Take It Easy

Ashish opened his eyes. Then he shut them. Then again he opened them.

Another morning in his life had begun. 

He looked at his watch and realized that it was already 11.30am. He had again missed the first two lectures. He sluggishly got up, changed his shirt.

The college campus was a ten minute walk from the hostel. It took Ashish twenty minutes to get there. And in another five minutes he reached the first floor. As he turned down the corridor to reach his class, someone tapped him on the back.

And that’s when Ashish lost all of his sluggishness. Because standing behind him, was his father Ganesh Patil. 

Ashish’s father was one of the most successful sugarcane farmers in India, while also being an amazingly energetic, positive and happy person.

“Kay re? Surprised?” Ganesh said gleefully, as he smiled at his son.

“Baba tumhi? What are you doing here?” replied Ashish.

Ganesh wrapped his arm around his sons shoulder and said “Sangto! But first let’s go get something to eat. Looking at you I don’t think you have eaten either.”

“But Baba I have a lecture…”

“What you can bunk the first two lectures? But you can’t go late to spend some time with your father?”

Ashish blushed. “No its…uhh…okay I guess.”

“Good! Please lead me to your canteen.”

They reached the canteen and placed their order. As they sat by the table near the back of the canteen, Ashish wondered what this could be about. His father did come to Mumbai once a while but he never came like this unannounced. Ganesh Patil was a very cheerful and jolly person, but he was also always very well organized.

Ganesh looked kindly at his son’s face and he realized that Ashish looked like a younger image of himself. But he felt that Ashish had more of his mother’s kind nature in his heart. This made Ganesh all the more happy.

Quietly Ganesh said “Ashish beta I have been getting a lot of calls from the college management. They say that you have been missing a lot of the lectures and that your marks have only been getting worse in the last few months. Is there some problem?”

Ashish couldn’t get himself to look at his father.  

“No Baba there is no problem..It’s just that…I don’t know…but I just feel that I would like to take it easy for a while…”

Ganesh smiled. Maybe Ashish was more like him after all.

“Well Ashish, so far no one has been able to beat my record at ‘taking it easy’ in the Patil family. I failed in the fifth, sixth and seventh standard. Then I failed in tenth. Your grandfather paid a lot to help me clear my board exams and get admitted in a junior college. And after that, there were worse things to come.”

“Oh.” Said Ashish.

Ganesh continued “Then I got into a bad relationship. I learnt my lesson. And then, again I got into another bad relationship. This happened a lot over the next few months. A lot of alcohol, smoking and ahem other things also happened. I don’t know how, but somehow I cleared my junior college. I was too messed up to study further. So I came back to the village and decided to help with the farming.”

Curiously Ashish asked “So how did you become this different person Baba?”

Ganesh chuckled. “For a long time I didn’t. I married your mother and I was the same care free idiotic person as ever. But then your sister was born. The day I held her in my arms, and looked into her eyes, I realized that I had to get my act together. I wanted to do everything I could to make sure that she always got what she needed.”

“And it was only at this point, that for the first time in my life I felt a sense of purpose. Then when I started working seriously on developing the farm, I realized that I actually enjoyed hard work. Since then I guess I never looked back.”

Ashish asked uncertainly “So what would you advice me?”

Ganesh looked at him kindly and said “Today I haven’t come here to advice you. There are just a few more things that I want you to know. Firstly I’m relieved that you are not as messed up as I was, and are a better son than I ever was to your grandfather. Secondly I want you to always remember, that no matter what happens, I’ll be there for you. I don’t care how many times you fail. Together we’ll find a way. Always.”

Ashish felt touched. “Ha Baba…” he said.

Then Ganesh said mischievously “And also very importantly, I’m leaving now to meet a few of my friends. It could involve some drinking. Your mother should not know of this.”

Ashish smiled. “She won’t.”

Ganesh tousled his son’s hair affectionately and left the canteen. Ashish walked back to the class.

The next morning Ashish woke up at 8am. He didn’t miss any lecture that day. He couldn’t explain why, but he no longer felt like taking it easy all the time any longer.