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ShareAt a time, when on the macro level, we are going through the motions of selecting our government, on a micro level the last few weeks have been a virtual rollercoaster for me and mine.
The promise of a birthday being spent at home with family was turned on its head when we lost my father-in-law on the very day my son turned 14. The subsequent days showed me that even while we bid adieu to a strong support, we found a new fountainhead in my young ones.
Coping admirably with a date that will always be bittersweet, my son and daughter helped us get our act together as we rushed to Lucknow for the last rites, leaving them behind at home. I returned three days later to a spate of phone calls from my son's friends -- offering help... even tiffin for school. For once, there was no mention of football or play!
There remained one more duty to perform in the midst of cramped study schedules -- the 13th day rites that would entail our leaving town for three days. I left the decision to them -- and neither hesitated, even for a nano second. "Of course, we will come with you," they said. For the younger one, it meant missing one paper; for the elder it meant losing valuable study days just before her end-semester law exams.
They switched gears swiftly -- coordinated with their first cousins in New Bombay to make a PPT on their 'Baba'. And on D-day, amidst many just-met family members, they were to the family born.
Like other teens, who must have seamlessly risen to the occasion when crises like recession, ill-health or losses hit their families, these two too proved why they can be aptly termed young adults. For that I would turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to torn jeans, mobile addictions and PSP obsessions!
We returned from the quiet echo of prayers being chanted at the havan to the raucous racket of a pneumatic drill being bored into our terrace right above our top floor flat. My twosome metaphorically plugged up its ears and got down to work.
As I put down my thoughts here, I see around me many 18-year-olds, all of them first-time voters, eagerly debating whom to vote for -- trying to keep abreast of what is happening on the national horizon.
It is almost as if all of them, having touched the magical age, have woken up to a new world. Perhaps the events of the last few months -- particularly those that affected Mumbai have caused a mindset change in the youth of today.
As adults, we tend to label them as rebellious, demanding and selfish and often run them down, only to be pleasantly surprised by their abilities as the cycle of life rolls on. More power to this tribe of teens!
