A bag of Shells

The trivias in life are sometimes the biggest milestones. The advertised moments, the birthdays, the graduations, the weddings are less important. The real goals are actually less prepossessing. They come to the door of memory unannounced, stray dogs that amble in, sniff around a bit, and simply never leave. Our lives are measured by these.
When I was young my grandmother used to come to pick me up from the school. The smile on her face after seeing me was the best thing in the world. It made me feel so special, so loved and the fact that this refreshing smile will be there always waiting for me at the front gate kept me going all day. I remember walking with her to my home. She was a slow gracious walker. She used to stop once in a while to pick up a shell from the nearby sand pile. I used to adore these shells. It was a little game for me to find a shell better and bigger than the previous day. I would hunt the pile to find my own treasures and show them proudly to her. When we would come back home, she would keep these beautiful shells in her almirah. Every Sunday she would take out her collection and give me and my friend to make something out of it. From ten in the morning till the lunch time, we used to sit in the verandah and rack our brains to impress her with our work. After lunch we would be assigned marks on 100. It used to be the most awaited time of the week but none of us ever aced that score. She always saved a mark or two to leave that incentive for us to work better next time.
When we grew up, she gave me her shell collection which is the best inheritance I could get. My fetish for collecting bus tickets, movie tickets, and dinner bills comes from her. I collect all the junk in the world. But I've learnt that most often than not - all isn't junk after all.

So coming back to the small things in life – getting an IM or a sms from a friend you have been missing a lot, eating a dairy milk after craving for it whole day, maid bitching about an aunty you haven’t ever met, auto wala agreeing at the first go, or the song that you are humming that automatically starts playing in the mall you are at, these are the insignificant things that make your life significant - make it worth living. Enjoy the little things in life, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things

Small events and choices determine the direction of our lives just as small helms determine the directions of great ships. So while going down that road - look for your treasures. By the end of it, you'll have a bag full of glowing beautiful white shells!