A boon

He traveled the road untraveled for long. He met a saint on the road.

“You have traveled long on the road untraveled to find me. I give you a boon. All your thoughts shall come true” the saint said

“What happens if I think of losing the boon” he thought.

PS: This a what I call a tweet fiction :). Again this one is on thoughts and beliefs. And was written along with "an Encounter" post. This one of course leave a lot open :)

An Encounter

               It is not the 100s of years of history or the fact that this place hosted the world famous boat race that made this abode or lord Krishna very special for her. It was more about memories, memories of walking on the graveled temple courtyard holding her father’s hand, of running around with her brother, of happy laughter as her father held her up so that she could ring the temple bell. She had been here since the time she had nothing to pray for. She had come here praying for ice-cream, she had been here praying for distinction in SSLC exam and then for an engineering seat. On her wedding day she prayed for a loving husband and promised a thulabharam with coconut when her baby girl Indu was born. Even with time and increasing prosperity there was something timeless about the temple. Very much like ever present old sanyasi’s sitting at the temples large stone paved mandap, chanting from prayer books or reading the Gita or mahabarath or just praying with their eyes shut, often leaning on the beautifully engraved stone pillers.

Among the never ending sound of chanting, prayers and temple bells, the soothing aroma of sandal wood paste, incense sticks and burning camphor. At the evening pujas, among the dancing lights of hundreds of lamps she felt there were moments when time stood still or even reversed. Here she could forget that she had a teleconference to attend late night that day. Although on vacation she had to be available on call as the project release dead line was just a couple of weeks ahead. Indu’s vidyarambham had brought her home this time.

The ceremony was better than expected. Indu was in awe of the proceedings at the temple. She was happy about seeing her favorite animal, elephant inside the temple premises, all decorated and majestically being part of the celebration. Indu was excited as the priest held her hand and helped her write her first letters in a Malayalam, her mother tongue that her mother could hardly write. Indu was enjoying her day out. But we were in hurry. Three or four days of vacation never gives you any time to relax, there were many relative to visit, many a thing to do.

As her mother in law and husband went to make offering to the temple deity and collect prasada, She lugged Indu along to get coupons for her favorite milk payasam. One has to stay late till noon to collect the payasam. But as they were in a hurry they would give away the coupons to sanyasi’s meditating and praying at the temple.  As they were walking back Indu shook off her hand and ran to a very old sanyasi standing at a corner and offered him the coupon. He was short, fair, bald and thick white beard almost covered his face. Visible part of his face was wrinkled and he looked above 80 years old. Dressed in saffron he looked lovingly at Indu and put his hand on her head blessing her.

He raised his head and looked at me. His eyes were bright and he had a soothing smile.

“ I am god. A big storm is coming. I choose you to build the ark that will save this world”

She was shocked. She bit her lips to stop laughing out loud. Poor old man should be out of his mind. She took out a 10 rupee note and put it on floor next to him.  

“Dear daughter, this storm shall not bring fast winds or raging water. It shall bring greed, distrust and cruelty that too in my name. It shall not shake your concrete building but shall shake humans being living inside first. It will shake their morals, shake their goodness and blow away love”

Now she was getting frightened and too shocked to react. Hundred thoughts ran through her mind. Should I run away? Or shout for help? What does he want? Will he attack if turn back and start running?

He continued “Human mind shall be the wood you would build the ark with. The ark shall be held together by good thoughts, love and compassion. You should start building the ark by guiding the youngest uncorrupted minds. Like a fisherman spread your net of goodness in mighty oceans of human mind, and I promise you guidance. Take this coin, when in doubt toss this coin and if it falls with my abode facing up, take is as yes”

Saying this he pushed the coin in to her hand. The coin fell down as she pulled back her hand frightened. Now she was panicking. she was feeling slightly dizzy. Her face was all red, and she was starting to sweat profusely. There was a few seconds of uneasy silence that seemed like years. The old man was holding her mind such that she could not even run or was it her fear paralyzing her? Suddenly his face grew a bit sad.

