BLUE!

Based on a true story. Ask Balaji Selvam for other details.

            The human mind easily finds the ocean so attractive. The blue waves in the early morning, the moist sea breeze and the sand. We dug our feet into the sand and ran towards the sea. We gave all our bags to Monish and the rest of us ran towards the ocean. I found it difficult to run with my slippers, so I threw them near the Banyan tree. I saw Monish carefully balancing all our bags in one branch. One or more of the five bags fell down at a time. He let them as such and joined me as we jogged briskly towards the blue. Before us was a race between Mani, Lalith and Raghav. Raghav was beating them hands down but Lalith and Mani were laughing at his pants which were fine to the sane world. But we guys find fun at almost everything. We slowly joined Mani and Lalith.

                          The weather was perfect for some soccer, our new craze. We were passing the ball to each other and found it tough to run in the beach sand. Time passed so fast that we hardly noticed a few others around us. They too were playing soccer. I guess, like our case, the Euros must have triggered their craze. They were average; I guessed we could beat them in a soccer match.

                        As luck would have it, they proposed for a match, to which we duly agreed. The game went on well, we were good and suddenly I saw the clouds turn grey. The team which we were playing against looked petrified, I saw genuine fear in their eyes; they were staring at the banyan tree as we stared at them and looked among ourselves. We checked what made them look so scared, we found nothing. Mani was very confused, he wanted to continue the match as we were winning and we seldom are in such a position at half time. The rest of us were walking towards our bags for water. Mani said he’ll ask them to continue the match.

“Heyyy” I heard Mani shout and walked towards him. I saw the guys run. They were literally running; we didn’t know the reason. We did not want to, as we assumed that they were afraid of losing against us. I and Mani hi-fived and walked towards the others. They were relaxing against the banyan tree.

“Strange isn’t it?” ragav asked.

“Whatts so strange?” I asked.

“Those guys” Monish said pointing farthest away at the other team , “ wonder why they are still running, something is odd”

“Yes but why are they still running?” Lalith asked.

               We took our respective bags  as we had decided to bring separate refreshments. I sipped my water bottle thinking about the number of calories which I would have burnt during the game.

“OHHH MY GODDD” shrieked Ragav as he threw a blue bag in the middle of us. He walked away from it.

“ What’s in it, you okay? Who brought this??” Lalith asked.

“Donttt. Let’s leave “ Ragav looked terrible.

I did not obey his orders and examined the bag myself.

“OOHH MY HOLY GODDD” I exclaimed. I couldn’t believe my eyes.

I HAD NEVER SEEN SO MUCH MONEY IN MY LIFE! Five bundles of cash, each might be five lakhs or more. Every single note was a thousand rupee note. I opened the cover for all to see.

“OOHH MY GODD”  they all screamed together.

“Now what do we do with it??” Lalith asked.

“We take it” I said.

“Nooo” Ragav protested “This doesn’t belong to us, we leave it right here” he said

“Are you crazy? This is bumper man, we gotta leave soon, come on let’s take it” I said to everyone.

“Is this got anything to do with the guys running away?” Monish asked. Nobody had an answer. Mani nodded. Ragav threw the bag away from us.

“Whoever wants to take this, take but I’m not taking this money, it does not belong to us” Ragav stressed his point.

“Look here, I did not steal it. This is lottery I’m taking it” I said.

“Okay then, we’ll reach a consensus” Mani proposed. I looked around and confirmed that nobody was watching our argument here. At that time, there were only a few couples going about their usual work at the beach.

“I’m okay with anything” Mani said, “What about you?” he asked Monish.

“Yeah, same here” Monish said.

Ragav tried to convince Lalith as his say was decisive. I did not want to miss this opportunity. I was eagerly waiting for lalith’s word. I hugged the blue bag and lied on the sand. I saw Lalith coming. I wanted to take it no matter what he said. I was thinking ways to convince him as the others were quite rigid in their decision. I saw indecision in his eyes. He came smilingly and he sat beside me. I was waiting for him to speak.

 He hesitantly shook me and said “Bike repair dude, can you drop me at college?”.

Whaaattttttttttttttttt??? I analysed my surroundings and found my morning coffee waiting at the side.

THE BUSBY WAY

February 6, 1958. A day etched in every Man Utd fan's mind and imagination. An all conquering team set to win the historic treble fought cold and snow and a tough away fixture against Yugoslovia's Red Star Belgrade side  and managed a 3-3 draw. They landed at the Munich airport for refueling. Hopes were high after finally qualifying for the semi finals of the European cup. Hope is a traitor. A slush of snow at the Munich runway caused a bad take -off  which resulted in a tragic accident. At that stage in the premier league, the so called "Busby babes" were on a eleven game unbeaten streak  and were six points behind leaders Wolverhampton Wanderers with fourteen games to go. A group of young and fearless footballers attempting to achieve the rather impossible were stopped by nature. Few of the most precious gems in football were lost, some were scarred and injured which made them unfit to put on the soccer shoes anymore. The chants of "MANU-RE... MANU-RE"  began at the away fixtures mocking the Munich disaster victims as fertlisers for the paddy fields of Munich.

