L4 : Fascination : And the patience test

 

But the soon was not so sooner.

 

Actually the main reason for the extension of this nearby soon was Payal’s bad relationship with computer, mobile and the things related to them.(Still no improvement in the relationship) This ultimately ended up with the misconception about facebook’s idle/offline chat category, which used to be in its early days (Is it still there?). Payal used to think that staying offline will let me see her idle and I would ping her. On the other hand, just to hide my desperation I didn’t message her as she was offline on FB.

 

Apparently the story goes like this…

 

I was having a short vacation from the next day on, still I woke up too early (presumably 11 AM was too early for me as far as college days are concerned). The actual plan was to get up, take tea and start studies for campus placements which were going to be commenced in three four days. But as usual I by myself scrapped my study plans and opened www.facebook.com. (Ya placement study site was still open in the adjacent tab.. obviously in the hibernate state.)

 

“Payal will hopefully be online by now as it is her time to be back to hostel.” I thought while the facebook page was loading.

 

It was the day when even internet was too slow and I started digging into neighboring house which was playing the still "shhhhhhhhh" TV screen (excavating the neighboring house was my time pass activity from the day we shifted to the new apartment in Ahmedabad.). Many a times I wonder that with the age of digital set-top-boxes, nobody younger than 10 or so probably has ever seen the static "shhhhhhhhh" screen. Anyways while the FB page was loading and the “shhhhhhhhh” was going on I started my planning on what to talk, ask to Payal if she is online. (which I was so sure she would be.)

 

“Today I will definitely ask her phone number… Would she give it to me? Yeah surely... Why won’t she? Am I getting too distressed?”

 

“beep.”(You can assume anything from shit to ##@@. I won’t mind) I uttered as I got the surprise kick from my roommate Dens (we were following this ritual to wake up each other).

 

“Get up… rascal.” Dens voiced as he went nearby his so called folding bed.

 

“I already have… you stupid.” I replied back as the blue facebook screen popped up.

 

“Oh I didn’t realize.” Dens chuckled.

 

“F*** ##f.” I frowned diverting my mind not on notification bar but on the chat box.

 

There were around forty people online none of them named Payal Desai. I checked and rechecked and rechecked… but for the very first time my gut feeling was unfortunately wide of the mark. I was never desperate for anything be it the board results or the Dan Brown thriller. I was confused why was I getting this much frantic?

 

“Actually I had to start the campus studies, but instead of that I am doing some crap things with much desperation.” I thought.(OK... It was just an instant thought Payal, nothing serious. No kick to the curb this time.)

 

May be it was Stockholm syndrome (omg the traumatic bonding? That wasn’t expected) or may be the love at first chat (ogh!!… BTW it wasn’t the first chat with Payal) or maybe it was just that my intuition was challenged the first time. Whatever the reason might be… It was just unnerving… Unnerving, intimidating and upsetting the whole three days.  Until…

 

…Until Payal’s facebook wall spoke something the fourth day… A single word… Or can say the silver lining in the dark cloud. (Update on Payal’s facebook wall is as rare as the Bismuth Crystals or the Machu Picchu.).

 

BTW the three days gap was in fact just perfect as far as Barney Stinson’s logic is concerned. Confused? OK then read it one more time…

“Jesus waited three days to come back to life. It was perfect! Why?  

If he had only waited one day, a lot of people wouldn’t have even heard he died. They’d be all, “Hey Jesus, what’s up?” and Jesus would probably be like, “What’s up? I died yesterday!” and they’d be all, “Uh, you look pretty alive to me, dude…”  

And then Jesus would have to explain how he was resurrected, and how it was a miracle, and the people’d be like “Uhh okay, whatever you say, bro…”  

And he’s not gonna come back on a Saturday. Everybody’s busy, doing chores, working the loom, trimming the beard,  

NO. He waited the perfect number of days, three.  

Plus it’s Sunday, so everyone’s in church already, and they’re all in there like “Oh no, Jesus is dead”, and then BAM! He bursts in the back door, runnin’ up the aisle, everyone’s totally psyched. (and FYI, that’s when he invented the high five.)  

That’s why we wait three days to call a woman, because that’s how long Jesus wants us to wait…. True story.”

So… On the perfect day with the grace of God the story resumed (now with much more thrust). The word was…

“Champagne!!”



PS: All writings categorized under ‘Notebook’ will be prefixed with L’number’ ex L1

L3 : Inception : It's never too late

 

 

…But it happened.

