process.

This solitary bench  spoke to me. It whispered enticingly "Come, sit down, no one will gawk at you or disturb you. Come and watch the world go by."

and so I did, after shooing the boys to go far away, of course!

Have you ever done that, sitting down just by yourself and watching nothing go by?

That day,  I didn't have my book and so I sat there, surrounded by the perfectly blended gorgeous blue,  yellow and green colors of nature, staring  into the far horizon.

Have you ever done that? You must. 

At first,  you don't hear them,  but slowly they become audible enough and force you to pay attention to the numerous voices clamouring for the right to be heard first.

My worries, my hopes, my aspirations ,  my regrets, my memories, they all come gushing forward from the depths of my subconscious mind.

and I wait patiently for the cacophony to cease.  Slowly they sort themselves out in an orderly fashion and allow me the luxury of dwelling upon them with the attention they deserve and store them in their own unique space.

I think 'a what if' and feel regret. I blow those thoughts away because it is no use dwelling over a thing done and dusted with. I keep the learning from the experience and file it away in a folder in my mind, for later retrieval if ever needed. 

I think of roads taken and those ignored. I think about people I've met at every stage and the ones that have drifted away and the ones that have managed to stay on in my mind, in my memories,  in my life. I wonder about my journeys in the future and paths to be taken. I think of dreams and goals, of magical stories yet to be written and new terrains to be explored.

And then I take a deep breath, and sit back, feeling peaceful, content and strengthened. The chaos has now settled into a happy murmur and the day seems even more beautiful  and welcoming. The water is blue, the sky is dotted with little white cotton puffs,  the seagulls are energetically flying about, the air is crisp and cold  and the trees sway to a windy tune of their own. Everything seems the same as before,  yet something's changed.

I love an empty bench.

Because it helps me to get to know those voices in my head better.

Because it transports me to a place where Time stands still, for a wee while,just for me.

Because it helps me find my way back.

Bench Therapy rocks!

One day at the movies

Few days back, my son and I had decided to watch "The Guardians of The Galaxy". He got his mandatory bowl of popcorn, after confirming with me that I was not hungry and that I would not eat multiples of five popcorns at a time and eventually finish half his tub. He exaggerates, I have no clue where he gets that trait from!

We entered the audi, took our 3 D glasses and settled ourselves, cleaned the glasses with wipes, and got ready to watch Chris Pratt in action. and Baby Groot. (love that little creature,  rooted teeny soul that he is)

Few minutes into the movie, I was pretty disappointed by the quality of the print. The images were blurry and the print quite dark. I poked my son once or twice to ask if his 3 D glasses were okay. Figured out from his impatient nodding of the head, that they were. I took one look at the filled seats to my left and resigned myself to watch the movie with my defective glasses at least till intermission. When I couldn't take it any longer, I channeled my inner ' crouching tiger, hidden dragon'  spirit, muttered a series of "excuse me , so sorry", (who in the world booked our seats right in the middle of the row?) , and hobbled to the bored looking attendant, near the exit. Cornered him and in my perfect blend of an accusatory and a hurt, 'How could you fool me? ', tone, whispered,  "these glasses are spoilt, please replace them."

The guy peered at the glasses, and then at me and then said "Erm..Maam, you've been watching the movie through your sunglasses." 

Uhoh!  I touched my head and sure enough, found the ugly square rimmed 3D glasses, perched unapologetically on my head. I grabbed my sun glasses back from the 'trying very hard not to laugh" attendant,  and went hopping back sheepishly to my seat, with as much dignity as I could muster.

The son when he heard it , rolled his eyes and laughed : "Why am I not surprised, Amma?"

I've always been err, to put it politely, quite absentminded.  I married a guy who's equally so. He's misplaced 3 sun glares, one of which he placed on the roof of his car and then drove away. He used to forget which grades the kids were in (I NEVER forget that!!) We've forgotten flights and luggage and lived to tell the tale.

As the years pass us  by,  thankfully, he seems to have toned down a bit, thereby balancing the family sanity scale. I, on the other hand,  seem to be aiming for some doctorate in the science  of forgetfulness. 

There was this time when I opened the door of my parked car and sat down, only to see a stranger there. His jaw dropped. My eyes popped out. It happened to be someone else's car. He was too busy sweating(probably his wife was due back any minute) by which time I had made good my escape to my own car,  where my driver (a necessity since a car in my control is always out of control) was hyperventilating because he thought I had lost my mind!! In my defense, it was not my fault, it was a white car, it seemed the same size , I just hadn't noticed it was from a different company.

This syndrome seems to have rubbed off on my driver too. The other day, after buying the week's groceries, I walked back to the car, dumped my packets on the seat, and had barely walked to the other side, when the car lurched forward. A long 5 minutes and 500 metres later, the car slowly reverses back to a gaping me and a sheepish face pops out " I thought you were already sitting in the car".

Sigh,  he thinks too much. 

Three thoughts occurred to me.

1) So that's how it feels to be on the receiving end.

2) Goodness, could this absent mindedness be contagious?

3) Poor poor G!