Same pinch!

As children, the idea of being similar to one another would bring us much joy. Sameness was celebrated by pinching the other and yelling, ‘Same pinch!’. The colour of your tee shirts match? Same pinch! You happened to get exactly the same marks? Same pinch? You share your birthday? Same pinch! One of your parents happen to have the same name? You hurt yourself at the same time? You brought the same food in your tiffin box? Same pinch! Same pinch! Same pinch! I remember my childhood being full of such joyous ‘same pinch’ moments.

I guess the ‘same pinch’ made us feel a strange connection with the other. I tried looking up the origin of this. What is the point in pinching somebody if you discover any kind of sameness? I don’t know. I couldn’t find much. All I know is that this idea has thrilled many children. And been the reason for many generous pinches.

I was driving to work today morning. The traffic was slow moving. As usual. The radio played some happy songs. I was listening to a particular song when I noticed the car behind me. I could see the driver through my rear view mirror. She seemed to  be listening to the same song on the radio. I could see her mouthing the lyrics, complete with hand movements. For some reason, this got me unbelievably excited. She continued to mouth the lyrics and I continued to jump in my seat! I know this isn’t supposed to be unusual, and a million other people were probably listening to the same song at that time, so I am not sure why I was that excited. Maybe because I happened to discover the song she was listening to? Had she not been singing aloud, I would never have known. And the realisation ofcourse – we were listening to the same song!

Watching her singing so heartily made me want to jump out and let her know that I was listening to the same song. I had this urge to go pinch her and scream ‘Same pinch!’. This silly little coincidence really brightened my day. I spent some time recollecting the ‘same pinch’ moments from my childhood. Your regular dose of happiness comes to you in unexpected ways.