46: A piece of life....revisited..!!!!

Not all soft songs touch your heart... but then there are few ones that leave an indelible mark!! More so, because you connect to that particular song with not only the lyrics, music piece, and enchanting voice of singer but because they remind you of some sweet memories in your life...they remind you of the time well spent...

There are many ones that strike a chord with me...

Aadat by Jal has a very fond memory ... In our annual cultural event, one of my friends at college had sung Aadat and the way he sang it, it almost seemed like he meant each and every word that he was singing...at the end of it almost everyone in the arena had Goosebumps... even today whenever I hear Aadat by aatif, all my ears listen is my friend’s voice...n yes those Goosebumps they still there.. .very much there!!!

‘Na jaane kabse umeede kuch baki hai....Mujhe fir bhi teri yaad... kyuuunn aati hai...’

It used to take me almost 2 hours one way everyday to reach home from college during my initial 2 years of engineering life. Along the way there was a 10 mins long water stretch while travelling beyond Vashi. One song that gave me an apt company everyday along that route was Maula mere from Anwar- a masterpiece is all I can say about that song...A perfect amalgamation of RoopKumar Rathod’s voice, tune, lyrics, and godly chores...and to add to it... the expanse of sea while listening to it made the journey purely divine!!! Although I listen to that sing more often in my car stereo now, I am still instantly taken back to those train days ...when those 10 minutes would mean utter serenity!!!

'meraa dil yahi bolaa, meraa dil yahi bolaa,
yaara raaj yeh usane hai mujh par kholaa
ki hai ishq mohabbat, jiske dil mein
usko pasand karta hai maulaa'

College canteen was the ultimate place where the whole group would retire after sustaining through the dry lectures...!!! When sun had already begun on its drowning journey...and twilight is about to set in... It was perfect time for Lucky Ali to come out of closet and enchant me with his compositions...!!! Along the way back, when I had shifted to my new house which was around 20 mins away from my college, Scooty-Pep, twilight sky and Lucky Ali... was all I yearned for..!!!

'Anjaani Rahon me tu kya dhundta chale.. duur jisko samjha woh toh paas hai tere...'

The ultimate romantic song for me can be none other than ‘tujhe dekha toh yeh jana sanam...’ why?? I am a huge shahrukh fan although he may not churn out hits anymore... but DDLJ is special, Shahrukh is special!!! And more special is the way I have seen the movie DDLJ at the tender age of 11 yrs...!!! We (friends) took stall tickets in black for 20 rupees to see this movie and sat in first row of the stall to see this film...!! It was grand... of course it would be, any film would be if you sit in that row of any theatre...it’s the first ever romantic film I have seen in the theatre...although the word ’romance’ didn’t mean anything then...!! But Shahrukh was etched in my mind with his splendid hat and leather jackets and the oh-so famous cow bell..!!!! I still remember I had almost harassed my mom for getting me a similar cow bell..!!! So one thing is sure... If my guy has to woo me he has to sing this song to me... no matter what!!!! No one knows romance better than Shahrukh Khan (who thinks?? I think so...)!!!

'tujhe dekha toh yeh jaana sanam... Pyaar hota hai deewana sanam..'

Reason for this post is I was in for a treat today... After a long while, I tuned into these songs... and I was instantly taken away to an era which had passed by... which may not revert back ever but which still smells afresh like it has been just yesterday...

43: First Day of Diwali...I am running mom....

I still wonder where the time has gone. Circa 1990s...6 pm back from school and I had all the time in the world to do my stupid pranks with my building friends... we were a bunch of pranksters who would bully the bozo losers. Diwali would actually start for us 10 days in advance... with buying new clothes, to bursting small revolver band crackers, to making mud forts (killa in Marathi) Diwali was much more than simply sweets and relatives!!!

I still remember it was so much fun to actually go about each house and collect funds in order to buy warriors and Shivaji statue from the market for our beloved fort. And more fun it was to actually protect our fort from getting damaged by pranksters of our neighbouring buildings...

A day prior to Diwali we would have a small get together to decide what time we would be heading for fire crackers next morning... and the whole night would go in anticipation of what fun we were gonna have the next morning!!!

First Diwali morning would be one of its kinds...getting out of bed at 5 am was never so easy than on this day (because I could hardly sleep on the previous night). Making my bro to get out of bed was the toughest part though. We had a small ritual in our family in which I had to give tel-maalish (oil-champi) and utna scrub (a fragrant powder scrub) to my brother on the first day of Diwali (I don’t know the mythical story behind this ...but most of maharashtrians and south Indians have this ritual) and thereafter he will have his bath and then later I used to get same oil champi and scrub thing done to me by my mother (U see... I was a cranky person wanting to do everything that my brother did...lolz...). Now the big issue was till the time my brother doesn’t get his things done I cannot have my bath and get ready and go down to play with my friends...so almost every year on first diwali morning I used to fight with my bro to make him to move around doing his chores quickly.

