Weekly Random Thoughts

Many asked me why don’t I post anything on Sunday like I used to do before… So somehow, I made up my mind to post today… As soon as I thought about posts… My dear Brain flooded me with ideas (Previous post worked on it  ) which were no way related to each other 

 “Visually challenged student bags top honours at IIT kharagpur” It made me say a loud WOW… The same day I went shopping to TNagar. There was a book stall that got my attention… The in charge greeted me with a broad smile that covered up the left sleeve that was hanging empty… It made me respond back with a smile that had a touch of respect  I decided to buy some book and picked up the best seller book that was lying in the front and read the summary at the back… “Ma’am… What kind of book are you looking for?” My jaw dropped upon hearing the accent and style in that 1 sentence… Yes, it was the same incharge…” He went on to tell me about various books, authors… lines that he enjoyed reading… I was spell bound seeing his knowledge and hold over the language  I walked out of the shop with few books, lots of pride to have met such a person and a whole lot of sweet memories to cherish 

 Early in the morning (8 am)  when I get down from my bus and walk inside my campus… There will be many earthworms loitering here and there… So I’ll try my best not to stamp them and always hop around carefully so that my leg doesn’t hurt them… In this process, I’ll even miss to greet people who come towards me  But, I’ll feel so bad to find so many worms that would be lying around dead, stamped due to our hastiness  So there was this black ant that was partially stamped, I looked at it as it was about to breathe last… Like hero entering, another ant entered the scene, lifted it and took it to his hiding  Another heroic act 

 My friend and me went to the theater just 20 minutes before the show… The person in the counter gave us the list of movies that were being played at various screens… I politely returned it back without even glancing and asked him “Is there any ticket available for any movie for this show? ” He threw us a  look and doubtfully kept glancing at us…He told no… I immediately exclaimed “Yae Yae Yae… Thank u!”  He was having an infinite ???? look now… I explained “Thanks! I won the bet… I told you won’t have any ticket for any movie while my friend told you will… Thanks for making me win ”  Without throwing a 2nd glance at him, I pulled my friend out and we had a hearty laugh about our silly behaviour 

 After a heavy lunch at a restaurant, when we came out, there was a tribal lady who was having a girl kid in her hand and was trying to sell some books… She came to me, I told her that I don’t want books but gave a 20 rupee note to her… She asked the kid to get it… The kid brought its right hand from behind, got the money, smiled at me and told ‘thanku’ (pronounce as spelled)  I was delighted to see the kid and a bit surprised to see a such a kid with so good manners… She even kept waving bye to us till we crossed that road… That happiness was priceless 

 I was watching the audio launch with Illayaraja’s concert… It had foreign orchestra and was too too grand  They had that ‘coming up next’ section during the break… I found that, next was my favourite song, for which I was actually sitting all through the concert… I geared up and sat comfortably… Didn’t even change the channel during the break… As soon as the break was over and the concert resumed….  PHAATTT… Power cut  I was fuming with rage and checked the time… Yes the same 1 hour cut… It just got on my nerves… I started fuming about all the socio-economic probs at that moment  Uffffff… the inability to see a single song… brought out the social activist in me 

 I played ‘book cricket’ where all your favourite players depend on the pages of your book and luck of your hand to score their runs… after a long long long time(after schooling )… Felt great to play it again 

 Too many random thoughts and happenings in the past week  So I’ll stop my Sunday special here… Have a great week ahead 

Life in the Dark is fun :)

I was wondering what do I do when there is no power and the entire locality in immersed in darkness…

 We can play shadow game… Make different animals to appear live on the walls of the living room. Perfect sounds would add on to the effect 

 We can sit around the candle and narrate ghost stories… Its a perfect timing… Dim light , pin drop silence, low eerie tone can make it really a horror one for the one listening 

 Have you ever seen your face in dim light? Perfect chance… Grab a torch or cell phone … Preferably a torch would be comfortable… Stand before a mirror and see your face. Give different expressions … Even telling out villainous dialogue from movie wd be a nice idea 

 Candlelight dinner… A perfect opportunity for a candlelight dinner… Arrange candles on the dining table… Sit around and eat! It will surely be one of the most memorable moments 

Here are few things that I used to do when I was a kid (and some even now  )

 If there is a power shut down… my friends and me used to be very happy… We can close the books and go on to play… There will be a loud “YAE” symbolising our happiness which would be heard even to people residing in next street… So hide and seek was the game that we used to play most of the time. It will be very difficult to locate the person in the dark.

 If there is an FM/radio (battery aided)  that is played in the house… I used to increase the volume and run away… Its difficult to identify who did it 

 During the days when cell phones were not prevelent, my neighbour and me found a new way of communication. We do this when there is a power cut as it would be easy when there is no surrounding noise…. Its called window-chat… Nothing much… I used to shout from my window and finish my sentence with an “over”… My neighbour used to reply in the same manner through their window… One drawback of window-chat is that the chat will be heard not only to the 2 of us but to the entire locality 

 During the time of my birthday, there would be plenty of chocolates and pastries in my home… At that time one-chocolate-per-day rule would be implemented. Power cut was a blessing in disguise for me. While playing, I used to stealthily walk into the kitchen, locate the chocolates… Put few in my mouth and two handful in my pockets and stealthily rush out  (I’ll be caught the next day… That’s a different story  )

