Puuo!!

About twenty yrs back from today a three yrs old kid was sitting along with her grandfather in his lap in an arm chair in the porch of the verandah….JJ (Grandfather in Oriya) chair that is what we used to refer that chair as.It was his favourite chair.

Kid : JJ what does puuo mean??
JJ : It means son
Kid : Why do u call Appa as puuo??Is he ur son??
JJ : Yes, he is my puuo
Kid : Who is my puuo??
JJ : Ha ha, who do u want ur puuo to be??
Kid : Can I choose my Puuo JJ??
JJ : Yes, u can…so whom do u choose then as ur puuo??
Kid : U….u be my puuo from today JJ…will u be??
JJ : Ha ha sure my dear…but then who ll be ur JJ if I be ur puuo!!
Kid : (After some serious thot) we will shorten JJma’s name as JJ….if I need a JJ
JJ : Ha ha ha ok

And so he became my puuo from being my JJ :).He used to feed me when I used to throw tantrums and find excuses for not eating making my mother give up on me in frustration.He wud bribe me with chocolates and toys and make me drink milk and then take all the credit for accomplishing the great task.My puuo and I wud together have bitter gourd curry together…..I eating on his behalf and he on my behalf….. and the bitterness of the curry would get drowned in our laughter and togetherness. He taught me alphabets before joining school.He taught me the difference between multiplication and divison…when I could never differentiate between them.He taught me multiplication tables till 12th table and I could never learn higher than 12th table till date.And today he’s taught me cooking even :)!I wud coax him to tell me the story of his childhood and he wud willingly accept to narrate the incidents of his childhood to me umpteen number of times without getting tired of it.He wud listen to my endless ranting and answer each and every single question that I ask.He wud blackmail me saying that if I had my bath early in the morning he wud allow me to enter the puja room and have Prasad and I wud always manage to sneak in and have the Prasad without bath.And he wud behave as if he could never make out tht I had sneaked in and finished the Prasad.I wud ask him “what do u do with the Prasad when I am not around Puuo”…and he wud reply “feed it to the sparrows so that they take it to u in their beaks”!!And I wud keep searching for sparrows at my place for the Prasad.He wud say “Grow up soon dear I am getting old”…and I wud reply “Don’t worry Puuo I ll grow up soon and we will both get old together”.Days passed and distances grew.I got tied up with studies and cud manage to meet him only once in a yr.He wud complain “U call me puuo and don’t care for ur puuo.U simply disappear”….I wud reply “No JJ!!Me really tied up.I need to secure a seat JJ.After that I promise I ll always be with u”…..he replied “Fine!!I will get it for u…will u be happy then and not worry”….It sounded like those days in my childhood when I used to cry for toys and he wud say “Fine now don’t cry I will get u toys from my secret trunk…ll u be happy then”……and I wud forget all abt the toys and secretly sit down to ransack the secret trunk when my grandfather was not around. My puuo couldn’t see me worried ever.Whenever I wud get worried abt my results my puuo wud motivate me by narrating his experience and the way he had pursued his dreams by making it to Stanford University and completed his Phd .He had taught me pursuing ur dreams is all that matters ….don’t worry abt the results…just never give up. Tears filled his eyes when I had gifted him a dhoti and kurta with my first salary.He put away the dhoti and kurta in his secret trunk as usual :)!!
I wud say “Puuo come and stay with me.Then we can have lot of fun” and his reply wud always be “No my dear just like that is ur house this is my house…ur Puuo is happy in his house…Next I ll go to God’s house from here”….And I wud retort “JJ!!Don’t talk nonsense.You had promised that we ll get old together”….”Yes my dear I remember my promise. We will get old together.U and I togther.That is why I made the prev. statement”.I never understood then what he meant.

But today I understand the true meaning of his statement that he had made then.He had meant he wud always be there with me in my memories and we wud together get old.Isn’t that what u meant Puuo?? :)! Life is so strange really….we are forced to accept the rules of nature.Much as we wud love to hold on to our dear ones we know that if we do so it will only get worse.Although its painful to depart from your loved ones u will have to console urself telling that its better if they are taken care of by God in his house than they withering away infront of ur eyes.U can’t pause time…u can’t stop age.And its also strange that when ur loved ones depart its only then that all the memories of the days that u spent together surfaces and u try clinging on to them like u never did before.U get so tied up with other responsibilities in ur life that although u know u love them dearly and they are there waiting impatiently to just catch a glimpse of u ….u just don’t have the time to be with them…and the memories just lie at the back of ur mind undisturbed….u don’t have the time to re-live them.So, that is what he had meant then that he can always stay in my memories and I will realise and relive the long lost childhood days with him all over again while he watches me do so from God’s abode…..and that’s how he will watch me getting old , sitting in the JJ chair , along with him :) !Hope you are keeping a secret trunk there too in God’s house Puuo.And I am sure this time God will make sure that ur secret trunk is not ransacked by any naughty kid around. And here I will take care of your favourite chair :)!

One Min Plz!!

