The Grand Fall & the Big Guffaw (Part 1)

It was a Friday like any other Friday. I had wrapped up all my work and sent mails to my superiors updating them on the day’s status. Everything was done and dusted by 730 pm. It was going according to plan. But, as they say ‘Man proposes. God disposes’. I never knew that the day would transpire into such a very eventful evening.   The drive to my home was satisfactory and enjoyable. Usually, I had to wade through the ocean of traffic. As it was Onam, the roads were punctuated with clusters of vehicles here and there. So far so good, I was right on schedule.  The plan was to catch up with my friend after a long time and watch “The Man from UNCLE” in Sathyam. I had a hurried dinner at home and started by 915pm taking into consideration the Anna Salai traffic and the metro work that was supposed to be happening there. After a minor traffic hiccup in Velachery, I geared up on my gearless vehicle to be on time to meet my friend. Criss crossing and traversing the myriad cars, buses, two wheelers apart from the unprintable swearing and scolding by the auto wallahs, I finally reached the Aalayamman Temple signal. I heaved a sigh of relief that I could reach the theatre atleast before 1020pm. I never knew at that time that God was silently laughing from above and eagerly anticipating the exciting happening to happen. As soon as the signal turned green, I was flying like a F1 driver. All of a sudden, out of the blue, an old man came riding on his cycle on the wrong side of the road just few metres in front of me. It took me by complete surprise. To make matters worse and complicate the situation further, the old man was literally shaking his handle bar giving me mixed and confused signals whether he wanted to ride to my right or left. The only possible solution for me in order to avoid hitting him was to apply the brakes and then observe whether he had made up his mind to go in a particular direction on the wrong side of the road. The brakes were applied. As luck would have turned out, at that rushing speed of 75kmph, I skidded when my brakes were applied. The night and absence of road light caused me to not to see the sand that were scattered on the road. My Angelina Jolie flew in one direction and I fell on the opposite side thus creating a big thud. All I could see were hazy things and the loud horns that were screaming at me from behind. I realized that my specs were not in their normal position but lying around somewhere in the rubble. Two gentle gentlemen lifted me and helped me to a nearby safe enclosure. The gentlemen were asking me whether they would like me to take to a nearby hospital and I answered them that the abrasions and lacerations needed to be washed up first as the sand was hiding and occupying the injured area. I was actually surprised at myself that despite the serious accident that I was able to think clearly. They bade me goodbye after asking me to go the doctor and have a TT. I was thinking furiously, forgetting the pain, as to how I was able to remain calm and think clearly when any sane person would have fainted at the sight of blood dripping and flowing across the elbow and leg. Finally, it hit me - MEDITATION. Meditation really helped me at that point of time to see things as they were without panicking or getting scared. Cleaning up my wounds with minimal water so as not to infect and aggravate the wound, I made way for Sathyam to meet my friend in the same blood dripped and scratched body condition. I parked my vehicle in the premises with great difficulty as it was then the pain started to kick up and shoot in my hand. After exchanging pleasantries to my shocked friend on seeing my condition, I noticed the time – it was exactly 1020pm. I had lost complete track of time and was actually surprised to know that I was still on time as per the plan despite the herculean change of plan by God. Seeing my state, we went immediately to the Sathyam emergency ward to get the first aid so that I can visit the clinic and get a TT later after the movie got over.  When the loud and shrieking DTS effects ritual were completed during the first aid, we thoroughly enjoyed the wry spy comedy very much despite my friend jokingly complained that I smelled heavily of Dettol during the course of the film. After laughing out to our heart’s content, we made our way to the nearest nearby hospital for the TT injection and a professional clean up of the sustained injuries. Once when the doctorial formalities where completed after waking up the entire hospital, I mumbled my sincere apologies to them for waking them up at such an hour of night. Finally, after our “See you soon” were exchanged, I drove back unhurriedly to my home. I felt someone was looking from above while I was driving. Casting away my hyperactive imagination cells, without much ado, I quietly scrambled to my bed without waking or telling my mom that I was badly injured in that wee hours. I thought that instead of giving her the shock then, she can herself discover on seeing my condition when she wakes up the following morning. Thinking thus, I started to go to sleep when I heard someone was laughing uncontrollably and hysterically. Startled by the boisterous roar of laughter, I wondered who it can be so sadistic to laugh at my sad plight. Then, I realized that my hyperactive brain cells were once again playing and pulling tricks on me. Asking them to be quiet for some time, I was about to go to sleep, when I started to hear a ‘Jal Jal’ sound outside. The windows started to rattle on its own accord and the dogs started to bark incessantly. I knew this time it was real.  Something was out there lurking behind the windows and watching me. Now, I realized that it was the same thing that was watching me when I was driving back home. Despite my severe pain, I gently climbed down my bed to check out this mysterious I-do-not-know-what-it-is. I opened the window very slowly. The dogs had stopped their barking. There was a heavy stillness in the air. I felt the eerie silence to be very haunting. It was there looking right at my soul and giving me the same hysterical laugh.

......to be continued & concluded..... 

