The Nuptial Hallows

It has been more than a year since my last blog and it took me a desperate new-year resolution to bring myself back to blog writing ways. For an excuse, I must admit it is Mark Zuckerberg’s ‘social adventure’ named Facebook that has inflicted this year long ‘literary penury’. Secondly, the world around me has changed so fast over the last year that mending my text-knitting passion came disappointingly down my priority order. Anyways, it’s better late than never- a line I read often during ongoing road-safety week (Jan 1^st-Jan 7^th) , which kicks me getting back on my blogger again.

Oh yes, I am indeed going to address the issue that the heading suggests: The Institution of Marriage and the associated events.  Quite recently it occurred to me that I am edging towards-and-through the later half of my twenties, a recognition which instilled a dreaded feeling that forewarns a takeaway of my much loved freedom, luxury to flirt & the license to ‘be out-of-coverage’. Aah !! How sad! But that is how the things go on.

Just notice the alacrity in the eyes of parents when they embark on the task of finding some suitable match for their beloved son. Concealed to their magnanimously winkled smiles and brightly lit eyes remain the sorrows of forlorn heart of their kid. Poor soul (of course of their child) closely watches his cherished liberty moving away, hordes of responsibilities being thrust upon and all sorts of amusement becoming a tale of yesteryears. Poor fellow indeed! And what if you keep on dilly-dallying on the matter? Man, you get to hear terribly poignant appeals from your mother complaining how helpless she finds herself to execute her daily chores. Dear father pitches in too and reads aloud the list of your mates who got married already. Argh! How would you resist that? And to add salt to the agony come the flock of your relatives.  They keep on inciting your parents till they get convinced it is high time their ward got married. Here you find once such occasion when you really wanted to abuse your very own relatives.  Readers, I can’t reveal more. Giggle!

Do you really know who is more concerned about your status quo, more even than your parents and relatives? Of course your neighbours! Every morning you greet them, they throw that eternally repeated question: Boy, when are you inviting us to your marriage?
And you get to know why social respect for neighbours is fading away these days. They bring you to such protruded limits of disgust, while trying to break continuity of your uber-cool ‘single’ status days, that you shun wishing them happiness on Christmas too. I assert, I have nothing personal with neighbours!

Now envision this: you are a group of some 10 odd friends. 3 of the pack got married recently. And you happen to be the eldest of the remaining. Oh my God! You are cursed to be tortured with all senseless, otiose and totally superfluous suggestions. Just to recite a few, you are told: “Bhai shadi karle, nahi to baad me kuch nahi hoga. Bahut dikkat ho jayegi”, “Abe budhape mein Honeymoon pe jayega kya”, “ Fir dekh le, baad me defective junta hi milegi” etc. & much more to be pitied at. Howsoever intelligent they may be to rest of the world, your friends end up foisting such shrill and utterly obnoxious rhetoric upon you.  And all that crap just for facilitating the final rites of a quite enjoyable ‘being-single’ phase of life, an event which marks public acceptance of self-inflicted confinement to the twin-member society by a very dear friend. And you see these very guys, dancing their hearts out to the beats while you painstakingly hold your sobered face wearing a smile at the reception in, deceitful by nature, awe of a better world after marriage.  You remember that catchy title: Friends with benefits. Eerie!

Everybody in this world looks so determined to get you on the deck that you come to believe that it is the right time to tie the nuptial knot or else the hey days would get over. You start counting the white hair peeping out of the black mass stacked all around. Out of this haste, you consent officially to your parents that you are ready to mingle once and for all. Things spruce up quickly and you finally lock a suitable match out of the proposals that come in close around that time. Wow, you are fixed!

And in the festivities of a typically lavish Indian marriage, fellows overlook the social pressure they survived, friendly insults they bore, ludicrous reasoning they agreed to and ostracism from singles’ club which they would encounter post their marital extravaganza.

For all such poor souls, I pray for their peace and happier lives ahead. And I would write and brag about bachelorhood’s luxuries, as long as I am single and free to jingle. Somebody said; Marriages are made in heaven only to be suffered on earth.

Happy reading !

