We all are aware of Google advertisements which are claimed to be context specific and content sensitive. This prompts the users to click on advertisements and thereby generating revenues for the site and Google.
Yesterday I wrote a letter (email of course) full of love to my girlfriend using gmail and got stunned after seeing the advertisements on the page.
Why Mommy is a democrat
The book George Bush doesn’t want your kids to read!
Gosh! This is a love letter before marriage. Where do the kids come from? I do not have any, need to ask her seriously this time if she has another affair and having kids. Google might be right. And also, who writes love letter to his wife? Do I look like a fool who would write a letter to my child’s Mom. And Mommy is neither a democrat nor republic we live in India fool. Did not you realize that?
Relationships
Predict the exact name of who you should have a relationship with
I already have the time of life with the girl I am writing to. Why would I repeat the same mistake again by predicting somebody else’s name? No more relationships as I had enough of it. If I were to predict something I would like to predict about good things.
Surrogacy Agency
Become a surrogate mother. Very generous compensation.
Mother f****r!! Why do not you ask your girlfriend to do this and give your compensation to her? God, is there any thing else to show me? No where in the article did I write about our kids (obviously would be) but still Google could predict my girlfriend would like to do this a hobby. Context Aware Advertisements, Huh!!!
The Money Savvy Pig
The piggy bank for the 21st century
This sounds bit logical but Yuk what a disgusting name for a bank. Yes, my bank is for the 16th century. You are the one. You are the one I was looking for just get your name right Mr. Pig. Is it a bank or some cheap commerce of thugs to loot our earnings?
Kid Allowance Contract
Parenting Help – Allowances system for children ages 6-18
This is too much of pressure now to have kids. I should ask my girlfriend to think about it seriously now. It is not only us but it is Google also who wants it. And Google also has a plan for allowancing till they are eighteen. I am amazed by the foresightedness and insight they have shown for my kids and my family. Thank you Google.
Chocolate Nursing Mother
Mother and child in fine chocolate. Goddesses sculptures in chocolate.
Now who needs it in India? I don’t have any child to gift him his sculpture in chocolate and feel elated about being the best father in the world. Even if I get it done for my girlfriend who is still not a mother (as far as I know her) and take that sculpture to India what is the guarantee that it wont melt and not got licked by a street dog? No this wont work for me.
Fire Your Boss
Own a dry cleaning bus. Name brand! Turnkey low $. No experience need – we train
I am fortunate that my boss does not read my blogs otherwise I would no longer be working as he would have fired me after reading this. This is the height of stupid advertisements one could bear. This is bizarre, this is inhuman, this is insane, and this is crazy. I don’t want to become a driver and don’t want to leave my white collar job. Is it clear to folks at Google?
And if that was not enough Google had more links for me to dig in:
Child Parents>>
Overweight Children>>
Marriage>>
Parenting Children>>
I never knew that writing an email to a girl friend invokes such a complicated program in Google’s server that it goes beyond the realm of context and starts pushing the boundaries where the future crushes the common sense and makes logical things look funny and stupid. And at Google they still say: “AdWords ads that are relevant to site content pages.”
Somebody please tell them.
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Pancakes with Sauce – Yuk!!!
My housemate Benai, one day during a causal chat revealed a surreal secret. She told me about Krishna my other housemate having a habit of eating pancakes with sauce. She was appalled by the awful act and wanted to validate from me whether it was a common practice in India? How someone could generalize somebody’s specific behavior and presume it as a nation wide phenomenon without any logical justifications and background. I found it bizarre and could not digest the story. “Why would someone do that?” was my reaction.
I closed my eyes and start contemplating the whole scenario. Bingo!!! Finally I got it right when a look through hole was formed in my gray matter because of the continuous stabbing of this off-the-wall thought. Yes it was not pan-cakes that he was eating with sauce but an Indian snack called Dosa.
I breathed a heavy sigh of relief after saving the nation and smiled to myself. Cultural differences huh!!!
I closed my eyes and start contemplating the whole scenario. Bingo!!! Finally I got it right when a look through hole was formed in my gray matter because of the continuous stabbing of this off-the-wall thought. Yes it was not pan-cakes that he was eating with sauce but an Indian snack called Dosa.
I breathed a heavy sigh of relief after saving the nation and smiled to myself. Cultural differences huh!!!
Sunday, November 26, 2006
US Trip Part – III (The Hospital Ordeal in US)
Never in my life had I felt so pampered and important. Even my parents, friends, and girlfriend did not ever pay that much attention to me that I got on that fatal day of Nov 02, 2006. And the place where it happened was even more bizarre and would sound ridiculous if it was at Mount Auburn Hospital, Emergency Department, Boston.
I was not feeling well when I arrived from India. Fever, cold, and cough had grappled me and were not leaving me for long, despite of persistent medication which I took off the shelve. My condition was deteriorating day after day and I realized that it was high time to visit a doctor. No big deal. I have done it many a times in India when I visited doctors with the same symptoms - they listen to my story, and ultimately give me a dose of antibiotics - and got treated. That was my Indian experience of getting cured for the cold.
Welcome to US. I did not have a “primary doctor” and my condition was severe (just cold and fever) to take an appointment and visit a doctor the next day. I wanted the treatment to happen on the same day. I told my colleague and he helped me by taking me to the hospital in his car. Since there was no primary doctor for me and I did not have an appointment either, I had to enter the hospital through the emergency department.
My lifetime experience had started. At the counter I was asked my name, age, and the reason for the visit and the receptionist asked me to sit and wait on the sofas lying in the lobby. I thought I would soon see a doctor. Two minutes later a cute nurse of Japanese origin arrived and took me in a room. She introduced herself as my nurse and asked me whether I was on any medication, did or do drugs, had an allergy, etc. She examined my pulse, heart-beat, breath pattern, etc. using stethoscope and also noted the temperature with the thermometer. She asked me the type of medicines I was taking for the cold and finally asked me to proceed to the next adjacent room.
I entered into a small room with a computer and files all around. What kind of doctor is this? Entered another girl who started asking questions about my demographics. She asked about my address, origin, religion, insurance cover, etc. I don’t know how your religion or ethnicity affects your medication. She asked my phone number and since I did not remember mine I took out my new Sony 990i. “Oh, you have a nice mobile. Does it have a camera?” she said. Phew!!! Here I am dying with my condition and she is looking at my mobile! She printed a bar code on a wearable tag and put the tag on my wrist. Later I realized that the room was in fact like my office's HR office and she was working perhaps as a hospital HR. Thirty minutes are already over, however, the funny thing is that the doctor is still not in the picture.
I was again asked to sit in the lobby. A lady in her 40s entered and asked me to come inside. I walked in a small room with computers, probes, sensors, and machines. Looked more like a star-trek set than the hospital room. I felt happy that finally the doctor has called me for the check-up. But the ambience of the room was too much overwhelming and scary. I was in my thoughts contemplating about the room when the doctor asked me to remove my clothes. What??? Naked, in front of a lady doctor? I felt shivers in my body for the thought of being naked in front of an unknown woman, that too not for sex but cure. Soon she ended my worries by allowing me to leave the underwear and pointed me to the apron on the bed and asked to put it on. She knew I felt uncomfortable with all this, so she mitigated my fears by leaving me alone in the room. The apron or the robe was difficult to wear and I was feeling sick from the core of my heart after wearing that. It reminded me of the dresses in lunatic asylums in Hollywood movies. It also reminded me of intricate and difficult medical surgeries that I had seen on Discovery channel. My body went cold and wan as the thought of operations and surgeries passed by my thought window. The doctor came back and asked me to lie down on bed. Then she used her stethoscope and probes to check my pulse rate, heartbeat, and oxygen level in my blood. Gosh! never in my life I thought cold was such a dreadful disease. She asked me the same set of questions about my symptoms and disease which had already been asked many a times. From the drawer on the right she pulled out a file and handed me few papers to sign on. Yes, it was a consent form which would allow the hospital to walk free if I died during the procedure. Now I was almost terrified. Were they going to do a heart surgery for cold? May be US had a permanent solution for the cold by cutting off one of the valves in your heart. Who knows how would they save the earth this time? I was helpless and had no choice but to sign it and agree and abide to all the rules and regulations pertaining to the document. I signed it and passed to her.
“I will send you the doctor very soon?” She said.
The words lingered in my ears and resonated loud enough to shake my body. The doctor was still not in the picture. She left me alone in that research lab and I waited for the doctor to come. In the gallery I heard two nurses bitching about their boyfriends- one suggesting the other to not to go for divorce but to wait for some more time. God! Who cares for the patients? Boyfriends are more important anyways. I waited impatiently for the doctor but I was visited by a man and a woman who did not look like doctors at all. They told me that I would be X – Rayed and took me on the stretcher to the X-Ray room. I felt so embarrassed lying on the stretcher when the people sitting in the lobby gave me their weird looks as I passed the lobby next to the X – Ray room. The nurses only helped me to make me more embarrassed by asking if I could stand on my feet for the X – Ray. "What the hell?", I thought. I had cold not cancer. I told them that I had enough strength to stand on my feet. The female nurse came and asked me to open my chest and before I realized she had put two tiny sticky metallic discs (as small as the heads of smallest pins) on my tits. They shot the rays twice for my X – Rays. I did not know what the function of those metallic discs was but I felt the cold on my tits when she put it for the first time. I again lay on the stretcher and was sent back to my room.
After five minutes came the real doctor. PINA PATEL was my doctor in the hospital. "Indian doctors here also?", I thought. She must not be more than thirty - dusky but good looking, confident and professional. To my agony she again asked the same set of questions to enquire about the disease but her first question was very weird though.
Why are you here today Mr. Verma? She asked.
May be I was bored of going to pubs, discs, clubs, parks, etc. and decided to try hospital this time. What a stupid question one might ask from a patient in the hospital. I forgave her for her silly mistake as she was a gujju. She told me that I was perfectly fine and should continue the same medicine. If I had to hear this after two hours of tests why the hell did I go there? I insisted on antibiotics as my throat was paining. She cold heartedly declined to my request without showing any sympathy. In fact she proposed one more test for the throat and another examination by her colleague.
After fifteen minutes I saw another lady doctor raising the curtains from side and entering my room. She was white and again the same age as Pina. She repeated the Pina’s story with no additional changes and left my room.
Another ten minutes break and then came a lady to take throat swab. I didn’t understand there policy of giving 10-15 breaks in between the visits of these people. Were the breaks intentional to allow the patient to make few last calls to their relatives and pray to god or to plan an escape from the hospital. God knows the truth. She had a long peg with cotton on one end and she inserted it deep in my throat. I almost was on the verge of throwing up on her but her dress was pretty so I restrained myself.
This time the break went for thirty minutes but there was enough space between the curtain joints to allow the light signals from the lobby to enter my eyes. There was a beautiful blonde nurse who knew I was there on the bed but still was on the phone for all the time. It seems as if she worked for the call center rather than the hospital. She would steal glances at me and I did the same to tell her that I was not really happy hearing her voice since last three hours but I was completely ignored and she kept gabbling ceaselessly.
Pina came back again after thirty minutes and finally told me that my throat tests were negative and there was no bacterial growth, which meant that the time had come to leave the hospital. The nurse came in again and asked me to sign me on the discharge papers. I got the shock of my life when I figured out that I was actually admitted in the hospital for four hours. She offered me her good wishes and asked me to meet the receptionist in the lobby. There was no fees, no charges, nothing to do in the lobby and we headed to home. I was elated by the fact that no major surgery was performed on me and I was still in single piece without stitches.
I was not feeling well when I arrived from India. Fever, cold, and cough had grappled me and were not leaving me for long, despite of persistent medication which I took off the shelve. My condition was deteriorating day after day and I realized that it was high time to visit a doctor. No big deal. I have done it many a times in India when I visited doctors with the same symptoms - they listen to my story, and ultimately give me a dose of antibiotics - and got treated. That was my Indian experience of getting cured for the cold.
Welcome to US. I did not have a “primary doctor” and my condition was severe (just cold and fever) to take an appointment and visit a doctor the next day. I wanted the treatment to happen on the same day. I told my colleague and he helped me by taking me to the hospital in his car. Since there was no primary doctor for me and I did not have an appointment either, I had to enter the hospital through the emergency department.
My lifetime experience had started. At the counter I was asked my name, age, and the reason for the visit and the receptionist asked me to sit and wait on the sofas lying in the lobby. I thought I would soon see a doctor. Two minutes later a cute nurse of Japanese origin arrived and took me in a room. She introduced herself as my nurse and asked me whether I was on any medication, did or do drugs, had an allergy, etc. She examined my pulse, heart-beat, breath pattern, etc. using stethoscope and also noted the temperature with the thermometer. She asked me the type of medicines I was taking for the cold and finally asked me to proceed to the next adjacent room.
I entered into a small room with a computer and files all around. What kind of doctor is this? Entered another girl who started asking questions about my demographics. She asked about my address, origin, religion, insurance cover, etc. I don’t know how your religion or ethnicity affects your medication. She asked my phone number and since I did not remember mine I took out my new Sony 990i. “Oh, you have a nice mobile. Does it have a camera?” she said. Phew!!! Here I am dying with my condition and she is looking at my mobile! She printed a bar code on a wearable tag and put the tag on my wrist. Later I realized that the room was in fact like my office's HR office and she was working perhaps as a hospital HR. Thirty minutes are already over, however, the funny thing is that the doctor is still not in the picture.
I was again asked to sit in the lobby. A lady in her 40s entered and asked me to come inside. I walked in a small room with computers, probes, sensors, and machines. Looked more like a star-trek set than the hospital room. I felt happy that finally the doctor has called me for the check-up. But the ambience of the room was too much overwhelming and scary. I was in my thoughts contemplating about the room when the doctor asked me to remove my clothes. What??? Naked, in front of a lady doctor? I felt shivers in my body for the thought of being naked in front of an unknown woman, that too not for sex but cure. Soon she ended my worries by allowing me to leave the underwear and pointed me to the apron on the bed and asked to put it on. She knew I felt uncomfortable with all this, so she mitigated my fears by leaving me alone in the room. The apron or the robe was difficult to wear and I was feeling sick from the core of my heart after wearing that. It reminded me of the dresses in lunatic asylums in Hollywood movies. It also reminded me of intricate and difficult medical surgeries that I had seen on Discovery channel. My body went cold and wan as the thought of operations and surgeries passed by my thought window. The doctor came back and asked me to lie down on bed. Then she used her stethoscope and probes to check my pulse rate, heartbeat, and oxygen level in my blood. Gosh! never in my life I thought cold was such a dreadful disease. She asked me the same set of questions about my symptoms and disease which had already been asked many a times. From the drawer on the right she pulled out a file and handed me few papers to sign on. Yes, it was a consent form which would allow the hospital to walk free if I died during the procedure. Now I was almost terrified. Were they going to do a heart surgery for cold? May be US had a permanent solution for the cold by cutting off one of the valves in your heart. Who knows how would they save the earth this time? I was helpless and had no choice but to sign it and agree and abide to all the rules and regulations pertaining to the document. I signed it and passed to her.
“I will send you the doctor very soon?” She said.
The words lingered in my ears and resonated loud enough to shake my body. The doctor was still not in the picture. She left me alone in that research lab and I waited for the doctor to come. In the gallery I heard two nurses bitching about their boyfriends- one suggesting the other to not to go for divorce but to wait for some more time. God! Who cares for the patients? Boyfriends are more important anyways. I waited impatiently for the doctor but I was visited by a man and a woman who did not look like doctors at all. They told me that I would be X – Rayed and took me on the stretcher to the X-Ray room. I felt so embarrassed lying on the stretcher when the people sitting in the lobby gave me their weird looks as I passed the lobby next to the X – Ray room. The nurses only helped me to make me more embarrassed by asking if I could stand on my feet for the X – Ray. "What the hell?", I thought. I had cold not cancer. I told them that I had enough strength to stand on my feet. The female nurse came and asked me to open my chest and before I realized she had put two tiny sticky metallic discs (as small as the heads of smallest pins) on my tits. They shot the rays twice for my X – Rays. I did not know what the function of those metallic discs was but I felt the cold on my tits when she put it for the first time. I again lay on the stretcher and was sent back to my room.
After five minutes came the real doctor. PINA PATEL was my doctor in the hospital. "Indian doctors here also?", I thought. She must not be more than thirty - dusky but good looking, confident and professional. To my agony she again asked the same set of questions to enquire about the disease but her first question was very weird though.
Why are you here today Mr. Verma? She asked.
May be I was bored of going to pubs, discs, clubs, parks, etc. and decided to try hospital this time. What a stupid question one might ask from a patient in the hospital. I forgave her for her silly mistake as she was a gujju. She told me that I was perfectly fine and should continue the same medicine. If I had to hear this after two hours of tests why the hell did I go there? I insisted on antibiotics as my throat was paining. She cold heartedly declined to my request without showing any sympathy. In fact she proposed one more test for the throat and another examination by her colleague.
After fifteen minutes I saw another lady doctor raising the curtains from side and entering my room. She was white and again the same age as Pina. She repeated the Pina’s story with no additional changes and left my room.
Another ten minutes break and then came a lady to take throat swab. I didn’t understand there policy of giving 10-15 breaks in between the visits of these people. Were the breaks intentional to allow the patient to make few last calls to their relatives and pray to god or to plan an escape from the hospital. God knows the truth. She had a long peg with cotton on one end and she inserted it deep in my throat. I almost was on the verge of throwing up on her but her dress was pretty so I restrained myself.
This time the break went for thirty minutes but there was enough space between the curtain joints to allow the light signals from the lobby to enter my eyes. There was a beautiful blonde nurse who knew I was there on the bed but still was on the phone for all the time. It seems as if she worked for the call center rather than the hospital. She would steal glances at me and I did the same to tell her that I was not really happy hearing her voice since last three hours but I was completely ignored and she kept gabbling ceaselessly.
