Being with my thoughts is often a luxury and it is only sometimes that I get to spend some quality time with them. Neither is because of paucity of thoughts or an active brain. It’s often because of lack of time and forever doing something.
But today morning was an exception. As I drove to my hairdresser for a quick mane maintenance, somehow, I found myself with an empty mind, literally. Relaxed. Fuss-free. No thoughts racing through. And I was “Wow!” lucky me.
A passing state transport bus took me to a smoothly, gliding green bus in Hobart which even whooshed and lowered itself on the sidewalk to allow for ease of climb for elderly passengers. And here we had this monstrosity of a tin and iron contraption with its rear bumper hanging on it from the left for dear life while the right end was jeering at the car right behind it tantalizingly, nodding in the air at a queer angle. As if taunting it to dare come near! I almost thought I saw a mocking grin. Now that was too much of an empty mind and I stopped myself in time.
As we overtook this atrocious rectangle which we pass off as a ‘bus’, I saw an actress grinning from ear to ear with a cup of supposedly ‘strong’ tea from its battered sides. The tea brand was lost with the scrapped off paint, but the actress’s face was visible. And that took me to a film, I saw sometime back & recently again about our space organisations achievement of sending the Mars mission – a feat which remains incomparable till date. It was named ‘MOM’ and the protagonist says that if it had been named anything else, especially ‘DAD’, it would still be orbiting the earth asking what was to be done next. Bought a smile to my face, for a late evening program and an empty dinner plan, had both father and son at home order a pizza. Noblest intention, as I was busy & late, how would I cook dinner at past eight-thirty. Even the maids heaved a sigh of relief!
A shinning white Ford pick up van with huge cartons tied up securely caught my thoughts next. And the words: THOMASVILLE with a Made in America had me further intrigued. Imagine how relaxed I must be for I Safari-ed this name. A city in Georgia with an overview and a travel guide popped up immediately. Never toy with an empty mind, my friend. For I fine-tuned my search immediately to ‘furniture’ and lo and behold! It sure was – Furniture & Cabinetry. Wow! The advantages of an empty, relaxed mind.
A whole flock of pigeons on a sidewalk near a park, made my thoughts meander to a small pigeon chick on my bathroom window sill, two years back which my son decided to adopt with active encouragement from his father. Between them and an immense sense of ‘motherly’ feeling for that chick, led them to feed it with barley and some feed especially procured for it. Initially, its original ‘mother’ remained suspicious of their generosity and kept up an incessant pecking, hoping to deter them. If only, she had succeeded. But alas! It was not to be. For soon both mother and chick started loving the feeds and being lazy Indian bird citizens, they decided they needn’t work hard after all when the government from inside was handing out the doles. Result was a plump chick, a lazy mother and a wheezing cough which my son being the magnet for all illnesses of the coughing kind, acquired. A ‘mom-lore’ lecture, a sheepish grinning dad, and some few thousands lighter in my purse, an expert team armed with nets and nails and a basket to relocate the birds, not to forget the irritating cough which followed him to Australia were part of my reverie as a honking car brought me back to the present tense.
A ping on my phone, indicating a new mail had me glance at my screen and my publishing managers final edit of my manuscript before it goes into print bought a smile to my face. I was asked by an eminent contributor to my book, as to how I got the titles for my books. I had smiled my knowing smile and had given my answer, I remember. But this Republic day parade at Rajpath, New Delhi gave me the best answer I could ever give henceforth. An army brat, a forces background, a uniformed services mindset – of course, great’s do think alike!! Don’t they? Oh, they sure do!
Though its noteworthy that I knew not that the Indian Air force uses this as their tag line – humbled beyond words!
Wickedlyours 