There are these times when you feel like requesting life “Please, give me just a min off and I will get back to you”. But your request goes in vain. Life stubbornly sticks on to its routine. The storm that is boiling inside you gets on to you and you plead and cry and life turns a deaf ear to your pleadings. And you realise that you are not going to be empathized with. Life is not going to sit down and empathize with you and let the storm pass. You got to get down to your feet and stand up with life. It is in no way going to give you time to pause or give you time to sit down and take a breath. Life doesn’t have place to accommodate your anguish. You finally give up and put one foot forward hesitatingly into life and the moment you do that life drags you and engulfs you like the tides of the sea and you sail along its waves. Rising up and down. The showers of Life rain on you and your anguish is washed away. Time, a friend of Life, provides the healing balm and the pain and anguish stop hurting without your knowledge…..as you were busy trying to learn manoeuvring through the waves. Eventually you learn and you start enjoying and experiencing every crest and trough of the waves and then you pause and ask yourself “Did I ask for some time off from life…and when was that :)!!!”
That is why it is rightly said ‘Life is Beautiful’ :)! Isn’t it!!

Amnesia

Amnesia – forgetfulness.Coming to me I guess when God was fitting people’s brains with those memory cards holding GBs of data I was probably the last one in the queue and when my chance came God was left only with a memory card which could hold data in bits.Never mind that…I do accept with grace that my brain has not been fit with a real spacious memory card….but when it comes to the short falls and the embarrassments I need to face bcos of that I really wish there was some mechanism to upgrade the memory cards in our heads…as unfortunately the idea of bashing up the fellow standing infront of me in the queue and snatching away the GB wala memory card didn’t occur to me then.There had been umpteen instances of me goofing up bcos of my forgetfulness starting with forgetting to wear the right coloured uniform on the right days of the week and ending up picking up scraps of paper from the school playground as punishment,forgetting the dates of the tests and studying for the wrong subject and achieving the unachievable zilch proudly (I still store those papers as testimonials!),not remembering people’s names till I make a conscious effort of memorizing their names and raking my brain each time I meet them…(I still get confused as to who was the director of my college and wait who is the CEO of my company??!!).I hope I don’t end up in another office some day claiming it to be my workplace.
My last goof up was when I was playing some prank on my fren by trying to give her names of characters in Mahabharat and ended up relating Gandhari with Menaka concluding both of them to be apsaras.That only helped in me acquiring an alias to my name as Menaka-Gandhari and being referred as that in every mail and meet from then on.Probably I even made Gandhari turn in her grave.But it doesn’t matter if u don’t remember dates,color of uniform,name of the CEO of ur company or names of the apsaras and queens but u do get into real embarrassing state if u don’t remember ur colleagues or batchmates names.There had been innumerable times when I had met someone from my college or workplace coincidentally in a shopping mall or in a restaurant and got away without much damage inspite of me not being able to recollect if I had ever met this person in the first place while conversing with them.
But the worst incident was when I met one of my colleagues in an exam center and mistook him as my father’s fren’s son .Our conversation took place somewhat on these lines :
Colleague (C ) : Hi!!U here
Me : Hi (Totally clueless as to who he was??!!)
C : So, how was ur exam
Me : yeah ok…what abt u?? (By then the bulb in my head finally decided to bless me and glew and I concluded him to be my father’s fren’s son)
C : Not good.How was ur last paper
Me : Last one was better I guess…what abt u??
C : Same here.So howz work??
Me : ya good…Howz urs??
C : very boring…U r frm which college??
Me : ????? (How come he doesn’t know) XXXX
C : U r 2005 pass out??When did u join??
Me : yeah, 2005…joined ZZZZ in 2005 (Now this is real attitude….!!What nautankibaaz)
C : What?????Why are u telling me the company name??!!
Me : Bcos u asked me!!!! (????)
C: Wait! Aren’t u able to recognise me??!!
Me : (??????) Ofcourse, aren’t u YYYY
C : Huh!! I can’t believe this….I am ur colleague…remember ur company ZZZZ,So n so Project ,So n so Account ….me who sits in so and so cubicle!!
Me : Uh!!I am really sorry…I thot u were someone else!!I guess it’s the effect of exam…C u tomm!!Wud u mind if I leave?? (totally perplexed at my own stupidity)

And after this incident I have accepted that probably the memory card in bits has also stopped functioning and I really need to do something.I am scared of that fateful day when my Supervisor comes to me and I refuse to recognise him or mistake him as someone else!!

Foot Prints

As I traverse down the memory lane I stumble upon a thousand odd memories.All stacked and stored secure within the walls of my memory lane.Each memory unfolds a series of images….images that seem so real, life-like when I decide to unfold them and which otherwise stays as a still picture, if left undisturbed.Memories of childhood,memories of my first days at school,memory of the time when I fell down off the stairs and the pain of tht single fall imprinted itself in my memory,memories of the hundred odd people that I met all along,a few that remained, a few that were swept away along with the tide of time, a few that choose to be swept away , memories of people and things in my possession whose value I realised only after they left,memories of promises,trust,frenship and betrayals…,memories of success that made me feel I was on the top of the world,memories of failure which made me feel my world had come to an end,memories of lessons that were learnt in a hard way,memories which I look back upon and smile telling myself good that it happened that way otherwise I wud have missed upon a lot of other things,memories of the loss that I underwent because of my foolishness,memories of incidents when I received help from the most unexpected quarters, memories I look back on and think how did I ever manage to pass through that,memories of people and incidents that made me laugh my head off….which invariably bring a smile whenever thot of,memories of times when I was jealous of other’s possession and the same things seem so insignificant to me right now,memories of frens who lived through thick and thin with me and who still do,memories of people whom I respected and admired the most ,memories that I look at and think did that have to happen with me, cherished memories of triumph and memories that still pain and a whole lot of other memories….so many in number that its actually impossible to pen them down.And each of these memories are indispensable.Each has left a footprint somewhere.Each moment is precious enough to be lived and re-lived again.The memories that sub-consciously always keep reminding me of the various moments.And as I sail along with life I look forward to experience new things which will add to my memories and add to the treasure of footprints that are there so that one fine day when I look back I have a imprinted book filled with footprints of treasured memories and its not a blank page.