Pina came back again after thirty minutes and finally told me that my throat tests were negative and there was no bacterial growth, which meant that the time had come to leave the hospital. The nurse came in again and asked me to sign me on the discharge papers. I got the shock of my life when I figured out that I was actually admitted in the hospital for four hours. She offered me her good wishes and asked me to meet the receptionist in the lobby. There was no fees, no charges, nothing to do in the lobby and we headed to home. I was elated by the fact that no major surgery was performed on me and I was still in single piece without stitches.
Sunday, November 05, 2006
US Trip - Part II (Picking a girl in US)
Praveen Shukla had asked for my help in shifting his stuff when he decided to move from Pond Street house to Windsor apartment. How could I have denied a friend request? The whole experience happened to be so good that I started believing in God from that day. My uncle said once, “If you help others, god helps you.” I never believed it until that fateful day.
We were busy bringing the stuff from Shukla’s house to the ground floor – on the road near the truck – when I spotted a black hair girl sitting next door and smoking cigarettes. She was sitting on a folding chair with her legs resting on the wooden fence and was smoking cigarettes carelessly, casually, and ceaselessly one after the other. She was least bothered by our presence and was lost in her own world of smoke and her cell phone. One hand holding the cigarette with grace while the other working meticulously with the keys on her cell.
She was looking pretty in her curly black hair which was falling down from her shoulders and was touching her waist again and again with every gentle stroke of the evening breeze. Her Mexican-white skin looked flawless in the dusky sun and was glowing with the warmth of her youth. Her body was in shape and near to perfection. She was comfortably dressed in her white t-shirt and tight fitted blue jeans.
I did not like the injustice of god. How could such a beautiful girl sitting all lonely on such a wonderful summer evening in Boston. I decided to approach but I wanted some reason and I did not take time to find one. Cigarettes – Yes!!! The common thread between us. I went inside and picked a can of Heineken beer from the refrigerator and started walking towards her. “Hi, Can I have a cigarette please?” were my first words to her. She obliged me by offering me one. I put it in my mouth and asked for the lighter. I did not go away after lighting it but I kept standing there with her. After two-three puffs and a sip from the can I asked her whether she lived there. She negated and said that it was her aunt’s house. The discourse had started and I kept throwing questions and intelligent answers. She did not take time to realize that I am indeed an educated man. We exchanged our cell numbers and she had taken a promise from me to help her in purchasing a laptop which I happily agreed to.
Shukla was looking at me with a look of contempt and hatred. I had to say her good bye otherwise Shukla would have killed me. Instead of helping him out I was doing flirting – how would he accept it? With a very sad heart I bid her good bye and again went into labor shoes from Romeo’s shoes.
After two three days, I sent her an SMS and I did not get any reply. I waited for three days but of no use. Finally I called her up and left a voice message but again received no reply. I realized that my love story, like all the other love stories met a tragic end. However, the villain in my love story was nobody else but my dear friend Praveen Shukla. Only if he had not given me his censured glance while I was talking to her, only if he had given me few more minutes and not asked me to start work again, life would have been so different. I would have got some more golden moments to spare with my new found angel. I would have made all the promises of love and life, I would have discussed all my luck and destiny, I would have exchanged all the vibes and emotions, I would have felt her silky hair and kissed her cheeks but only if, only if.
Of course, how would you expect a girl to reply back when you spoilt her evening by leaving her all alone with the frightening darkness after the dusk? Certainly, that is not chivalry.
We were busy bringing the stuff from Shukla’s house to the ground floor – on the road near the truck – when I spotted a black hair girl sitting next door and smoking cigarettes. She was sitting on a folding chair with her legs resting on the wooden fence and was smoking cigarettes carelessly, casually, and ceaselessly one after the other. She was least bothered by our presence and was lost in her own world of smoke and her cell phone. One hand holding the cigarette with grace while the other working meticulously with the keys on her cell.
She was looking pretty in her curly black hair which was falling down from her shoulders and was touching her waist again and again with every gentle stroke of the evening breeze. Her Mexican-white skin looked flawless in the dusky sun and was glowing with the warmth of her youth. Her body was in shape and near to perfection. She was comfortably dressed in her white t-shirt and tight fitted blue jeans.
I did not like the injustice of god. How could such a beautiful girl sitting all lonely on such a wonderful summer evening in Boston. I decided to approach but I wanted some reason and I did not take time to find one. Cigarettes – Yes!!! The common thread between us. I went inside and picked a can of Heineken beer from the refrigerator and started walking towards her. “Hi, Can I have a cigarette please?” were my first words to her. She obliged me by offering me one. I put it in my mouth and asked for the lighter. I did not go away after lighting it but I kept standing there with her. After two-three puffs and a sip from the can I asked her whether she lived there. She negated and said that it was her aunt’s house. The discourse had started and I kept throwing questions and intelligent answers. She did not take time to realize that I am indeed an educated man. We exchanged our cell numbers and she had taken a promise from me to help her in purchasing a laptop which I happily agreed to.
Shukla was looking at me with a look of contempt and hatred. I had to say her good bye otherwise Shukla would have killed me. Instead of helping him out I was doing flirting – how would he accept it? With a very sad heart I bid her good bye and again went into labor shoes from Romeo’s shoes.
After two three days, I sent her an SMS and I did not get any reply. I waited for three days but of no use. Finally I called her up and left a voice message but again received no reply. I realized that my love story, like all the other love stories met a tragic end. However, the villain in my love story was nobody else but my dear friend Praveen Shukla. Only if he had not given me his censured glance while I was talking to her, only if he had given me few more minutes and not asked me to start work again, life would have been so different. I would have got some more golden moments to spare with my new found angel. I would have made all the promises of love and life, I would have discussed all my luck and destiny, I would have exchanged all the vibes and emotions, I would have felt her silky hair and kissed her cheeks but only if, only if.
Of course, how would you expect a girl to reply back when you spoilt her evening by leaving her all alone with the frightening darkness after the dusk? Certainly, that is not chivalry.
Thursday, October 05, 2006
US trip - Part 1
When I was a kid, one day watching a TV, Doordarshan of course, I saw one show which really inspired me and motivated me to study. The show was about a man who comes back to
The moment I heard my CEED score for IIT entrance exam, I knew I got the visa to go abroad and that was true also. Everybody from our batch had gone to
At the airport
First time international flying experience is like first time love because of the uncertainty of the experience – Good or bad. Fortunately I was lucky to have a good experience. While on the airport waiting for my flight, I felt thirsty and the urge made me to get up and grab a bottle of water. I was struggling finding two rupees change when a girl standing behind me helped and shocked me by putting two coins on the counter for me. I did not want to accept the help but could not deny the friendly gesture. She turned out to be a fashion designer - Jennifer Rai. Short, plumb, cute, and with specs on her face, she looked professional in her black dress. Since she was also alone and was waiting for the flight, we had mutually agreed tacitly within ourselves to be companions for the rest of the time. We did not talk much as most of the time she was busy on phone with her friends and family. However, we exchanged email ids and she told me that she was going to
In the flight
I had the ticket for window seat and found an old south Indian couple as my fellow passengers. We had 3-4-3 arrangement of seats per row. We never talked but I did not take a long time discovering that they were not happy with me. The moment they saw non-veg food in my hands, they got their first shock. To add to the sensitive situation I demanded scotch, followed by another, and followed by another one. Every time I pushed the bell to call the pretty air hostess for the drink I had to go through his insulting looks filled with ocular abuses such as “Greedy Pig!!!”, “Demon”, etc. I am sure he would never forget that night when his sacredness, religion, and values were tainted by my sinister tasks. He would have taken ablutions and prayed to god for several days to wash off the horrific experience from his old holy soul.
Next flight from Frankfurt
I was dazed and dreaming during the day after the deadening experience in the little cramped space of the flight. No wonder rich prefer business class over economy. The good thing about the second flight was that we had 2-3-2 arrangement of seats per row. There was a nice chick that I was eyeing on as she looked Indian to me. My prayers reached god and he made her sit next to me. Wow! Imagine a beautiful girl as your flight buddy. My body ache and tiredness disappeared in a fraction of second. I was wondering as to how to start the conversation with her. Finally my chemicals in the brain became active and got me the first response, “Which is this language in your book”? “German” she answered. “Oops, I thought you were Indian, you look like one.” I added another question and then another and then another until we knew each other. She was a 32 year old beautiful lady - Farsana, an Afghani settled in
I opened the window flap when
Monday, September 25, 2006
You and I
This letter is addressed to the special girl of my dreams whom I have not met yet. Read the letter and see whether you are the one whom I have been waiting for eternally?
Warning: This is a very personal and private letter. Please stop reading if this is not meant for you. Reading without consent and copying any of the parts will fall under plagiarism laws (Act. 123, 1976 Indian Penal Code)
--------------------------------------------------------
Dear Love,
I need somebody like you who love to get butterfly feeling in your tummy at this age as you felt when you were 16. Yes, you are that different.
You are different because you mean a lot to me. You are somebody who is more than my best friend because even with my best friend I feel incomplete, I feel empty, and I feel lonely. I want you to complement me with your wit, your fun, your humor, your sarcasm, and your love. I want you to fill in the empty space in my soul with your love like a perfect soul mate. I want you to justify the reason of my being on the earth by providing your beautiful company. Let you be a mate to fill me with joy, and to give me the most beloved company that I have only thought, cherished, and dreamt of.
A bit of humor and sarcasm zings up a life and I believe that you have it in you. You are like a bottle of wine which tastes good as it grows older and every sip of it takes me to cloud nine. I want you to be funny too to pep up our lives and I will be as funny as your best friend who tried to make you laugh hysterically by doing weird things when you were young.
I love to see you laugh and smile all the time because I love you. It gives me immense gratification and happiness to see you and to think about you wherever I am. Whatever the reason, if I could make you laugh and smile I would feel satisfied and content.
If you love to laugh and charge the people around you then you could fill in my heart with loads of laughter so that there is no space left for sadness. And sometimes we will sit and laugh and laugh together until the laughter gets our eyes wet. Your effervesce and bubbliness make me feel light and top of the world at all the places and all the times, so please be like this for eternity. I do not believe in cheesy romance but I do believe in respecting each others feeling and making others feel the importance that they behold in my life. Be blunt but soft and convey your compliments and complaints and I do the same by appreciating you. True, man is a social animal and deserves attention.
You never want to get old. You are always young, enthusiastic, and optimistic towards your life. You like to go to hikes; you want to spend a month in jungle away from everybody, just with the nature and me. You want to do a world tour and ready to live in different countries during different times in your life. You want to go out with me on a bike and do long tours for days.
You are social and confident to interact with my friends with grace in my presence and absence. You are independent to take care of the needs of the family when I am away. You do not take decisions on your own and so do I, unless it is a trivial decision.
You are sensitive towards people and emotions and respect them. You are intelligent enough to understand and interpret my thoughts related to life, profession, philosophy, etc. and to initiate and participate in such intellectual conversations sometimes. You are cleanliness and hygiene conscious (not a freak) and you are not messy in your manners.
You love nature and appreciate it. The flowers, the sun, the sea, the sand, the dawn, the dusk, and the moonlight.
You have the passion to live life and its every moment. And when I am down in life or traveling through troubled waters I look at you for your support and you are always there with me to hold my hand. Because you are my inspiration, my power, and my purpose. You are the world and you are the stars. You are infinite and you are absolute because you are just you.
Few words about me: I am as open minded as the open blue sky where the boundaries do not exist but still has the horizon to enclose the openness. I have dreams like stars in the sky, impossible to catch but bright and vibrant enough to keep me going and challenging me. I am down to earth also at the same time and do not make fun of people or discriminate between them on the basis of materialistic or other trivial things.
My sense of humor is something which I am indecisive about because I am bad at displaying it to new people but as I spend more and more time with them I tend to become wittier and funnier. I believe that my sense of humor is more personalized and contextual rather than cheap and trivial. I cannot talk bad puns as I consider myself a quite educate guy ;).
Brainy, hmmm I can say I am because the company I work for pays me for that stuff; I am not sure whether they have selected the right guy though.
Loyalty is mutual and if I love somebody by heart, I am hers by soul and body. Every cell and every tissue belongs to her and nobody else can claim it. That is my definition of loyalty. Is it your's too?
I am not a gay...I would like you to look as girly as you could so that you can melt my heart with your charm and magic. I would like you to look beautiful so that my friends envy me that I possess you. And I would ensure that you get the best of the dresses and the best of the perfumes to fill up my senses with your beauty and to make me feel proud of the woman who means a world to me.
I love hiking, nature, challenges, and adventure and know how to enjoy it. I want to do things which are sane but crazy. For e.g. going to antartica for vacations. Going to Leh on a bike, etc. I am not really fond of museums and religious places but if I have your company then the place doesn’t matter because I am lost in your world. I love swimming and I love water but I have never tried sea travel. Not sure whether I would get seasick, unless I go and try it.
Never tried Sushi but have heard a lot about it. I also love food and keep experimenting with new food from every part of the world. I love cooking and serving food on weekends and trying new and exotic recipes. I am an average cook but my friend says that I cook well. Whatever I cook I cook from my heart.
I try to do jog every alternate day to ensure that I could justify the beauty of my partner. I also hate fast food, that was the worst thing to happen on earth. I don’t even drink coke and Pepsi but just fruit juices.
I am liberal in my thoughts. I like watching, meeting, and talking to people and noticing details like kind of earrings, etc as I am a designer and was taught to be a detailing oriented professional. I am a good listener but I am not really into too much of talking. Sometimes I love silences because it can be comforting and give space to retrospect and introspect. But I can talk at lengths provided I am in a good mood. I am very inquisitive and ask many questions while talking. I literally create another person in my mind after getting all the answers and try to understand and predict their behaviors. I think helps me in my job where I have to understand users and clients mental models.
I love to travel with people whom I love, if that happens the journey becomes utopian.
I can come along shopping if you would like to. I am not really into movies and TV but I like to see parallel cinema. I like quality over quantity. I like all kinds of music until it sounds pleasing to my senses despite of its language. I love to read when I get free time. I don’t like fiction because I consider it as a waste of time, unless it is a book like Pride and Prejudice.
I like dark blue and metallic blue colors. I love animals though I feel sad to say that I eat them for food. I love children and they really look cute to me. I would like to have cute daughters one day.
I don’t do drugs unless doctor prescribes it :). I drink scotch and beer sometimes...I smoke occasionally.....but I have never taken drugs in life and nor do I have any intentions. I don’t wear glasses and I am a social drinker. I won’t take offence if I am not your type please don’t be upset if you are not of my type.
I don’t have a car and believe in public transport.
I am a good hearted person and will do everything to see your heart crushing smile. I am as adventurous as a lion who just rules despite of the territory and the shape and size of the prey. I am as patient as Himalayas, and will wait forever to read the reply of my mails, will wait for hours to meet you if we get along, will count all the people whom you kill consciously and unconsciously by your swift, charming moves in a fraction of second. If you have a test paper which I could write to prove that I have all such qualities then I would write it in blood to tell you that I care about you because I love you. And I would certainly get A+ in that.
I wrote whatever I had to say. I like the honesty and always return it back. You won’t regret meeting me at any point of time in your life. I think thoughts are above everything. Sex dies but emotions and thoughts are something that bind people together. Get back to me if you liked my honest opinion.
Things that we would do together: I love going out to have fun but not to a bar where I cannot look into your eyes in the smoky darkness, where I cannot listen your honey dew voice in the loud music, where I cannot feel you in the jungle of drunken human bodies. I would rather go out and watch a sunset with you, holding your hand and just looking at the sun so that I can mock him. “Look sun you are going but I still have somebody to lighten my life through the darkness that you are leaving behind.” We would go out together to plant saplings so that we can go every weekend to watch them grow as the love between us would grow. Yes we can do much better things than just cuddling and hugging each other on a couch....We can go out in a drizzle and just move our head upwards to taste the first rain..... We would write letters in hand and not in e-format like emails to add emotion to them....we will make our meals together rather than going out to dunkin donuts and buying it..... We would go to long drives just to ensure that you are there with me to share the distances.....sometimes we would just sit back and meditate to hear each other's souls.......We would sometimes go out and do social service together and come back with satisfaction and real happiness.
And when you would ask me to hold your hands in the fog worn winter evenings on the lonely road in our backyard, I would then just tease you with a light note........hey I am not 22 anymore :P
Warning: This is a very personal and private letter. Please stop reading if this is not meant for you. Reading without consent and copying any of the parts will fall under plagiarism laws (Act. 123, 1976 Indian Penal Code)
--------------------------------------------------------
Dear Love,
I need somebody like you who love to get butterfly feeling in your tummy at this age as you felt when you were 16. Yes, you are that different.
You are different because you mean a lot to me. You are somebody who is more than my best friend because even with my best friend I feel incomplete, I feel empty, and I feel lonely. I want you to complement me with your wit, your fun, your humor, your sarcasm, and your love. I want you to fill in the empty space in my soul with your love like a perfect soul mate. I want you to justify the reason of my being on the earth by providing your beautiful company. Let you be a mate to fill me with joy, and to give me the most beloved company that I have only thought, cherished, and dreamt of.
A bit of humor and sarcasm zings up a life and I believe that you have it in you. You are like a bottle of wine which tastes good as it grows older and every sip of it takes me to cloud nine. I want you to be funny too to pep up our lives and I will be as funny as your best friend who tried to make you laugh hysterically by doing weird things when you were young.
I love to see you laugh and smile all the time because I love you. It gives me immense gratification and happiness to see you and to think about you wherever I am. Whatever the reason, if I could make you laugh and smile I would feel satisfied and content.
