We wouldn’t be more than 9 and 10, me and my sister. Our dad got a call on our landline about a party. He told us to get ready, we’re going to eat out tonight. We put on our semi-fancy clothes. The place was less than 2km away from our home, called Tosha Beach. It wansn’t a beach. It was a multi-purpose venue where parties, marriages and seminars used to happen. We had been there a couple of times before for wedding functions. Few years later it closed, then reopened then closed, I don’t know the present state its in.
My dad had a navy green coloured Chetak scooter. I used to love that scooter. All 4 of us got on that scooter to the said party. I used to stand in the front, between my dad and the scooter handle. Mom used to sit in the back, and my sister dearest sandwiched between my parents. We were excited. It was a time when getting to eat outside food was a nice little thing that happened to us.
We reached there, but I couldn’t see any fancy lights, like the wedding parties usually have. No noise being made, no one to welcome us. No halogen lights and music. We went inside, and in a hall, there are many chairs and someone is talking. What kind of party is this? Then my father tried to see more closely whats going on and soon a gentleman comes to see us. My dad tells him about why he’s here. They talk. After a couple minutes we get water bottles. But I’m waiting for the cold drinks and snacks! Any minute now.
The two men talk for a few more minutes, then my dad bids his goodbye to the other man, and in an instant, we’re back on the scooter, back home. My mom is preparing dinner. We eat at home.
Turns out, it wasnt a party. It was some investment thing, some life insurance opportunity or maybe even a multi-level marketing scam. These things weren’t common back then. People used to be kind and sincere. Someone just called us up and we went to listen to them. We didn’t discuss about it, my dad didnt invest in it. And we never went to such party invitatation again.
The thing I think most about from this memory is, how happy we were. How excited. A head of the family thought I’ll show my family a good time today. The family dressed up, semi-fancy.
I’m starting to get my dad now. And I admire him and my family, more and more. "Life is the strangest teacher”, “It takes a lifetime to understand life". Things like these are at best lame and at worst thrown away by people to sound philosophical. Until they start speaking to you.