“You can give me your ring, I shall duplicate it to prove who I am” he offered

Oh god he is some fraud she realized and took a step back and hid her hand away from him. He now smiled knowingly.

“What if I disappear? Would that help you believe?”

Oh god. Please make him disappear, She though as the shock slowly started waning.  She stood in silence trying to guess his next move.

Suddenly she heard Indu cry behind her … “Ammaaa…” she had stumbled and fallen. She ran, picked her up and held her up tight trying to pacify her.  She caringly inspected Indu, she was fine and was just frightened.

“Come let us go and find your daddy.” she said as Indu clung on to her. In all the action she completely forgot about the old man. She suddenly turned back to look and he was not there. She quickly looked around, he was nowhere to be seen. She walked to the spot where they stood talking a minute back. The coin was lying on the ground. She picked it up.

“Amma water …” Indu should be thirsty and hungry by now, she worried. Water bottle was with her husband. She hurried to her husband as she tucked the coin into her purse. As they hurried back to their car, feeding and handling Indu completely occupied her mind. Hectic travel and Indu together tied her thought so much that she did not even mention it to her husband till they were on bed that night and Indu was fast asleep.

Her husband could not hold back his laughter as he heard her story.

“Stop laughing you will wake up Indu … baby is too tired” she scolded playfully.

“Anyway good that you did not give the gold ring or he would have done the Houdini act with it” he was still laughing.

“Could he be god? When he said I should start by guiding the youngest uncorrupted minds, could he be referring to teaching job?  Just yesterday we were discussing about me resigning from this stupid IT job and take up teaching so that Indu could get a bit more of my time. Could facebook, internet etc be the mighty oceans of human mind he was referring to?” She wondered aloud.

“Why don’t you use the coin god gave you? Was it not supposed to guide you?” husband replied oozing with sarcasm.

She fished inside her purse and brought out the coin.

Her husband was more fascinated by the five rupee coin than her story.

“Oh this is a special one. I will keep this one safe for sure. This was released by RBI in 2010 to commemorate 1000 years of Brihadeeswarar temple in Thanjavur” he added.

“So the first question is, should I take up teaching job? Please toss” she egged him on

Her husband tossed the coin. It fell with temple facing up. They looked at each other and laughed.

“And the next question is should we switch off the light and sleep?”  He continued with a more sarcasm.  

Both of them laughed. He tossed the coin and it fell with temple facing up. They obeyed for once, switched off the light and slept. Next day life went on as usual.

PS: I come back to blog in name of god :). It is a short story on our beliefs. Noted the first few lines a month back. But completed it now. And special thanks to my proof reader cum reviewer. The temple in the picture is not the one in story but is one of my favorite in Pathanamthitta. 

Best friend’s best friend

Preface: Unlike the previous love story, this is in my regular style so read at your own risk.

Her father always wanted a girl child. With 2 boys before her, she heard from her mother that he fasted for 41 days and went to Shabarimala to pray for a girl child the year she was born. It was her father who named her Indira. She was named after late Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Like Indira Gandhi her father wished her to be famous, intelligent, brave and able. Her father treated her at par with his boys, if not better. So when she completed 10th standard she was sure she was headed to the popular boarding school, away from home. The school was popular for bagging most of the top 100 ranks in Kerala engineering and medical entrance exam.

The first experience away from home was tougher than what she had expected. At hostel she missed her mother to wake her up in the morning. There was no tooth brush with paste, hot water and warm towel ready, nor was it a sparkling clean bathroom. No one asked her what she would like to have for breakfast and it was a 5 minutes walk to hostel mess. She had to manage laundry, essential shopping and house keeping on her own. There were no protective brothers or familiar friends.

Mridula was her room mate, the only kid for her NRI parents. She was in Dubai with her parents till 10th standard. She too was staying away from home for the first time. Both of them became great friends, it was just a matter of hours. Other than their frameless spectacles and Timex watches they had their love for jackfruit chips, gossips, movies, Prithviraj (Malayalam movie actor) and boys in common. Within weeks they were fondly called Siamese Irattakal(twins) in their class and they never missed sharing all their unimportant important things.