If you love to laugh and charge the people around you then you could fill in my heart with loads of laughter so that there is no space left for sadness. And sometimes we will sit and laugh and laugh together until the laughter gets our eyes wet. Your effervesce and bubbliness make me feel light and top of the world at all the places and all the times, so please be like this for eternity. I do not believe in cheesy romance but I do believe in respecting each others feeling and making others feel the importance that they behold in my life. Be blunt but soft and convey your compliments and complaints and I do the same by appreciating you. True, man is a social animal and deserves attention.
You never want to get old. You are always young, enthusiastic, and optimistic towards your life. You like to go to hikes; you want to spend a month in jungle away from everybody, just with the nature and me. You want to do a world tour and ready to live in different countries during different times in your life. You want to go out with me on a bike and do long tours for days.
You are social and confident to interact with my friends with grace in my presence and absence. You are independent to take care of the needs of the family when I am away. You do not take decisions on your own and so do I, unless it is a trivial decision.
You are sensitive towards people and emotions and respect them. You are intelligent enough to understand and interpret my thoughts related to life, profession, philosophy, etc. and to initiate and participate in such intellectual conversations sometimes. You are cleanliness and hygiene conscious (not a freak) and you are not messy in your manners.
You love nature and appreciate it. The flowers, the sun, the sea, the sand, the dawn, the dusk, and the moonlight.
You have the passion to live life and its every moment. And when I am down in life or traveling through troubled waters I look at you for your support and you are always there with me to hold my hand. Because you are my inspiration, my power, and my purpose. You are the world and you are the stars. You are infinite and you are absolute because you are just you.
Few words about me: I am as open minded as the open blue sky where the boundaries do not exist but still has the horizon to enclose the openness. I have dreams like stars in the sky, impossible to catch but bright and vibrant enough to keep me going and challenging me. I am down to earth also at the same time and do not make fun of people or discriminate between them on the basis of materialistic or other trivial things.
My sense of humor is something which I am indecisive about because I am bad at displaying it to new people but as I spend more and more time with them I tend to become wittier and funnier. I believe that my sense of humor is more personalized and contextual rather than cheap and trivial. I cannot talk bad puns as I consider myself a quite educate guy ;).
Brainy, hmmm I can say I am because the company I work for pays me for that stuff; I am not sure whether they have selected the right guy though.
Loyalty is mutual and if I love somebody by heart, I am hers by soul and body. Every cell and every tissue belongs to her and nobody else can claim it. That is my definition of loyalty. Is it your's too?
I am not a gay...I would like you to look as girly as you could so that you can melt my heart with your charm and magic. I would like you to look beautiful so that my friends envy me that I possess you. And I would ensure that you get the best of the dresses and the best of the perfumes to fill up my senses with your beauty and to make me feel proud of the woman who means a world to me.
I love hiking, nature, challenges, and adventure and know how to enjoy it. I want to do things which are sane but crazy. For e.g. going to antartica for vacations. Going to Leh on a bike, etc. I am not really fond of museums and religious places but if I have your company then the place doesn’t matter because I am lost in your world. I love swimming and I love water but I have never tried sea travel. Not sure whether I would get seasick, unless I go and try it.
Never tried Sushi but have heard a lot about it. I also love food and keep experimenting with new food from every part of the world. I love cooking and serving food on weekends and trying new and exotic recipes. I am an average cook but my friend says that I cook well. Whatever I cook I cook from my heart.
I try to do jog every alternate day to ensure that I could justify the beauty of my partner. I also hate fast food, that was the worst thing to happen on earth. I don’t even drink coke and Pepsi but just fruit juices.
I am liberal in my thoughts. I like watching, meeting, and talking to people and noticing details like kind of earrings, etc as I am a designer and was taught to be a detailing oriented professional. I am a good listener but I am not really into too much of talking. Sometimes I love silences because it can be comforting and give space to retrospect and introspect. But I can talk at lengths provided I am in a good mood. I am very inquisitive and ask many questions while talking. I literally create another person in my mind after getting all the answers and try to understand and predict their behaviors. I think helps me in my job where I have to understand users and clients mental models.
I love to travel with people whom I love, if that happens the journey becomes utopian.
I can come along shopping if you would like to. I am not really into movies and TV but I like to see parallel cinema. I like quality over quantity. I like all kinds of music until it sounds pleasing to my senses despite of its language. I love to read when I get free time. I don’t like fiction because I consider it as a waste of time, unless it is a book like Pride and Prejudice.
I like dark blue and metallic blue colors. I love animals though I feel sad to say that I eat them for food. I love children and they really look cute to me. I would like to have cute daughters one day.
I don’t do drugs unless doctor prescribes it :). I drink scotch and beer sometimes...I smoke occasionally.....but I have never taken drugs in life and nor do I have any intentions. I don’t wear glasses and I am a social drinker. I won’t take offence if I am not your type please don’t be upset if you are not of my type.
I don’t have a car and believe in public transport.
I am a good hearted person and will do everything to see your heart crushing smile. I am as adventurous as a lion who just rules despite of the territory and the shape and size of the prey. I am as patient as Himalayas, and will wait forever to read the reply of my mails, will wait for hours to meet you if we get along, will count all the people whom you kill consciously and unconsciously by your swift, charming moves in a fraction of second. If you have a test paper which I could write to prove that I have all such qualities then I would write it in blood to tell you that I care about you because I love you. And I would certainly get A+ in that.
I wrote whatever I had to say. I like the honesty and always return it back. You won’t regret meeting me at any point of time in your life. I think thoughts are above everything. Sex dies but emotions and thoughts are something that bind people together. Get back to me if you liked my honest opinion.
Things that we would do together: I love going out to have fun but not to a bar where I cannot look into your eyes in the smoky darkness, where I cannot listen your honey dew voice in the loud music, where I cannot feel you in the jungle of drunken human bodies. I would rather go out and watch a sunset with you, holding your hand and just looking at the sun so that I can mock him. “Look sun you are going but I still have somebody to lighten my life through the darkness that you are leaving behind.” We would go out together to plant saplings so that we can go every weekend to watch them grow as the love between us would grow. Yes we can do much better things than just cuddling and hugging each other on a couch....We can go out in a drizzle and just move our head upwards to taste the first rain..... We would write letters in hand and not in e-format like emails to add emotion to them....we will make our meals together rather than going out to dunkin donuts and buying it..... We would go to long drives just to ensure that you are there with me to share the distances.....sometimes we would just sit back and meditate to hear each other's souls.......We would sometimes go out and do social service together and come back with satisfaction and real happiness.
And when you would ask me to hold your hands in the fog worn winter evenings on the lonely road in our backyard, I would then just tease you with a light note........hey I am not 22 anymore :P
Thursday, July 27, 2006
The Dusk
I was waiting, to hear from you,
Came your call- honey, as a burst,
Now sipping together, a coffee or two,
Holding thou’ hands, celebrating the dusk.
Thy breaths are the winter rose,
Thy eyes are the holy ocean,
Thy hair is the china silk,
Thy talks are the magic potion.
Thy voice is the fresh honey,
Thy touch is the Midas touch
Thy smile is the spring season,
Thy words are the magic cut.
I’m scribbling and scrabbling hard,
To paint you real in my eyes,
Though colors you’ve taken away,
But my love for you never dies.
All these moments of tenderness,
Blue night and gentle breeze,
I wish if time could stop forever,
I wish if this world could freeze.
With two of us in virtual bliss,
I’d like to open my heart,
To speak out the truth and emotions,
Everything unhidden, playing my part.
But I’m bit afraid and scared,
In my moments of cloud nine,
Could upset and spoil your mood,
Saying love you one more time.
But you are the one, can’t loose you now
Where shall I go, where shall I dear?
You are my destiny and destination.
If not, let me drown myself in tears.
And when you’d go away from me,
When air would stink without musk,
When dreams of hope would shatter,
Dear I’ll cry and mourn for the dusk.
Came your call- honey, as a burst,
Now sipping together, a coffee or two,
Holding thou’ hands, celebrating the dusk.
Thy breaths are the winter rose,
Thy eyes are the holy ocean,
Thy hair is the china silk,
Thy talks are the magic potion.
Thy voice is the fresh honey,
Thy touch is the Midas touch
Thy smile is the spring season,
Thy words are the magic cut.
I’m scribbling and scrabbling hard,
To paint you real in my eyes,
Though colors you’ve taken away,
But my love for you never dies.
All these moments of tenderness,
Blue night and gentle breeze,
I wish if time could stop forever,
I wish if this world could freeze.
With two of us in virtual bliss,
I’d like to open my heart,
To speak out the truth and emotions,
Everything unhidden, playing my part.
But I’m bit afraid and scared,
In my moments of cloud nine,
Could upset and spoil your mood,
Saying love you one more time.
But you are the one, can’t loose you now
Where shall I go, where shall I dear?
You are my destiny and destination.
If not, let me drown myself in tears.
And when you’d go away from me,
When air would stink without musk,
When dreams of hope would shatter,
Dear I’ll cry and mourn for the dusk.
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
An Autobiography
Suddenly I could feel the gentle-warm touch of another lady’s hand on me. She did a careful inspection from her soft nimble fingers and tried to feel me on her palms and hands. Her skin was soft and effused plentiful brightness of an afternoon sun. She looked into my body, and praised my beauty as mine eyes met her fun filled amber eyes. I shivered and felt the frenzy of excitement of finding a new home. The cheerful mood did not last long and I soon found myself in a profound state of despair. The amber eyed lady decided to not to take me home but a yellow and blue colored neighbor of mine. How could people buy cheap colors and leave maroon behind on the shelve?
I was hanging there, and I fluttered as I felt another strong gust of the freezing winter breeze on my body. Destiny seemed to show its back upon me once more and half of the winter had already gone just with a hope of finding a new home. I kept crying on that fateful chilly winter night and with each tear that parted my distressful eyes I lost one hope until I had none in my heart.
Sunrise brought me a new world of hope when Mrs. Biyani finally decided me to take home. It was a comfort ride in a new Corolla. The Biyani’s home was a small mansion in Indore. It was much better than the place I used to be. I spent my childhood days hanging on a road side small shop. I suffered all the atrocities and hostilities that no child would ever want to go through. Rash weather, air pollution, so many unwanted touches, vandalism, and the list is endless. As soon as I reached home Ms. Biyani (Later I found that her name was Khushboo) embraced me with the warmth that I had always wanted. She carefully felt me on her face and wrapped around her shoulders. I felt rattling quivers all over my body and the quest of finding my master seemed over. I was luckier to find a young girl like her. I named her as “Little Princess”. I spent my initial days in her intricately carved, neatly made, wooden cupboard. I was kept away from the sun, in the ever lingering smell of costly perfumes from Europe, in the cozy temperature of the lavish room. And I would always wait impatiently for my turn to be wrapped around to experience and sense the gentle warmth of her body. I despised the other wrap-arounds if they were chosen instead of me.
Luck always take turns and my happy days did not last long. Soon I heard that I would be going to Mumbai with my little princess. I had heard a lot about the place where the Indian peninsula kissed the Arabian Sea. Soon I found myself in a small house with two rooms. As I was hearing from the corner of the suitcase I could figure out that there were two other female voices – Nitika and Nidhi. The new place made my heart to pound with the obscure excitement mingled with subtle apprehension. I liked the place when I was taken out from the suitcase. Nidhi and Nitika quite liked my looks and I liked theirs. I knew they were in love with me the first time they saw me. Perhaps they were jealous of the princess for possessing me. At times Nidhi or Nitika would give a wishful glance at me in the solitude of the new acquired house of mine. They would come close to me, feel me, hold me, and wrap me around over their bodies in front of the mirror. I felt elated and found my soul on cloud number nine with so much of want and love all around me.
The two bedroom apartment soon got choked with the black smoke of conflicts and tensions amongst the three. The prominent personas of the three working girls clashed, cracked, shattered, and restructured themselves each time whenever they felt interference in their individualism. The new structure of the persona was always more accommodating from its predecessor. It was a kind of social evolution where personalities and individuals abrade each other and remove the acute, sharp, and penetrating traits to make everybody sociable and livable in a social structure. The girls also learned to live peacefully, in harmony, and in symbiosis. They had to…
I was brought to the office as the princess extra sensitive body and the soft tender skin could not bear the ruthless bursts of super cooled jets by the office’s AC system. I was ripped off of my home…sweet home…and had been placed in the alien corporate world. I saw managers, employees, professionals, support staff, and what not. The whole corporate dynamics became visible to me as I spent days…weeks….and months. The office was profusely bright outside but still gloomy inside, the sweet fragrance hanged around all the while but it was deadly suffocating, there were uproar and chaos during the peak hours but deep down it was silent, stoned, and cold as a dead body. I was hanged up on the back of the princess’s chair in that uncongenial chaotic space.
On their way to the canteen or to their friend’s place people would deliberately drop me down from the chair pitilessly when the princess was not around. Either they were jealous of my irresistible impressive looks or they had cultured a strange vengeance against me for no justifiable reason. They would inflict all sorts of tortures and barbarities on my vulnerable body and I suffered all the torments of the misfortunate - cleaning their dirty hands and face, stamping on my feeble body with dirty and filthy soles, treating me like a rag, using me to clean their desks and tables, or computer screens….and what not. The corporate inferno that was filled with infernals rendered me numb of pains, emotions, and fears. Nights were scary and chilly; the loneliness in the lonely hours was killing. I somehow waited for the nights though lonesome I was but still away from the infuriating experiences of the day. My tears dried and my heart metamorphosed to stone as I was left there to live my destined life.
All the while my princess had taken her eyes off me as she had found her world and her friends. She barely used me in the office.
I am still hanging there on the back of her chair with bruises all around, still trying to cruise through my cursed life, still I find a new hope every morning like a drop of dew. But as the day goes by and as I suffer through the devil’s hands once more, the hope fades away the same way as the drop of dew disappears in the rage of unforgiving sun. Anyway what I am just another shawl.
Hope that princess will read this and embrace me with love, once again.
I was hanging there, and I fluttered as I felt another strong gust of the freezing winter breeze on my body. Destiny seemed to show its back upon me once more and half of the winter had already gone just with a hope of finding a new home. I kept crying on that fateful chilly winter night and with each tear that parted my distressful eyes I lost one hope until I had none in my heart.
Sunrise brought me a new world of hope when Mrs. Biyani finally decided me to take home. It was a comfort ride in a new Corolla. The Biyani’s home was a small mansion in Indore. It was much better than the place I used to be. I spent my childhood days hanging on a road side small shop. I suffered all the atrocities and hostilities that no child would ever want to go through. Rash weather, air pollution, so many unwanted touches, vandalism, and the list is endless. As soon as I reached home Ms. Biyani (Later I found that her name was Khushboo) embraced me with the warmth that I had always wanted. She carefully felt me on her face and wrapped around her shoulders. I felt rattling quivers all over my body and the quest of finding my master seemed over. I was luckier to find a young girl like her. I named her as “Little Princess”. I spent my initial days in her intricately carved, neatly made, wooden cupboard. I was kept away from the sun, in the ever lingering smell of costly perfumes from Europe, in the cozy temperature of the lavish room. And I would always wait impatiently for my turn to be wrapped around to experience and sense the gentle warmth of her body. I despised the other wrap-arounds if they were chosen instead of me.
Luck always take turns and my happy days did not last long. Soon I heard that I would be going to Mumbai with my little princess. I had heard a lot about the place where the Indian peninsula kissed the Arabian Sea. Soon I found myself in a small house with two rooms. As I was hearing from the corner of the suitcase I could figure out that there were two other female voices – Nitika and Nidhi. The new place made my heart to pound with the obscure excitement mingled with subtle apprehension. I liked the place when I was taken out from the suitcase. Nidhi and Nitika quite liked my looks and I liked theirs. I knew they were in love with me the first time they saw me. Perhaps they were jealous of the princess for possessing me. At times Nidhi or Nitika would give a wishful glance at me in the solitude of the new acquired house of mine. They would come close to me, feel me, hold me, and wrap me around over their bodies in front of the mirror. I felt elated and found my soul on cloud number nine with so much of want and love all around me.
The two bedroom apartment soon got choked with the black smoke of conflicts and tensions amongst the three. The prominent personas of the three working girls clashed, cracked, shattered, and restructured themselves each time whenever they felt interference in their individualism. The new structure of the persona was always more accommodating from its predecessor. It was a kind of social evolution where personalities and individuals abrade each other and remove the acute, sharp, and penetrating traits to make everybody sociable and livable in a social structure. The girls also learned to live peacefully, in harmony, and in symbiosis. They had to…
I was brought to the office as the princess extra sensitive body and the soft tender skin could not bear the ruthless bursts of super cooled jets by the office’s AC system. I was ripped off of my home…sweet home…and had been placed in the alien corporate world. I saw managers, employees, professionals, support staff, and what not. The whole corporate dynamics became visible to me as I spent days…weeks….and months. The office was profusely bright outside but still gloomy inside, the sweet fragrance hanged around all the while but it was deadly suffocating, there were uproar and chaos during the peak hours but deep down it was silent, stoned, and cold as a dead body. I was hanged up on the back of the princess’s chair in that uncongenial chaotic space.
On their way to the canteen or to their friend’s place people would deliberately drop me down from the chair pitilessly when the princess was not around. Either they were jealous of my irresistible impressive looks or they had cultured a strange vengeance against me for no justifiable reason. They would inflict all sorts of tortures and barbarities on my vulnerable body and I suffered all the torments of the misfortunate - cleaning their dirty hands and face, stamping on my feeble body with dirty and filthy soles, treating me like a rag, using me to clean their desks and tables, or computer screens….and what not. The corporate inferno that was filled with infernals rendered me numb of pains, emotions, and fears. Nights were scary and chilly; the loneliness in the lonely hours was killing. I somehow waited for the nights though lonesome I was but still away from the infuriating experiences of the day. My tears dried and my heart metamorphosed to stone as I was left there to live my destined life.
