Nov 22, 2012

Being thankful...





In a country like ours, where there is a festival, every other day and a corresponding ceremony attached to it, we really don't need another 'foreign' festival to "give thanks", or do we ? What do we give thanks for, you'd ask.
The corrupt politicians, the erratic governance or that shitty job?

In times of personal crisis or national outrage, it is so easy to lose perspective or just see the world through a thicket of thorns, but scratch the surface a little and you would see a million things to be thankful for each day. Big things. Little things. Not today. Not any particular day but just being cognizant of every effort taken on anyone else's part to add value to our life, directly or indirectly that *needs* to be thanked for.

Much as as my vegetarian sensibilities are rather upset by a whole country celebrating a festival of thanking by slaying a turkey ( Err..thank you butcher?), let me take this day as an opportunity to say all the thanks I probably have not explicitly said in my life, and maybe will never do. Maybe you will not, either

Thank you parents, for deciding to let me in on this world. Though you could totally choose not to. Thanks for sacrificing a lot of your own lives to support me, when my own legs didn't, for spending many a sleepless night to let me sleep like a baby, that I was, for the education, for all the values imbibed into me to make me the person I am and will continue to better . I look at the images of children in Gaza being buried alive under the debris of missiles and living in constant fear of being attacked and I want to be thankful for having had a normal childhood.

Thank you siblings for being the first friends that I ever made. For letting me understand the concept of 'sharing' and making up after a fight early on in life. 

Thank you, all the school friends, who ate tiffin with me, played those dumb thumb games and even you asshole who squirted ink out of your pen on my shirts. For letting an innocent childhood be innocent.

Thank you, all you guys/men I dated, had a moment of fleeting love with and whatever else in between. You made me realise that love was not all about drawing hearts in notebooks and going to romantic movies. But about the concept of a person meaning a lot to you at a point in time, someone who you did not need to spend an eternity with but few moments that were so good, so pure, it felt like eternity. For making me understand myself a little more, while trying to understand me. For making me feel beautiful, needed and desired.

Thank you, the 50rs-per-day municipal workers, who clean up our mess after us, post midnight so that we could have clean roads the next morning to crib about them in the next outrage spell.

Thank you, manager for sometimes appreciating the work I do or sometimes being completely seemingly oblivious to me because you make me realise that life is so much more than being ensconced in a cubicle, punching in keys day in, day out and that work is just a means to an end, but not an end, itself.

Thank you, my flatmates, ex and present, for making me believe in the concept of a home away from home and giving me a face to come back to every day. Almost. For all the anytime- conversations, the unlimited cups of tea and the music that plays in the house that we've turned into a home and share together. 

Thank you all the friends, close or "ok types" , here or distant, for just being there. For confirming that one is never really alone. For the good times and through the bad times.

Thank you all you nameless people on the road, who take a minute out to tell directions to us lost souls.

Thank you carpenters, electricians, glass cleaners, maids, sweepers, and for everyone else for whom the concept of a "lowly job" means too little in the face of a stark poverty but dreams of a better future for your own family . For sometimes endangering your lives, ( and swallowing your pride, even without realising) so that our lives could be more convenient and enriching.

Thank you, colleague, that I don't speak with much. But the little Excel tip you shared with me the other day? It changed the way I worked & made me just that little more efficient.

Thank you for the random 'Like' or 'comment' or retweet on anything that I posted. It made the effort that went behind it worth it. It felt good to know that it gave you a moment of entertainment, information or just a smile.

Thank you everyone who writes, creates music, cracks jokes, clicks photos, etc. because you make the world a beautiful place by letting us see that it is that. You provide us that escape route so necessary when you're stuck in the rut of a job and career. Or just that harmless entertainment relief in the middle of a blah day. You make the rest of us want to explore ourselves, that much more, give us a perspective on life and open us to the infinite possibilities of art. In any form. 

Thank you random person on the flight/train or somewhere our paths crossed. We don't know each other now, or knew then, but thanks for few moments of the conversation & company in times the going was getting tough, literally.


Thank you for reading this. Thanks for giving a meaning to these strings of words.

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