Freedom is a word very close to my heart. I am a fiercely independent person so it difficult for me to think that it(freedom) may not be the very heart of existence for others. But my interaction with others has led me to believe that many people do not attach any importance to it. For me freedom is being able to say what I feel and being able to pursue my dreams. Yet these may not matter to others.
For example, in class teachers express opinion without any restriction whatsoever. Even if the thoughts are contradictory to our belief we keep our chops shut. I can understand that! What I cannot understand is that people have so gotten used to teachers having their way that they no longer consider this an injustice. It reminds me of novel 1984 by George Orwell. When I first read it I considered it a highly fantastic novel, not in terms of technology but in terms of the social structure and the protagonist accepting that 2+2 can be 5. But now it seems some people think reality is what teachers say.
Another astonishing sight is the lack of self-respect. We have got so used to being abused by parents, teachers and any other guy with power that misuse of power is accepted as the norm. Instead of listening to our heart, standing firm for what we know is right and standing up for ourselves we submit. We wail, we complain, some distort their very thoughts to accept the social structure but never stand against the wind.
Anthony Robbins is a motivational speaker who is very rich now and is living his dreams. When Tony was seventeen he became, through hard work, the student body president. He became influential and started organizing pep rallies and school clubs. This did not please Tony’s mother. His mother was used to having Tony at home and taking care of household chores. His mother would not let Tony spread his wings and fly. So on one Christmas Eve Tony left his mother’s home with nothing but the clothes he was wearing. Tony loved school so he tried very hard to hold a job and to get a high school degree. Soon he was homeless. He worked at night cleaning banks and attended school during the day. Soon Tony got a salesman job and started earning money though he had to leave high school. Soon he became very successful in his field from then on he never looked back. Today he is one of the most influential persons on the face of earth not to mention rich. Where would he have been today if he was the kind of guy who let others dictate his life?
Khudi ko kar buland itna ke har taqder se pehle
Khuda bande se ye pouhe bata teri raza kia hai
Sitaron se age jahan aur bhi hai aur bhi hai
Abhi ishq ke Imtehan aur bhi hai aur bhi hai
Sitaron se age jahan aur bhi hai aur bhi hai
Abhi ishq ke Imtehan aur bhi hai aur bhi hai
Khudi ko kar buland itna ke har taqder se pehle
Khuda bande se ye puche bata teri raza kia hai
Tu shaheen hai, Tu shaheen hai, Tu shaheen hai
Tu shaheen hai, Tu shaheen hai Parvaz hai kam tera kam tera
Tere samne Aasman aur bhi hai
Tu shaheen he Basera kar Paharon ki chatano per
Tu shaheen hai tu Shaheen hai tu shaheen hai
Khudi ko kar buland itna ke har taqder se pehle
Khuda bande se ye poche bata teri raza kia hai
Khudi ko kar buland itna ke har taqder se pehle
Khuda bande se ye poche bata teri raza kia hai
bata teri raza kia hai
bata teri raza kia hai
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Musings on Gandhi
I recently read the book “My Experiments with Truth” by M.K. Gandhi. Gandhi is a global phenomenon no doubt about that but how many of us truly know who Gandhi was, what his principles were and why he is so popular? The answer: very few. He is such an iconic figure that we constantly hear rumors about him. Distorted stories of which there can be no possible verification. Phrases like Gandhi “Majboori ka naam Mahatma Gandhi” are heard every day. I heard this phrase first time when I was a little kid. Ever since, I have wondered what it meant. I have received several ludicrous explanations like he had no clothes so he wore just a dhoti but said it was for some higher reasons. The ugliest one explanation being that he slept with a goat on a cold night.
When I had read just a few chapters of “My experiments with truth” two things stood out. One, he was a very simple man. He had no ego. Truth was his motto and he was as truthful about himself as about other things. That he has no qualms describing his mediocrity in law bears proof to this. Second thing that stood out were his high ideals which to me are impractical. He was not realistic which is a good things because at the time breaking free from shackles of hegemony of British was unrealistic, impossible; but he thought it was possible and that too through non-violence. It is tough to imagine what life would have been for us today if Gandhi hadn’t been impractical.
What pains me most is the number of people who spit venom at his name without thought. Till now I had remained quiet whenever people did so. But now that I have gained some knowledge of his life and what his ideals were I am willing to oppose them quite vehemently. A word about these people though. People who immediately spit venom the Gandhi’s name is mentioned are those who do not know anything about him. They do so because he is “supposed” to be a revered icon and saying such sacrilege things makes them appear cool.
