Heart To Heart

Srijeeta’s fingers brushed past every other letter on her laptop’s keyboard at lightning speed as she was busy mid-way across her blog.  Sri, as everybody called her, was a blogger and worked for a blogging website that published content ranging from adventure sports and travels to yoga, all at once.  Writing came easily to her. As Sri deeply believed in spirituality, she had the knack for looking at things from a different panorama.  She had mastered the craft of weaving her perception into beautiful words. Sri, in her late thirties or you could say, early forties, was a star blogger and always held that connection with her target audience which made her an absolute favorite among her seniors, bosses, and obviously the readers. “Mom, I need a brand new cricket kit this week. I am not going out to play with this crap again!” exclaimed Dev angrily, as he pushed past the door and landed on the sofa. Yes, Sri was a mom too. Dev was the only child (an early teenager) in the family and always got what he asked for.  Sri stopped her typing for a moment, gave Dev a look, and was back to typing again, briefly gazing across the tabs on her screen. Her laptop screen was full of tabs. A tab on virtual connections. A tab on youth education. A tab on social media addiction. And so on.  ‘What a perfect piece to write!’ she said to herself. “Are you even listening?” asked Dev, again demanding Sri’s attention. “Go to your room, freshen up. Dinner will be ready in a few minutes.” Sri continued typing, not once giving Dev the attention he wanted. He felt ignored and that further fueled his anger. “Okay fine! Continue ignoring me, but I am not going to stop. I have been telling you this for a long time now. This kit that I am using is way out of fashion. I have still used it enough for as long as six months and you still expect me to use it. Sorry, not going to happen, mom!” Dev said with a hint of anger, frustration, and tiredness in his tone. Sri knew Dev was being his teenage unreasonable self and had to make him understand that he needed to put up with things he had been provided with and learn thankfulness as a virtue.  But the question was, HOW? Sri’s laptop blinked with a notification pop up and she clicked on the message window. The message was from a dear friend who had sent a video. Sri clicked on the video and watched it to her amazement.  The universe had answered her question.  She immediately pressed forward. Sri smiled at her laptop screen. On being further ignored and looking at his mother smiling at a laptop screen while he threw tantrums all over the place, Dev got confused and even more irritated now. “You are more busy smiling at your screen than even listening to me, mom? What’s so interesting in there, huh? Oh yes! I forgot you are a busy blogger. So busy, who just sits around in an air-conditioned room with people and house-helps running errands for you. Why on earth would you have time for me?” said Dev. “So you think blogging is easy?” asked Sri with calmness in her voice. “Of course it is mom. You just make sentences, type words, and send them to someone who publishes them. How tough is that going to be? Ever tried managing studies, assignments, and sports altogether, and that too without getting paid?” Dev answered back. Sri did not answer back. Dev went up to his room and freshened up. In the mood for some music, he tapped on his mobile phone’s screen. Notifications poured in like a tsunami. He tapped on his messenger. Many messages. But, one specific name caught his eye. Mom. “Why the hell is mom messaging me around the house?” Dev thought to himself as he looked at the message which read- 5 minutes ago. Anyway, he clicked open the message window and a video popped up. On clicking the download option, the video started downloading, testing Dev’s patience. ……………………….. A sophisticated businessman sat in his car with a laptop and worked frantically towards completing a certain email. Stuck in traffic and rain for more than fifteen minutes now, he was getting irritated as he had an important meeting to attend. But the traffic won’t budge. Irritated and losing any hope of reaching on time, he banged his screen off and looked outside the car’s window. Other fellow travelers were irritated too. Rain was pouring down heavily and the climate was dull enough to support everyone’s current mood. A schoolboy sitting in an auto-rickshaw peeped up from his book and looked outside. He wasn’t happy either. He had an exam to give. Heavy rains and tight traffic were not an exactly ideal situation to be in. The boy looked at a car just a few feet away where a sophisticated businessman was typing something on his laptop. The posh, air-conditioned car, and the comfort of going to the office and getting paid for it caught the boy’s eye. He imagined being that man one day.  Sitting comfortably in a car, being taken to the office where he would just work on computers and get paid.  ‘What a lovely life!’ thought a ten-year-old. The businessman felt someone gazing at him and looked around and caught a small boy looking at him with amazement. He waved the boy a brief ‘hi’ This sight took the businessman back to his school days. Days which were fun. Where only studying and getting good grades were the only expectations of the family. Where playing football after school, roaming around with friends, and jumping around in the puddles were a trip back home. ‘Those were the golden days. Wish I could relive that life’ thought the businessman sighing. Street hawkers started moving around knocking on the windows of every car stuck in the traffic trying to sell off their inventories. One such hawker was a little girl. She was selling books around. Rains were not making her work easy, as handling half a dozen books and an umbrella was tough. She came across the small boy in the rickshaw and offered him books.  He declined as he did not have enough pocket money.  Further on, she came across the businessman and offered him books, knocking as slowly as possible on the window in the fear of making the man angry.  He declined the books as he had money but did not have enough time to read. The little girl dreamt of being like both- the boy who went to school and had the opportunity to study and read textbooks as well as the businessman who sat in a comfortable air-conditioned car working, earning good money, and living a superb lifestyle! The girl moved on. The traffic loosened up and all three- the boy, the businessman, and the girl went their ways. Video ended. ……………………….. “Woah!” exclaimed Dev to himself,a little bit ashamed.  Dev felt blessed. He got the message Sri was trying to convey and understood he was just being dramatic and throwing tantrums around a problem, that wasn’t a problem in the first place. He understood it was not about money, it never was and never will be. But how much we value what is hard-earned really matters in the end. Dev walked downstairs to the dining area and found Sri waiting for him. As soon as she saw him, she welcomed him with a warm smile and gestured to him to have a seat.  Dev opened his mouth to apologize and convey that he understood where things had been wrong. But Sri just stopped him and asked him to have his dinner. As dinner was being served, Sri just said one thing. “Your apologies don’t matter. Your mindset and actions will matter more.”  Dev smiled and nodded, accepting it. Dev understood one more thing that day.  It was his passion for the sport that mattered, not the shine of the kit.