Microstory 126 – Dove tales
If I have to look back at the lockdown period, that’s when we all learned to slow down, or shall I say pigeon-hole our lives in different ways. I used to spend a lot of time in the balcony and I used to get fascinated with the pigeons around me. Across our apartment in one of the balconies I would regularly see a set of 6 pigeons occupying a certain space. Anyone entering that space would be shooed away. When I saw how they were protecting their turf, I recollected Les Brown’s quote ” Life is a fight for territory. If you don’t fight for what you want, what you don’t want will automatically take over”. Every day, a white pigeon would come around to my balcony (which is covered with sliding glass panes) and attempt to enter through the glass opening. Several attempts went in vain, An insight I got during this lockdown was that unlike crows or many other birds, everytime I see them, they are always walking.
Microstory 127 – Continuing Education
In our school days, it was common for our principal to call our parents and give some advice. I still remember the day when the call came. It was a tense moment for me as you can imagine. I still remember our principal’s words, ” He can work harder and do more. He can focus more on studies without distractions like TV ( those days) and sports.” That was good enough for my mother to keep reminding me of my studies every now and then. That advice was given in an in-person meeting where my mother had accompanied me to receive the progress report.
My elder daughter came running the other day and without giving me a brief asked me to talk to her class teacher. I composed myself as I started my conversation. Her opening knocked me down. ” How can you be so irresponsible”? I looked at my daughter and she was rolling her eyes. I took a pause and asked what happened? She went on to explain that they had sent multiple mail reminders and tried calling as they needed parents’ signature on a document for registration. I gathered some courage and told that you must have tried on my wife’s number. It was a real education for me as the teacher made me remember this simple credo:
Microstory 128 – Neighbour’s Gift
They were re-arranging their house. Our neighbour had put the frame of a Bob Marley quote on the apartment Whatsapp group to give away for free. I told my wife to put in a request as I love quotes. In the evening the bell rang. I thought it was my younger daughter’s friend. I was quite surprised to receive this gift from our neighbour. She said, ” This is yours”. I was thinking, that it looks like they know I need a supply of quotes for my blogs. That made me read and understand quite a bit about Bob Marley and of course, I have collected a lot more quotes of Bob’s and this one is my favourite, ” You never know how strong you are, until being strong is your only choice.”
