Mumbai Local Train Experience

A Difficult Monday Morning

True Story!

Metamorphosis

"Papa kehte hain...", that was the song playing on the old speaker system of the rickety bus. The bus had stopped en-route at a small village. The aroma of freshly fried samosas filled the air. The sun had just come out and slowly the golden yellow sunlight was engulfing everything in its warmth. As I stared out of the window I saw a mother lovingly combing the hair of her son, apparently getting him ready for school. Her son was a cute but restless kid who had a frown on his face. He wanted to join his friends who were waiting nearby so that they could go to school together. But the mother was taking her time ensuring that not a single hair was out of place. And why not? For a mother, the most beautiful child in the world is her own. After what seemed like an eternity for the kid, he broke out of his mother's embrace and ran fast to join his friends. I smiled at the episode played out in front of me. Here's the kid wanting to rush out to the outside world. And here I am who wants to go back, who does not want to leave, who wants to stay for some more time. I was going out of my city for the first time. My school had finished and I had got admission to a reputed college in another state. I was very excited on getting into such a good college and the prospect of leading an independent life but I never expected that I would miss home so much so soon. My smile changed into a sigh as my childhood flashed in front of my eyes. Getting dressed for school, the morning milk I hated so much, the scolding received on spoiling the clothes by playing in dirt, the craze for the wrist watch, the oh-so-dreaded visits to the barber shop, the small-at-home birthday parties with all neighbourhood kids, the big blue sky covered in small, colourful, diamond shaped tiles called kites. Aah, I am going to miss everything so much. Suddenly, a loud noise and vibration broke my reverie. Both the noise and the vibration were coming from my pocket. I fished out my cell phone and a tear rolled down my cheek as I saw on the screen, "Mom calling".

The first drop of rain

Finally...

The struggle was really long and painful and now when it is over, surprisingly, he did not feel happiness. It was as though he was emotionally discharged because of all he had to go through. No, it was not physical labour. This one was purely psychological, the feeling of helplessness, wishing to control life, wanting to set things as they ought to be, the agony of not being where one wants to. The constant effort to keep oneself motivated, happy or look happy at least. All the while, knowing at the back of the mind, still there is something missing.

But that's past now. There seems to be light at the end of the tunnel, a ray of hope, a new beginning. It is like the first drop of rain after a hot, grueling summer. It is like having a sunny day after long, dark winter. Feeling of warmth, feeling of relief. A smile comes to his lips now, the smile is not really of happiness. It is a smile of triumph over yet another difficult phase. It is a smile of wonder, as though questioning the Almighty, how many more mountains to climb, how many more "Agni Pareekshas " to go through? It is a smile of finally being able to enjoy the small things in life, at least for a while. And finally it is also a smile of excitement, the eagerness of meeting that someone special after such a long time.......

Dil Chahta Hai!!

Elections are almost there. Most of the voters have wishes and expectations from the new government. My case is different though, I would list down a few things which the government may not be able to provide, but it would definitely be a great life once I have them.

• Travel at the speed of light. Now, it does seem impossible, but lets suppose it was indeed possible. What could be the outcomes? We would have lots of such travel machines(Brand Name eg: Travelight) in the market. Just buy one, enter the latitude, longitude of where you want to be and sit in the machine. Thats it. Whenever there will be a India-Pak match going on, it would have to be held in some extra large stadium as anyone from any corner of the world could beam in to see the match. There would be no distance at all. No concept of being away, maybe no need of phones even. Well, hopefully the roads would be less crowded and people will use vehicles only for the joy of driving. Airline companies will be closed down, similar could be the fate of railways. You could go to work in Buffalo, New York and stay at Bhatinda. Possibilities are endless.
  

• Ability to fly. Now this has been the dream of mankind since ages. The thought itself is sufficient to make you feel good. Looking for some fresh air after the dinner, just find an opening to the sky and fly away. Roam around the city, play with clouds or just fly off to a hill. There could be then flying restaurants and cafetarias as well. Interesting.
  

• Ability to breathe in water. After sky, yet another unexplored area will open up for human exploration. Similar to rock climbing/trekking expeditions, we would have sea/lake diving expeditions. Hydro-tourism would be the new catch word. This may actually lead to cleaning up of over-polluted water bodies like rivers for the sake of making profit out of them. Imagine, Ambanis cleaning up the Ganga and charging a token fees for anything more than a bath in the holy river.

These are just some of the first things that came to my mind. Would post some more when I think of more. Those reading the post should comment about their wishes as well. Would love to hear about your wishes.

