Roshan's Love Life Ep 1

Friends, deviating somewhat from the earlier posts I am posting two short stories in a series. These stories may not have the best english in the world and I will be very happy if you point out any mistakes grammatical or otherwise. Any comment good or bad are welcome as Oscar Wilde said, "The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about."

Roshan's Love Life

Like any other story this story is about a few people, relationships, love and life.
The auto rickshaw came to a screeching halt. An irate old lady of around 50 got off the rickshaw.
“Can’t see where you are driving!” said Mrs. Shanti in a tone that suggested that she was one of those old ladies who was in the habit of complaining about just about anything that came into their view.
“Here!” She said giving the driver 50rs
“But memsahib it’s 60 Rs!” exclaimed the driver.
“Keep it. It is too much as it is.” Mrs. Shanti replied already walking away.
The building in front was a multi-storey building. She walked through the glass doors into the air conditioned reception hall.
“I have to meet Roshan.” She said to the receptionist.
“Just a minute, ma’am.” The receptionist replied dialing Roshan’s extension.
“Roshan, your mothers here to see you.” She spoke into the phone.
“O- one minute. Have her seated. I am coming.” The reply came.
“Is he here or not?” asked Mrs. Shanti in an irritated voice.
“Yes, he is in his office he will be……” before the receptionist could complete Mrs. Shanti had headed towards the elevator.
Roshan on the other hand worried about his mother making a fuss in his office had taken the stairs to reach ground floor quickly.
“Yes, Lata…” Roshan enquired the receptionist.
“She took the elevator.” receptionist replied.
Roshan hurried upstairs. But Mrs. Shanti had already reached his cubicle.
“I don’t know why this kid never listens to me.” Roshan heard his mother complaining to one of his coworker with whom he shared the cubicle.
With his temper rising already and feeling uneasy he approached his cubicle.
“Maa, what are you doing here?” Roshan asked in a low voice
“Arrey Beta Mrs. Gowarekar has brought a very nice ‘rishta’ for you.”
Roshan quickly took her arm and gentle tried to guide her outside away from his coworkers.
“The girl is from a very wealthy family.” continued Mrs. Shanti “She is very cultural too.”
“Maa, how many times have I told you… I don’t want to marry yet.”
Mrs. Shanti stooped in her tracks. Taking her arm away she scolded,
“Yes, of course. You are a big boy now.” Her high pitch voice had got everyone’s attention but they pretending to not listen, trying to let Roshan savor some dignity.
“You can do whatever you want. Who am I to say anything?”
“Maa I will come home in the evening. Why don’t we talk then?”
“You are always postponing talking about settling down.” Mrs. Shanti said now near the elevator.
“I will see you in the evening.” Roshan said.
“Ok beta, and don’t forget to get the groceries.” Mrs. Shanti said before the elevator doors closed.
Roshan returned to his cubicle with an expression that said “Mothers! Right!”
Just outside his cubicle he was confronted by Dhruv.
“Aur bhai, Getting married?” teased Dhruv.
“Shut up.” snapped Roshan.
“By the way I think you should listen to your mother, you know.” Continued Dhruv unfurled, “After all it’s not like you are going to find a girl on your own.”
Dhruv was referring to Roshans almost paranormal ability of not getting into a relationship. It was not that Roshan was not good looking, or that he was not interested in girls. He was handsome, smart, and intellectual, went to discos, partied and went gym so had become quite ripped. Yet by divine intervention he always managed to lose the girl even before anything happened.
“Look at me I have five girlfriends.” Dhruv said “I will introduce you to one of them.”
But Roshan did not really want to go out with his friends ex. He had lost some girls due to his ideals.

