Room no. 119

'Aap jinke kareeb hote hai, vo bade khushnaseeb hote hai....'

When Pankaj Udhas sang this ghazal, probably he meant to highlight the effect of the presence and persona of the beloved damsel in the eyes of her lover.
I share the same feelings as Pankaj Udhas for these words.....and probably on the grounds of love too....but it’s still slightly different, for the ‘damsel' here is 'my dear roomie' and the love is more brotherly than anything else.

I first met my roomie after 2 days of staying together at room 119. This can probably happen only with guys that they can live under the same roof yet not know the other person for days!! Even during mess hours, something or, the other used to make sure that we didn't meet each other personally. Finally…we met courtesy our beloved neighbor 'D Mehra' and now 1 year at XL....he is my closest buddy.

I have never seen anyone in my life who is so simple, pure and emotional at heart. I never imagined that a guy could cry for me, seriously!! It’s amazingly sweet how he cares for me as a friend and yet fights with me on small-small things.

@Dewan: I really loved our all 'bakar'sessions', 'Altaf Raza songs' and 'tu-tu main-main' and I know ‘Meet Chandresh Kacchy’ will be jealous but still I love you man!!!

Probably the only nice thing that XL brought in my life are the friends that I got here....Meet (1+i), Gadimaaaaaa, Sumedhaaaa, KDRRrrrrrrr, Annnaaaaaa, Divya, Kunal & Dewan. I really cherish knowing them all. It’s always nice to have people around who really care for you...thankfully I have been blessed with more than a couple:-D

Room 119 @XL is the one which brought me close to a lot of people mentioned above. It’s undoubtedly a very special room in TFEMR for a lot of reasons. But the reason it is for me is, that it's the only room in the TFEMR which stays fit in its small space with the smell of the mess food lingering around and yet gifted with a heart and a soul that reaches out to everyone who has ever been blended in the XL mystique and culture.

A lot of us sometimes miss acknowledging the small things in our lives coz we feel it’s obvious that we value them. I do not want to make the same mistake as others.

I really want to thank Room 119, Meet, Meeti, Kshitij, Garima, Soumya, Kunal, Divya & Dewan for being a part of my life @XL. I love you all!! Thanks for being my friends :-)

Probably insane....or, not?

A thin, malnourished, subtle and weak rickshaw puller.....in the simmering heat of Indian April....sweating..heaving...pulling his rickshaw with a weight of 70 Kgs..turns and says

'babu jii....hum chori kyun hi karegein...chori hi karni hoti toh ye rickshaw kyun chalate....aapse 10 rupee jyaada le legein...ya 20..isse jyaada kya hi legein...nahi babu jii...aap jo teek samjhe vo de dijiyega..'

The words struck hard. Kya baat sirf 10 rupee ki thi??? nahi...baat thi 'chori ki'. The rickshaw puller was clear on what was rightfully his and what was not. How many of us are?

Does knowledge means garnering wisdom....satiating greed...pacifying lust? If it had been...then how was this guy who was practically an illiterate, so calm and content?

Then how do I see around people so rich with feet sunk in gold...degrees so huge and power dripping from their soul running around coughing people to snatch more and more of their wealth...robbing the less deprived of necessities to indulge in luxuries and exuberance.

Sometimes a few literal words that we just casually hear have a deep concealed inferential sense....and they do question our values and scruples...however, the big question is that how long can this fragile, wicked and self-fulfilling human prophesy stop us from accepting what righteously is 'the truth.'

Amazingly disgusting.....!

A group of 300 people lived on a mountain in a village that had beautiful long oak doors, lush green gardens and large windows with colored glasses. The house was one of the best houses in the locality and the group had quite an impressive status and reputation in the area.

Just behind the mountains..there was a stretch of a very fertile land quite rich in natural resources with ample of opportunities. But it was quite inaccessible to reach being on the other side of the mountains. In order to reach there it was required that the group walked through the mountain and for that a tunnel had to be built through the mountain. However, they could all climb down the mountain and walk through the plains over a very long route to reach there but that was not feasible given the constraint that at one time they all cannot together abandon their house.

So the meeting of some wise men in the group was called to find out a solution as exploiting the fertile land was imperative for the survival. The wise men decided that they need a team to dig a tunnel all the way from the mountains to the fertile lands.

The strategy involved first selecting a team of 5 people who would spearhead the conceptualization, implementation and keep track of the timelines. So the great team was selected after a lot of stringent and testing screenings.

