Snippets of the Story

Hey people i'm putting up the first few paras of ek chhotisi it love story. If u feel its any good... then write your comments and i'll finish it.

Every once in a while we get to hear or read about a tale which immediately finds resonance with something that happened in our lives. This could be one such tale, especially if you, dear reader, have gone past that milestone called graduation and have been in that environment called as "the workplace."

Call me Amrit.

I am the narrator or the sutradhar, and the following story is about a girl I loved, lost, found again and then..., well you'll read about it soon enough!

I completed my B. E. in Computers in Maharana Pratap, University in Kanpur. Being one of the lesser well - known and rated institutes in Uttar Pradesh, campus placement was pretty much non - existent when we graduated. Me and my fellow graduates left on this massive yearly ritual that Engineering graduates undertake called as "JOB-HUNT". We immediately left for the Makkah of IT professionals in India, Bangalore.

We initially stayed at a hostel which was populated with like - minded job hunters from all across India. Recruitment season was on and every day we left the hostel to visit hundreds of IT firms that dotted the landscape of Bangalore. Every evening there used to be a party hosted by all the hopefuls who had secured a job during the day.

A month had passed by and many of my friends had got placed. Finally the day arrived when I finally landed a job, at GloboTech Inc (GTI), a MNC with branches in Bangalore, Chennai and Mumbai.

During the job - hunt days, I had found become very good friends with a Bihari named Sanjay. It turned out that he had gotten placed in GTI too. The two of us immediately started rented apartment hunting in the vicinity of the IT park where our office was located. The IT boom had of course driven up the prices but finally we were able to locate a modest 1 BHK flat which suited our purposes, not making too big a hole in our pockets and was just located 15 minutes away from office, by Sanjay's bike.

This blog stuff

Hey I really like this blog writing stuff. It's pretty cool. I get to write whatever I want and it reaches a potentially world wide audience. I mean of course, this potentially means opening myself up to ridicule...but that's never stopped me before.

I mean after all only 10 people might read my blog ... out of that only 1 might like what's written and think it to be funny while the other 9 might be going --> "Whadda F***?"

But even if that 1 person leaves behind a comment of appreciation........

.......That makes my day!


So please the 2-3 people who do come over here....Please don't hesitate to comment on what I've written ... If only to trash it. I'll mightily appreciate it.

The Art of Loving

I dunno what's the big deal with all this love stuff. In the next few pages i'm gonna rant and rave against it. This is the kind of stuff that I normally spout or splutter when Valentine's day comes along ... along with its cutesy heart shaped saccharine sweet accessories.
I mean of course even I've been in love ... more than once ... made me feel so crappy each time.

I just saw a squeamishly romantic, tragically pathetic Hindi movie on TV ... was forced to watch it for reasons best left unexplained here. Each time the on screen couple coochie - coochied to each other ...singing sweet paeans about the glory of love and what not ... i felt like puking my guts out.

I mean we Indians can't stand public displays of love right? Yet our movies seem to be full of them. The hero - heroines prance all around the rest of the world dancing .. generally displaying their love by gyrating their hips and shaking their booty for all to see. So then what's the big deal?
Why do couples at Bandstand get booked for indecent behaviour? Why the cops harass young couples just aching for some privacy? Why do two communities excommunicate and issue fatwahs against two people who did just the silly mistake of falling in love? Why does Richard Gere get an arrest warrant issued against him for just giving a peck to Shilpa Shetty on her cheek. Why don't I ever get such an oppurtunity? With Shilpa I mean ... not Gere ... ahem moving on.

Well it's because we Indians have a purdah mentality which we like to impose on others irrespective of whether they like it or not.
I call it the "Yahan mat karo, Wahan karo, Jhaadi ke peeche!" mentality. Of course currently even the Jhaadi ke peeche part is frowned upon.

I feel that such a moralistic attitude is right...I mean even though we Indians produce nanha munha bacchas at a rate like no other country...we still like that stuff to be hidden...which is absolutely correct. But hey that's my opinion. Because i'm irrational. Because I'm an Indian.

Next week's topic...Mandira's sarees and Ash and Abhishek's honeymoon...Pretty Intelligent stuff. Stay tuned...