Man united never really recovered from it, but they managed to win the league in four years time. The chants still continued and so did " the Busby way" of football at Old Trafford. The galleries of the stadium continued to witness the dreams of numerous young and unproven talents produce masterclass and carve a niche for themselves at the walls of Old Trafford.  That is why it is called the Theatre of Dreams. Years passed by and we were still the anti-incumbents. The Reds of Liverpool had a golden era of two decades. There were the "glorious" Blackburn Rovers and the often threatening Leeds. A Scottish man, a former toolmaker and Aberdeen coach was introduced at the helm of affairs at Man united. He slowly established himself and earned the faith of the people who called for his head after the initial failures. Then came the year 1992. An excellent breed of British footballers with the right desire and ability came up through the ranks at Old Trafford. Fondly called as the 'Class of 92' by the faithful; David Beckham, Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs, Gary Neville etc began the golden era. The boys needed someone to look up to, someone who could free them of their "school boy obedience" and inject some creativity and fearlessness in their young minds, and the Gaffer looked up to a certain Eric Cantona, the bad boy of  football stating mildly. He could have been a negative influence on the kids, they could have simply fallen apart then but the Scot had faith in his lads and more importantly understood the need for a little eccentricity! The kids loved him and he loved them back, the gaffer looked from the stands,  smiled and nodded at the brilliance on show.

Liverpool were knocked off their perch permanently and Cantona  knocked a few within and outside the fields. 'All geniuses are a little weird', understood Fergie. The cries of "OOh aaH Cantona" never died in his absence. I guess that is what separates Sir Alex Ferguson from the rest. If you could remember the likes of Ronaldinho and Mario Balotelli were shown the door at Barca and Inter by Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho respectively. Sir Alex had more patience with his lads, he understood the different geniuses; Roy Keane was one among them. He handed him the captain's armband, the year of 1999. It was time to announce the world that the Busby babes were not manure for the Paddy fields of Munich but were sown as seeds in the sands of time. It was time to realize the dream, the Historic treble loomed large and what stood in front of us were a team from Munich and time. Four minutes remaining and 1-o down when David Beckham stood to take a corner. The fearless United keeper Peter Schmeichel left his goal post and jogged to the bayern area to leave the crowd in the penalty box bewildered. A weak shot from Giggs was deflected to goal by Sheringham.  "Why did the gaffer buy Sheringham, why Solsjkaer??" they needed to be answered right? Yes they were that night, Ole Gunnar Solsjkaer, the baby faced striker from Norway scored the winning goal in extra time to silence the critics. Now that was a goal worth more than 50 million pounds. Sir Alex Ferguson, the toolmaker, the ageless Scot achieved what Sir Matt Busby set to achieve. We play the Busby way then and now and forever. At United we have our values and we have our morales. We the fans, were labelled "Glory hunters" by the rest. But the truth is that we were , are and forever will be the anti-incumbents. We fail, we suffer but still we love United. Our reign was always questioned, we were never  invincible, we saw off Liverpool and then came the challenge from the Gunners and the Blues. We tamed them and then rose the Catalunia. The neighbours got richer and noisier.

Sir Alex Ferguson is a fighter, we trust in him unlike clubs who change managers like half time jerseys. He will probably not rest until he has conquered those challenges. He will but dream, as another new chapter unfolds in the club's history. The class of '92 will reincarnate anew, the Holy Trinity will continue to bless their dreams and Sir Matt Busby will watch over again as the boys turn into men. " Can United score??, YES THEY HAVE" will again be said by awestruck commentators. KEEP THAT TROPHY SHINING HOLDERS, WE ARE COMING!!

PICTURE THIS..

                      Our life is a small house with just one window and no doors in it. The heart is the window which is often covered by curtains of joy or sorrow or the so called “cool” or the fancy “I don’t care what you are” curtains. How much ever spacious our home might be, we always live near the window to see who is checking us out, we paint the exteriors and look to present our house well (well, I mean your monthly parlour visit, fancy clothes, hair styles, perfumes). We forget to buy new things for the insides of our home and also to dispose our garbage (meant our negative thoughts, come out of the toilet thing!!) When people get closer to our home (life), they check out on the cool exteriors, and come straight to the window. They don’t see the real us but the mere reflection of what they want us to be. KNOCK KNOCK!! And the poor heart opens up with love and now it is time you show your home to the person. The first thing you do when a person enters the house, you shut the window! And after that you people would have fun, fight, make urgghh …. Blah.. blah… blah and live in the house for a while happily. Once inside the house with the windows closed, nobody cares about the exteriors, all they want is the SPACE inside the house(still life). How much space you can afford in your home (life again) to them is what that will make them share the house longer with you.

