My good friend, Leemondee, became a father yesterday. Proud father of something pink and small, which he claims will one day transmutate into his fishing partner! When he called me yesterday with the news, the brand new father's happiness could be clearly felt, even over the static of the phone line. And why should it not be so? Even if the true colour of the happiness that he must have been feeling could only be understood by those who have been there themselves. They say it changes something in people, this miracle of birth. They say it makes you grow up irreversibly. And that is what made me a little sad.
To clarify, I could not have been more thrilled at my friend's happiness and i wish I was there, if for nothing else but simply for the pleasure of seeing him hyperventilate outside the labor room! But along with this happiness, there was also a certain sense of loss, a slight ache for something that has gone for ever.
Fact is that with the birth of Leemondee's son, all of us, the few who spent school and college together, we have become men. Most of us have gotten married these last couple of years and the rest will do so in the next couple. But in spite of this, there was a sort of sub-conscious pretence at work in all of us, which would not allow anyone to leave Neverland or to let go of the illusion that we were still young and therefore, by extension, permitted to be wild. A reflection of this was the fact that inspite of straddling three continents, all would be aware if one had had a rough time the previous night! But now, all of that may have to change. The baby, his pink softness and his inevitable demands, will ensure that. We have become fathers and it is our sons now who will have the luxury of being young.
I guess this is what they call the circle of life…round and round. Just wish the circle could have been a little bigger, with more time before the full loop is completed. Anyways, am off now. Got to go and buy a loud rattle!
To clarify, I could not have been more thrilled at my friend's happiness and i wish I was there, if for nothing else but simply for the pleasure of seeing him hyperventilate outside the labor room! But along with this happiness, there was also a certain sense of loss, a slight ache for something that has gone for ever.
Fact is that with the birth of Leemondee's son, all of us, the few who spent school and college together, we have become men. Most of us have gotten married these last couple of years and the rest will do so in the next couple. But in spite of this, there was a sort of sub-conscious pretence at work in all of us, which would not allow anyone to leave Neverland or to let go of the illusion that we were still young and therefore, by extension, permitted to be wild. A reflection of this was the fact that inspite of straddling three continents, all would be aware if one had had a rough time the previous night! But now, all of that may have to change. The baby, his pink softness and his inevitable demands, will ensure that. We have become fathers and it is our sons now who will have the luxury of being young.
I guess this is what they call the circle of life…round and round. Just wish the circle could have been a little bigger, with more time before the full loop is completed. Anyways, am off now. Got to go and buy a loud rattle!