Now a word about truth, people who believe in Gandhism often believe that we should not take his actions, words or ideas literally. We should focus on the spirit that drove him. Gandhi stated that he was not yet fully a master of Non-Violence. However, he claimed to be a master of “truth”. That he always spoke truth is not very remarkable when compared to doing what was “right”. Truth is actually translation of word “satya” and as we all know satya doesn’t just stand for truth but also for what is right and just. That is why the slogan “Satyamev Jayate”. We all know what is right. What we ought to do. But how many of us actually do it? How many of us actually have the heart to listen to our inner voice and raise our voice against what we know is wrong? Comparing to Gandhi I had say none. We do not take the right action because we are afraid of the consequence. Here was a man for whom the consequences were same yet he did not falter.
Make no mistake I am not a blind supporter of Gandhi. I barely understand his concept of Ahinsa or his principles which led him to make decisions like not giving his children proper schooling. I do not understand why he chose to risk his own life and more gravely his child’s by obstinately refusing to listen to medical science and relying on home medicine. Though I do understand why he halted Civil-disobedience after Chauri Chaura incident and why he did not try to save Bhagat Singh and his associates, I do not think those decisions were practical. He believed that ends cannot justify means. His suggestion that Jews should have willingly let Hitler take their life, in fact offered their lives to Hitler, is proof of his ridiculous extremism.
What I do admire is a person of no ego. One who always did what he knew was right. I admire a man in whom a whole nation laid faith when they had no means to fight, a man whom everyone forgot as soon as it became convenient so that they could slaughter each other. Now I understand why they say “Majboori ka naam Mahatma Gandhi”, when you can’t fight British Empire use Gandhi’s principle as a last resort, call it Non-Violence. But when they are gone forget Gandhi and butcher each other in name of religion.
When I had read just a few chapters of “My experiments with truth” two things stood out. One, he was a very simple man. He had no ego. Truth was his motto and he was as truthful about himself as about other things. That he has no qualms describing his mediocrity in law bears proof to this. Second thing that stood out were his high ideals which to me are impractical. He was not realistic which is a good things because at the time breaking free from shackles of hegemony of British was unrealistic, impossible; but he thought it was possible and that too through non-violence. It is tough to imagine what life would have been for us today if Gandhi hadn’t been impractical.
What pains me most is the number of people who spit venom at his name without thought. Till now I had remained quiet whenever people did so. But now that I have gained some knowledge of his life and what his ideals were I am willing to oppose them quite vehemently. A word about these people though. People who immediately spit venom the Gandhi’s name is mentioned are those who do not know anything about him. They do so because he is “supposed” to be a revered icon and saying such sacrilege things makes them appear cool.
Now a word about truth, people who believe in Gandhism often believe that we should not take his actions, words or ideas literally. We should focus on the spirit that drove him. Gandhi stated that he was not yet fully a master of Non-Violence. However, he claimed to be a master of “truth”. That he always spoke truth is not very remarkable when compared to doing what was “right”. Truth is actually translation of word “satya” and as we all know satya doesn’t just stand for truth but also for what is right and just. That is why the slogan “Satyamev Jayate”. We all know what is right. What we ought to do. But how many of us actually do it? How many of us actually have the heart to listen to our inner voice and raise our voice against what we know is wrong? Comparing to Gandhi I had say none. We do not take the right action because we are afraid of the consequence. Here was a man for whom the consequences were same yet he did not falter.
Make no mistake I am not a blind supporter of Gandhi. I barely understand his concept of Ahinsa or his principles which led him to make decisions like not giving his children proper schooling. I do not understand why he chose to risk his own life and more gravely his child’s by obstinately refusing to listen to medical science and relying on home medicine. Though I do understand why he halted Civil-disobedience after Chauri Chaura incident and why he did not try to save Bhagat Singh and his associates, I do not think those decisions were practical. He believed that ends cannot justify means. His suggestion that Jews should have willingly let Hitler take their life, in fact offered their lives to Hitler, is proof of his ridiculous extremism.
What I do admire is a person of no ego. One who always did what he knew was right. I admire a man in whom a whole nation laid faith when they had no means to fight, a man whom everyone forgot as soon as it became convenient so that they could slaughter each other. Now I understand why they say “Majboori ka naam Mahatma Gandhi”, when you can’t fight British Empire use Gandhi’s principle as a last resort, call it Non-Violence. But when they are gone forget Gandhi and butcher each other in name of religion.
Saturday, July 17, 2010
10 Things I learnt this world cup
10 Things I learnt this world cup (An Indian Perspective):
1. Netherlands is also called Dutch and Holland.
2. Paul octopus is not some Indian phenomenon created by Aaj Tak (like I initially thought him to be).
3. If you find the arguments of Netherland and Spain fans more amusing than the match you are not a football fan.
4. If you are not an ardent fan you can fall asleep in finals especially if it drags goes into extra time
5. If Sania Mirza and Maria Sharpova don’t make it to first Page during Wimbledon, the World cup is going on at the same time.