                            So must we design our house? Either you build “the perfect home” which I guess is bit tough or you are better at having a transparent window and take off the curtain. Now people will see what you are and what you want to be and other things ( interests, skills, hobbies ETC). To have your window transparent, you need to have a clean home too. I mean no habits or practises that would give the person (at the window) the “eewwwww” kinda' moments. A little cleanliness and some class is all people expect once they enter your home. I bet you that nobody is going to check out on your exteriors once they have entered your home. Also one more thing, give them the keys(freedom) so that they can enter and leave whenever they want to. Like they might visit on their friends, night outs etc. If one has the trust , this would not be a problem. And always remember to take care of the person in your home. Cheers.

THANKS FOR READING MATE!

LIFE IS LIKE THAT!!!

                     I guess this is why all women call this the best time of their lives; the day when you are where you always wanted to be. The first time you are going to be his. Yes today morning was my wedding. I am waiting for my prince to melt my heart again. Oops, he is my husband now . Some things will be tough getting used to. Top of the list will be touching his feet reverently without laughing while he tries to pull a prank or two. Meet me Mrs Veena Sukhinder.  I have had my make -up and with my heavy clothes I am here waiting in the bed and where on earth is he now? Men are like that, they want you always and when you offer yourself to them on a palate, they’ll get nervous. But I don’t think my prince, oops again, he is my husband I forget, I don’t  that he is a nervous guy. He is Mr Lazy in every little thing save his air force duty. Oh yes, I am the girl who beat you all. My hubby is an air-force pilot. That’s the pride that I have in being his wife. I don’t mind losing my identity, my surname or myself for being his wife. I love him and tonight’s the start of the journey with him. He drives everything well; bikes, planes etc. I guess I am ready for the long journey with him.  I am hearing his footsteps in the corridor, my God he is near. I am nervous now. I sank my head between my knees; I do that whenever I am nervous. Last time I did that was when I was waiting for my semester results. I am thinking of unromantic things before the most amazing night I am going to have or has it already begun? I felt a touch I guess.

“Am I late madam?” I heard his voice, hubbbbbyyyy you’re here, I thought.

“ You can never be on time” I feigned anger.

“ Well today is special I guess, so I was getting prepared you know?” I couldn’t help but smile. He pressed my wrists. I guess I blushed too much. He held the part of my cheek that protruded out of my knee-tent.

I guess I need to practise more. He won. It is time to lose me. I lifted my head, I guess he saw the love in my eyes, I felt the same passion in his touch.

“I love you Mrs Veena” he said, I know this is his abracadabra when I am angry.

“No” I said “ just Mrs Sukhinder”. I couldn’t pretend more. I hugged him tight and rested in the place where I could hear his heart chant my name. Time passed like tortoise and I loved every passing second or must I say that I lived in every passing second. If this is how my future is to be, I must say “THANK YOU GOD”. Tears slipped and I had wet his shirt before I knew. He held my face in his right hand and flicked those tears with his finger. “baby I never thought that I would break my promise on the first day” he flashed a smile.

“You know how to win me don’t you?” I said to him wiping my tears and going back to his chest “these are happy tears honey”. He simply said a “Hmmm”, when he says that it means that he is in a mood to listen and do things for me. I see a chance to go for it now. “Will you do whatever I ask from you now hubby” I asked him. He put my head on the pillow and stroked my hair off my forehead.

“Yes I will” he said and planted a gentle kiss on my forehead.

This is it, go for it, my heart told. “Sukhi, you have promised me, I want to wear your uniform now, pleeeaaaaase” He fell for the trap, this was one thing I always wanted to do but this patriotic officer never allowed me to wear it.

“Hey cheater” he said “this is cheating”  and he rose in a moment and began backing off towards the cupboard to save his uniform.

 “You promised this, your wife’s first wish!” I guess the word wife worked wonders and I hope it always does. In a minute I was wearing his WHITE Mig 21 fighter pilot uniform. I kissed his name plate on the shirt. He was mine, wherever he might be.  

“Happy now?” he asked.

“Soooooooo happy “ I said and hugged him tightly.

“ Now it is my turn” he said advancing towards me and held my face.

“Yes whatever you wish for” I said “ and please don't be late” I closed my eyes and I thought that this was the time I was always dreaming of, to be in his arms day in and day out, to breathe his breath and make his fragrance my perfume. I heard a knock. I FORGOT MILK!  Aunty told that so many times. He was already attending to the door. I saw aunty crying and asking him not to do something.  He was adamant against her wish. He turned back with a pale face and it finally dawned on me, every officer’s wife’s worst nightmare.

  

               He gave me a briefing but I only heard the words “I have to go”. He did not even turn back to see me, this deserves a fight, my heart told. I was weeping. I wanted to cry badly so I hid my face between my knees and started to sob. I felt an all familiar touch again. I looked at who it was with my eyes. IT WAS HIM. My joy was unbound; I hugged him tightly and cried loudly.

“ You did not even turn back to see me” I punched his chest “ don’t touch me, go away” I pushed him back.

There was no emotion in his eyes, he was so cold.

“MY SHIRT Veena” he said and it finally dawned on me.