The Rats Race

Its one of those times when you can see the shreds of ur dream all around you making you realise that you have failed…..added another stepping stone on ur path to successfully attain ur dream.The dream which had started off with the promise to give up all that comes across ur path and causes a hindrance to achieve it.But it all shattered with a two and a half hours of exam on one fateful day.Although I do realise that it has been a miserable failure but I haven’t failed to realise that all along I have gained a lot also.It has not been just another failure over which I just have to brood over and curse my fate.Its been a learning process and although I haven’t achieved anything in quantitative terms I have achieved a lot in qualitative terms.
I really can’t help admiring the lot of people tht I had met.It just overwhelms you when u see the determination and perseverance in a few people.It makes you feel determined.It makes you pursue ur dreams all the more harder.Many people say it’s a rat race and we are rats at the end of it.But its not just a rat race.The very fact that you are a part of the race …the very process brings out so many things.The momentary success in a mock CAT followed by a disastrous failure in the one following it.The moments of triumph of having scored well in a particular section and the moments of distress when your score is negative in a section.Raking ur brains searching the so called engineer in u who is supposed to master quant and is not able to solve a simple profit and loss problem.Getting absorbed in a very interesting passage while doing the RC section in a Mock CAT and loosing track of time.Matching the red hats with toms ,dicks and harries so much so that u see only colourful houses and hats in dreams while sleeping.The serious brain storming sessions that are held as to how to bell the CAT which end up in discussions on movies.The rage over the OBC quota put forward…the endless protests, display of anger and peace marches held.Dreaming that u had been just through one section and time was up…and getting up with a start.Dreaming of success.Dreaming of failure.The fun in group discussions.The fear in mock interviews.Brooding with fellow mates over ur mundane jobs.Consoling each other and inspiring one another to keep going.The wait for when it wud be time for ur evening class and when u wud get a break from ur office work.Marvelling at the intricacies of English language in the VA classes.Feeling lost like a drop of water in an ocean in general awareness classes.And never to forget the endless wait for the results…..speculations…calls….hopes….dispair…triumph!!!!
The whole process has been a great learning experience.It changes ur perception on viewing things from a broader platform.Teaches u to welcome success and failure with the same spirit and to keep a balance over urself.It brings out the manager in u in the truest sense.I guess for that matter preparing for any exam is a huge learning process which teaches you much more than u realise.And above all the People whom you meet who bring out the strengths and weaknesses in you.People whose self confidence makes you also believe only in the best.To learn to believe just in achieving the moon and not compromise on ur dreams.To keep going with the same determination and strength even after failure after failure.And at the end of the day to realise that u had the courage to be a part of the so called rat race and have picked up a lot from the race rather than not taking part in the race at all and missing out on the learning. The mantra wud be atleast I tried and its been a enjoyable and memorable experience.

Adieu-Keep in Touch

Yesterday I had to work till late in the office and by the time I reached home it was 9:30 PM.I happened to have a brawl with my Onsite Co-ordinator and I was lost in cursing him with the choicest of abuses till I reached home.I put my bag down and sat down on the bed heaving a HUGE sigh of relief when my cell started ringing. Instant thot that passed was “Is it from Office….Noooooooooo don’t tell me”.Seeing that it was from an unkown no….it took sometime for me contemplating if I should be receiving it or not.Even if its not from office I am in no mood of speaking to anyone right now….and the cell stopped ringing…..”Thank God!!”.I went and gulped down a glass of water, had dinner and decided to sleep early…having had enough for the day!!Just then the cell started ringing again…”Now who’s it at 10 in the night”!!
Finally received the call….
Me : Hello
Speaker : Hi yaar
Me : Er….Hi??!!
Speaker : Remember me??
Me : aa…no sorry I can’t recollect…may I know who’s this?
Speaker : Arey main yaar XXXX!
Me : Oh hi yaar….kaise ho…after a long long time !!
Speaker : Haan yaar bas thik…tum batao
Me : yeah, me too fine…aur howz ur job and all
Speaker : Bas chal rahi hai yaar…busy at times what abt u??
Me : same yaar…routine life aur kya
Speaker : haan mera bhi…aur batao
Me : main kya bataun yaar…tum hi batao
Speaker : hmmm main kya bataun…filhaal I am in Hyd yaar
Me: Oh wow!!Thats great…kab aaye
Speaker : Just abt a week back
Me : Oh great yaar…pehle kyun nahi bataya…we cud meet up sometime
Speaker : haan yaar was a bit busy…
Me: ok…no problem we will meet up soon
Speaker : yeah sure…
(An uncomfortable pause for abt 1 min)
Speaker: acha yaar so this is my no. note it down and do keep in touch
Me : haan yaar sure…u too keep in touch