6. Footballers are not unknown to wrestling moves. I am sure I saw a Rock Bottom and a Karate Kick.
7. Even if you don’t support a team you should get your face painted it makes a nice profile picture…. Seriously.
8. It’s a good reason to stay from home late at night.
9. Shakira is as sticky as Himesh Reshamiya (Still can’t get the Waka Waka out of my head).
10. Shakira is still alive.
1. Netherlands is also called Dutch and Holland.
2. Paul octopus is not some Indian phenomenon created by Aaj Tak (like I initially thought him to be).
3. If you find the arguments of Netherland and Spain fans more amusing than the match you are not a football fan.
4. If you are not an ardent fan you can fall asleep in finals especially if it drags goes into extra time
5. If Sania Mirza and Maria Sharpova don’t make it to first Page during Wimbledon, the World cup is going on at the same time.
6. Footballers are not unknown to wrestling moves. I am sure I saw a Rock Bottom and a Karate Kick.
7. Even if you don’t support a team you should get your face painted it makes a nice profile picture…. Seriously.
8. It’s a good reason to stay from home late at night.
9. Shakira is as sticky as Himesh Reshamiya (Still can’t get the Waka Waka out of my head).
10. Shakira is still alive.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Interview
A room with three people sitting behind a desk. A chair is situated in front of them.
A knock is heard.
“Come in.” the mustached guy in the middle, Mr. Malhotra, says.
A guy timidly enters the room.
“Good Evening Sirs. Good evening Madam.” He says addressing the lady in green sari.
“Please have a seat!” Mrs. Goswami says.
The interview is for a post of teacher in a college.
The third member of the panel, Mr. Patel, who is almost bald asks,
“Do you hate students?”
“Why yes sir. I just can’t stand them.” the guy says losing his nervousness and becoming eager.
“Good! Good!” says Mr. Malhotra.
“Do you discriminate between your students and show partiality?”
“Why yes sir. You see I even lost my previous job because I gave high marks to a girl and not to our donator’s nephew.”
“I like you young man. What is your name and what is your qualification?”
“My name is Khan, Sir and I am a sadist. I recently completed my Ph.D.”
“Well Mr. Khan we like you but we can’t be sure that you deserve this job can you give us a demonstration?” Mrs. Gowsami asked.
“Sure Madam” Khan replied nervously.
“Ok say I am a student in your class who does not do well and Mr. Patel,” she points to Mr. Patel “is a great student. How will you deal with us?”
Khan gets up, points at Mrs. Goswami.
“You! Get up!”
Mrs. Goswami plays along. She gets up and says
“Yes Sir.”
“Tell me how to solve this sum using the method I will teach you in a couple of days.”
“I don’t know.”
Smirks.
“I am sure you will know the night before the exam.”
Khan breaks character and says,
“Madam you do realize I am assuming you are not a girl.”
“Of course, of course we are very chivalrous people after all.”
Mr. Patel gets up at this point and says,
“Sir, I know the answer.”
“Speak when you are spoken to.” Khan shouts.
“Your young generation has no respect. You guys are going to be the future of our country and you can’t even behave.”
“Bravo! Bravo!” says Mr. Malhotra.
“You have got the job. Just keep being unreasonable and make students life hell and you will go far.”
“Thank you, Sir. I won’t disappoint you.”
A knock is heard.
“Come in.” the mustached guy in the middle, Mr. Malhotra, says.
A guy timidly enters the room.
“Good Evening Sirs. Good evening Madam.” He says addressing the lady in green sari.
“Please have a seat!” Mrs. Goswami says.
The interview is for a post of teacher in a college.
The third member of the panel, Mr. Patel, who is almost bald asks,
“Do you hate students?”
“Why yes sir. I just can’t stand them.” the guy says losing his nervousness and becoming eager.
“Good! Good!” says Mr. Malhotra.
“Do you discriminate between your students and show partiality?”
“Why yes sir. You see I even lost my previous job because I gave high marks to a girl and not to our donator’s nephew.”
“I like you young man. What is your name and what is your qualification?”
“My name is Khan, Sir and I am a sadist. I recently completed my Ph.D.”
“Well Mr. Khan we like you but we can’t be sure that you deserve this job can you give us a demonstration?” Mrs. Gowsami asked.
“Sure Madam” Khan replied nervously.
“Ok say I am a student in your class who does not do well and Mr. Patel,” she points to Mr. Patel “is a great student. How will you deal with us?”
Khan gets up, points at Mrs. Goswami.
“You! Get up!”
Mrs. Goswami plays along. She gets up and says
“Yes Sir.”