All the while my princess had taken her eyes off me as she had found her world and her friends. She barely used me in the office.
I am still hanging there on the back of her chair with bruises all around, still trying to cruise through my cursed life, still I find a new hope every morning like a drop of dew. But as the day goes by and as I suffer through the devil’s hands once more, the hope fades away the same way as the drop of dew disappears in the rage of unforgiving sun. Anyway what I am just another shawl.
Hope that princess will read this and embrace me with love, once again.
Friday, June 30, 2006
Life In Delhi
I finally started the lifeless life in Delhi. Finally I shifted to Saket, the happening place in Delhi but still the loneliness that crept in life has bleached my evenings and weekends. I realized the importance of friends around a man. Man is a social animal and everybody craves for company. I hope to have somebody soon around me, at least for the evenings, to interact, to talk to, to laugh with, to cry with, to share dreams, to have fun on Fridays.
Fridays remind me of TGIF that I explored alone in Gurgaon. The uncanny proximity of the guest house to the TGIF caused a tingling sensation in my body and my hypnotized footsteps just followed the way to it. It was a good hangout after coping with boredom in office and a good escape from the dead and depressing room in the guest house. I met some interesting people there. Sitting at the bar stool alone and wanting to talk to the other people sitting next to me I wondered if they also felt the same. We didn’t talk but I could hear the sad whispers of our loneliness talking with each other as they talked about our lives. Sometimes people cannot stop the urge to talk and we ended up talking trivial things or about the FIFA world cup 2006. Interesting it is that there are places where people can talk without knowing each other, without the formal introductions, without obligations, and without involving hearts and souls. It was good fun at TGIF and I made some friends including the bartenders. FIFA on big screen was good and the experience was enriched with the excellent environment at TGIF. The occasional bustling by the guests dispersed the thick cigarette cloud and replaced the perennial rustling whenever a goal is scored or missed. I missed so many people sitting there and I called them to feel protected and to overcome the insecurity that they were no more there for me. I missed Sriram, Anoop, Amol, Sarvesh, and all of them.
I met Alpi and I am heartily thankful to her for delaying her important task to meet me. That was my first evening in Delhi and I called her up to set up a dinner. We had some good talks and time over coffee and delicious Chinese food. I met Nitika also the following week. She looked pale, lean, and sounded low after she suffered typhoid for a month. Looked she was still recuperating from her weakness. She didn’t have anything because she was avoiding outside food for a few days. But it was good to meet her again and to talk to her.
28 June 2006 I met Sajag and Ritesh after two years and had good fun. Imagine meeting somebody after two years and loosing all the contact for those two years including mail ids and telephone numbers. Hats off to IIT Delhi that helped Sajag finding me in two days. No wonder that IIT is number one, their professional promptness really impressed me. We celebrated our get-together with VAT-69.
I am lucky and blessed to have great friends around me. Sarvesh, Khushboo, Nitika, and Nidhi have been so good to me and they have tried their best to help me out in fighting down with my solitude. Either they call me or I call them everyday and I get constant updates from them. I never felt that I am away from them. Sriram called me today from UK and we talked for 15 minutes. Finally he called after a long eon of silence.
Sarvesh called up on the eve of his last day at HFI. He sounded emotionally low and lost but I know that it happens with everybody. People go and people come but life goes on - sometimes affected, sometimes unaffected. He is still lucky to be around with friends in Mumbai.
Nidhi called up yesterday and it was good to hear her again. She was going to Chandigarh for a week to meet her parents. I wished if I could meet her here in Delhi but she landed today and it is Friday here and I am at office. Let me see if I could catch her while she would be going back. She has become such a good friend in such a short duration. Good thing about her is that she always sounded so friendly, positive, and full of life and energy. I could always sense the warmth and concern for me in her voice whenever I had a talk with her. It is always good to have such friends around you who make you to think about them because of their formidable traits.
Fridays remind me of TGIF that I explored alone in Gurgaon. The uncanny proximity of the guest house to the TGIF caused a tingling sensation in my body and my hypnotized footsteps just followed the way to it. It was a good hangout after coping with boredom in office and a good escape from the dead and depressing room in the guest house. I met some interesting people there. Sitting at the bar stool alone and wanting to talk to the other people sitting next to me I wondered if they also felt the same. We didn’t talk but I could hear the sad whispers of our loneliness talking with each other as they talked about our lives. Sometimes people cannot stop the urge to talk and we ended up talking trivial things or about the FIFA world cup 2006. Interesting it is that there are places where people can talk without knowing each other, without the formal introductions, without obligations, and without involving hearts and souls. It was good fun at TGIF and I made some friends including the bartenders. FIFA on big screen was good and the experience was enriched with the excellent environment at TGIF. The occasional bustling by the guests dispersed the thick cigarette cloud and replaced the perennial rustling whenever a goal is scored or missed. I missed so many people sitting there and I called them to feel protected and to overcome the insecurity that they were no more there for me. I missed Sriram, Anoop, Amol, Sarvesh, and all of them.
I met Alpi and I am heartily thankful to her for delaying her important task to meet me. That was my first evening in Delhi and I called her up to set up a dinner. We had some good talks and time over coffee and delicious Chinese food. I met Nitika also the following week. She looked pale, lean, and sounded low after she suffered typhoid for a month. Looked she was still recuperating from her weakness. She didn’t have anything because she was avoiding outside food for a few days. But it was good to meet her again and to talk to her.
28 June 2006 I met Sajag and Ritesh after two years and had good fun. Imagine meeting somebody after two years and loosing all the contact for those two years including mail ids and telephone numbers. Hats off to IIT Delhi that helped Sajag finding me in two days. No wonder that IIT is number one, their professional promptness really impressed me. We celebrated our get-together with VAT-69.
I am lucky and blessed to have great friends around me. Sarvesh, Khushboo, Nitika, and Nidhi have been so good to me and they have tried their best to help me out in fighting down with my solitude. Either they call me or I call them everyday and I get constant updates from them. I never felt that I am away from them. Sriram called me today from UK and we talked for 15 minutes. Finally he called after a long eon of silence.
Sarvesh called up on the eve of his last day at HFI. He sounded emotionally low and lost but I know that it happens with everybody. People go and people come but life goes on - sometimes affected, sometimes unaffected. He is still lucky to be around with friends in Mumbai.
Nidhi called up yesterday and it was good to hear her again. She was going to Chandigarh for a week to meet her parents. I wished if I could meet her here in Delhi but she landed today and it is Friday here and I am at office. Let me see if I could catch her while she would be going back. She has become such a good friend in such a short duration. Good thing about her is that she always sounded so friendly, positive, and full of life and energy. I could always sense the warmth and concern for me in her voice whenever I had a talk with her. It is always good to have such friends around you who make you to think about them because of their formidable traits.
Thursday, June 15, 2006
I will never forget...
The golden years are over…
After the big wave that swept everybody’s life including mine, life is settling down again and things are getting in order for one more time. Life in Gurgaon is boring but it would be too early to make such a radical decision. I miss life in Mumbai and the great friends that I had there. However, in retrospect, I think that it was my friends who made the place fun rather than the place itself. My two years in Mumbai was so exciting and fun that I am left enthralled every time I think about it.
The memories from Mumbai are so strong, powerful, and vivid that the imprints will remain embossed on the walls of my heart till the time it beats. I am indebted to my friends for the magnificent company that they provided during my two years of stay. As an expression of gratitude towards them I would like to write about all of them but I would restrict myself to few lines when time is the constraint.
I will never forget….
I will never forget Sarvesh Chinagi. Amazing man with magical powers and charisma, so simple yet so difficult to understand. He is somebody who will help you in all the possible ways with all the possible means around. I have already written about him in my previous blogs. Somehow he holds a magical resource for energy which continuously feeds him perpetual power and vigor to help people eternally. He is a great friend, somebody whom I can rely on, somebody who is trustworthy, somebody who is always smiling, and somebody who is always there for you. I can trust him blindly.
I will never forget Sriram Suryanarayanan. Another great friend who is always around you to help you out in your bad times and always there to celebrate in your good times. He is a fun company as he has the right mix of intellect and humor which makes him intellectual and interesting at the same time. He calls himself an experimenter but still keeps himself away from red meat. He is a great complainer and keeps grumbling about people, place, and relationships. We had many late night parties together where we partied till we got high over the drinks. The best thing about getting high is that it gets higher every next time.
I will never forget Neha Modgil. She is a great company to talk to. Bit snobbish and bit attitudinal but a long time friend of mine. I never had problems with her. She is very caring and smart. I have known her so much and have already written so much about her. She is one of the girls who have influenced me and my life. We have spent countless hours together talking philosophy, psychology, astrology, life, and relationships.
I will never forget Khushboo Biyani. She is another girl with whom I have spent maximum time in Mumbai. She is younger than most of us, just got out from the safe and caring shell of her family. She is more mature than her age but still have to learn a lot. She is great fun as she is adventurous, social, adaptable, and a great listener. She doesn’t talk much, so most of the times you are supposed to speak but she would lend you her ears. She is also a good company for parties but somehow thinks twice when it comes to expensive hangouts. What will you do with all the money you are saving Khushboo? She claims herself to be a good cook but will never invite you for food. I think she is too lazy to carry this hobby along. This is the perfect time for her to take up a new hobby else I keep on waiting for her lunch invitation.
She is admirable in her own ways. Her face exudes heart crushing cuteness which gets leveraged by the mole on her face. She has an amazing collection of earrings and dresses. This explains the fact that why do I like her dressing.
She is so different that she treated us with Krishana’s prasadam as her birthday treat. All the best BEE.
After the big wave that swept everybody’s life including mine, life is settling down again and things are getting in order for one more time. Life in Gurgaon is boring but it would be too early to make such a radical decision. I miss life in Mumbai and the great friends that I had there. However, in retrospect, I think that it was my friends who made the place fun rather than the place itself. My two years in Mumbai was so exciting and fun that I am left enthralled every time I think about it.
The memories from Mumbai are so strong, powerful, and vivid that the imprints will remain embossed on the walls of my heart till the time it beats. I am indebted to my friends for the magnificent company that they provided during my two years of stay. As an expression of gratitude towards them I would like to write about all of them but I would restrict myself to few lines when time is the constraint.
I will never forget….
I will never forget Sarvesh Chinagi. Amazing man with magical powers and charisma, so simple yet so difficult to understand. He is somebody who will help you in all the possible ways with all the possible means around. I have already written about him in my previous blogs. Somehow he holds a magical resource for energy which continuously feeds him perpetual power and vigor to help people eternally. He is a great friend, somebody whom I can rely on, somebody who is trustworthy, somebody who is always smiling, and somebody who is always there for you. I can trust him blindly.
I will never forget Sriram Suryanarayanan. Another great friend who is always around you to help you out in your bad times and always there to celebrate in your good times. He is a fun company as he has the right mix of intellect and humor which makes him intellectual and interesting at the same time. He calls himself an experimenter but still keeps himself away from red meat. He is a great complainer and keeps grumbling about people, place, and relationships. We had many late night parties together where we partied till we got high over the drinks. The best thing about getting high is that it gets higher every next time.
I will never forget Neha Modgil. She is a great company to talk to. Bit snobbish and bit attitudinal but a long time friend of mine. I never had problems with her. She is very caring and smart. I have known her so much and have already written so much about her. She is one of the girls who have influenced me and my life. We have spent countless hours together talking philosophy, psychology, astrology, life, and relationships.
I will never forget Khushboo Biyani. She is another girl with whom I have spent maximum time in Mumbai. She is younger than most of us, just got out from the safe and caring shell of her family. She is more mature than her age but still have to learn a lot. She is great fun as she is adventurous, social, adaptable, and a great listener. She doesn’t talk much, so most of the times you are supposed to speak but she would lend you her ears. She is also a good company for parties but somehow thinks twice when it comes to expensive hangouts. What will you do with all the money you are saving Khushboo? She claims herself to be a good cook but will never invite you for food. I think she is too lazy to carry this hobby along. This is the perfect time for her to take up a new hobby else I keep on waiting for her lunch invitation.
She is admirable in her own ways. Her face exudes heart crushing cuteness which gets leveraged by the mole on her face. She has an amazing collection of earrings and dresses. This explains the fact that why do I like her dressing.
She is so different that she treated us with Krishana’s prasadam as her birthday treat. All the best BEE.
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
Your Words
Your Words
Your words cut,
Your words heal.
Your words hide,
Your words reveal.
Your words ushered me,
To the silence of a dead soul.
Your words led me,
To the clamor of deafening ecstasy.
Your words walked me through,
Pangs of pains and heights of hope.
Your words made me,
Thoughtful, lively, cadaverous, and slushy.
Your words, your words, your words… matter a lot to me.
Your words cut,
Your words heal.
Your words hide,
Your words reveal.
Your words ushered me,
To the silence of a dead soul.
Your words led me,
To the clamor of deafening ecstasy.
Your words walked me through,
Pangs of pains and heights of hope.
Your words made me,
Thoughtful, lively, cadaverous, and slushy.
Your words, your words, your words… matter a lot to me.
Sunday, March 12, 2006
The Sanghai Weekend
The Hot Dinner Served Coldly
Finally Neha invited me for the long awaited dinner. It was pending since her promotion. I had left asking her when I conjectured that she was in no mood of treating me. My speculation suffered the setback when she asked me about my availability for the dinner. I happily agreed and after pondering a lot she finally decided to treat me at Sheesha - a restaurant suggested by her friend. What a weird name for a restaurant. Sounds rather like dance bar than a restaurant to me. The 15 min auto trip extened to 25 when the auto stopped in the middle of the road. We had already expected such nuisances for our dinner trip. Mysteriously our dinner outings had a bad past attached to it.
Finally we reached Seesha, Huma. It was an open terrace restaurant with neatly done decor. The gray stone floor had high and low areas. Lower areas of the floor were filled with white marble gravels spread casually over to make the floor height even everywhere. It created a gray and white pattern on the floor and looked overly done. I could feel the gravels touching my toes and making a lousy sound as I made my way through the sea of gravels. The floor was different but definitely not impressive. As I sat on the table I could saw red napkins and traditionally designed heavy brass cutlery to serve the food. Neha was sitting on the chair kept next to mine on a table made for four. The breeze was gentle and cool but with a smell of gasoline pollutants to remind me that it was still a weekday. I asked Neha to place the order for me as well, because it was her treat. She delighted me with Mutton Korma, Mushrooms, Pineapple Raita, Tandoori Roti, and Sweet Lime. Food was definitely tasty.
We were together for the dinner but somehow we did not speak much. Most of the time both of us were silent and appeared contemplating about our own worlds. I tried reading her face by extending the length of my causal glance at her to figure out what was she thinking but I did not interpret much about her thoughts. I realized that her face was not exuding the affable warmth and the affectionate smile that she generally carried. Her body language was definitely not of a genial host's. I found her miles away from me in the physical proximity of three feet. Either the dinner was forced on her or she had something else going in her mind which made the dinner cold though it was served hot.
I dropped her at Jalvayu thinking that I would miss her for next ten days when she would be in Sanghai. Somehow, this time I did not like saying her good-bye for so long. Why do we need to say good-byes to our near and dears? Is there a way out of it? I was feeling forsaken by her. My heart was grave and grim. Was she becoming important to me?
----------------------------------------------------------
Unpredictable Saturday
3 p.m., my phone ring awakened me from the afternoon nap and the display read ‘Neha Calling’. My sleepy eyes came out from the sockets seeing her name. Not that she was calling me for the first time but the timing was unpredictable and unusual. She should have been flying over China at that time. I jumped off my bed in sheer disbelief as the sleepiness got conquered by anxiety. I found her on the line and she informed me how she missed the flight and could not pass the immigration. She had to come back and would fly again only on Monday. Somehow I felt happy about this bad news. The same corner of my heart which felt grave and grim a day before, had paroxysms of intense joy.
Afternoon I had personal work and went to Andheri. My friends left for town and when I came back at 5 p.m. nobody was around to sit and chat. Two hours 5-7 p.m., I was discovering ways to kill my solitude. For the fast time in Mumbai I felt lonely in this maximum city. There were numerous folks around me but there was nobody to talk to. There were places to go out but there was no company to ask for. I felt miserable and helpless in the deafening silence of solitude. There was nobody to break this eternal silence when I decided to call Neha. She was supposed to go to town but lucky I was because she did not. She was in the office and I was within fifty meters. I had never felt so happy after seeing her. Reasons were pretty obvious - firstly her being there with me when I was craving for a company, secondly I got the company I love to be with, though unexpectedly.
She looked elated as we greeted each other and exchanged smiles. We decided to go to our favorite place - CCD to grab a mug of coffee. We sat for two hours as time flew lightning fast. We have discussed so much about our lives over coffee that sometimes I wonder what had happened if coffee would not have been discovered. After a very long time I saw her in jovial mood that day. Her dulcet laughter echoed in the clamor of the coffee house and lingered in my ears till it was replaced by another one. As she drank the coffee, she untied, and again tied her hair with her hair pin clenched between her teeth.
We also talked about her long awaited music system and I suggested her to buy a Sony A-Z series. She was so much happy and lively that she unexpectedly decided to buy one - the very next day, and asked me to help her for this. I like shopping electronic equipment and gadgets. It keeps me updated about the electronics market. I welcomingly accepted the invitation. We finished our drinks and paid the bills. I left her home once again and she told me a new story once again as she always did whenever I left her back home. Kudos to her tenacious memory.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Sunday Shopping
I reached her place at 11 a.m. and we set to Andheri to buy her music system. After a lot of discussion we decided for Sony AZ5DRS component system. Amazing quality and slick looks. The shopping finished so fast that the rest of the day looked long. Neha wanted to go to ISKON temple but I did not like her idea. Going to a temple with a girl looked like a Hindi movie script to me and I always hated it. Religious places to me are for married couples while singles should confine themselves to malls, movie theatres, coffee houses, and restaurants. Nobody should breach their territories. Luckily the temple was closed; perhaps God also had accepted this unwritten and unspoken law of territory distribution. Unanimously we agreed upon a movie and went to Fame Adlabs. We had not decided for any movie and we were open to any movie around 3’O clock – the time we reached there. Luckily we found ‘Crash’ at 3:30.