There is something about best friends they make us feel surrounded with a crowd of loving people. Getting up in the morning and getting ready was less tiresome with Mridula yapping endlessly about school (previous and present), her plans, suggestions, movies, food etc. They realized food tasted better with Mridula talking about her Dubai experiences at KFC, Pizza corner, Starbucks, TGIF etc. They talked endlessly on how stupid Annie looked with all the makeup on or how invisible after sunset Swetha should have been named before she was born. After classes, in between assignment and studies they talked about anything and everything under the sun. Late nights were for discussions, from biology text to Howard Roark to Mr. Knightley. Every Sunday Mridula’s uncle and her grandparents would visit her, replenishing their stock of chips, biscuit and Halwa.

That year her parents were visiting Kerala during Christmas Vacation. And they bought her a Nokia express music mobile phone and a post paid connection. Phone number XXX6743852, was etched in Indira’s mind even before, it got saved in here dad’s mobile. She was excited. Her dad had not allowed her to get a mobile phone, but now her roommate had one. Now her parents did not have to call the common hostel landline to contact her. Now her parents did not have to try for hours before they got the line free. She did not have to dress up and rush to the phone in the common room when someone informed her that she had a phone call from home. She too was going to be connected to her class friends all the time. Then there was the camera, the mp3 player and the Radio Mango FM to entertain both of them.

Back after Christmas the mobile phone did bring more changes than expected. Every morning started with Mridula’s mothers wake up call. She would put on her hands free head set and her mother gave her instructions for the day, as she brushed her teeth. After classes between study breaks she would get calls from dad, mom, cousins, uncles, aunts and grand parents. Indra’s parents soon realized it was easier to get the common landline free, than to get her roommate’s phone free. Mridula would be furiously texting as they studied. Only discussions were about assignments, that too often monosyllables. Indra would wait for Mridula to be off the phone to go for breakfast or dinner.
“edi Maaye 9 mani aayi, ippol poyillengil rathri pattiniya … najan oru 5 minuteil vilikam” So the meals too became a hurried affair. There was no more incessant chatter to go with beans thoran.

Late nights they did not discussed why Thomas hardy’s Giles Winterborne was more viable in present day India. Late nights were for her friends from Dubai. Indira came to know that Mridula had a lot of friends. Minu, Jayesh, Moris, Jomol, Laya, Rijesh, Jayanth, Anu, Salim, Tina, Noyel and many more would call between unending SMSs. Indra would spend more and more time with books, as her best friend paced around the room talking to her phone.
Every unimportant important thing was shared with the phone even before they were shared with Indra or often not shared with Indra. Her roommate celebrated, mourned, laughed and cried with the phone. There was so much of fun, friendship, laughter and joy in the room, but Indra felt lonely. She was alone in a crowd.

They still ate, studied and lived together but still the magic that existed couple of months back was missing. She realized her best friend had a new best friend.

P.S. This story was written some time back. And is related to a very old blog (this blog: Connectivity) :)

A proposal - PART4

Links – PART1; PART2; PART3

PART 4 - The Sunday (Last Part)

Next morning there was an uneasy silence between us. We were lost in our own thought. As we reached the Koramangala Sukh Sagar Jovin and Mithun were already there. Jovin had become more handsome. Mithun had put on a some weight. But for a second it was old times again.

We sat around a Table in one corner. There were six chairs around the teak wood table. I, Jovin and Mithun sat on one side, Arun at one corner on other side. He was lost in his own world. Priya was the last to join. She took the other corner, with an empty seat between her and Arun. Priya was as beautiful as ever. That ever lasting smile, at times I too fall in love with her. Especially like that day, when she does not over do it. She looked a bit tense. Arun was concentrating too hard on the menu card, his mind was else where. I saw him stealing a few secret glances at Priya. Only Mithun and Jovin were taking unaware of the smoke and fire in the minds around them. Priya was looking at her phone very often, like she was desperately waiting for that one call from prime minister of India.

“Don’t you think these 3 guys are unnaturally quite” Jovin asked Mithun.

