Those small things you forget
I remember the details.
I remember how I was taught to brush,
my aunt is a dentist and she would say it every day, "not more than a pea-sized toothpaste else you will get a stomach ache."
Yet I would use thrice the pea-sized toothpaste.
When I look back now, I realize
I liked knowing what would happen when I did something I was not expected to.
I remember the details.
Some day, a bad day when my grandfather was admitted to the hospital,
And we were on our way to visit him, my mother almost got hit by a blue Volvo bus.
Thank the almighty she didn't.
And that scene is still so vivid in my head.
Looking back I understand that life can be granted or taken away in a split second.
I remember the details.
I remember the first time my sister gifted me an ornated loop earring, black metal only because it's my favourite.
She bought that with her little savings, the money she had saved every day over three months.
She always teaches me how to live life, one day at a time.
I remember the details.
I remember how I was bullied for being dark, shamed for being the colour of the night.
I was called the coke when my friends played french fries and hot chips.
Being racially abashed taught me to love.
Embracing every single shade of colour there is in this universe.
I remember the details.
That day when an old friend called me, precisely after two and a half years, just to talk; simply because she loves the way I listen.
And since then I listen with even more concern, trying to make my people feel at home.
I remember the details.
And that day, on my 18th birthday; when a recently made friend remembered every little detail I'd told about myself, I absolutely lost it.
And the fact that he wrote a letter to a writer, makes it more brave than beautiful.
You know the subtle details that people neglect;
Pixie cuts, awkward smiles, jokes that crack you up so bad that you will almost pee, the blue-haired girl in the metro, pink skies, boxer shorts, jute bags, white sheets, coloured pens, stars, nose rings and that solid sound when somebody cracks a bone.
These are all the things that make me smile.
See, you saw how I remember the details
BUT I fail to look at the bigger picture.
I fail to see the consequences.
I fail to see how my words might affect the other.
I fail to see when classmates are being excluded.
I fail miserably, all the time.
I'm sorry if I've hurt you anytime.
But in my world its always been this way; either this or that.
Swaying from one extreme to another.
And maybe
I notice the details because I am a detail myself.
A small silver dot in this crowded universe,
A nuisance,
A delight,
A sting,
A smile.
A girl made of those small things you forget.
A soul hugging one word at a time.
Vajj©
Amazing dude
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