City City Bang Bang -Part 2

In my last blog, I had briefed the audience about the ordeal during my journey from Bhilwara to Jaipur en route to my career’s first launch at Bangalore. I explained I how I left my luggage in a bus to Delhi and then followed & boarded the same with great difficulty. Here is the posterior part of the story.

The bus was faring smoothly and hence my natural instinct of diurnal sleep gripped on. I slept for another 3 hrs. Then the bus had a halt at a midway. I took my usual evening tea with some snacks and adjusted the body to bear the long journey’s fatigue. The bus had started at 1.45 pm and it was 5 pm at the midway. I just happened to involved myself in a friendly talk with one of my fellow passengers. Taking a sip of tea, I asked: how long do you think it would take to Delhi? He replied: Can’t say with conviction since the traffic in Delhi is notoriously famous for delaying the arrival. I had the first goose bumps, then and there. Somehow, I tried to summon trust in the almighty and insisted that Rajasthan Roadways are not that bad. And we were again aboard for the journey.

It was twilight transiting into dark and each minute poured anxiety over me. I was much worried whether I would be able to reach the station in time or not. There was already mush traffic in the way and I couldn’t just dare to think of the unwanted, unforeseen but very imminent destiny. The hour, minute and the second hand of my watch, it appeared to me as if, had conspired to give me a really hard time. I asked the driver to move a bit faster but he shrugged off saying that he was helpless. He asked me when my train was scheduled to depart. Knowing that it was 9.30 pm, he said in hopelessness that I better find some alternative way.

I looked at my watch and to my utter disgust, it was 8.30. I was still lurking around Gurgaon. I asked fellow passengers how can now I catch the train. One of them suggested I take metro because that would help me reach there in 40 mins at maximum. But ordeal expressed its’ full ferocity and I came to know that the Metro line linking Gurgaon with New Delhi Railway Station was out of service since last couple of days. Then somebody came out of the crowd and advised to take a Metro Cab. The response came immediately. I got out of bus and ran taking a mighty suitcase, a very heavy big bag and my laptop bag to catch some cab. I walked with great difficulty and learnt why elders advice to take as minimum articles with you as possible while on a journey. Then eventually I hired a cab which gave a liitle solace to my burdened shoulders. After moving through a while, the driver expressed his concerns over catching the train in time since he smelled heavy traffic on the outskirts of the city. I shook my head and pleaded to make it happen by any means. I even promised him double the amount. The distance from Gurgaon to New Delhi station is 25 Kms approximately. I had sufficient time of 1 hr to reach there in time given a mediocre speed of 50 Ks/hr for a cab. But I saw whole Rome burning to flames when a large queue of Cars awaited ours to ring the bell of disappointment. God, it still gives me a shiver.

We tried to crusade through the traffic and making quick moves but all in vain as every corner and every turn confronted us to a new and yet another disheartening traffic jam. Suddenly I found all my fear fading away as I had completely given up on reaching the station in time.

First job and a plethora of hurdles! What a lesson it was turning out to be. It occurred to me then that I struck the Pandora Box open when I ignorantly miscalculated my journey’s duration. That was a big lesson learnt by me that when you are up for your really important things and events, you need to be a bit prudent. I called my dad and expressed my utter distress. He helped me compose myself and said that I needn’t worry as there is always some way out. He called me back to my place and advised to postpone the joining for week. I refused out rightly. I said; this is my first job and I don’t want to disappoint my Boss. He bucked me up and asked to contain myself.

I was left stranded at a station far away from home and which was never a part of my sojourn. Suddenly it came to me that I had a friend in Delhi, Dr. Neeraj. He was preparing for his PG examinations there. I called him up only to be beckoned by him later. I went there taking the wonderful and exemplary Delhi Metro service. I marvelled at the work Mr. E.Shridhran had rendered. I reached my friend’s place, took a sumptuous dinner( I had missed the lunch), and went to sleep after my friend consoled me for the happening.