They had noticed that only two of them were talking for a quite long time. Among the rest there was an uneasy calm. The silence was most conspicuous on Arun. He was looking drained out.
All three of us looked at each other for a second. And then Priya got a call and she got up and moved out to talk. She looked more excited as she came back.

“Dear friends …” Priya started, clearing her throat and holding an imaginary mike infront of her. She did this at college to catch our attention.

“This is to help our friend Arun who is chocking with all the secrets he is holding within him. For your information, I proposed to Arun day before yesterday …”
Atleast 2 of us were surprised and shocked.

“And the bigger shock is …” she continued, today she was at her best.
“Our Arun is in love with his colleague called Neena, and is planning to get married…”
Now atleast 3 of us were shocked.

“And Vishnu came to know about this from Arun’s parents just a few days back. Since Arun had kept a big thing like his love story a secret from us, his best friends, he decided teach him a lesson. So he decided to play a small practical joke on him …”

“A joke that had become too serious…”. I thought silently. Arun was sitting shell shocked.

She continued “So Vishnu called me up and told me the story and the plan of action. As per the plan I called up Arun on Friday and proposed to him. And that is the reason for this embarrassed face …” she said pointing to Arun’s face. Arun was staring at me dumbstruck. He quickly signaled me to silence.

There was a moment of silence on the table and then every one burst out laughing, including Arun and me. But I could see the tears in Arun’s eyes. I could see his heart, feel his pain.

“And the surprise is not yet over. I introduce you to Neena” and then Priya made a call and Neena walked in, she took the seat between Priya and Arun.

On Saturday night I had got Neena’s number and send it to Priya.

It appeared like a perfect get-together then on. Arun and I kept a bit abnormally quite.

As both the Girls left after breakfast, as four of us stood silently, I remembered what Arun had written secretly on the last page of Priya’s final year project report on the last day at our college.

When the tiring sun sets
When the wandering mind is set free
When you think of the people you love
Please remember me.

Priya or Neena never knew about the Saturday night discussion. Ever

A proposal – PART 3

Links - PART1; PART2

PART3 - A Long Weekend, Saturday

It was a long weekend as Monday was May 1st. All four of us were to meet in Bangalore that weekend. Mithun and I reached Bangalore on Saturday morning by bus and Jovin was to reach Bangalore from Hyderabad by 6.30 am by Bangalore Express.

I was staying with some school friends for the first day, Jovin and Mithun were meeting up some family friends and our plans together were from Sunday morning. Around 6’Clock I got a call from Arun. He wanted to meet me it was something urgent. He sounded different, he always sounded different when his brain was working. Only other time he had sounded like this was in college, when on way to hostel from city market on his bike, police had stopped him for a routine license check and caught his favorite movie collection (a bunch of pirated movie CDs and DVDs) and demanded Rs.200 bribe to let him go. This was sure urgent. In one hour I was with him in his 2nd floor 2 bed room rented apartment. Two of his other 3 flat mates were in Kerala for the long weekend. ) One was in office

Aliya Aake kalip aayi… (brother-in-law its trouble…). He said

I couldn’t help smiling. After all three years the same opening dialog, reminded me of the hostel days.
It was then that he broke the news of his love with Neena and his upcoming wedding plans. I acted as if surprised. I had got the news a few days back. But the problem was not that. Friday afternoon Priya had called Arun and asked if they could meet to buy a gift for Jovin. They met after office at the Forum Mall. Priya looked more beautiful than ever. She was happy but a bit differently happy that day. She was chirpy like ever but her mind was somewhere else. They walked around Forum Mal, bought an iPod nano from Forum 2nd Floor Apple store (quite an odd gift for a guy going onsite to US) and a greeting card from the ground floor Archies store. Then they went for an early dinner to KFC. It was here that Arun first smelled the smoke of fire that was burning within Priya’s mind. She was tense and silent but the smile was intact on her face, it makes her look cute. And according to Arun what followed were the longest few minutes in his life. Priya said she had come to know of Arun’s love for her (through me) a few months back and she was pleasantly surprised. Right from college she too had a soft corner for him. Not for the silent, shy and reserved Arun he was when she was around but the talkative, cheerful and active Arun he was to all the other girls in the class. Priya’s love for Arun she said was a secret among her ladies hostel gang as his was in our gang. She had though about it over last few months and had lost hope that Arun would muster enough courage to propose to her and so she was taking the initiative. As Priya knew the kind of indecisive soul he was and she had given him a week’s time to think over it and give her a reply.