“Tell me how to solve this sum using the method I will teach you in a couple of days.”
“I don’t know.”
Smirks.
“I am sure you will know the night before the exam.”
Khan breaks character and says,
“Madam you do realize I am assuming you are not a girl.”
“Of course, of course we are very chivalrous people after all.”
Mr. Patel gets up at this point and says,
“Sir, I know the answer.”
“Speak when you are spoken to.” Khan shouts.
“Your young generation has no respect. You guys are going to be the future of our country and you can’t even behave.”
“Bravo! Bravo!” says Mr. Malhotra.
“You have got the job. Just keep being unreasonable and make students life hell and you will go far.”
“Thank you, Sir. I won’t disappoint you.”
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Net
I love the net. You know, you are always in touch with everyone you send nice messages and receive great forwards. Recently I got a very nice forward saying all the nice things like if you had a quarrel fix it because the person might still want to be your friends. If you love someone tell him/her, he/she might love you as well. But they may not love you tomorrow. The end had a sweet message that you had to forward to everyone you cared about. I was so touched that the guy cared about me so much that he had forwarded it to me. The only problem was I did not know the guy. Love the net.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Forcing charity down the throat
To celebrate the auspicious occasion of Dashera a “langar” was started in the outskirts of our college. The Mess staff of most hostels decided to get holy and closed the messes so everyone is forced to eat in langar. As the only food joint is owned by the person giving the langar you have to eat the langar food you have no alternative except if you remaining hungry. But what if someone did not want others charity? Who cares! The thing has religious feel to it so going against the arrangement in anyway would be blasphemous.
As me and my friend did not want to eat on charity we went to the perhaps only mess which was open and ate on seniors account. On the way back I was fuming with indignation of injustice. When I told my friend how wrong it was and that I planned to complain he replied “It does not affect me.” I enquired why he had not eaten in the bhandar then.
“I will never do that.” He replied.
So what he had meant to say was “I am bothered by it but I will not take any action.”
We are Indians where conformity is everything. Going against the authority is unthinkable the consequences too great. Besides why even bother? Better to go hungry as most of my other friends did.
I would suggest that such charity could be put to better use if it was served to those who need it. There are many people in the surrounding area below the poverty line why not use the money to provide a day’s meal to them. Why force it on us who don’t want it.
As me and my friend did not want to eat on charity we went to the perhaps only mess which was open and ate on seniors account. On the way back I was fuming with indignation of injustice. When I told my friend how wrong it was and that I planned to complain he replied “It does not affect me.” I enquired why he had not eaten in the bhandar then.
“I will never do that.” He replied.
So what he had meant to say was “I am bothered by it but I will not take any action.”
We are Indians where conformity is everything. Going against the authority is unthinkable the consequences too great. Besides why even bother? Better to go hungry as most of my other friends did.
I would suggest that such charity could be put to better use if it was served to those who need it. There are many people in the surrounding area below the poverty line why not use the money to provide a day’s meal to them. Why force it on us who don’t want it.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Roshan's Love Life Ep 2
Roshan's Love Life
Ep 2
Roshan and Dhruv were smoking just outside the office gates. A small shop, if you would like to call it a shop, which sold all kinds of cigarettes and “guthkas” was their favourite hide out. They were half way through their cigarette when they heard a females laugh across the street. Both of them instinctively looked without even thinking.
“What is that hot girl doing with that buffoon? He is ugly.” Dhruv asked jokingly.
“Yeah she should be with some handsome and smart guy.”
He added after a pause, “She should be with me.”
And he burst out laughing. They were genuine laughs which most people did not understand. When Roshan joked like this people usually thought he was proud of his looks. But the truth was he thought of himself as ugly. So, whenever he referred to himself as handsome he would laugh out loud. It was a habit of his to call beautiful girls ugly, thin ones fat, intelligent people dumb, tall people Shorty and the like.
Dhruv on the other hand thought Roshan was very handsome and took the jest seriously.
“Yeah man, she would suit you.” Dhruv said.
“Hey don’t start about girls and ruin my ‘Smoke break’ otherwise I will have to light another one. And you know how bad this is for my muscles.”
“Chod na, one cigarette will not kill you.”
On their way back to their contiguous cubicles, with mints in their mouth, Mr. Rakesh (their boss) asked them how the report was coming.
Dhruv who had not done any work at all was quick to respond.
“Sir, most of the work has been done. I will submit them whenever you want.”
“And from where have you collected the data?”
“Sir, I just searched it on the net. I don’t remember the sources. It is all in the report.”
“And what are the topics on which you found the data?”