Sycophancy - The ultimate lunacy !

In this dynamic and rapidly changing world, there are countless right instances which irritates and frustrates an individual that literally fires up your anger beyond the normal words of description. Corruptions, endless manipulations by the media, female foeticides, Manual scavenging, duplicity, double dealings and I can continue ranting the innumerable diseases that has deeply penetrated and pervaded into every inch of our society. But, there's also one other important aspect in the list which makes me to feel nauseated at the very thought of it - being a sycophant! For all the Tarantino fans who had watched Django Unchained, I wanted to slap Stephen's character when he used to say 'yes yes' in that deep servile tone to Dicaprio. I know it was just  a movie . But, my sense of right and wrong was so strong that Stephen's character made me to lose myself whenever Stephen , to put it in tamil, "jaalrad' Dicaprio despite I knew Django Unchained was a work of art and that Stephen was a fictitious character. Unfortunately, there are many such Stephen's whom we encounter in our day to day lives. I am sure there would be at least one Stephen in your work atmosphere - The guy/girl who says extremely bad things about their boss beyond his back but flatters and butters them up by saying 'ah ha ho ho' in front of his face to be in their good books for a good appraisal. The worse part is that when confronted they justify their actions by saying that they are being practical and that every one does it. It would have been their interpretation and perception about the world. But, their distorted reality is not the actual reality. There are still very few people left like me who condemn this act to be highly deplorable and view these persons to be highly despicable and hypocrites. They falsely think that toadying people can serve their interests in the long run. But, it happens otherwise as every action has an equal and an opposite reaction

Every cloud has a silver lining. It is really difficult to deal with such people when your value system is not aligned with theirs. But, it gives a tremendous scope of opportunity to test our own integrity and will power amidst such double standard boot lickers who will try to lure you into their abominable world to "ching chang" at every opportunity. Likewise, what I have learnt from my experience is that when you interact with these kinds of people. you can actually become open minded and tolerant and understanding to the world around you without surrendering and giving up on your values.

Penitence - The confessions from a lackadaisical

Soccer is the most popular and watched sport in the world with more than 3.3 - 3.5 billion fans across Europe, Africa, Americas, Asia etc. The spread and reach of Soccer is such that it is estimated that this high octane sport is played by over 250 million players in at least 200 countries. The numbers are mind boggling. But, there is just another game in the world which trounces Soccer in terms of the sheer magnitude of the numbers and is played by most of the 7.3 billion world's population on a daily basis. The game's name is blame and it is the most widely acclaimed universal sport that is played by men and women alike at one level or the other at some point in their lives.

The most overused and trite expression for escaping the consequences of our action is to say " I did not have time to do so and so activity". How many of us would have said this in our lives till now to different stakeholders - mom, dad. brother, sister, teachers, friends, relatives, pets, managers, bosses and the endless list can be kept on listed endlessly! Writing has always fascinated me as it gave me the complete freedom and creative scope to explore the abyss of my subconscious to be innovative in my expression. As a kid who used to devour comics and then moved on to fiction, I have always had the penchant for writing. Being an active blogger during my engineering days , I found out very recently and acknowledged, accepted, admitted and confessed that it had been more than 720 days since I had written something new - something fresh - original - to uphold the magnificent greatness of this admirable art. Though I had been conceiving an interesting story line to pen down for my new blog, never even in my wildest dreams I was aware that the 720 days had vanished like a wisp of smoke.

When I was in the know that it had been more than 2 years since I had a blog entry against my name, my first reaction was "Time - the unpardonable culprit". Then, instinctively, my intuition bell started to ring and I understood very clearly that it was I who was culpable and punishable for my negligence in discharging my rightful duties to this sacred art. The only problem with me was that I used to update my blog whenever I had an interesting experience - seen, heard, read or experienced personally - in my life and then weaved into an intricate story. When I started to time travel in my memories, I realized that I could not mentally see even a single, tiny and an iota of instance that was remotely close to the spelling of interesting. It was then I had another bout of monstrous epiphany. I comprehended the indisputable fact that the involvement in my professional work and studies had made me to perceive life as one dimensional - wake up, eat , work hard and sleep, thus forsaking the natural occurring exciting events that were unfolding right before my eyes and nose. I felt I had been isolated and shut off amidst the thick of happenings and understood that my right brain ceased to exist for the last couple of years. I remembered Lord Krishna's majestic and eternal voice in the Bhagawad Gita " Self-knowledge is the fire that burns away your ignorance and enables you to think crystal clearly". He was right. He has always been right. I realized that instead of idling away my free time even after a tiring week's worth of work, I can very well put in enough efforts to be more productive by whetting and honing up what I love to do most.

Just like how Birbal used to point out Akbar's mistakes in his own humorous and witty style, I realized that I need to be my own jester to take full responsibility for all our intentional and unintentional wrong doings to make a difference in this world.

EPILOGUE:

This may not be a story. Slowly but surely it gave me the perfect opportunity to write again to vent out and liberate my repressed feelings after I discovered my folly , thus marking it to be one of the most interesting and insightful days of my life.