The Clapping Angel

That was a very beautiful doll. The clapping angel is what people used to call it. This one was the most fancied doll by all kids after the world famous Barbie series. Anu was no exception to this. Little Anu will step into 2nd standard after this summer vacation. Her daddy kept his promise that he will take her to the trade fair before her school reopens. Anu was the happiest kid on earth when she was going around the fair with her tiny fingers holding her daddy strongly. Her little eyes weren’t enough for her to capture the extravaganza of the fair. She was so pleased with her father for having brought her to the fair. So much pleased that every now and then she kept kissing his forehand. Her joy knew no bounds. She was flying with pride.

Everything was fine until she crossed the doll shop. Two beautiful clapping angels were on display on the top rack of the store. Anu has come across this doll many times before in various other places. Never has she asked her father to get her this one. She knew her father can’t afford its price. But today the dolls dressed up in pink pulled her so much that she resisted to move from that shop. Her dad could understand her desire. But he knew better that he has hardly Rs25 in his pocket which is just enough for an ice cream and to take back Anu in auto. He had promised these too as part of the fair visit. Anu had tears filled in her eyes. She was continuously watching the dolls. Tears started to flow down when a boy bought one of the two dolls. She never opened her mouth and asked her father to buy her the doll. She knew it was not possible. Still her little heart craved for it.

Not able to stop her tears and the yearning for the doll, she spoke out in a very feeble voice. ‘Daddy I want to have that doll’. Pained by her daughter’s patience and his inability to get what she wanted, Anu’s father was spontaneous to reply, ‘Baby let’s go to the ice cream shop’. Anu never replied back. She just moved out of the store. She went straight towards the entrance. They left the fair without having ice cream. Anu’s dad was keen to take her back home by Auto. They reached home. Anu couldn’t stop her tears. She went to the bed, hugged her pillow tightly and cried aloud. At one point she got tired of crying and slept off. Poor Daddy couldn’t sleep that night. He convinced himself that kids will forget things soon and went to sleep.

Will Little Anu forget the Clapping angel? She might have stopped crying but will her little heart ever come over the desire?

Is there anyway to cheer up the little kid?
Please let me know.

The Perfect Morning !

Early morning 9am, sounds odd? But for Aditya 9am is the time he can afford to get up. A bright white bedspread with lots of lavender flower images woven to it; soft cozy pillows of the same color; and a night suite in deep blue… these make Aditya’s night (not to mention the Good Night message from Sumi). 9am is the time when Aditya’s mom clears the bedroom screen to facilitate the sunrays to shine over his face. Gently disturbed by his majesty the Sun God, Aditya reaches out for his mobile from under his pillow. Without opening his eyes he types out a Good Morning and sends it to Sumi. His fingers are so much used to sending her messages that he manages to send messages eyes closed. The time Aditya wakes up in the morning is the time Sumi gets out of her apartment to office. So there is always a prompt reply to Aditya’s Good morning from Sumi. Still in sleeping mood and posture he gathers strength to open just his right eye when his mobile vibrates with a message (just to confirm if the message was from Sumi). If it was any other message… Aditya gets back to sleep. But always it’s Sumi with her sweet morning wishes, which effortlessly puts Aditya on foot. Sumi’s good morning is Aditya’s early morning coffee, strong, aromatic and the perfect starter for the day. 

Aditya reads Sumi so well that he knows what her messages mean. ‘Good Morning :-)’, ‘gud morning’, ‘gm’, ‘morning’, each one meant something. They convey her mood to him. Based on it he replies to her, and quickly goes to brush (time filler between his reply and her reply to it). By the time he is back with coffee and newspaper, the reply from Sumi is already there. Coffee, News, Sumi… Aditya handles all simultaneously. Everyday there is a new topic to talk about for them Weather today, music tomorrow; someday it’s the continuation of previous night’s fight! In-between Aditya asks for updates about her whereabouts. Cos he knows that the conversation will stop abruptly the time Sumi reaches her cabin!

