A tale of 60 seconds " Traffic Saga"

It was around 6 PM in the evening and I was wondering how the sun disappeared leaving the beautiful twilight for us to enjoy. I was waiting patiently in the auto-rickshaw waiting for the traffic signal to go green. I was having a chat with the driver and passing comments on the unbelievable traffic increase in our city. It was a lengthy signal and I had no choice but wait. I looked outside; there were eunuchs with colorful Sarees draped, neatly braided hair and lovely jasmine flowers that hung on one side of the shoulder, the bangles sung when they clapped their way to accumulate money before the signal turned green. Some of them just gave them money and were generously blessed; I was just amused by the things that occurred in 120 seconds. 

 I just relaxed when a pair of tiny hands and twinkling eyes caught my sight. A lady, in her early thirties or late twenties carried a kid on one side in a papoose and some toys in the other hand. She went around all the vehicles to sell the goods she has, some of them bought while the others ignored. She showed the baby and signaled that she was starving and that influenced some to just make a donation to her without actually buying anything. I just sat inside and observed the baby. It was so cold outside and it just reminded me of all the kids I knew and the way they were raised.  

They were protected from heat, cold, rain and everything else but the baby I saw today was in total contrast to what I had seen so far. He wore a woolen cap and a sweater to fight the cold winter breeze that blew on his face. His nose was pouring and his bare feet kicked the lady’s tummy with all the might.   He looked around while he played with the doll in his hand. He had his own elocution and everyone who saw him made some contribution. It was a horrific sight and my heart swelled in pain looking at the plight of an infant who was already on streets begging for alms. The lady started walking towards my auto, I had managed to find a Banana by then and as she approached I gave it to the kid and the million dollar toothless smile just brought tears of joy in my eyes. I was sad when I saw his plight but I later realized that he was happy with what he had just got and he was a child of God. It was a mere fruit but to the kid it was heaven.  

The signal turned green and the auto zoomed while my head was still outside catching the last glimpse of the baby who still smiled looking at the Banana in his hand. The tale of 60 seconds ended with little joy in my heart.  

"Praana"

Sometimes,we are misled; we become indecisive, weak and also think of something very unpleasant. We fail to prioritize and forget the importance of our life. Well, we all know something that touches the peak has to fall down as you can never reverse the law of gravitation. We all make wrong decisions in life, but fail to learn from our own mistakes and experiences.

What else is important than our lives. Just with a little attention towards it I am sure each one of us will have a lovely story to weave and narrate to the next generation or may be something that you can sit back and have a super memory-ride when our skin ages.

Oh god, "What is all this?????"I am really tired of being a slave. I am disgusted of this life, I hate it, I want to just quit. A life without her is worthless and gives me no meaning; I shall die screamed Anurag with tears rolling down through his cheeks."

Anurag had lost his girl-friend and was depressed about the entire episode of his break-up; he kept rewinding the day of fights and exchange of abuses which made him further more disgusted. He still remembered the day and the moment when Amita had walked up to him with a red rose and the smile she carried on her lips with her cheeks turning red as she approached to propose to him. Amita and Anurag worked in the same team in an IT organization; they sat two cubicles apart. Amita deliberately hovered around Anurag every time she had a chance and looked straight into his eyes with a smile on her face. Her eyes gleamed and ears turned red when she heard Anurag’s name. Everyone in the team considered Anurag to be the most handsome physically and intellectually and it motivated Amita even more to get into a relationship with him. Everything went well over the couple of years until the last month’s argument about a trivial matter which brought them to part their ways.

Anurag was miserable, after he had lost his two years of relationship with Amita. It was 11:00 pm in the night; Anurag was still at office with tears filled in his eyes, his head heavy lying on the desk. He had wept silently for hours together ever since Amita had left him, he was lost in the thoughts and it was too late for him to get back home, he tried to stand up from his place but sat crashing, he felt dizzy. He sat for the next one hour thinking about the lost love and the situation of his helplessness and the turmoil he had gone through was enormous, his life had altogether taken a different path, left him insane.

