Those were the best days of my life....

Well, you must have heard that famous song of Bryan Adams, but I am not going to talk about that song. Legends and their work should be better left out to the critics, and I am a huge (do not think about sizes, please) fan of Bryan Adams, so nothing can go wrong with his work. Coming to my subject now, “those were the best days of my life”, truly speaking I am unable to decide which my best days are, when I was in school, or when I was in college, or now when I am working. Or maybe, my courtship days were best, but I am happily married, too. I honestly love that day of the month when salary gets credited to my bank account. I love Saturdays and Sundays, too and I wish that after every Sunday, Friday should come instead of a Monday. I guess it is the same with every other man or woman.

It was Valentines Day on 14^th February. The red rose bud which I had bought one week earlier for five bucks was sold for 20 bucks that very day. I guess it was really not fair for those lovebirds. Please don’t say that everything is fair in love and war. Think about those poor guys/girls who have more than one or two girl/boy friends. And please don’t scratch your brains asking why I was buying red roses that day. It was for my flower vase, honestly. And I bought carnations and gladiolas too. Seeing those school going teenager kids exchanging the red roses left me with a feel of nostalgia. I remembered my school uniform suddenly. All prim and proper with that knee-length skirt and extra white shirt and shining black shoes and white socks. I do not know why of all things I just had to remember only my school uniform. Anyways, funny little thing is our mind that can go any direction it wishes to and at any time.

I know I am drifting away from my subject. But I was going to tell you about an incident of my school time. I was not a teenager then, however, but I was in first standard as far as I can remember. I was with Meenakshi, that childhood friend of mine with whom I had done the most mischief of my life. We were playing near the gate of my house and there was a drainage system nearby and we could see the green moss, looking like a bed of grass. Suddenly, we thought of jumping across the green moss. At first I was not inclined to do so, but she made me live that song ‘Ye dosti hum nahi todenge’ from the movie Sholay. And we fell into that dirty, filthy drain of water. And to our horror, in that particular moment our mothers came outside and witnessed our intentional fall into that pool of water. They didn't shout at us nor even scolded us, however, but surprising thing was that they didn't say anything; they just helped us out, ordered us to change our respective uniforms and wash ourselves. We both went to each other’s houses, we were neighbors too, washed ourselves and got changed into something fresh and came back outside. Our mothers were still talking to each other. They saw us and her mother asked where we get these ideas from. Our mothers were actually very angry about our little fiasco. We knew that and kept quiet. Her mother asked again, with much anger she could possess this time, “I know who the troublemaker between you two is. You are getting naughtier each day. Meenakshi, tell me, where do you get this kind of energy from?” And out came the reply “Boost is the secret of my energy” and I said “Our Energy”. Well, we were saved however from the wrath of our respective fathers but we were made to wash our respective uniforms that day.

Once, in school, history class was going on. Our teacher was teaching a crucial part of Indian History, the 1857 war. I was however, a bright student, but I could be a trouble maker also at times. This time I was engrossed in talking with one of my friends. Suddenly, my poor teacher’s question reaches me,” Nabanita, how was the war of 1857?” I replied, “Terrible”, instead of saying it was a sepoy mutiny. Since, I was into his good books, he just laughed. During my post graduation days, we used to have a professor, on whose eyes female students doing post graduation were wastes. In his opinion, we women are from some planet where engineering post graduation is next to impossible for us. I don’t know why he was so much against us. Once he had given an assignment to the class and had asked us to do some research on some topic and present in the class. I was the only female student in that class of that premiere institution and it was just our first semester. After I presented my research, I had seen a peculiar kind of expression on his face; he stood up from his chair and gave me a standing ovation. I was quite surprised on his unusual kind of behavior. Maybe, all my juniors who are girls should be thanking me for his change of heart. I remember the convocation day, when he had personally walked to me to congratulate as two of my research papers were published in IEEE. That had been a wonderful day of my life. 

Let’s come back to the present day. My best friend has the cutest twins in the world, one boy and one girl. She had written about one of their funny incidents the other day in Facebook, where the girl who is elder than her brother by 2 minutes bosses around her brother. One of my best friend’s acquaintances had commented and asked her to enjoy these days as these were the kids’ best days. I guess for a mother everyday of her kid will be best. I remembered when we (I and my best friend) used to boss around our own little sisters. However, her friend had also commented that since her own kid has grown of that age, she misses those earlier days. Well, it’s very human to not acknowledge what we have now but to worry or dream about the coming future or miss or regret the past. When we were school going kids, we used to think when we will reach college, we will be the enjoyable lot. When we reached college, we used to miss our schooldays and used to think when we will join the corporate world; our gloomy days will be over. And finally, we reached the corporate life we were craving for and joined the quest for money and power and realized that we are still not happy. We now crave for college days. I guess when we retire; we would miss our busy working life.

I remember the day, when my husband and I had gone on our first official date before marriage. It had rained that day and we had only one umbrella to share. One might think it was a perfect romantic day. Well, it was. But the day, when we had gone for a long drive for the first time after we got married, was equally blissful. And I can’t diminish the pleasure of that day when we had bought our first car. What do I do now? Shall I recollect all these days and write about them in one notebook and label it as My Best Days? I think, in that case, I won’t do justice to those days of mine I like sipping coffee at my office desk, and those days I am chatting with my family for long hours on phone, and those days when I meet my old friends and relive those school or college days, and what about those days when I simply enjoy my own company and listen to whatever music I like, and then how can I neglect those days when I cook something special for my husband and he relishes every bite of that and the days when we quarrel and make up. The list is actually never-ending. Every day can become a best day for me if I think. You think for yourself.

PS: I had published this write-up in Sulekha four years ago in February 2011.