Roses and Thorns

It was the decade of the nineties, high school was done, and before dispersing on our respective paths, my friends and I wanted to go for ~2 nights stay.

Now in that era, far place would even be a ~50 kms, but the fact that a girl stepping out with her friends for an overnight trip was a jaw dropping question.

How could I? Will they? What if?
Questions were flowing in  my little (cause a teen and inexperienced) grey matter as I was around for every beck n call of my mom and helping her with all sorts of errands.

I guess moms are smart species. No wonder, just about anyone cannot become one.

"What's the matter?" comes an eerie question

Quick comes up the head almost eager to let out my concern, but then the fear of being refused made me answer, "Oh! Nothing" with a forced smile.

"You know you can say anything to me." Blurts out mom as she is kneading the flour and a few strands of her hair fall over her face, that helps make a temporary sheath between us.

I am happy cause that avoided her to see the reaction on my face as I forcefully gulp down a big bite of an apple so as not to lose the moment.

"My friends (yes, I swear it was their idea) are thinking of going to Mt. Abu for a few days. So," before I could complete the sentence, she blurts, "what do you mean few days?"

After all the necessary explanation of we going our separate ways after graduation and yada yadaa.

She was quiet and insisted I talk to dad.

I felt a big chunk in my throat which even after gulping many times refused to go down since talking to dad is easy but when it comes to matters like this, dunno how he would react. I nod and wait up for dad to return from work.

Dinner table is the place where all the talks happen. I brought it up, while keeping my fingers crossed under the table.

What!

I am blinking hard, as I am trying to listen carefully.

I reiterate my question and put away those stray strands of hair behind my ear, just so that I can be clear in the conclusion of the discussion.

"Yes, you can go" comes a loud and blunt voice.

After dinner, I could not resist calling all my friends (alas the era of texting came in the 21st century) and informed them about the green signal. Luck had it, the six of us got it, and in no time we were booking our bus ticket, making hotel arrangements, packing and consulting each other on what attire to wear and shop for. The phone would usually be ringing or would never be off the hook since we all had lots to discuss and conference calls were not invented. The saga seemed unnerving for my parents and younger brother who just seemed to feel disconnected even though they were living in their own home.

We are dropped off by our respective parents to the bus stop, and with the constant yapping and hardly listening to each other, our four hours flew by!

We reached our destination and enjoyed those two nights and three days with various activities such as chatting, boating, laughing, hiking, eating, giggling, and then rattling some more till we reached back home.

After a decade, when we met again, we re-lived that trip of ours and most of us faintly remembered what we actually did until the pictures were dug up (thanks to Thomas Wedgwood) but we clearly recalled getting permission to go on a trip by ourselves without any drama or protest such as throwing a tantrum, banging the door shut behind us with the shouting at mom "You just don't love me to have a great time"

Aha! So not cool!

Life is good when the path is fragrant and smooth with rose petals, but ideally some thorns should be around to make us aware of our existence.

When something comes too easy, it is treasured but the drama would have given us the adrenaline rush, and the fact that a scene created over it in six different households would have been something to comment upon, criticize, given a commentary upon.

My 2 cents
This makes me ponder that sometimes when life is too darn easy, it is difficult to digest, and man tends to ponder upon its rules since he is an intelligent species.

The anticipation for a desire to be fulfilled, makes an individual strive hard for its outcome. Thus, making him yearn for success while working hard to achieve that goal since happiness will follow the quest.

Mantra for today: It is the challenges that make thy man!


-------

This post is written for Project 365 which had a theme, "Tell us about a time where everything you’d hoped would happen actually did."