The tempest of life

It was more than 25 years ago that I inherited the old clock, which tick-tocked at my grandmother's home in Sengottai. The clock with its loud chimes at the hour and one strike at the 30-minute mark kept time for my grandmother and her neighbors too, especially in the still of the night when there was no other sound on the street and when most people slept with only the grill-doors locked in order to ventilate their homes.

We children were under strict orders not to go anywhere near the clock, nor play in the room where it hung.  Winding the springs was the responsibility of designated elders and not child's play.  We were children of the old days, and we obediently followed the elders' instructions.

They took such good care that I can always sense a little bit of pressure on me not to mess things up.  It is almost as if the entire Sengottai life and family stories are contained in that wall clock.

In California and here in Oregon, I made sure to find an appropriate place for the wall clock.  Every few days, I wind up the springs--one for the pendulum and the other for the gong.  Every couple of years, I spray WD-40 into the springs, though that was not done in Sengottai.  I am convinced that just like how butter makes everything taste better, WD-40 improves all mechanical movements.  Life is good, as long as one doesn't mix up where to apply butter and WD-40.

When talking with my parents, they sometimes hear the clock chiming the hour and boy are they happy that the clock continues to work well.  I imagine that they also implicitly understand that I am far removed from the old country, physically and culturally, but that I have not forgotten my roots in the villages deep south in peninsular India.

 

Winding up the springs is all I need to do if I the chiming is a tad strained.  To re-energize the clock is that simple.  As Mr. Vasudevan taught us back in Neyveli, the stored energy in the springs is released for the kinetic pendulum swings and the chime.

What will help me tick-tock and chime so that I don't become stuck like an over-wound spring, now that I am in premature retirement?  

Of course, I never wanted to be the old fart who wanders around at work bugging people, who think to themselves, "when is this guy going to ever retire?"  It has also been important to me to step aside and yield to younger folk waiting for their opportunities, instead of contributing to the tyranny of the old. 

However, I hadn't planned on retiring this young either!  

There is no easy way to tick-tock myself into the unscripted post-employment  morning to which I wake up to every day!  But then there is always Shakespeare from whom I can draw strength.  "Now my charms are all o’erthrown, And what strength I have’s mine own" to borrow from Prospero's soliloquy at the end of The Tempest.

"What strength I have’s mine own."  For all I know, there are motivational apps urging users to look at themselves in the mirror every morning and chant over and over again, "what strength I have’s mine own."

Tick-tock!