What waiting taught me.

There was this place. It was cool and silent, and it was a living room. The place of someone who wasn't particularly friendly. I remember waiting. And shyness; the faint smell of incense and the muted clink of cutlery from a few rooms away.
I remember expectation. And a little evening sunlight filtering, orange, through the heavy curtains that looked like they'd been sewn with canvas material.

And there was one of those china dolls that danced if you pushed their heads. Bobbed to and fro. I remember stifling the temptation to push its head.
I remember caterpillars in the lemon plants in their garden.
Above all, while waiting, I remember their animosity. It was a weird realization for a kid.

So much for looking ahead.

All we're looking forward to is the fading of everything that mattered even in the vaguest form, to us. To growing up and going away. For the final time. To ultimately not have our parents around. To spend our lives with that one person we think we're already sure about. And then perhaps growing to despise them for their being themselves, in varying amounts, over time, because familiarity does, after all, breed contempt. To no longer have our mistakes excused or have someone pull you out of shit. To mid-life crises and monetary troubles and paying for midgets you weren't even ever sure you'd have.

It's such an unhappy list. What changed?

What I learnt from Earth Hour

It was Earth Hour yesterday/last night. For an hour, from 8:30 to 9:30 pm, people across India(and at different times, across the globe)were supposed to switch off their lights as a symbol of solidarity and commitment towards saving the planet. We-at college-observed it too. Me and a few friends got exceptionally enthused about it. To cut a long story short, it passed well, yadda yadda. I'm a revolutionary in the making, yadda yadda. Anyway I'm here to recount stuff I learnt from the occasion.

In retrospect, there were certain things, certain behaviors that needed to be rectified.

I could've behaved more civilly with that Chinese girl.
I could've left some washroom lights on. I overreacted.
I shouldn't have been so rude to the girl who wouldn't switch off her light coz she said she was scared of the dark. I shouldn't have called her a 'wimp' and a 'baby'. It was wrong on my part, thinking she disagreed with us just to thumb her nose at our self-appointed authority; thinking that everyone is just as argumentative as I am. My bad.
I should've left out some expletives.
I shouldn't have argued about that girl with my friend.
I shouldn't have forcibly switched off the main switch from the outside of rooms where people refused to switch off their lights/fans/acs.

It was so un-democratic. I'm more of a tyrant. Power ain't safe in my hands. Really.