Bachpan aur main

We all have our favorite comfort food, our favorite thing or act we do when we need to feel whole and secure again. I have one too, I stumbled into by chance, and one day thanks to these advent in technology I found an old recording of Asa Di Vaar that had been sung in the 60’s. It was this recording of the asa di vaar that immediately transports me to my grandfather. He used to listen to it on his radio when I was growing up. One of the things that comes back immediately is his embrace, his bukkal that was for me without any judgment, all embracing accepting for me.

The Asa di vaar is on of the central compositions of SGGS that enunciates the theological doctrines of Sikhi .It has been sung in a chaste, unadorned, classical style that somehow just strikes a chord in me and gives me inner peace. It’s as if the words transport me back to his embrace and his arms. It is this we what we all want, to be loved unconditionally and not be judged. Oh, how wonderful it is to be transported to one’s childhood and to not have a care in the world.

Life is tough at every step and suddenly one is hurled into all sorts of role-playing. Be an adult, a partner in a marriage and then a parent with no clue how to bring up a child, trust me nothing prepares you for this final frontier!

We all go back to our memories, and a walk down the memory lane where sense of touch, smell, or a particular food transports us back to bachpan. One of my friends who I re-met after a span of 25 years from school just gave me the best answer and she said it was talking to me. The satisfaction one gets being important to someone and to his or her happiness is un -parallell. I could actually do an advertisement for Credit Card Company and be the best sloganeer for priceless!

My sister who we all worry about that she doesn’t eat enough and is going to collapse one day walking came up with her answer of the bun samosas sold in Kasuali (Mohan’s shop) and the gulab jamuns had when she was growing up. Every one these special nuances, be it the home made pickle, comfort food for all boarders, maggi made with warm tap water, peanut butter, cold coffee, and my son’s answer from ocean’s away, makki di roti, ladyfinger and pancakes made at home. The other one swears by the cheese parantha.

A,cardiologist friend cum sister who remembers her mother by the bangles that she dons, and the smell of her pa’s cologne. How we all stumble and become poets. Life has its turns and twists and the biggest cynic will say it’s the playing with his child, and comfort food is egg and parantha.

How does food evoke comfort, security? Why do we all go back to the times of the past, where life was uncluttered and simple? I know there is some an intelligent answer, a scientific explanation for all this transportation but it’s the deja’vu that’s hit me these days and I think it’s the sign of the times as I am getting old and I want life to be meaningful and keep the circle small.

As life comes to full circle, we all become child like and want the same joy, happiness, and uncluttered free life. I wonder when you read this, what is it you reach to first, the coffee or chocolate that understands and doesn’t question.

It is the absolute complete acceptance that makes us feel whole and we are not judged by a society that is into body shaming, labeling , branding you and judging you because you don’t fit into the slot so sold by the media projection .