It was a fairly uneventful Sunday morning, sometime in the December of 2008, when I registered for my classes this Spring semester that I found out I won’t be able to register for my swimming course, unlike the last two semester’s, when the rest of my classes did not clash with my swimming class times. So after hunting the website for a good 15 minutes and contemplating whether I’d feel upto learning karate for a good hour at 8am every Tuesday and Thursday and rushing after an express shower, all exhausted, to tutor my poor Psyc 202 students who have me for their GA, I decided to sign up for a beginner’s badminton course instead (and spare my students the torture of having me there in my “hazy-daisy avatar” in addition to my usual making no sense in what I teach them, lolz).
The mere surge of joy that I experienced in gripping the racquet and tossing the shuttle-cork, after a good 15 years.., was so amazingly refreshing!!! I can very confidently say there have been very few occasions in my life, besides this one, that have introduced this intensity of child like joy and satisfaction, in a very long time. Getting back to badminton is a decision I shall certainly not regret.
The enthusiasm and the revelry that we played with never seemed to run out! It was all the more fun since it was out in the streets with no nets and walls to restrict the famous Jamnagar sea breeze/ wind. The losing team would always blame it on the partial winds that would intentionally blow in their direction, one of those evil conspiracies of Mother Nature, lolz. The present exhilaration was definitely due to the immediate flood of innocent, happy, carefree memories of my childhood that it brought back to me. My house in Jamnagar, P, N and Akka who were my partners in crime (..,occasionally other kids in the neighborhood joined us too), French Cricket, L-O-N-D-O-N stop, nadhi ke parvat, andhro pado (LMAO), G Miss, our sports teacher at school who happened to be a neighbor too (who btw I still think was super partial to me, teeheehee, absolutely love her :).., the streets where we played religiously, almost every evening for a good 4 to 5 years or so.., long after the sunset, and after several well-meaning-though-futile dhamki’s from the Baxi and Raman households, till finally we would run out of water on our doorsteps and had to get in! Even then we wouldn’t necessarily comply with what the elders would want us to do, namely go back to our respective homes like chamatu kutties ( Daya chokraon in Gujarati :) and freshen up before proceeding to the more important things in life like books and dinner. Instead P and N would come home with Akka and me for a glass of water, we’d watch dd for a bit and we’d go back to their place for lighting the Divo ( perumal ku velakku ethardhu in the South) and then end up playing some board game like Carom or “Barbie goes shopping”, lolz. We’d finally end up in our own houses only by 9:30pm or so (have the widest grin ever, even as I type this). I guess, the thrill of surviving the day with having your own wild way of leading your life despite the concerted efforts of the elders in the family/neighborhood to tame you down is one of those unparalleled joys of childhood. Wonder where all that joy, pleasure and satisfaction in accomplishing anything, no matter how small or trivial, has gone !!?? I seem to have gone so critical about anything that I do, for almost over a decade.
Not sure if its due to my prolonged stint in education (read 21 years or so) or the societal expectations of performing well in one's education, relationships, career and life in general that I've introjected over the years that has lead to it. The reason I miss the satisfaction of doing things well enough, I believe, is the conflict between my (naturally) laid-back personality and the super A type personalities that I’ve been in the company of, of late. Most of them need to stress over every single project in hand and re-do several drafts, way before the time of submission, and still sweat it out till the final day in search of obtaining a perfect grade. I, on the other hand, used to feel inclined to work just a little before the date of submission, give it my best shot and feel relieved that I have done my bit, without any of the post hoc worrying over the what I’ve submitted or what grade I shall get. For one, I did not think my sweating it, will change my grade. Secondly, I have so far received decent grades (which does include a number of B’s). However, three semesters down the degree, I find myself doubting my ways, studying habits etc. I often plague myself with.., am I really being a chronic procrastinator? Could I have done better? Maybe I should have redone the draft, ‘coz most of them did it 50 times!!?? End result being a “super stressed me” with acne (ugh!!) all over my face. All of that self imposed torture while doing well on my GPA, along with successfully keeping the part-time employment that I’d secured three semester’s back (no kidding.., considering how rare on-campus employment has become in campuses across CA), working my ass off at my internship, all the desi-roommate jhol and still managing to have some trace of a social life !! Phew! Living in a foreign land away from family (despite the wonders of gtalk and voip services) and juggling school, work and personal life has certainly left me a little drained.., just a little coz I opted for the situation that I am in and have no regrets for most of it, especially since I am blessed with a strong social support in the form of umpteen relatives and close friends. However, a healthy dose of ventilating online certainly helps ;) Pleasant trips down memory lane, like the badminton class, definitely come as a welcome breeze of fresh air to recharge one’s low energy levels at certain points in life!
I’m sure most of us feel a little overwhelmed, at times, in today’s age of super-specializations in any given field, doing it right at work, earning enough, saving enough, and the enormous strain that it places on one to balance one’s professional with one’s personal life just right !! It’s been a good four months since my first day in the Badminton class. However, it deserves to be blogged because of the nostalgia and child-like pleasure that it reintroduced in my life ever since .., I did not for once think anything in this land could ever take me back to my childhood like this experience did. Needless to say, I was all happy and beaming all day long.
Any achaar-vichaar, bachpan ki yaadein or stress buster’s anyone?
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