I guess life is like that, little love and lot of longing. See you prince, oops husband; fight well for your country now and your wife will live and wait to fight with you another day, my heart bade farewell.

    

      THANKS FOR READING BUDDY!!

Blanket and roses. P.S: With some love ...

I do really know why my boss called me here. A so called 'performance analysis' meeting which is an invitation for lay-offs. My heart is in my mouth, so is Archie's , Kelvin's , Jon's and others in their respective mouths. We all feel that Archie, with only her name in common with the greeting card company is the next one to go. But she's been cosying with the boss Daniel to get me out of here. I regret calling Daniel 'motor mouth' because he may be signing my dismissal in a few hours. I am forced to think about Michelle. She came out to live with me and i am going to be sacked, stop paying bills and stay at home and watch her cry. B.S man, this sucks and in he comes 'motor mouth' aka Daniel, my boss. Whatever happens i love you Michelle, still my girl friend and will be my wife if all goes well and Archie the bitch goes out of Archie the greeting card retail.

                                                    Oh boy, here  it goes, " Hello my colleagues, we all know the rise of the pop up and fancy cards in the market, with the decline of the meaningful cards we are forced to change our strategy and increase the fancy cards production, so it is inevitable" motor mouth said and clasped his hands, I could bet  he looked at me menacingly. This is it Michelle baby, i am going home. My thoughts were interrupted with the second part of his speech. "Before going for lay-offs, it is my duty to retain the best talent among you, so two people will be selected from your group for permanency" i saw a chance, one is definitely Archie, the competition is for the other spot. "To do that i ask you all to write for a romantic greeting card, 'the lover boy tries to woo his girl' is the theme of the card and you will start after your break, so see you" he said and left straight away. Archie followed straight to his cabin and her job is secure. I feel devastated. I saw my colleagues cursing Archie.
                                       
                                          "Hello Michelle, it is me here" i used my break effectively. "Yes honey, wassup?" she said. "Honey umm most probably i am coming home soon"
" Oh that is sweet, i will make marshmallows, we'll watch a movie, waiting to cuddle with you , can you come soon, pleeaaasseee" she said at 2000 words per minute and blew a few kisses.
"Michelle baby, i guess i am getting sacked" that came at 50 words per minute from me.
"Whoaa, motor mouth did that?" she asked, she knew my office people and their nicknames.
"Yes dear and he gives me theme to write at last before sacking which is 'the lover boy tries to woo his girl' "
"that is cool, you do that often Jim baby" she said
"Dont kid baby, it is over i guess, my dream of writing for the best cards, it is over"
"baby dont give up, you woo me like how easily you blow a candle" she assured "you can write about this".
I couldn't help but laugh " Like what was the thing i bought for our home lately, a single blanket and few roses for you, is that romantic?" i was skeptical.
" Yeaahhhhh you are the most romantic boyfriend ever, just imagining us cuddle at night in a single blanket gives me goosebumps in the day" i could imagine her leaning on the wall and miss me, she is like that, ever loving and always optimistic.
" You want me to write about blanket and roses, that is the best i can think baby"
"Then do that and dont forget baby, this is for us"
"I will do my best honey"
"I meant the blanket , it is for me, don't think about motor mouth and Archie when you write, focus baby"
 I laughed and the phone was cut, no sensors here, just timers. Prepaid calls run out sooner than a wink.

                                                  I thought a poem, people finished their lunches and trickled  in. Time was getting over.

I scribbled something that came to my mind, for you Michelle, hopefully Mrs. Michelle Jim Sandlers soon.

 "My sweetheart, I wish I were the velvet sky 'cause my eyes are never enough to marvel at your beauty , I want those million stars above , the thick clouds as blanket and the lonely sea to bathe with only YOU   

My dearest baby, God makes flowers blossom when I sleep because when I am awake he knows that I will not let him steal your fragrance, that brightest rose is red because she blushed once when you walked past her". i finished mine.

 I felt a touch on my shoulder. Oops motor mouth! he took my slip.

"Friends i guess i have decided the two people for recommendations" He sensed an anticipation, once he built up enough "The first person is Archie" , we all know that  i thought "and the next person has so far been the first name for lay off but this piece I cant let it go anywhere, I see this as a best seller " he said breaking the chain of abusive thoughts that i had directed at him. Actually he was waving my slip which meant "This was the best Jim, it is you, Congratulations". He held my hand and congratulated me.

"Thank you Michelle" i said , oops " Daniel sir" i corrected 

P.S Description about Jim's and Michelle's appearances were avoided because of a small belief that true love never looks at the face but at the heart.

THANKS AGAIN FOR YOUR TIME, FRIEND.

Elitism, the new form of untouchability...

