Posted on: Nov 13, '09
Me and Leisure
Yes I love leisure and I am not ashamed to say so in this super fast world. I have faced immense problems in my childhood, adulthood and current hood or what ever it is called at this age; due to my love of leisure. First time when I received a coveted excellence award in my currier, when the HR people came for knowing me, my likes and my desires to announce at the time of giving the prize, I told them I love LEISURE. This was announced and was laughed at by my colleagues, superiors and top brass in the company.
In my childhood, I liked to do any thing with leisure despite the pressures by my teachers, parents and my uncle. My uncle was a doctor of medicine, had two dispensaries which he maintained with speed. One dispensary was in our area and other in a very busy area 13 Kms away. Morning he would rush to second dispensary by bus, after finishing first and same thing in the evening. He remained a bachelor and so could torture me throughout my childhood. I would eat my dinner with leisure and would continue eating after every one was finished. My mother would willingly wait for me to finish while she cleaned and collected the utensils. We would often chat about my day in school. I always confessed about all my fights and all my wrong doings to her and she did not tell any thing to my father. In one of the years, my uncle started having dinner with us, it became a torture as he declared that I would finish when every one did whether the food in my dish is over or not. I actually started looking fit in that year due to starvation.
There was a song in Marathi, it advises a bird to leave the golden cage and take a flight in the skies. ( Aakaashee Zep Ghe Re Paakharaa, Sodee sonyaachaa pinjaraa ) The word for the flight was Zep. I would always leisurely modify it to Zoap, means sleep and sing this song which advised the bird to keep dozing in the skies instead of in the golden cage. Once my uncle heard me sing it and went berserk with rage. He asked me why would I say Zoap and I in my leisurely way told him that zoap feels so comfortable. Since he was my father’s elder brother and had practically raised my father after their parents died prematurely, he could punish me with LEISURE. After my explanation, he decided to destroy what ever leisure was left in my life and practically succeeded. I joined gymnasium in that period and had this liking for exercise ever since, waged fewer battles in the school, studied more, means, a little since I never otherwise studied. I started eating faster and finished my dinner with all other members of my family, etc. The feverish pace set by him continued even after I started working and gave me great advantage over my colleagues in my currier.
It is a matter of great disgust and astonishment to my wife and my daughter when on a holiday, I suggest that we relax at home rather than go for strolling or shopping or for a show in theater. Earlier, I was forced to go for shopping with my wife since my daughter was little. But after she came of age and when I discovered that my daughter also loves shopping like my wife, I conveniently convinced them to go for shopping without me and they were easily convinced for the good riddance since I would practically push them to purchase in the first shop and be gone. Now they are free to browse same cloth or clothes or articles in several shops without buying them at all. Earlier I would purchase my under wears myself, but now even that is done by my wife, I just give her the make, category and size and she willingly purchases them when she goes to Crawford market where the things are supposed to be far cheaper than elsewhere. Recently I accompanied them for purchase of sarees for my daughter for wearing in a wedding ceremony of her friend. I sat on a stool in a corner while they browsed through mountains of sarees. They also were totally in sync with the seller and knew all the jargon like Jute border and names of sarees, etc. This I queried at length and leaned what is a Jute border. It took 2 hrs to select 2 sarees. The male seller even wore the saree to show them how it would look. Hilarious. I regretfully thought about how I could have relaxed at home and seen some show on history channel. My only occupations was looking around to other middle aged women engrossed in similar torture of sellers and occasionally give my un-educated opinion to my family about the selection of the sarees.
Once when I wanted to enter military in my youth, I had done some severe seasoning on myself and hence, I can sleep without fan in severe summer and without rug or bed sheet in the coldest winter. This being so, I can practically sleep any where in any surrounding at odd hours. I generally boast about having the ability to sleep when and where I wanted, sleep as much time as available and in reverse also remain awake far longer than others. In times when others remained awake in summer due to hot air, I could sleep with leisure and until recently preferred warm air to cooler air. This was the main reason why I opposed purchase of AC in our house and catapulted to their whim only in last summer. Ever since then, I have learnt to sleep in cool, cold and chilled air and now-a-days some times I willingly put on the AC also.
Currently it is a matter of great astonishment to my wife and daughter when shamelessly I put on the AC before sleeping. This generally stimulates, raised eyebrows, crooked smiles, lofty comments, etc, due to my opposition to this gadget in the first place. They generally remind me of my several theories about why this gadget is harmful to our lives and respiratory system. But I, as always, being ready to face any criticism of any nature in the quest for leisure, ever since looking for ways to use the same outdoor unit of AC, with another conduit for drawing room with a switch to switch the air flow between Drawing room and Bedroom.
Tags: ac, youth, seasoning, sarees, golden cage
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