Aditya starts to start to office. He gets ready to get ready for his office only after the conversation. But there is one exception to this. The conversation goes on and on when they are fighting. He summarizes the conversation and tries to enjoy the emotions linked to it as he stands beneath the shower. Lazy Aditya becomes brisk and quick after his shower (he is already late!). He hardly has time and mood for his breakfast. Promising his mom that he will have a full meal as early as 12 noon, he skips breakfast. All set to start to office, he equips himself with his driving kit which includes his music player! Vroom starts his bike and never stops anywhere for anyone even at signals. Aditya likes to ride fast. Speed is one thing he is crazy about only next to Sumi. On his way to office he never minds to slow down except when he crosses Sumi’s office building. He knows the direction in which Sumi will be sitting now. He slows down to feel her presence. And there again he goes back to top speed and halts at office. ‘Late again?’ this word he hears every other day from his boss. Who cares…? Aditya reaches out to his mail box to start his Email service to Sumi!

The Music Express

The Train was galloping at its top speed say 130-140 mph. It was 3am and everyone in that First class compartment was fast asleep in their coupes. There is no other sound except for the roar of the train. Aditya was traveling alone for the first time. As a habit or convention he never sleeps during onward train journeys. He always wanted to stand by the train door and sing his heart out. But that has never happened before as he never got to travel alone. Now he knew it’s the right time to strike the chord. He slowly moved down from his berth and escaped out of his coupe without making any noise. The footboard was waiting for his arrival He took his favorite position and he was all set for the show. The train was cruising over a pretty straight route with hardly any curves on the way. Bluish cloud covered mountains, tall trees and oil lit lamps here and there…Seeing these Aditya was building up his mood to sing out. He had few songs and lines in mind which he knew will please him at this time of the night and the location he is in. As tough he was a professional singer he started to sing. First few lines he jus murmured. But later on he started to shout. He knew very well that it’s tough even for himself to listen to his voice. But today the speed of the train gave him so much room that he shouted his heart out so loudly, still no one heard him. He was enjoying his singing (shouting to be precise) though he had chosen all sad songs. Suddenly a bulb started glowing above his head. Idea! he said to himself and quickly ran to his berth. He grabbed his Music player plugged them into his ears and turned the volume to maximum. Now again back at the footboard he continued with his singing. This time he was very pleased. He was singing but what his ears received was the original soundtrack! Wow cool idea indeed.

Everything was nice and fine until these lines flashed through Aditya’s mind. He had read them only few hours ago. He had associated those lines with himself. The lines read as “Such was his state… a state where he kept working just to stop the brain from thinking of her… a state where all he wanted to do on his late night ride back home from office was to bang onto something rock solid hard and crash hoping that at least the accident would make him stop thinking about her. He was scared of being alone and not having anything to do because then he would have to think.” Aditya’s mind was continuously pondering over these lines. He has been undergoing this ordeal for reasons unknown. Aditya’s SHE was no were in the scene. He is yet to find her; still he has been feeling it. By the time he realized that he had stopped singing, two three songs had been over in his player. Aditya trying to recompile himself purposefully switched off the songs and diverted his attention in sight seeing. The mountains, the plains, the signal pillars, the distant lights, the shining stars, all these created an awe feeling in him. Sometime back what looked like gods own precious creation and beauty of the nature, now kindled fear fire in Aditya’s eyes. Everything looked enlarged. The fear of FEAR gulping him grew fast. Aditya's feet started to tremble. Unknowingly he started leaning more outside the door and started feeling the Gravity pulling him out. His heart already bid goodbye to the world yet his mind wasn’t ready to depart. The power of his mind commanded his body to push itself inside. 3…2…1 he counted aloud and pushed himself inside, closed the door and rested his back on the door without giving load to his foot. Aditya was panting for breath. He dint know what he was going through. But seriously felt strange with what ever he experienced now. Once he closed the door, the train’s roaring noise had diminished and all that he could hear was his heart beating so fast which synchronized with the rhythm of the express train. Aditya was quite tired after the Push! So he decided to get back to his cabin. He gently tried to persuade himself to sleep for a while, but all he could do was look at the opposite berth where a young girl was struggling to sleep. Who knows that girl too might have been down after a Push, but certainly not from the doorsteps!

