The Chair

As I sit on this chair I sense a strange relief surging through my not so weary bones. A homecoming of sorts.The fulfilment of a long sought after dream that I had seen as a child and grown up with. To own my own rocking chair. A lot of chairs came and went but the dream remained. A comfy rocker, a good book and a throw over the legs in the cold weather for the central character- an endless number of English classics mentions this scene and for a book worm what better than making reality out of those stories? Even in the smallest of the ways.

My eyes closed, I feel my back sinking even as the chair rocks me into myriad thoughts. A small prayer to God (for making this possible - lack of space/finance and a constant moving from one place to other had contributed to this being a dream till date). A big thanks to my hubby for turning dreams into reality (that what the actual life "Prince of dreams" is supposed to do instead of slaying demons and kissing damsels in distress). I open my eyes and try to focus on the book in the lap...but no the joy of having the chair is too much. I close my eyes again and travel through all those times when I had stood before a rocker admiring it, wishing so fervently that it should be mine......

Then suddenly...another chair comes in my thoughts. An ugly big wooden chair with armrests. Once upon a time when I must have been small or maybe just born it must have been a beauty....regal, almost fit for a king. It was sturdy and heavy but time had taken its toll. In the time line when it appears in my life and memory...it was no longer in active use...instead had been kept in one corner of the bedroom to be used rarely...when there were too many guests in the house all at one time, as a "ladder" when mummy needed something from the shelves high about the ground so on and so forth. I do not even remember when my love affair started with the chair. I do remember thinking that the chair was too big and ugly...3 people my size (when I was a kid - not now!!) could easily fit into it. Maybe someday when left with no other place to sit I sat on it and lost in the book...had put my feet on one of the arm rest, my back against the other armrest, my neck slightly bent on the backrest, sideways and viola that was it....It felt so comfortable and homely that it became my favourite place and position - to sit, to read, to sleep or to stare into space, to cry and to laugh. For an onlooker it must have seemed that the chair (or the huge ugly monster?) is carrying me (the princess) in its giant arms - some things are better experienced than seen.Till the time I left home....it became "my chair"...thereby reducing much of the other odd jobs that it served for. No one objected even as I painted the armrests with my ware colours or drew silly faces on to them, with my pencils. Maths calculations/rough work was often conducted there as well as was wood carving lessons in which I was the teacher and the student..both. The chair became my best friend, my closest companion bearing the brunt of all my moods without a single word. It held me sturdy...comforting me endlessly. Forever.

All good things come to an end. So did the stint with the chair. By this time it had grown really really old and was almost shaky. Even termites had started invading it. It was given away to someone who needed it much more (for sitting or for fire wood....I am not sure). I did not even get time to say goodbye to it...was away to hostel. Anger hit me when I found the chair gone on my next visit home but it seemed foolish to cry over a piece of furniture, when there were other places and chairs to sit......But then I always missed it and no home seemed complete without my big ugly chair.

Until today. I jolt back to the present and the rocker is still rocking me...a nice beautiful rocker that is going to complete this family. I smile at what the future holds....me on the rocker with popcorn watching TV, me and the yet-to-come-baby rocking to sleep as the wind howls outside, me reading aloud the same stories to my kids that once enchanted me....And then he comes and kisses me, lightly on the cheek, interrupting the sequence of the dreams. My prince o' dreams...asking me to wake up and eat the dinner before I sleep. I look at him and smile...for sometimes the reality and the present is far more beautiful than the past and the future. Oh and yes....our rabbit has already made himself at home underneath the leg rest of the rocker. Complete happiness!!