After finding that we had enough time for lunch we decided to have food at Pappi Parantha’s. What a horrible decision was that. Never in my life, I was sold a deep fried stuff as parantha. Those exorbitantly priced horrible paranthas were difficult to finish. Oil was dripping and trickling all around the paranthas and we actually used tissues at times to soak extra oil. But our attempts were rendered futile as we found more and more oil oozing out of the pores. I tried my hands at lassi that I had ordered, only to figure out that it was nothing but sweet curd. Unaware of the consistency, I used the straw to suck in but I had to try so hard that my lungs got squeezed and stuck to the walls of ribcage. Still I didn’t get anything in my mouth. Finally I had to use spoon to EAT the lassi. I cursed the place which was fooling poor Mumbaites by serving filthy stuff in the name of Punjabi food. Probably, the place had started giving nightmares to so many people who went there for Punjabi food. They would never touch Punjabi food again, thinking how lousy it was.
I lurched around the theatre before the movie when I was talking to my friend. I could not find Neha. I looked around everywhere but she had disappeared. Far in a remote corner I saw her sitting and enjoying music. Today again she looked jovial and gay and I felt happy for her. The clouds of darkness seemed to be disappearing giving way to the golden sunlight of life. And that day she was there with me mentally and physically in the proximity of three feet.
Finally Neha invited me for the long awaited dinner. It was pending since her promotion. I had left asking her when I conjectured that she was in no mood of treating me. My speculation suffered the setback when she asked me about my availability for the dinner. I happily agreed and after pondering a lot she finally decided to treat me at Sheesha - a restaurant suggested by her friend. What a weird name for a restaurant. Sounds rather like dance bar than a restaurant to me. The 15 min auto trip extened to 25 when the auto stopped in the middle of the road. We had already expected such nuisances for our dinner trip. Mysteriously our dinner outings had a bad past attached to it.
Finally we reached Seesha, Huma. It was an open terrace restaurant with neatly done decor. The gray stone floor had high and low areas. Lower areas of the floor were filled with white marble gravels spread casually over to make the floor height even everywhere. It created a gray and white pattern on the floor and looked overly done. I could feel the gravels touching my toes and making a lousy sound as I made my way through the sea of gravels. The floor was different but definitely not impressive. As I sat on the table I could saw red napkins and traditionally designed heavy brass cutlery to serve the food. Neha was sitting on the chair kept next to mine on a table made for four. The breeze was gentle and cool but with a smell of gasoline pollutants to remind me that it was still a weekday. I asked Neha to place the order for me as well, because it was her treat. She delighted me with Mutton Korma, Mushrooms, Pineapple Raita, Tandoori Roti, and Sweet Lime. Food was definitely tasty.
We were together for the dinner but somehow we did not speak much. Most of the time both of us were silent and appeared contemplating about our own worlds. I tried reading her face by extending the length of my causal glance at her to figure out what was she thinking but I did not interpret much about her thoughts. I realized that her face was not exuding the affable warmth and the affectionate smile that she generally carried. Her body language was definitely not of a genial host's. I found her miles away from me in the physical proximity of three feet. Either the dinner was forced on her or she had something else going in her mind which made the dinner cold though it was served hot.
I dropped her at Jalvayu thinking that I would miss her for next ten days when she would be in Sanghai. Somehow, this time I did not like saying her good-bye for so long. Why do we need to say good-byes to our near and dears? Is there a way out of it? I was feeling forsaken by her. My heart was grave and grim. Was she becoming important to me?
----------------------------------------------------------
Unpredictable Saturday
3 p.m., my phone ring awakened me from the afternoon nap and the display read ‘Neha Calling’. My sleepy eyes came out from the sockets seeing her name. Not that she was calling me for the first time but the timing was unpredictable and unusual. She should have been flying over China at that time. I jumped off my bed in sheer disbelief as the sleepiness got conquered by anxiety. I found her on the line and she informed me how she missed the flight and could not pass the immigration. She had to come back and would fly again only on Monday. Somehow I felt happy about this bad news. The same corner of my heart which felt grave and grim a day before, had paroxysms of intense joy.
Afternoon I had personal work and went to Andheri. My friends left for town and when I came back at 5 p.m. nobody was around to sit and chat. Two hours 5-7 p.m., I was discovering ways to kill my solitude. For the fast time in Mumbai I felt lonely in this maximum city. There were numerous folks around me but there was nobody to talk to. There were places to go out but there was no company to ask for. I felt miserable and helpless in the deafening silence of solitude. There was nobody to break this eternal silence when I decided to call Neha. She was supposed to go to town but lucky I was because she did not. She was in the office and I was within fifty meters. I had never felt so happy after seeing her. Reasons were pretty obvious - firstly her being there with me when I was craving for a company, secondly I got the company I love to be with, though unexpectedly.
She looked elated as we greeted each other and exchanged smiles. We decided to go to our favorite place - CCD to grab a mug of coffee. We sat for two hours as time flew lightning fast. We have discussed so much about our lives over coffee that sometimes I wonder what had happened if coffee would not have been discovered. After a very long time I saw her in jovial mood that day. Her dulcet laughter echoed in the clamor of the coffee house and lingered in my ears till it was replaced by another one. As she drank the coffee, she untied, and again tied her hair with her hair pin clenched between her teeth.
We also talked about her long awaited music system and I suggested her to buy a Sony A-Z series. She was so much happy and lively that she unexpectedly decided to buy one - the very next day, and asked me to help her for this. I like shopping electronic equipment and gadgets. It keeps me updated about the electronics market. I welcomingly accepted the invitation. We finished our drinks and paid the bills. I left her home once again and she told me a new story once again as she always did whenever I left her back home. Kudos to her tenacious memory.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Sunday Shopping
I reached her place at 11 a.m. and we set to Andheri to buy her music system. After a lot of discussion we decided for Sony AZ5DRS component system. Amazing quality and slick looks. The shopping finished so fast that the rest of the day looked long. Neha wanted to go to ISKON temple but I did not like her idea. Going to a temple with a girl looked like a Hindi movie script to me and I always hated it. Religious places to me are for married couples while singles should confine themselves to malls, movie theatres, coffee houses, and restaurants. Nobody should breach their territories. Luckily the temple was closed; perhaps God also had accepted this unwritten and unspoken law of territory distribution. Unanimously we agreed upon a movie and went to Fame Adlabs. We had not decided for any movie and we were open to any movie around 3’O clock – the time we reached there. Luckily we found ‘Crash’ at 3:30.
After finding that we had enough time for lunch we decided to have food at Pappi Parantha’s. What a horrible decision was that. Never in my life, I was sold a deep fried stuff as parantha. Those exorbitantly priced horrible paranthas were difficult to finish. Oil was dripping and trickling all around the paranthas and we actually used tissues at times to soak extra oil. But our attempts were rendered futile as we found more and more oil oozing out of the pores. I tried my hands at lassi that I had ordered, only to figure out that it was nothing but sweet curd. Unaware of the consistency, I used the straw to suck in but I had to try so hard that my lungs got squeezed and stuck to the walls of ribcage. Still I didn’t get anything in my mouth. Finally I had to use spoon to EAT the lassi. I cursed the place which was fooling poor Mumbaites by serving filthy stuff in the name of Punjabi food. Probably, the place had started giving nightmares to so many people who went there for Punjabi food. They would never touch Punjabi food again, thinking how lousy it was.
I lurched around the theatre before the movie when I was talking to my friend. I could not find Neha. I looked around everywhere but she had disappeared. Far in a remote corner I saw her sitting and enjoying music. Today again she looked jovial and gay and I felt happy for her. The clouds of darkness seemed to be disappearing giving way to the golden sunlight of life. And that day she was there with me mentally and physically in the proximity of three feet.
Friday, February 24, 2006
Disintegration
Friday evening, I am sitting at home at 10'O clock. Two reasons - I wanted some solitude and some time for myself, to introspect, to retrospect, and to decide on my future course. The other reason is that I do not want to drink which was inevitable had I stayed at Sriram's place. I had no reason to say "No" to them. My two months resolution to abstain from alcohol got over the next day to valentine's. I celebrated it with wines and champagnes from Europe and how can I not mention one large peg of all time favorite Old Monk. Today I could have drunk once again had I not made my mind to come back home.
Anyway, I cannot avoid or prevent it for long. Anoop is leaving for US and I know I have to drink with him before he leaves. I could have broken my resolution to drink our last few drinks. We had drunk a lot together and had a quality time. Today when he is leaving our group and going to US we cannot avoid gettting together again to celebrate the good time that we had together.
It is a depressing moment that he is leaving our group and we are missing a friend. The best thing about coming to Mumbai and joining HFI is to get friends for life. For almost two years we have been living in different houses but sharing the same affable space. Living our own lives but concerned and cognizant about each other's life. Even the most trivial things had become special with them around. The bitter and sweet memories that we have had, have been rendered for eternity on the walls of my heart. He is leaving us - is something difficult to believe. The group is breaking, it's disintegrating and in the process friends are going away. Everybody wants to go for his new life and when he does, he leaves behind his past, which keeps hovering around the friends left behind. One by one everybody would leave and the group will disappear. I guess this is the last best group that I am seeing and experiencing. In a year or so most of us will be married and once you are married your wife becomes your first priority. The saddest part is that we will be living in different countries across various time zones. I guess within next six months the group would disappear and each of us would assume a new life and new group.
My guess as of today:
Anoop: USA
Sriram: Canada
Sarvesh: Europe -> India
Amol: USA
Praveen: Europe -> USA
Friends far apart but friends for life. Atleast we can go to any continent with confidence and for a reason, which is nothing better than meeting an old friend.
Had a chat with Neha today. She is coming for a week and leaving for Sanghai. I guess this would be her second last week in Mumbai and she will also leave to Bangalore. Though I did not spend much time with her in Mumbai but she was a good friend when I was in Delhi. We had different worlds here in Mumbai and we rarely met and talked. We thought not to disturb each other's life and we were happy that way. Except the past four months when we started talking again. Anyway, once she leaves Mumbai she will also start her life afresh like Anoop. Only the past that she would leave behind will keep hovering around me to realize that she is not there....
Anyway, I cannot avoid or prevent it for long. Anoop is leaving for US and I know I have to drink with him before he leaves. I could have broken my resolution to drink our last few drinks. We had drunk a lot together and had a quality time. Today when he is leaving our group and going to US we cannot avoid gettting together again to celebrate the good time that we had together.
It is a depressing moment that he is leaving our group and we are missing a friend. The best thing about coming to Mumbai and joining HFI is to get friends for life. For almost two years we have been living in different houses but sharing the same affable space. Living our own lives but concerned and cognizant about each other's life. Even the most trivial things had become special with them around. The bitter and sweet memories that we have had, have been rendered for eternity on the walls of my heart. He is leaving us - is something difficult to believe. The group is breaking, it's disintegrating and in the process friends are going away. Everybody wants to go for his new life and when he does, he leaves behind his past, which keeps hovering around the friends left behind. One by one everybody would leave and the group will disappear. I guess this is the last best group that I am seeing and experiencing. In a year or so most of us will be married and once you are married your wife becomes your first priority. The saddest part is that we will be living in different countries across various time zones. I guess within next six months the group would disappear and each of us would assume a new life and new group.
My guess as of today:
Anoop: USA
Sriram: Canada
Sarvesh: Europe -> India
Amol: USA
Praveen: Europe -> USA
Friends far apart but friends for life. Atleast we can go to any continent with confidence and for a reason, which is nothing better than meeting an old friend.
Had a chat with Neha today. She is coming for a week and leaving for Sanghai. I guess this would be her second last week in Mumbai and she will also leave to Bangalore. Though I did not spend much time with her in Mumbai but she was a good friend when I was in Delhi. We had different worlds here in Mumbai and we rarely met and talked. We thought not to disturb each other's life and we were happy that way. Except the past four months when we started talking again. Anyway, once she leaves Mumbai she will also start her life afresh like Anoop. Only the past that she would leave behind will keep hovering around me to realize that she is not there....
Sunday, February 19, 2006
Life at Cross Roads
Today when I am scribbling down, lots of changes have taken place in my life. Life is nothing but a synonym of uncertainty. We dream, we desire, we plan, we hope, and we start working towards it, thinking we have found our goal, soon to realize that destiny has something else to offer. All dreams shatter, all desires change, all plans fail, all hopes become despair and we fall down again to face the harsh cruel reality.
The weekend was not really exciting. I had movies to see but did not really get time to watch. Important matters of life overruled all trivia that had to happen. Saturday went lightening fast over the discussions of the script and a long rejuvenating sleep that ended with some tea at a dhaba opposite IITB. Saurabh, and Sriram accompanied me. We discussed grave matters about life. Luckily I had the right company at the right time. Life has come to crossroads now and everybody is worried as to where to go. There are two ways to live – follow your dreams or dump your dreams.
I have decided to choose the first option. I will follow my dreams and now do not care who is coming along with me and who is not. The conversation at the tea was really something important. Three guys determined to pursue their dreams. I am happy to see that we could muster the courage to take the risk and to give it a shot. 99% of the people otherwise dump their dreams in the pursuit of comfort and sustenance.
Sarvesh wants to start something of his own and is waiting for the right moment and opportunity.
Amol wants to go for MBA and perhaps later wants to start his own business to become a rich man.
Sriram wants to travel all around the world and in the process wants to capture his travel on his camera.
Anoop wants to go to US and wants to start his own life. He perhaps wants to be in Usability only.
Neha wants to do something for the society but I doubt it :). Money is something which is very difficult to get away with. Social service is not a good idea to make money. I hope she will find a mid-way.
I want to start my production house to produce documentaries for NatGeo, Discovery, etc... These are the dreams of today. Life is so unpredictable. It changes every moment and so our dreams.... Let’s see who gets what? May God bless all of us. We will win the world. :)
The major turnaround that happened last week was to get in touch with Sheetal Agarwal. She is a documentary filmmaker who is down to earth, without ego and attitude. I would be more than happy and grateful to assist her. Soon we are going to start something in that direction. I am waiting for her to get in touch with me with her itinerary about her film. Once I get my directions I will start working on it – something I am excited about.
The other small time fiction movie that we are trying “The loss of Golden Silence” is going good but has become slow. Our jobs eat up most of the time we get. I think we should be done with our script this week. I am excited about this project and in particular looking it as a learning. I am sure it would not be that easy as we had visualized when we started. The good thing is that the team is enthusiastic about its completion and it is really heartening to see such dedication, commitment, and energy in abundance. Akriti, Sriram, Shaurya, Saurabh, and I are making it possible by contributing in the best way we can.
Days have become so small that it leaves only a little time for me. My guitar practice, my jogging, and my reading, everything is suffering and have gone for a toss because of this time crunch. So many things to do in such a small life. I wish if I had a million years of life to follow my dreams.
Some people are important to me in my life. When they are not around me I feel restless and anxious. I wait for them, to hear them, to see them, to fill in my space with them. They on the other hand, do not even get the clue of this or sometimes just act ignorant and innocent. Sometimes I try to fool myself that they don’t matter to me and I don’t care about them. Fake consolations are a blindfold that can hide the memories from the past but cannot stop the outcries of the heart to reach our ears. We all are pretentious in some way or the other. We all are good actors to hide our emotions and to fake emotions when we react. And we bury our true emotions in the grave of ego, self-respect and pride. The persona we wear is not our true self but something which this world wants us to look like. How long would we live this false life for others and for what?
The weekend was not really exciting. I had movies to see but did not really get time to watch. Important matters of life overruled all trivia that had to happen. Saturday went lightening fast over the discussions of the script and a long rejuvenating sleep that ended with some tea at a dhaba opposite IITB. Saurabh, and Sriram accompanied me. We discussed grave matters about life. Luckily I had the right company at the right time. Life has come to crossroads now and everybody is worried as to where to go. There are two ways to live – follow your dreams or dump your dreams.
I have decided to choose the first option. I will follow my dreams and now do not care who is coming along with me and who is not. The conversation at the tea was really something important. Three guys determined to pursue their dreams. I am happy to see that we could muster the courage to take the risk and to give it a shot. 99% of the people otherwise dump their dreams in the pursuit of comfort and sustenance.
Sarvesh wants to start something of his own and is waiting for the right moment and opportunity.
Amol wants to go for MBA and perhaps later wants to start his own business to become a rich man.
Sriram wants to travel all around the world and in the process wants to capture his travel on his camera.
Anoop wants to go to US and wants to start his own life. He perhaps wants to be in Usability only.
Neha wants to do something for the society but I doubt it :). Money is something which is very difficult to get away with. Social service is not a good idea to make money. I hope she will find a mid-way.
I want to start my production house to produce documentaries for NatGeo, Discovery, etc... These are the dreams of today. Life is so unpredictable. It changes every moment and so our dreams.... Let’s see who gets what? May God bless all of us. We will win the world. :)
The major turnaround that happened last week was to get in touch with Sheetal Agarwal. She is a documentary filmmaker who is down to earth, without ego and attitude. I would be more than happy and grateful to assist her. Soon we are going to start something in that direction. I am waiting for her to get in touch with me with her itinerary about her film. Once I get my directions I will start working on it – something I am excited about.
The other small time fiction movie that we are trying “The loss of Golden Silence” is going good but has become slow. Our jobs eat up most of the time we get. I think we should be done with our script this week. I am excited about this project and in particular looking it as a learning. I am sure it would not be that easy as we had visualized when we started. The good thing is that the team is enthusiastic about its completion and it is really heartening to see such dedication, commitment, and energy in abundance. Akriti, Sriram, Shaurya, Saurabh, and I are making it possible by contributing in the best way we can.
