Swing It Like Seniors 1- Chasing Joy!

 The pendulum swung from right to left and all the way back to the right generating the ubiquitous tick tock sound that is the hallmark of a clock; especially grandfather clocks that are such an integral part of old homes . Meenakshi looked at the clock, standing tall and occupying a place of pride in her drawing room  with an air of ennui, even as the voice in her head urged her to do something dramatic, like maybe push the prized heirloom of the clock down and watch it break to smithereens with a deafening noise .

Meenakshi was bored in ways that she had never been for all the sixty five years of her life . Her job as a Commissioner of Income Tax for a good thirty five years until retirement left her feeling apprehensive about humanity at large , especially when it came to matters of money . The biggest saving grace in her life was her late husband , Sundaresan Iyer, god bless his soul , who made a career out of peddling whimsical dreams coupled with promises of a brighter future, all by paying obeisance to certain gods in the great Hindu pantheon . He was a much sought after astrologer in his lifetime , besides being the only human being who could make Meenakshi laugh by just doing the job that he was destined to do - predict the future .

Now ,Meenakshi was not much of a believer in astrology , nor did she find value in bribing any of the tens of thousands of gods and goddesses known to humanity . She was against bribes of any kind - being the uptight commissioner that she was, which brought her back to her present predicament- ennui of significant proportions that threatened to send her sanity packing off to heaven, where the soul of Sundaresan Iyer lived in all its religious glory. 

The loud ringing of the phone roused Meenakshi from her thoughts . She picked it up and realised it was her daughter-in-law Priya. Quite contrary to her name, Meenakshi believed , there was nothing likeable about her daughter-in-law; she of the madi -aacharam from dawn to dusk fame. Granted that Sundaresan Iyer did many things that pleased her during his lifetime , but he had committed one major blunder- that of getting their chella pullai, their only son Pranav, married to the girl whose horoscope matched the best with their son- Priya.

Meenakshi cleared her throat and answered the call . ‘Hello ma, sollu, what's up ?”

‘Onnum illai’, replied Priya in her trademark nasal tone , ‘I just saw the Panchangam and today is chandrashtamam; a very inauspicious day . I wanted to warn you about not starting off any new venture today .’

‘Thank goodness you warned me’, replied Meenakshi sarcastically , ‘I was just about to begin my new business venture  - smuggling diamonds’

‘There is no need to be sarcastic Amma’, lamented the nasal tone in the other end of the line , ‘had 

Appa been around , there wouldn't have been a need for me to do this . I miss him , I really do .’

Meenakshi cringed at the display of sentimentality , clearly yet another attempt at emotional blackmail, even as she calmly replied , ‘I was just joking ma, of course , I appreciate your concern . I will not begin anything new today .’

The conversation with her daughter -in-law left Meenakshi feeling flustered . Worried about the probability of rupturing a nerve or a blood vessel , she wore her sneakers and decided to head out for a walk .

The park was filled with the usual suspects . Mr Dhillon and his garrulous group of friends ,  all retired men on the wrong side of sixty, who were busy discussing the political state of affairs . Mr Dhillon’s eyes lit up , like it usually did , when he saw Meenakshi Iyer.

‘Namaste Meenakshi Ji’, he called out , ‘we are having a very interesting conversation here and we would love to know your thoughts . Do join us .’

‘Right after I get done with my walk’, said Meenakshi, putting on a fake smile , for the Dhillon gang topped the list of people she wanted to avoid like the plague. She walked along the walking path at a rather brisk pace , overtaking a bunch of twenty somethings in the process , only to run into Lalithambika Venugopal , the sixty four year old retired school teacher whose biggest passion and pastime, when she was not knitting or gossiping ,was doing pooja; the very same things that Meenakshi despised in the very same order .’Namaste Meenakshi ji’, she boomed in her baritone voice , ‘hope you are coming to the community hall in the evening to chant the Vishnu Sahasranama’.

‘I am not so sure Lalitha ji’, replied Meenakshi, ‘I have a very busy day ahead ‘

‘What busy’, persisted Lalitha, ‘you always say this when I invite you for any event . Meenakshi ji, don't you think we have worked hard enough all these years and have made sacrifices for the family . Now that we have retired from work and are over 60 years old , we should be doing things that we enjoy ; things that we  always wanted to do  but never had the time for .’

For once Meenkashi couldn't agree more. But herein lay the glitch - the things that Lalitha and company enjoyed were precisely the things she did not want to be found dead in the ditch with . But surely she could do better than be a prick about it and speak her mind . 'There are many creative ways to extricate myself from the situation’, she decided .

‘I have been having a persistent sore throat for the last few days’, replied Meenakshi, ‘and the doctor has advised voice rest for an entire week. I will surely join in from next week .’

‘I think I know what is ailing her’, remarked Vijaya, who overheard the exchange from a distance , ‘Meenakshi mami is missing her aathkaar .’

Meenakshi soldiered on at an impressive pace for the next half an hour and soon reached her target of 4000 steps . The beep in her smartwatch indicating that she had met her target brought a smile to her face . Flush with endorphins that a bout of energetic exercise is bound to release , Meenakshi forgot about all her troubles as she sat down on the park bench to gather her breath . She opened her water bottle and began guzzling water when she overheard a group of twenty somethings sitting in the adjacent bench , talking animatedly .

‘Yay paragliding it is’, remarked the girl in the pink crop top, ‘I can't believe that we are finally going to Solang valley .’

This remark got Meenakshi’s attention and she began to google Solang valley on her phone . Images of  lush green valley and majestic blue skies got her attention like none other , even as she realised that this little paradise on earth was in Himachal Pradesh and was the chosen spot for people wanting to jump off a cliff with a glider attached to their being- aka paragliding . All of this new found information seemed super exciting , something that could be the antidote to the boredom that was her life .

Meenakshi soon heard a young man with a head full of luscious dark hair ,which was neatly tied into a ponytail ,remark , ‘It is going to be an entire week of fun . We will fly to Chandigarh and rent a car to drive down to Shimla and then to Solang.’

‘Wow a road trip before jumping off from the sky’, Meenakshi said to herself , ‘it sounds exactly like what the doctor has ordered’. Meenakshi got up from the bench and headed home with the airs of a lady on a mission . After all , it  was chandrashtamam ; the perfect day for new beginnings !She had tickets to book and reservations to make for heading to the magical land where she could jump off the cliff with a glider on her .

(Image Credit: Aditi Sowmyanarayan)