He hurriedly reached to the pen on the desk, grabbed a sheet of plain white paper; his mind went blank. He had not had a proper good night’s sleep for a month now and the issue had blown out of proportion affecting both personal and professional life. His brain had stopped reasoning; rational thinking was had disappeared completely; with the emotions taking control over his reasoning powers he had reached his wit’s end to attain a state of peace. He closed his eyes and rested his heavy head the desk thinking what to write on the sheet of paper. He was thinking if he should say the entire story about his love or just a liner, “I am going to die”, when he heard a loud noise from the pantry. He took a jolt; he reluctantly got up from his chair and walked towards the direction of the sound waves and his heart skipped a beat  he appeared close to the door.

"I am annoyed with your behavior”, screamed the lady, with a mischievous smile on her face.

She immediately gazed at Anurag and winked at him.

"Hi Anurag, how are you?” the lady spoke to him in a sweet voice. You must be wondering who I am, Aren’t you? She teased him.

“Thank God! One last time I am fortunate to savor a cup coffee with you, said the lady". Anurag was dumb-founded, but her charm kept him awake and he longed for her love and care with his brain making the rest of the thinking.

"Hey there, prepare a cup of coffee immediately for Anurag", demanded the lady.

Well, I am Praana, said the lady with her hand held forward; Anurag stretched his hand and he was enthralled by her touch, and he could not wait anymore to embrace her. Anurag took his cup of coffee and waited Praana to follow him. He looked at her but she was busy sipping her coffee talking to the pantry boy, Anurag felt ignored and he started to walk towards the elevator.

Praana shouted, "Hey, Anurag Why are you rushing?” wait for me we have to go together; I am not the one abandoning you she said with her smile still on. Anurag was baffled; he still continued to walk with Praana following him. His heart was having a jolly ride as she came closer to him. He walked with joy and he felt that this was the most amazing time of his lifetime; he could not take his eyes off her. He just longed for another touch but she had moved quite far away from him.

They reached the gate, Anurag looked at Praana, he opened his mouth, and Praana came closer to him and grabbed him towards her by his hands. She looked straight into his eyes. Her sight was radiant; Anurag was losing to the power of her glowing eyes. He failed miserably to avoid a direct eye-contact She came much closer to him than earlier, locked him in her arms, her lips almost touching his, happiness started to flow in Anurag's body and mind, he embraced her and went close to her but she drew herself back immediately and stood away from Anurag, "See how much you love me, Anurag", she winked.

Anurag was speechless. Praana said, "Life is full of opportunities, it is surrounded by beautiful things and it is independent of anyone. You cannot decide to kill yourself just for one bad instance that has occurred. Life is very precious. You get it only once, be wise enough not to ruin it for someone else. It is as wonderful as I am, “I know you love me a lot.”Do not think of committing suicide, you are brave, good-hearted man, you will definitely find another companion". She looked at him, her lips ornamented with the most beautiful smile Anurag had ever witnessed.

Anurag was surprised, his curiosity arose, and he ran after Praana, he screamed at her, "Hey who are you?" Praana, smiled at him, "I am YOURS" she screamed while she disappeared in the darkness.

Trin, trin...... "Hello Anurag, it is 2:00 am; are you staying back at office even today?" cried a voice from the other end. Ahh! Yes mom, I am on the way; should be home in sometime said Anurag and disconnected the call.

He said, "Praana my darling", you are my beloved and I shall never let you die, you are the most beautiful thing happened to me.... I shall definitely take care of you".

He smiled and drove back happily.

Our life is the most important and the beautiful thing ever happened to us. As the saying goes, "Your life feels different on you, once you greet death and understand your heart's position. You wear your life like a garment from the mission bundle sale ever after - lightly because you realize you never paid nothing for it, cherishing because you know you won't ever come by such a bargain again. Saying “Love you” to Praana, I am signing-off with a lovely smile on my face and I hope it leaves an impression on you as well.