As Arun completed the narration a few minutes long silence followed. Both of us just sat looking at each other. I was more surprised by the Arun’s emotion and reaction, than by the news it self. It was for the first time I was seeing tear in his eyes, but it was not going to be for the last time. The silence grew unbearable.

So what did you decide? I asked
"I know dad and mom will go crazy. They were really not very happy with my plans with Neena itself. Now when they come to know I am leaving her to get married to someone else they are going to be mad. But it has to be so. I haven’t slept a bit since yesterday. But I realize that Priya is my real love, I have always loved her. It was Neena only because I felt Priya was impossible. I know I shall break Neena's heart. But it will be cheating if I still get married to Neena with full realization that I love Priya."

Now things were getting out my control. As I opened my mouth to say something, he continued.
"I need to set this right soon. First I will talk to Priya first thing tomorrow morning. I will tell her about Neena, and what my plans are. Then I go to meet Neena and explain everything to her. I want you to be with me when I talk to Neena. Hope she will forgive me for being cruel to her. If not today someday at least she shall understand that what I did was the best for both of us. Then I need you to talk to my parents, tell them I am sorry for being such a looser. I never understood myself well, then how could I understand a girl. I know my parents trust you for your practical and radical thinking. I trust your assertiveness and skills to convince people."
You sure have to trust in my skill at convincing people, for I could convince someone to get you in this mess, I thought silently.

Before I could open my mouth, there was a knock on the door. It was his roommate Jeevan who was back from office.

“No more discussing this infront of Jeevan” and he got up to open the door.

Damn his secrets. I thought silently. For sure none of his roommates had any idea of his plans. We did not discuss anything more that night.

“Don’t go ahead with your plan till tomorrow morning breakfast” I said to Arun as we wished goodnight and slept.

All four of us were to meet at Koramangala Sukh Sagar, A south Indian vegetarian restaurant. Priya too was to join.

A proposal – PART 2

Links -- PART 1

PART 2 - Life After

They say life is like a river, it flows on.

After college all of us stated with our software job. One year into our first job we all realized that a bunch of true friends, that was the all that we had picked up from the educational super market. After learning Electrical and Electronics for four year most of us were working for software giants, writing software codes in java and C for banks, retail chains, telecom majors etc. It had nothing even remotely electrical or electronic about it.

Good Friends change you when they are with you and but the best among them change you even as they leave you. Life had destined us to make more friends and change. In spite of sincere effort all four of us ended up in different IT companies different cities. As we parted company we changed in our own ways. Away from the careless, talent wasting and criminally lazy gang of ours Mithun discovered the genius with in him. Two years on Mithun was a well established expert and a genius in embedded software, often spotted in big conferences. Brought away from the romantically challenged, slightly jealous and female reflecting gang Jovin found the suppressed Casanova within him. Couple of years later when I met Jovin at Forum mall in Bangalore he was with three beautiful girls. That was not all, to his own good he was also a testing lead for a team of 6 girls in his company.

After college far away in different parts of the world, thanks to gtalk, yahoo, skype etc we still remained the same close knit gang. Meeting on rare occasions set by office needs or friends traveling onsite for long-term. Although far away, this circle of friends did have a huge but not often explicit impact on the thought pattern even career moves each made.

Moving away from the gang did bring one positive change into Arun’s life. Arun and Priya were the in Bangalore. Thrown into a silicon valley of India, Bangalore, alone away from our prying eyes he got to slowly build on his friendship with Priya. The love part was well hidden with just friendship at the forefront. She too had a good impact on him. She helped him increase his confidence with girls and horning his romance skills. That influence could explain his new girl friend Neena. She was his talkative, straight haired, lean, anemic and ever smiling colleague. They were in different projects but on same 7th floor of their office tower. Friendship started when they met at a tree planting drive in a social service club in the company and grew over a period of 3 year over tea, lunch, weekend movies, shopping and travel to kerala for vacations. From a mutual friend who is also Arun’s and Neena’s colleague told even the office gang who were with the couple through out never knew of it and were surprised when they announced their marriage plans. The love was again a well guarded secret (There are a few who say Neena was the one to propose marriage). Even I got to know of this a lot later under some special circumstances.

