"Strange Feeling"

I was having dinner on a chilly night in Bangalore, when a strange feeling, one I couldn’t quite put a finger on, crept into my head. The place where I was eating was called Ghar ka khaana, a nice place which served good homely food. The radio was playing old hindi music, while I glanced around at my fellow diners. The pair sitting next to us seemed to be well bonded; both the girl and the man good looking enough to land each other. The group sitting opposite us seemed to be good friends, the three of them discussing their pays at work.
The restaurant was bustling with activity. Waiters scurrying around serving food, while we waited for our north Indian meal, complete with mouth watering jalebis.
I started eating the moment my food arrived, when I caught my glance at a waiter. Dressed in an orange shirt and black pants, the waiter could not have been more than 16 years old, an age when we weren’t the least bit concerned about responsibilities, let alone earning for a livelihood. The sight made me so sad my food lost all its flavor. It just wasn’t fair.

I called one of my old friends, a law student and we ended up discussing what I saw at dinner. She said only this “If you can change the life of people do it, or else accept the facts and don’t’ crib about it”. Coming to think of this, what she said was true...

The incident also rekindled old thoughts in my head, thoughts of the amazing years I spent in school. Schooling was fun especially the lower classes (1st to 5th standard). My schooling started in a place called Kasaragod (Kerela). It was then that I had my first crush, first fracture, first reward, and so on. For two years I stayed in my grannies place and went to school. I still remember my first day at school. Mom and dad had come to drop me. The previous day was full of shopping for a new bag, new box, new Tiffin and lots more. I wasn’t excited though. Parents made me sit in the second row, and next to me a was plump little boy like me who was sitting so silently, and the time came when my parents were about to leave and yes I cried on the top of my voice, teachers had to hold me from running away. Days passed and the boy sitting next to me started getting close to me. We were together all the time. And believe me he went on to became my best friend till date. Days were nice, teachers used to love us a lot.

Even now I can’t believe I would fall for a girl in class 4th. Man I had my first crush. It was so very wonderful. Always would try to impress her. (Anyways it did not turn into anything else, crush remained as crush, and later on it got crushed). I still remember my first stage performance; it was a fancy dress competition, was dressed up like a rabbit and almost fell off from the stage since my eyes were covered fully. From then on there wasn’t any more fear in performing in the stage. Even when we were in class 3, we used to go on a picnic, and the place used to be behind our school. The place used to be like countryside. People used to get eatables and stuff. Those days were over when I had to shift to Mangalore, those wonderful moments came to a sudden halt (that’s what I thought), but reality wasn’t that. Yes of course I missed my friends, the place, and my school.

Schooling at Mangalore too was good since I developed a new interest there, that was Cricket, and it went on to become a passion. Went on to play loads and loads of cricket in school as well as after school, I really do not know how many instances I got beaten up for screwing up my exams because of this. Even now when I think about the scout camps, which we had attended, it was truly memorable.

All these thoughts were running in me. It was so nice being in school. Simply put it was an amazing time because we had no responsibilities

Now things have changed, I have been transformed into a responsible person.

I felt like writing this because that night I had strange feeling, one was a sad feeling about the kind of life some kids go through in their early life and the other was a happy feeling recollecting my school days.

Combining both it was quite a “Strange feeling”.

Note:
I would Like to thank my friend Srikanth for going through the blog and suggesting changes in flow as well as grammer.

Vineeth
18/01/2010
Bangalore