With loads of expectations on their shoulders the 5 people team started to work on the task for which they were selected. After meticulously planned preparations for the assignment a suitable location was selected for digging the tunnel. All high speed digging equipments, flash lights, carry bags, etc. items were procured and inventoried to ensure that the process does not stall at anytime due to any reason.

With a proper season to support the digging exercise, the team started on their task of digging the tunnel. In the job some other responsible men from the village joined the team to help them in any small or, big way that was possible. The task was supposed to be done only in day away from the civilization as at night there was a serious threat of dangerous animals in the forest. Moreover, only few wise men were told about the tunnel as there were always spies from the fertile lands in the village who were searching for information at all times to foil any development plans for the village.

Finally the day came when the tunnel was almost on the verge of completion. Now for the job to be finished at the earliest it was required that the tunnel should be further dig by maximum number of people. So the 5 member team asked for the support of all the 300 people and requested them to come along on the D-date, so that all of them can together move ahead and complete the final part of the tunnel.

Unfortunately, 1/2 of the people all of a sudden were sick on the D-day. Another 1/4th had some errands for which they were out of station on the same day. While the remaining 1/4th suffered amnesia so they forgot the time and place where the tunnel was being dug.

So alas....all those who were finally digging the tunnel on the D-day where the 5 stupid people who were on the first place selected for the job and some others who had been with them all through the beginning to help them.

After an exhaustive work of endless days and nights..the tunnel was eventually opened for the commoners from the village. Amazingly the villagers had the concern that why the tunnel was not well polished?why the walls were not shining like a mirror? why the lights used for the tunnel were not designer ware?

After all they said...the 5 member team was given ploughs to dig the tunnel...and time to dig. They said...the team worked as a 'black box'. They should have got the designers from the fertile lands and got the tunnel designed!'. Moreover, they said 'They should have told the villagers long before that they were digging a tunnel so that there friends from the fertile lands could have blocked the other side of the tunnel'.

The bottomline....the verdict of the villagers...the 5 member team was crazy to dig an infancy tunnel...after all the villagers had already made new good roads in their village plus also changed the name of the village from 'Hill Top' to 'Highly fertile lands'. So how can the distant fertile lands have something special which can be better than their own little unaccessible nice village.

disclaimer*: The author loves the village's 5 member team b'coz it takes a lot to be humble and perform against all odds and oppositions. Therefore, the readers who find this blog offending are free to call this blogger crazy too.

KDRrrr...rrrrrr

I looked around,

but there was nothing unusual in sight,

it was a normal day,

and everything seemed all right.

but what choked me to death,

was a smell that was stuffed with fright,

or, was it the devil himself,

against me in his worst disguise?

It was a usual working day at office, the time after lunch. People were just settling in at their workplaces. Lots of cup of coffees were being poured from the coffee machine. Friendly banters and jokes were on among people. Everything seemed just like a normal working day. But it was suppose to become a little different.

Probably people, who have worked in IT, would know that we sit in a big hall with each of us having our own big spaces but no walls. So we can see each others faces, talk aloud and even share jokes and work stuff.

So this fateful day, suddenly my boss rose from his cubicle which is like 3 cubicles away from mine and opened his windows and the guys sitting next to my boss cubicle immediately followed the suit. Next I saw that my boss and my colleagues next to him are laughing and opening all the windows. In just next 1 min. I realized the reason and virtually ran to open the windows next to my seat. In just few minutes almost everyone in the hall was running to open all the windows and the doors.

By all the holy mother, the foulest smell on the earth was let loose on us. The round of laughs followed as the blame game started to identify who the devil was. But the laugh just kept getting louder and the smell started to recede, courtesy to the open windows and doors.

In a span of 10 minutes a serious working environment was reduced to a laughing stock. Could anyone imagine that a foul smell could create so much commotion and confusion?

The conclusion of the story….whether Swiss or, Indian it doesn't matter…farting is common and its awful. But no matter how foul the smell is, at the end of it all you remember are the hilarious jokes, indefinite accusations to everyone around and a belly full of laughter.

Own House

It's a lonely night,

and the darkness shines,

I step on the streets,

and its all quiet,

With the twinkling stars,

and the dim moonlight,

I keep to the pavements,

and try to walk upright,

The road is long,

and the walk is hard,

But in the end it's all worthwhile,

as the road finally leads me to my house.

The association of the emotional aspect of a house to an individual is both amazing and strange at the same time. I would call it a really fascinating aspect of the human evolution. And what makes this even more universal is its equivocal acceptance across different cultures.

