Memories of a Trip - 26/7

It was once in a lifetime scare which none of us will ever forget.

We started walking from office at 5.30 in evening and reached home at 11.30 in nite. On the way the water was at places knee-waist-neck deep. What started as an adventurous trip ended in one of the most will-haunt moments for us!

After waiting for company bus for hour n half, we decided to try walking n finding some vehicle on the way. We reached western express highway at 8.30 and the way people were helping each other all throughout was one of the most inspiring and typical to Mumbai scene. At Greenfields and Fantasy land, where the water was almost gushing and taking anything and everything along with, people were forming human chains and trying to pull what ever living was there...

Once on bridge under the highway, we started calling whom so ever we could cal to ensure them that we were ok and there was absolutely nothing to panic about. The reality... even we were not aware of till then... there were options to go some where else, at someone's relative's place, but even the spirit was high and we wanted to make it to OUR home ourselves. (Besides the common thought... highway would be safest and no reason why walking there would be difficult!) Then the journey on western express highway began. In front of mahananda dairy, it was sumthin more or less like a river in monsoons. The flow was strong enuf to take away even the strongest in... and the traffic, there was bumper to bumper traffic all the way. Some had even stranded there vehicles and started on their own. Of many such sites, there was an Indica, which was almost in water above the windows. Hope there wasn't sumone inside, coz today's paper mentioned some 16 people dying coz of suffocation sitting in cars... people sat in cars for more then 30 hours... it definitely would be remembered as the worst traffic jam at least in till this date...

At 9.30, rains almost stopped and we thought that's the end, just to realize that worst was yet to come... it started pouring with all the more ferocity at around 10. Even now the energy and hopes were not down. We kept on walking without much thought or worries. We could even manage to sing songs on the way, to enjoy RAINS...

Once at kandiwali, we thought we could take rick now, but the spirits were so high, we thought to complete this once in a lifetime journey all the way on foot, and this was for better actually. At mahindra gate no 1, the bridge seemed to have collapsed and the water was coming opposite to us from lokhandwala. It was at places almost waist-neck deep. At 11.00 pm, almost 6 hours walking in rains and water, hungry and all tired, our spirits were almost dying. The thought that the home, what a sweet word which symbolizes safety and shelter was almost there...

We did managed to reach home, and almost safely and without much casualty. A journey which lasted almost 15 kms and more then 6 hours...Yeah, it can be said that staying back would have been better and what you did was foolish, but then who realized that it was nature's way to show the smallness of human being. Agreed that we are safe and alive but then it was a close encounter, which will make us feel it ourselves, next time some news channel shows pics of a flood affected life...

It shows what life means...

Savy

[Savy's Note: The Rain Gods were furious and the downpour was the punishment rather then the boon which it normally is... the skies couldn't hold the anger, and passed down what ever it held in its chest.Life was shattered and humanity once again evoked. It was one such moment when man stood for man...

Being a part of one such journey, here's what we met on the jounrey from Office to Home - 26th July 2005.]

At First Sight... Huh...

Love doesn't come through thin air... you need to cultivate it with time and passion... Love at first site is more for dreamers, but for someone practical and logical, it never is the case...

These were my views from past as long as I dare to remember, but yeah, before I met her...

I got a job in Mumbai and it was time to say good bye to Pune where I was doing my post graduation. I was all loaded with my bags of two years, panting and sweating, when I boarded the bus from Aundh at around 3.30 in afternoon. My seat no. 19 was occupied by a sweet looking girl. My heart started jumping thinking that she is supposed to be on my adjacent seat and has taken mine by mistake. I told her that you have been sitting on mine, and yours would be no seat 20. She smiled and very sweetly said that hers was seat 23 and she was waiting for her husband who had the seat 20, and would I be kind to take hers instead so that she can sit with her hubby. If only I could bring on my face what was in my heart. But I glistened a fake smile and told-why not. Why it always has to happen to me yaar...

Seat 23 was going to change my life, but for the moment, it was the company of a snobby looking gal with geaky specs and Ayan Rand's Fountain Head in her hand. I just wonder why I never happen to get great looking lass as companion in my journeys. But alas, God has ways to play with me, it seems...

Anyways, the bus started and so did the video movie. It was horrible, but the chances of any conversation to gal next seat seemed from Mars, so I tried to get the senseless plot of the typical Masala Bollywood murder mystery...

The voice came from Mars actually "How was the paper presentation in Mumbai last month?" More then shocked by the fact that she knew that I had participated in one, was the fact that she had such a real sweet voice...

On seeing the questioned look (I hope it wasn't frightened look, after all she was from Earth and not Mars), she laughed and excused for firing me with such a question without giving the base. She was studying in her final year in the college where the prelims for the zonal level paper presentation for Mumbai were held last month. I stood second over there and she had been impressed by paper. Though I wish it was my style or even better me instead. At least, the ice was broken...

What started as discussion on the paper, soon engulfed on anything and everything from art to literature to psychology to philosophy. For me, it was a feeling that I can talk to this person as if I am talking to a mirror. We shared so much in common our thinking, aspirations, believes and values. At 7.15, when the bus touched Dadar, we realized that our names were yet to be shared. I never ever would have believed this if it wouldn't have happened with me that I could talk to someone-even more so-to a pretty (so what if a lil' bit geaky) gal, for more then 4 hours without knowing her name. We actually laughed out aloud on realizing it, and she very warmly shook my hand "it was very nice to meet you, I am Dakshita. Lets meet sometime, my number is"...

On way to my guest house, I was in a dilemma as to whether my theory denying love at first site it to be believed, or what happened to me was real? My logical mind was saying that people meet on journeys and even though you like some of them, you just forget afterwards and probably it was nothing more. I told my self you will also forget her soon and it was absolutely nothing...

