As I parked my car and locked it in the parking lot, I was evident of the ache in my head.
I will go straight to bed, I thought and walked towards the elevator. As I came out of the lift and entered my house, a loud shout from my daughter made me turn in anger. Any other day, this would have made me take her in my arms and cuddle her a bit. But not today, I am exhausted to the core. Having used up all my energies in the board meetings and project release party I had no ounce of patience left in me. “Preethi, Pappa had a very tiring day today. Please leave pappa alone,” I tried to restrain my anger and sound as normal as possible.
“Oh Pappa!, she pouted, I wanted to tell you something which happened at school today,” Not today sweety, said I, and moved towards the bedroom. Without any more delay, I changed and lied on the bed wanting to sleep like a child. But, sleep eluded me. I could hear everything that was going around. Preethi was now talking to her grandmother for want of company. She was animatedly talking about the discussion that happened at school.
“Do you know granny, Likhith in my class wants to be a doctor, How can anybody be a doctor? I hate them, they simply make us cry by giving us injections, and this Likhith wants to be a doctor. I told him I will not be friends with him anymore.”
I could not suppress my grin after hearing the childish talk. I started listening to her baby talk. I could not help wondering how a five-year-old perceives the world.
“So, did you also tell what will you become once you grow up?” my mother proceeded to ask her.
“Yes Granny, I want to drive a Rocket and go travel around the space.” My mother laughed at it and said, “Did you know, your father used to tell a similar thing when asked what would he become?”
It then occurred to me that I had dreams of becoming an astronaut. I went back in the memory lane and wandered around my old little school in my village. The school structure was not very elaborate or accommodating but the playground was very huge and it was the only thing that mattered to me and my friends. We played cricket with whatever we could assemble and substitute appropriate play accessories required for our play. A flattened log of wood would work well as a bat for us. Even without gloves I never missed a catch and was a popular wicket-keeper in my school. Those were the golden times of my life, I thought to myself.
“My teacher was very happy that I wanted to go to space. She gave me a star for telling this. Look at the star granny. She used my favourite blue colour.” said Preethi in her excited voice.
I was feeling a lot calmer and refreshed after walking down the memory lane. I called Preethi softly and asked her to narrate to me about what happened at school.
She feigned anger and said, “I won't tell you now. I have to go and sleep its already getting late and I have to get up early tomorrow for school. My teacher says, early to bed and early to rise is a good habit.” I took her in my arms and said, “OK then, maybe you could simply give Pappa a good night kiss.”
She kissed me gently and I let her go. My reminiscence continued. I was once again in my classroom and laughing along with my friends and making a pandemonium before our headmaster entered the classroom. We all stood in silence. It was then our headmaster asked the question just to make us silent. Everyone had a different dream. One wanted to be a doctor, one wanted to play cricket for the Indian team, another wanted to become the president of India, but I had only one thing in mind. I wanted to ride the rocket. When the headmaster asked me the same question, I said proudly, “I want to make my own rocket and ride it.”
The headmaster looked at me in a surprised sort of way.
He proceeded to ask me, “Why do you want to ride a rocket? It is of no use to our country.”
I replied without fear,
“But going to space will definitely make India proud.”
“It is but a useless thing to do. Don't you think improving our India by becoming an able citizen who will contribute to the country will be the right thing to do.”
I had simply nodded and kept quiet.
Now that I think of it, am I contributing to the country's growth?