The square root of 3

I fear that I will always be
A lonely number like root three
A three is all that's good and right,
Why must my three keep out of sight
Beneath a vicious square root sign,
I wish instead I were a nine
For nine could thwart this evil trick,
with just some quick arithmetic
I know I'll never see the sun, as 1.7321
Such is my reality, a sad irrationality
When hark! What is this I see,
Another square root of a three
Has quietly come waltzing by,
Together now we multiply
To form a number we prefer,
Rejoicing as an integer
We break free from our mortal bonds
And with a wave of magic wands
Our square root signs become unglued
And love for me has been renewed.

-- An interesting love poem from the movie "Harold & Kumar escape from Guantanamo Bay". Movie is crap by the way.

Valentine's day :)

Emotional Quotient

Emotions, the part of every mortal's existence since birth. You are born and you start expressing your emotions, you cry. After a few weeks, you recognize your mother and show happiness on her arrival, her proximity. A few years go by, all the while people are actually enjoying the show that you put up with your emotions. The way you get angry when your favourite toy is missing, the way you are delighted on seeing a chocolate, the way you are surprised and sometimes irritated when people pull at your cheeks. But as you grow up, you are taught to curb expressing your emotions. Teacher tells you not to hit your class-mate even if he/she has been poking a pencil in your back the whole day. Parents tell you not to cry even if you are not the first ranker in the class and they have already scolded you for getting the second rank. Then, moving on the emotion expression scale keeps showing lower values. You have a crush on that not so talkative, shy girl in the class... and again lots of reasons to not to express..one of them could be a stronger lad in class has already shown interest. Another aspect of this unemotional state could be insensitivity. You get so used to looking at and ignoring the plight of people around, that you become almost heartless(how many of us have not ignored that physically disabled beggar at a railway platform)

The situation is slightly different for females. Conventionally, its ok for a female to show her emotions compared to a male. She can cry.

Then again, all the books, Geeta, Upanishads emphasize on the importance of controlling your emotions, your desires. Arjun had to overcome his emotion of love to lift his bow and arrow. Emotions are evil, they are obstacles in the path of success. Don't waste your time on girlfriends and stuff. Adjust according to the situation, even if you are in a city like Chennai, where you feel like a foreigner almost every other day(thats me). All this stuff about controlling your emotions also appears true to a certain extent.

Maybe its about maintaining a balance. Maybe its being selfish and at the same time not hurting anybody by your selfish actions. At the core, we all are very vulnerable and sensitive. Maybe that sensitivity and vulnerability is what makes us human. And that human touch separates us from the animals and machines.

Maybe I should also curb my emotions now and end this post.

Love, Laddoo and Lallan

Aaj ek kahani sunata hun. Once upon a time, there was Lallan, he was the "ghar kaa chiraag" of the Chauhan family. Aur ho bhi kyun naa, afterall he was born after a lot of buttering(read prayers) to Bhagwanji. Everyone loved him, so he was Mumma's lallu, Chachi's lala and papa's lallanwa. And the day he was born, lot of sweets i.e. laddoos were distributed in the small colony of Champak Nagar.

At about the same time, was born luvleen, the sweet daughter of Kartar Singh.Log kehte the, first thing she must have done after coming into this world must have been to kick the doctor for taking her out from the comforts of her mother's womb. As you may guess, she was the epitome of laziness. Isi laziness ke kaaran, she was never good at sports(Daudna padta hai) or Academics(Padhna padta hai). Still she was the sweetheart of the whole family. Only thing she was good at, and it was as though she had spent the nine months learning it, was cooking. She was an excellent cook and laddoos were her delicacy which the whole mohalla was fond of.

Luvleen and Lallan went to the same school, but never really talked with each other. Coz, both were kinda similar, ghar main bigade, apni marzi ke maalik. So, apne aapko pata nahi kya samjhte the aur rarely they talked with other students of the class. Then, there was this laddoo making competition organised in school. It was a national level competition and all the expert halwai's from all corners of the country had come to participate in it. Lallan also liked laddoos so he was also there, to witness the clash of the titans. He was observing how skillfully people had started the preparations, ki tabhi, he saw a girl crying at the top of her voice. She looked like a participant, as she was standing wid the others, but she had no material with which to make the laddoos. Lallan liked her innocence and as though God pushed him, he was standing near her asking about her predicament. She told him that she had somehow forgotten the material for the laddoos at home and felt too lazy to go back again, hence she was frustrated and crying. Now, as she had no frnds, koi uski help nahi kar raha tha. Lallan kaa dil paseej gaya, he felt as though aaj tak kisi ke liye kuch nahi kiya, yahi mauka hai. He asked her the address, aur bhaagta hua gaya, daudta hua aaya. And alongwith came the laddoo material. Now, she was already late, a lot of time had been wasted in crying and bringing the material. So, she asked Lallan to help. Lallan agreed gladly and together they started the race against time. Lallan was not of much use though, he was mostly busy staring at luvleen who was engrossed in the making. Aur use dekh ke koi nahi keh sakta tha ki ye wahi luvleen hai jo banana isliye nahi khati, coz one has to peel it.
But sumhow, they managed to finish in time. Phir aayi results ki baari. They really had worked hard, and the first prize went to Kallu Halwai from the nearby Nandan nagar. Lallan and luvleen came third. But laddoos had brought them together. Luvleen just could not stop thanking Lallan, aur Lallan ko toh jaise khoob saare laddoo mil gaye, more importantly laddoo wali mil gayi thi.