Dreams do come true - Ruby

It was the month of November; a season when the cold breeze brings everyone closer to their woolen clothes and jackets, hot soups and pakoras calling to taste them. Sitting beside the window reading a novel with a hot mug of coffee and with the warmth of a woolen jacket makes anybody experience being on the ninth cloud with fairies singing and harp being played with the song of their choice. 

Heart desired to get a power-nap; I closed my eyes and I never realized how fast i fell asleep. I could hear someone honking madly  in front of the gate and Amma ran to the door leaving her daily chores aside to see who it was. It was my uncle who had come to visit us after a longtime; he was a goldsmith by profession and was not blessed to have a lot of leisure from his work; he had an unusual grin on his face when he got down from his vehicle and was about to park it next to my neighbor's house, amma rushed to him and  instructed him to park the vehicle in front of our gate and not elsewhere as we were pretty new to the locality and had not got acquainted with the neighbors. Uncle did as Amma instructed and walked inside, he carried a big cane basket with a lid covered on top of it and kept it beside him when he sat on one of the chairs in the living-room. 

Amma went inside to brew some hot tea and complete her undone chores while she continued to talk to Uncle about his family and suddenly the entire house went silent, I suddenly opened my eyes to realise that I was in my dreamland all this while when I saw a tiny ball of snow standing in front of me with it's tongue sticking out. I jumped on the bed rubbing my eyes to register what that tiny little thing standing in front of me was. I opened my eyes wide with my jaws dropping down and had a hearty laughter, it was a white little pup that stood in front of me wagging his tiny tail; he seemed to be as happy as I was to see him. I screamed my guts out with happiness but did not dare touch the snow ball standing in front of me, I shouted for Amma and my voice echoed till the next lane to show what I was seeing and Amma's face had lightened up seeing my happiness looking at the pup. 

Amma it's my dream come true, I screamed. I got down from the bed, picked up the cute little ball of snow, wrapped him in my arms and hugged him. I would not let him down. I started explaining about the power-nap story and how I had a dream of Uncle honking madly and Amma continued the rest of the story flawlessly; I was amazed to see how Amma narrated everything that I was watching while I slept. She teased me saying that she was my mum and she was older to me by 30 years. 

I laughed and still kept wondering how this little fellow sneaked into to my house while I was asleep till I saw the cane basket with a lid hidden under my bed. My happiness knew no bounds, I could now relate to the story which Amma narrated with the dream that I had. He was my long awaited birthday gift, he was as precious as a gem, as beautiful as the waiting was , we called him RUBY.

“Re-Lay-shun-SHIP”…Keep it going

We often come across people whining and regretting about their unhealthy relationships with their spouses, parents, friends, colleagues. We might have also heard about couple being dissatisfied and frustrated about their relationship with each other.

More often than less, we hear statements, “Oh god, he was an entirely different person and my frequency never matched with his, I just cannot read his mind?”, Very rarely we also get a chance of listening to pleasant words, “Wow, I never thought relationships can be so pleasant”, He is so different from me, yet I enjoy his/her company.

We notice the term relationship” being used frequently and flawlessly in both the statements above. When you examine comprehensively of people who are in relationships, they would love to be flamboyant in expressing their views about the term “RELATIONSHIP” but would definitely fail to admit whether they respect it or not? Now, it’s time for self-assessment, “Do we all respect relationship?” If yes, then why do we have newspapers ornamented with news about separation/divorces every morning?

If gone public, we might probably end up getting vivacious synonyms for the same word without understanding the genuine meaning associated with it, as per the dictionary: Relationship means: relationship between two or more people, a connected feeling. Let us all pause and think for few minutes, does this word mean only this? Or is something else connected with this and why do people often come up with unusual expressions and reactions when this word is in use. Derivation of the term in the dictionary is a simple layman term but when looked beyond, this is a package in itself.

