When we came to USA in 1990 and reached TX in 1991, after a
10 day warm welcome by my brother Vijay and sister in law Gretchen and their
two beautiful cats, a golden Tabby and a White darlings, for Christmas during
1990, it was so beautiful, going to the park hill, some old classic homes that
stood test of time over 200 years and kept alive to show the world how it was
back then, we were back on earth at College Station and the reality dawned
after a few days or weeks with Anirudh having culture shock to use the western water closet and it was not understood why for two weeks to come he had to withhold
bowel movement.. he was hardly 4 years old.
On Jan 2, 1991, he said first thing in the morning, "ee chali deshaniki naanna endukanna vachcharo emo" (Wonder why has my father come to this very, cold country..)
Fortunately, with lot
of medical bills aside the insurance and worry, he was slowly back to normalcy
as he began schooling in Head start at South Knoll school, and got
fantastically adjusted. He was up, energetic, enjoyed the buckets of new Lego
toys Vijay mama and Srinivas uncle gave and used to construct rockets, break
them and remake them, everyday. He would first make airplanes with legos, and
hundreds of them draw them on papers with crayons of all colors, 48 or 64 of
them Vijay mamayya got for him. Vijay anna, bought not only
those, he also bought Microwave, dinner set, silverware, making sure we got the basic home set up, from service merchandise. As for some basic groceries, we bought on our way
from Houston to College Station stopping to shopping at Houston, that was only
possible when we could get a ride from Shravan mama. (my cousin)
I had difficulty in adjusting to stay 24/7 home while Balu
was at school, however come Summer, I was enrolled in one basic course in
Sociology, just so I could maintain my student medical/health insurance.
Fact to remember was, how the airplanes turned to rockets as
our stay progressed and watching News over TV brought about knowledge of Space
ships, which Sriram also used to draw as a kid. both boys would spend hours in
constructing planes, rockets and break them again, and remake painstakingly and
not caring even if they worked almost until the end of the day, as the Lego
pieces got tinier and their fine motor skills improved. And in 2003, they had
their first Nintendo, that was returned and PlayStation was bought from Xmas
bonus from 2002. was it 1997? not sure. Yes, we were in Houston by that time,
dad graduated with his PhD in one hand, holding two year old Sriram in the
other who pulled his cap away! They said, “you guys at that time were the
youngest ever Aggies in the campus!” While back in Sugarland both of you going
to Colony Meadows and First Colony MS back then... I tried to do
substituting...
There is a reason I
was recollecting this: as I was reading about a study on progress, the author
watches his young grandson(?) Nathaniel, play Legos, as he was constructing rockets and space
ships, making and remaking even better ones as he went on reshuffling the Lego
pieces in a better way. He finds it interesting and intriguing and wants to find,
what was the motivating factor, for the boy to repeat doing that. One of the
boys, Caleb, in a different study was struggling hard to touch the ceiling with his balloon, and keeps falling down as he moves from a chair or table or bed
as his launch area, so that he could send his balloon to touch the ceiling
above. If he did not succeed, he would try over and over.
Remembered the poem, Try, Try Again, that we read as grade
school students in 6th grade or so..
No matter how old you may be, your dreams are the motivating
factors, so dream big!
What was the factor, that motivated that boy, even when it
was not possible to reach his imagination, and did not let him settle to meager
ones, as he tried over and over to rebuilt a better rocket?
Is that what creates and makes progress possible… I wonder,
as I sip my morning coffee..
