Thinking "Hatke"

 It was 6:30 in the morning. I heard the creaking of the door of our house. I leapt up from my bed and went to the living room. They had just left! I wailed at the top of my voice - "Mimmi! Baba! नका जाऊ ना (Don't go please)!!!

(no response)

I switched on the TV and continued crying.

This was in the year 2012, the year we shifted to Baroda. I was  a super sensitive 8 year old girl, whose world had just changed completely. My new school hadn't started yet as it was the time of summer vacations..... but hey! let me explain you the story with which I started this post...

As I told you earlier, we were new to Baroda. Everything around me was brand new and my feelings were exactly like a butterfly who had just been ordered to swim. So you get the picture right? I was a little insecure.

Everyday, my parents used to follow their workout regime. They used to leave the house at about 6:30 for a morning walk and would return till about 8:00. Usually, I would have been fast asleep at that time if I were in Pune, but it seemed like the air of Baroda had activated my sixth sense. So, I would get out of the bed exactly at the time when my parents would leave the house. There! all my insecurities would explode in the form of sobs, screams and sniffs as I would literally bang on the door ( Mimmi-Baba used to lock it before leaving ), begging them to return.

Till the time they had finished with their walk, I used to cry my eyes out in front of 'Thomas and His Friends' or 'Bob the Builder' ( these were the only shows which ran on TV early in the morning ). I would probably be the only child who cried while watching these shows! Then at 8:00, Mimmi-Baba would return and my cries would automatically change into a smile in a fraction of a second! 

This was my everyday morning routine. This routine was so strict that no amount of comforting words and advises of my parents could break it; so much so that one day, our neighbor had actually asked my mom about the wails that echoed through our house early in the morning!

Luckily, I managed to shatter my insecurities as I settled down comfortably in this 'संस्कारी नगरी' - Baroda. FYI, no more wailing at 6:30 now! Thinking about the mornings of 2012, I can't help but notice the fact that I was never afraid of my parents leaving me to go for a morning walk, as since childhood, I'm pretty much a social person. What I was afraid of was feeling alone, in an alien city, among alien people who spoke an alien language. In short, I was afraid of being a duckling amidst a flock of swans.

 Everyone of us must have experienced this feeling in at least some part of our lives- the feeling of being afraid to be different. We often follow what everyone else does, in order to appear cool or relatable. But if we had done this, and never had thought of something "हटके ", something away from the mainstream, then we would still have been in caves, wearing barks of trees and cooking meat in  bonfires! Going with the flow is absolutely fine, till the time you wish to do so. But, if you wish to do something different and still you don't do so, because of the fear of diverging from the mainstream; Mate, you need to retrace your footing, as innovation is anytime better than redundancy. If your opinions or actions do not match with others, you are not at all wrong, you are just different. So, be different in your own way and do remember that, the trends that we follow in order to remain cool and relatable, are themselves the result of someone's "हटके " thinking!

Thank you for reading this post and I would love to have your feedback ( please write your name along with your feedback ). We'll meet again soon with a next post. 

Bbye

Until next time