Twin thoughts…..

Having a twin is fun….It’s like having a playmate, confidante and a sibling all rolled into one. Someone who understands you exactly and can talk in the same mental language that you have. Your world is complete, you are never really lonely and you don’t have to undertake the difficult task of befriending strangers to have a friend. Now this is until, yes until you start going to a school.

Schools declare twins have to be separated and be in different sections of the same class. So yes now its time to develop individual personalities, to emerge as independent, unique individuals. So school was not fun for Tara anymore, she hated being separated from Sara, her twin sister. She hated having to be away from her for even a single second. She shrank into her own world , resisted making friends and retreated to her corner only to come alive during play time, when she got to meet Sara and play with her.

Every morning became an agony for mum and Tara, as she put up her saddest face while getting ready for school and tried to stop her tears falling fast from her eyes. Mum tried talking but all she got as a response was “i don’t have any friends’. Mum was baffled as she had a group of friends in her earlier class. But Tara was not interested in making any, her best friend was taken away from her, Mum understood that and along with her teacher tried to help her through her struggle to be on her own and be a confident, independent individual.

To this day Tara is somewhat sad and Sara has taken all this in her stride. A study in contrast.

I wonder why this decision to separate twins, especially those sets which are identical. They were born together and meant to be together. Separating them makes one feel like they have lost a limb. Its an anguish which i can only imagine! Schools teach a dozen thing but they do not teach (and i have found out!) how to be happy. Tara would be happy if Sara was around her and isn’t it true that a happy individual is a stronger one??!!

What do you think?

Tune in….

As the train chugs along i look out of the window to see a beautiful countryside. The landscape was dotted with stone cottages, rolling fields, gurgling streams, and in the horizon the blue sky dipped to touch the green grass. It was breath taking to say the least. I sat mesmerized looking at our beautiful earth, and then, and then i saw them. They were all over the hillside silently grazing on the grass or simply sitting still like a statue. It was a beautiful, sunny day and the creatures sat soaking in the warmth. I am talking here about the sheep. There were flocks of sheep all over. All lazily munching away at the sweet grass, drinking water from the gurgling stream or just sitting. It was a fantastic sight! Like they have not a care in  the world.

Then i wished for a moment, strange it may seem, i wished to be a highland sheep. I wished for timeless days in the sun, lazy hours by the stream and not a worry in my head. I wished for carefree moments and happy hours all day. Life seemed glorious as a sheep! You might smirk and smile but the sight that i saw from the train window reflected peace, calm and indolence. Sheep life in the mountains seemed great.

I was going to the mountains for a short break with my family, But the last few times we had taken a family holiday it always turned into another hectic adventure. The result was always “We needed another holiday to reduce the stress of the current holiday”. It was not only due to the fact that my children were very small but also we were ambitious and tried to pack in more than we physically could accommodate. We forgot how to relax since we became parents. Looking at the sheep on that day i realized that we need to stop and breathe and just give in. The break of 2 days that we had, was the best holiday  that  we had since our children were born. We did nothing much, just sat and relaxed by the river or simply took a walk as much as my child’s small legs would allow. We reached with no ambitions and actually surprised ourselves with how much sight seeing we actually achieved.It was great.

The sheep on the mountains that day sent me a  very valuable message “It’s sometimes good to be a sheep”. Nature sends very powerful messages all i did that day was tune in and listen. Sheep life rocks!