Masala Mix

Long long long time.
Yes, it's been quite a while since I have put anything here. This leads to the realisation that it's fairly easy to start something but it is difficult to sustain things. Having said that "well begun is half done", naa?

Suddenly I'm in the midst of lots of travel. Last fortnight I was all over - Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Pune. Well, all of this was touch-and-go and I failed to touch base with friends there. Talking of Travel, read that Abhishek was to create a Guinness Book Record by covering six cities in a day to promote his 'Delhi 6'. Private jet and all that.

Media went hysterical on the 'pink chaddi' campaign.



What happened? Did Muthaliar recieved the chaddis? Did he accept? What would become of all those chaddis - who knows! God knows why fundamentalists all over the world suddenly have become sooo active! At Swat, Taliban was able to arm-twist the Pakistani governement (no prizes for guessing who the real boss is). In US, the 'Chimpanzee cartoon' echoed the racial stereotype of depicting blacks as monkeys (Bhajji amused?).



Somewhere in the blog I have mentioned about my incorrigible romanticism. This was re-inforced as I watched SRK's Billu Barber (oops! just Billu, no barber; god! whatever is happening to our collective tolerance!). I enjoyed the movie like I haven't enjoyed one for a long-long time. Perfect Romanticism! A powerful god-like star and a bechara gareeb gaon ka barber - and the `friendship' transcends even the huge wall which usually gets erected around superhuman(image of)superstars! If Dev-D was a modern take on Sarat Chandra's Devdas, Billu seemed a modern take on Krishna-Sudama's fairy-tale story. The movie heightened my romanticism to such extent that I was crying buckets of Khushi-ke-Aansu towards the end (my poor friend - she must've been scared like hell, though she just reacted my making some fun of the tears rolling down my cheeks).



Another on-your-face message was how our society in general treats people when they are successful/important and how the same ones are dumped and ridiculed when they are no more important.

Am excited about my upcoming business trip to Vegas next week. Hope to get more spicier masala mix! Keep pouring your views/feedback. Without them, the blog is not even worthwhile.

[Anuradhaji, apologize for removing your post 'moral of the story'. I was getting envious of your 3rd successive post whereas I wasn't able to put any ;) ]

Tip to sleep peacefully

(Guest Article by Anuradha)

Be Strong enough to accept the challenges of life.
Don't ask life "Why me?", instead smile and say "YES!...try me".

A Small Story :
A boy and a girl were playing together. The boy had a collection of marbles. The girl had some sweets with her. The boy told the girl that he will give her all his marbles in exchange for her sweets. The girl agreed. The boy kept the biggest and the most beautiful marble aside and gave the rest to the girl. The girl gave him all her sweets as she had promised. That night, the girl slept peacefully. But the boy couldn't sleep as he kept wondering if the girl had hidden some sweets from him the way he had hidden his best marble.

Moral of the story:
If you don't give your hundred percent in a relationship, you'll always keep doubting if the other person has given his/her hundred percent. This is applicable for any relationship like love, employer-employee relationship etc., Give your hundred percent to everything you do and sleep peacefully.

Attitudes

(Guest Article by Anuradha)

They can conquer who believe they can, for nothing in this world is impossible to achieve.

I have a strong passion for the above statement because it tells us about belief and belief is a direct result of our thoughts. I have to evaluate a lot of people. During the course of the interview, I shoot a series of questions to evaluate the person & finally end up with a chart. The chart would have Knowledge ,Attitude, Skill & Habits written on it and the candidate has to prioritize the same. I would then evaluate the candidate based on his overall response. Those who prioritized Attitude as #1 choice are the ones who succeed in their career in a very short span of time.

The point here is I believe that Knowledge is acquired after we are born, Skill is learnt by seeing others, Habits are formed by our environment and surroundings. It is only Attitude that comes by birth and effects our Life by the way we choose to apply it on the other three factors. I have always appreciated the positive attitude that Sanju has shown through out his life ,be it turbulent time or happy times his approach has always been very positive and innovative. And I guess the guy at the Agra station also developed this attitude for his entire life and that one instance must have surely fixed up in his mind that goodness is still alive.

A Night @ Rly Stn

He was a 22 year old. He had come over to Agra to meet his boss Mr. Kannan from Head Office. Last two days have been very hectic - going from one customer to another with the boss. Tonight the boss had called for a dinner with other two local Agra boys - Yogish and Kansal. A round of whiskey preceded the dinner. He had more than his share of drinks and was nicely sozzled.

Yogish came with him to the Railway Station; the train was to leave Agra at 10.00 pm. They managed just in time. He was carrying his luggage bag and a small desk-top projector, which the company had provided to 8 of its best salesmen all across the country for a special project (he was one of them). He didn’t even have a reservation, Yogish somehow managed to find a seat for him in a very crowded general compartment. His 2 pieces of luggage were kept on the space provided above the seats.

He was feeling nauseating as Yogish bid to him farewell and left. The alcohol made him feel very uneasy inside the compartment where people were stuffed like packed sardines in a can. It felt slightly better as the train started moving and a wave of fresh breeze touched his sloshed face.

The train again stopped at a nearby station and the same feeling of stuffiness was coming back. Few people got out of the compartment to get some fresh air and to stretch themselves up. He too got down and sat on a bench just opposite to his compartment. The fresh air was cool and very soothing to his face which had heated up due to the experiences of last few hours.

He was woken up by a chowkidar. “Hey, why are you sleeping here on this bench?” the chowkidar roared. He opened his eyes and mumbled, “am just going to hop into the train as it’d move.” The chowkidar seemed surprised “Which train?” he asked.