The breakdown of my body

I write this post while I am in a moderate amount of pain!

My job is taking a toll on me mentally and physically. Maybe it's not the job but the gruelling journey that I need to undertake daily as well as the accompanying pollution that greets me on the road is responsible.

But finally it is me who also has to shoulder part of the blame for following a regimen in which exercise is the one major missing component!

I can literally feel my health deteriorating all the while. Physical pain is one thing, but the mental agony that comes when you are dependent on others for routine day - to - day activities is the actual killer.

Recently I suffered a spasm in my back which had me bed - ridden for two days. In the initial period I couldn't get out of my bed without the help of my patient, ever -caring parents. That moment right then was when my eyes actually welled up, not because of the pain or because of the weakness, but because I just couldn't handle this scenario. For one dark moment I realize how paralysed or otherwise invalid people must feel.

It is a curiously disturbing experience. To have that sinking realization within you that the things you used to do in the past without even thinking about it - walking, running, jumping would never be possible again is phenomenally spirit- crushing and mind numbingly devastating.

Of course the spasm passed and I have recovered to an extent that I can resume work duties and can sit in front of the PC for elongated periods of time working in the office or typing crappy shit pieces like this in my home.


But that one incident made me realize how precious my body is, how valuable and sensitive and achingly personal a resource it is. This was a warning. Clear and Simple. My body won't tolerate abuse through inactivity any more.

Its either Change or Wither your life away.

Ek Chhoti si IT love story????

Now how does one go about creating a tale who's underlying themes are romance, intrigue and unrequited love? In other(simpler) words how does a "pyaar mein aath aane kam" guy like me write a love story? Now since I am in the IT biz of course i'm gonna try to incorporate this into my storyline. In the last 20 odd months of working in an IT firm I have seen many a so called "office courtships and office romances" i.e. love that was created and nurtured in the sterile, brightly lit, caffeine overdosed IT environment!
Unfortunately since I never got a taste of this particular type of medicine I will have to offer at best a third person perspective to the story.

Of course since it's gonna be my story it has to be quirky yet realistic, touching yet nothing that comes close to being too mushy, lovey - dovey, smoochy-woochy, or overly mentisental! After all I don't wanna run the risk of producing something Barbara Cartland or Danielle Steele would be proud of!

I'm writing an initial draft. Of course, in the past also I have announced that I'll be writing a story only to forget about it later on (The life of a rioter being a fine example of dis.) But since I've already started so maybe this one will see the light of the day!

Of course I can take such risks because I'm not afraid of alienating the core, regular readers of me blog, simply
because there exist no such people.

So here goes (meaning in the next post which will be whenever..)
Ek prem kahani,
ek S/W engineer ki zubaani!

The dogs of Goa

I realised that I need to write something humorous to lighten up the sombre mood in the blog that my previous few posts have created. So I give to whoever bothers to visit this red - light -area of a blog an incident that happened a few years ago on a sleepy road parallel to a sleepy beach in Goa at a time of the night when everyone had gone to sleep.

Anyone who visits Goa for a holiday knows that the time cycle that you daily follow back in your hometown goes for a toss! Our mornings began at 12 noon, our lunches were had at 6 in the evening and our nights ended usually at 4 a.m. in the Morning. On one such day, I think it was a Tuesday because weird things tend to happen to me on Tuesdays, don't ask me why, or rather on one such night we felt the need to get some dinner at 12 a.m. in the night. So three people were allotted the task of retrieving the chow from a late night neighbourhood eatery. Unfortunately the road that lead to this dubious delicatessen was a one mile long affair with no street lights.

So on a moonless night, three weary souls, namely Paul, Pranay and Moi left for the afore mentioned chow palace. Now I use the names of my other two friends without their permissions so kindly don't mention this to them If you ever happen to meet them by chance walking down the road or something.
After a few minutes into our journey, when none of us had spoken more than a sentence or two, Paul who more often then not tends to come up with ridiculous ideas, came up with another ridiculous one. "Lets race to the place!", he said with the typical enthusiasm that only he can display. Now it actually indicates the type of simple souls Pranay and Me are that we actually agreed to this plan.

Somewhere deep down from my consciousness came up a voice, which keeps on surfacing occasionally, "This is stupid, You Idiot!" I don't know why but this voice which resides in the nether regions of my brain always keeps on abusing me whenever it speaks.