Days have become so small that it leaves only a little time for me. My guitar practice, my jogging, and my reading, everything is suffering and have gone for a toss because of this time crunch. So many things to do in such a small life. I wish if I had a million years of life to follow my dreams.
Some people are important to me in my life. When they are not around me I feel restless and anxious. I wait for them, to hear them, to see them, to fill in my space with them. They on the other hand, do not even get the clue of this or sometimes just act ignorant and innocent. Sometimes I try to fool myself that they don’t matter to me and I don’t care about them. Fake consolations are a blindfold that can hide the memories from the past but cannot stop the outcries of the heart to reach our ears. We all are pretentious in some way or the other. We all are good actors to hide our emotions and to fake emotions when we react. And we bury our true emotions in the grave of ego, self-respect and pride. The persona we wear is not our true self but something which this world wants us to look like. How long would we live this false life for others and for what?
Sunday, January 29, 2006
My Republic Day Weekend
And Basanti did not get painted...
It is in human nature to do everything first and take pride in it. Same emotions motivated me to get the tickets for Rang De Basanti. I also wanted to see the movie the first day itself and to describe it later on to the people who are lethargic in taking actions. But sometimes you have to pay for it when you try to churn out things faster than the normal pace.
I wanted to make my Republic day different by starting my guitar classes and to make Rang De Basanti (RDB) possible. I was going to attend my first guitar class with Anoop and Sarvesh. On our way to the class around 10:30 am when we reached near Huma we decided to buy the tickets. Sarvesh and I rushed towards the counter. It was crowded with people desperate to get the tickets before they sold off. I found myself on cloud nine when I got the tickets in my hand.
At 11 pm everybody got assembled at the theatre. We walked to the gate wearing the arrogance of the first day movie watcher. The guard stopped us and gave us a shock of our life when he told us that there was no show at all at 11:30. I ran towards Sarvesh and tried to get the glimpse of the tickets that were visible through the small opening of the black blanket created by the anxious heads. Timing was same except the AM and PM indication, which was overlooked by our excited eyes in the morning. Eyes see what our mind wants to see. We did not get to see the Basanti but we got the experience to live for our lifetime.
Leave me alone!!!
Saturday I came to office as usual to charge my mobile but found Neha’s name in the muster. I as a good friend decided to go back home without disturbing her from her work. I asked the guard to get the charger for me. I did not go inside to disturb her. It is a bad habit to intrude and I never do that. I wanted to meet her and bid hello but refrained myself from it. Day before yesterday she had decided to be left alone on her own and not to be disturbed by anybody. I do not mind her finicky decisions, whimsical nature, impulsive attitude, and wavering temperament between cycles of bad, good, depressing, and happy moods. I know her state of mind. She is going through the hardest times of her life and finds it difficult to decide between good and bad. She needs a friend right now who can be just there with her, to listen her, to speak to her, to laugh with her, to cry with her, to consoler her, and to make her smile and happy. I try to do that whenever I go with her. I try to not to let our conversation dry, try hard to let it go, try to throw jokes and doing stupid things, try hard to not to leave her alone by having dinners and movies her. I wanted to do all this on Saturday also but I left her alone in the gloomy office working alone without even leaving a note of my presence. Did I do a right thing by taking her “leave me alone” advice seriously? Only time will tell…I have known her only for five years. Very short time to know somebody.
The Power of "No"
It was another causal evening walk with Neha when I asked her about “Rang De Basanti” for the weekend. Sometime back she only gave me the idea to watch this movie together. She gave me a firm “No” leaving me perplexed and baffled. Girls go by instincts rather than intellect. Though I could not see the rational in her reply but she justified it with philosophical words like, “stop pushing, leave alone, need time, don’t make it hard for me”. Sometimes I think whether she did psychology or architecture. God what did I do? Just asked for a movie, which was already planned. Since I asked for it, I invariably had given her the power of saying “No”. I realized the power of “No”. Infact she made me to realize that power. Not all “No’s” can become powerful. A “No” from an acquaintance is never powerful because you invariably prepare yourself to listen it. A “No” from a friend” is more powerful than an acquaintance. It gets powerful and more powerful as we hear it from a good friend, a very good friend, lover, fiancée, and ultimately our spouse. It becomes powerful, as the relationship with the person gets stronger. Strong relationship means more trust and dependence.
Powers if not used carefully and cautiously can be destructive and fatal. It goes with the power of saying “No” also. If there is only “No” in a relationship then it signals its end. It should be balanced with “Yes” to counter the power of “No”.
I realized from the experiences of my life that there is no power in saying “No”. You need to be powerful to say, “Yes” not a “No”. “No” is a quick escape route from a situation while “Yes” require you to fight and deal with the situation. “Yes” brings in love, respect, and trust while a “No” brings you hatred, shame and distrust. In your conscience also you feel good after making somebody happy and you feel bad after making him or her sad. You need not to be powerful to say a “No” but for a “Yes” you have to have the powers to control the situations that arise after that. Only a coward will say a “No” and runaway from the situation. A fighter will always accept the challenge.I knew that she needed some time for herself after looking into her eyes. I decided to give up. The good thing that I took out from the discourse that we had was the analysis of “Yes and No” - Two extremes but so close. She is a very sweet girl with a kind heart. She never hurt somebody knowingly. She will become the same person good person soon whom I knew once. It is just a matter of time.
It is in human nature to do everything first and take pride in it. Same emotions motivated me to get the tickets for Rang De Basanti. I also wanted to see the movie the first day itself and to describe it later on to the people who are lethargic in taking actions. But sometimes you have to pay for it when you try to churn out things faster than the normal pace.
I wanted to make my Republic day different by starting my guitar classes and to make Rang De Basanti (RDB) possible. I was going to attend my first guitar class with Anoop and Sarvesh. On our way to the class around 10:30 am when we reached near Huma we decided to buy the tickets. Sarvesh and I rushed towards the counter. It was crowded with people desperate to get the tickets before they sold off. I found myself on cloud nine when I got the tickets in my hand.
At 11 pm everybody got assembled at the theatre. We walked to the gate wearing the arrogance of the first day movie watcher. The guard stopped us and gave us a shock of our life when he told us that there was no show at all at 11:30. I ran towards Sarvesh and tried to get the glimpse of the tickets that were visible through the small opening of the black blanket created by the anxious heads. Timing was same except the AM and PM indication, which was overlooked by our excited eyes in the morning. Eyes see what our mind wants to see. We did not get to see the Basanti but we got the experience to live for our lifetime.
Leave me alone!!!
Saturday I came to office as usual to charge my mobile but found Neha’s name in the muster. I as a good friend decided to go back home without disturbing her from her work. I asked the guard to get the charger for me. I did not go inside to disturb her. It is a bad habit to intrude and I never do that. I wanted to meet her and bid hello but refrained myself from it. Day before yesterday she had decided to be left alone on her own and not to be disturbed by anybody. I do not mind her finicky decisions, whimsical nature, impulsive attitude, and wavering temperament between cycles of bad, good, depressing, and happy moods. I know her state of mind. She is going through the hardest times of her life and finds it difficult to decide between good and bad. She needs a friend right now who can be just there with her, to listen her, to speak to her, to laugh with her, to cry with her, to consoler her, and to make her smile and happy. I try to do that whenever I go with her. I try to not to let our conversation dry, try hard to let it go, try to throw jokes and doing stupid things, try hard to not to leave her alone by having dinners and movies her. I wanted to do all this on Saturday also but I left her alone in the gloomy office working alone without even leaving a note of my presence. Did I do a right thing by taking her “leave me alone” advice seriously? Only time will tell…I have known her only for five years. Very short time to know somebody.
The Power of "No"
It was another causal evening walk with Neha when I asked her about “Rang De Basanti” for the weekend. Sometime back she only gave me the idea to watch this movie together. She gave me a firm “No” leaving me perplexed and baffled. Girls go by instincts rather than intellect. Though I could not see the rational in her reply but she justified it with philosophical words like, “stop pushing, leave alone, need time, don’t make it hard for me”. Sometimes I think whether she did psychology or architecture. God what did I do? Just asked for a movie, which was already planned. Since I asked for it, I invariably had given her the power of saying “No”. I realized the power of “No”. Infact she made me to realize that power. Not all “No’s” can become powerful. A “No” from an acquaintance is never powerful because you invariably prepare yourself to listen it. A “No” from a friend” is more powerful than an acquaintance. It gets powerful and more powerful as we hear it from a good friend, a very good friend, lover, fiancée, and ultimately our spouse. It becomes powerful, as the relationship with the person gets stronger. Strong relationship means more trust and dependence.
Powers if not used carefully and cautiously can be destructive and fatal. It goes with the power of saying “No” also. If there is only “No” in a relationship then it signals its end. It should be balanced with “Yes” to counter the power of “No”.
I realized from the experiences of my life that there is no power in saying “No”. You need to be powerful to say, “Yes” not a “No”. “No” is a quick escape route from a situation while “Yes” require you to fight and deal with the situation. “Yes” brings in love, respect, and trust while a “No” brings you hatred, shame and distrust. In your conscience also you feel good after making somebody happy and you feel bad after making him or her sad. You need not to be powerful to say a “No” but for a “Yes” you have to have the powers to control the situations that arise after that. Only a coward will say a “No” and runaway from the situation. A fighter will always accept the challenge.I knew that she needed some time for herself after looking into her eyes. I decided to give up. The good thing that I took out from the discourse that we had was the analysis of “Yes and No” - Two extremes but so close. She is a very sweet girl with a kind heart. She never hurt somebody knowingly. She will become the same person good person soon whom I knew once. It is just a matter of time.
Thursday, January 26, 2006
The Golden Mango - Story of Life
Piyush jumps off the bed. His face is all wet as a result of profuse perspiration. He is still perplexed and gasping. The dream was reality or the reality was dream? He is trying hard to get his answer. He pinches himself on his wrist and bellows in pain. “So, it was a dream.” He smiles as he thinks about it.
“Wake up my son. I have come here to give you a boon. Can you see this sapling in my hands?” says God.
“Yes, God” says Piyush after seeing a small sapling of a mango tree. It has three small leaves that look tender and small.
“Take this sapling and it will give you a golden mango when it becomes a tree, only if you planted it in the magical land.”
“But God, where is that magical land? And, and… how do I find it?” asks Piyush faltering in curiosity.
“Go north. Meet new people. Make new friends. One day you will certainly find your destination.” says God calmly with his eyes closed. “The owner of the magic land and you will be the most powerful and happy person on the earth. The person will provide you the magical land and you will provide the sapling. Together you will gain from it. But remember, the sapling will be ineffective at any other place until you find the right one. ” Continues God cautioning him from the perils of disobedience.
“Thank you God.” Piyush closes his eyes.
God’s aura starts growing. Getting more and more stronger and intense every second. God is no more visible and becomes a silhouette in the foreground of divine white blinding aura. The aura increases so much that the place becomes warm. He sees himself standing in the core of that hot and blazing aura. He starts perspiring heavily. It is getting hotter and hotter for him. He wants to run away from the place. He wants to open his eyes. His breaths have become faster and faster. He opens his eyes...
Piyush causally gets up to start his new day but his body becomes stoned as he sees something weird and uncanny. “Am I still seeing the dream?” he asks himself unable to believe his eyes. The wall opposite to the bed has a small temple. Today the temple has a new gift in it.
Afraid of touching it, he moves his finger gently to touch and feel the tender leaves to make sure that they are real.
--------------------------------------------------
“ Megha, Megha, Megha…” She can feel her body trembling as she listens to her name. She opens her eyes lazily to find Meera’s face. Her younger sister is trying to wake her up by screaming aloud and shaking her vigorously at the same time. Megha gets angry with Meera. “You have spoiled my dream. I was conversing with God and I was in the middle of the conversation when you interrupted. Why did you want me to wake up?” asks Meera with a furious look. Meera tries to reason it out by saying that probably God wanted you to tell only half of the dream.
“What was the dream about?” asks Meera with an innocent look of a thirteen years old girl in her eyes.
“God told me about a place in our back yard just adjacent to the stable. He said that it has magical powers. He told me that I could plant a mango sapling on the magical land. The tree will bear the fruit only once. The fruit of the tree would be a golden mango. The golden mango would make me the most powerful and happy girl in this world. The God was completing his golden words but you woke me up. You are such a knotty girl,” says Megha teasingly. “Ok let’s go and see the magical land.” She finishes the sentence while running towards the stable.
Megha buys a mango sapling and plants it early in the morning only. She puts some water and manure to make sure that she gets the golden mango as a fruit. Megha religiously waters it, takes care of it, and makes sure that it is safe from cattle. Within three days the sapling gets it roots. She sees the leaves turning to golden green from green. Megha sits for hours there seeing the plant and leaves as they grow. Her eyes keep switching between reality and the dreams that she weaves sitting near the sapling. She thinks about her good future, happy life. She feels powerful and her heart fills in with conceit for a moment as she brisks away the momentary feeling of vanity away from herself. Taking care of the sapling and dreaming about her future with the golden mango becomes her daily routine. And the days go on…
-------------------------------------------
Piyush heads towards North. He keeps walking in unexplored places, meeting new people, and making new friends. The exile makes him self-dependent, mature, and an experienced person. He has known thousands of people; hundreds of people are his friends. He boasts hundreds of languages as he has seen half of the earth.
One fine day he sits in a garden to take a small break just to realize the fact that how fast he has spent his three years. He doubts himself, thinking whether he is going the right way by following the dream. A span of three years is quite a long time to test the endurance. The clouds of uncertainty surround him. He feels discomfort, dubiety, and fear about himself. Holding the sapling and looking at it he thinks about his conversation. Perhaps the God has listened him.
Sound of footsteps over the thin cover of autumn leaves across the path brings Piyush back to his senses. He sees a beautiful girl walking carelessly to her home. Her beauty mesmerizes him. The glow and color of her skin is as fresh and radiant as a newly blossomed rose. He runs after her and pats on her shoulder as he reaches behind her. Megha looks back at the Piyush and observe the mango sapling in his hand.
“Hello! My name is Piyush and I am new to this place. I am looking for an inn. Can you guide me lady?” he utters his words while panting.
“It is right there down the road. Go straight and ask for dharamshala. If you do not mind young man, who are you? What is this mango sapling for?” Megha asks interrogatively in a single breath. “By the way my name is Megha.” She completes her sentence.
“I am a traveler. I have been traveling for last three years. I am heading for an unknown destination. The sapling that I am holding is a special sapling. It will fructify and will give me a golden mango. I am looking for a magical land. God has asked me to find the magical land to plant it. Since then I have become a nomad and wandering in unknowns of my life.” explains Piyush.
“Good to know that. Is it fine if I meet you tomorrow in the evening? Your sapling story sounds interesting. I will like to hear more about it.” Says Megha as she becomes numb and petrified after hearing this. She gets insecure of her magical land.
“Sure, you are welcome any time.” says Piyush smiling and thinking about his newly discovered friend.
-------------------------------------------
As usual Megha walks to the backyard and sits there looking at the full-grown tree. She has been taking care of it daily without fail. The leaves are golden now and shine brightly in the sunlight. Megha is waiting for the spring after two years to come to see the first flower that will lead to the golden mango. Megha sits in front of the tree and adores it. All these three years she has been talking everything about herself and her life to the tree. They are like friends who sit together, share their laughter and pains and continue living life.
Today when Megha is sitting there she is insecure and afraid of the traveler. The traveler is looking for her magical land. She thinks that the traveler would take away the golden mango away from her. She decides to talk to the traveler the next day. She goes again in the utopian world of dreams of the golden mango.
Next day Piyush sees Megha walking towards him as she appears like a goddess of gold in the light of golden dusk.
“Hello! It is so nice to see you again, Megha.”
“Nice to see you. I have some questions for you. Will you answer those questions?” Asks Megha as she looks at Piyush in doubt.
“Sure. I will. The good news is that I have decided to stay in your village for sometime. What do you want to ask?” questions Piyush.
“I want to ask you about the sapling.” Megha makes herself clear.
”What about that? I have already told you the story of the sapling and my motive of being here. There is nothing beyond this.” Piyush shrugs his shoulder.
“Piyush if I would tell you that I have the magic land and I already have a tree which is going to be fructify soon, what will you say?” Megha finally reveals the secret.
“Oh my god! I have found my destiny finally. Let me thank god, the universe, and all the holy souls to make this possible.” Says Piyush in the deluge of excitement that overwhelms his senses and he starts crying. “Let us plant this sapling and get the golden mango to become the most powerful and happy duo. Take me to your house and show me the magical land.” asks Piyush looking into her eyes.
“Don’t get excited Piyush. I already have a full-grown tree in my house. It has golden leaves and within two years it will fructify to give me the golden mango. I do not want to share my golden mango with anybody. I don’t know who told you about the magical land but I am sure that you are trying to get a share in my golden mango. I have worked hard for three years and will wait for two more years. I am not going to share it with anyone. It is mine and only mine.” Says Megha possessively.
“No, Megha you are wrong. Only the sapling that I have and the magical land that you have can result in the golden mango. Cut the tree and plant the new sapling.” Piyush tries to reason it out.
“You want to kill me? I have put in my heart and soul for three years. It is not a tree for me. We lived together and we died together. It is my soul and you are asking me to part myself from it. If it is not a golden mango tree then why the leaves are golden? You are a beguiler. You are trying to make me fool. I am not going to listen to you. You have come here with wrong intentions and I am not going to believe you. Do not interfere in my life. Stay away and let me live waiting here for the golden mango. I have faith in God and I know that I will get what I want.” Speaks Megha crying and sobbing.
