Welcome to the 21st century and the life it has to offer for different age group people. We all are now in the fast paced, modern, independent, technically unbeatable world. We are busy enough to skip our lunch, fast enough not to miss our deadlines. This is the life of all working men and women now, with seat belts tightened through out. Students, competing with us, working hard to reach their goals, fulfill their dreams, plan their careers, are running faster than us chasing their own targets. Senior citizens are spending their last days seeing their children and grand children running in the race of life. 

These are not the only phases of life. There is another phase in between these transitions, which my parents are facing. I do not know how to name this phase of life. Let me introduce my family to you first. We are four of us in my family, head of the family my father, a doctor working for the govt of India, my mother, a housewife, my elder brother working as a no-points-for-guessing software engineer and me again joining the crowd another software engineer. My brother and me work for different MNCs and dwell in two different cities. My father is still in my hometown (working).  Until me and my brother were students all four of us used to stay together, our life was very much attached to each other. All of us are emotionally bonded, this fast and furious life also seemed pleasant and welcoming for us all the time.

Life now has changed its plates for us. Me and my brother are molded in the IT professionals roles. But what about my parents? Is it the same?

My father says, “I do not want to go to my clinic as I do not know what to do with the extra money earned (which was for our engineering fees), I do not need to worry about picking you up from your bus stop when you are coming late home, I do not have to rush to market for getting chicken on Sunday mornings, I do not have to plan my leaves to take my children on  a holiday trip.”

My mother says, “ I need not wake up early morning to wake you up so that you so not miss your 6.15 am bus, I need not bother to prepare 3 different favorites for 3 of my family members,  I do not know how to engage myself when all of a sudden I have world's all the free time with me.” 

Yes all these small small things count. What life my parents are leading, I am sure many other parents are on the same boat. From the same jet life speed like ours, their life has come down so slow that they think a day now is more than 24 hours. When I was with them I had never realized this sort of a stage can also come in their life. It is nothing wrong, nothing unusual or out of track, but until you go through you never realize how this stage is. It took time for me to understand them. In the beginning , i used to be quite busy adopting my new life, but my mother was waiting for my call entire day. She was  anxious and concerned as well as eager to know how my new life was. For her it is just me but for me i had so many things to handle. I couldn't realize her pain and used to fight with her saying I can't call you twice a day always. Sometimes used to be rude as well. Then for the first time when I went back on leave, I saw their enthusiasm less, spice less slow lives and understood why I should call at least twice a day to my parents. I realized all they want is just to talk to us for some time, make sure that we are doing fine.

Now I raise a question, how many of us have realized it? Do we understand their situation? Only valuing our parents is not enough, we must make sure in this race of life we don't leave them and run ahead. It's my humble request to all my readers, understand what our parents are going through now. Make them feel they are not left behind. Call them up. Share with them everything you feel like. Ask them how they are spending their time. Do everything that we should.

May sound filmy but heartily speaking “kal ho na ho"