Magpie - Part I

It was a Sunday morning. But for me it was not much different from any other day. Seven years year ago I had decided not to be a part of this so called corporate world, leaving my family in a slight quandary. All this while, they had tried their best to give me a direction in life. I was put in a good school, prepared for a top engineering college and had then landed up with decent job. And then the direction changed.

The year I had spent during an MBA course was more like a contemplation camp. Away from my family once again, thinking what and whom to value most, I had acquired enough peradventures about the right way of living a life. The proclivity towards risks has subsided early on. What were left were the memories; some painful recollections of the once vivacious and vibrant dreams. Like a magpie, I had stashed lots of them within me, believing all of them will be true one day.

While most people in the college knew what they wanted next, I simply watched the time go by. It became an unusually favorite pastime; watching the sun set from the hostel’s balcony and hoping for a revelation to strike at some odd afternoon setting the course of my life. The effort to hold on to the dreams had taken its toll. All paths would bring me back to where I started from. Things which made sense one day lost their meaning the very next day. Mere thought of them was repugnant. It became increasingly difficult to believe in something and above all myself. I had chosen to follow a different direction but I didn’t know what it would be.

They say that if you really want to know your passion then look back at your childhood. The thing which excited you most then would be ‘it’. And I knew it all along. The desire surfaced so many times. Each time accompanied with hope and anguish. But I never had the nerve to hold it up against the squall. Each time I turned away from it towards the assigned direction, my faith in self would fade some more.

This went on until a mundane visit to a mall, The Dubai Mall. There, the Ice Rink. And therein, The three performers. What they performed in unison was simply breathtaking. Many people stood by to watch and admire. No acrobats, just simple movements of hand and body stirred by the cadence. It was dance no doubt but that was ancillary, what was primary was the free spirit. And that was what which riveted me to the spot for a long time. I could see in them an open sky; feel an unlimited expanse of emerald green grass, breath a fresh a whiff of extremely pure air … It was so liberating. I was as if staring at my soul. The direction changed that very moment. The signpost of my life now had a destination. My own ice rink and an ice skating academy...

.....contd in part II