That year the get-together was in Bangalore. Jovin was hosting the party, as he was going onsite to US for a year.

A proposal - PART 1

PREFACE:  This part is specifically for ones who know me personally. Please do not try to find any correlation with real life. I was curious if I could write a college based love story, so I wrote this. I selected 4 friends (not 3 or 5) because as you know 4 is my lucky number :D. All characters are fictitious and any resemblance to any person living or dead is coincidental. More over finding correlation is also doubting my ability to cook up stories :D:D

This story is to be posted in 4 parts.

PART1 - Four Years and a Degree

      It was his father that I noticed first, one of those dominating father figures who imparted their worldly wisdom even to unsuspecting strangers. His father told me “college is like a super market. It has a lot of things on the sale, but it is up to you to pick up what you want” It was then that I noticed Arun almost eclipsed by his dads imposing figure. He was fair, lean and tall with straight hair falling on his forehead, almost hiding it, in a pair of jeans and half sleeves shirt un-tucked. The only time I saw him dressed otherwise in the whole five year was for Infosys campus interview. Losers have an eye for other losers and with in no time we were friends.

The vast campus had a mixture of new modern looking and old colonial looking building. Buildings painted with yellow and white, class rooms with high roof, large wooden windows with broken glass widow panes and a larger than life history of a 100 year, the engineering college was intimidating for freshers. At the entrance was a big banner, in big red letters on white cloth it announced “College of Engineering Welcomes Fresheres”. Coming from different backgrounds and different schools with different dream, all we had in common was a bit of excitement and lot of anxiety. The men’s hostel was a three story building in form of a spanner. It was located at one corner of the college campus and diagonally opposite to the women’s hostel which was in shape of hexagonal nut.

At the college hostel we got to share the room with two other roommates. Ragging by seniors that involved various physical and cultural activities at odd hours formed the perfect glue that brought us together. The life away from home, hostel food and excitement of exploring the new city too was a catalyst in forming the lifelong bond.

Mithun was the brightest of us all. The curly haired, short, chubby guy from kerala’s culture capital Thrissur had nothing cultural about him. He single handedly was the reason for our grades in all exams, our project work, assignments or anything even remotely academic. It was our combined effort that kept him away from the brilliant grades he was capable of. Jovin was tall, fair and handsome, knew Bollywood dance and could crack jokes that made girls laugh (and only girls, we cried on his jokes). And the only reason he did not have dozens of girl friends was that we kept him busy with our extra curricular activities. Arun was the nearest to what we call romantically challenged. His heart went out to all girls in college, but somehow he seemed invisible to girls.

The first year involved a lot of ragging, football, kathi (Malayalam for knife, pet name for unending discussions) on girls, football, cricket and gossips, classes, assignments and studies starting couple of weeks before exams. The second year had lot of football, late night kathi, movies, copying assignments and studies a week before exam. By third year we had our own computer and it was a year of unending computer games, movies, kathi, football and very few classes and studies a couple of days before exam. Forth year Arun and Mithun bought motorbikes and there was a lot of roaming around, no classes with projects as excuse, kathi, football, movies and studies just on the day of exams.

One of the hottest topic for late night kathi was girls and love. In the early days Arun’s interest in talkative, straight haired, lean, anemic and ever smiling Priya, our classmate also formed the highlight of the late night discussions. Here too he lacked the incentive. She was the reason for all the activities he did which were very much unlike him. She was the main motivation when he joined a social service club in college where he never did any service. She was the reason he religiously attended all technical festivals and conferences although he slept through all of it. But he was the last among us to talk to her. The fear that if he opens his mouth, he may give away his feeling for her kept the most talkative one of our gang silent in her presence. Being in hostel and given the extrovert Priya was she did become a part of our gang, rather I would say the closest any girl got to the boys gang. This was more by chance than by design.