Roshan walked out of his office building into the April afternoon. It felt quite pleasant as the April warmth came over him after having sat the whole morning in the air conditioned building. He knew though, that soon it would be very uncomfortable as he would perspire under the sun. Dhruv still had some work in the office and probably would not be able to join him for lunch today. Dhruv’s office did not have many women. He was an engineer and there were few women in his line of work. And he was not on speaking terms with most of the Lady colleagues. That is why when he saw an attractive girl who could have been around 22 looking at him he stopped and tried to hold her gaze but she turned away quickly. Roshan wondered if he should go talk to her after all he had missed the few chances he had with opposite sex perhaps because he had not seized the opportunity. But he had already walked passed her in ambivalence debating whether to talk to her or not. Nearly near the compound gate he gathered his courage and walked towards her. But he felt awkward talking to a girl he did not know without any prior acquaintance. But another voice inside him said “What the heck! She does not know me so what does it matter if I blow it?”
So with new found recklessness he went and sat beside the girl. She was busy writing something in her diary. The name “Akansha” was written on the side of the diary.
With a beating heart he said,
“Excuse me!”
The girl looked up. She was wearing mascara as most girls in Delhi do.
“Yes?” she enquired looking up.
“Do you work here?” Roshan asked. He could think of no better thing to say.
“Um… No, actually I came here for an interview.” She replied.
“What kind of interview?” replied Roshan, surprised that he was not nervous at all. In fact he was speaking so naturally that even the girl seemed to be at quite ease.
“I have come here to apply for a job to making short documentaries. They are short movies.” She said these pointing at a form in her hand.
He knew perfectly well what a documentary was, and was a bit annoyed that she thought that he did not know what a documentary was. But he cast the annoyance aside and quickly thought what he knew about documentaries. His interests were so varied they always coincided with hobbies of women and then he would have something to talk about. But he did not know much about documentaries, except the ones that had won the Oscars recently and he could not fit that into the conversation.
“Can I have a look at that?” Roshan asked, referring to the forms in her hand.
“Yeah, sure.” It seemed to Roshan almost like she wanted him to.
The form read Akansha Ratan. His brain was working too furiously to register anything beyond that. Besides he did not want to break the flow of the conversation.
“So what are you doing right now?” he asked.
“I have interview in a hour.” she replied “I was thinking of grabbing a bite before that.”
“Well it’s my lunch break too. And I really hate eating alone.” Roshan said his heart beating a little faster.
“You wanna go grab a bite?” he asked.
This was the moment of truth, the time seemed to be passing very slowly. He could almost feel her brain working. What would it be? Please say yes? For once let the curse on him be lifted.
“Yeah, ok” was the reply.
“Let’s go then.” He replied getting up to go. Hardly believing what was going on. He was never this lucky.
Akansha too got ready to get up. Akansha placed the diary in her bag.
“Roshan”, called a hoarse voice from behind.
Roshan turned to around to see Mr. Arora his boss’s boss, who almost owned the entire place walking up to him with two managers, high up in the management, at his side. He had struck the right chord with Mr. Arora with his unclouded ideas and logic. He had taken a liking to Roshan, so had a few other managers. Roshan was always a bit awed in his presence and therefore a bit nervous.
“Roshan, come have lunch with us.” Mr. Arora said benevolently.
Roshan could not say no to him but he tried.
“Sir actually I…”
“Just come, I want to discuss something with you.”
Roshan could not refuse anymore it was not every day that the owner of his office wanted to talk to an engineer just at the beginning of his career. This was huge.
“Sorry,” Roshan apologized “I have to go.”
Akansha said only too hurriedly,
“It’s ok.”
So Roshan walked with a very apologetic expression on his face. Wonder if he should do a ‘Yagna’ or something to lift the curse on him.

A hike to Triund

Call from my junior, Kishore, woke me up at 6 in the morning.

“Hello”, I said, fighting back the grogginess of morning.

He asked me if I was ready. I wondered what the best reply would be. But before I could come to any decision I replied that I was. I don’t know why I always do that.

Well he told me come to gate 2 in ten minutes. I was supposed wake up Rajeev, one of my friends, and others. It was 6:15 I had set an alarm of 5 in the morning. The alarm obviously did not wake me up. I rushed to Rajeev’s room to wake him up. He had been sick the night before and getting him ready was my responsibility.

