I SAW THROUGH MY TELESCOPE MY COMMERCE BOOKS…

I was in class 6 when Kalpana Chawla’s shuttle crumbled. Every news channel showed how the shuttle blasted minutes before landing. There… I was inspired. The passion of astronomy was in me. I wanted to become like Kalpana Chawla. I wanted to go to space… explore the unseen, set my foot on the Moon, on Mars! The thought of what lay in the dark fascinated me.

I started planning- to take up science in class 11 and then pursue Aeronautical Engineering. I maintained a scrap book, filled with all the newspapers clips, articles and photos of astronomy. I even wrote my first poem then-

“My aim is to become an astronaut,

Astronomy is my aim!

I want to go to space,

With NASA’s rocket race...”

I know it sounds silly!! OK… very silly, but hey, I was in class 6.

Few of my teachers came to know about my scrap book, and one fine day, my principal called out my name in the morning assembly (class 8 then) and told the entire school about my scrap book. Every teacher saw my scrap book. They knew for sure that I would certainly become an astronaut. When my father got a transfer to Bangalore, my principal presented me a book; in it she had written “A gift for your fabulous collections on astronomical wonders.”

I had my first encounter with space in Bangalore-my visit to ISRO. It was for a seminar for school students. One memorable experience, that made me love space more and more. My second encounter was when my father bought a telescope for me!! A small and portable one. My joy knew no limits. 

It all ended….  

My score in class 10 was not upto the school’s cut-off. My father thought of getting my admission done in PU colleges. The fee was indeed more. I did not want him to spend so much when the fault was mine. I joined commerce in my school only and that day I cried for 7 hours straight!! I took up commerce with computers. I now took that as a chance to fulfill my father’s wishes and dreams, the ones he could not fulfill.

I did update my scrap book for about a month after that, but could not anymore! The gift from my principal is still with me, will always be!

Now, I give my full efforts and get the best of marks.

When some kid asks me something about space, I explain. When he/she asks me “How come YOU know so much?” I smile. When I came in contact with my former school friends after 6 years, they had only one question for me, “You’re in Commerce??? What happened” I smile. When I saw my father proud and happy when I got the highest mark, I smiled. Also, when I see my friends literally suffer in engineering, I smile..!

I guess my best friend was right all along! I am in commerce for other, better things to happen, of which I got absolutely no clue!! That also makes me smile…

CHILDHOOD...

I see the kids around me now. Playing… with their Play stations and I Phones. Their holidays being spent with their heads buried in the gadgets. I do not envy them, but feel sad for them. These “latest” gadgets deprive these kids of “actual” and “real” fun. I find it amusing that these kids sit at home saying, “The weather is too hot”. When I was a kid, it used to be a reason for us to play cricket, get drenched in sweat and run back home to pour a jug of water on our heads. Ah! What blissful days. I miss them. Given a chance, I would run back to those memories to relive those moments.
Being a gang of 20-25, or sometimes more, our routine during holidays was playing cricket in the morning in our apartment parking lot (and we never complained about the ‘perfect place to play’.) After 3 hours of cricket, we ran home to calm the rats running in our tummies. After that, we played ‘board games’, mainly because there were a lot of people who took the afternoon nap. But the amount of noise we made fighting and laughing over these board games surely didn’t make their nap peaceful..! Games like LIFE, Business made our afternoons complete. We would end the game only when somebody’s mother called for the evening milk/snacks quota. We would again meet after 2 hours of studying. The night was the time to play Hide-and-seek. What fun it was to play hide-and-seek in the dark..!!

How blissful and fun were those days. Truly the kids of today are missing out on the actual fun a kid can have to the maximum extent. A boy I know, is in class 8, and already owns an I phone 4S, laptop and a play station. I don’t want to sound too old or traditional. Hey I too am a freak, but not at the stake of my childhood.

Kids are missing out on the joys of playing under the scorching sun, having a fight and patching up. The only fight kids are now having is with their parents to get them the latest gadget! When I was in 8^th, I used to fight for the latest geometry box or Pokemon 3-D collection! Also, I would accept my father’s NO for the things he refused to buy for me at my immediate demand. I thank my father for the timely NOs.

I fear that these kids would never know “pittu” or “gilli-danda”. Simplicity is the perfect happiness. Breaking windows by playing cricket, falling and getting hurt, finding the craziest place to hide during the game of hide-and-seek, was something Great and a moment of being proud then. The scars on my feet and hands remind me of the way I fell… and make me smile. I wonder what these kids would feel proud of… having the latest gadget? Eh! Every third kid I know has gadget. Every third kid is asking me “Are you on Facebook?” while the question back then was “Are you going out of station during holidays?”
I too love gadgets. It amuses me of how people can make something like this that changes the world in a click or a press or a touch! It is the age in which these kids have to be familiarized with them!!