Good Morning Papa!
That was my teenager wising me early this morning. It was a surprise
gift at dawn to reclaim my position as ‘father’ and no doubt I was excited.
Till last night I was just a banker when he needed money, a driver when he
needed a drop at school and another old-fashioned Gen-X guy at home when he said,
“Oh Papa you don’t know anything”. It
was only a start and I was in for more surprises!
Forget the age old Suprabhatam, a typical day in this
third decade of the millennium start with the beep, tings and jingles of
messages, the bank debits, good mornings, FB posts, tweets, and responses of
all and sundry to all national and international issues. Thank God, today,
everyone has an opinion! Had the ‘Night mode’ not been there on the
smartphones, they would not have allowed me to sleep! All absent today.
The above mentioned ‘Hero’ at home who usually checks
with Google whether the rain gods will oblige for a holiday at school is busy
reading Newspaper! Alexa, who can play any genre music from anywhere in the
world is surprisingly silent. YouTube,
the source of all recipes is in no mood to give any cooking tips.
I could feel the aroma of age old, long forgotten
delicacy for breakfast that my mother used to prepare when I was a teenager. Of
course, my mother would have been the happiest today, up there, seeing my
better half dust off the recipes from her memory and attempt them. Overall it
was a great start for the day.
Childhood days, I have seen village drunkards,
intoxicated and lying along roadside but the scene in today’s cities is not
quite different with people of all ages lost in their mobile phones, abandoned
everywhere oblivious of their surroundings roaming around. “Twalking” or
texting while walking, Soliloquy, talking & laughing while walking is all
around, everyone continuously in action.
Oh no! disciplined roads. No cross driving, less of
honking to shoo away the pedestrians midst the deafening decibels. However, the
major difference was the music playing in the car. An old classical number
lying somewhere in an old CD or pen drive, probably a holiday at Amazon for the
Prime Music. I did pinch myself just to ensure that I am not in deep slumber!
Of course, I am awake, it is just another day. Only
difference being, due to the ongoing CAA / CAB protests, the Internet is down
in the city and, people are up!