“Keep in touch” this I remember was the phrase we had said to each other when we had parted about a year back.We had been in college together ….we were a close knit group of frens…!!We had shared a hundred things and had days of fun and frolic together….we had laughed and cried together watching movies in the college auditorium,we had put night-outs together working for tech fest,we had crept together into the girls hostel after long past the closing time and had jubilantly congratulated each other for breaking the hostel rules successfully,we had studied for courses together and flunked them together,we had supported each other while giving presentation lectures in order to make a few marks,we had worked on each other’s assignment and ended up muddling it all the more till we had to copy it from the net,we had gossiped on every other group present in the college,we had given b’day bumps to others to our heart’s content only to receive double the amount back on ur own b’day,we had bunked classes together and also helped the other to go to sleep behind one's back in class,we had drafted each others write ups and made sure to see that the person runs out of shy on his/her farewell,we had filled in each others slam books till there was no space left in it…..we had shared four years together…the memories of which will stay for lifetime. We had parted with heavy hearts and promises to always be in touch.There had been lot many such frens…who had been really close…in school,college,work place.Some never attempted to keep in touch….some whom u expected will keep contact didn’t live upto ur expectations and some of them u couldn’t sustain keeping contact with not living upto their expectations…and finally the number reduced to just one or two who were in regular touch …who might also be swallowed in the wave of time!!

It sure does feel great to receive a call from one of ur college frens who had been so close…..but we happened to have nothing to tell each other except for a few formal words….the closeness seemed to have vanished over time ….All those promises of keeping in touch which had been made seemed to falsify somehow….!!”Keep in Touch” a phrase so lightly used by us….. how much essence does it have practically. How much do we abide by the promise that we make….all that remains between frens is a few fwded mails, a few wishes on festivals and b’days and calls when some help is needed……almost narrowing down to a state when we are just a step ahead of being complete strangers to each other.Distances and time seem to have engulfed the relationships and priorities seem to have shifted in life…..Your horizons have broadened . The phrase “Keep in Touch” also has broadened with broadened horizons….and has reduced to just another formality.Frens have been replaced with colleagues or a new set of frens (who will also eventually be replaced with time and distance) and mails have been replaced with career goals and have been prioritised over.Looking back , a handful unknown people that u had come across over the years….who grew from being strangers to acquaintances and acquaintances to frens…..the innumerable promises made,the innocence shared and the immense importance given to each other….all seem faded over time. All that remains are lingering memories of long lost frens….. a few words far and between…..which lack to fill up the space and vacuum that has been created by the negligence that has crept in with time.Life has moved on and u have learnt to move along with life….learning in a smooth or hard way to hold on to just the memories and experiences which are not perishable ….as u move along taking in home the learning that the charm and vigour of evrything perishes and transforms over time .Now when someone says “Keep in touch” I mentally translate the phrase to myself and reply with a smile “Sure yaar,u too keep in touch”!!

A Smile Makes ur Day!!