Relationship exists not only between two souls; it also involves a lot of other ingredients like love, compassion, patience and tolerance to make it more meaningful. We may encounter many relationships being built on the theory of, We live together, not because, “WE WANT TO”, it is because “WE HAVE TO” and if provided an option of separation we may end up having a statistical representation of people who would slip away quietly with their own justifications and would also be proud of being talented enough in getting rid of the other person. Is getting into a relationship tedious or maintaining it? Well, the latter one is more debatable, not all knows the art of archery, it is an art; likewise maintaining relationship is an art in itself. Difference of opinion and impatience are directly proportional to each other and to maintain a balanced relationship the key ingredient is a stable patient mindset and the art of listening.

Being known as god’s best creation we are intellectually sound and can distinguish ourselves from the other species, we have the ability to think rationally and act reasonably. Most of the relationships see a disastrous end not because of unlike minds, mainly because of assumptions and drawing conclusions with the end result being two ill- hearted people, irritated and agitated with self and others. We have more than a million people living on this earth and no two people are alike, everybody are unique in their own way, human brain is the most complicated part and the understanding of it has remained a mystery to everyone.

It is very important for each one of us to understand, a gracious relationship requirement does not end with two like-minded people but we must ensure of being open minded individuals to make it fruitful thus eliminating the thirst to understand the mechanism of the most complex part of the human body, “THE BRAIN” ,The art of relationship is a plain task of bringing two unfamiliar hearts closer and together. It just requires the initial nurture and as hearts grow fonder the person would definitely look back and feel glad about his achievement of being in a relationship, because he wanted to and not because of some external forces or influences. It is time for every one of us to wake up and save the relationship which we are in and make it a meaningful one.

More often than not we think a lot about other external factors and lose on the most caring and important people who could actually be a part of one’s life. We are all a part of the society, but we need to think, “Who forms this society?” Most of the loved ones get separated due to trivial issues that are of least significance and are left with bad and unforgettable memories forever, We come across many people every single day, just exchange smiles, and you may not know, when, how and where you can meet a person who really makes your life worthy with him/her being around you, We all wish to lead a peaceful life, for we who have been blessed with loving souls treasure them and unfortunates are those who are really parted from their loved ones, let none face the consequences of a heart break. It not only leaves you with the fond memories but also unbearable bitter experiences.

Deprived

I know that it is not her, I have known for a fact that she is deprived from the most beautiful feeling "LOVE" and when i look at her eyes I can see the pain she has gone through but it always induces an element of fear in me, has she completely given up on finding her true love, is it just the materialistic life that matters to her and if she is completely in for that why is she still pondering to be shown some love and affection in everyone whom she finds in the journey of her life. Every time I look at her she has a different expression, but with a strong layer of foundation  "SADNESS" which gets easily masked by another opposite feeling HAPPINESS", the first time I came across her, I was taken aback, I did not even want to talk to her, I sat in a corner to analyse what a creation she is and it somehow happened that I started interacting with her; realized that she was lost in this world treating herself cruelly, whipping her skin-off to be showcased as the most sophisticated person around without realizing that the ground she stood was just not that but her self-respect which she had completely sacrificed and torn apart for no reason. All I could sense was, she was continuously and constantly running after a mirage to ruin herself  which in the end will not fetch her anything but an unhappy ending awaits,everything she did was linked to a material, she had high regards to people but she was caught between the two; money and values for life; the latter was seeming to be fading away very soon with the former becoming the most dominant in her. Vision was lost just with the residue of Seeing being remaining in her; her future was getting buried from her own hands, the day is not too far when she would sit and whine for her foolish acts; afraid I am to tell her that these things are not worthwhile for I know she is a deprived child trying to find her ways to dream chasing the mirage. We all get lost at times but trying to find the right direction by arriving at the start point is the most.