#SoCS 2021 Daily Prompt – Jan. 16th

Your prompt for #JusJoJan and Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “first thing.” Start your post with the words, “first thing” and go from there. Bonus points if you end your post with the last thing. Have fun!

‘First things first’ I tell myself as I go about my morning routine. I like to finish them before going on to do all those other things I like doing. I learnt this the hard way. Long back, many a time, I got immersed in a book and time would just fly. Cooking and all other activities took a back seat 😊. Realizing that I had very little time to cook I would prepare just rice and rasam. My husband never complained. Over the years I steadfastly stuck to ‘first things first’. Life became more organized and I could spend more time with my books.

I cannot remember a time when I have not read books. Sometimes in school and college, I read them in the classroom too. I just had to know what happened next and the class seemed an unwanted interruption. I forgot all about ‘first thing first’. I was sure the teacher never caught on to it. But she must have, who knows?  In these days of online teaching teachers are finding it very difficult to know whether students are listening or not. My son says he has to keep asking questions otherwise there is a silence at the other end. Things are different in regular classes, though there are students who like to be physically present and mentally absent from the class 😊.

I remember my mother saying she too read story books in the class room 😊. She loves reading and told me that her father used to get books for her. She remembers him getting her a collection of books dealing with different countries. Over the years she has continued reading books in English, Hindi and Kannada. She is 79 and her love for books has not diminished.

It is good to follow a routine but I do not want it to control my life. Life would become too mechanical. A few weeks ago, I finished a book in one day 😊, it had been a long time since I have done that. I remember those days when I sat through the night living in the world of imagination. But now I cannot do that. A good night’s sleep comes first. But some mornings I continue reading from where I had stopped the previous day, with a glass of hot filter coffee. A break from the routine of’ first things first ‘😊.
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