Random thought at night

Sometimes the need/feeling to write just comes out of the blue.. uninvited, as so many other things in life.

As we grow up, pass high school, go through college, take up jobs, get married and have children. We are so busy growing up, that we forget that our parents are growing old, too! When were in school, we couldn't wait to go to college, when we got to college, we wanted to get a job. We are so busy thinking about the future, that we forget to live for today. People disappoint us. They break our hearts. When we sit to think, we remember how things were with them, how we had been hurt and how things could have been done differently. But we forget to thank those people who make us smile, everyday. We overtly care about what others think of us. We constantly tend to mould ourselves to conform to other peoples' expectations. We forget that we were born original, and we were meant to stay that way. Work is hectic and the days merge into one another without us realising. We go on a vacation only once in a blue moon, when everyone in the family is able to take time off together from work.We forget that the time we need to take rest is actually when we don't have the time to rest.

"Picture this. A well-educated, well settled person is busy in his hectic office and personal life. His parents stay in a small town that he grew up in. He takes care of all the needs of his parents. But what they need is not the money or materialistic wealth that he sends, but a few warm words stating that he still values them and misses them too. But who has the time to call up parents and ask them about what they had for dinner last night or if the old father is taking his medicines on time.

Picture this too. A teenage girl is stopped by his mother from going for late night parties or to her friend’s house by her mother again and again. The girl feels that her mother is overly strict and has problems with everything she does and gets increasingly irritated by her mother.

How about picturing this? A son hardly talks to his father replying him in monosyllables. The father believes that it is because his son is too arrogant to even acknowledge his presence or that he doesn’t even bother to reply him coherently. In reality, the son is an introvert who finds it difficult to express his feelings but finds his father's presence comforting.

And finally why don’t you picture this? There is a small tiff between lovers and they stop talking for days. Individual egos restrict them to come back to each other even though they terribly miss each other. One thing leads to another and the relationship breaks since none of them took the leap to convey the other person their feelings.

Do you see a similarity in all these cases? May be you guessed it. Yes, it is communication. Rather, lack of it.

‘Communication is the key to the survival of any relationship’ - is one of the most clichéd lines I have ever heard and yet it stands true to its every word. Lack of it can wreak havoc on any relationship. Everybody knows this and yet how many of us follow this. In all the examples above, lack of time, inability to express feelings and ego became the medium of this thing called ‘lack of communication’. (Yes, I know I sound like those relationship experts but am I not correct here?)

For the heck of saying, today we are connected with people around the world 24*7. Yes, technically we are. But all this time, while we were getting connected with strangers across the continents, we probably forgot connecting with our own near and dear ones.

So, when it is being asked if my phone had a superpower, I can think of nothing better but this special power inside my phone that when held close to my heart would let the person I am thinking about know that I am missing them and that I value them or that I am worried about them or that I love them.

In all the examples above, how wonderful it would be if the parents would receive a ping from their super busy son when he thinks about the backyard garden where he played with his father. Or how relieved would the mother be if she knew that her daughter understands her concern everytime she is out late at night. Wouldn’t the father find more time to spend with his introvert son who needs his help everytime he is stuck up in a situation? And that relationship which broke-up because none of the two people who though terribly missed each other took the plunge of just picking up the phone and talking, wouldn’t it have been beautiful when both of them received pings when the other person missed them.

As for me, how badly I wish that when I am in middle of a meeting, and I think about my mother for a flash of a second and my phone would let her know that even though I don’t have the time to call her up from my office, I still miss her. How I wish that when I see a group of friends having fun at a tea stall, I remember my college times and my phone would let my best friend know that I miss those times and that even though I don’t call quite often, the college memories are still afresh in my mind.

Just like me there are thousands of others who have probably got disconnected with their near and dear ones due to this so-called thing known as ‘lack of communication’. And this superpower phone could let their families and friends know that they are being missed or that they are still valued and ofcourse loved too.

Just a simple mechanism and yet so powerful to make our lives so peaceful, so beautiful - to read the heart, and to convey the words that are often lost in chaotic pace today. How I wish my phone has this superpower !!