And when the universe loves you..

I was walking back from office today. There are actually many trees around my office. I must have walked some 200m when I felt leaves falling from trees and a few of them on my head and shoulders. This is definitely that time of the year [Autumn that is] when trees shed their leaves.

I saw people around, there were leaves falling here and there and mostly people didn’t bother and some of them who did were shrugging their shoulders. I personally think these are some of the many ways the universe makes you happy and I wonder how amazing it is.

Let’s not remember anything

Because everything that you can imagine is on the internet. The other day I couldn’t recall the name of a movie. All I knew was one of the HIMYM  [This popular sitcom called How I Met Your Mother] stars was an actor in the movie. I went to Wikipedia and searched for ‘HIMYM’ and the first actor on the list was ‘Josh Radson’. I clicked on his name and another Wikipedia page opened. I looked at the films he has acted and Bingo – I found the movie I was hunting for – Liberal Arts. In this age, all one needs to know is how to use the technology.

As if Internet was not sufficient, I have Cortana, a personal assistant on Windows10 to search things on my system. I can ask her anything – file, folder, music, app and she is ready with an answer. Are we making a fool out of ourselves? I’m not sure.

Recurrence

You defined to me what infinite love is. You taught me that love meant giving without expecting anything in return. That nothing is enough and can be enough. I’m proud to have your genes. Just the way people share happiness and sorrows, wish there was a scientific method to share age in this world, we could have made a solid exchange like donating blood or stem cells.

Life isn’t very smooth, just as I had expected. It is colourful for sure. You are not there to spoon feed or plan for me. But I do think how would you have thought in different situations. I do look at the moon and stars and think about you. When I come home in rains, I think of you. When people speak proudly about their children, I think of you. When I look at cottage cheese, I think of you. Sometimes I have an ache in my throat when I think of you. But then I breathe hard and things become okay.

On this important day, I cherish the sweet memories you and daddy shared. How he always came  home before the scheduled  time and when you said, ‘why are you always so early?’, he replied, ‘let the both of us have tea’ ..:)

The last word

Some people wish to just have the last word. An example is below:

X: So, where did you buy this from?

Me: I saw it on display outside a local store. It looked really cute, so I bought it.

X: I too have something similar. It is blue in colour.

Me: Nice

X: It has to be, my XX bought it from a popular city. I show it to all my relatives who come home. Everyone just loves it.

Me: Great. Do you use it?

X: No, I don’t. What’s the point? It would get dirty and it’s a gift.

Me: Ok.

X: I think you should do the same.

Me: Ok.

X: You need to learn how to organize your gifts, what is to be given to whom, who gave you gifts in the past, …

I stay silent after this.

These people are quite similar on e-mails too.

My e-mail:

Dear A, As discussed, kindly find attached the word document for your perusal. Thanks.

A’s reply:

Dear Me, Could you please forward it to Z.

Me: Dear A, I have done the needful. Thanks.

A’s reply: Thank you!

Me: You’re welcome.

A’s reply: No problem!

Sometimes it gets difficult handling such people. The toughest part is you can’t change them but still have to deal with them. The only thing that can make you happy is a smile.

Why I adore weekends

5 days of hard work at office and you hit an interesting milestone – weekends are like milestones to me. I like where I work, I like what I do at my workplace – I think that’s the best job I can do. So, the reason that I look forward to the weekends is not because I’m bored at work or exhausted. I like weekends because they help me sit back and think, they give me a chance to follow my hobbies, they allow me to talk to my loving partner at length, etc. I like the fact that the two days every week are not planned by anyone. I make them or break them.

I don’t like getting up late on weekends, instead I wake up earlier than my usual time. I enjoy nature, so I go around walking. The peaceful morning walks make me really happy. I think of the old times when I used to go running with my Grandfather and he used to buy me bubble-gum while returning back home. I make simple&supple breakfast and read newspapers by the side. I miss the fact that I’ve no one around to fight with me over newspaper or which channel to be played on the television but guess that’s the way of life. We have to go our own ways.

I can do creative things from painting a wall to making a greeting card or just watching my favourite movies back to back. Once in a while, I also finish up some admin jobs at house like arranging my bills or calling up an electrician to writing a small post like this one and everything to me, feels like a sense of accomplishment.

