Today I attended the School Annual Day function at my friend's 6-year old daughter's school where she was performing. It was a lovely experience attending a school function after so many years and it triggered a host of memories from my school days.
Since my friend was busy - related to the event- they had gone earlier and I was planning to join later. As the entry to the venue was restricted, my friend had made all arrangements for my unhindered entry to the school premises and had instructed me to call her in the event of any problem.
I was suddenly thinking of a School Annual Day many years back... Around 27 years back. I had told an aunt of mine(then around 50 years old) about our annual day and, amidst the conversation, invited her for the event. I was performing that day and my elder sister was receiving too many prizes (all for topping in different exams .. How boring!). Even I was the recipient of a couple of prizes - one for studies and one for histrionics, but nobody in the family considers that important for the simple arithmetic reason that 2 is less than 7.
The programme was in the evening and I was busy since morning that day, practising for the play until afternoon(it was a drama that I was in), and later with dressing up, makeup etc. Some time in the evening my mother had come too and was seated among the audience. After my event was over when I met my parents in the school ground, I came to know that my aunt had come too and she congratulated me on my performance and my prizes (she was kind enough to notice my prizes). My mother then told me that aunty was stopped at the gates by the volunteers because she didn't have the entry pass. She stood there at the gates for over 15min or so and that's when my dad came and saw his sister at the gate. The people at the gate knew my dad and let him in along with his sister. As a matter of fact, my parents were not aware of my conversation with my aunt and the subsequent invitation I had extended to her, (else my mother would have made arrangements for her to enter the school premises). My dad was not even planning to come, he just happened to reach there that time. And my aunty was unaware of the need of the entry pass because I had left out that tiny detail when I spoke to her (or maybe I was unaware of it myself). Anyway, nothing further was said about that and honestly not much thought given.
Today when my friend asked me to call her if needed, I remembered that day when my aunt must have stood at the school gates waiting for... I don't know what.. Those were the days when mobile phones were unheard of. She didn't even know if my mother was already at the venue or not..if my father would even be coming.. Still she stood waiting there...
This sets me thinking.. What must have prompted her to stand there at the school gates in a rather uncertain situation? It surely must have been the affection she had for her nieces and the desire to see them win prizes and to see them perform on stage. Being a mother of two boys who were much older to us and were already employed by that time, she must have had a wish to see us girls celebrating our happy moment.
There's more to it than this, I feel. If she stood there amidst uncertainty it also has to do with the innate faith and hope that she had. She must have been waiting for someone - either my parents or some other parent whom she might somehow know.
Do we still have this kind of hope and faith in goodwill and humanity? Or are we lacking the patience to place our trust on goodwill and humanity? Our dependence is fully on technology these days. Mobiles phones and Internet are making life so easy and fast paced... So much that we don't have the patience to just stand at a bus stop and wait for a friend who is late by a minute or two. Instead we call /text them:"hey, where are you?"
Yes, phones are definitely getting smarter by day. Are we?