I Dunno what to Title This

Whenever we have a friend or any relative visiting us from abroad, we’ll have to play the role of that sweet host who’s ready to show around the city anytime and who can put up with “oh wow! Dis is so cooool”, ” This place has never changed even after so many years”  (Though it must be just 2 years since they visited last  ) and listen to their made-in-foreign stories 

As soon as my best friend told me that she’ll be visiting India, I made all possible arrangements to remain free during weekends (and weekdays if possible)… When I met her, we had lots to talk about, lots to tease about and after laughing for hours together till our stomachs hurt for the silliest possible jokes, we decided to make a plan for places to be visited and things to be done within this 1 month… Her first aim was to visit T.Nagar and to shop or atleast do window shopping on the roads of Pondy Bazaar.. (T.Nagar is the shopping center of Chennai… We can get anything and everything at any price… Just the window shopping done there  will consume the entire day as we’ll have to find our way through the gaps between the crowd  )

So on a fine Saturday morning, we started out along with 2 other friends to the most busiest place in Chennai. After a lot of munching and a little of shopping, we stopped for lunch. Topic about movies came up and Zindagi na Milegi dobara became the discussion. My friend immediately piled up charges against Farhan Akthar for copying the prank idea from us. In school, during annual day or sports day there will be many preparations going on. Many places had  ropes tied preventing us from entering the area. We used to reach a little early the next day, my best friend and me used to walk casually through the entrance gate and when we are few meters inside the campus, we used to bend down and carefully walk to the other side as if there is a rope tied in between. My two other friends who knew the plot used to walk in, after sometime. When 1 of them was about to cross the area, the other used to shout “Hey careful… Are you blind? There is a rope.” Both of them bent down and crossed the place. Seeing them do that, people started following the same. The entire school while crossing that area, bent down and crossed….Even if somebody doesn’t, we used to shout out “Hey careful careful careful” and hearing our shouts their head used to bend in immediate reflex… Thanks to the imaginary rope discovered by us  We used to have a hearty laugh seeing it from the balcony 

Recollecting this incident, made the  me come up with an idea. I asked my friend why not we try the same prank now. The wink in her eye told me that she was in…. We had to do a gyaan transfer to the other two as they were not our school friends… I explained the plot and instructed what each one should do.. So here goes the plan… The platforms had cement tiles and thanks to our super maintenance, every platform had 2 or 3 cracked tiles… 2 of us will go in the front and casually take a big leap as if the tile is broken… The next two will follow us in sometime and when one of them accidently tries to put her leg therem the other has to shout “Hey be careful” loudly and make her leap the tile which is actually in good condition… This girl should do a Thank-God-You -Saved my life kind of acting… 

Roles: The first 2 who’s going to go are my best friend and the recent friend 1 … followed by me and recent friend 2 (The idea was to have a proper mix of Elt and experienced resource in the plot  ). It was decided that I should play the role of the girl who’s about to keep her leg there and then do a You- saved-my life acting as all others where damn sure that they’ll laugh out 

Time for action: My best friend and the recent friend 1 led us and carried out their roles successfully… Our recent friend 2 and me where walking a few feet away from them in order to show off that we are no way connected to the 2 people who went in the front. When I was nearing the place, I asked my friend to get ready to shout out “Be careful” . So within the count of three, I tried keeping my leg on that planned tile and my friend shouted “Oh my God” (instead of Be carefull… she changed the dialogue  ) and pulled me away to the other side… I did that Thank God You saved my life act and kept starring at that so called broken tile… My friend added on “These people never maintain anything properly… If anybody trips on this tile what will happen”  ( This was another addition to the screenplay as it was not planned  ) Soon people who were coming behind us started avoiding that tile by either walking down or leaping that tile. Mission accomplished 

My friends who were watching this from a distance where having a hearty laugh and we joined them soon. So after we were done the shopping and masthi, we took an auto and were returning back… We had to cross the platform where we played our prank in the morning … We still found people taking a big leap there. I was shocked. Though I laughed at the moment, I had this question “Are we so dumb?”

This is a simple incident but goes on to prove how we blindly follow others without even thinking… We never question why? We do it just because others in the front did it. This applies to the career decision, stream we choose to study… We are easily influenced by what others do… I don’t blame anybody for this… Right from schooling, the idea of questioning is curbed by answers like “Its out of syllabus”, “I’ll get back to you later” (That doesn’t come even after we leave the school), “We can reserve this question… We’ll have the answer in the next chapter” So ultimately the art of questioning is lost and when we finish schooling and enter college, we become that machine which blindly writes down whatever is told in the name of lecture…. Before night of exam, it is read and re-written in the form of answer sheets… Those who have the capability to re-write the entire lecture and text book verbatim becomes the topper… This continues even in our work place…

Same happens while choosing a leader… We just blindly take decision without appropriately questioning and later regret and complain we don’t have a good leader…

Whys and Whats have completely disappeared… We do it just because he or she did it… We still fear to choose a path that’s not chosen by others… It was a simple incident, had even one put their feet on that tile, they would have known its fine and not broken. But nobody really bothered to do it. Their ultimate aim was to cross the place and reach their destination as soon as possible irrespective of how they reach…

Is this attitude that’s pushing us back even though we try going ahead? Are we really that dumb? I know its a rude question… But truth is always bitter.