Probably it could be due to the inherited characteristics from our ancestors. The house could symbolize stability and protection to the male and the reason for a female to be attracted to him. The moment the male becomes strong enough to break away and start an independent existence for him the house is the first thing that gives him his identity. This could have been the case for years for our ancestors. But things changed with the development of the civilized society model. But the traits inherited are still not lost, they just lie dormant.

Even now the need for an own house is the considered the basic necessity of life. Most people spend their entire existence in pursuing their dream of owning a house. The dream that is pursued with all vigor, energy, enthusiasm, pain and sacrifice. The efforts and the pain are both enjoyed. This is bizarre but I have seen numerous people who feel proud to have gone through this choice of pursuit. How something that is just a wall around some empty space can infuse so much life into a living soul is worth the admiration!

In my most recent conversation, with a dear friend who is also a proud house owner, I realized that the house is probably not a non living entity. It is a chronicle of the struggle of the family that lived under its roof, a family that shared its joy and happiness, growing up of their kids, their grievance and compassion in sorrow, the memory of their existence, etc…etc. It could be just a house for someone who looks at it from outside but for that family it is their identity, their life.

And just by looking at the face of my friend while he was talking about his house, I realized that in the end it is really worth all that pain and struggle. Probably much more worth than that struggle!

Swiss Hockey and ME

Swiss indoor hockey came to me as a pleasant surprise. And honestly speaking I had not even heard about the game before.

It all started from a friendly chat on an internal chat channel at work. One of my Swiss colleagues asked me to join in for a game of Swiss hockey as they were falling short of guys. He said it was similar to field hockey and that I would get a feel of it once I played. So I pitched in. The game was to be of an hour during the lunch time. My colleague was to bring for me a spare hockey while I needed to bring my usual sports wear.

So the next day, we all met for a game of Swiss hockey. The field size was of a half soccer field, with 2 small goals at extreme ends like that of an Ice hockey. There were markings on the field with blue and yellow. But the hockey sticks were really light and different from a field hockey. The ball was light too with porous markings for air to pass.

I was quickly explained the rules and we were divided in teams of 4 each. The whistle sounded and we started playing. The first surd was of 20 minutes and god it was hard! It was like continuously running on a field with a stick and a ball. The moment you stop the ball was lost and in every possibility a likely goal! It came to me as an even bigger challenge as I was still not comfortable with the stick. I had a tough time to decide which one was better for me a left hand one or, a right one. Unlike field hockey, the stick in Swiss hockey is more about feel. You can't choose a stick on just you being a right or, a left handed guy.

So after an exhausting first surd, I finally got a little clearer about my stick comfort. And then the second surd was a bit better. I scored 2 goals and ran more vigorous. But nevertheless I was tired like hell! I guess I was never so tired in a game than this.

Finally we came to the third surd. It was fun by now. The game started to excite me. Though tired but the enthusiasm kind of grew! And then the final whistle blew. We won all the 3 surds. And I scored some good goals! But the lesson was a hard learned one. The key areas to work- speed, stamina and shots.

And I really look forward to try some more hands at it this Wednesday! ;-)

Fear!

The moment you fear, you are no body. It is fear that is the greatest cause of misery in the world. It is fear that is the greatest of all superstition. It is fear that is the cause of our woes, and it is fearlessness that brings heaven in a moment.

                                                                                                                                                                    -Swami Vivekanand

If you read the famous lines above, it could probably make you feel that fear is an ultimate vice. But I would not agree with that completely.

Fear is definitely a vice but only so long so forth it's not channeled towards its end.

In simpler words, it is only human to fear. It is a very part of our existence and drives us all through our life. It is the fear of loosing a living that makes us work, it is the fear of being punished and shunned that makes us follow a predefined social code of conduct, it is the fear of being alone that makes us make friends, etc… etc. The more you think on this the more you would realize that eventually fear is the biggest motivator of the actions in our life.

What eventually distinguishes people is how well they are able to battle this fear to win over their aspirations. If the fear to earn a living makes one work, the one who succeeds is the one who finds out a way to reduce this fear by doing something that makes this fear obsolete. These people are the people we refer to as 'stinking rich'!

I do agree with Swami Vivekanand, that fear is a cause of our woes but then it is also a catalyst for our growth. The moment one stops fearing he becomes immortal. And that's just the end of evolution. But being human is about evolving every moment. It is about trying, succeeding, failing and trying again. And in the end it is the fear of failing that eventually makes one succeed.

So I would say, do not fear to fear. It is only natural to do so. But every time you fear, just do not fear to look out for the ways to reduce that fear.