Of Avvaiyar, Comics and life
There is a song by Avvaiyar, which talks about how events/duties if not performed at the right time, even if they were carried out at a later point of time, serves no purpose or they are as good as bad!! Though I couldn’t recollect verbatim, the essence of the lines were more about late marriage and its fallout. When I received my comics bundle few weeks back, it was the exact same feeling that I experienced. I finally did manage to get hold of the entire lot of reprinted editions of Irumbukkai maayavi (steel claw) comics, courtesy lion/muthu comics online site. It was a dream come true, 2 decades late to say the least.
It was a long pending childhood desire, that had burned to its embers, which got reignited after seeing a post on FB by one of my friends, who had proclaimed his joy on buying the lot. I immediately rushed to the site only to find the books out of stock. Tried again after a few days and this time the payment gateway didn’t open. Finally after several unsuccessful attempts, managed to make the payment and this time, the transaction ID didn’t generated and I had no way to track the shipment. I had almost given up on the books and was about to send a stinker to the site maintenance team when the courier arrived. Never have I opened a parcel so fast and when I finally had the books on hand, the feel was impossible to explain. Inflation had increased the rates by 200% in 2 decades. That was the first thing that stuck as the very reason why I couldn’t buy those books during my school days were that they were way too costly at that time. And I usually finish those 100 pages in under half hour and will pester my mom to buy me more. The libraries always had the same set of comics and rarely replenished them. In fact, I had the read the same comics, so many number of times that, after almost 20 years, I was still able to recollect those stories. I managed to finish all the 8 books in probably 2 hours’ time. Some of the stories, that I had read previously, those memories came rushing back. The way I used to read through the stapled pages, from nearby potti kadai without removing the stapler and unknown to the owner and how every time I went to that shop, irrespective of what I was sent to buy, the way I used to scan through every comics clipped to the cloth line. After a while, the owner decided to clip the books along with their plastic cover to avoid me reading through the stapler is a different story altogether J
The thrill with which I used to anticipate a Diwali release of my favorite comics hero and the eagerness with which I used to rush through the book the first time to see how the story ends and the amazement with which I used to wonder at the inventions and machines with which the villains wreaked havoc on world and how cleverly the hero saved them, was all, somehow dampened if not were missing. Not because of that having grown up or becoming old thing, though they could be a part of the reason. But the ease with which I bought the books, despite the high cost, somehow caused a pang on my conscious. It was not that my parents couldn’t get me those comics but they wanted the money to be spent on essentials and priorities. Am I setting the right example for my kid, by rushing headlong into things like this, just for the sake of satisfaction, which also wasn’t complete? May be not all yearnings, mean the same after all those years of waiting. When they are finally realized, at times, it really makes one wonder, would it have felt the same, had it been the case a few years back. What I thought would bring me joy, has only raised more questions and have added few more pieces to this ever increasing jig saw puzzle called life.
Unlike investments, life doesn’t get interest(ing) on maturity I guess.
It was a long pending childhood desire, that had burned to its embers, which got reignited after seeing a post on FB by one of my friends, who had proclaimed his joy on buying the lot. I immediately rushed to the site only to find the books out of stock. Tried again after a few days and this time the payment gateway didn’t open. Finally after several unsuccessful attempts, managed to make the payment and this time, the transaction ID didn’t generated and I had no way to track the shipment. I had almost given up on the books and was about to send a stinker to the site maintenance team when the courier arrived. Never have I opened a parcel so fast and when I finally had the books on hand, the feel was impossible to explain. Inflation had increased the rates by 200% in 2 decades. That was the first thing that stuck as the very reason why I couldn’t buy those books during my school days were that they were way too costly at that time. And I usually finish those 100 pages in under half hour and will pester my mom to buy me more. The libraries always had the same set of comics and rarely replenished them. In fact, I had the read the same comics, so many number of times that, after almost 20 years, I was still able to recollect those stories. I managed to finish all the 8 books in probably 2 hours’ time. Some of the stories, that I had read previously, those memories came rushing back. The way I used to read through the stapled pages, from nearby potti kadai without removing the stapler and unknown to the owner and how every time I went to that shop, irrespective of what I was sent to buy, the way I used to scan through every comics clipped to the cloth line. After a while, the owner decided to clip the books along with their plastic cover to avoid me reading through the stapler is a different story altogether J
The thrill with which I used to anticipate a Diwali release of my favorite comics hero and the eagerness with which I used to rush through the book the first time to see how the story ends and the amazement with which I used to wonder at the inventions and machines with which the villains wreaked havoc on world and how cleverly the hero saved them, was all, somehow dampened if not were missing. Not because of that having grown up or becoming old thing, though they could be a part of the reason. But the ease with which I bought the books, despite the high cost, somehow caused a pang on my conscious. It was not that my parents couldn’t get me those comics but they wanted the money to be spent on essentials and priorities. Am I setting the right example for my kid, by rushing headlong into things like this, just for the sake of satisfaction, which also wasn’t complete? May be not all yearnings, mean the same after all those years of waiting. When they are finally realized, at times, it really makes one wonder, would it have felt the same, had it been the case a few years back. What I thought would bring me joy, has only raised more questions and have added few more pieces to this ever increasing jig saw puzzle called life.
Unlike investments, life doesn’t get interest(ing) on maturity I guess.
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