Hulk and Cinderella - A story told by a child!!

I know opinion varies from person to person, and it is mostly influenced by his own experiences in life. People who missed out on certain opportunities generally have a great tendency to influence on the kids not to do the same, so that they too do not miss out what is viewed by the parent, as the pivot of success. The definition of success bothers me and till date I did not get a unanimous definition of the same from all the people I interacted with.

I retired a couple of months back and when I think back my definition of success was to have a good job which will help me maintain a social status, a three bed three bath apartment, a good schooling option for my kids, etc. I was so engrossed in meeting my self set goal, I did not think twice about the validity of the definition. It was like a universal truth for me. In fact, I flocked around people with same or at least similar definition of success, which in turn re-validated my definition.

Now that I have retired, I thought I will devote my time to two passions which I had, travel photography and reading some good books. Well within a week’s planning I knew my body would no longer support my first passion. So, I focused all my energy to get myself some good books to read. After thirty years, it has actually become way easier. There is kindle, and thousand other online platforms. In fact, some of the works by some unknown writers began to fascinate me - mostly to do with meaning of life.

Yes, in a strange way, I have started to look for the meaning of life. “What? Why?” were the questions which I never asked before. I mean, at that point I started to think, “Have I even lived life?”. Pangs of guilty conscience started to give me sleepless nights. And I thought retired life will be relaxing. I began to think to all the things I missed, all the things I could have done better. There were a million and I’m not exaggerating here. I thought I will at least try and fix some of them, maybe at least one of them.

I realized that I never gave my daughter the time she needed. I was not there at her first school play, I was not there when she received her first award, I was not there when she did not get what she thought she would in her school exams. She missed her father as he was extremely busy in getting her comforts of life. But alas! He just could not be there to comfort her when she needed him.

The very thought of it was like a thousand needles pricking my heart. I gave her a call to tell her sorry, to apologize to her. She said she will call me back as she was literally overwhelmed with her six month old. I started to go through some old photos on my laptop and then suddenly I chanced upon a very old recording. From the date it seems like she was about four years old. She was telling a story in that. I’ll like to tell you all the same with minimum deviations.

“There was once a monster named Hulk. He was always angry. He had a beautiful baby named Cinderella. She was very pretty. Her favourite colour was blue. Hulk was always mad, but still Cinderella loved him. She loved him a lot, a lot, a lot. And one day, Hulk realized how much she loved him. He was no longer a mad. He was no more a monster. And they lived happily ever after. The end.”

I sank down on my knees and cried uncontrollably. It seems like the floodgates of my pent-up feelings were suddenly broken. I had a glass of water and sat down on my couch waiting for her to call me back. I just wanted to apologize to her for not being there for her and to tell her to be with her little one, be there for her little one always, maybe even spoil her a little, love her little one while she still can.