                             Hello to my limited reader friends, with so much to talk about Indians and the issues we face, why is this guy talking about a nonsense term that i do not even understand? Tell me how many of you think that way. Anyways what do you think is elitism? My view is that elitist is that person who thinks he is superior than his group and he therefore abandons them and searches for his own like minded people. This might not sound as a big issue but allow me first to illustrate.
                                              Let us take an example of a person X from a small village. The person X let us assume has got a good score and hence finds a cool college like SSN, so what he does is he studies more harder, enjoys a bit, dates occasionally and visits his native village rarely. Everything appears cool till now, but now is his first "are you an elite" test? How do you treat your own people after some fame and money. Mr X is sure to get a job, a cool one at that and his lifestyle is bound to change. New car, apple phone, a six digit salary and that is where the good part ends. Now Mr X's mentality will change, a posh bungalow at ECR and a foreign tour with his wife and family but the last time he visited his native was when he was in college. Another Indian would have lost his roots, sadly.
                                              Where do you think this problem arises from? I guess it is the way we treat Mr X, both before and after the transformation. The truth is that when Mr X was in college we were the elites but after his transformation he is showing off his elitism. The problem is in our mindset. We always want to associate with people who are cool. Walk in a gang of five, crack jokes at  those nerds, tease those village guys in college  etc  So subconsciously Mr X develops a silent hatred for his background because of which he had to face so much heckle in college.  IS THIS A SIN? If you ask me, "Yes is is" i would say.

                                             This guy Mr X should have been a role model for his village, he would have helped his village in some way. This mindset transfers to our other issues as well. Ex We allow politicians to beg for votes on the basis of caste and community and when they win , it is their turn to show off. We vote as though we do charity, very little and all for the wrong people. This mindset is a slow poison and i believe must be eradicated totally.
                                           
                                                  

BRICS, the new world order?

The recently ended BRICS council meet in New Delhi gathered much media attention, but basically what is BRICS? And what are the opportunities it presents to India? My thoughts on that.

                                 Basically BRICS is an acronym which denotes the economic bloc of five countries Brazil, Russia, India, China and the newly joined South Africa. The common point of all these countries is that they are on a new verge of economic development. Although we can win debates by placing Russia and China in the already developed category, their presence adds muscle to the bloc. Now let us do a SWOT analysis on BRICS and its benefits for India.

Strengths: If you remember India's foreign policy, the first point that must come to mind is non-alignment. But over the past few years we have indeed aligned ourselves with many Blocs . So to counter that we align us with every possible Bloc so as to gain the support and friendship of every possible country. Thus BRICS allows us to strengthen bonds with a forum that has over quarter of the world's land area and more than 40% of the world population. Russia our eternal ally has been left in the lurch for some time because of India's inclination towards the US, so this is an ideal forum through which we can strengthen trade ties with them. Moreover bringing our "bully" neighbor China to the talk table as an equal with more support on our side is a big plus. Creating an alternate trade forum which is free from the EU influence is fundamental.


Weaknesses: The BRICS is still in a nascent stage, to facilitate trade relations, any economic forum must have a common currency like the euro, we DO NOT have that. The BRICS nations do not have common ideologies. Russia and China voted in one side and the others voted against in the recent UN resolutions against Syria and Sri Lanka. Another talking point is that the US dollar is still used in the trade transaction. The South Africa with a population of 40 million is not in the same league as the rest. It brings less to the table.


Opportunities:  Foremost one is to develop trade relations with China and hence counter balance the Sino-pak threat. With Russia and China being the largest world economies , India now has a chance to interact with the biggies as equals. A possible UNSC seat is also on the cards. Setting up stock exchange is local currencies is a big boost. Increase in trade to 500 m$ as promised will also be a major bonus. An opportunity to counter the Israel-US influence. Rise of BRICS will ensure the rise in stature of Asia as a superpower after the devastation in japan.


Threats: Will increase Chinese influence in Indian markets. US might get alarmed at the possible inclination of India towards Russia and other countries. America is still every BRICS member's highest trade partner. Succumbing to BRICS politics might lead to India losing its individual say in regional and world issues.

                     Thus, BRICS we see has a lot of promise but to make it a reality a lot of hard work is necessary. Goldman-sauchs predicted that the BRICS will overpower the G7 economically by 2050, now that's a goal worth working for.  

My conversation with God…

You spit me from the sky into this sea, to see if I swim across this flame?

You gave me no wings, you want me to fly but I am lame,

You gave me everything, to show that I got nothing,

You made me love, I cried, I smiled, sometimes together, but most times separately,

Just to show me that I can cry in joy and smile in a sorrow?

You gave me words and set me no path,

My heart knows no grammar and my eyes don’t see you,

I searched for you outside; I found stone and sand,

I search for you in me, I found lust,

I found love and I found sorrow,

My eyes are blurred, my heart is heavy,

I have failed you, I cry but do you cry when I do?

They say you have loving arms,

Caress my wounds and make no scars,

Give me the strength to fail, give me the wings to fly,

Give me peace to write and the eyes to see thee,

Give me the ears to hear you, the mind to know when,

The hunger to starve and the passion to write,

Keep my heart burning, my eyes wet and my lips wide,

Make my soul free flowing, guide me to your destination but

Let the path be mine!!

Cow dung is BullShi#, so is Love!