Its just another routine day….getting up at 8 with the alarm having been set and re-set umpteen no of times since 7 for an interval of 10 -10 min till the alarm clock itself is tired of ringing and literally yells in ur ear “Get up now or I will bash u up!!”….”U grumble and growl abt it being another working day….”…rush to office…cook up an excuse for being late and pat urself for coming up with such brilliant and innovative excuses each time….(keeping up the company’s spirit of innovation)!!And then the day drags on….it either ends right at 6 on days when u r absolutely free and have been sitting and staring the whole day at the monitor…reading each and every mail that pops up in ur mail box even if it’s a group announcement or put up an earnest act of reading some very important project related documents whereas the reality is either u r lost in the songs of Lucky Ali playing on ur Winamp or are deep into an e-book……sometimes I seriously wonder…had Winamp been barred at the work place I wud seriously have to consider shifting to another job.And there are days when u just happen to look at the bottom right corner of ur system and see the time to be 10:00 and wonder if its AM or PM and it takes full 5 min for ur brain to register that its 10:00 PM and then u wonder if there will be any coffee in the coffee machine realising that its long past lunch now and ur stomach is growling!!
The day ends and u manoeuvre ur way through the traffic back home and ur ears keep ringing with the blaring noise of the vehicles on the road till half an hr after reaching home.Switch on t.v….browse through channels for half an hr…curse the channels for screening nothing of ur interest and for repeating the same old things…at times if u r too tired to browse channels you satisfy urself watching the same old movie “Mera Dil Tera Sanam…etc etc” for the hundredth time and really appreciate the channel for actually researching so hard to zero down on a movie like that and screen it repeatedly (as viewer’s choice)which wud have stayed unheard of otherwise!!And then when the clock strikes 12 u slowly feel overpowered by sleep…sometimes it even happens that u luckily find something interesting to watch on t.v and want to watch the whole program but the muscles in ur body blatantly refuse to keep up to ur expectations !! And thus ends the day with u being in the dreamland watching urself free out of this routine mundane life…throwing the resignation at ur boss’s face and getting back at him for the torture that he bestowed upon u.
A mundane life that almost all of us lead.Most of us have the same routine…its as if we have become like a tuned alarm clock running as per the settings ….without any escape whatsoever.But as I sit and sip coffee at my desk looking at my colleagues sitting around me and ponder over where my routine life is heading to I realise that everyone around me has the same kind of routine and thots like me.But when you have a look at them closely u see that some people have adapted themselves very well to the routine.There are people who always have an enthusiasm in them…smiling broadly while moving around on the floor…smiling at every person (known/unknown) they come across,taking time off their work and spending time going to others desks and making them laugh as well along with them, taking up any kind of work with equal amount of enthusiasm even if it is as boring as correcting grammar in some documents that are to be delivered,making a lot of frens around,dropping nice cheerful mails now and then ….these are the people who are noticeable in the floor which otherwise consists of hundred odd people…..The people who bring in life to the floor …the only ones whose absence is noticed when they are on leave.And u will see that u invariably end up having a secret admiration for such kind of people.And there are another set of people who are unnoticeable, lost in the floor as much as they are lost in their computers and lives.They are the ones who have a gloomy face all the time, smile evades them as if its another precious thing which they wudn’t like to part with or spend on any tom dick and harry, always grumbling abt their work,cursing their routine lives …they are the ones whom u look at and realise how mundane ur life is!!There is one thing that I realised after getting into profession is that being gloomy or staying happy is upto one’s state of mind.The more you grumble abt things not being the way u like the more life grumbles at u and life eludes u!!Its totally ur call to either find happiness out of the routine or follow a routined gloominess.You are frustrated as long as u decide to be…the moment u decide that no I will laugh away at everything and drown my frustration in my laughter there will be no frustration.Starting the day by telling urself that today is the best day for me helps.U stop realising the monotony… u infact start enjoying it!!
The way u can live life to the fullest is something that is a never ending lesson which unfolds new lessons for u at every step and the lessons end only with life.A lesson in which to progress through all its chapters u need a whole lot of enthusiasm and the right spirit…sticking on to gloominess and grumbling or for that matter sticking on to anything will stagnate u in the first chapter and will not help u progress.Now when I am talking of all this I might as well mention of a person’s blog that I had come across…..although I don’t happen to know the person personally and had got the link to his blog from one of my close frens…I really admire the way he perceives life.Some of the articles of his that I read had been so humorous that me and a few of my frens had laughed so hard that tears came rolling down our eyes and our supervisors suspiciously asked us the reason for our ecstasy..thinking that we were planning to play some prank on them.At times I have been really frustrated with my work and his humorous articles had proved to be a heavenly break.Hats off to his humour and satire !!And today in the morning my fren mailed me asking me to read his latest post which talked abt his engagement breaking up.When I heard of it first I was really taken aback and almost dumbstruck.But when I read his post I was amazed at the way he’s handled it…and the way he’s put it across with his usual humorous touch.I empathized with him and decided to drown the sad news in a cup of coffee.But I was in for a bigger surprise when I saw all my frens who had been reading his posts empathising with him and actually praying for him.
Now coming to think of it….this is a fast moving world and everyone is trying hard each day to keep pace with it.Who has the time in the world to empathise with some unknown person and pray for him.In such a fast moving world where people don’t find time to pray for themselves if we are actually pausing and taking out time even for a sec to pray for someone then I guess these are the true blessings that anybody should count on.The people who know how to bring a smile on other’s faces and make the day for others by their humour inspite of the problems that they face….the people from whom u can learn how to imbibe enthusiasm in ur monotonous life are those whom u will always admire and pray for and learn from.May God create more such people for ages to come and may God keep them as bright and smiling as ever.

Holi

The clock struck 11 and I was in a deep slumber lost in dreamland when there was a sudden thud….someone was pounding at the door.”Its 11 in the morning…do u have any intention of waking up”….God!!I don’t understand why parents have to get up so early.Do they know how much they are missing by getting up so early in the morning…afterall isn’t it in the morning that u get the best of sleep possible!!Anyways, I looked at the watch…mumbled half asleep….ok baba getting up and got out of the bed!!Checked for the time and it showed 10:45…”Oh Papa its not yet 11….and I got back late from office yesterday…”…anyways!!

The day was as normal as any other weekend and late in the afternoon there was a msg on my cell…”Hi Hutch!!On thi Holi discover new colourful ringtones and caller tunes on ur mobile ….”…..How can ringtones be colourful….nevermind but yeah isn’t it Holi today!!Let me go and look out as to how people are celebrating Holi!!Looked out of the window…and there wasn’t a soul visible…switched on the tv and watched the news for a while where people celebrating Holi in different states was being shown….got bored after sometime and decided to call up a few frens.None of them seemed to be celebrating…and half of them didn’t even know it was Holi today.However all of them seemed to remember how we used to celebrate the festival when we were in hostel in our college….”yaar yaad hai how we broke rotten eggs on ur head and how u went stinking for a whole week after that”…”and haan kaise we had emptied the whole bucket of colors in ur room yaad hai…u took two whole days to get over that mess”

True!!We used to have such a blast on Holi in college……that was the first time ever I celebrated Holi…. making it all the more special for me.That was the day when there were no distinctions made between profs and students.All of us used to get together in the lawns and play with colors to our heart’s content.There were no restrictions on our wear and no etiquettes whatsoever…..all of us tried to be as uncivilized and barbaric as we could shouting and yelling our lungs out!!Pulling everyone out of their hostels , messing up rooms….cleanliness seemed to be alienated for that day!!Catching hold of the people who looked less messier than the others and trying our best to be the messiest of the lot.I still remember that day when it was declared that playing holi was over for the day and everyone left to take bath….just to fool me…and after 2 and a half hrs of tidying up I was bathed with a bucket of colors when I got out!! Holi and Diwali had always been the two festivals which were the most enjoyable ones since childhood!!Probably these are the only two festivals which actually bring out the child in everyone….!!Only festivals when people of all age groups are seen celebrating in the same way…the only days when kids get official permission to play pranks on elders.

