Tiny little jewels fell from the sky. The air was chilly. Holding a cup of streaming hot coffee, I looked down from my window. People were running into their hostel buildings and opening their umbrellas. The smell of wet earth filled my insides with endless happiness. The sound of the water droplets, coming from 2.5 kilometres above me and striking the ground, demanded all my attention. My thoughts traveled fourteen years back, to the time when I was attending kindergarten.
We were the seniors, students of the upper KG. We were big girls and boys, not like the babies of the lower KG. We were coming up with reasons for rain.
There were two schools of thought as to why it rained. Some said, it was because God was laughing uncontrollably and tears fell from his eyes. Rain was God’s tears of happiness.
The other half argued that God could’ve been crying too. Those were the showers of his despair because the people in the world he’d created were troubled by homework and a big glass of milk everyday.
We, the little scholars had some serious fights, trying to act like grown ups debating over the success of the present government. Saying things like- “Rain is beautiful. It has to be a happy thing,” was an Arnab Goswami moment for us.
We considered ourselves grown up because we had more knowledge compared to the babies of LKG. They wrote in capital letters. We knew how to write in the small letters too. We thought we knew why it rained! Then, we realized we were very stupid and immature after learning about the water cycle a couple of years later. That is one of the oddest things about growing up. We look back at something we thought we knew and find out the truth of it was completely different from what we had always believed.
With every passing minute of our life, we learn something new. We discover something, unravel mysteries, understand theories and make hypotheses. We learn from mistakes, ours and those of others. We gather knowledge from all directions, unknowingly too.
We don’t become matured all of a sudden on the day of our 18th birthday. It’s a cumulative growing process over the years.
Whether we’re five or fifty, we always learn something. It is a constant process. That is the very proof of growing up, not the graying of hair or a few inches added to our height.
The rain subsided and the coffee mug was empty. I smiled wide and said,”I know the definition of growing up!”
I felt a day older.
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Well articulated.