“Ok Megha, if you want you can wait. I respect your faith in God and hard work. I cannot justify the golden colors of the leaves. Perhaps your hard work and trust have made them golden. But I am sure that it will not give you the golden mango. I will still keep the sapling. Perhaps there may be more people with the magical land. I need to find them now.” Adds Piyush.
----------------------------------------------------
He comes back to his new abode that is not far from Megha’s house. From the terrace he could see the stable and the golden mango tree adjacent to it shining white in full moon light. He cries and doubts the Almighty. He has wandered for three years and when today he was so close to the end he was parted by the destiny from his goal.
He goes to bed late in the night. He is thinking about Megha, her golden tree, his sapling, and the golden mango of power and happiness.
Piyush perspires again as he sees the aura coming down in his room. The God is back to console and to give him a new direction in the moments when he feels completely lost and unfocussed.
“I know what happened with you. Piyush you still keep the sapling, as tomorrow is uncertain. Take these keys. Seven seas and seven mountains away there is a country. The keys will help you in opening the palace in the country capital. People are waiting for their king to return with the keys. You will get power but I am not certain about happiness.” God says calmly.
“Uncertain? How can God be uncertain?” questions Piyush.
“Son, there exists numerous relationship between people. Every relationship is unique. Golden mango and keys are just a way to find these relationships. Since the ways of finding these relationships are different, they are going to be different. You were destined to get golden mango because the stars and the universe had set it for you. Keys to the palace are not your destiny but just an alternative to the golden mango. So you cannot expect everything from the keys. I hope you understand?” asks God.
“Yes I think so.” The God disappears as Piyush thanks him.
Piyush keeps the sapling aside in the morning and looks at the key. He dreams with the keys the same way Megha does with the tree. He dreams himself sitting in the palace ruling the world with treasures and diamonds.
He changes his way to his house to avoid any interaction with Megha. Megha also forgets Piyush soon and gets back into her life. She is getting impatient to see the golden mango. Two years have passed like a gust of wind.
Megha is excited today about the tomorrow, when the tree will fructify. She tries to sleep hard suppressing the exuberant feelings pumping her heart frantically. Her dream is going to fulfill soon.
Early morning she gets up and runs in the direction of tree. She yells at the top of her voice as the mango is missing. The tree was left with the small stem holding the mango. She searches the ground crying at the top of her voice but does not see the mango. The dreams shatter, the hard work and faith turn to mistrust. The five years of rewarding wait suddenly looks like a precious time flown away. Megha breaks down. She sits on the ground, as she feels too weak and powerless to stand. She loses her faith in this world. She keeps herself aloof and cries everyday for the golden mango.
-----------------------------------------------------
Mehga strongly believes that she has lost the golden mango. Though Piyush believes that it cannot be a golden mango because he has the original sapling. Since nobody has seen it nobody knows whether it was the golden mango or just another mango. Nobody knows the truth.
Megha tries to sleep as the tears are not stopping. The room becomes silent and she can hear her own breaths. She sees the aura descending in her room. The God is back.
“Why did you do this to me? I had put my golden years and I get back this. The mango is stolen. What will I do now? My heart says that it was the golden mango but Piyush denies it and says that it must be an ordinary mango. What do you say? God, please tell me the truth.” Cries Megha.
“Don’t cry Megha. The mango is gone. You have not seen it but you worked hard for it. You had put your self and soul in it and if you think that it was the golden mango then you must be right. I don’t know because sometimes God also misses few things. Piyush believes in his sapling that is why he thinks that the mango was normal. Since the mango is gone it does not matter whether it was golden or normal. You still have the magical land; there is a sapling within hundred kilometers that will give you the golden mango. If you can find it you will be powerful and happy again. But let me tell you that the person with the sapling will also become powerful and happy like you. You have to share it with that person.” And the God disappears.
Piyush and Megha start talking after this. Megha wants somebody who can understand the concept of the golden mango. Only Piyush understands it. They talk for hours and she finds solace as she slowly tries to recover from the debacle. They make a good company and they talk everything.
After a few days Piyush hesitatingly asks, “What would you do with the magical land?” He is really careful not to offer the sapling to her. He feels that he has already offered the sapling to her so this is her turn to ask for it. She has to feel the need for it from inside. Though somewhere in his heart he wants to offer his sapling. The mind defeats the heart as it reminds him of the keys to the kingdom and more magical lands. Piyush knows that the keys cannot bring him happiness. He is also unsure of finding more such lands. His soul is wavering between his mind and heart.
Megha knows that she still has the magical land and she just needs to find the sapling within hundred kilometers. Her heart wants to try the sapling that Piyush has but the mind reminds her that he is a cheat and above all asking for the sapling will label her as immature in making right decisions. Her mind thinks, “Why to go for a withered sapling when she can get a fresh new one.” Again the mind defeats the heart.
“I have the magical land. I will ask my father or look myself for it again. I am sure that my father will get me my golden mango sapling. I don’t have the patience to choose, test and try the sapling again. Let me tell you one more thing Piyush, do not remain in dark that I would ask for your sapling because I don’t trust you and also the sapling that you have is withered and of no use.” Megha makes her plans clear to Piyush. She is still uncertain of the new sapling that she will plant after she or her father gets one for her.
Piyush and Megha exchange their smiles. Bid good-bye to each other to start their new lives.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Two God-man are seeing all this from the heaven. One becomes uncomfortable after seeing all this. He says, “Why people are so myopic and short-sighted? Both Piyush and Megha have been brought together for some reason. God has given them so many clues. One has magical land and the other has the mango sapling. Their vibes match. They do not repel each other. God has made them to live close to each other so that they can understand each other. Still both of them have different feelings and plans.
Piyush thinks that he will find more magical lands. He is also relying on the keys that would not bring him any happiness. Megha on the other hand thinks that she would find another sapling though still unsure of the golden mango. Nobody is listening to the voice of heart. What do people want? Do they want God to come and give the golden mango in hands”?
The other god-man smiles, “You are unnecessarily worrying. That is the reason why they are human and not god-man like us. They do not understand that if they have complementary dreams then there is a meaning and reason behind it. The day human will start listening to their hearts and defeat their evil and wicked brains they will become God-man like us.”
“Wake up my son. I have come here to give you a boon. Can you see this sapling in my hands?” says God.
“Yes, God” says Piyush after seeing a small sapling of a mango tree. It has three small leaves that look tender and small.
“Take this sapling and it will give you a golden mango when it becomes a tree, only if you planted it in the magical land.”
“But God, where is that magical land? And, and… how do I find it?” asks Piyush faltering in curiosity.
“Go north. Meet new people. Make new friends. One day you will certainly find your destination.” says God calmly with his eyes closed. “The owner of the magic land and you will be the most powerful and happy person on the earth. The person will provide you the magical land and you will provide the sapling. Together you will gain from it. But remember, the sapling will be ineffective at any other place until you find the right one. ” Continues God cautioning him from the perils of disobedience.
“Thank you God.” Piyush closes his eyes.
God’s aura starts growing. Getting more and more stronger and intense every second. God is no more visible and becomes a silhouette in the foreground of divine white blinding aura. The aura increases so much that the place becomes warm. He sees himself standing in the core of that hot and blazing aura. He starts perspiring heavily. It is getting hotter and hotter for him. He wants to run away from the place. He wants to open his eyes. His breaths have become faster and faster. He opens his eyes...
Piyush causally gets up to start his new day but his body becomes stoned as he sees something weird and uncanny. “Am I still seeing the dream?” he asks himself unable to believe his eyes. The wall opposite to the bed has a small temple. Today the temple has a new gift in it.
Afraid of touching it, he moves his finger gently to touch and feel the tender leaves to make sure that they are real.
--------------------------------------------------
“ Megha, Megha, Megha…” She can feel her body trembling as she listens to her name. She opens her eyes lazily to find Meera’s face. Her younger sister is trying to wake her up by screaming aloud and shaking her vigorously at the same time. Megha gets angry with Meera. “You have spoiled my dream. I was conversing with God and I was in the middle of the conversation when you interrupted. Why did you want me to wake up?” asks Meera with a furious look. Meera tries to reason it out by saying that probably God wanted you to tell only half of the dream.
“What was the dream about?” asks Meera with an innocent look of a thirteen years old girl in her eyes.
“God told me about a place in our back yard just adjacent to the stable. He said that it has magical powers. He told me that I could plant a mango sapling on the magical land. The tree will bear the fruit only once. The fruit of the tree would be a golden mango. The golden mango would make me the most powerful and happy girl in this world. The God was completing his golden words but you woke me up. You are such a knotty girl,” says Megha teasingly. “Ok let’s go and see the magical land.” She finishes the sentence while running towards the stable.
Megha buys a mango sapling and plants it early in the morning only. She puts some water and manure to make sure that she gets the golden mango as a fruit. Megha religiously waters it, takes care of it, and makes sure that it is safe from cattle. Within three days the sapling gets it roots. She sees the leaves turning to golden green from green. Megha sits for hours there seeing the plant and leaves as they grow. Her eyes keep switching between reality and the dreams that she weaves sitting near the sapling. She thinks about her good future, happy life. She feels powerful and her heart fills in with conceit for a moment as she brisks away the momentary feeling of vanity away from herself. Taking care of the sapling and dreaming about her future with the golden mango becomes her daily routine. And the days go on…
-------------------------------------------
Piyush heads towards North. He keeps walking in unexplored places, meeting new people, and making new friends. The exile makes him self-dependent, mature, and an experienced person. He has known thousands of people; hundreds of people are his friends. He boasts hundreds of languages as he has seen half of the earth.
One fine day he sits in a garden to take a small break just to realize the fact that how fast he has spent his three years. He doubts himself, thinking whether he is going the right way by following the dream. A span of three years is quite a long time to test the endurance. The clouds of uncertainty surround him. He feels discomfort, dubiety, and fear about himself. Holding the sapling and looking at it he thinks about his conversation. Perhaps the God has listened him.
Sound of footsteps over the thin cover of autumn leaves across the path brings Piyush back to his senses. He sees a beautiful girl walking carelessly to her home. Her beauty mesmerizes him. The glow and color of her skin is as fresh and radiant as a newly blossomed rose. He runs after her and pats on her shoulder as he reaches behind her. Megha looks back at the Piyush and observe the mango sapling in his hand.
“Hello! My name is Piyush and I am new to this place. I am looking for an inn. Can you guide me lady?” he utters his words while panting.
“It is right there down the road. Go straight and ask for dharamshala. If you do not mind young man, who are you? What is this mango sapling for?” Megha asks interrogatively in a single breath. “By the way my name is Megha.” She completes her sentence.
“I am a traveler. I have been traveling for last three years. I am heading for an unknown destination. The sapling that I am holding is a special sapling. It will fructify and will give me a golden mango. I am looking for a magical land. God has asked me to find the magical land to plant it. Since then I have become a nomad and wandering in unknowns of my life.” explains Piyush.
“Good to know that. Is it fine if I meet you tomorrow in the evening? Your sapling story sounds interesting. I will like to hear more about it.” Says Megha as she becomes numb and petrified after hearing this. She gets insecure of her magical land.
“Sure, you are welcome any time.” says Piyush smiling and thinking about his newly discovered friend.
-------------------------------------------
As usual Megha walks to the backyard and sits there looking at the full-grown tree. She has been taking care of it daily without fail. The leaves are golden now and shine brightly in the sunlight. Megha is waiting for the spring after two years to come to see the first flower that will lead to the golden mango. Megha sits in front of the tree and adores it. All these three years she has been talking everything about herself and her life to the tree. They are like friends who sit together, share their laughter and pains and continue living life.
Today when Megha is sitting there she is insecure and afraid of the traveler. The traveler is looking for her magical land. She thinks that the traveler would take away the golden mango away from her. She decides to talk to the traveler the next day. She goes again in the utopian world of dreams of the golden mango.
Next day Piyush sees Megha walking towards him as she appears like a goddess of gold in the light of golden dusk.
“Hello! It is so nice to see you again, Megha.”
“Nice to see you. I have some questions for you. Will you answer those questions?” Asks Megha as she looks at Piyush in doubt.
“Sure. I will. The good news is that I have decided to stay in your village for sometime. What do you want to ask?” questions Piyush.
“I want to ask you about the sapling.” Megha makes herself clear.
”What about that? I have already told you the story of the sapling and my motive of being here. There is nothing beyond this.” Piyush shrugs his shoulder.
“Piyush if I would tell you that I have the magic land and I already have a tree which is going to be fructify soon, what will you say?” Megha finally reveals the secret.
“Oh my god! I have found my destiny finally. Let me thank god, the universe, and all the holy souls to make this possible.” Says Piyush in the deluge of excitement that overwhelms his senses and he starts crying. “Let us plant this sapling and get the golden mango to become the most powerful and happy duo. Take me to your house and show me the magical land.” asks Piyush looking into her eyes.
“Don’t get excited Piyush. I already have a full-grown tree in my house. It has golden leaves and within two years it will fructify to give me the golden mango. I do not want to share my golden mango with anybody. I don’t know who told you about the magical land but I am sure that you are trying to get a share in my golden mango. I have worked hard for three years and will wait for two more years. I am not going to share it with anyone. It is mine and only mine.” Says Megha possessively.
“No, Megha you are wrong. Only the sapling that I have and the magical land that you have can result in the golden mango. Cut the tree and plant the new sapling.” Piyush tries to reason it out.
“You want to kill me? I have put in my heart and soul for three years. It is not a tree for me. We lived together and we died together. It is my soul and you are asking me to part myself from it. If it is not a golden mango tree then why the leaves are golden? You are a beguiler. You are trying to make me fool. I am not going to listen to you. You have come here with wrong intentions and I am not going to believe you. Do not interfere in my life. Stay away and let me live waiting here for the golden mango. I have faith in God and I know that I will get what I want.” Speaks Megha crying and sobbing.
“Ok Megha, if you want you can wait. I respect your faith in God and hard work. I cannot justify the golden colors of the leaves. Perhaps your hard work and trust have made them golden. But I am sure that it will not give you the golden mango. I will still keep the sapling. Perhaps there may be more people with the magical land. I need to find them now.” Adds Piyush.
----------------------------------------------------
He comes back to his new abode that is not far from Megha’s house. From the terrace he could see the stable and the golden mango tree adjacent to it shining white in full moon light. He cries and doubts the Almighty. He has wandered for three years and when today he was so close to the end he was parted by the destiny from his goal.
He goes to bed late in the night. He is thinking about Megha, her golden tree, his sapling, and the golden mango of power and happiness.
Piyush perspires again as he sees the aura coming down in his room. The God is back to console and to give him a new direction in the moments when he feels completely lost and unfocussed.
“I know what happened with you. Piyush you still keep the sapling, as tomorrow is uncertain. Take these keys. Seven seas and seven mountains away there is a country. The keys will help you in opening the palace in the country capital. People are waiting for their king to return with the keys. You will get power but I am not certain about happiness.” God says calmly.
“Uncertain? How can God be uncertain?” questions Piyush.
“Son, there exists numerous relationship between people. Every relationship is unique. Golden mango and keys are just a way to find these relationships. Since the ways of finding these relationships are different, they are going to be different. You were destined to get golden mango because the stars and the universe had set it for you. Keys to the palace are not your destiny but just an alternative to the golden mango. So you cannot expect everything from the keys. I hope you understand?” asks God.
“Yes I think so.” The God disappears as Piyush thanks him.
Piyush keeps the sapling aside in the morning and looks at the key. He dreams with the keys the same way Megha does with the tree. He dreams himself sitting in the palace ruling the world with treasures and diamonds.
He changes his way to his house to avoid any interaction with Megha. Megha also forgets Piyush soon and gets back into her life. She is getting impatient to see the golden mango. Two years have passed like a gust of wind.
Megha is excited today about the tomorrow, when the tree will fructify. She tries to sleep hard suppressing the exuberant feelings pumping her heart frantically. Her dream is going to fulfill soon.
Early morning she gets up and runs in the direction of tree. She yells at the top of her voice as the mango is missing. The tree was left with the small stem holding the mango. She searches the ground crying at the top of her voice but does not see the mango. The dreams shatter, the hard work and faith turn to mistrust. The five years of rewarding wait suddenly looks like a precious time flown away. Megha breaks down. She sits on the ground, as she feels too weak and powerless to stand. She loses her faith in this world. She keeps herself aloof and cries everyday for the golden mango.
-----------------------------------------------------
Mehga strongly believes that she has lost the golden mango. Though Piyush believes that it cannot be a golden mango because he has the original sapling. Since nobody has seen it nobody knows whether it was the golden mango or just another mango. Nobody knows the truth.
Megha tries to sleep as the tears are not stopping. The room becomes silent and she can hear her own breaths. She sees the aura descending in her room. The God is back.
“Why did you do this to me? I had put my golden years and I get back this. The mango is stolen. What will I do now? My heart says that it was the golden mango but Piyush denies it and says that it must be an ordinary mango. What do you say? God, please tell me the truth.” Cries Megha.
“Don’t cry Megha. The mango is gone. You have not seen it but you worked hard for it. You had put your self and soul in it and if you think that it was the golden mango then you must be right. I don’t know because sometimes God also misses few things. Piyush believes in his sapling that is why he thinks that the mango was normal. Since the mango is gone it does not matter whether it was golden or normal. You still have the magical land; there is a sapling within hundred kilometers that will give you the golden mango. If you can find it you will be powerful and happy again. But let me tell you that the person with the sapling will also become powerful and happy like you. You have to share it with that person.” And the God disappears.
Piyush and Megha start talking after this. Megha wants somebody who can understand the concept of the golden mango. Only Piyush understands it. They talk for hours and she finds solace as she slowly tries to recover from the debacle. They make a good company and they talk everything.
