We have been Amazon Prime members for some time, but the
emphasis has always been on catching up with the most trending short series and
highly debated characters. Last night, we revisited Malgudi Days. We watched
around three episodes, and I realized what had changed all this while, while I was
away from such moments—the Simplicity of Life. This was during the last part of
the 80s, and I was nowhere close to having found myself. Well, I am still
struggling on that part, but this was a phase when food of any type was
exciting, finding Mom at home was a blessed day, getting Pop to buy us ice cream was God-sent wishes come true, and in essence, Life was simple. What went
wrong between the Malgudi Days era and the rise of Thanos?
I got detached. I lost
the bond with the simplest pleasures in Life. I allowed opinions and must-do
perceptions to take over. The things I assumed were meant to be there became
dearer, and my thought process got more branded. The Malgudi days [of my life] were about loving sleeping on the cold concrete floor at my naani’s home, they
were about romancing the samosa, and allowing nothing to build up in the mind. Now,
there are days when I feel my heart will explode simply because there are so
many beautiful things undone, unvisited, unattempted, and perhaps unattainable.
The tragedy is that even as I was watching this, we exchanged notes on which brand
of mustard sauce was better with dip snacks, planning another visit to the
sacred mall. Now, Swami/my Malgudi self would have never planned so much…