Ohhh…Good to be Back…!!!!!
I was doing more than 48 hours a week job in field of SECURITY. Whole day standing at one particular place, wish people, make observation and keep thinking, creating stories in mind.
One particular day, I saw one small girl probably age 3 to 5, was playing with a Big balloon with her father. All the time she use to push the balloon upwards, yes she was successful in doing so as the balloon was very lighter in weight that I was able to observe. Then due to its own weight and crossing the friction in air and pull of gravity, the balloon use to come down. Other times she use to throw this balloon towards her father and the balloon use to dash back to her after bouncing on her father’s head. For a robotic field of view this made no sense. There was no level of game-play, no competition and no difficulty to set in this game what she was playing and no reward system but still I could see JOY in her face every time the Balloon reaches her back and she gets the chance to throw it back in air. She was happy to do this again and again and again….
Rarely this play toy i.e Balloon use to come down taking direction of wind and then she use to miss the catch. Even after that the small girl was happy chasing after it. Then by running after the balloon she again got the hold of her toy and started throwing upwards. I could miss my childhood but I am sure I wont enjoy the game-play now as I had remember whats going to happen in next few moments. If you were a balloon player this must have happened with you too. Due to repeated memory or your experience that you cal it.. even you know what is going to happen in this situation even before I write or you read it. But lets assume u dint read my last line and pretend nothing serious point I ever strike in your memory and lets continue with the story..
After some time and several time passing the Balloon upwards in air and catching again, the Balloon lost its elasticity. And lets not blame it on the cruel rock sitting on road doing nothing and now hurting/pricking the only girls play toy; The BALLOON BURS-TED. And now all the air trapped in the Balloon released to the atmosphere creating an Equilibrium with the Atmospheric pressure. Scientifically and in Robotic view its amusing right??? But I saw, the moment this incident occurred, little girl started Crying out a loud. She held the Dead Remains of her Balloon (as if the Balloon was alive in first place) and ran towards her father as if some big loss has taken place. May be in her environment it is a big loss but that I am no one to judge. She ran towards her father and hugged him crying that Daddy The Balloon is NO more.
Her father hugged her back and took the Balloon away from her. Consoled her. (The voices/dialogues I couldn’t hear as I was standing little far from them and air resistance made it impossible for what the father was saying). The girl cried it for a while. Then Controlling her emotions and accepting her loss as real she stopped crying and then walked away in other direction from where they have come.
Standing and working and being in the routine for earning money for bread and survival almost made me into Robotic view, but little of my past memories still confirmed that I am a human when I recollected this has occurred in past too. When I was small, I use to play with Balloon and Then The balloon busted, being small I was not shameful in crying out a loud and taking the dead remains of Balloon to my parents or grandparents. Showing them the Balloon is gone and its no more. Then I remember they use to Carry the Dead remains of the Balloon away form me. Find a place in the Balloon rubber which his big enough to make swell it back. Fill air, tied a not and give me back saying the Big Balloon is now transferred into Baby Balloon, take a good care of it. Parents gave it a funny name called “Ti-cha-kula” And I use to get back in the happy world that the loss is bearable now as Balloon is still alive.
I could just observe that on those days when we were small Parents use to give hope to the young kids that even if the game play is small and even if there is loss, there is still hope that things can be rebuilt. There is no pressure, no need to cry on the current loss and take your steps further in future and some day build your own big world.
This hope keeps the humanity in me alive, and even I’ll try my best to keep the light of hope alive in my future generations that even if they fail in future they will remember the Bursting Balloon and hold the hope to accept the reality and continue more strongly keeping their baby steps into the BIG WORLD.
Good Day EVERYONE, Happy Week AHEAD 🙂
Tapish Dongre 