I spent the morning on the curb wearing a jacket over my frumpy night-clothes with an infant in my arms. The mists had not yet lifted, and I yearned for the warmth of the bed. Unlike me, the infant was fully awake and extremely excited at the sight before him. He gasped in awe and chuckled with glee. We were watching the garbage truck and the driver do his duty.
My mind was pulled back 15 years when the similar thing was being done for the nephew. His ambitions wavered with time of course. But the solid one for a few years was to be a garbage truck driver. The garbage truck drivers must look grand to their little eyes: Sitting high on their seats like exalted thrones, manning the wicked machines and watch as cars steered respectfully from them.
I remembered taking the nephew on trips in India more than a decade ago. He would insist on waiting for a bus with two ladders in the back. Like fools, we would let buses go by waiting for the two-laddered ones, because he believed that those buses traveled faster.
Today is the nephew’s birthday and I watch with love and pride as he looks to enter college in the fall.
A honk pulled me back to the present. The son was beside himself with glee. The garbage truck driver was honking and waving at him before turning away from our street. My star-struck son and I came home to call and wish my nephew a happy birthday!
Life has its deja-vus.
Nourish-n-Cherish 
Oh this post is so cute!! Brings back a lot of memories !!! We used to rush to the balcony of our apartment to watch those glorious garbage trucks!!! Those drivers were true heroes!!!
I know dee…..I remember you telling me. When I asked him what he wanted to become, his eyes would light up and he would say, “kuppa lolly diver”, and I would wonder why his parents had t emigrate to give him better opportunities!
The whole morning I stood there thinking of Sid the Science Kid!