My grandparents have been OLD for as long as I’ve known them. 25 years, they’ve had silver grey hair, a hand full of vitamin pills and anecdotes from childhood. My fascination for storytelling, I owe it all to them. I remember coming home from school with my best friend Sannaya in the 3rd grade. My Ba would roll out fresh rotis, dipped in ghee and feed them to us along with a her daily dose of stories from Hindu mythology. My grandfather had the evening slot, where he would pour out his pegs of whiskey and tell me stories from his childhood. My favourite was the one where his friends and him would buy firecrackers over months, tear them open, collect all the gun powder and attempt to make a bomb that they could throw on trains passing by that had British goods. Of course it didn’t work – but it sparked my imagination, and gave me the opportunity to live in a time that had long since passed. I am the youngest in my family. My parents were 39 and 34 when I was born, even my sister was 12 and my grandparents, waaaaay older! But the age gap of 40 and 60 years would magically vanish when a box of ice-cream opened, or when they had to play pretend with me. I was their doctor, their teacher, their elder sister. What I wouldn’t give to play those roles once again. What I wouldn’t give to play teacher to this group of ageing humans, and teach them that while life had dealt them a difficult hand, now is the time to look back with pride at how it all turned out. What I wouldn’t give, to play doctor, and help them all through the aches and pains of old age.
But, most of all, what I wouldn’t give to accomplish everything they have over the years. I want to be the daughter they’re super proud of.
When you’re working round the clock, your list of non-work priorities tends to get smaller and smaller. As an employee, you invest so much into someone else’s dream that you no longer have the energy for your own – and sometimes it takes a lifetime to realise this.
I look at my grandfather now, a man that could shake the room with his energy – now speaks in incoherent sentences. A man that could run hours on end now takes 5 minutes to get from one end of the room to another.
While ageing is inevitable, I know he has led a fulfilling life. He worked against all odds to become a filmmaker when India was struggling to find its post independence identity. When I look at the risks he took at 25, I find myself wondering why I got so comfortable where I am.
We need to take risks. Sure we’re middle class, we have drive and passion but financial insecurities. Nothing fulfilling ever came out of a dead end job with a steady income and no growth though.
I want to find that drive, so that when I’ve got quivering hands at 91, I have positive memories to look back on and remember my fam and say, look guys “I made it.”
While Arya Stark might profess Not Today, I want to make it my life’s motto – Not Tomorrow. I can’t wait for tomorrow. None of us can. It’s got to be today.
I’ve got friends with brilliant fashion tastes, music abilities, artistic prowess and we’ve all got one thing in common : lethargy.
Sometimes I wish I knew how to see us all rise from where we are to where we are meant to be. While I’m figuring out the best mass motivation techniques though, I do know that we can begin with baby steps. From conquering that growing belly flab, to conquering the world – let’s move mountains, together.
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