Rajeev was fast asleep when I entered his room. I took me some time to wake him up. Though Rajeev kept saying that he didn’t want to come I made him get ready. Mean while I kept receiving calls from seniors to hurry up as we were already late. In the end Rajeev refused to go locking his bag inside his room. I decided not to waste any more time and rushed to the gate where seniors were seated in cab and ready to go.

Dharamsala is just a few kilometers before McLeodganj, nine kilometers to be exact. As we passed Dharamsala I was reminded of my previous visit here. I had seen the famous temple and gone for small hike above the waterfall. I remembered where I had gone to play playstation and where I and Varun had had a fabulous dinner and few expensive drinks. I remembered how surprised I had been last time on reaching Dharamsala and not seeing any Tibetans. Being the home of Tibetans in exile I expected a lot more Tibetans. But later I realized my mistake. McLeodganj is the home of famous Dalai Lama and Government of Tibet in Exile.

A lot of foreigners could be seen in McLeodganj. I was in particular fascinated by a shoe polisher, a kid, who seemed to be very interested in foreigners. We were sitting in front of a monastery when I noticed the kid talking animatedly to a foreigner. I could not hear the phrases but from a distance his English sounded rather unaccented (for us Indians that is) and grammatically correct. The kid seemed to be asking the foreigner a lot of questions. Finally the kid offered to shake with the foreigner who was a guy in his early thirties, around six feet and smartly dressed.  A trait common in foreigners is that they do not want to offend the natives, mostly. They seem to be very obliging and condensing. The foreigners shook the kids hand without a moment’s thought. Shaking hands with a dirty kid is not something many Indian will do. A few minutes I saw the kid come back the same road with two middle aged lady foreigners, chatting animatedly.

After shopping for glucose, water, tuna, cheese, bread and the like we started our hike. My breathing became heavy just after walking a hundred meter, making me wonder how I was going to travel the 10 kilometers hike to Triund. I was really tired after covering a distance of 2 kilometers when our senior and trip organizer Abhinab Sir made a halt at a shop, aptly named “Rest A While”.  Price of things was double here. A bottle of mineral water was priced at 20Rs as compared to 10-12Rs in town. We bought just a bottle form the shop as we had our own bottles. We drank glucose solutions and had some chocolates. After that I was able to travel quite quickly and somewhat easily. It may be due to all the time spent in gym or the energy food but I think it was due to the mental training in the gym. It felt like I had just completed two reps and I had eight more reps to go.

My mind was buzzing all the way with the thoughts that I had brought from civilization. I tried to shake them and just concentrate on the path and the fauna but mind would invariably begin to wander. I did not have to try for long though because after travelling for five kilometers my mind became calm by itself. I felt quite at peace and it was very relaxing. It felt like I could be myself without worrying about the consequences.

It started to snow just before reaching Triund. Though I have always lived in cold places at high altitude, it was the first snowfall of my life and I loved it. We stayed at the guest house and ever the fore planner Abhinab Sir had already booked the cabin.

At night we had a bonfire. With all of us surrounding the fire, a full moon night and an exhausting day, it was a perfect scenario for talks of heart, love, secrets and ghosts. A circle of trust was established there and everyone trusted the other person at the moment but sooner or later the sun would shine the exhaustion and darkness would end, as will the ‘circle of trust’ with anger, regret and bitterness.

The next day one of my third year senior, Himal Prasad and a fellow second year stayed back and rest of us headed for snowline. The air was so thin at the top that walking even a small distance uphill left us breathless. The place where we had put up had a shop (double priced of course) and the owner had a dog. This dog accompanied us on our trip to snowline. I almost quit just after starting but after resting for just a short time I felt refreshed and decided to push on. Later I just followed the dog and without realizing I moved far ahead of the others. After walking for sometime the dog left me and I was left clueless as to proceed further or not and if to proceed then, in which direction. I climbed a bit higher on the cliff to get an idea as to where I should proceed. I could not see any of my group members from the top. I wondered if had come a wrong way. I need not have fretted though, as the others soon joined me. The snowline was in fact just a short distance ahead and that is why my hairy friend had left me.