Bursting crackers is the most awesome memory that I attach with my old Diwali days... we used to have a big municipal corporation tank right opposite our building and that would mean that several of the municipal water pipes (the big black ones –one in which we can easily crawl and go...) were lying unused just outside that tank and in front of our building. These pipes were part of our ammunitions. Have u ever tried bursting a sutli bomb in such a pipe?? (You aren’t that lucky  ... I Know... giving you the devilish smile...) But it used to sound like an alien attack on the Earth (take it from me... been there done that...)... the whole area would shiver like anything...!!! And yes separating each single cracker ladi (single stick of cracker from cracker necklace-TajMahal cracker...) was the most important task since that would ensure that we could burst the limited stock of crackers for a looonnng time..!!!!

Thereafter the barood-laden hands were straight directed to the washbasin by mom once back home for the Diwali Breakfast (in Marathi we call it Faral...). Chakli, Besan Laddoo, Chivda, shankarpali, Karanji, sev ...wow... no other breakfast in any world cuisine can beat that... and with this the end of breakfast would mark the second round of fun with friends...The Mandir(temple) time!!! We used to head for Ganesh temple that my town had...one could easily see the whole of the town youngsters bustling in and around that area...many new contacts would take place ... many new hearts would start beating and many new stories would begin at this time of Diwali in and around the temple area... For us children... it was all sheer amusement..!!!

With all the appointments dutifully followed in the morning, noon time was time for heavy lunch after which Goddess Sleep would descend on my eyes... Laxmi-poojan would follow with lots of prestigious fire cracker bursting.... the 10,000 necklace and similar kinds of big fire crackers...were regulars in the evening!!! Such was the golden period when I used to look forward to the first day of Diwali...

Circa 2010, there are children all around and 21 days vacation too ... but no forts in sight instead we have children hooked on their video games and cyber world.... I have oil and utna at home but bro isn’t in the country...Miss you bro... Friends are scattered all over the country and abroad too ...with facebook and gtalk the source of bonding between each one of us...temple area is no longer frequented by youngsters what with most of them preferring cyber dating sources today!! Getting up at 5 am is pain today... what with most of the office work carries on way past midnight everyday... Chakli, Besan Laddoo, Chivda, shankarpali, Karanji, sev everything is still there but calorie conscious self isn’t ready anymore to bask in their goodness...Laxmi-pooja is still there... but guess we are more running behind earning wealth than earning Laxmi these days... When Goddess laxmi showers her blessings, one should feel the utter peace and serenity in one’s life ... but that picture is far from true... All we are concerned about is putting away cash for our new home, new car, new holiday home... but amidst all of this the question which bothers me is  where has the time gone? Why aren’t we putting time into our lives?

And I am not blaming anyone with this but just doing a self retrospection...as to where my time has gone?

My mom keeps asking-“Diwali is approaching... I need to clean house, maid isn’t that helping... you will chip in na...” and pat comes my reply... “Mom I have deliverable this weekend... I am still not done with UAT (i e. QA in software lingo)...I am not coming home before 10 today...” Once back home, I have bills to pay ... mails to reply too...SMSes to reply to, studying for GMAT... looking after MBA application requirements... thinking about the next day in office ... doing the monitoring work for the systems that run during the night...and I don’t know how it strikes 1 in the night...I see around and everything is so quiet... everyone has slept... night has fallen to sleep with a hope to see a better first Diwali morning...& I feel the guilt in me... that I am not putting away time for my own life.. For my people...but rather all I am doing is putting away money and more money and doing everything possible in order to stack away more money...

There was a time when we used to personally meet friends and say “Happy Diwali” and now we just prefer to set our Facebook status to wish everyone... All because we don’t have time to call up or meet every dear friend of ours..!!! I feel guilty I feel helpless because I don’t have time...

Because I am running for money...I am running for good life... I am running for better designation ... I am running for more stability in life... when all I am aiming for is right in front of me... with steady cash flow... good loving family... spacious home to stay...and an already stable life I can say that yes I am leading a good life, but the satisfaction has disappeared... the peace is gone!! All I am getting is wealth not Laxmi’s blessings...anymore.

First day of Diwali:-

Mom: “C’mon have your breakfast... it’s already 10 am now...what are you doing?”

Me: “Wait a minute mom... I am running...”



(pics for representational purpose only... )

10: An evening by cutie's side...

You walk around your office desk as usual… you on your pc then read your mails … go for breakfast and continue slogging for another 8 hours or something before retiring for your bus which takes you home.

