Woke up to a beautiful Sunday morning, did a little stretching, had a refreshing self made cup of tea and moved to the most used human invention; my phone. I checked for any overnight notifications, checked for any decent deals on Amazon and moved on to the Whatsapp. I had to burn sometime before my wife gets up, so I started to wish my dear ones a "Good morning" on the phone. So I started to scroll through the log. As the contacts started to glide on the mobile screen, I skimmed through each name, opened their chat log wished them a good Sunday morning and moved on to the next. But while moving from one contact to another I have noticed something very strange.
A feeling which was initially sub-conscious but it quickly changed from being “Just a thought” to a “Very intruding Thought”.
Each contact I scrolled through is going through a different phase in their life. Each one is passing through a different flavor of life. Each one is facing a different problem. And most importantly when the conversation moves beyond the good morning wishes, I have a different question to ask each and a different string to play. Excitement on some chats, happiness elsewhere. I was angry on few people and trying to pacify others. Giving suggestions as an expert with some friends and being inquisitive with some more.
Someone recently switched jobs, and I was enquiring about the new culture, new work timings, how he has liked the same. The conversation was more to do with career progression, way forward, salary hike and expectations. Parallel was my conversation with another dear friend who had a baby recently. Inquisition in the first conversation rapidly changed to synonyms of happiness and excitement. He was talking to me about the change baby has brought into his/their life. While one of my relative was enquiring about my plans of attending our cousin’s wedding, I had someone who was also going through a divorce. While I was happy for one who was getting married, I had to reserve my ear and virtual shoulder to one who was going through a rough patch. While I was expecting one friend of mine to give me her updates on her anniversary trip to Bali post my greetings, I was also replying to someone who asked me to help with their Ladakh itinerary. I had one dear one who was working on a Sunday morning and was telling me (and making me feel too), how lucky I was to have a day off. And another who was biking at some scenic place and sending me whatsapp images from his drive. With one I also had to inquire about his mother’s cancer treatment and extended any help from my side.
Of course there were also those fitness freaks. Those who promote the gym, body building, XYZ meals and “god knows what” diet. I generally wished her a good morning and she started to tell me why fitness is important, what diet should someone follow, what is the right way to eat mango and many other things. And there are those who gently ask you if you would like to invest in XYZ mutual fund/equity post the good morning wishes. These all belong to a similar clan. They ooze passion for fitness / investments / etc.
It was as if I moved from playing Jazz, to Metallica, to Classical, then to Rock; From Pop to Opera in my head.
After I had spoken to most of them, relaxed for a while on that Sunday morning, and started to talk to myself. I was wondering so much was happening around with lives of my contacts ( with me playing a patient audience) . While some were notable, few were unfortunate and remaining were experiences. On a broader sense, how vast is this world of ours, how many different things can happen to us, how many experiences, how many feeling and how many roles we play. And thanks to technology, I was living a different version of self with each person I was chatting with, all at the same time. I was a listener, I was a teacher, I was pacifying, I was experiencing emotions of each one of them. If you can imagine my mind to be a dark room and a light ray of specific color for each emotion; the room was nothing short of a disco.
And you know the bottom line; I had a perception / opinion on each of them. Which may or may not resonate the emotion of my friend with whom I was chatting. I may have perceived the pain / joy / excitement they were going through on a very different scale. Surely, there is an entirely different phase that is happening in each one of us. Each of us is fighting or enjoying a different thing.
And a simple Good Morning is all that we require to ensure each other that we are here to share come what may the phase of life we all are going through.
Sakethursforever : )