Life is a LESSON..LEARN it

Time as he grows old teaches him many lessons. I learnt that this is true. When you see things shown in movies happen to you, what else do you do but believe that movie is nothing but a replica of life. But let’s exempt dream duet sequences alone! The last few months have been great learning experiences. Learning life! Met different characters, observed many changes, went through new experiences, had good time learning, realized that I got lots and lots more to learn. All these learning’s need to be revised, revisited, cherished, relished and recorded. (What if I lose my memory?)
;-)

Top Cop:

Speeding auto, a cop chasing it and jumping into it, big blows to the driver and the driver falls out of the auto. The auto stops after hitting at a sand heap… I wasn’t describing a stunt sequence of a movie, this is what I saw when I was a kid at the police colony where I grew up. (Memory loss and to me? Nay no way I suppose). Real hero that cop was. I do believe in some chasing scenes of movies as I have seen such things in person. I have seen this cop at home in plainclothes. He was so much a police personality that he didn’t even know few channel names on TV. This was some 10 yrs back. Now when I was at his home to invite him to my sister’s marriage, I was shocked to see him update his wife about the programs on various TV channels precisely with timings. He was a cop before, now retired. This has brought the BIG change in him.

I learnt a lesson- Plan your life after retirement



Habits make a MAN:


After much thinking, many ifs and buts, mom decided to go there to inform him of my sister’s marriage. Not a good area for ladies to travel, still she decided to go there as I was with her. Parking the car beneath a tree, mom said “u can wait in the car if u r not interested in coming…I will be back in 2 minutes” But myself and sister decided to go with her. When we peeped inside the hut like structure (supposed to be a house), what we saw was very painful. A man nearing his 60’s was drinking liquor. Seeing my mom he hurriedly closed the doors and came out, ashamed with his action, he asked my mom to erase from her memory whatever she just saw. The way he spoke to us, I understood, he was really an extraordinarily talented person spoilt to the core, thanks to his addiction to bad habits. He is supposed to be a close relative of us :-|

I learnt a lesson- Never give room for bad habits



Togetherness means a lot:

The train gently starts moving. The girl standing in the footboard waves good bye her cousins at the station. Tears roll down her cheeks, she is not wiping it cos she doesn’t want to disturb herself biding bye. A familiar scene in many Hindi movies (I’ve seen only lovers doing this in Tamil movies), But I saw it live when my cousin sister did this to me! One week of togetherness, total fun, and lots of love, affection and care were responsible for those tears. We know we will meet again not in the near future.


I learnt a lesson- It is painful to say bye to loved ones


No Tears, yet U cried:

I had a bet or rather a strong word with many that I won’t be crying, there won’t be any trace of tears when I say good bye after leaving my sister at her new home with new set of relations . It’s a virtual good bye to a sweet, tender relationship. I won the bet, but couldn’t claim for it. People had observed that I din cry; also I had my trademark mile wide smile even when my sister was busy wiping tears but what my eyes managed to hide was revealed by my foot which dint dare to take the front foot to leave the place.
No tears still I cried… people were quick to observe this.



I learnt a lesson- U don’t cry, that doesn’t mean U don’t feel the pain




Pray for me Brother:

2nd May 2007, Wednesday, 9:30 Am… The road is jam packed with vehicles trying to enter the marriage hall so is the hall inside. The wedding rituals are yet to begin but the hall was already exceeding its capacity. Unknowingly I start to pray. God How are u gonna manage this? Still my eyes looking for more people to come in for whom I was waiting for; also looking for people whom I dint want to turn up. End of the day, all things bright and beautiful, prayers answered. Happy about the way things shaped out…

I learnt a lesson- Prayers are always answered…
                                                           but not every time the answer is YES


Many more to recall and write out but still in order to give due preference and priority to the above instances I will have to stop here.


I learnt a lesson- Preferential treatment is BAD!


Do not give priority to the person who considers u as a choice!