Reminiscing

For once, I wish to count from 1 to 100 facing a wall, with the chattering and the laughter slowly subsiding, with me looking for places where even a ghost would fear entering, but in the madness of the moment and oblivious to the surrounding, I would make my way through to surprise the hidden one and shout 'caught'-- the disappointment clear on face.

For once, I wish to climb the hanging branch on my rooftop with pickle in my hand and bruises on my knees, swinging with the blowing wind and swinging my legs along with.

For once, I wish to get all dirty in the sand in the backyard of my house, trying to make the perfect sand castle no matter how much I have to dig and how much dirt enters my nails.

For once, I wish to watch Scrooge, Morticia, Ray, Egons, Johnny, Alladin, Ariel, Dexter, Popaye, Baloo, Kid cloudwala, Moglee and loose track of the moving time till I get a good earful from Mamma.

For once, I wish to get lost in Contra, Mario and Duck Hunt till my eyes start watering and I am practically exhausted after the duel of which I became a virtual part.

For once, I wish to take the prized tasty sandwich in tiffin and showoff to friends in tiffin break who have not been as lucky as me that day.

For once, I wish to get scared as if I have been just sentenced to death when the teacher says "Show me your homeworks".

For once, I wish to jump on the sand mountain till the owner of the treasure would come and howl the world at me.

For once, I wish to pull someones hair for messing with me or not listening to 'what I said'.

For once, I wish to win the much coveted title of 'The Cycle Race Winner' among the local gang members.

For once, I wish to have the jitters of understanding the unknown feelings after catching 'the cute shy one' in my imagination.

For once,I wish to stealthily tip-toe into the kitchen and grab as much as I can in that one life-or-death shot at having the delicacy which mom has been hiding since long.

For once, I wish to be dragged by papa to face 'Miss' in the parent-teacher meeting, praying for what was coming next.

For once, I wish to be that stupid-silly-unassuming-irascible-shy kid for whom the world was what she saw.

It happened to me!

Disclaimer: This is a true life incident that happened to me and I believe that it simple can’t be incidental with anything or anyone...

Though it’s not something I could write about but the incident suddenly flashed before me in my memory and I couldn’t help but write about it. It’s one of the funniest moments I have had till now.

This happened during my FMS exam last year. I usually get very tensed before any exam and this exam was no different. I had not received my admit card and FMS had a separate procedure for people who had not got their cards for entry into the hall. Well I had reached the center a bit late (considering the fact that I had to go through the checking procedure). And to add to the misery, the invigilators told me to go back and return the next year :| ! Anyways after a bit of persistence they let me in… It was quite late by then and I was completely freaked out… around 5 mins were left for the exam. As my habit I usually take a break to the washroom before exams. I became all panicky and was frantically looking for the washroom. Finally I saw it and had a quick look to check the ‘ladies’ sign. I opened the door, closed it from inside and barged in. Guess what happened next. To my horror and chagrin I saw two guys relieving themselves!! I didn’t know how to react and was all numb and guess what I did next… Instead of running away before they noticed me, I started shouting at them. Equally surprised and still continuing with their ‘work’ they tilted their head to see who this lady was who thought of hitting the gents’ toilet before the exams! I was shouting “Get out all of u! This is a ladies toilet.” One of the guys finished with his ‘work’ and turned towards me to face me. The look in his face is something I cannot forget. He was amused beyond imagination and directed me outside and showed me the signboard where ‘gents’ was written. Adding to my red face some jackass had written ladies below it with chalk and this is what I had seen before entering. Seeing the chaos three more guys had already gathered there who were in a bit of a hurry to enter and I was still stupidly arguing with them not to enter :\ Thankfully a peon from somewhere came to my rescue and redirected me to the actual ladies bathroom. It was then that I realized what had happened and I rushed out of the place to save my face. :\

Streamlining everything

I was just reading an article about the developments that have taken place in China and the way it’s been reforming itself. Slowly, steadily and with a single minded determination the country has been pursuing development, snubbing aside and ignoring all contrary beliefs of the world meant at disparaging its efforts. This is one thing that I respect in the country irrespective all the histories India-China have had.

On the other hand, we Indians are like some hard skinned animals. We think of a way out when the problem arises. Forget any long term visions even the short term ones are on ad hoc basis. To put things exactly, for example, the development of road happens only when they develop deep fissures, cracks and craters; dams are built after years of flood which is simply meant to check them with no concern whatsoever of its long term impacts, urban population is on an exponential rise and there seems to be no method to check this. I am not saying that some people should be selectively granted access to uptown place but what I am saying is that some initiatives needs to be taken to create opportunities everywhere even if it means a loss to the government. Its impacts mayn’t be immediate but it would show results only in the long term. But of course, this is how most of the people think- “What’s the point of doing all this… bear a big loss, and not even be able to take its credit.” Compare this with China, their infra is one of the most robust in the whole world, and so much of detailed engineering goes into them that we cannot even think of being anywhere close to their expertise. Sadly, we simple remain mere bystanders and spectators to this continuous development taking place in our neighborhood.

So instead of taking on the whole problem in one go we can simple break the task into smaller parts and take on them individually, somewhat like guerilla warfare. Take this for example (I take this example because this is one of the immediate problems I see in front of my eyes now that I am in Kolkata).

All Kolkata looks to me is a land of blue/red/white buses and yellow taxies. The roads are always a stream of vehicles one following the other. The thing that bugs me the most is the enormous use of private transportation here. It might sound ridiculous to some people who might say what’s wrong in this! But I want to ask what’s so right about this? Imagine if one person consumes 5-6 lts of fuel per day, occupies ~ 30 sq feet area on road; calculate how much 1000 or more people commuting here would contribute to the figure everyday! Of course it would be immediately countered by the argument of comfort they get and ‘If-I-earn-I-will-spend’ theory. Now here’s a plan to accommodate these concerns also. Just streamline everything.