In the Filmi Style..

It is the kind Bollywood rejoices, youth of our generation enjoys and everyone directly or indirectly related to the release of the book makes fortunes. The latest book by Chetan Bhagat – “0.5 Girlfriend” is soo much filmy and the book is nothing but a perfect script. A script you would hand it over to the casts (anticipated) of the movie and they wouldn’t think twice to sign up. It’s already a 300-cr (a crore/cr is  10mn) movie . Bollywood only talks in 100’s of crores these days, just check the revenue that movies these days report. I wonder even if I make a movie and cast people from my office, do marketing on ‘Kapil’s comedy show’ and release it over a long weekend, I would easily be able to make one.

It was a very (v.) easy read (obvious, ya) that one could easily finish it in 2 go’s of 2 hours each. As I was reading the book, my mind picturized where all would the shooting of the movie happen. 3 places primarily – St. Stephens’ Campus in New Delhi, Bihar (Patna and Dumraon mostly) and NYC (Central Park, Manhattan, 5th and 8th Avenue, all the popular bars there).

Let’s move to the plot and the main story now. First year at the very British like St. Stephens. A royal but poor guy from Bihar meets the very beautiful and rich Delhi girl. The poor guy reads Social sciences and the rich girl reads English literature. Both of them have pretty much no interest in studies. The rich girl’s aim in life is to work as a singer in a Bar in NYC. The poor guy is from the Sports quota and wants to go back to his State after graduation. Coffees, sms’es, tiffin sharing, basketball playing and some such things happen. As expected, the poor guy falls in love with the rich girl. His friends ‘suggest’ (wrong word! The right word is ‘force’) him to have ‘sex’ with the rich girl and ‘Make Bihar Proud’. If having sex meant making Bihar proud, it must have been one of “the most…” (please complete the sentence yourself). The royal guy in the midst of all the confusion utters something stupid to the girl that she leaves him.

Second year at Stephens starts. The girl is not speaking to the guy. He catches glimpses of her every now and then. Annual fest starts, the girl bags a lot of prizes, the guy badly wants to speak to the girl. He goes up to her and she behaves very casual and why should she not, she is up to something important. She takes him to his car and hands him her wedding card. She is getting married to the same rich guy he met on her birthday party, one who is settled in London and whom people lovingly address as ‘Ro’ (understand the pun here?). The poor yet royal guy is extremely upset and suddenly realizes that he needs to focus on studies. Job placements start in the 3rd year and he is given a job from HSBC for being bluntly and blatantly true in the interview. The royal guy of course refuses to take up the job and joins down with his mother in Dumraon to run her school.

The royal guy gets a royal treatment at home but is stunned at the kind of problems the school run by his mother is facing. The MP refuses to provide any funding to the school when one day Bill Gates plans to visit India, the backward and rural India and the MP needs help from a Stephanian to deliver a speech to Mr. Gates and highlight the poor, ugly, downtrodden India. He doesn’t know that this Stephanian is not so good at English. Mr. Royal’s mom re-iterates that Mr. Royal is ‘Royal’ and royal blood’s are supposed to take up challenges. Mr. Royal joins a ‘English speaking course’ in Patna where they spend a day teaching the right pronunciation of ‘How are you’ to the students.

Bill Gates’ secretary who is making arrangements of his visit to India invites Mr. Royal to a hotel in Patna to discuss the preparations his school is making. Mr. Royal catches a glimpse of his rich friend from Delhi but is unable to believe his eyes. He waits for the whole day in the Hotel to catch a glimpse of her again. They meet. Coffee sessions start again. Rich girl got a divorce from ‘Ro’ and is now working with a Multinational company in Patna, India. She lends him hand to prepare for his speech and he in turn helps him setup her house. I imagined Ranbir Kapoor and Konkona Sen from the movie ‘Wake Up Sid’. People in movies are always so lucky, they find such huge apartments to stay in cities like Mumbai.

