I had it right there, pasted on the wall, the family tree. All people, just people, like all other people in the world, what is the big deal about this family tree? They are long gone and mostly forgotten. What is the significance of them? I had the family tree there on the wall, just to help me find these answers. I was not sure how they mattered. Those people were responsible for bringing me in my present form... or were they? If my great-great-great-grand parents never married, wouldn't I have a shot at being born?
And then I came back to the same question. Did all this really matter? And there were blank spots in my family tree. Some forgotten uncle or aunt. They must have been in the crime or maybe they killed themselves over lost love, or they just ran away too tired of the family tree. And now they were free of the family, because no one counted them in the family! how did that add up?
If those uncles and aunts who are excluded from the family tree, had kids, were they also aware of their family tree? And how would I relate to them? Were they also important to me? I did not know for sure. But every morning, evening and night, the family tree stared back at me mockingly and teased me.
It is the blank spots that mattered the most. If they are so important and if they are my family, don't they also impact me? Or is it that by rubbing their names off from the family tree, their impact on the future generations was wiped out. Then there is a point in wiping their names and memories out. I realised I was looking forward to be forgotten rather than being the cause of someone else's misery many hundred years later, many generations down the line. And then there was a wicked thrill in knowing that I could influence posterity. Not everyone with this wisdom is capable of doing great things to make their future generations proud of them, most of them suffice with the wicked thrill of ruining unknown lives by living irresponsibly, it gives them a kick.
I was one of those less gifted kind. It had to be one way or the there for me, forgotten or uglifyingt the family tree. So I decided I would not waste my time trying to remain in the family tree. Who cares for it anyway. Once I was gone would I really care?
And yet every-time I looked at the family tree, I knew I was on to something. The other day I saw a fly sitting on the family tree and I swatted it right there, and now it is part of my family tree too. That was a moment of epiphany. I reasoned that, if rubbing off names from the tree took care of the bad deeds of those disagreeable family members, adding names just randomly, would make some other more agreeable people related to my family, just the same. Because who really goes back to check the lineage.
And so this is what I did, I painted up some of the less likeable names from the tree and put in likeable ones there, making sure of conforming to the era of the persons life. Not that even that mattered, but I wanted to be meticulous in this game. And so my grandpa's brother was replaced with Rock Hudson. My grandma got a distant cousin named Audrey Hepburn. My dad became distantly related to Amitabh Bachchan and I got Keanu Reaves as my far removed cousin. At the end of the exercise, I began to fantasize putting Einstein and Subhash Chandra Bose also in the lineage. And also why leave Sachin Tendulkar and of course Marie Curie? But at the moment I was glad I had implemented my idea into three generations of my family and I felt much happier now. I just removed the fly from there. It was bothering me to see it next to Audrey.
Now every time I look at the family tree I look at it with a smile. Family is one that brings a smile on your face. And this one really really does!
And then I came back to the same question. Did all this really matter? And there were blank spots in my family tree. Some forgotten uncle or aunt. They must have been in the crime or maybe they killed themselves over lost love, or they just ran away too tired of the family tree. And now they were free of the family, because no one counted them in the family! how did that add up?
If those uncles and aunts who are excluded from the family tree, had kids, were they also aware of their family tree? And how would I relate to them? Were they also important to me? I did not know for sure. But every morning, evening and night, the family tree stared back at me mockingly and teased me.
It is the blank spots that mattered the most. If they are so important and if they are my family, don't they also impact me? Or is it that by rubbing their names off from the family tree, their impact on the future generations was wiped out. Then there is a point in wiping their names and memories out. I realised I was looking forward to be forgotten rather than being the cause of someone else's misery many hundred years later, many generations down the line. And then there was a wicked thrill in knowing that I could influence posterity. Not everyone with this wisdom is capable of doing great things to make their future generations proud of them, most of them suffice with the wicked thrill of ruining unknown lives by living irresponsibly, it gives them a kick.
I was one of those less gifted kind. It had to be one way or the there for me, forgotten or uglifyingt the family tree. So I decided I would not waste my time trying to remain in the family tree. Who cares for it anyway. Once I was gone would I really care?
And yet every-time I looked at the family tree, I knew I was on to something. The other day I saw a fly sitting on the family tree and I swatted it right there, and now it is part of my family tree too. That was a moment of epiphany. I reasoned that, if rubbing off names from the tree took care of the bad deeds of those disagreeable family members, adding names just randomly, would make some other more agreeable people related to my family, just the same. Because who really goes back to check the lineage.
And so this is what I did, I painted up some of the less likeable names from the tree and put in likeable ones there, making sure of conforming to the era of the persons life. Not that even that mattered, but I wanted to be meticulous in this game. And so my grandpa's brother was replaced with Rock Hudson. My grandma got a distant cousin named Audrey Hepburn. My dad became distantly related to Amitabh Bachchan and I got Keanu Reaves as my far removed cousin. At the end of the exercise, I began to fantasize putting Einstein and Subhash Chandra Bose also in the lineage. And also why leave Sachin Tendulkar and of course Marie Curie? But at the moment I was glad I had implemented my idea into three generations of my family and I felt much happier now. I just removed the fly from there. It was bothering me to see it next to Audrey.
Now every time I look at the family tree I look at it with a smile. Family is one that brings a smile on your face. And this one really really does!
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