Don’t stand by the window!!

Nearly thirty five years have gone by since I last heard this admonishment. My conservative and protective mother feared that if her growing daughter were to be seen standing by the window, she would somehow emit wrong signals. Young Indian girls were expected to be shy, coy, and reticent.

I did not know nor realize then that the forbidden domain of ‘window’ would one day assume a different meaning altogether and would change the vision I had of the world around me.

Much less did my mother know that Windows would one day become the very tool through which the entire world came to visit her daughter.

Surely, looking through Windows has become a whole new way of life. The youth of course is very matter of fact about the magic of Windows, because they woke up to the click of the mouse and to the blink of the screen.

Others grew up to it as a tool to efficacy and a bow to technology. I am sure there are many like me who gasp and choke in awe.

I am amazed at the connectivity that this electrifying wonder has provided us with. Earlier it was said, ’so near yet so far’. Thanks to the Internet, today we can say, ’so far yet so near’. I have been absolutely dumbfounded at the death of distance and the clebration that it calls for.

Today I can afford to smile wryly at the norms of decorum and propriety which were designed to keep the world on the other side of the Window away from me.

When I look through Windows today I see thousands of faces peering back at me through similar Windows. All of them are like mirrors. I see reflected in them my dreams, my half written stories, my unfinished poems, my hopes and my fears. I see the faces dissolve into a consistent psychedelic pattern and my eyes span the horizon and drink in a view from the Window which is ever so beautiful and ever so meaningful.

Forgive me Mom, I love you so much, I am your ever obedient daughter, but just this once, can I breathe in the fresh air as I stand by the Window?

Uma V Nagpal

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