I doubt if I had had any sleep that night, and first thing in morning was to call her up and ask to meet. Since she was also new in Mumbai, and had come to meet her aunt, I volunteered to take her to Café Sea Side in Banstand (my favorite)...

I had met her just a day before, but each moment waiting for her that day, seemed ages for me. I always thought that when I would propose to my love, it would be a real royal event in my life, with Champagne and roses. But everything in my logical self was happening in an anticlimax manner...

I was simply lost at words but again she had listened to what I had in my mind. She was in fact more bold and clear in expressing her thoughts, so effectively she spoke for both of us in the end...

Till this date, three years after our marriage and five years after that first meet, she listens to me before my speaking and I just see her admiringly as if we are meeting for the first time...

All my friends still pull my leg for my being logical with love at first site, but then exceptions are a part of our lives, aren't they :)

:-)

Savy

[Savy's Note: Here's a story I wrote after a long time which, though is a fictional one, but I have captured some of my real life moments in it too, which ones... keep guessing ;-)

Also before all the beautiful girls out there think that otherwise(it did happened when i first circulated the story around), let me clear - its purely fictional (read I am stil an eligible bachelor ;-))

Happy Reading]

The Race Against...

We are all running in a race. A race, where I dont know the end line, I dont know what lies for the winner, I just know that the guy next is running and if I dont, then surely I am gonna be a loser. Its only this feeling that makes me run, against the unknown, the unseen...

How many of us today are happy? How many of us don’t feel incomplete and craving for more? How many of us, can say today, true to their hearts as to what it is that they want in life and what they are looking out for – what gives them pleasure, what makes them happy… not me, I admit!

I remember it was June 2000, when on a typical June day (it is quite hot then in Udaipur), during my second year grad exams, it showered heavily and the climate turned very pleasant. Vaibhav, a very close friend of mine, and I, went to our regular hangout – Pandtiji’s Bread-Pakoda at Fatehsagar lake in afternoon. Rishabh, the third link in our friendship trio, (through intuition surely) also reached there searching for us, in around an hour.

The weather and the nature were at its wonder. It was drizzling and we were having rounds of chai and bread pakodas. Out of the habit and that age of getting elderly shoe, we tried to be a bit philosophical. Rishabh was to say – “Ashish, think, what does one need to be happy? Today, this 1.5 Rs. worth chai and 2.5 Rs. worth bread pakoda can give all the happiness one thinks of; it’s just that we keep on thinking of greater things, forgetting the worth of such small pleasures”. It followed by a healthy (and philosophical) discussion and few more rounds of chai and bread pakodas. The reason I remember it even after nearly 6 years is the fact that, even today, it is all one needs, all I need, to feel great. May be the chai costs 2 Rs and bread pakoda 3 bucks, and the climate of Udaipur is as pleasant as ever. Agreed, at that time, worth of money for 5 bucks is not something same as it is today for me. But the point I am trying to make it is whether my newer needs of today are dependent on my needs changing or it is governed by something else?

One sees people around running madly in all possible directions. Yeah, most of them seem to be doing great in lives and setting standards for the rest to struggle and crave high. But when one look back at times, the success and sense of achievements, which one used to get from smaller wins, is not anymore. One is running, and struggling to keep the pace with the guy next to him. He doesn’t know whether the path he is taking is really the one which will take him to his destination or not. He is rather not even aware of what his destination is, should be?

I remember my first year grad results day. I have never been a great student, but say the blessings of lady luck, that I managed to score reasonably well in my academic exams. I was working then as a trainee in NIIT centre. Immediately after I knew about my results, I was send for a task with my senior-Vikas. After about two hours of running and getting the work done, while returning back to the centre, I told Vikas, that I aint feeling some sense of achievement. Logically, I should be feeling happy that I have scored beyond my expectations, but somehow the feeling isn’t coming. I would always remember what he said – “Ashish, this is your entry in the real world. You will achieve success and wins over and over, but you might not always be able to celebrate and enjoy them.” I realize the meaning of those words now.

Today when one changes a job, people congratulate, for going in a better company, higher salary, perks, onsite, whatever. But the guy isn’t happy coz even after all that, he sees someone getting all of that and even more. The standards are not with one’s own wishes from life, but from what the guy next to him is getting.

How many of us can correlate with the fact that at times even the success of our closest friends makes us restless. One gets a feeling of not being successful in life, not being at a substantial position, whereas till yesterday things were perfectly fine with one’s work and life.

For most of us coming from service class families, our parents used to earn fraction of what we earn today (I do have heard of something called inflation). They used to support the entire family and we never ever felt that we were underfed or that our necessities were not met with. Today, for us, with all those fat salary package are never fulfilling our needs. It’s always less, like a mirage…

How many times have we heard – “When I settle in life, I will do …” The word settle has a very subjective definition, for some, it is a salary package of X amount, for others, it is a 2BHK fully loaded (with all amenities obviously) house. For others, it is after spending Y no of years onsite and after getting to a particular designation. Ask our parents what they used to think of the meaning of settled when they were of our age. If it is the case today, ever imagined what our kids would define as being settled???

The aim here is not to point that one should leave the competition and go to mountains forever (which I am sure some of us, including my self, at least fantasize of at times). The point is whether all this struggle and fight is making us happy and more at peace within our souls? Whether in this run, are we missing out something vital which makes us human? Whether we are able to rationalize and justify the run in itself? Are we doing to justice to people close to us, our families, and friends and off all of them – ourselves?

I am not trying to challenge the way we are today, nor am I suggesting a new system, all that I can try and aim for all is to take a pause and find out a rationalized answer to What We Are, What Are Our Strengths, What We Really Want and then gather our energies and proceed for the same!

Life is not long, but the moments we actually LIVE make it worth living…

Ashish