It all started with the last day of B.Tech Semester-7. Actually me falling in love (that too with a beautiful girl) is totally surprise story even for me. Don’t take it otherwise but I was one of those male chauvinist guys who use to think that 80% (Not all) of the attractive girls are bimbo (Ya… I still quite often muse on why some girls think acting dumb deliberately is cute?)

Anyways. Where was I? (This topic always diverts my mind). Ya… So… Annual exams of the 7^th sem had just concluded and me with my roommates had planned to grab Pizza at Ahmedabad’s so called renowned (actually cheap) Pizza café. I don’t remember the name of that café but for sure it was neither Pizza hut nor Dominos and pizza over there was cheaper and truly testier.  We relished an awesome dinner obviously after those seven haunting exam nights and went back to our apartment with the plan of net surfing, playing cards and ultimately not sleeping the whole night.

However, that day the universe had different plans for me. We went back to our apartment and out of the blue my roommates converted the apartment into game zone. Evidently “Rise of Nations” never fits my bill and I started facebooking which is one of the conjoint likes (Ya In spite of being poles apart, we have two common interests… net surfing and travelling) of both me and Payal. Most probably this was the day when the story commenced, when we were no longer the pink zoned friends, when I was not just the studious guy for her and she was no longer the shy girl(great misconception from my site as Payal was not at all shy…)  for me who used to sit on the first bench.

It had been three years from our high school days and we were not at all in contact with each other. Obviously the main reason was being those 90’s kids for whom carrying mobile phone in the school was crime (I was the offender, carrying the Nokia beast 3315 to school). And because of that after the result day of our 12^th grade we both were totally separated for three long years. No contact, no scraps, no texts nothing… until that fortunate day of winter 2010.  

The clocks were approaching 9:30, it was dark outside, the murky sizzling winter of Ahmedabad…

“Hello” I unexpectedly pinged Payal.

“Hi” She replied tediously… obviously discerning why I pinged her.

“Howz you?”  I asked her.

“Nice Pic” I again pinged the two common words which I pings every single girl I chat with, and as far as my experience is concerned, which every girl in the world likes and apparently takes seriously at any point of time.(Confession : Payal! You are the first and the last girl I told these two words earnestly) (Either I have to confess or this could be my last blog as blow of pressure cooker on head can lead me to anything from short term memory loss to brain hemorrhage)

“Fine. Thanks. What about you? Howz life?” Payal replied.

“Life is… ” And I went on.

We chatted the whole three to four hours about our school days, about our pink zoned friendship, about our studies, about our plans, about our families, about almost everything.  It was the moment when we started knowing each other more intensely, It was the moment when I actually thought we can be more than pink zoned friends, more than good friends, more than the chat buddies.

“All right then see you later…” I replied as Payal g2g.(Obviously I might have chatted the whole night if I couldn’t have found, from our conversation, that Payal was (as always) voraciously drowsy.)

“C U soon.” She bade good bye.
...But the soon was not so sooner.

PS: All writings categorized under ‘Notebook’ will be prefixed with L’number’ ex L1

L2 : Poles apart : But it happened

Our love story started long before Payal and I ever actually became friends.

And when you think about it, most love stories start that way. Every moment leading up to the one in which you meet your future wife or husband somehow shapes you and prepares you for that person you were fated for.

 

Wait… Was that started the same classic way? Love at first sight?? Background music whenever I see the face??? Nah…

 

Ignore the first two paragraphs as our love story didn’t really started the way it should be. The whole “girl meets boy, boy and girl fall in love, boy and girl get married” model is a little too simplistic for my needs. I will start with a little bit of background.

 

We were together from 3^rd grade. Remember how, in 'Sweet Home Alabama,' Melanie and Jake fell in love as kids?

 

Melanie: “Why would you wanna marry for anyhow?”

Jake: “So I can kiss you any time I want”

 

Hope I were the kind of person but unfortunately I was not so daring as to ask such questions in 3^rd grade. Actually neither I nor Payal had ever till 3^rd year of our collage, thought that there would be any relationship between us.  I was one of the so called studious children and Payal was one of the admirers of the class ranker (Wasn’t she? Hope she will not call as soon as she read this and I have to change the sentence).  We were in the same class but obviously the friends in pink zone as there was nothing common between us. Of course by the time I was in high school I was having crush on her (and obviously on around twenty more girls).

 

I am sure, While Payal had no pre-conceived notions about who she’d marry, I was not someone she thought she’d end up with.  We were good friends with totally different persona. I was reserved and a bit moody kind of guy, while she was carefree and loved to hang out with friends. I was a night owl and she was a morning bird. I am energetic 24*7 and she energizes herself with the naps throughout day. If noon nap is missed I am always the victim of her anger (irrespective of I am the reason of her missed nap). I am book lover and she just hates books.