After a few days Piyush hesitatingly asks, “What would you do with the magical land?” He is really careful not to offer the sapling to her. He feels that he has already offered the sapling to her so this is her turn to ask for it. She has to feel the need for it from inside. Though somewhere in his heart he wants to offer his sapling. The mind defeats the heart as it reminds him of the keys to the kingdom and more magical lands. Piyush knows that the keys cannot bring him happiness. He is also unsure of finding more such lands. His soul is wavering between his mind and heart.
Megha knows that she still has the magical land and she just needs to find the sapling within hundred kilometers. Her heart wants to try the sapling that Piyush has but the mind reminds her that he is a cheat and above all asking for the sapling will label her as immature in making right decisions. Her mind thinks, “Why to go for a withered sapling when she can get a fresh new one.” Again the mind defeats the heart.
“I have the magical land. I will ask my father or look myself for it again. I am sure that my father will get me my golden mango sapling. I don’t have the patience to choose, test and try the sapling again. Let me tell you one more thing Piyush, do not remain in dark that I would ask for your sapling because I don’t trust you and also the sapling that you have is withered and of no use.” Megha makes her plans clear to Piyush. She is still uncertain of the new sapling that she will plant after she or her father gets one for her.
Piyush and Megha exchange their smiles. Bid good-bye to each other to start their new lives.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Two God-man are seeing all this from the heaven. One becomes uncomfortable after seeing all this. He says, “Why people are so myopic and short-sighted? Both Piyush and Megha have been brought together for some reason. God has given them so many clues. One has magical land and the other has the mango sapling. Their vibes match. They do not repel each other. God has made them to live close to each other so that they can understand each other. Still both of them have different feelings and plans.
Piyush thinks that he will find more magical lands. He is also relying on the keys that would not bring him any happiness. Megha on the other hand thinks that she would find another sapling though still unsure of the golden mango. Nobody is listening to the voice of heart. What do people want? Do they want God to come and give the golden mango in hands”?
The other god-man smiles, “You are unnecessarily worrying. That is the reason why they are human and not god-man like us. They do not understand that if they have complementary dreams then there is a meaning and reason behind it. The day human will start listening to their hearts and defeat their evil and wicked brains they will become God-man like us.”
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
Things to do before 30
My trip to home for 15 days justifies my absence from my blog. I came back and then became busy with trivia. I have got so many things to pen down after this absence.
Delhi & SPA Dinner (Jan 5, 2006)
To see Delhi after a long break was very pleasant and nostalgic. As I was taking the route from the airport to IIT I walked through my past. I saw myself strolling in the streets that I had left. I saw myself busy shopping for project in the market. I saw myself talking to Shakeel Bhai in Munirka, the welder guy who had helped me with my major project. I saw myself working out in the park opposite to IIT hostel gate. I saw myself having amazingly tasty hot paranthas with butter at small time makeshift shops adjacent to the IIT boundary. As auto entered IIT I saw myself walking carelessly hand in hand with my girl friend. I saw myself having late night chats with her on the library stairs in the cool gentle breeze and sipping coffee together. I saw myself working late night in studios and having beer with Blessen and Ashish in the junkyard using staff’s heater and utensils to boil eggs. I saw myself working on my computer and finishing assignments in the nick of time. I saw myself talking for hours on the hostel reception with my girl friend. And the list goes on. I lived the past again. The experience was so intense and overwhelming that the present became fuzzy and blurred. I hallucinated in the daylight.
In the evening I had my dinner plans with Alpi, Abhishek, and Nitika. I met them in Saket. I saw them after a year and a half. Nobody was changed except Abhishek who was sporting long hair with pony. Both Alpi and Nitika had put on woolen caps, jackets and sweater to keep them warm. The girls looked very cute in their woolen caps.I always liked and admired Nitika for some strange uncanny reasons. Probably she always looked guileless, craft less, and innocent to me. Earlier when I used to go to SPA I was involved emotionally with somebody else and could never saw her magic and charm. That day I looked her from a fresh eye as I was devoid of any relationship. She really looked beautiful to me. Her eyes were radiant and shiny and again looked sinless. Her face was glowing with the freshness that she disported all the time. She really made me to look at her again. I guess that she falls in the category of girls who would not come close to you but also would not go far, approachable yet maintaining distance.
We had dinner at a Chinese place - Buddha delight with steamed rice was really tasty. Out of an impulse Abhishek asked me my height because Nitika is taller than me. He then told me that I did not qualify for her because I was 5’ 7’’. I did not understand his motive to ask that. Was it to tease her or did he see the momentary likeliness that I had developed for her. Nitika was sitting next to me on the table. In fact Abhishek’s statement worked as a catalyst for the feeling that was lingering in my mind. I am somebody who is not worried of traditions. I am always ready to take liberties with age, height, caste, and creed. That moment I wished I should know her a little. In my heart I had answered the question to myself that it was not a matter of physical features but about understanding mental behaviors. Only if I knew her more than what I knew her that day. Only if I had realized that feeling sometime back when I was in Delhi, life could have been different. But life never gives you second chance. I knew that the moment was gone. I might never meet her again. But that day I felt weak and feeble. Why do we always take wrong decisions in life? Why do we run after people who show us attitudes and apathy? I need to look for an answer for these questions.
However, the momentary infatuation with Nitika ended the moment she left for her hostel. Alpi, Abhishek and I ended our dinner with a coffee at Barista.
At Home
Being at home is a nice feeling. Surrounded with your parents and siblings gives a feeling of security and warmth of love. I was showered with mouth-watering luscious delicacies for lunches and dinners. I was eating so much during my stay that my time in the toilet doubled.
It refreshed myself and gave me time to introspect. I chalked my life again from my parent’s perspective just to found that leaving them alone in India was not a good idea. I thought about myself to found that I should become stable and settled. I made a note of all the people who were there in my life and figured out my compliance with them. My friend Marie told me once that if your best friend is unmarried when you are 35 then you should ask her for marriage. Fortunately Marie had no intentions to marry till she was 35 so I was kind of safe. I liked her idea to get married to a friend. But in India no girl would wait till she is 35. As I thought about stability I thought about potential females around me.
I cooked up so many stories and dumped them. I planned so many plans and erased them. Every morning brought me a new idea and every evening signaled the end of the idea. It just went on and on till I returned here in Mumbai.
Bee kidnapped? (Jan 20, 2006)
I was sitting late in the office for a call. Sarvesh was sitting with Sarit and Saurabh when they were jamming. After the jamming session when we were leaving for our home, Khusboo requested us to drop her. Being gentlemen we agreed and while we were walking to get the car she proposed for a long drive. We hesitatingly agreed to this proposal also. By the time we left it was already 1 am in the morning. We set for an unplanned destination thinking aloud to make sure that we were following known routes. Think aloud lead us to Bandra. We were talking lazily half slept when the Khusboo’s mobile rang. Neetika had called her, as she was scared of her absence late in the night. Though I could not hear Nitika but the expressions left by Khushboo while attending the call were enough to tell me that Nitika was really pissed off. She scolded her for not picking up the phone and not intimating her about her Bandra excursion. Khusboo made and unsuccessful attempt to justify her. They reached a consensus and disconnected. Two seconds later Patrick called. Again worried about her disappearance late in the night. She explained him the situation. Saurabh made the last call enquiring about her. I was so carried away after these calls that I also wanted to call Khsuboo though she was sitting right with us. Sarvesh and I realized that we had just missed an opportunity to kidnap her.
Sarvesh and Khusboo were hungry and wanted to eat at 2 am in Bandra. We found a bunch of young freaks like us and asked for an eating joint. The guy jokingly told us about a restaurant called Sigri near Tava. I thought if Sigri and Tava could be possible then why not Patila and Baatli also. We managed to find the place and extinguished the burning appetite with some good food.
We headed to Bandstand to see the lazy sea tired of working through the waves the whole day. But it was high tide and the breeze was enough cool to make you shiver. It carried late night mumbai’s fragrance. There was nobody except us. Lonely roads, deserted pavements. The sea and we three were trying to communicate as we were hearing the crashing waves. A cleaner came later, whom did the girl label as criminal and kidnapper. Girls are very fast at judging people and I know that most of the times they are wrong. The girl who suggested long drive realized that she asked wrong people, as we were not ready to leave the place. Finally we were subdued and forced to come back. 3:30 am we left the sea alone though it wanted to continue the discourse. We also stole the fragrance of sea; she had decided to come with us.
Things to do before 30 (Jan 21-22, 2006)
Strange thing happens whenever I go out for dinner with Neha. I was fortunate that nothing happened on Saturday. Sunday dinner again proved to be eerie when we met an accident while coming back.
We had planned for a movie and a dinner. Movie was “Things to do before 30”. Though the title looked promising but the movie only upset us. Neha was late as usual and I had a quick snack in the meantime. She had worn a skirt and a shirt like top and looked beautiful in that. I was dressed up shabbily and it gave me complex. She was looking like a true corporate woman. She had picked up a sandwich and I was helping her to open the sauce sachet. I tried hard to make a small hole in it. She tried to force out the sauce but she failed. I also tried with extra power and spoiled my already shabby looking clothes when the sauce splashed all over my trousers and shirt. I was lucky to get the stains only in places where they were not looking so loud and obtrusive. She laughed on my agony and made fun of me. Instead of worrying about my clothes she got worried about the drops that fell on her new Hidesign purse for which she had spent 1200. She asked me to clean it sounding materialistic to me. Here I was struggling to clean my clothes and this girl was worried about the purse.
I always enjoyed her company. She thinks aloud most of the time. I like her because she fills in the space when I do not speak.
After finishing the movie we rented an auto to come back. Near Saki Naka we heard a sharp shriek as the auto tilted to its left. For a moment we saw death but finally the rumble and tumble got over as the auto stopped. I came out to see the damage. The wheel had come out of the axle and the axle rubbed off the ground for almost 10 mts. It was a miraculous escape. If there were a vehicle behind us it would have collided with us. The auto could have toppled over. Nothing that sort happened. Perhaps one of us saved the other.The dinner mystery yet remained unsolved. This time we saw the extremes of life and perhaps knew the things that we should do before 30.
Finally we had our dinner at Subway and bid good-bye to each other.
Delhi & SPA Dinner (Jan 5, 2006)
To see Delhi after a long break was very pleasant and nostalgic. As I was taking the route from the airport to IIT I walked through my past. I saw myself strolling in the streets that I had left. I saw myself busy shopping for project in the market. I saw myself talking to Shakeel Bhai in Munirka, the welder guy who had helped me with my major project. I saw myself working out in the park opposite to IIT hostel gate. I saw myself having amazingly tasty hot paranthas with butter at small time makeshift shops adjacent to the IIT boundary. As auto entered IIT I saw myself walking carelessly hand in hand with my girl friend. I saw myself having late night chats with her on the library stairs in the cool gentle breeze and sipping coffee together. I saw myself working late night in studios and having beer with Blessen and Ashish in the junkyard using staff’s heater and utensils to boil eggs. I saw myself working on my computer and finishing assignments in the nick of time. I saw myself talking for hours on the hostel reception with my girl friend. And the list goes on. I lived the past again. The experience was so intense and overwhelming that the present became fuzzy and blurred. I hallucinated in the daylight.
In the evening I had my dinner plans with Alpi, Abhishek, and Nitika. I met them in Saket. I saw them after a year and a half. Nobody was changed except Abhishek who was sporting long hair with pony. Both Alpi and Nitika had put on woolen caps, jackets and sweater to keep them warm. The girls looked very cute in their woolen caps.I always liked and admired Nitika for some strange uncanny reasons. Probably she always looked guileless, craft less, and innocent to me. Earlier when I used to go to SPA I was involved emotionally with somebody else and could never saw her magic and charm. That day I looked her from a fresh eye as I was devoid of any relationship. She really looked beautiful to me. Her eyes were radiant and shiny and again looked sinless. Her face was glowing with the freshness that she disported all the time. She really made me to look at her again. I guess that she falls in the category of girls who would not come close to you but also would not go far, approachable yet maintaining distance.
We had dinner at a Chinese place - Buddha delight with steamed rice was really tasty. Out of an impulse Abhishek asked me my height because Nitika is taller than me. He then told me that I did not qualify for her because I was 5’ 7’’. I did not understand his motive to ask that. Was it to tease her or did he see the momentary likeliness that I had developed for her. Nitika was sitting next to me on the table. In fact Abhishek’s statement worked as a catalyst for the feeling that was lingering in my mind. I am somebody who is not worried of traditions. I am always ready to take liberties with age, height, caste, and creed. That moment I wished I should know her a little. In my heart I had answered the question to myself that it was not a matter of physical features but about understanding mental behaviors. Only if I knew her more than what I knew her that day. Only if I had realized that feeling sometime back when I was in Delhi, life could have been different. But life never gives you second chance. I knew that the moment was gone. I might never meet her again. But that day I felt weak and feeble. Why do we always take wrong decisions in life? Why do we run after people who show us attitudes and apathy? I need to look for an answer for these questions.
However, the momentary infatuation with Nitika ended the moment she left for her hostel. Alpi, Abhishek and I ended our dinner with a coffee at Barista.
At Home
Being at home is a nice feeling. Surrounded with your parents and siblings gives a feeling of security and warmth of love. I was showered with mouth-watering luscious delicacies for lunches and dinners. I was eating so much during my stay that my time in the toilet doubled.
It refreshed myself and gave me time to introspect. I chalked my life again from my parent’s perspective just to found that leaving them alone in India was not a good idea. I thought about myself to found that I should become stable and settled. I made a note of all the people who were there in my life and figured out my compliance with them. My friend Marie told me once that if your best friend is unmarried when you are 35 then you should ask her for marriage. Fortunately Marie had no intentions to marry till she was 35 so I was kind of safe. I liked her idea to get married to a friend. But in India no girl would wait till she is 35. As I thought about stability I thought about potential females around me.
I cooked up so many stories and dumped them. I planned so many plans and erased them. Every morning brought me a new idea and every evening signaled the end of the idea. It just went on and on till I returned here in Mumbai.
Bee kidnapped? (Jan 20, 2006)
I was sitting late in the office for a call. Sarvesh was sitting with Sarit and Saurabh when they were jamming. After the jamming session when we were leaving for our home, Khusboo requested us to drop her. Being gentlemen we agreed and while we were walking to get the car she proposed for a long drive. We hesitatingly agreed to this proposal also. By the time we left it was already 1 am in the morning. We set for an unplanned destination thinking aloud to make sure that we were following known routes. Think aloud lead us to Bandra. We were talking lazily half slept when the Khusboo’s mobile rang. Neetika had called her, as she was scared of her absence late in the night. Though I could not hear Nitika but the expressions left by Khushboo while attending the call were enough to tell me that Nitika was really pissed off. She scolded her for not picking up the phone and not intimating her about her Bandra excursion. Khusboo made and unsuccessful attempt to justify her. They reached a consensus and disconnected. Two seconds later Patrick called. Again worried about her disappearance late in the night. She explained him the situation. Saurabh made the last call enquiring about her. I was so carried away after these calls that I also wanted to call Khsuboo though she was sitting right with us. Sarvesh and I realized that we had just missed an opportunity to kidnap her.
Sarvesh and Khusboo were hungry and wanted to eat at 2 am in Bandra. We found a bunch of young freaks like us and asked for an eating joint. The guy jokingly told us about a restaurant called Sigri near Tava. I thought if Sigri and Tava could be possible then why not Patila and Baatli also. We managed to find the place and extinguished the burning appetite with some good food.
We headed to Bandstand to see the lazy sea tired of working through the waves the whole day. But it was high tide and the breeze was enough cool to make you shiver. It carried late night mumbai’s fragrance. There was nobody except us. Lonely roads, deserted pavements. The sea and we three were trying to communicate as we were hearing the crashing waves. A cleaner came later, whom did the girl label as criminal and kidnapper. Girls are very fast at judging people and I know that most of the times they are wrong. The girl who suggested long drive realized that she asked wrong people, as we were not ready to leave the place. Finally we were subdued and forced to come back. 3:30 am we left the sea alone though it wanted to continue the discourse. We also stole the fragrance of sea; she had decided to come with us.
Things to do before 30 (Jan 21-22, 2006)
Strange thing happens whenever I go out for dinner with Neha. I was fortunate that nothing happened on Saturday. Sunday dinner again proved to be eerie when we met an accident while coming back.
We had planned for a movie and a dinner. Movie was “Things to do before 30”. Though the title looked promising but the movie only upset us. Neha was late as usual and I had a quick snack in the meantime. She had worn a skirt and a shirt like top and looked beautiful in that. I was dressed up shabbily and it gave me complex. She was looking like a true corporate woman. She had picked up a sandwich and I was helping her to open the sauce sachet. I tried hard to make a small hole in it. She tried to force out the sauce but she failed. I also tried with extra power and spoiled my already shabby looking clothes when the sauce splashed all over my trousers and shirt. I was lucky to get the stains only in places where they were not looking so loud and obtrusive. She laughed on my agony and made fun of me. Instead of worrying about my clothes she got worried about the drops that fell on her new Hidesign purse for which she had spent 1200. She asked me to clean it sounding materialistic to me. Here I was struggling to clean my clothes and this girl was worried about the purse.
I always enjoyed her company. She thinks aloud most of the time. I like her because she fills in the space when I do not speak.
After finishing the movie we rented an auto to come back. Near Saki Naka we heard a sharp shriek as the auto tilted to its left. For a moment we saw death but finally the rumble and tumble got over as the auto stopped. I came out to see the damage. The wheel had come out of the axle and the axle rubbed off the ground for almost 10 mts. It was a miraculous escape. If there were a vehicle behind us it would have collided with us. The auto could have toppled over. Nothing that sort happened. Perhaps one of us saved the other.The dinner mystery yet remained unsolved. This time we saw the extremes of life and perhaps knew the things that we should do before 30.
Finally we had our dinner at Subway and bid good-bye to each other.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
