So Long Pluto!

Last morning we went to the beach to watch the sunrise. We fought through 30 minutes of thick traffic at 5:30 in the morning and reached the beach just in time to catch the big ball rise in brilliance. It was a serene moment. We were wordless for a while squinting at the red ball watching it turn bright orange; listening to the waves while traditional fishing nets were folded up against the shore; their morning tasks completed. We often take pleasures such as having the shoreline so close to us for granted, because we were raised right here. But for those few desi North-Indian couples basking in the morning warm waters; it was their only chance to enjoy the Indian Ocean.

I couldn't help but imagine what lay beyond the big blue vastness. I've always been intrigued with the earth and space; Nasa's newest discoveries, and of course the newest "space elevator". It was then that I realised how my husband and I come from such simpler times. We come from a time when

• We would wait for that one Saturday a month when our fathers would promise to take us to the much awaited exhibition and later to the beach for the evening.
• A single stick of ice cream (not playstations) was the blackmail for better marks in class tests.
• Tuitions weren't the order of the day.
• The moon and stars were both the same distance from Earth (or so we were told, until science proved otherwise)
• We could spend the whole of our childhood and teen life without ever having to use the mobile phone once.
• We could buy our whole year's stationary in under 200 bucks.
• We could appreciate pop music without having to deal with the likes of Miley Cyrus or Justin Bieber.
• We were taught that Pluto is still considered the 9th planet of our milky way!

Reality hits us hard when we know that we are all too consumed with our racing lives that we barely have time to stop and watch the waves of time racing past us. All we hear is the whoosing sound it makes when it's already too late.