Dhruv began a rant about all the topics he could remember from the seminars he had slept through. He had to give a report on GPRS system in India the very next day but he did not even remember on what subject he had to prepare the report. Roshan in the meantime had swallowed the mint and sensing that even a 12th grader with little technical knowledge would see through Dhruv’s discursive rant interrupted,
“Sir, I have got some interesting data on the new optical fibers. I found the latest data on underground cables for 2008. No one has data this recent.”
Roshan too had of course not done any project writing on Data Transmission but had collected the data, at least.
“Well I would like to have a look at the data. Mail it to me.” Mr. Rakesh commanded.
“Yes sir, I will.” Replied Roshan and moved on.
Dhruv thought it was pretty dorky that Roshan had collected the data but did not want to even think of his friend as dork his friend so did not say anything. They were the cool ones; they were supposed to do everything just before the deadline. Roshan sensed Dhruv’s thought as people who know each other very well do and explained,
“Pinky had come to my cubicle. I was reading ‘Peanuts’. But, she would have had a heart attack if she saw that I was having fun in office hours. So I pretended as if I was collecting data and actually ended up collecting the data.”
Pinky was a very dedicated office worker, like most of the others in the office. She believed that work is worship. And hence she believed that everyone was as dedicated to work as she was. She could never in her wildest imagination imagine that Roshan did not want to spend his every waking moment in the welfare of the company.
Pinky was quite beautiful and she dressed very smartly. Her hair was pulled behind in the latest fashion; she wore a stripped white shirt and a black skirt which fell to knee. Half the office would have had a crush on her if it hadn’t been for Julie, who was the hottest girl on the floor, but more about her later.
Roshan had a soft spot for her, as he had for any girl who did not hate him. And he had a soft spot even for girls who hated him, if they were beautiful enough.
“Where is she?” asked Roshan.
“Why are you getting so excited? She must be having lunch somewhere else today.” Dhruv replied.
“Mr. Singh might come on inspection today. I had better go recheck my presentation to make sure there are no mistakes.” Sudheer said.
Sudheer was the official geek of their floor. He finished his projects at least two days before deadline, spent time with boss and his family regularly and was always reading books, which he had read well enough in college, in free time. Roshan would have liked him, even admired him, had it not been for the fact that he always referred himself as the laziest, most uncaring and coolest bad ass dude of the office.
“I finished the project this morning in a hurry. There must be lot of mistakes.” Sudheer said getting up.
Both, Roshan and Dhruv, knew that he must have finished the project at least a week before. And they also knew that Mr. Singh, the supervisor, was not coming that day because his secretary was a girlfriend of Dhruv and always tipped them before his surprise inspections.
Dhruv made a big show of swallowing of his spit and said in the most obvious patronizing voice,
“Haan Yaar, if Mr. Singh saw your presentation the way it is you will be in big trouble. People like us rarely do any work. By the way listen, I have got some work out here so just collect data for me on GPRS. It will be too late for me by the time I get back and I have to submit the report tomorrow.”
“You mean GPRS and how it works, etc?” Sudheer asked.
“No actually how it has been implemented in India and its future scope.”
“Ok. Just come by my cubicle later.”
“Sure thing.” Replied Dhruv very much pleased.
Somebody was always there to do Dhruv’s work for him. And if on some rare occasion no one did it Dhruv would just give some excuse to Mr. Rakesh. Dhruv mostly got away without doing any work. Roshan found this very odd though he too did little work. But when he did, he worked very hard. Going out of his way add details to the project on hand. Even if he did not do the entire work himself he had to understand what he was working on unlike Dhruv who did not care what he submitted to his superiors.
“I don’t think she will come today.” Roshan said, giving up.
“Give it some time,” said Dhruv “here have a cigarette till then.
They were waiting for the unanimously chosen hottest girl of the building, Rakhi. Everyone knew her bio-data by heart. Where she lived, where she sat, where she had her lunch and most importantly when she left office for her home. Roshan had a minor crush for her and though he couldn’t say for sure he thought he had often caught her stealing glances towards him. He had this feeling that she too was interested in him.
They were sitting at their favourite spot near the fast food joint. The spot offered everything shade, privacy to smoke and an unobstructed view of Rakhi having lunch with her girlfriends at her favourite spot. This did not look like their lucky day though as Rakhi had not shown up at her favourite spot at the usual time. Soon Roshan would have to return to office to reimburse the money he had spent on petrol, food and accommodation during a recent tour. Though he had nothing to do at the moment and was getting quite bored it was unspoken rule between him and Dhruv that break times could not be used for any work even remotely associated with work. The staff would probably have been on lunch at the moment any way.
So when the lunch break was finally over Roshan headed for the managerial section and Dhruv headed for the office. The managerial section was in the ground floor and accounts on first floor. He would have to get the signatures from managing staff and then collect the money from accounts.
