Childish by choice

I was getting ready to take the delivery of my new vehicle and was quite excited since morning. This excitement is something which has stayed with me over the years – the reasons have changed. Early in the childhood, when there was only one channel called Doordarshan and watching a movie was an event itself, I used to be excited for a couple of days whenever movie tickets were booked! Whenever I buy a vehicle today, I feel the same excitement – the world suddenly looks like a better place and I relish every moment of the build-up! I end up calling dozen of friends and do a count-down!

Sometimes my friends have criticized me for being little childish and have advised me to grow up. But I refuse to grow up ….. If I see any new car, I hover around it, peep inside and if the driver is close-by, I conduct a short interview. By the way it need not be a new vehicle for me to get excited - sometimes while traveling by the road, weather is beautiful and I just feel like driving ….. this has occasionally led me to request the cab driver to allow me to drive on Mumbai-Pune expressway!

I grew up in a simple middle class background and the kids of my generation were brought up in the overall environment of scarcity and lack of choices. This also taught us to enjoy each new event / acquisition in our life. I admit that I am a bit crazy about the cars but I guess it is an event worth celebrating. In our family, my brother and I make it a point that the delivery of every new vehicle is taken by our parents. It is great to see the pride and joy they feel and the whole event becomes a sort of a festival. It is the moment that all of us relish exactly the way we did when we bought our first car in the family.

It is not only about cars by the way …… cause of celebration could be favorite cuisine, child’s success in class test, the first bud on new sapling, a good movie …. We as a family almost celebrate anything ….. we are always on search for that little achievement that can get lost in the daily grind of life and create some event out of it!

I sincerely feel that people let the precious moments pass by. The moments are precious not because of the value of what you buy or magnitude of your achievement. But the moments are precious in terms of what those moments mean to your parents, to your family ….. Do we let go these moments just to underline a point that we have taken the success easily in our stride and to prove that it is no big deal …. Or do we really stop feeling happiness with intensity that we felt during the childhood? The latter is scarier as far as I am concerned. There is only one risk in celebrating every small event in life – you can be tagged as childish. To me it is the risk worth taking as celebrations rejuvenate the otherwise mundane life. There is a choice I have consciously made long back – To stay childish by choice!!!.....