 

In short whether we were pink zoned friends, good friends or the chat buddies, we had never thought of having a relationship. At least am sure Payal never had even in her wildest dream...  

…But it happened.

PS: All writings categorized under ‘Notebook’ will be prefixed with L’number’ ex L1

L1 : 10-12-10 : A Date to Remember

9-12-10

“Hey, I love you.” I proposed... Of which I was also not aware.

“What??” Payal was surely astonished.

“I know I know… don’t get me wrong. It’s just that, may be … you know.” I was struggling for words and I think she was wondering. “It’s just that I’ve started liking you. I was wondering if…”

And then there was a momentous pause and then a whisper “May I get some time to think before I riposte?”

“Yes you have a minute to think” I was impatient as usual.

“How can I answer in such a short span? At least give me a day or two.” She was smiling.

“OK you have 24 hours to think. Tomorrow I will again ask at the same time.” And then I was like Was it the right time to propose?

“In any case we are friends so If your answer is NO you can tell me now only. I won’t mind"  I was just afraid telling this stupid line thinking she may refuse my proposal with the ill-advised answers like I always saw you as a friend or we should give more time before we get into some relationship or something bla bla bla… Thankfully that didn't happen.

10-12-10

The D-Day arrived and we as usual started talking at our scheduled night hours. This time I was not at all interested in bla bla bla schmooze. But I had decided not to get straight to the point as I did the previous day.

“Today was too hectic as the campus interviews are going on and…. You too haven’t answered my yesterday’s question but no problem you have two… ” I was in flow and then there was a wee murmur.

“May I say a word?” a long pause.

“I do…”

PS: All writings categorized under ‘Notebook’ will be prefixed with L’number’ ex L1

PK he kya?...

In Munna Bhai MBBS he interrogated the medical system, in Lage Raho Munna Bhai he introduced Gandhigiri and in 3 Idiots he questioned the education system. Now Rajkumar Hirani takes on the much hyped Godmen in India. If I had not seen Oh My God (2012) then PK would be a pleasant surprise but that doesn't take away anything from this masterpiece. The similarity is just in the idea but Hirani's PK is another level all together.

Who PK? What about him? His quirkiness…relation between a radio and nude Aamir… Is he a part of band?… Is he an army man? and a lot more. All these questions are appositely answered in the hilarious yet thought-provoking invention of Raju.

The film starts off with PK (Aamir Khan), an alien, landing on earth, in the desert of Rajasthan, to study about human begins and life on earth. Arriving stark naked on a earth, PK has a rough start on the planet when his tracking remote, that helps him send signals back to his spaceship, gets stolen. He now has to find the remote to contact his spaceship and till then survive on earth on his own. Unaware of human mannerisms, language or life in general on earth, PK finds it difficult to adjust. However, fate brings him in touch with Bhairav Singh (Sanjay Dutt) who becomes his dear friend and helps him with life on earth. But destiny takes PK to Delhi. From here on starts a whirlwind story of a stranger in the unknown city of Delhi asking questions that despite their innocence hold a valuable and deep meaning. Aided on by Jagat Janani (Anushka Sharma) who teams up with him on this journey, PK challenges some of the oldest rituals of religion that are ruling life of people on earth.

One more interesting thing was the justification of female character in Amir’s movie. For the very first time actress has done something else apart from just looking awesome in Amir’s lead. The movie has neck to neck coordination between Amir and Anushka. Boman’s role cold have been much more interesting and challenging if he would have been in the negative character of Baba instead of having him as a media person. Sanjay dutt’s character was too small, as in I don’t know why that role was needed. May be the role had been abbreviated.

All in all, the impeccability of Aamir and individuality of Hirani with zings of Anushka makes for an interesting watch in the year end. Go for it...

REAP what you SOW...

And again terrorism has dazzled one more country, the one that sown terrorism over decades, the one that did not utter a word when India got victimized in September, 2002; again in July, 2006; again in November, 2008 and so on… I think now the so called democratic nation, Pakistan, is fed up with the things ensuing with it… At least it seem, when we see some of the editorials in Pakistan media. One of the editorials is from the leading newspaper of Pak.. The Nation…

Have a look….

16 December 2014 is one of the worst days Pakistan has had to live through since its inception. This national tragedy, which has caused unimaginable grief and pain across the landscape, will not and must not be forgotten anytime soon. Muhammad Khorasani of Jamat-ul-Ahrar, also known as Omer Khorasani, of the Jamat-ul-Ahrar, a faction of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan led by Mullah Fazlullah, has accepted responsibility for the attack on the school. In his statement given to the media, the militant commander termed the attack as retaliation for the ongoing military operation in FATA.  

