The other day while reading the Daily, my attention was caught by a fancy phrase, rather article, which speculated on the arrival of the “most celebrated baby” on the eve of 11.11.11, a supposedly auspicious day for births, marriages etc. Of course, the writer was referring to the Bachchans, the first family of the film industry, which made the soon-to-be-born baby in their household so very special!!!
But coming to think of it, were we ‘nobodies’ lesser celebration for our parents when we arrived on this planet Earth?
Well I can say this much for myself ….the media never hounded my mom as she progressively surmounted the physical discomforts of pregnancy and oh yes, the punters never betted on my gender or day/time of birth. It was an altogether unpretentious, so called ‘normal’ affair - the expected date long notified by the attending gynaecologist, a bed booked in advance in a well-known and well equipped hospital and then the crossed fingers… the patient wait for the first lung-tearing howl announcing the much awaited arrival. And as the clock struck ten minutes past nine on a cold, winter night, I was ushered into planet Earth … a modest, not-so-dashing entry sans pomp and show; just an amusing show of puny strength… scrawny pairs of flailing limbs trying to capture a wee bit of space on the hemisphere without posing any threat to the then global status quo.
But it was a celebration on its own term….the quiet but proud swelling of the hearts and the intrusive tears brimming the eyes to the full, the clinical serenity of the hospital corridors disarrayed by the jubilant congratulatory wishes of the attending team of physicians and nurses, the smile lighting up the wrinkled visages of my grandparents…it was a momentous event for all of them. So what if they were one of those countless plebeians of Indian citizenry; so what if my arrival did not go down in the annals of history or court a mention in the Dailies; so what if the world did not wait with bated breath to welcome me ; it did not make the event less joyous for my family!!!
So it must have been for all of you. I am sure. We, all of us, were/are and will always remain bundles of joy and excitement for our parents and near and dear ones.
Negligible in the eyes of the world, such moments as these are one amongst the million little happinesses of life, the small mercies, the unobtrusive miracles which God gifts us with time and again – the unhistoricised causes of celebration in the lives of the common man. Cumulatively, these bunch up into hampers of goodies that we always crave for. In times of idle reverie, when we munch the past, these nano rejoices may reveal to be the precursors to or harbingers of life changing turning points. Wisdom gained on hindsight tells us that the bounties of life come in imperceptible measures.
But in today’s world where every ‘nobody’ is hankering after his/her fifteen-minute fame/celebrity hood, where the watchword is live life king size, where everyone is busy investing their material and immaterial worth in achieving larger-than-life dreams, are we not gradually turning away from these un-chronicled merriments of least significance? In our haste to count our petty grieves have these moments really become too insignificant for us to remember?
I wish not. I hope the frenzied paparazzi give a chance to the Bachchans to relish these insignificantly significant moments.
And to my loving readers I pray they take a halting breath from their hectic schedule, relax, reminisce and relive those innumerable teeny weeny fractions of cheerful surprises which make life worth living for…
Mull over….just a bit