The next day, I rose with a new high riding on the support my family had given me and went to book an air ticket to Bangalore. Luckily I got a flight late in the night and finally took a great sigh of relief. But now, I was all alarmed and resolved to tread carefully now. The flight was scheduled at 8.30 pm. But I left as early as 4 pm. I reached the airport by 5.30 pm and got the boarding pass done soon. The time arrived; I boarded the flight and relished the maiden flight of my life. Soon I landed up in Bangalore in 2.5 hrs and set onto a new journey of life. The longest and the most craved one. After all, life moves on and so did I because I knew if mistakes turn us down, they also show us a better way out.

Keep learning till life goes on.

City City Bang Bang-Part 1

How do you feel when you are going to land in a place known as city of dreams, the IT capital of the world, the silicon valley of Asia, the epicentre of Indian White collared youth brigade???? Ecstatic, isn't it like that? Well, so did I. But awfully, it occurred to me differently. Here is the story.

On a seemingly cold Friday morning I left my place, Bhilwara- the Manchester of Asia (don’t know whether it still meets that reputation) and headed for my first ever job centred at Bangalore (I love this name, don’t know why people changed it to Bengaluru ). I was scheduled to board the train from New Delhi at 9.30 pm the same day. My journey till the national capital was slated to pause at Jaipur, which is precisely 5 hrs journey from Bhilwara. Form there on; I was supposed to take another Bus for Delhi which again generally takes 5.5 hrs. Therefore, knowing the time distance equation I was well off with my travel plan leaving Bhilwara by 8 am. This was how it all started.

During the first half of my journey to Delhi, I enjoyed what I always do. I slept for complete 3 hrs absolutely ignoring the need to keep a check on my valuable luggage I was carrying along. Anyways after satisfying my diurnal sleep pattern, I profoundly found everything in place and safe when I reached Jaipur. Everything was going fine till I committed a felony. I confused Rajasthan Roadways to be a follower of Indian standard time (which is consensually taken across the nation as 5 min back of time shown in watches). Just when there were 3 minutes left in scheduled departure of the bus, I intended to take a cold drink and got out the bus. That was no brainer; the bus was half empty till then. And you know, they never ride the bus till it is suffocated to its beastly capacity. But who knows when luck is in a naughty mood.

The core of my crime was that I left the sight of the bus. I just took 2 mins to come and was left aghast to find that the bus was missing the scene. Totally flabbergasted, I pleaded the ticket booker to find out any way to catch the departed bus. All my certificates and my purse were inside the luggage. Mercilessly and to utter ridicule, the ticket booker grinned and joked: Bhaiyye, Bus to Gayi. He ..he...he. I somehow maintained my calm, grabbing the complexity of the situation and still asked him if there was anything that could help me catch the bus. He now retorted with a not so humble reply: humari galti he kya? Aage wali bus jayegi 5 min baad, usme baith jao. Agar naseeb hoga to aage wali bus raste me mil jayegi. I just blindly followed what he said. Now, the most intelligent thing I did here was that I called my Dad and explained him the situation. He relaxed me and told me to wait till his next directions. I kept alarming the driver to go as fast as he could, but he never seemed bothered. I even lured him for monetary benefits but to no goods. Just then I received my dad’s call. He told me that the target bus was waiting for me at a station 5 Km from city station and that I should reach there as early as I could. Luckily, we got there in time and I had the glimpse of the bus from a distance. I left the carrier and ran to catch the sought one. Just as I entered the bus, the passengers started yelling at me. Are you some minister’s son? Are we fools that we can wait for anybody who is not sane enough to keep a watch on his boarded bus? You have wasted our time. I admitted with a gallop of disgust and shame. But somewhere down, my heart was rejoicing the salvage of my maiden journey en route to my career. I pretended to be shaky but exploited the hidden celebration. During the last half an hour, I could sense each of my nerve stretched to extremes and lived the moments of profound misery.

I placated as they say, all is well that ends well. But it didn't end here since I had no idea hitherto what my soul was about to experience in the next part of my journey.

Are you taking it closely? Are you anxious to know what happened next? The next blog answers all. Stay tuned.