There was small crowd near the Mr. Abraham’s office to whom Roshan had to give all the bills. Even Rakhi was there. As he reached Mr. Abraham’s desk he heard Rakhi request,
“Sir, could you please go over my application.”
“Just a minute.” Mr. Abraham replied.
In the ensuing silence of a few seconds Roshan said,
“Mr. Abraham I needed to reimburse these bills.”
“Let me deal with these people first.” Replied Mr. Abraham addressing both Rakhi and Roshan referring to the four five people already there and pointing to the sofa for them to be seated on in the meantime.
They sat on the sofa. Rakhi with the familiar awkwardness that one feels when he or she comes across a person whom they feel they know because they have been seeing them across the hall daily but never spoken. Roshan joined her with the thoughts “Thank you, god!”
Roshan looking for an opening said,
“Hi! What are you here for? “
“I am to apply for change in department.” She replied handing out the application she was holding. She had a very beautiful face, was around 5’6” and somewhat voluptuous. She was wearing a blue Salwar suit. Her head was tied in the traditional long ‘choti’. She was wearing a blue bangle in her right hand and a golden wrist watch in her left. On the whole she was very comely. For a moment Roshan got too engrossed in the blue bangle and almost missed the application. Catching himself in time he took the application from her.
“Dear Sir,
Regarding: blah..blah.. blah
I would like to request for change in.. I wonder what I should say to her next. .. I have already submitted.. I wonder if it will be too early to ask her for a date. I will be very grateful if…. But if I don’t ask her for lunch Dhruv will kill me.
Yours sincerely,
Rakhi Patel
“Oh! So your name is Rakhi. Huh!”Roshan said thinking “Duh! Like everyone in the building knows that.”
“Yeah!” she replied.
“Why are you applying for change in department?” Roshan ploughed on.
“Actually I was working as a trainee. Now that I have completed my training I have to join some other department as a full time worker.”
“In which department were you working till now?” Roshan continued not letting there be any pause in the conversation.
“I was working under Mr. Shah, the senior architect.”
“That’s nice. You are an architect then. I am an engineer. I work on the second floor. By the way how did you get the internship here? It is quite tough to get an internship here.”
“Mr. Suraj is a distant uncle of mine. He lives near my house in Sardar Patel Colony. He helped get the internship. By the way what’s your name?”
“Wow! She is asking my name!” thought Roshan replying,
“Roshan.”
“Hi! It’s nice to meet you.” she said extending her hand and flashing a smile which made Roshan’s heart skip a beat. And his heart skipped two beats when he got to shake her soft hands. He hoped that she did not find his hand too rough. He liked to work out without gloves which had made his hand callous.
Mr. Abraham took a long time to do the work of the guys who had come before them. And in the meantime Rakhi and Roshan came to know all about each other’s residence, family, bosses, a few habits and I do believe even favourite colours. Though I don’t clearly remember how they came about discussing their favourite colour they certainly did not find it odd to discuss favourite coulours and discussed about colours at length.
Finally Mr. Abraham called Rakhi and immediately signed her application, Roshan was very glad because his cheeks where beginning to quake from having smiled for such a long time and his mouth was running out of spit. She took leave of Roshan and left the room. Sparing him the dilemma of whether he should ask her out or ask her number as it was their very first conversation.
The next day Roshan and Dhruv waited for her during lunch. Dhruv was as excited as Roshan, which made Roshan quite suspicious, but he need not have worried as she did not come. Roshan would have left the matter as it is. But Dhruv forced him to go to the architectural department. On enquiring other trainees they found out that her application had been accepted and she had shifted to another department in another building in another part of Delhi.
Roshan saw her three months later at the company’s annual party with three other girls. Roshan and Rakhi looked at each other but too long a time had passed between their first and the last meeting. She did not show any sign of recognition. He too felt too awkward to talk to her. Unfortunately Dhruv did not see her otherwise he would have shook Roshan out of prudence and made him go over to greet her. Matters standing as they did, they never saw each other again.
“What is that hot girl doing with that buffoon? He is ugly.” Dhruv asked jokingly.
“Yeah she should be with some handsome and smart guy.”
He added after a pause, “She should be with me.”
And he burst out laughing. They were genuine laughs which most people did not understand. When Roshan joked like this people usually thought he was proud of his looks. But the truth was he thought of himself as ugly. So, whenever he referred to himself as handsome he would laugh out loud. It was a habit of his to call beautiful girls ugly, thin ones fat, intelligent people dumb, tall people Shorty and the like.
Dhruv on the other hand thought Roshan was very handsome and took the jest seriously.
“Yeah man, she would suit you.” Dhruv said.
