Five more minutes...

Hello Lovelies....

I was going through some old photographs of mine and I came across a few which took my memory instantly to this last December. It had hardly been a few months since I had shifted to Mumbai. Everything was so new to me...having left behind the easy life of college...being new to the job...getting new friends...not being able to get in contact with the old ones...I would say life was simply chaotic. Days were going so fast and I had no time to realize where my life was really going. While I was in the middle of all this mayhem my sister planned to visit me with her kids. My first response to this news was sheer panic! I could hardly manage my life and job and having my first guests so soon sounded crazy. I love to be around the three of them, but that is when there are others too to take care of the kids. Having babies in the house simply changes everything...no longer I could go low on grocery supplies...heck even change the grocery supplies to more Chocos, Jams and Honey! You have to be there all the time entertaining them, playing with them, taking care of them..basically running after them and having no moment of peace or quite.

So finally they arrived and it was followed by everything I mentioned earlier! I was always...always on my toes! I used to run after them till 1 o'clock at night and next day in the office used to keep on thinking about them...whether they are okay..have they eaten...etc etc..since my sister was left alone with them! 

One weekend I decided to take them to Marine Drive and Chowpatty. Our parents were like " Whaaaaaaaaaaat!!! You both taking the kids alone outside??????" It was one thing taking care of them in the house, but taking the two of them out without anybody else was too much for everyone to digest. And why is that? Because they are just too naughty! While you can still manage Kushu (She's 7), you have to be chasing Saarthak (the little one who is just 4) all the time... Inspite of all these apprehensions I decided to take them. But in my head I was all panicky and extra extra cautious. Before heading out of the house, I gave them literal warnings like "you run here and there and you have no idea what I would do to you" etc. etc... (I had no clue myself what would I do to them...hehe...probably panic!) 

So we reach Chowpatty which is full of people! I mean people everywhere and it makes me even more paranoid... I and my sister are chasing Saarthak so that he doesn't wander off and are deciding how to just leave that place immediately and go instead somewhere for shopping. And suddenly my sister asks me "Where is Kushu?? 

I go cold for 3 seconds and finally spot her but have no response to what I see next... Amidst all that confusion, all that chaos and crowd I find her simply staring at the ocean. And I realize while I was busy "planning" every move and trying to just tick off Chowpatty from their "to do list" and trying to hurry them to move to their next thing on the list; I never even once realized that these kids have never seen an ocean in their lives! It never occurred to me that today they are going to experience something they have never experienced before. She was first so hesitant moving towards the waves but later was so engrossed in observing that vast marvel of earth called an ocean. She didn't care what was going around! Seeing my niece's reactions to the ocean made me realize that while I am just looking at the chaos of life, I am missing so many things right in front of my eyes which could bring so much of joy and peace to my life... It is truly said we often overlook the smalls joys in our life! 

While I was deep into all these thoughts, I heard my sister's voice "Go get her Neha!" and I just couldn't make myself take another step towards her and the ocean...All I could say to my sister was "Just 5 more minutes..."

PS: I wrote this blogpost for a contest by Kissan India. You can check it out here and participate too. Everything that I have mentioned above is true to its last word!! :)