We had a snow fight at snow line, took some snaps and I decided to quit smoking as I was feeling too breathless; as I hadn’t smoked for last hours it seemed the right place to quit. I wanted to go back to civilization as tension free and unassuming as I had been on the high altitude but soon bitterness and stupidity seemed to creep back into my friends. Besides I too sprained my ankle on the hike down making me grumbly.

Well they say “All’s well that ends well” in that case let’s take reaching the snowline as the happy ending cause it was a picture perfect moment on the top of world.

A day in life

I woke up at 7:20 in the morning 10 minutes before the alarm went off. Next I hit the snooze button on my mobile for the 7:30 Alarm. At 7:45 I had to wake up or I would miss my class. One day I hope to get out of the bed the second I wake up. I just hope that day comes in this life time.
I dragged myself to the bathroom and was ready for class by 8:15 A.M. It was electrical and electronics measurement and instrumentation class. I have finally remembered the entire name of subject. One day I hope to remember the name of topics as well. I managed to get through the entire class without falling asleep but since I do not remember a word of what was taught. So it would have been all right to fall asleep, I guess.
I like to use two pens, one blue one black to write notes (I hope that making neat notes will tempt me to get down to study, no such luck so far though). But I don’t know how my classmates realize that I have brought two pens and some one always turns up without pen. Maybe it’s one of things which are not supposed to happen. I have not given up though; I hope to write notes with two pens some day. The next class was free and I managed to get to hostel, sleep, read a few pages of a book, and sleep again in one period. Believe me it takes special time management skills to do that. And you can understand that since I was very busy doing these things I could not find time to write the assignment which was to be submitted in the next period. Besides I did not know how to do the assignment and I did not know it was due the very next class.
Not to worry though I managed to finish it before the teacher arrived. Heck, I even managed to staple the papers together. Then I accidentally glanced at the blackboard and realized I knew most of what was being taught. What I did not know I asked the teacher like I was the most sincere and studious boy in the class. And surprisingly I understood the procedure really well. After two more boring lectures it was lunch. I am trying to set a new record of not eating in the mess. You see I go to gym and the mess food is not sufficiently nutritious for me. Or, at least that is what my excuse is. Actually, the mess’s food is really bad and canteen is not that costly. After a satisfying lunch I headed for circuit theory lab. I miss the old days when a subjects name was simple like maths, physics, biology, English, etc and not different forms of electrical or/and electronics. It really confuses me.
My group had to verify Thevenin’s theorem. The practicals are actually quite easy since all you have to do is connect the already arranged circuit. That is of course if you have read the manual. I was too full after lunch to read the manual and others had their own reason for laziness. Still we managed to get the readings and reasonably accurate readings with the help of intuition. I am so proud of my group.
We were free after the class and I had decided to use the free time and study. Unfortunately, there was no time left to study after watching the movie on my pc and I plan to start studying tomorrow.
But, hey tomorrow never comes so cheers.

Life

What is life? What is destiny? Are we a cosmic mistake? Are we so very special, or are we nothing more than chemical reactions? Why does life go on? And to where? What is this all so consuming love? Perhaps nothing more than nature’s way of ensuring our species survival. Perhaps nature made a mistake by giving us means not only to survive but to thrive. For though one of her sons lives, others perish. Or may be this for the best as we can ensure our survival even if earth were to be doomed someday.
Life will go on. Things which are so important to us will not be even considered when mankind looks back. For it does not matter to humanity that when a person’s heart was broken his life was shattered. Life cannot be lived for the future for nothing lies in the future nor does it lie in the past it exists only now. If we lived now and only now it would not matter if we are remembered or not for we lived.