“Hey don’t start about girls and ruin my ‘Smoke break’ otherwise I will have to light another one. And you know how bad this is for my muscles.”
“Chod na, one cigarette will not kill you.”
On their way back to their contiguous cubicles, with mints in their mouth, Mr. Rakesh (their boss) asked them how the report was coming.
Dhruv who had not done any work at all was quick to respond.
“Sir, most of the work has been done. I will submit them whenever you want.”
“And from where have you collected the data?”
“Sir, I just searched it on the net. I don’t remember the sources. It is all in the report.”
“And what are the topics on which you found the data?”
Dhruv began a rant about all the topics he could remember from the seminars he had slept through. He had to give a report on GPRS system in India the very next day but he did not even remember on what subject he had to prepare the report. Roshan in the meantime had swallowed the mint and sensing that even a 12th grader with little technical knowledge would see through Dhruv’s discursive rant interrupted,
“Sir, I have got some interesting data on the new optical fibers. I found the latest data on underground cables for 2008. No one has data this recent.”
Roshan too had of course not done any project writing on Data Transmission but had collected the data, at least.
“Well I would like to have a look at the data. Mail it to me.” Mr. Rakesh commanded.
“Yes sir, I will.” Replied Roshan and moved on.
Dhruv thought it was pretty dorky that Roshan had collected the data but did not want to even think of his friend as dork his friend so did not say anything. They were the cool ones; they were supposed to do everything just before the deadline. Roshan sensed Dhruv’s thought as people who know each other very well do and explained,
“Pinky had come to my cubicle. I was reading ‘Peanuts’. But, she would have had a heart attack if she saw that I was having fun in office hours. So I pretended as if I was collecting data and actually ended up collecting the data.”
Pinky was a very dedicated office worker, like most of the others in the office. She believed that work is worship. And hence she believed that everyone was as dedicated to work as she was. She could never in her wildest imagination imagine that Roshan did not want to spend his every waking moment in the welfare of the company.
Pinky was quite beautiful and she dressed very smartly. Her hair was pulled behind in the latest fashion; she wore a stripped white shirt and a black skirt which fell to knee. Half the office would have had a crush on her if it hadn’t been for Julie, who was the hottest girl on the floor, but more about her later.
Roshan had a soft spot for her, as he had for any girl who did not hate him. And he had a soft spot even for girls who hated him, if they were beautiful enough.
“Where is she?” asked Roshan.
“Why are you getting so excited? She must be having lunch somewhere else today.” Dhruv replied.
“Mr. Singh might come on inspection today. I had better go recheck my presentation to make sure there are no mistakes.” Sudheer said.
Sudheer was the official geek of their floor. He finished his projects at least two days before deadline, spent time with boss and his family regularly and was always reading books, which he had read well enough in college, in free time. Roshan would have liked him, even admired him, had it not been for the fact that he always referred himself as the laziest, most uncaring and coolest bad ass dude of the office.
“I finished the project this morning in a hurry. There must be lot of mistakes.” Sudheer said getting up.
Both, Roshan and Dhruv, knew that he must have finished the project at least a week before. And they also knew that Mr. Singh, the supervisor, was not coming that day because his secretary was a girlfriend of Dhruv and always tipped them before his surprise inspections.
Dhruv made a big show of swallowing of his spit and said in the most obvious patronizing voice,
“Haan Yaar, if Mr. Singh saw your presentation the way it is you will be in big trouble. People like us rarely do any work. By the way listen, I have got some work out here so just collect data for me on GPRS. It will be too late for me by the time I get back and I have to submit the report tomorrow.”
“You mean GPRS and how it works, etc?” Sudheer asked.
“No actually how it has been implemented in India and its future scope.”
“Ok. Just come by my cubicle later.”
“Sure thing.” Replied Dhruv very much pleased.
Somebody was always there to do Dhruv’s work for him. And if on some rare occasion no one did it Dhruv would just give some excuse to Mr. Rakesh. Dhruv mostly got away without doing any work. Roshan found this very odd though he too did little work. But when he did, he worked very hard. Going out of his way add details to the project on hand. Even if he did not do the entire work himself he had to understand what he was working on unlike Dhruv who did not care what he submitted to his superiors.
“I don’t think she will come today.” Roshan said, giving up.
“Give it some time,” said Dhruv “here have a cigarette till then.
They were waiting for the unanimously chosen hottest girl of the building, Rakhi. Everyone knew her bio-data by heart. Where she lived, where she sat, where she had her lunch and most importantly when she left office for her home. Roshan had a minor crush for her and though he couldn’t say for sure he thought he had often caught her stealing glances towards him. He had this feeling that she too was interested in him.
