South Asian Summers
A Study in Gratitude
A taste of the first mango when summer arrives; a memory of a distant evening with a friend talking poetry over Chai; a bone-tingling feeling of sublimity when looking at the night sky; A chuckle or grin as a result of a toddler making mischief; Drinks of chilled water on arriving home from school…All of these are my most cherished moments, and I forget them when I’m down.
Yeats’ verse beautifully captures the feeling conveyed between these line.
“You say there is no love, my love, until it lasts for an aye; there are some episodes far better than the play.”
Negativity is a specter that is my constant visitor. It climbs from the clouds in small and inconspicuous footsteps and nestles in my belly like seven months old unborn. It has the power to rip my entrails and eat my liver from the inside. I tell you, I am oft-times without both.
Amidst such painful sprees of anatomy, how can I remember a taste of that first mango or the chilled drink of water on arriving from school…? It takes a deliberate attempt to practice remembering the good. Gratefulness is the seed that you sow in your “gamla.”
Ungratefulness is the firstborn of negativity. And gratefulness and positivity are happily married.
Journal it. Think it through. Remember it in your prayers. But practice gratefulness.
Think of the most immediate positive thing that happened to you. I was thirsty and just drank some sips of chilled water. And I’m grateful for it. I’ll think about the relief I felt when my thirst replenished the next time negativity tiptoes around me.
They say paradise is for those who are grateful for the paradise they live in.
