In the present

Went out for dinner last night with my uncle and his family. He has three daughters, my first cousins, and the eldest daughter has two kids-Nipun Bhat and Naman Bhat. They are aged 4 and 3. After a sumptuous meal at Eden, Harrington Road, we decided to stop for an ice cream. We picked up our ice cream; Nipun with a strawberry, Naman with a cornetto and me with vanilla. The three of us sat down outside the store on the steps while the rest of them went inside. So there we sat, eating our ice creams. It was a quite moment, there were cars whizzing by, with a cut tree lying a few yards away and there we sat oblivious to the machinations of the planet, just concentrating on the given task at hand. I looked at my two nephews and they looked at me and smiled and I could not help but smile back. It was an unspoken sharing of the uncorrupted pleasure of the experience and I realized that just for that one moment, I had stopped thinking about what was going to happen tomorrow, what I wanted to do with life, what is my purpose and just for that one moment I lived in the present. I felt strong and vulnerable at the same time.

My nephews never stop amazing me, every time I see them. The things they notice, pick up and how they use this knowledge and suddenly in another instant they are back to being 4 and 3, running all around me senselessly and making me dizzy. Another instant, one hangs from my back while the other clings to me from the front and then they expect me to stomp around the place. God I miss the trivialities of childhood!!!