They spent all of their school days together and lived happily ever after.
Lallan, his love(luvleen) and laddoos.

Nothing should be left unsaid

Words and language come so naturally to us that we don't realize their importance. How you feel for someone or what you think of someone is immaterial. What is important is what you speak and how you communicate it. That plays the pivotal role in any relationship. Be it a friend, a family member, an acquaintance, someone under whom you are working or someone who works for you.
It all boils down to your ability to communicate effectively.

We don't really need to learn it. It mostly comes naturally to us. But we must learn to express ourselves at the right moments. Your near and dear ones can't read your mind. You have to tell them what you are feeling like. It kinda seems like very obvious, like why would not you tell people how are you feeling , but it happens.

Aah.. I don't know what am I writing I think I should stop right here. This post does not seem to go anywhere. It has finished up as kinda arbit. and too much senti. sorts.. people should take it seriously at their own risk.

Love, Friendship and Relationships

Why do people need to socialise? I remember a cliche answer:"Man is a social animal". Is that it? Is man actually an animal? Or is he something else, a totally different, an out of this world kind of phenomenon.

Love. Now, growing up in India, one cannot stay away from movies and movies had this rosy and beautiful and actually really simple picture of love. One just needed a beautiful gal in a college, a handsome guy has to somehow help/save this gal of course uttering "Ye to mera farz tha" after the heroic deed. Suddenly, from nowhere both of them reach to beautiful locations and start singing a lovely song. And we knew ki "pyaar" ho chuka hai. So, that was the impression of love till I was a kid. Of course, I knew that my parents, my relatives all of them loved me, but I was amused by the fact that we never sang songs, so how could this be love as well. I grew up to the facts of life and came to know about and even experienced the games nature plays. Girls were now not just like any other classmates. They were you know, girls. I came to understand the meaning of coming together of two flowers. Another kind of love. Then came to college, and now have seen my friends getting committed. And that too being really far from each other. So another kind of love. Man I am totally confused. Why do they have to use the same word for all kinds. Maybe it actually is the same or maybe not.

Friendship. I am not talking of a casual acquaintance kinda relationship. It should be similar to what Jai and Veeru had(Todenge dam magar tera saath naa chhodenge). Can we love our friends? Answer seems yes. But then it is another kind of love.

Then an eternal question. Can a girl and boy be just friends? Answer according to hindi movies is no. But then how does one know if he/she has actually fallen in love. They say it would be like you can't imagine life without someone. Now, practically that seems difficult. Also, you could also miss your friend as much. And how do I know for sure that I am in that spiritual kinda love and I am not only attracted to her cute face and her wonderful figure. If love is above all, then why do so many songs are made in which lovers are praising each other's physical beauties. Physical beauty matters or not? Ideally it should not, but then if I am given an option to choose 1 out of 2 gals and both are not known to me, I would obviously go to the one who is better looking. A gal will similarly like to talk to a better looking guy. Now, I feel that is natural, God has made us that way. Then does God want to define love in this manner? In other words, Is love just an euphemism to the actual reason male and female are attracted to each other and human race is continuing on this planet?

Relationships indeed are complicated, but everyone would agree that a normal person cannot live without socialising, without having friends, without having someone with whom he can share his dreams, desires and his interpretation of what life is all about. That is what should matter and maybe that is what finally matters. If there is someone who cares about you and that too without any reason. Someone who has got the right mix of maturity and innocence. One who knows when to just listen and when to talk, when to stand and when to walk(Hey that rhymes!).

If you are lucky enough to find someone like that then the definitions of love, friendship might not be important to you at all. And maybe you will enlighten me on this aspect as well. Till that time, I would remain confused. Love or friendship. Love or friendship. Love or friendship.