Remember the time when crying was our green signal to everything? We cried when we were hungry, we cried when we wet our nappies, we cried when we wanted to play, we cried when we were sleepy and the best of all, we cried every time a new person tried to cuddle us up! Baby life was so fascinating, one moment our mothers were literally struggling to get even one hour of rest during the day and the next moment we could see her capturing us doing something completely foolish which by the way, she found adorably cute. If only she knew what we were going to grow into!
All through these years, we looked at the world so cluelessly while our families kept planning our lives at every step.
The theory here is, for over sixteen years of our lives, we gave an unquestionable hall pass to our parents to nurture us, mould us and make decisions for us and all of a sudden when we’re twenty, we want everything in our control? Major hypocrisy alert here, but HOW on earth can we except our parents to let us live life our way SO easily? It’s like taking away their baby from them without a small shred of their fault! Of course, by the time we’re twenty, we do get somewhat 'responsible' and capable of taking some of our own decisions but let’s not forget to give our parents some time to take that in. The point is, the generation gap will never change, but they’re still trying to bridge it while we’re only pushing it more, sometimes even intentionally. If they can adapt to the ideologies of our generation letting go of all their concerns, why can’t we be a little considerate and not fight with them the way we do?
Well, like every other kid my age, I fought with them too about letting me 'chill' and 'do my thing', but it didn’t take me much time to realise that the world isn’t such a happy place. Monica was right, the real world really does suck. From table manners to mythological values—they teach us everything as we grow up. They show us a happy world with happy people so that we feel protected, but one fine day, we realise that it’s all a terrible facade and only our folks are our real 'homies'. And finally when your stupid so-called 'responsible' brain figures out that this was part of their big plan all along, we get tired and head back home to give ourselves a break, that’s when they realise that they raised their kid right. And now, they’re sure as hell about letting you 'do your thing.'
Sorry for all the preachiness, but I’m sure you got my point.
One day, I just sat back and thought what is the one thing that has changed the most in my life and still been constant? And that’s when an entire fountain of self-realisations hit me— I never realised when I switched from my mother’s lap to my fluffy pillow to soak my tears into, when I switched from heavy spoon fed meals three times a day to eating small portions of one or two meals a day, when Rajma Chawal changed into Pizza and morning alarms turned into phone calls. While we felt the distance on lonely days and tough times, they felt it every single day of their lives. While we promised to call them once we finished our work, they waited the entire day only to get a text that said, “Mom, I’m tired, call you tomorrow.” But what I finally did realise is that no matter how far I go, they’d always wait for me.
We’re lost without our families. But do we really want to be found? We do, but on own accord and that’s not fair to them. I know we fight with our folks on many occasions each day but we also know we’re nothing without them. So, let’s express our anger but let’s also express our love. This period of quarantine is close to a nightmare for us, but it’s a blessing for them. So let’s all be good kids and do one more thing for love. After all and everything, you never know how they might award you for being a good kid. (Hint: think about that phone they bought you when you topped your board exams :P)
- Saakshi Agarwal
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