'The Window Seat Incident'

In this beautiful journey called life, very few people actually know about LIFE. Life is such a big word with multiple dimensions and infinite implications.

But what is life exactly?

A friend of mine once said to me that his laptop, IPOD, and cell were his life. He even said that he couldn’t even imagine what he would do without them. Truth be told, I was of the same opinion. But now when I think about it, it makes me realize how wrong I was. These necessities and utilities are generally misconstrued as ‘life’ by most. This is only a part of our life (a very integral one for some people, if I may say so). In reality, life is much much more than that. I can say this because I have been on both sides of the line.

But what made me cross the line?

It was the ‘window seat incident’ and I would be more than glad to share it with you.

I am a student, doing my engineering in the final year. One fine day after the college I boarded my regular bus to home. The bus was as usual overflowing with people. It was so stuffed that I could hardly find a place to stand. I was really tired and frustrated after an entire day in college, attending lectures and writing on the spot experiment write-ups. I had to stand for a good 15-20 minutes before I could even get a seat. But finally I did. I was just sitting there and looking around when something caught my eye. Two seats for where I was sitting were a mother and her approx five year old daughter and son. A pretty usual sight for anyone but what grabbed my attention was the two kids. They were fighting for the window seat. The weird thing was that as I continued to watch their squabble, I was actually smiling. It felt odd. Two kids fighting for a window seat was making me smile. I wondered if I was being sadistic deriving pleasure from others’ torment. The thought kept bugging me throughout the journey and it even tagged along as I reached home.

Why? What was it? Why the hell was I smiling?

As I lay there in my bed thinking about this incident trying to figure out the ‘why’ a memory just flashed in my mind. It was of two kids fighting for the window seat and I was smiling again. But this time it wasn’t them. The memory was of me and my sister fighting for the window seat when we were of their age. It made me realize that it was me and my sister that I saw in those kids today. That was what made me smile (and thank god for that, I was beginning to think that I was actually a sadist).

I closed my eyes and pressed my memory. I could vividly recall those days. It only made me wonder, what was so special about that damn window seat. What was so special, that I used to fight beg and sometimes even negotiate for that seat with my sister. The line that was no less than a line one would say before multi-billion dollar deal; “If you let me sit at the window today, the next time it would be yours.”

Why was the seat so important?

I dug deep into my brain and finally found the answer. The answer was staring me right in the eyes as I relived the moment again in my mind. I wanted the seat because it brought me joy. To look out the window and see the world as we zoomed past them, to feel the wind in my hair, to try and take in gulps of air as the vehicle sped. A thing, so mundane, used to make me happy. But it was a long time ago. I was a grown-up now. Fighting for the window seat seemed really silly. But that wasn’t it. I then began thinking of all the little things that mattered, like sleeping in your mothers lap, listening to the rain, trying really hard to win an arm wrestling match just because a girl was watching you, sharing a moment of connection with your best friend when nobody is understanding a word you are saying but only your best friend’s eyes reflect that he understood you.

Was I too grown-up for these?

I am laden with responsibilities and this too is not it. As I will grow older and older, life will bring me new challenges and new responsibilities. But that never meant that I can’t and won’t enjoy these small things that made me happy and made me smile.

This was what made me cross the line. One must stop for a moment in their lives and enjoy these small instances, no matter how insignificant they might seem to others. We must experience our life rather than just live it like drones.

If you haven’t started yet please start now or maybe tomorrow or maybe the day after. But what is important is that you start. It’s perfectly OK if you don’t agree with me. Because I strongly believe that no one can make you believe something that you don’t want to believe in the first place. People who don’t agree can spend their life as they’ve been spending it. But one day you would believe because one day you would witness your own ‘window seat incident’.