On MAD: Episode 1 – Little by little

It was a warm Sunday afternoon in February, and I was sitting on a ledge in front of the playground where kids were jostling for places on the swing. The ground beneath me was covered in symmetrical blocks, but at the point where the playground started, there was one small rock jutting out at an angle. New faces were streaming in, and old faces were beaming them in. I was sitting there with my arm wound around a kid who was playing Temple Run on my mobile, while my eyes kept wandering across to the various groups that had now started to gather in pockets of hitherto unoccupied spaces. The bubble top was bustling with paper cups queuing up to solve the thirst problem, while the swirling tops were hustling to solve their energy problems.

It was one of many vivid moments etched in my memory from what was an unforgettable day and an unforgettable weekend called Dreamcamp 2016. Of the many turning points in this script called my life, this was – and still is – a major one.

I have always been a big-picture guy. I have found the concept of age, time, and the activities associated with them very overrated in this world. I don’t take pride in the fact that I’m not the most punctual person around, but the concept of being “on time” is lost on me—for I don’t see time and work in minutes and hours and days, even though I really should, according to societal norms. In the bigger picture, when the goal you’re working toward is finally accomplished, I genuinely don’t think you’ll remember each minute of each hour you spent on it. It will be a series of vignettes that pass you by when you sit back and think of all that happened as you arrived at this exact moment of accomplishment. When you do build the pyramid, I guess you forget the stories that each brick held.

What those two days taught me was something I never expected to learn from kids half or even less than half my age. These were kids who knew that these two days weren’t going to last – and they were fully enjoying themselves knowing that. These were volunteers who knew they weren’t going to keep these kids this happy after these two days. These were relationships being created by enjoying, by living, and by loving the little moments.

Something I shouldn’t have forgotten – yet did.

The little moments do matter. The little moments are those that transform this every day monotonous life into an adventure – not an adventure by standards set for us, but an adventure by standards set by us. 🙂