I was a child once.
Then, I always looked towards grown-ups with awe, never realizing the preciousness of the childhood.
Often I had big dreams to be a great man. And that greatness was scattered around me...
...My first role model in the initial dreams was "the bus-driver". Perhaps he was a rare entity for me because of our habitat. We lived in Gopeshwar, a remote hill station in Garhwal Himalayas. A road formed a side of our playground and hardly any vehicular traffic passed through it. So, when a few government buses from the faraway places like Nainitial, Haridwar, etc., came in sight during our evening games, all my friends became mesmerised. Some even used to run after the smoke of the bus. Almost all of us liked the smell of that smoke. We had yet to hear the term called 'pollution'. The game could re-start only after a proper discussion about the correct count of the passengers, the route of that bus (mostly inaccurate but then we didn't bother about accuracies.), and the driver, the most important being.
And the fascination grew with each passing day. On many days, there were no buses due to the road-block somewhere at the hilly route. Those days we waited patiently.
I don't know how that waiting turned into an 'emotion-less' state gradually and how that role-model slipped out of my dreams. but the memory lasted till date.
Now, I see my son talking about the driver of his school-van (in Delhi). He is not much bothered about the congested traffic or the driver's skills. It is a routine for him, not a novelty. Rather, he is more influenced from the Cartoon characters of his favourite TV channels like Hungama, Pogo, etc. And he is much more aware of this world as compared to my childhood.
Still, I feel privileged that I had the ignorance in a pristine surrounding, that I had been inhaling the pure fresh air in the evenings. Though I could never drive a bus (neither I have such plan in the future), still I consider it a real great job. And truly befitting to my childhood dream.
Then, I always looked towards grown-ups with awe, never realizing the preciousness of the childhood.
Often I had big dreams to be a great man. And that greatness was scattered around me...
...My first role model in the initial dreams was "the bus-driver". Perhaps he was a rare entity for me because of our habitat. We lived in Gopeshwar, a remote hill station in Garhwal Himalayas. A road formed a side of our playground and hardly any vehicular traffic passed through it. So, when a few government buses from the faraway places like Nainitial, Haridwar, etc., came in sight during our evening games, all my friends became mesmerised. Some even used to run after the smoke of the bus. Almost all of us liked the smell of that smoke. We had yet to hear the term called 'pollution'. The game could re-start only after a proper discussion about the correct count of the passengers, the route of that bus (mostly inaccurate but then we didn't bother about accuracies.), and the driver, the most important being.
And the fascination grew with each passing day. On many days, there were no buses due to the road-block somewhere at the hilly route. Those days we waited patiently.
I don't know how that waiting turned into an 'emotion-less' state gradually and how that role-model slipped out of my dreams. but the memory lasted till date.
Now, I see my son talking about the driver of his school-van (in Delhi). He is not much bothered about the congested traffic or the driver's skills. It is a routine for him, not a novelty. Rather, he is more influenced from the Cartoon characters of his favourite TV channels like Hungama, Pogo, etc. And he is much more aware of this world as compared to my childhood.
Still, I feel privileged that I had the ignorance in a pristine surrounding, that I had been inhaling the pure fresh air in the evenings. Though I could never drive a bus (neither I have such plan in the future), still I consider it a real great job. And truly befitting to my childhood dream.