The Confessions of An Innocent Teen

When you grow up, you pass through several stages in life that change the way you look into the things. There are a few good experiences and there are some bad ones to tally. And some of them get imprinted indelibly on one corner of your heart. Those special ones remain vivid throughout the life and give a feeling of recency on each remembrance.
In this blog, I am going to share one such event which abruptly swayed my life: My first encounter with the failure. The title takes its justification from the fact that though the story is being texted now, the script was imprinted in my heart years ago when I was a teen.
I was a bright student of S.D.A. Middle School, Bhilwara( my home town). I was all tears when I had to enroll for a different school for carrying further studies after 8th standard. It was St. Anselm’s Sen. Sec. School, an elite school of the city. I was an innocent studious boy till then, devoid of all that chutzpah that such big schools offer.
My first day at this school was as shocking as expected. I was welcomed with a harsh denial to sit on the first row by the old boys’ gang of my class. One of them approached me, pulled my bag and threw it on a bench backside saying: Naya aya he na, chal peeche baith. Yaha hum baithte he.
And they all burst into laughter. I could not understand what that laughter was for. Somehow I managed to occupy a seat at the second bench. And then came another fellow. He started abusing me. I was struck dumb. How could a stranger throw such lavish abuses at a new entrant? This was my first encounter of the grim reality of the so called reputed schools where only the children of the privileged class would study. Another blow came when I found after the day was over that my cycle had been punctured by some menace of my class. This was the way I was welcomed to my new school.
I returned home and detailed the ordeal to my father about my first day at school. My dad nestled my head under his arms and said: Sonu, school change ki he na to thodi pareshani to uthani padegi. Sab theek ho jayega, tu bas apni padhai pe dhyan laga. Tu adjust ho jayega jaldi.
The next day I went to school and took a test on English subject. I stood first in the class and everybody was hovering round me after the class was over. The incumbent topper of the class came and greeted me saying : Bhai ab to meri position ko tumse khatra he. Even the boy who abused me last day came and asked about my previous school. Suddenly the whole scene changed. I became the talk of the class.
The honeymoon period ended soon when Quarterly exams arrived. I was struggling to get over the menace of Mathematics. It was a shift from Rajasthan board to CBSE for me and it took a hell lot of pain to grab half of the lessons of the subject. The day arrived when I wrote my Maths Paper. I attempted whatever I could and took a great sigh of relief after the exam.
The results day came and I got the first debacle of my life. I was declared failed in Mathematics with a meager score of 15 out of 100. My dad scolded me harshly and expressed pity at my sheer incompetence. On that day I wrote the first poem of my life which poignantly carved out the feelings of a teen bereft of accolades he used to get in his previous school. Nevertheless, I summoned up courage and prepared myself to face the mighty task. I can still feel the moisture of tears on my cheeks I bore on that day when I sat to prove to my parents that I would overcome this ignominy and would come out with flying colours.
I diligently worked hard for 2 months and got myself tuned with, until that time, so incongruous subject of Mathematics. The Half yearly Exams arrived and I got a distinction in Maths. Kudos. I continued that streak in Annual exams also and gratified myself and my family.
This experience taught me one great lesson of life : there is nothing that can not be achieved, there is nothing that cant be conquered. The only requisite is that we resolve to march ahead. The paths will unfold automatically once we embark on the expedition. This is where the beauty of Man’s indefatigable spirit resides. Yes, Almighty chose this way of showing me the path. I love you God.

The Art of Napping

I don’t want to digress from the title at the very beginning of this post but after receiving such rave comments on vocabulary usage in my last blog, I find it imperative to mellow down on that front. However, that doesn’t mean I would not use certain words that some might feel abstruse because I do not use them intentionally but they just click extemporaneously to me. Readers- please understand my problem; it would save me a lot of time.

Napping- as per dictionary, means the state of not being attentive or vigilant. But quite interestingly, it has been associated with the quality of below average performers (I am afraid if it’s true) and is generally found in those who are uninterested in a certain activity or task. The incidents of napping could be encountered easily at schools, at speeches, during late night duties etc.