When he fully understood the implication of that question, it seemed to him as if someone had pulled the carpet under his feet. The spirit at once evaporated and with it were gone all it’s effects! He was now fully conscious, awake but awfully shaken. The chowkidar took him to the Station Master and reported the incident. The old station Master started a lecture on how the boys today feel no responsibility towards themselves, their family and society.

As the Station Master was ranting, the boy seemed very scared; now for the first time thinking about the implications of his action. How would he face his family, his friends and the company! How would he manage to compensate for the loss of the projector, which would roughly be worth his ten month salary! He had no answers.

He slowly gained control on his intellectual faculties and took lot of pain in explaining to the Station Master how difficult it was to work as a sales person in a private firm and how hard he had been working for last few days and how he had been keeping his sleep away in order to impress his boss with his hard work. All this led to the minor lapse of falling asleep as he sat on the platform bench, waiting for his train to move.

The old Station Master had a distant relative who had given up on government jobs after trying for god-knows-how-many-years. He started asking about the potential in private firms and if the boy could help in anyway. The boy asked the station master to send his resume and promised he’d surely do something about it. He also handed over his card to him. After that the behaviour of the Station Master changed completely towards him. He said that though it was almost impossible to find luggage in such cases, he would try his best calling up the next big station Tundla and asking the staff to look for the luggage.

The Station Master asked for specifics – which bogie, what seat number and was aghast to note that the boy had none. Of the many general compartments, he could only tell him that this was one closer towards the engine and that he had two pieces of luggage - a red bag and a brown leather-case.

As he looked into the Station Master’s face after the latter’s call to Tundla Station, he knew that retrieving the luggage seemed almost impossible. Next few hours they both caught up with some sleep. Early next morning, the boy boarded another train to Tundla. There was no news from there still.

At Tundla station, he walked to the relevant department and started narrating his story to the first person he saw. That person with a mischievous smile said, “Oh so you are that person!” He further added, “with great difficulty, we spotted your luggage yesterday night, it’s lying safe with us”. As the boy followed that person to collect it, he wondered, “anywhere in the world, would there be anyone else, happier than me at this moment?” He smiled and knew he didn’t have to answer this rhetorical question.

(An autobiographical account)

Too Many Cooks!

Trilogy (of Poems)

Taking cue from Deepa Mehta's Trilogy of films - Earth, Fire & Water, few years back, I too constructed a Trilogy of poems. Here it is for you to read, enjoy and criticize.

(Please feel free to comment on other recent entries on the blog : "Republic Day Memoirs" and "Slumdog Bizzare?").


Water

few could look
into those reservoirs
for men usually shy away
when they stare

you could be bold
and continue to gaze
but you’ll drown too -
a similar fate!

gazing at them
many lost balance
tormented ever after,
turning insomniacs

the irony however is
unaware of their strength
those eyes blink innocently,
like a child awe-struck!


Earth

burning sand
hot and bizarre
such is life
an eternal fire

some soothing balm
everyone finds
one thing or the other
to which life binds

your black tresses
weave magic as they swirl
I long for their shade
oh! my girl

the magical curtain
as it falls
I experience bliss
amidst its walls

its swings and swirls
and scent and shade
is my place to rest
and reason to wake!



Fire

gateway to her gut
are two crimson gates
spreading fire
and igniting the place

just their thought
acts as a spark
igniting passion,
arousing desire

as my being
gets engulfed in desire
I long to lick
the voluptuous fire!

heat generates
as I probe her lips
slimy saliva,
firing the flames!

Republic Day Memoirs

Most of my memories of Republic Day are from School. I did my schooling from Kendriyas Vidyalaya (Central School).

My dad was serving in Indian Air Force and he would get transferred from one place to other every 3 to 4 years. I did my preschooling at Ghaziabad. 1 to 3rd standard in Hyderabad, 4 to 5 at Bagdogra (Siliguri), 5 to 8th at Barielly, 9 to 12th at Jodhpur. In fact, Jodhpur happens be the place where I have spent most part of my life (4 years!)

As a kid, Republic day was fun at school. No Padhai-Likhai and just few hours of cultural program and then sweet distribution (I really used to savor that boondi).

Then in college, I joined NCC, and was egged by my friend Anurag Misra to go for the Republic Day Parade selection camp. It meant lot of hardwork. The basic requirement was a good ranking in the 6 km cross-country race and decent marks at the drill parade. I was from Naval side and without much difficulty I cleared the college selection, city selection and found myself at Lucknow for a pre-Republic Day camp. My drill was average and my cross-country bordered towards poor. I would, with great difficulty(and with lot's of will power)would finish those 6 Kms.

Every night in the camp, I used to suffer from the sick feeling of churnings in the gut, a feeling quite close to terror, as I would think of getting-up next day morning, to run for 6 long and never-ending Kms. In the morning, as I would begin, my resources would exhaust within a Km or so. Then it used to be only me and my sheer will power. I would drag and drag till I'd reach the finish.

All this hard-work however was ok as I visited my relatives at Lucknow during the pre-RD camp(I had so much to boast!) and they too were excited at the perospect of seeing me march on the Republic Day Parade.

We were in the middle of the camp when we came to know that they had to eliminate one last person. Again the drill tests were called and cross country race. Again the lists were made. My heart really broke that day as they announced my name. I didn't want to go back. I badly wanted to go to Delhi. But there I was - eliminated.

There is this famous line in "Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)", something like (not verbatim) - 'if you desire something with all your heart into it, the whole world conspires for you to achieve it'. (This also became a famous dialogue in SRK's "Om Shanti Om' something with words like "shiddat" and "kaaynaat"). So, something similar must have happened to my Lucknow relatives as after the Republic Day, they called up and informed they actually saw me at the RD parade!!
(ofcourse, I hadn't inform them that I was eliminated).

Later though, I told them the truth - for a clear conscience :)

A Happy Republic Day to you.