But before suggesting changes I will give a brief on the traffic concerns in the city as the traffic woes of this place is a different story altogether. Thanks to the huge Kolkata population, irrespective of 100s of buses, taxis and the underground metro, the supply still falls short of demand here. Buses are always overcrowded; taxis are always reserved and even breathing gets difficult in the metro during peak traffic hours. When I first came to the city, I was shocked to see how even older women had to chase buses/ shuttles to board them. Girls avoid public transports for safety reasons. So people are mostly forced with no choice here.

But the important question is what can be actually done. We cannot ignore the fact that people like co-habiting with people who they think are like them or better than them, in terms of financial status, standard of living, mindset etc. So I will accommodate this fact in this streamlining model of commutation in Kolkata that I want to suggest. Just like we have economy class, business class planes, the same can be created for buses also. Create an id-card system for all people which would give them selective access to different buses. Simple restrict or downsize the number of taxies plying on road say for example by some lottery system. I am not saying it’s easy but it can be implemented. Lots of other planning like finding some other employment method for the people who thus lose their business has also to be done simultaneously. These buses should be very well maintained and a limit should be put on the number of people who would be allowed to travel standing to avoid overcrowding. Any deviation by anyone should be dealt with very strictly. There should be well maintained bus stops and all buses should strictly ply on time. It looks very animal like the way these buses move with a conductor hanging and howling “hada hada hada” and 10-15 people shoving each other to get in.

However just changing one aspect won’t be effective or long lasting unless a holistic approach is taken. There are some of the areas where I think serious intervention is needed. These are things very obvious but just because our eyes have become used to it and hence we are okay to it doesn’t mean that they can be ignored. Places like Esplanade, Chandini chowk are like some archaic places with the buildings being monuments in themselves. And south-Kolkata, whenever I pass through the place I always have this feeling that it’s a hub of infiltrated Bangladeshis. They are so much a part of Kolkata and the pathetic ambience there is so obvious that no local person here would even notice anything wrong.

Nobody likes changes which is even a law of nature (remember Newton’s 1st law- the law of inertia) and more when it is abrupt. However, if some drastic measures are not taken things will never go towards improvement but towards deterioration.

May 13
I just had a nightmare which made me wake up with a startle. I don’t want to write about it though. But what it made me realize is the one thing that I love, cherish, treasure and prize the most. Something without which, I don’t see how my life can further- My parents. I know you should never love something so much but I just can’t help it. So this blog is dedicated to them.
Touchwood Touchwood Touchwood Touchwood Touchwood
It’s about love so unconditional, so selfless, so true, so pure that it’s not earthly. Yeah they are my parents. These bonds run so so deep that realization won’t come until it snaps (heaven forbid). The roughest time I have had with them was during my teens. I won’t blame anyone for this though... There was serious miscommunication between us. I was all very irate and irascible and they had no clue about my “ridiculous and absurd” behavior. But then you realize that just because they don’t understand doesn’t mean they don’t love you.
My mom is still a very child at heart. I always wonder how she can manage to remain all cheerful most of the time, no matter what happens. She is like the most talkative person in house and when my sis and she come together, it’s like they get topics pouring down from all over the world to talk about. I keep thinking how they can talk absolutely inane stuff for so long. However, when it comes to communication between us, it’s like her thoughts goes in one frequency and mine in a completely different range. The only thing that she understands is that I am sad and that I need to be happy no matter how. And until I am happy she would keep on suggesting her ‘innovative solutions’ and ultimately assign it to some rahu-sani graha dosa. (For starters, she is an astrologer.) I really enjoy taunting her about her astrology stuffs which “runs the world and all our actions are dictated by some loony poor planet doing their sentence revolving around sun”. However jokes apart, knowing the fact that someone becomes sad when you are sad makes them so much adorable that it’s indescribable.
Now about papa..They are just so opposite. My communication is better with him than the same with mom. He also can’t see me sad and would end up becoming sad himself. His favorite topic of discussion when I go home is talking about all the funny theories of mummy and complaining about her ways. Nywz, I just don’t know how and what I can write which will rightly portray the bonds and their love for me. Touchwood!

Hi all. My internships are on and all google links are blocked in office . Somehow I got an access through a datacard. So posting two blogs which were lying in my system together..

The Forest

Writing some arbit stuff based on my mood.. don't try to make sense out of it :\

The smoky forest stood there as ever so wet and gloomy

Coexisting with the endless tranquil river with its meandering ways

Some trees so tall and some frail, needing support, stood there as nothing ever changed

The lull so chilling and the silence so grieving

Towered by mountains all around were they

Sometimes it snowed and sometimes it rained

But they still stood there impasse

Did they ever talk or are they maimed forever..?

Are they not scared of the emptiness surrounding?

Voices is all that I strained to hear

Nights were even more eerie

Was the place haunted?

But they never seemed to complain..

Maybe they were content for they were at least together

For at least the river flowed by their side never failing to water them

For at least the sun shone on them, embracing their leaves with warmth

They seemed to say "we are similarly unique so together"

The same water seeps through our body and the same wind touches us all

Maybe that is how they talk..

For words are not the only means to communicate

An eternal bliss they seemed to enjoy quite oblivious to the world outside

To the wood cutter who would brutally cut them to fill his needs

Maybe this is why the mountain existed

Protected them from invaders and not to forget brought them the rain..

The life of the forest thus ran deep unoblivious to the world outside

But fitting everything together like a jigsaw

Each complimenting the other, creating a small world of their own.