                                                                    When two people are in love, they talk to each other all the time, they give that one person all the chocolates and affection in the whole world, shower them with flowers, care and more. Actually they meditate and devote on their object of desire and passion, their spouse. But what happens when the love turns sour? Reactions and repercussions vary accordingly. The average woman with the social boundaries has a very little side to explore post break-up, so what she does is that she focuses on her family and career. This is why our exes always get more marks than us brother and the same reason why we always report to them for work. Meanwhile, the masculine gender has developed a few unwritten protocols for post break-up which is Drink, smoke, grow beard (nice and long, nothing fancy here) and repeat the same until you either get cancer, skin disease or someone else to break up with.

                                                                    When we men are in love, our thoughts are channelized to that one girl we dream about and when the girl is gone, the channel gets lost with her. So with no one around to monitor the alcohol and smoke levels, we merrily get into wrong ways. With cheap beer and bad company always around we get addicted to it and flash forward a few years, the best part of our life is pissed off. Brothers, unlike us, there are a few men who have passed this tough time without c2h5oh , co etc. What they manage to do is that they channelize the same love and passion to another object of interest (NO,not another girl) but still manage to never forget their love, Saw Rockstar movie? Saada haq! Notice the passion and pain that explodes because of that failed relationship. That’s love. I bloody know that she’s gone but nothing else in the world is like her, a real lover will say and I rather agree. You know why? It is because the magic will be less with every second time you fall in love. The sooner we realize, the better it is.   

                                                              

                                   Ask any painter about his favorite piece of art and more often than not you will chance upon the portrait of a girl walking down a flower filled street with a bleeding heart in her hand. Art is like that, like the first love, like the first kiss, vulnerable yet intense. That vulnerability is what that separates a good piece of art from a masterpiece. We men are vulnerable only when we are with our women. The guy who said “Behind every successful man, there is a woman” did not get that too much wrongly.

Thanks for reading....

A sea of hope

Based on a real story.

     The strong sea breeze is blowing on the left side of my face; the waves try to interfere in my path. My heart pounds every time I cross this stretch at the marina, I am sweating now, jogging to be precise, I am tired and about to fall down but I want to leave this place soon. Earlier I was never able to see this place even on television but now after a rigorous counselling and a renewed will to succeed, I am chasing my demons out of my life. As I gather enough courage to recall what happened on that eventful morning, I am holding my knees and panting heavily. I was a software engineer, working ten hours a day, rigorous work, tension, coffee -breaks, night and day shifts swapped every week but one thing never changed those beautiful Sundays. What can make a weekend beautiful when you don’t have your family of friends here? Love indeed, she worked in a call centre near my office; she was simple, sweet and special. Special in a way that she didn’t have a leg, she lost everything below her right knee in an accident before we got acquainted but I never felt that she was disabled in any way. No one would raise an objection if I carried her in the marina sand; even the cops don’t stare, never did anybody stop me from carrying her to the top of anna tower. Like any couple, we kiss, we fight, we go for movies etc. Similarly like all parents mine too didn’t approve of my relationship but for a different reason, no one in my family saw that she had a heart, everybody saw only her cripple. We split for a brief while but she couldn’t be kept away from me for long. I decided to propose marriage to her. I wanted to make it a special moment for her. One fine Sunday morning, like always I carried her to the edge of the beach, blindfolded her with her black duppatta and I went on my knees. I took the ring out and said a small prayer. As I had my eyes closed, everybody was shouting, I thought that we have made a scene here. Soon I realised that there was commotion. A huge wave hit us hard, I hugged her and held on to a catamaran. I thought that the danger was over but then came the actual fatality. The wave began to retreat, people with able bodies itself found it tough to survive the calamity but my Durga stood with the help of my support. She checked if I was okay , I got hurt in my head but importantly she was fine, I regained consciousness and held to her tightly. I saw women, children and a few men getting dragged into the sea. We wept for a few seconds, I found that my ring was missing, it was no time to be romantic I lifted her and tried to see if the wave had retreated ; another huge wave , more than double my size hit us from behind, Durga was robbed from me, I was not able to hold on to her. While the wave retreated I clinched on to a pole with my legs, Durga didn’t have one. Had she not been so special we would’ve survived, I survived but we didn’t. She never knew that I was courageous enough to stand for her and was ready to live a life with her. We had crossed all barriers possible to live together but mother- nature didn’t want us to. I tried to die but couldn’t. With some medical help and support from my colleagues I am here. My therapist, I prefer to kill the psycho, wanted me to spend time here so that I can overcome the sorrow that occurred here. But never will I overcome it, I am learning to live that nothing in life is permanent. I will live.  