Some say that at a time like this, it is not wise and appropriate to blame the government or state institutions. Such a tragedy calls for unity, and criticism doesn’t help to achieve that purpose. But no consensus can be built, no wrong can be corrected, no problem can be solved by deciding against speaking the truth. And the truth is this: Not just terrorists, but everyone, from the wider population to the civil and military leadership is responsible for the barbarity our children were subjected to.  

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, your government has contributed absolutely nothing towards building a narrative against extremism. Operation Zarb-e-Azb started without your permission, and it continues absent meaningful political ownership. You have refused to act against seminaries funded through Saudi money, which are poisoning the minds of our youth and turning them into zealots. Instead of putting them behind bars, the Punjab government protects sectarian elements as they return the favour by not attacking you and taking out rallies in your support.  

Chairman Imran Khan, you are the most mainstream and consistent Taliban sympathiser in the country. Despite the murder of 132 children in the capital of the province where your party is in power, you couldn’t muster the courage to name the Taliban. You have done a great disservice to this nation by repeatedly justifying the murder of your fellow countrymen and pushing a toxic narrative based on factual inaccuracies and ignorance.  

Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif, despite all that has happened, despite the many sacrifices of the brave soldiers who have died fighting terrorists, you refuse to employ a blanket policy against non-state actors. While the military conducts operations against bad Taliban in FATA, it continues to protect sectarian elements in Quetta, the Afghan Taliban and other ‘jihadi’ organisations such as Jamat-ud-Dawa. The country is reaping what it has sown over decades. 

Citizens, you seek comfort in conspiracy theories to avoid facing the ugly truth. What will it take for you to unite against extremism unequivocally and without provisos?  

The idea is not to berate or discourage, but to offer a reality check and prompt change of policy for the sake of our children, for the sake of our country’s future. Only the truth will set us free.

Hope Pakistan will also "stand united with INDIA" against terrorism...

Being lefty...

So finally I end up with those frustrating 4:00 am to 2:00 PM morning shift days and obviously with some unpredictable way of taking out my frustration (Some of you have thoroughly observed it). Again I am searching for some crap thing over net(this bing search engine is too unnerving). This time it is something that make me feel how outstanding I am!! 

One really interesting factoid that I picked up was that left handed people tended to be more independent as a result of having to adapt to a world which is largely built for right handed individuals. Haha… Did I? May be it was not a big deal for me!!

BTW something problematic for me are struggling with binders, bumping elbow with righties at dining time(it is indeed too irritating), school desks, dealing with scissors, butter knives, f**king right sided number pad on keyboard and most importantly the shocking scientific facts that lefties are prone to dying sooner. WTH..

Whatever… Even if the world is cruel to us, my B positive blood group made me transpire some advantages of being lefty.

So here we go....

• Left-handers are more likely to pass their driver's test on the first try. (Except for India driver’s test is actually the driver’s test so don’t mistake this fact for lefties having good relation with RTO officers.)
• They are also more apt to be a part of Mensa, the world's largest and oldest high IQ society. This is because studies have shown lefties are more likely to have an IQ score above 131. (as in Pune-times Mensa... right??)
• Lefties are great at competitive sports. They make especially good baseball players, tennis players, swimmers, boxers and fencers (OK… this is not for me but... ya I may have been a international level polo player (I wish I were allowed...))
• Left handers recover from strokes faster. (OMG…) And are also more likely to pursue creative careers (Shit... IT professionalism is not at all. )
• Of the seven most recent U.S Presidents, 4 have been left handed, including Bush Sr., Bill Clinton and Obama.(No comments... who knows some day India will have Krishna!!)
• Left handed college graduates go on to become 26% richer than right handed graduates. (Haha... 0.74*mySalary= (how do you manage guys?))
• Lefties can clearly see the world underwater. Scientists think it has something to do with a different part of the brain being central in left handed individuals. (Ya that is indeed true. BTW what does that mean?)
• Research shows lefties are smarter in math because their brains are more flexible.(Here it is…)
• Left handers process things faster than righties and can multitask easier thanks to connections between the right and left sides of the brain being faster in left-handed people.(Yeah engineering taught me to message and make professor feel that I am getting him at the same time. I guess this has nothing to do with being lefty…)
• Left-handed people easily hear rapidly changing sounds. (Righties... don’t you??)
• And left-handed individuals have better memories. (Of course  that is not advantageous quite often…)