THE BIG PICTURE

I wasn’t going to write this one. Believe me when I say, I had something else on my mind.

But now as I settle on my chair, laptop placed in front of me, and the study lamp illuminating my desk not just with its light but some weird sort of cosmic energy, I cannot help but notice my elder daughter’s Pin board. It’s all very haphazard, vague, and unrelated. That is the impression it gives the first time you see it.

I mean what has she got in there really? Some 5-6 Small square shaped multi colored sticky notes with reminders on them, plenty of spelling mistakes, a couple of photographs, and a drawing (doodle really) of me!

And yet, when I look at all these scattered pieces of paper closely, I am slowly starting to find it very intriguing and more than that, endearing.

For instance, there are 2 sticky notes related to her online classes. The first one reads Do Re Me Fa So La Ti Do which as you all know are notes needed to build a song. I know she enjoys her music class as long as she is not asked to sing. The notes on the board give her confidence. The second sticky note is purely mathematical mentioning the concepts that she finds tricky like multiplication division. She’s just 7 so it’s fair to call them tough! I will give her that. I was 7 too, once!!!

Let’s ignore the spelling mistakes for now!

Then there is one sticky note which reads I LOVE MY MOM AND DAD AND SISTER, BY SHRIYA. I think this one’s for me. I think she wants me to know that she most certainly loves her younger one, contrary to what their fights suggest.

Moving on to the picture/ doodle drawn by her, of me. So, the face is like extremely big and shaped like a balloon. I like the cheeks though. They are rosy! I love how my eyelashes have been artistically and aesthetically curled upwards. I must commend her for dressing me in green, which happens to be my favorite color and since the time I have revealed that to her, I am somehow always green in her drawings! Also I am surrounded by hearts and stars. I will have to give her brownie points for that as well. I like how she has skipped planting the husband or the kitchen around me. So yes, brownie points for the hearts and stars!

And then there is a family photograph. The four of us, smiling and holding onto each other. Sweet. The photograph has been pulled out of a gift that my neighbor had given me. I have tried to put it back on to the string of photographs, where it belongs. But somehow it comes back to the Pin Board on the desk. Family is important, I guess.

Then there is a small photograph of her smiling and posing, with the younger one frowning in the background. Her mausaji (my sister’s husband) had clicked it two weeks back. He presented it to her with one small little message on it. WORLD’S PRETTIEST GIRL. So that’s why it is something she wants to see every day. She totally believes it, I guess.

Amongst all these photographs and scribblings is a sticky note that stands out. It has been placed right at the top and right at the center . Something that she is looking forward to, I am assuming.

It reads 14^TH OF MARCH SCHOOL STARTS.

This is an important date for her. In the last two years, she like several other kids has attended school but online. Since the time her teacher broke the news of physical schooling like old times, her heart has been jumping for joy. It’s almost like some wish will be granted  on that date. She tells me at least once every day that soon she will go to school in her bus, for real. They say children have fish memories alluding to the idea- like goldfishes’ kids tend to forget quickly. Then how do you explain this? She went to school in 2020. This is 2022. But nostalgia hasn’t left her in the last 2 years.

She craves the company of other kids in school. The presence of a teacher around, the sound of the recess bell, the touch of friendship… She misses all of it. She wants to board her school bus every morning, and hug me as soon as she alights one, in the afternoon. She wants to be on her own, exist and explore for a few hours, away from her overprotective parents. She is hopeful that few days from now, she will get her real, normal life back.

And that’s the Pin board of my 7-year-old. As ordinary and messy as it looks, when I think through it, I see how beautiful the bigger picture is. It’s almost as if I am looking at the canvass of life. Problems and solutions, dreams and beliefs, relationships and love and an underlying current of hope even amidst the struggle and chaos.

Having said that, just one last thing. What does your life’s Pin board look like? Hope you have pinned your dreams, your mistakes, your beliefs, your relationships, immense love and abundant hope there!

I hope you are able to see the big picture.

PICTURE CREDITS : PINTEREST