And This story began where most campus stories ended ...

Traffic

Traffic was getting stuck early in the morning. An autoriksha driver had stopped in the middle of the road for some unknown reason. Behind him the white and blue BMTC city bus driver was trying to squeeze in through some imaginary space between the auto and the median but realized the futility and started honking. All this was at a T junction was not helping the matters. The Toyota quails call-center cab driver who wanted to turn right on to main road from the cross road had to stop. With him the traffic in other direction too came to a standstill. And in between all this there were motorbikes trying to squeeze through. Together they had made up a huge zigzag pile of vehicles on the road. Vehicles of all sizes, from Bikes to Buses were stopped at various angles forming unimaginable patterns. Bangalore was having its usual traffic snarls on an unusually warm Monday morning.

He was out of his house early in the morning. His wife had got his clean, crisp starched white dress ready. He had to drop his grand daughter at nearby primary school. The little flower school was at walkable distance. He did not have to worry about traffic today. But the traffic block was making him uneasy, he shouted out to the auto driver to move to the side. The auto driver gave him an indifferent look but still moved on. This irreverence from common auto drivers was new to him. The lack of prompt reaction from the driver irritated him. With a brief instruction not to move, he left his grand daughter on the footpath and moved in to stop the traffic coming into the main road from the cross road. Slowly the traffic on the main road started moving. He could see his grand daughter worried look, urging grandfather to move on. After all it was no more his duty. The change from the traffic cops white shirt to a retired man’s white shirt was too big. Even well anticipated and planned change is a change after all. The first day of his retired life after a long stint as a traffic cop was feeling stranger than he had expected.

With in a few minutes the traffic flow was back to normal. He felt a sense of satisfaction. With an inconspicuous smile on his face he continued his walk to the school with the kid in tow. As he passed by the nearby local fast food center he saw the duty traffic cop having Rava dosa and tea. It was the traffic cop's daily quota of free breakfast turning a blind eye on parking violations by hotels patrons.

Never Talk to Strangers

I was having Dosa at SKC. It is one good south Indian restaurant around, famous for Tamil food. He walked in and occupied the place near me. As I repositioned myself to give him more space, he looked at me and gave a warm smile. Now it is against my principle not to return a smile. So I smiled back.

X: The Dosa here is good. Right?
Another way to start a conversation, good, I thought.
Me: oh yes. It is good.
X: I am Sailesh. I work for infosys. I stay in 15th B Main. Where do you work?
Me: Wipro

He was young, stylish and looked like a typical software engineer. He is a neighbour too after all I thought.
Here it stated and then went on. Topics moved from work, to VLSI, then Hosur road, then traffic, infrastructure in Bangalore, Delhi, travel, then to Kerala. I finished my dinner by the time he finished a cup of filter coffee. As we walked back home he offered me his visiting card. He got my mobile number.
I had forgotten the whole story by the time I reached back home. As usual, life went on. Then after two days I got a call.

S: Hi, how are you?
Me: Hello, who is this?
S: Hi buddy, this is Sailesh. Forgot? How are you?
I did not even remotely think of storing his number. I have his visiting card I thought as I slowly build up his case file in my mind.
Me: Hi Sailesh, great to hear from you. How are you? How is life?
S: doing great yaar. Btw I have started a small business of my own. And that too is doing well. I manage that in the free time that I have and make decent money too.
Me: that is great.

Curiosity got the better of me and I committed the crime of asking what the business was.
S: Oh. It is quite interesting and simple too. I will meet you today evening and explain in detail.

Did I ask for this? Anyway let me be-positive and after all there is no harm in giving a patient listening to some one. So we did meet in the evening. He was an Amway Business Owner. It was a kind of money chain. And he was hunting for people to join his chain. Then it was a one hour long great talk show, where I added background scores like yes, ok, fine. At the end I politely informed of my disinterest.

S: you should meet my friend. He can explain things better. He earns in near to lakhs from this. Once you talk to him you will be dying to join Amway. I am sure. Give it a try buddy. After all what is the harm in just listening?

