My favourite hobby, you ask? Well, it’s probably hearing backstories. Whether it is that old couple I met on a train telling me how they fought the world for love some 50 years ago or that old tree they are cutting down, my first thought is, “What’s the backstory of this old pal and what about the backstories of all those squirrels and ants stealing corns and seeds?” Their backstory must be filled with thrill and adventures.
The evening my grandma died, I very shamelessly asked my father, “Papa, what was grandma like when she was young, what exactly was her ‘backstory’?” My father, half-filled with grief, half with regret, answered me with tears in his eyes, “Well you know, she was quite an ordinary woman, illiterate but very literate in the ways of the world, got married young, had kids, spent her life breaking her back, annoyed your mother a bit, he laughed, that’s it kiddo, she was an ordinary woman but quite a brave one. He left the room, probably didn’t want to cry in front of me but something he considered ordinary was quite the opposite to me. I wanted to know more, what must have been going through that little girl’s mind when she got married at the age most of us don’t even know what is going on around us.
I vaguely remember as a child, asking a homeless man why he was sleeping on a footpath instead of his home. That younger me who couldn’t even spell backstory was curious about the backstory of a homeless man.
To all the people I couldn’t directly get to know, the man missing his right arm, or that man in the hospital suffering from PTSD thinking he’s still in a war or that dead dog in the middle of the expressway, I bet they all had some crazy stories to tell.
If I had a choice of choosing any one superpower, I would definitely choose the ability to talk to animals and plants and inanimate objects. I will ask the bees about their mesmerising journey to collect honey or the gnats about their peacefully chaotic dances or the mosquitoes why they are so annoying. I would definitely ask the grass why she cushions the fall of children who run over her a thousand times, what is her motivation, what is the backstory?
For a very long time, I lived with a misconception that I have a useless hobby but now when I think about it, those faces glowing up with smiles talking about their pasts, collecting backstories do not seem so useless after all. My parents often say, “Don’t make the same mistakes that we did” and maybe that’s it, maybe that’s the point to my hobby, making mistakes and learning from them. At last, that is the most human part of our existence, we fall, we learn, we stand back up again and help other fallen ones.
Every day I wake up with the motivation of listening to all the backstories I can and every night I sleep with the hope that I have a good one when it’s my time to share.
piyush344662019@gmail.com