But now we are back again to square one.No Holi….No diwali…most of us don’t even notice when the festivals go by.And the reason we give is…”Got to go office the next day yaar…let me take rest for today”….”Arey office mein bahut kaam hai yaar…no time absolutely”!!If we are giving excuses of work load to ourselves for not enjoying these small things in life isn’t this a valid enough excuse for not living life at all.Workload seems to be the excuse for anything and everything around.Not celebrating festivals,not being able to attend frens/realtives functions,not being able to keep in touch with frens,not being able to get back home for a long time,not remembering to wish on ur siblings b’day,not having the time to pursue our hobbies and interests,no time to get up early and enjoy the morning walk,no time to meet ur school fren who’s on a visit to ur place,no time to wish anyone on festivals,no time to even smile at ur colleagues sitting in the same floor as u ….and the list goes on.In short workload seems to be an excuse for not living life as it is meant to be….an excuse that u r giving urself for letting life by pass you.We all seem to be in a race…..not realising that we have left all those little things that we used to enjoy in life far behind.For all those things that we miss could our workload serve as an excuse…..aren’t we just missing out on just a little more than that!!

My Trip To Nagpur

My Father and I started off on our journey to Nagpur at 9 in the morning. Me having an interview the next day and considering that literally my life depended on the interview I was just physically present on Earth. We went and checked for our names and berth nos on the list outside and we got to know that my ticket is still not confirmed. Finally after having manoeuvred to our berths we sat down there although I had these doubts lingering in my mind if we will be asked for the confirmation. There were abt three to four people in the compartment and a kid of abt 2 yrs age. I sat down to a corner and started off with the pile of magazines that I had carried with me from home to devour on during the journey. Somehow whether I read the books/magazines or not carrying study material with me when there is some important exam to be given always gives me some mental support and solace. When I was reading I heard one of the persons around me mention abt B-Schools. He was a middle aged person and he was enquiring abt B-schools with another passenger who was a youngster. After sometime someone in the compartment asked me why have u bought the whole shop of magazines. I was so taken aback by the question that it took a moment for me to answer….also since I was in another world it wud have obviously taken some time for me to get back!! But anyways my father answered the query for me and then the middle aged man started asking me a lot of ques. following that.I was all the time thinking ‘arey yeh sab jaanke kya karna hai…how does it bother u’ and anyways probably we are brought up in such a way that we always find it a bit odd to speak to strangers.Then slowly the conversation started drifting towards Indian mythology…..how knowledgeable people were in olden days…Nalanda…Taksheela etc.Interesting conversation….till sometime I was not paying attention but when I saw the middle aged person so much involved in the talk I couldn’t help but listen.
Meanwhile, the kid’s father wanted to take some rest so he was trying his best to lull his kid to go to sleep…..but the kid showed no signs of the same.So, this middle aged person offered a helping hand saying that he cud take care of his son for sometime.But the father seemed to be apprehensive abt the idea….seeing the father I cud recollect this sentence “Beware!! There is a BIG BAD World outside”.And obviously we can’t really trust a stranger to take care of our kid.
Finally the kid went to sleep after a lot of coaxing and the father got some time to take rest.Our middle aged man continued with his conversation of Indian mythology.The talk drifted to Indian culture…..Indians, the family bonadage, emotions etc etc.The talk was nothing new to our ears…day in and day out we keep cursing the western culture and praising the Indian culture and keep trying to look for pros and cons of both but the sheer way in which this middle aged person was speaking was very captivating.It didn’t seem as if he was talking superficially but it came straight from his heart.And some people are so talented that the moment they speak their speech demands all ur attention and respect.While we were all involved in the conversation the kid who was sleeping on the top berth started moving towards the edge of the berth and was about to fall.The middle aged person noticed it and in a split second both my father and he were at the Kid’s rescue.The commotion woke up the kid’s father and he brought the kid down.A stranger whom initially the kid’s father was apprehensive abt giving his kid for some time subconsciously was always taking care of his kid when he was taking rest.
By then we had reached our destination and we had to get down.It is then that I realised tht 12 hrs of journey didn’t seem like an ordeal as I had imagined it to be……thanks to this person.He made sure that all the people in the compartment speak and share their experiences….which wud have probably not happened if not for him.Finally when we were leaving the middle aged person called me to his side and gave me a sweet telling that it was the custom on their side that if someone is going for an interview or an exam they should be fed with sweet for good luck.This gesture of his left me spellbound and thinking …….Was he really just another stranger whom we met in the train!!
Next day the interview process began with all the formalities to be carried out before it commenced and all.What touched me the most here was to see that we students were all helping each other out with the process….disclosing the questions that were asked to each other in the interview…disclosing the topic of GD to other groups and all.Weren’t we all strangers !!And we all very well knew that we were all competing with each other.The words of the middle aged person in the train that ‘its in our culture to consider everyone as one family’ flashed in my head.Probably consciously or subconsciously we too try belonging to this family and try building a family around us wherever we go….just that we are too occupied to realise it!!
So is it true to believe that there is a BIG BAD World outside then!! Whatever the answer to this but this trip of mine is surely going to be memorable.

