Zoom in 'Awesome'

Chancing upon this blog after reading about Neil Pasricha in the Reader's Digest today, I'm relieved that we're not alone in this world that can sometimes be Too Sane to handle.  Behold the community of isolated souls who go after little bubbles with the hope of catching them whole, and follow a falling kite, running past neighborhoods and barging into any random gate and scrambling up the stairs of somebody else's home just for the pleasure of taking home a free kite. Though it is sometimes difficult to swallow my mother's matter-of-fact quip, "Life is too beautiful to be wasted in malice and sadness", now it just reminds me of the little-big boy I once 'encountered' in a village. He bumped into us when we were out on a visit and caught hold of my hand motioning me to see what he was about to do. Moving past that initial feeling of unpleasant surprise, it was plain to see that he couldn't speak, and must probably suffer from a certain degree of mental retardation. He smiled a smile so charming, it disarmed us. Then he released a spinning top from the string he held on his left hand. The top spun perfectly and long on its axis, making him shout out and punch in the air with utter glee. However, the loudest laughter and the most awestruck stares were those of ours, who watched our long lost favorite toy come alive and how!

And then there was the day I woke up on hearing the chatter of a handful of monkeys in my hostel-room balcony. It would've been a pleasing moment by itself, had it not been for the dozens of clothes (and underwear) that I'd left to dry just the night before. By the time I was fully awake I could hear my neighbors go tap-tap-tap with sticks on their back doors too, neither able to open the doors for fear of a full-scale monkey rampage inside of their rooms, nor keep quiet as the monkeys pawed and examined and dirtied our clothes. Desperate to get them distracted, we went downstairs and ran a jet of water on them. They peed right back on us. Furious, we did what a bunch of hassled monkey-chasers would do- plonk on the sofa and  pray that the little monsters would go. Go they did, but not before choosing their favorite t-shirts and panties to match, which they dragged over our roof (to try them on and show off to each other I bet). Sigh, so much for harmonious co-existence.

While this story took some time for us to have a laugh over it, you know what's awesome? When a colleague offers up their share of ice-cream at lunch for you to gorge on! (it helps when you've just finished yours and  are still licking your lips)