Why always share something related to crafts or from our own line of business? Let's move away a bit from that, today, we are sharing a short story written by Vinayak around 2008, a story about a "Garage Find".
It was in 1992 when me and my family used to live in Dehradun on a big spacious property along with the Sikh owners. That home had a large open space (a garden) and a small garage in the corner. That dusty old garage had gardening equipments and tools, some old rags, torn soft toys, a broken window, two old bicycles and lots of spiders and lizards that used to scare me at times. This apart the place was heaven for me. I used to spend maximum time in the garage.
Once, on a hot summer day during the summer vacations, while playing in the garage with Pintu, our landlord's son, I found a tin can that contained a handful of Chikoo (Sapota) seeds in it. We took few of them out and started playing Gatte (Cowrie shell game) in the verandah. Pintu suggested that we should plant these seeds and I agreed. When the gardener came we asked him to plant the seeds, he first refused saying that the soil and place is not good enough for the seeds but when we kept on insisting he planted the seeds in the garden.
Same year my dad changed his job and we shifted to Udaipur, Rajasthan. Our landlord too shifted to mumbai a month later and all was forgotten. Well, not really forgotten, These stories just become desitinations for nostalgia trips. Several years later, while I was studying at NIFT, during the semester break, my family planned a trip to Haridwar and Rishikesh. The four day trip was fun, we did river rafting, also visited Patanjali Ashram (yes that happened, please dont discuss it). On our way back, dad decided to visit some of his old friends in Dehradun.
Since I was relatively free for a day in the city, I decided to revisit all the places. I paid a visit to our patel nagar house where I spent the best years of my childhood. I was standing on the gate almost after 14 years, the house was in ruins. Only a chowkidar lived there with his wife in the part of the house where we used to live. The garden made space for a junkyard with only a chikoo tree standing in a corner. The tree brought a smile to my face. I felt like that 6 year old kid who kept on insisting the gardener to plant the seeds, I felt like dance, shouting and screaming with joy. One of the seeds managed to break into a seedling and turned into a fruit giving tree that might have fed people, birds, other small animals and insects. This Chikoo tree was my garage find, a garage find of a then 6 year old kid that brought happiness to a 21 year old.
Isn't it amazing that all this happened during the vacations at different points in one life. We unknowingly, during our "breaks", plant seeds to a lot of good things which reap benefit in long terms. Many of us are on similar breaks today. For some it is nothing serious and for others a huge financial implication. Our minds wander into unknown territories and since we all are adults, more often than not, we worry and think about the future. Think about the past for a second, think when was the last time you went on such a long leave? Isn't it the time to re-invent ourselves and do things we always wanted to, but never could (busy lives!). Why not forget our worries for a little while and isolate ourselves from the thoughts of future and find something in our garages to plant seeds? Probably in the form of a hobby or revisiting old books, reconnecting with friends or by simply creating something new without getting in the over-analysing modes that we are so used to now!
Also, Let us know how are you spending your extra free time in this isolation in the comments section below!