I am invincible

I always wanted to be able to cook. My mothers a great cook but she never realized I wanted to cook even though I told her so many times. I know a lot of things driving, I am doing engineering, I can deal with people very well and I am very independent sort of fellow. So whenever I saw some one cooking I felt kind of stupid and felt admiration for the guy who has the skill to cook.
Well enough was enough, I entered the kitchen and tried to cook myself an omelet, well it’s not much but it is a start. I got the ingredients ready and unfortunately broke the egg shell and put the insides on pan even before the oil got heated. The egg was in liquid state for a long time. I finally ended up making a scrambled egg out of it and it was delicious. (Too bad I couldn’t find cheese or it would have been better)
Anyway, I then even washed the dishes if my household helper or anyone would have seen me they would have been ashamed and wouldn’t have let me do it, but I loved it. It felt like breaking free, breaking a taboo and I felt invincible- I can do anything.
I am searching for some sausage recipes now…..

Leadership

The art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it. Dwight D. Eisenhower

The real leader has no need to lead--he is content to point the way. Henry Miller

New Delhi Railway Station

I arrived in Delhi at around 4 o'clock. My train left from New Delhi at 20:40. So I had lots of time to spare and kill. I was not sure from where I was supposed to catch the train. I asked the conductor where it would be best to get down from the bus to catch a train from New Delhi. He told me it would be best to get down at I.S.B.T. I was not really sure where that was though I have been there twice. As soon as I got down my memory came to my aid and I knew I had to cross street via cross over (not something very common in India and therefore a landmark). Though just to make sure I asked a few passerby if was headed in the right direction for the railway station and they replied affirmative.
My memory and the directions of the passerby were right; they did lead to Station but Metro Station not Railway. Realising my mistake I asked a gentle soul sitting idly how I could reach New Delhi Railway Station. He directed me to a bridge at some distance. It took me ten minutes to reach there with my suitcase (fortunately I had decided to travel very light and all my bag contained was three pants, three shirts and few books (College books as well as novels)). After reaching the pointed place the wait began. Now it may not seem much to you who just sits there reads this line but waiting for a bus on a highway road in Delhi summer is quite a daunting task. The gentle soul had told me catch bus number 212, I think. Bus number 211 arrived shortly however I decided to wait for bus number 212. After waiting for 20-25 minutes I decided to take the bus 211 and then try to reach the railway station. But unfortunately the bus stopped just 500m ahead as that was its last stop. 'Enough!' I thought and decided to take the Metro. I walked back to Metro Station (the light suitcase now seeming to gain weight). I asked the metro checkers who decided not to check my bag how I could reach the Railway Station. They kindly guided me take a token for Chandni Chowk. I followed their advice and to my surprise Chandni Chowk was the first stop after my boarding.
I got down at the Chowk and looked around. The signs led to Railway Station and the Library. I am a big fan of literature; I regretted not being able to visit the library. On reaching the railway station I breathed the sigh of relief and rested for about twenty minutes. I wanted to relax but I thought it would be best if I made sure the timing of the train and I was on right railway station, it felt like something was wrong. After standing in the queue for 10 minutes at the enquiry counter I asked the timing for my train. It comes at the New Delhi Railway Station he replied. I didn’t know what to do for the next 30 seconds. Then, I headed straight for the taxis parked outside, asked the guy to take me to the New Delhi Railway Station and didn’t even bargain with him when he said it would take 80Rs; I just wanted to get it over with.
Finally I was at the New Delhi Railway Station but I still wanted to make sure of everything so I asked at the enquiry at what time the train was leaving. He told that the train would leave on time. I finally was at ease and retired into the rest room. I spent the next four to five hours finishing “The first man” by Camus. I kept checking the time table at regular intervals. Finally when there was just 45 minutes left for the departure I took my suitcase and was about to leave when a women in late thirties gave me such an acknowledging smile that I had to half smile in return. Half, because I was not sure why she was smiling. She said something to me and as I was not expecting her to say anything I didn’t even hear what she was saying.
“Pardon?” I said, expecting her to ask me time or something.
“Leaving!! Won’t you even offer a cup of tea?” She said.
“Whoa” I thought “Get the hell out of here Dude”.
For once my thoughts and my instincts were agreeing on something and I got out of there as soon as possible. The train was on time and I got upgraded from 3 tier AC to 2 tier AC. I wish that wouldn’t have happened as the AC of 2 tier was not working.