So just about the time when the minute and hour hands of a clock rendezvous in an upright manner, three dark figures started running down an unlit street which until now had been so quiet that the sloshing sound emanating from an urinating mosquito would have been heard.

Just a few days ago before leaving for the shores of Goa, I had visited a local store and bought a pair of Hawaiian chappals for what I had thought as quite a bargain. How i wish I could turn back the clock and exchange them for some noiseless sneakers! We ran! And then it started! Dogs, Dogs and more dogs! Dogs of all kind! Barking dogs! Howling Dogs! Dogs wailing in their mother tongues some ballads of lost glory and tales of woe!

Now just close your eyes
and try to visualize...
First ran Paul,
the swiftest of us all.
Then ran Pranay,
shoving me out of the way.
And then came I,
crying my whiny lil' cry,

And behind me were the dogs, teeth gnashing, jaws open, tails wagging all the time barking their hellish barks. Of course the fair citizens of Goa whose cottages were lined up on either side of the road weren't going to forgive us for our sinister crime. Cries of "Tommy Go!" "Jimmy Catch!" "Moti Kill!" joined the cacophony of barks as these well bred dogs joined their savage cousins in our pursuit!

The hotel was visible now! Were we going to make it? But by now the dogs had overtaken me! One of them jumped on my back and as I fell to the ground! Another two pounced on Pranay! Only the slippery Paul managed to reach the doors of the deli into safety! But then he peered out and saw his stricken comrades!
Giving the war cry of "Har Har Mahadev!" he joined in the melee trying to ward of the canines trying their level best to rip off our throbbing throats!

Have you ever been mauled by a dog? Of course you might have or might not! Those who haven't believe me it is one of the scariest experiences in the world. You grow numb with fear. The pain hits you like a rush of wind, knocking you out with a solid punch. You cry but your wails are cut off by the fangs that have pierced your once unblemished neck!

Of course nothing of such sort happened! Soon through a combination of some Karate moves, some Kung Fu chops and some Hakka Noodles borrowed from the kitchen the dogs were separated from us. We reached the safety of the hotel, took the food parcels that awaited us and started on our way back! We waited a full hour before proceeding to do so. While returning everything seemed to be pretty calm! The dogs satiated with their fill of Manchow soup had drifted back to sleep!

Paul looked at me and suggested "Shall we run again?"

The voice from deep inside of me came to the fore again. Surprisingly this time I wasn't the target of his tirade! "Kick him in the balls!", it suggested. I couldn't agree more!

How to lose a friend

I guess when the time comes for me to hang up my boots, to retire from whatever career path i will have trod in the opaque future, I will probably end up writing a book based upon the title of this post.

I seem to have this curious knack of turning very good friends away from me in just a moment of unexplained lunacy.
It happens thus, The day begins, the morning shows no signs of this being a day out of the ordinary. A chance circumstance causes me to meet up with my friend, a topic comes up and then in a stupendous mind boggling display of insanity I say something or do something that causes extreme anguish or hurt to my friend and just like that we are friends no more.
I like to end friendships with a single line - "Have a nice life!"
On second thoughts maybe that should be the title of my book.
And then just like that a once strong close friendship is broken.

The reasons why these events occur, in a alarmingly frequent rate nowadays, never stands up to even a cursory scrutiny later on. Try as I might I cannot explain why I behave the way I do.

Do we all have these demons locked up away in our brains which are released all of a sudden which make us lash out in a selfish, callous, irrational manner. Is this an indication of a deep rooted psychosis, which makes me destroy things that meant something special to me at one time? I guess it's called foot in the mouth disease, but the rush of blood to my brain that precedes it choking off the air supply to all my brain cells which are good and just and rational is inexplicable.

I have this thing, this fad where I like to observe my actions at a later date dispassionately, from a third party perspective. Somehow these observations always tend to come to the conclusion that I was in the wrong. Or maybe these conclusions are not so dispassionate or unbiased as I perceive them to be. Maybe they are clouded by the overwhelming feeling of self-hatred that I possess and which tends to consume me from time to time. Or maybe this is all just crap!

God! I need to stop overanalysing so much!