You get so used to your daily life that it never crosses your mind that maybe there can come a day when you might face an accident..!!!!! Yes a freaking accident… which will turn out to be a pleasant surprise in your life..!!!!

No people… I am not sloshed …nor hallucinating… but sometimes people say right:-“truth is stranger than the fiction” it’s something like that..!!!!

It was not one of the best days of my life… no not at all..!!!! Everything was so stupid awful... The extra slogging to make the code work… the extra cuppa of coffee to keep u sane for all the working hours… and basically all the boring daily details in between!!!

And at the stroke of 6… I finally started from my desk… walking towards my bus that simply doesn’t stop at my workplace … n hence I need to travel (read walk) to other building that is exactly 7  minutes walk away to catch it. Frankly I was tired… very tired!!! I thought I am definitely gone have a sound sleep today in the bus …so I was looking forward to getting a nice window side seat… but people say right.. “When the going gets tough, the tough gets going”… I didn’t get the window seat… Sob …sob..!!!! I retired my bag on secondary (read next to window seat) seat and climbed outta bus to greet my friends from that other building.

All the while my bag was lying beside a kinda college sack … unaware of who owns it!!!!

Time struck 6.30 and I hopped in the bus… seating beside a complete stranger and forever cursing my late starting from the desk for getting such a filthy seat..!!!! Rhea my friend who travels thru same bus service but to some other destination called up… I was surprised since it has been only exactly 73 seconds that I had spoken to her and she needs me again… what’s the matter..??? I picked up the call… and there she was gushing about how lucky I am etc etc... “He looks cute”… stmts..!!!!

I was stumped as to what is she referring…?? Then she made a loud announcement-“look to your left” and in a fraction of second our eyes met…I was bolted outta my reality … he was looking at me… astonished… amazed... Confused … as to whether I was cursing him..???? Before I could open my mouth to clarify he turned his face away… and I was left with my open mouth to stare at his hairs...I saw they were silky and thick black wavy hairs… which enjoyed the evening breeze as he sat in the window seat..!!!

Rhea interrupted my concentration over him… I totally forgot that I was still on line wid her..!!!! She hung up saying:” go on girl have a nice evening by the cutie’s side…”

For another 5 mins after the call I was contemplating whether I should tell him that, no, I wasn’t cursing you at all… but I simple couldn’t gather enough courage to face his deep dark black eyes and tell him that for the fear that I may again be left dumbfounded once he will face me… all the while he kept looking out of the window…. Sob… sob..!!!

With every passing minute I was getting more anxious to speak to him…. And he was so not interested for the reason that he not even once turned his face away from window… and once when he did I found out that he was fast asleep…!!!! : P

Gosh..!!!!! I lost the chance of speaking to such a cutie… all together... I was thinking as to what am I gonna tell Rhea the day after when she is definitely going to ask me about it. And while thinking all this I never realized when I fell asleep as well…. But thankfully I was awake by the time bus approached my bus stop.

With so much disappointment... that I couldn’t even ask his name….I alighted from the bus… and what the heck..!!!!!!! He alighted too..!!!!!

All the thoughts started creeping into my grey matter…. “Does he stay here?”, “Is he following me..??? Wow…”  “How come I never saw him before?”… On and on..!!!! and suddenly I found myself staring at him….wondering whether he will give me glance at least…..

And voila…!!!! He looked at me… with slightly puzzled look… and I simply couldn’t stop myself from asking him:-“so you alight here...?” He smiled a little as if expecting me to open my mouth and said”yea sometimes, when I don’t get my bike...!”

Right from the time I saw him for the first time I was like… man I have seen somewhere before but really couldn’t recollect where..!!! And I don’t know what crossed my mind I said him:-“you know what I have seen you somewhere…!! “And he was again confused this time more out of thought that ‘is she chancemaroing on me..? ‘  And I could sense that. I quickly corrected myself by saying that it’s not the way you r thinking but I have actually seen you somewhere… maybe in some technical training that we must have undergone... and it was later revealed that he was indeed part of some flex training that we had together. So finally … I knew this stranger …. I patted myself in my thoughts saying: - “good memory boss!!!”

And by the time I could ask him anything more my car arrived to screeching halt behind us and off I had to go…

I waved him good bye and wow…I spoke to him… for good 5 minutes and more and what the hell..I still don’t know his name..!!!!!! A complete stranger who didn’t seem to be a stranger … and at the same time a known person who was completely unknown….this paradox was too cute to not blush over it…. And all the while my dad thought I was smiling over some joke on radio….that was being played in the car.

That evening , I am sure that I am never gonna forget... and well today, he is one of my best friends....!!! :D

A friendship that blossomed because of a pleasant accident..!!! :P