Girl and the guy help each other. The girl visits Dumraon and meets the guy’s mother. Conversations happen, dinners too and the speech to Bill Gates is a big hit. Mr. Royal gets a huge funding from the Bill Gates Foundation but the rich girl vanishes. She writes a letter stating she is suffering from cancer. Mr. Royal rushes to her house in Patna but finds her nowhere. She has left everything as it is in the house and Mr. Royal is heartbroken once again. He goes into depression, comes out of it and rebuilds the school.

One fine day again, somebody gives a call to Mr. Royal that the journals of Ms. Rich are found and he can take them if interested. Mr. Royal seeks help from CB. CB does his bit of research and comes up with 6 journal entries for Mr. Royal to read. Mr. Royal reads them which make up a complete story. They explain Ms. Rich’s difficult childhood, her life after marriage and why she went for a divorce and wait for the climax – ‘That she is still alive. Cancer was a lie to go away from Mr. Royal. Mr. Royal’s mom had refused of their relationship and she had to take this step’.

Mr. Royal rushes to NYC because he remembers Ms. Rich’s goal in life. He goes to NYC with a 3-month internship from the Gates’ Foundation and searches each and every bar in the city. He stays with his old friend from Stephens and his live-in partner. Just before the end of his 3-month stay, he meets Ms. Rich. A few years later, Ms. Rich, Mr. Royal and their son are found to be living in Dumraon. This brings us to the end of the ‘happily ever after’ story.

After this, we should wait for Vigil idiot’s column on Mumbai boss.

PS: All the opinions in this article are my own. They are a result of reading the novel. The opinions could be believed or argued, in both the cases it is perfectly fine.

We wish to be loved

This is the long story said short. This is the rule of rules. This is the beginning of everything and the end too. This is the mantra of life – We all like to be loved. We want to hear about ourselves in someone else’s writing, speech, thoughts, etc. Why is this so important I wonder? Is there a crisis that people lounge for it so much?

I think people in general are emotional. And most of them can’t express or define their emotions so correctly. That’s where the problem is. But the problem doesn’t end there. The bigger problem is that if the reciprocation happens after you ask for it, it doesn’t feel that it should have felt in the first place.

Love is like that compulsory cereal we have every morning. It is like that necessary sleeping pill for a peaceful 7-hour sleep. Why do you think some people like living with Dogs? Because they are infinitely loyal creatures and love you so much. You are not just their masters, you are their world. You come home from a bad day and they are waiting for you with eyes wide open. They are ready to hug you. They don’t have food when you leave them for 2 days at a neighbour’s house. You definitely don’t want them to starve (that’s not the slightest intention). But the fact that someone is doing that, makes you go mesmerized. The irony of life is that, ‘no matter how large the world is, you want to be felt like that world for a few people’. With love, most of the problems in life are solved.

Another strange thing about love is that it is to be felt. It never works on the basic of assumptions or hypothesis. As one of my friend states, ‘If it is love, it is to be seen in actions’. Thinking or wondering that the other person loves you doesn’t last long. It invariably, in a sad state or if lucky happy comes to an end.

But the best thing about love is that it comes in many different forms. It is from a simple line as ‘Are you feeling okay?’ to taking out that small photograph from one’s wallet and showing that it is you (well, if you take out someone else’s, you have made a disaster there).

When my sister says, ‘Didaaaa, we are meeting soon’, my heart races and the RBC’s multiply (Someday one should check my counts before and after the happenings of such events). It feels inhaling the oxygenated air that is filling up my lungs enough to live for an additional 2 weeks of life.

What do you think people who serve the needy and the poor do? Most of them are not rich. They are neither the strongest or the most powerful. They essentially spread love. This word, however cheesy it may sound in some contexts but is “the” elixir of life.

You see that some people in life are more attractive than others and when you take a step closer to understand them, you see that they look to be so ordinary in all the aspects of life. The only differentiator is how they interact with people. Their words are polite and kind (that doesn’t mean they are always agreeing to your points) and if not helpful, they are trying to be helpful.

Happiness is an outcome of love. I have observed that there are people who might not be very well to do but are extremely happy. The cook who comes to help me every morning is one of the cheerful souls I have met. She lives in one 100 sqft. room and cooks under the sky. But I’m sure she derives that love from somewhere and is not shy to spread it around. And that’s the ideal thing to do. Spread it. Love, very strangely multiplies and comes back.