Suburb January 2019

BUILDING BLOCKS
'ALL MY BAGS ARE
PACKED READY TO
GO...'
It is that time of the year again. Board exams, university applications, career
counsellors ... You think you are prepared for the empty nest that is soon going to
follow. You grit your teeth and sort and sift so-called “important” possessions
nobody has the time or the inclination to…
Trivikrama Kumari Jamwal
Soon your feverish
pace slows down
as you recognise
certain items in
the heap. You sit
back, awash in a
jumble of
thoughts: memories,
philosophy on the change in
your life, and some prickly
questions to ask yourself.When
disposing of the‘second-hand’
furniture, you feel quite
mournful to see the beaten-up
cupboards and study table go.
You give them one last pat: the
ones you had spent hours of
your life tidying, the ones
housing a favourite shirt and
jingling medals or hiding in
deep recesses an exam paper
with a fail grade on it, the
battered‘goal posts’of
surreptitious indoor football …
a part of you is wrenched as
they are loaded into the lift to
make way for a new set. A
twisted smile testifies to the
symbolism – “The old order
changeth yielding place to
new…”
Have I done enough?
Change brings you face to face
with what you are as a person
and with your feelings. It is a
strange choppiness within. For
some,this choppiness is positive
and optimistic. For others, it is
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suburb life | January 2019