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Hypocrisy and us, synonymous…

By “us” I represent my fellow brothers and “their” sisters (I skip that part in the pledge, always), yes, we Indians, What does patriotism mean to an average Indian sports fan? Let’s face it, cheering the cricketing Team India and never bother if the hockey team India reached the Olympics or not? Not to forget, hockey is our National sport. We sympathised with Yuvi for his lung cancer, the Government and the BCCI offered help but who cares if the Bengaluru footballer Venkatesh dies in the football field, not even an ambulance was at standby in the ground, well, worse, it didn’t even make breaking news. We complain of racism everyday abroad but we abuse our fellow North eastern-Indian brothers, don’t we? Like “hey chinese”, how many times have we teased them, the Chinese across the border would’ve been saying “ high 5, that’s what we said, give arunachal Pradesh to us now”. We take pride in our natural resources, our rivers especially (vindhya himachala Yamuna ganga, our anthem) but still will not share the same with our fellow countrymen. The only place where natural resources and unity appear synonymous is in our national anthem “jana gana mana” not  ”why this kolaveri?”, I recite again, Why this Kolaveri?, why can’t we sort out the mullai-periyar issue peacefully?  Now “why this Kolaveri?” really sounds more like an anthem, just imagine, someone getting fisted in this fight and the patriotic protagonist sings “why this kolaveri, kolaveri di?” and the antagonist changes heart and drops the weapon in slush of mud. Wow, funny . We can never tolerate a fellow Indian in our state. Can we? I guess no, remind yourself about the Bihari immigrant problem in Maharashtra. The local politicians claim that Maharashtra is for them, I mean Maharashtrians but still they want NSG troops from Delhi to fight Kasab and co, hypocrisy, taxi drivers not allowed to work inside Maharashtra but NSG is. Another hypocrite. Let’s say hello to Kasab, because we pressurise Pakistan to act on terror and what do we do? Treat our “guest” Kasab to the safest food. Well, isn’t he supposed to be in the gallows?  And coming to the diversity in religions, for so long, different communities want to play “age of empires” in Ayodhya but why? can’t hindus and muslims co-exist? I bet we can. We are not the only ones but we do this more often than others, mocking our national leaders, remember Jawaharlal Nehru’s photo dancing with Lady Mountbatten which went viral. He gave us a beautiful message, no ,not with the lady but with making our asoka chakra and our four(or three?) lions emblem as a national symbol. Ever wondered why? because that signified emperor Asoka’s message that all religions are equal and all human beings are the same. That never went viral, sadly. Still having difficulty remembering Asoka? Remember the SRK starrer in 2001, he played a king, who has a change of heart after a brutal war, yes that one. Ours is a very rich culture, sometimes we tend to go behind “babas” who say that government is suppressing their rights and still manage to give TV interviews about it, biggest hypocrite, ‘cause freedom of speech is the basic fundamental right. I hope you agree that patriotism is in an all-time low, (telecom cos. never charged for sms on this republic day) to revive that the cricketing team India must win more matches or AR Rahman must compose another vande Matram or at least release a remix of the old version. And let’s end it, in the usual way, Jai Hind! I am the biggest hypocrite.            

Love marriages VS Retail marriages

Love is the most precious feeling in the world because you can never buy it, you never know when love comes to you and you certainly don’t know when love will leave you.  It gives you the greatest happiness and the worst sorrow. Sometimes when love leaves people they tend to move on or rather move apart from each other. Some people find this tough while a few lucky people find it easy, it doesn’t mean that they are not gentlemen or honourable women; they are just more practical than their ex-lovers. In love, opposites attract each other quite nicely but they don’t repel easily unless one of the poles change.  In a few lucky cases, both the poles change which means they are opposite again and get back together. This happens when they eventually realise their love for each other(separation sometimes can work magic)that they cannot live without each other at least for the purpose of quarrelling. But most people are not that lucky with relationships, no point in worrying about lost love; cigarettes, beer and the worst culprit sad songs will never help but only increase the pain exponentially. So to prolong the love and to avoid the inevitable, civilisation introduced terms like commitment, marriage, vows etc. Most people even though they realise that they do not love each other anymore, they tend to stay together due to the other relationships they develop with each other with the course of time like for example they can be best friends before or even after their courtship, they can be parents to kids etc. Still they must be happy because love always gives memories and for the sake of the good memories we celebrate anniversaries and other “first time we did that” occasions. This is usually the job of the husband in the relationship to remember these days, men are meant to surprise and women to be wowed; It’s my dreaded  gender’s duty to propose marriage, to slip in the ring or tie the knot; comes with the fun a few added responsibilities. Take care of the children, be a good father because oxytocin makes the women naturally good mothers. The tough part is that when lovers tend to fall apart after their marriage, after they realise that love is lost between them and they want to move away from each other. I know what you are thinking now; I certainly did not mean Miss Kim Kardashian. There are more meaningful celebrity splits. Classic example is Imran and Jemima Khan. He left her in England and split from her when he decided to pursue his political ambitions in Pakistan. He tried bringing her to Pakistan but his political opponents did not spare her, so they decided to move away. He’s still a good father, spends time with them when they’re on leave, helps Jemima’s brother establish himself etc. Now this is a good-ex. That doesn’t mean that they would not have had bitter memories, in the course of time the bad memories would’ve died slowly, bad memories will become one-off instances and one-off instances would eventually be forgotten. Now this is the natural progression; fall in love-be together-get along well-be faithful-propose marriage-be more faithful-hopefully happily ever after. Now the problem comes when people skip steps; no point proposing marriage when you’re not in love with a person. So, what is the concept of arranging marriages? People tend to abide themselves by self-imposed regulations. Why fool ourselves in the name of culture and tradition? Fearing rejection, our ancestors imposed a caste-based marriage system by which a girl is doomed to be sent to another family as bride if the families happened to be of the same caste. Eventually with the passage of time, this habit became a tradition, slowly social evils like dowry crept inside our system. More horrifying human right violations like honour killings entered our society. At least if you don’t approve of my views on love marriages, please do not encourage dowry.         

