Payment due date is approaching for..

I need to clear many bills.. Phone bill, electricity bill, Wi fi, there is also a letter from Indraprastha Gas Limited, another one from MTNL and of course the annual premium for the Kotak insurance and the date for LIC premium is fast approaching as well.

I am sure we are sailing in the same boat and this boat is preordained to drown, if we don’t make the payments on time.

Is your inbox also pounded with the reminder mails. Well, I receive a reminder mail for each of the items mentioned above. Such communication continues to infiltrate my inbox , days after the due date and it carries a certain message , on the lines ‘Please ignore, if already paid..’

Invariably, I cant ignore such reminders. I miss out on making one or the other payment timely and by the time, wisdom dawns upon my encephalon, I am charged a penalty.

Till date, I have never gazed at a bill and roared with gratitude. In the so many years of my existence on this blue planet,every bill has been looked at with contempt and suspicion, with razor sharp eyes trying to locate any discrepancy, or creating one where none exists.

Do you jump with joy when you receive the ‘bills’ of the world ? I am still to encounter that ‘joyful’ entity. Hence, in case you are overloaded with wealth, fixed assets, liquid assets, stipends, emoluments.. let me abscond with some of it.

That is because my new year’s determination is to protect my piggy bank from thullas and penalties ;)

Hottie and Cool dude !

I am back from the hils.. recharged, rejuvenated,revitalized,reawakened, rekindled, reinvigorated.. blah blah..

With no prior booking, most of our plans fell flat.. But that’s something we are used to, by now.. We are not the complaining lot , so merrily chose to go with the flow while reaffirming our determination to become more organized in this new year. A safari ride at Jim Corbett never saw the light of the day owing to the reasons above.

I prayed to the almighty and to Late Jim Corbett uncle (a famous hunter in the British Raj) in all earnestness. In today’s day and age, hunters will only be infamous and not otherwise.

Suddenly, Dinesh appeared and promised us a safari ride for the next day. We handed him some money and pushed a few kilometers ahead to Kausani. Gandhi ji was fond of this hill station and had called it the ‘Switzerland of India’.

Every evening, the sunset was a sight to behold. The snow clad Himalayan ranges turned their hue from orange to pink to grey and then white.

Interestingly, I met someone here. She is a girl, a nine year old to be precise, hails from Nainital and referred to the hot ball as ‘Hottie’. Each time she saw the sun going down, she would exclaim, ‘Bye Hottie’ ! The moon was the ‘cool dude’.

I have grown up believing that the ‘God’ of Sun is a male deity and Chanda mama , as the title suggests is also a much loved , beautiful man (if I may say so), with a few blemishes here and there..

But, according to Ronika, Sun is Hottie, which makes her a female, like myself .. Wow ! It feels nice to have another female deity (in addition to the 50,000 female deities in our country).

I hope, when Ronika grows up, she receives the same respect (if not more), as the 50,001 goddesses of our country.

By the way, missed seeing Hottie today.. It was cold and dark throughout.. yeah but the ‘cool dude’ is here..

P.S – Safari never happened. Dinesh disappeared with the money. I have his contact number, will stalk him till the end of this world !

Another moment passing by...

Our school timings were fixed, morning 7am to afternoon 2pm. Eight classes of 45 minutes each and a half an hour lunch break is what each day comprised of.

Everything was pre planned and we had been trained to wear white shoes and a white skirt on Fridays while the plain jane uniform of a white shirt and the (awful) dark green skirt ruled on the other days.

The time table for each day was different and we were intimated about the same well in advance. So, every night before calling it a day, we removed a few books from the school bag and inserted a few others, making sure that nothing was being left out.

Planning worked and it worked very well ! Rather the ones who were forgetful and messy, were often seen standing outside the class holding their ears, legs or some part of the anatomy.

And then, we grew up.

Life was my new teacher, every situation made me learn a brand new lesson and I was the only pupil in my new class. Nobody in the world could fathom my situation, my learnings and my feelings. The battle had to be fought all alone. Where did all the planning go ?

Planning is vital but more important is to take life as it comes.. Every class is not fixed here, like it was when we were at school. New lessons, new chapters, new learnings and unexpected unit tests.. planning could fail you at times..

But,I remember it was fun standing outside the class occasionally, while children of the neighbouring section mocked us and we scowled back at them. It's okay, if you were expecting Rajma-Chawal in your lunch box and what stared back at you this afternoon was bitter gourd, infamously famous as Karela..

Lets plan to eat the 'Karela' well.. The present is all that we have :)

Radio Ka Sardar ...

Are your investments in place ? Have you sorted it all with Mr C.A ? Since you are planning to plough money into property, you must have been thinking of  applying for a home loan as well…

A wise man once said and I quote “Failing to plan is planning to fail..”

For once, I am on the same page as this wise man but what happens when all plans go kaput.. What if you decide to go on a picnic, on a fine Sunday morning and there is something unexpected in store for you… This is the last time that you hurriedly declared a ‘bye bye’ at home and rushed out with your biker friends. You didn’t bother to hug or say ‘I love you’ to your pretty wife, your children were fast asleep unaware of what’s awaiting them…. And you…You didn’t return..

My friend didn’t return home..

