whats going on around you?

He : Wow! Look at those two people having an heated discussion. Thats the sad part of our life. We live in such a small world that we don't observe whats going on around us.

I have been trying to write about this for more than 2 months now. I just didn't know how to put my emotions and thoughts into words until He made this comment.

My daily commute used to be in a car & I used to be driving all alone. During this time, I would be completely immersed in MY world - either the traffic or music - to observe the world passing by. Even when we pool our car, we are confined within that well-defined tin box. We might be talking, but again the topics are within the individual entities - how to handle this scenario with the child, how to fix this install issue, etc. We hardly notice the bloom during the spring. That was how small the world had turned out to be for us. Then I started using public transport as well for daily commute. And during these journeys, I would have sealed my ears with headphones. This action further shrunk my world. Then one day I got an iPhone as a gift. iPhone gave me unlimited reasons to leave the headphones permanently on my ears - music, podcast, videos and what-not.

After I lost the iPhone in a freak accident, I had nothing to shut the world out of me. And, I lived like that for a couple of months. It was during this period that I started observing the world around me - friends having interesting conversations, teenage giggly girls, how the grad students accessorize themselves, stronger friend supporting the emotionally weak one, women utilizing the commute time to make garlands which they can sell when they reach their destination, students flipping through their notes on an exam day, the cool breeze on my face, the feel of those rain drops which make their way into the bus .........

When you are part of the world, its not just the good things that come by. Some experiences have disturbed me. But I am glad that I could witness it. It helped me enjoy those small things in life. Or at least, try to enjoy whats happening around me & take in the world with both its positive and negative aspects. 

Today, I have a replacement phone. But I have never ones tried to shut myself out of the world by screwing an headphone into my ears.

Picture Courtesy : blogs.wvgazette.com