Love advice brother! care to listen?

 Like many of the jealous men around, I too have wondered sometimes why do these stupid women fall for Shane Warne despite knowing that he might dump them someday, maybe they really don’t mind that or a few slip-ups. He is my perfect Cat-type lover, wondering what makes a cat-type lover, well simple, just like the cat, the cat-lover never stays home (mostly), he (hurts)scratches you, meows, shows PDA, looks cute with  you , charismatic and comes home only when he needs food for his stomach and body. He feeds elsewhere too but always looks starved when you meet him, never forgets your birthday or your anniversary. He knows when to hold your hand and when to stroke your hair. He buys you gifts that you adore; he can control your emotions girls. Virgins beware. And there is our second type of lover, the dog-type lover, example Edward Cullen . Like the dog he is most faithful to you, stays around you always, kisses you only if you permit, protects you(might even take a bullet for you) and will never ever leave you. The problem is that the dog-type guy sometimes gets boring, what fun it is being true always, the real  bindaas and masti is when you bend the rules a little bit, women sometimes tend to think that the dog-type guy has grown over possessive or even slightly suspicious. Women always need their space , their own small group of friends whom they don’t want you to know , their inbox which they don’t want you to see; they never want their partners to interfere with that space , the cat-type guy never asks about that personal stuff ‘cause he has some garbage too(“that personal stuff”-the other guys with whom you chat online , their relationship status etc) while the dog- type guy needs to know everything , so here comes the first problem; the cat-type guy never sets you rules nor does he follow any, while the dog-type guy never disobeys and he sometimes expects the same, which to me is fair. Then comes the ‘don’t do this, do that’ conflict. There is a popular saying that after every fight, the love increases, this one is true only for the cat-type, because the dog-type is never expected to refuse commands let alone fight back. There is a certain tolerance level for the cat-type guy which only the woman knows and the poor writer cannot fathom to know. Being with the dog-type is safe and secure but he’s not that much fun to be with; the cat-type guy is the ultimate personification of charisma ; more often women like to say ‘ hey you naughty’, rather than ‘ you’re sooo sweet’. It’s not tough to find what type of guy you are, just express your love to her and let the world know that you love ( no vice versa here).  More often than not, the one who cries more (in a relationship) is the dog-type lover. Be faithful, be happy. Take care of yourself and each other. Fall deeply and stay madly in love.     

The Great Indian political circus

        Ever wondered why there is a minimum age for becoming an M.L.A? I guess i know the answer.It must be because if you become one then you got to attend the assembly. That's silly, you might think. But actually, there is also a minimum age for watching porn, legally of course. So i guess the guy who framed that minimum age rule had a lot of hindsight. Applauds. Is there a rule that prohibits MLA's from watching porn and don't you guys ever do it in your home?, asked an ex CM of karnataka . This shows just one thing. Make that three. Our politicians have become insensitive, shameless and fear no repercussion, in that order. a) Insensitive is because they were discussing a rape incident of a teen aged girl. b) shameless because they are no more in college, sharing a porn video with another 400000 + votes winner is nonsense, add to that the charm of the white clothes. c) no female vote will he get now from his constituency, would he have done that in assembly had this thought struck him? Moving Northward, in U.P and i am not talking about you ,Mayawati ji. Akhilesh Yadav, promised a lot, looks like a good leader, has charisma but is that enough? if so, let me chant "Dhoni for Pm". hooliganism and Sp have been cousins always, people expected that to change, but Raja Bhaiya as Jail minister sounds ridiculous. okay let me answer for Akhilesh, the best explanation would be that he has the maximum experience in Jail, so he's automatic choice. Forget it, a 9 th pass for an education minister, what now? only a guy who was deprived of education will understand its merit? that's crazy people. Akhilesh promised change, i don't know why he's changing so soon. state politics aside, let's head to Delhi. A gentleman presented a railway budget that promised to take the railways out of the ICU, okay he hiked fares. To me that's fair, you want safety for West Bengal trains and you will not let increase the fare, this is hypocrisy. So the guy is embarrassed in what must be his proudest moment. And speaking of hypocrisy, Didi who is a chief minister and a former rail minister herself must know that the rail budget is a confidential document. It would be against his oath if Mr trivedi informed his party leader about the impending hike in the budget, why on earth must she feel betrayed? Aam Aadmi is us, and it is we who have to care and stand for us and the people who wants us to do so.