It was an accident that has shaken everyone who knew him, didn’t know him, may be had just seen or heard him.. I am reminded of the first time I met him at MICA, his unrehearsed spontaneous one liners, his creative stunts on radio, binging on the delectable and inviting lunch his adorable wife lovingly packed for him and apologizing later for the shameful act, his full throated laughter, his two charming kids and his composed demeanour. With hands forever ready to help, witty remarks fastened onto the lips and a heart that only knew how to spread joy… you will be deeply missed my friend !

Seeing you today, where I did, I realized that life is unpredictable indeed ! We must think ahead and plan. Infact, plan well.. However, there is an expiry date and strangely, we haven’t been told about this day, date and time.

Death is certain. Hence, all the more important is what do we do with this life and how do we live.. and you, my friend… You lived well…

Thank you for the person that you are.. you ‘ARE’ eternally alive in my heart..

R.I.P Abhay !

My budday gift :)

So, I received a letter this morning from a certain ‘Mr Jaiswal’ who stays in Vasant Kunj. He is old, very old, dons a black cap that blankets his grey hair. His eyes wear a deserted look and he had many questions to ask when I first bumped into him at my book’s launch event. Amidst the frenzy, he stay put beside me, refused to budge until he had noted down my address and date of birth. I wondered why, yet didn’t question his intent owing to paucity of time and other engagements at that point.

Five months later, on the eve of my ‘Happy Budday’, I receive the first card from 81 year old Mr Jaiswal. A little girl pointing towards a shooting star in the night sky graces the front side of the card. I am no ‘little girl’ and this didn’t look like a ‘Happy budday’ card either but the gesture was very thoughtful, indeed. Enclosed with the card was a hand written three page letter.

He stays alone in a three bedroom flat on the ground floor of a housing society. His wife moved on three years ago. The three sons are settled abroad. He is a grandfather too but is living with no false hopes of seeing them grow or dropping them to school or playing with them against the backdrop of the setting sun. 

He is lonely and has no qualms about explicitly mentioning the same in his letter.

Four lines at the start of this letter are dedicated to praising my debut work. But the remaining words reflect his desolate saga of coping with loneliness. Most of his friends have joined his wife. His choice of words’ suggest that his family doesn’t care much. Yes, he has the money but those of us who are earning know about the kind of happiness money brings along.

I must have touched his life in that brief encounter that lasted not more than five minutes… or may be, he wanted to do something with his time and the task of encouraging a young author appealed to him. In any case, I have decided to send him a letter too.. a hand written letter..

If you have a neighbour who is ageing and lonely, do say ‘Hi’ to him the next time you see him gazing at you from his balcony. Also, remember to smile…. 

Bas aur paanch minute..

There are a few super human beings who like getting up in the morning. The rest of us, common mortals, keep trying. It is a daily endeavour, mostly we fail and everyday we redetermine (half heartedly). No wonder, victory eludes us the next day also and then again, we redetermine !

We are, without exception, experts at the 'bas aur paanch minute' game. Also because, we have been playing this game for a very long time now ! We have often missed our school buses, reported late for work and sometimes skipped bathing, all due to our deep affinity towards this game. Its a different thing that every second of the last five minutes is closely monitored by our watchful eyes and the horrifying visuals of our Maths teacher conducting the unit test or the boss giving us a mouthful for turning up late , grow bigger and bigger by the end of 'the five minutes'. Noble plans of hitting the gym never see the light of the day , courtesy the 'five minute game'. And then, alternatives are considered, for eg taking the stairs and not the lift , going to a restaurant and having salads instead of butter chicken, hanging out with friends who are more out of shape than myself (boosts my confidence !). The culprit behind all of it is 'the five minute game'.

My one month old nephew is a funny, shameless fellow. Every evening, he sees us on skype, winks and then starts snoring. For the next forty minutes, I scream and screech and howl.."Darsh Darsh, get up baba" but Baba cares a damn ! My brother doesn't like to give up either, so he pulls Darsh and cuddles him too. Darsh baba refuses to open his big black eyes and finally, we give up. Nevertheless, this online date happens every evening between 8 to 9 pm. I have been told that infants like to sleep. I would like to believe that we all enjoy a sound sleep, especially the last five minutes (that often does stretch into hours) ! Yawn !! Good night then !

The cell phone addiction :)

So, my phone conked off today. I was out for work, wasn’t carrying the charger along, a few important calls were expected, I was in a dilemma and while at work I kept looking around and asking everybody for a charger.. Nobody had the one I needed. This has also happened to you and I am not asking you. I am certain about it.. Once back home, the first task to do was locate the goddamn charger and plug in the phone, switch it on to find 101 messages on WhatsApp and 8 missed calls. I love it when friends create random groups and add me to them.  It is very thoughtful of them to have remembered me and to continue the process of remembering me through the day (this explains the 101 messages)

But, there are two sides to a coin. How did our parents and grandparents and their parents etc  manage without the cell phone ? Looks nearly impossible to survive solely on a big black immobile instrument lying dormant in a corner of the drawing hall. Mobile phones, on the other hand hand have brought the world closer. Its so much simpler now to keep tabs on anyone you would like to. The ‘Last seen today at am/pm’ feature of Whats App is absolutely incredible ! I met a lady this morning who has deactivated WhatsApp owing to the brawl that this feature led her to.

We like to crib and because the determination to do so is relatively intense, we do find the reasons as well. 

Pros and cons define everything in life. I would like to look at the brighter side of life ! Happy to be born in the age of cellphones, iphones, ipads, tablets..et all…  Want to add me to groups on WhatsApp ? Bring it on..  But please forgive me , if I mute the group ;)