Tassels of Life

Mid-summer afternoon and Corona is blazing hot outside making people sweat. The heat inside isn’t any good either. But then, for the twelve year olds, no summer is too hot and no fifty year father is too old. Tied to the branch of the guava tree, in our backyard, hangs a ball deftly inserted in a sock and suspended with a rope with precise measurement of height and distance.

The ball has endured the bashing from both boys for days without a complaint. I pity the damn thing at times, but it hangs there mocking me, telling me to mind my own business. It falls straight and proud all the time, awaiting their masters’ session, for it plays its part in the making of the future cricket stars.

Coming back to the ‘tied to the four walls of the home’ scenario, it did make me happy that I could negotiate their hitherto non-negotiable academy time of my boys otherwise.

Tapping the ball, checking the bat swing and the elbow position, Pranav, the elder of the two asked me matter of factly -‘ Papa! What’s going to happen after this Corona?’ The other looked on as if he had the same question in mind at the same moment.

I replied in an even more nonchalant way- What’s going to happen! Soon this virus will go and its life as usual, back to normal’.
The answer didn’t seem to convince the boys as much as the correctness of elbow position. But then, they were more worried about their lost time at the cricket nets than the Corona pandemonia.

That moment passed, but the question kept hitting back in my mind, just like the hanging ball hit the middle of the bat every time. I knew it was a straight forward, innocent question but I didn’t seemingly end that way. It was almost jolting me up from the lethargy that has gained considerable inches around my mind and body, thanks to the lock down.

It was then I decided that I need to dig a bit deeper and have a perspective on the days after the Corona. These are personal thoughts and expression with no biases or pre-conceived notions. If anything that would have influenced them are my life experiences.

I pen them down here, not to share with them now, but to leave them as notes for future, when they are ready to take on the world, on their own. They may learn from them or unlearn too, but at least as a father, I will have left with them a fair piece of perspective on the world and help them make informed decisions, hopefully.