They were sitting at their favourite spot near the fast food joint. The spot offered everything shade, privacy to smoke and an unobstructed view of Rakhi having lunch with her girlfriends at her favourite spot. This did not look like their lucky day though as Rakhi had not shown up at her favourite spot at the usual time. Soon Roshan would have to return to office to reimburse the money he had spent on petrol, food and accommodation during a recent tour. Though he had nothing to do at the moment and was getting quite bored it was unspoken rule between him and Dhruv that break times could not be used for any work even remotely associated with work. The staff would probably have been on lunch at the moment any way.
So when the lunch break was finally over Roshan headed for the managerial section and Dhruv headed for the office. The managerial section was in the ground floor and accounts on first floor. He would have to get the signatures from managing staff and then collect the money from accounts.
There was small crowd near the Mr. Abraham’s office to whom Roshan had to give all the bills. Even Rakhi was there. As he reached Mr. Abraham’s desk he heard Rakhi request,
“Sir, could you please go over my application.”
“Just a minute.” Mr. Abraham replied.
In the ensuing silence of a few seconds Roshan said,
“Mr. Abraham I needed to reimburse these bills.”
“Let me deal with these people first.” Replied Mr. Abraham addressing both Rakhi and Roshan referring to the four five people already there and pointing to the sofa for them to be seated on in the meantime.
They sat on the sofa. Rakhi with the familiar awkwardness that one feels when he or she comes across a person whom they feel they know because they have been seeing them across the hall daily but never spoken. Roshan joined her with the thoughts “Thank you, god!”
Roshan looking for an opening said,
“Hi! What are you here for? “
“I am to apply for change in department.” She replied handing out the application she was holding. She had a very beautiful face, was around 5’6” and somewhat voluptuous. She was wearing a blue Salwar suit. Her head was tied in the traditional long ‘choti’. She was wearing a blue bangle in her right hand and a golden wrist watch in her left. On the whole she was very comely. For a moment Roshan got too engrossed in the blue bangle and almost missed the application. Catching himself in time he took the application from her.
“Dear Sir,
Regarding: blah..blah.. blah
I would like to request for change in.. I wonder what I should say to her next. .. I have already submitted.. I wonder if it will be too early to ask her for a date. I will be very grateful if…. But if I don’t ask her for lunch Dhruv will kill me.
Yours sincerely,
Rakhi Patel
“Oh! So your name is Rakhi. Huh!”Roshan said thinking “Duh! Like everyone in the building knows that.”
“Yeah!” she replied.
“Why are you applying for change in department?” Roshan ploughed on.
“Actually I was working as a trainee. Now that I have completed my training I have to join some other department as a full time worker.”
“In which department were you working till now?” Roshan continued not letting there be any pause in the conversation.
“I was working under Mr. Shah, the senior architect.”
“That’s nice. You are an architect then. I am an engineer. I work on the second floor. By the way how did you get the internship here? It is quite tough to get an internship here.”
“Mr. Suraj is a distant uncle of mine. He lives near my house in Sardar Patel Colony. He helped get the internship. By the way what’s your name?”
“Wow! She is asking my name!” thought Roshan replying,
“Roshan.”
“Hi! It’s nice to meet you.” she said extending her hand and flashing a smile which made Roshan’s heart skip a beat. And his heart skipped two beats when he got to shake her soft hands. He hoped that she did not find his hand too rough. He liked to work out without gloves which had made his hand callous.
Mr. Abraham took a long time to do the work of the guys who had come before them. And in the meantime Rakhi and Roshan came to know all about each other’s residence, family, bosses, a few habits and I do believe even favourite colours. Though I don’t clearly remember how they came about discussing their favourite colour they certainly did not find it odd to discuss favourite coulours and discussed about colours at length.
Finally Mr. Abraham called Rakhi and immediately signed her application, Roshan was very glad because his cheeks where beginning to quake from having smiled for such a long time and his mouth was running out of spit. She took leave of Roshan and left the room. Sparing him the dilemma of whether he should ask her out or ask her number as it was their very first conversation.
The next day Roshan and Dhruv waited for her during lunch. Dhruv was as excited as Roshan, which made Roshan quite suspicious, but he need not have worried as she did not come. Roshan would have left the matter as it is. But Dhruv forced him to go to the architectural department. On enquiring other trainees they found out that her application had been accepted and she had shifted to another department in another building in another part of Delhi.
Roshan saw her three months later at the company’s annual party with three other girls. Roshan and Rakhi looked at each other but too long a time had passed between their first and the last meeting. She did not show any sign of recognition. He too felt too awkward to talk to her. Unfortunately Dhruv did not see her otherwise he would have shook Roshan out of prudence and made him go over to greet her. Matters standing as they did, they never saw each other again.
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