From the student’s perspective, how important the phenomenon of napping is? Imagine of a boring lecture potent enough to put you into the throes of hibernation for steep intervals of time. And there is this phenomenon of napping at your rescue. Think of the deadly task of studying Finance or Communication, and you find yourself in the clutches of this cardinal conqueror. So, we see that there is how it creeps into students’ lives.
But does anybody have an easy access to this savior (For a student like me)? No, because there are enough measures taken by the opposing forces to keep this blessing at bay. You are under tight scrutiny of the vigilant eyes of the lecturer, even your abysmally short-spanned winks are noticed. I can’t simply dare to enrage him. But still at the end, I find my neck jerking off my hand which is supporting it. And this very thing gets noticed by the lecturer which otherwise would have made my nap go unscathed and undiscovered by him. Despite all the attempts to abstain from it, it happens that I doze in the class. Even some of the most interesting and vital sessions fall prey to this phenomenon.


Now I would love to share a few tricks of executing this trade effectively and efficiently in case it gets impossible to remain awake. But Caveat Emptor is quite valid here i.e. it is at owner’s sole risk to follow. These are only plain tips, to execute them to the hilt remains the capability of the person. Here they go:
• First make sure that it’s not an interactive session in the class.
• The most vital point is your position in the class with respect to the teacher.
• Adjust yourself in a row or a bench that the lecturer takes for granted as to be of studious pupils’.
• Ask a question or two at the beginning of lecture, howsoever irrelevant it may be, just to make sure that in case you are caught napping, the teacher grants mercy for participating at some point in the class.
• Nod your head in tandem with teacher’s sentences for initial five minutes and then glare at the board or screen. It will render good impression.
• Always keep a pen in one of your hands over a half-written page before you get set to take a nap.
• Bend your eyes onto your notebook in a manner that reflects yours reading some text.
• You can also adjust your hand to cover your eyes to some extent but not completely.
• Place your hand below your chin to support your head while taking the nap.
• Try to sit bent at affordable angles fit enough to avoid direct peeps of the lecturer.
• Napping with half eyes closed (or say half opened) is always a boon but it is an art only few possess mastery at.
• Do sleep but keep ears wide open. You should be able to gauge your teacher’s movements or something discussed aloud.
• Employ a trustworthy friend to wake you up in case teacher asks you something. He would also serve to alarm you when danger is imminent.
• Sleep only as much as you can afford i.e. also keep a balance between the knowledge lost and the relaxation gained. Avoid misusing this tool.

Friends, the above tips are not a means to retaliate to the lecturer’s rendering us boring sessions. It is the moribund subject, not the teacher that makes a lecture uninteresting. And our lack of sincerity for subjects is also a factor for the same. It is for this reason that I request you all to just utilize it for the optimum benefit and not to make it a hindrance in your success path.

To be, or not to be

This comes from the world famous literary work of Shakespeare: Hamlet. But don’t be afraid, I am not going to take you through the rigours of making you read any of his abstruse poems. I just want to fetch your attention to the stress that most of us often encounter in our day to day life.
At times, the situation gets so perplexed that we don’t give it a fight and simply succumb to it. Or to put it another way, we take the not to be option. This happens because of our clumsiness, we seldom try to take the situation other way round. We feel contented to accept the simplest offered alternative i.e. not to be. We give up before it is actually over. Why fall prey to prefer unconditionally chosen termination? Is a small debacle or an imminent ignominy beastly enough to make us believe that it is the end of the things here? Certainly not.
Then how to get through the quandary of life? If we are ever to be conquerors, we shall have to fight with the sorority of enemies studded everywhere. To win the battle of balance of life is not an impossible art. Recall a situation when the mere remembrance of your dependents motivated you to rival the fiercest of the situations. Do not forget how difficult you found it to learn alphabets in kindergarten which later became tools for tweeting and orkutting, or say absolute fun. Difficulties make a man a man. We must learn that we are also a part of the cut throat competition where only the fittest survives. Hence, to stay active, alert, amiable, alacritous and yet sustainable, is imperative.
Remember, it is not all about the gold in the Olympics, but it is the participation that matters. To be is certainly divine and nonpareil beauty of the eternity of this universe. Always try to face the situation with the grit of a Lion and take the world in your stride even of it looks apparent that you will lose. It is easy to unconditionally accept the imminent failure without giving a fight, to become a part of oblivion, absolute annihilation. But those who choose always TO BE, write their own destiny.
To be or not to be? Is that still a quandary?????