My Frens At Work Place

The first day I joined my Job I was under the impression as anyone else that finding close frens at workplace would be like dreaming of having a cup of coffee with the CEO of the company(although I guess Karan Johar would be a better substitute!).On the first day of my training I realised tht I was the only one from my college who has been assigned to my training batch….Gawd! I thought there were seven hundred of them from my college who were recruited along with me in the same organization and here I am left alone with these strangers…and whosoever said that the world was a small place must be complete nuts!!So, I started my training with a feeling that I have been completely stranded in a marooned island with lots of aliens around!!
Forty days of training passed by in a ziffy and at the end of it I had got to know just abt a handful of people.We went around together to places which I had just heard of and never discovered although, I claimed to be from the same city considering that my parents had shifted there sometime back.We had a good time pulling each other’s legs and discussing abt our college days and going senti over them….and the 40 days of training got over and I discovered that all those people whom I had got to know or rather was beginning to know have been posted at a different place altogether.So the usual parting happened with promises made to keep in touch through mails (i.e fwded mails included !!) and the goodbyes and take cares and all.And now I was back among a new set of people (aliens is a better word I guess)!!
I was put into a project along with three of my training batchmates whose names I took sometime to figure out….now ofcourse I cudn’t have said “Hi there!I don’t remember ur name…wht’s ur name” considering the fact that we had spent 40 days of training together and I was expected to know all of their names unless I was in a state of amnesia or something of that kind.But, probably that’s the biggest short-coming in me..I just can’t map people’s names to their faces unless I really get to interact with them for quite some time say a week or so.I don’t know but God seems to have bestowed me with the least memory ever possible…..probably when he was distributing memory to everyone I was standing at the very end of the queue and the stock got over just when my turn came.
The initial days just went with hellos in the morn and byes in the evening….and we were being ultra formal with each other.I just used to sit back and remember my days of fun in college and wished I had never passed out …just flunked in all those courses and stayed with my frens!Days converted into months and then into years and then it dawned upon me one day when one of my training batchmate came up to me and announced abt his long term Onsite assignment.I then realised that I did make frens in the workplace afterall…frens who had started off formally but had come quite a long way since then.…although just a handful of them but they were nevertheless there to laugh and giggle with, to play pranks on each other like we made one of them have gobi Manchuria convincing him that it was Shanghai diced Chicken,to share funny things abt urself like one of them is scared of ghosts and messaged at 3 A.M in the night when he was alone in his apartment to say that he can hear lots of strange noises around and is not able to sleep and the other had a problem in having the flow and remembering the right words while speaking and is doubtful if he will ever be able to remember the words “help me” and speak them out at one go if he’s being robbed.We even know each other’s bank balances(just short of knowing the credit card details), we pestered and bugged the one who’s bank balance is negative to treat all of us and took pride in making it more negative,we take motivation from each other for things like giving up preparation for CAT or for applying for a loan and purchasing a bike and joining in the negative balance avhiever’s list,we fight for that one single chocolate which one of them would have managed to secure from someone who had come from abroad in the account and get down to breaking them into equal pieces such that u can only imagine and be happy that u had a share although the taste buds failed to register the minute piece’s taste,we get a warm invitation to the house only to find that u had to wake up the half dressed hosts by bangs on the door and end up having a huge argument as to why it is necessary to take bath on holidays also,we are very sweetly served with daal , rice and egg bhujia(which on usual circumstances at home needed a lot of coaxing and spanking from ur mother to eat them….but was relished on that day like they were some awesome dishes served in some seven star hotel) by those who had never stepped into the kitchen before and who never had the knowledge as to which side the regulator knob of the gas needs to be turned for lighting the stove,filled up each other’s appraisal without even having a clue as to what the other person had worked on,advice each other on where we need to invest money to make savings and get tax exemption without having the faintest ideas abt the schemes and tax policies,watch movies like “krish” together and teased one of them for becoming over-excited when Hrithik was seen giving his heroic stunts to save a circus of fire, imitate each other’s accent and laugh over other’s stupidity and concocted stories till u have stomach ache,momentarily burst of anger and irritation when people are having fun at ur expense,took secret videos when two of them are having a heated argument and making them listen later to their insanity,going crazy over newly bough electronic gadgets and making a display of the madness at any given moment,gossip over each other’s supervisor and discuss on politics at work place and even make secret plans to bombard the organization after shooting all ur module leads,managers and account leads,while away time by cursing every single person at ur work-place over tea breaks,talk insanely abt muddled up plans for ur future,give corn treats to each other not to talk of the dairy milk,samosa,good day and hazar other treats which when looked at might seem insignificant but hold more value than a treat in Taj.And not to forget the whole lot of fwded mails that we keep sending to each other calling each other monkeys and substituting names for characters in the sardar jokes.
Like everyone else I too had a notion that frens end with college days and the word just stays in ur dictionary as a sweet remembrance of the days u spent with them in college.But I have been proved wrong, u can have frens at work place too…frens who seem to be on the surface but are equivalent to ur close frens any day.Frens whose acts u remember and laugh at in ur leisure time…and make people think u need to be admitted in a mental hospital soon.Frens who can be as close to as ur own siblings.And the most ironical thing is it is these frens infront of whom u keep narrating those unending episodes abt ur close frens of school and college and when u go back home the only people you talk abt in ur house is them.The only difference that is there now is that the probability of that sweet or sad partition is high with ur frens that u make at ur work place.U get up one fine day go with all smiles to office and hear that one of them is leaving the organization or that one of them has got an assignment abroad etc and u just have to be happy for them and for the opportunities they have managed to get.U are kind of prepared for the inevitable and u know that they might not even keep in touch later because there would be more responsibilities as time progresses and thousands of priorities in life to deal with.Although with college frens u knew that u had to part one day but u also knew that u all would be leaving and going on different ways simultaneously. So probably that made the pain of parting a lot easier.
Frens at ur work place are like a part of ur everyday life…u live ur professional life with them keeping them miles away from ur personal life but just like how u don’t realise when ur personal life has transformed into ur professional life in the same way u never realise when these professional frens of urs have ventured into ur personal life and become a part of it.U feel sad when u have to part from them but u have to tell urself that this had to happen one day anyways and u just got to move on and probably as time passes more and more such professional frens cum close frens will keep adding on to the list and ur memories too.Looks like God needs to bless me with a little more of memory otherwise it would be difficult for me.Now, most of my good frens are leaving for their onsite assignment….may they be successful .And hope all my other frens also find good opportunities by and by and make announcements abt their farewell treats(prime interest!).And if at all our paths ever cross again(i.e if the person who bragged abt world being a small place is not nuts afterall) hope that my memory just clicks and when I give a find on my memory its able to match the right name to the right face!!

Angels in Disguise!!

I remember the day when I was in 3rd standard and had that lesson on best pals in my English Gulmohar Textbook.That was the day I was taught the literal meaning of “Best Friend”.I still remember how me and my fren , who happened to stay in the same building as mine, signed up a bond for being the best ever frens….bcos that’s what we had thot it meant .We thot we need to sign a declaration stating that we henceforth are to be deemed as best frens.And it all begun with this day…the days of innumerable pranks,stealing money from house for candies,exploring surroundings and especially the neighbourhood for delicacies,discovering how the building’s water tank looks from inside,building doll houses,playing on the window parapet on the 7th floor of the building and being chased by the watchman,climbing trees to get that one guava which seems more precious than diamond also,making secret plans to runaway from home,fighting crazily over Barbie dolls,days when games like lock and key and colour colour were a question of life and death when it boiled down to who should keep the den,exchanging lunch boxes in the school,breaking that one single piece of chocolate into thousands of minute equal pieces such that even an inch here and there will be considered as Pakistan encroaching into India’s border…..and lots and lots of those innocent moments of laughter and only laughter,those tension free days of school, which whenever thot of will always seem like a heavenly dream!!All those moments to which you would like to go back and pause life there…..
Then came days of college where there was a slight transition in the concept of frenship.Frenship now seemed a huge possession….u now own ur fren….someone who is completely ur prized possession.Someone who understands u in and out.Friends at whose door you can knock at 2 A.M in the night and say that u are starving and need food to survive and see next day’s sunrise, friends at whose face u can close the door out of irritation and next day u would hear a knock on the door earnestly trying to wake u up in the morning so that u don’t miss ur morning classes,friends with whom you just break up and don’t talk to for one whole semester and then get back and just say a hi and u would be welcomed back as if it was just one day that had passed without speaking to each other,frens whom you can msg at 3 in the night that you are lost and are just not able to do the coding for the assignment that you need to submit the next day and you would have ur assign ready in ur account the next day waiting for submission,frens who mail you being there in the same campus just bcos u complained that ur inbox was empty,frens infront of whom u can admit that u have butterflies in ur stomach bcos u need to give a presentation tomm and practice saying “gudmorning, I am so and so” infront of the crowd,frens with whom u can laugh over the dumbest movies possible on earth and when every die hard emotional scene turns into a comedy,frens who know in which courses u have flunked and managed to achieve a zero,frens who share with u their secret crushes,frens who have actually seen u with ur hair open ,overflowing toothpaste and in ur night dress right out of bed and would be happy to crown u with miss Chudaeil,who secretly send u roses on valentine’s day and frenship’s day just to see ur curiosity,frens with whom u put night outs for all those gossips and enlightening talks which were considered more informative than the BBC news also,frens with whom u hardly spoke on campus and became ur good pals only after passing out by exchanging mails,frens to whom u send all those fwded mails that really touched you and u know that it will touch them the same way........frens with whom u have laughed , cried, fought , enjoyed and shared all ur moments and celebrated life with.Frens who even now keep giving missed calls at the oddest hrs possible just to make u realise u r remembered,frens who call u back if they feel tht something is wrong at ur end……
Probably even if u feel ur world is complete with a very understanding family…..loving parents and mischievous siblings u still need these little angels to complete ur world.Those angels whom you can call all kinds of weird names ,who are as stupid as you are and who would grow along with you facing all those pitfalls , highs and lows and sail all along with you in the same boat.So, when you are down and dejected and you feel there’s just no one around in the harsh world to comfort you all that you need to do is just look around and there you will find your special world of angels surrounding you and they are always there to make you feel special and cared for.My friends – my world of angels, those special people who I know are always there and all I wish for them is wherever they are just hope they keep smiling and may all the happiness in the world be theirs.