So we met this big boss. There was a whole gang of Amway members at his place. The boss explained that he had resigned his private company job to manage his Amway work full time. He got out a whole set of forms.

Big boss: So which plan are you joining? 20 or 30 thousand. You just have sign in the following places. Sailesh will give you all the guidance. And congrajs.

Excuse me. I did not even say I am joining. Things were moving very fast. I wanted to get up and run. He thrust the set of forms and pen into my hand. This was it. I had wasted enough time. With a lot of conviction and a pleasant smile I got up.

Me: thanks. But I will not join. Good night.

I made a conscious effort not to run as I waked out of the room. The whole thing has left me a bit irritated but still amused. I was dying to tell the story to my friends. Dinner first, I thought as I walked to my favorite SKC. I occupied an empty table and ordered my Dosa. Then this young man walked and took the chair near me. This time I had become more careful. I concentrated hard on my Dosa. He ordered a plate of Idly.

X: Hi, nice spectacles. Where did you get this? I was looking for one last weekend but did not find a good one.
Bloody hell, another Amway guy, it is definitely not my day.
Me: Thanks, I got it from Eye Sense near to Forum Mall.
X: I am Praveen. I work for IBM.
Not again my friend I thought silently. I cannot handle one more today.
Me: Hi, I am Sailesh, I work for Infy.

Then it went on the usual way. As we said good bye he offered me his card. I got Sailesh’s card from my purse and handed it over to him. I safely tucked his card into my purse. After all I may meet more of them.

The Jackfruit

As a kid N K Pillai often traveled home to Kerala form gulf for summer vacation. It was in one such trip that Jackfruit caught his imagination.
Till that day he thought he had deciphered one logic in gods creations. God kept big things near to earth and small things on top. Like sparrows, crows fly and Ostrich does not. Pumpkins grow close and mangoes grow far. At times he felt lazy and kept even small things close to earth but with Jackfruit god chose to keep the huge fruit high up on tree. He got the sample of the edible part of the fruit form one of those visiting ‘unknown aunts’ who asked the same introductory question “Auntine Ormayundo mone?” .Question roughly converts to “do you remember me son?”. Ofcourse he always suspected even his mother got some secret help from Grandmother to recognize these guests. Then the sweet taste and smell of jackfruit again caught his attention. Looking at a big one high up on the tree he made up his mind to get it down. He put forward his plan to his two cousins. First time in that vacation both took out their school books. Next was his brother, equally impressed by the taste jumped out to his help. One look at the tree, second look at the fruit on top, and then I saw him getting ready for a bath like an obedient son. Some are overwhelmed by thoughts of hardship, few other turn back at sight of it. Kids lack guts he thought.

He put forward the plan to his mother and aunt. Mother went to prepare tea. Aunt taught him many new things. Jackfruits are bad for diabetes. Bananas are better for health. Jackfruits make good food for cattle. It is popular only among poor. She does not like it. Her kids never even taste jack fruits. Implicitly she was not getting into this mess.
So his next target was a group centered on his father. And this group was into real serious stuff. Local politics, international events, great promises and greater letdowns were the hot topics. He put forward his action plan. Father was quick to react. He suggested trying something less messy. The resin from jackfruit is unpopular enough to shy away any reasonable dressed person. They leave indelible stain on dress of the person who tries to handle it. It leaves our hand stained and smelly. It requires a lot of work, cleaning with coconut oil and dry cloth to clean our hand.

In addition to word of caution he also got from the group the way to his aim. He was showed a big bamboo long enough to reach the jackfruit. He managed to drag it to action area. He looked up contemplating the next step. Then he spotted the great Moni (the village coconut tree climber) on a top of a coconut tree. The small muscular man seeing NKP’s effort came down and helped him bring down the big fruit. With some effort he cut the fruit brought out the edible parts and laid it neatly on a big banana leaf. By this time NKP was looking dirty enough. He was send to his mother’s custody to be cleaned. His clean brother made the first attack on the fruit. Soon the studious cousins followed. Next was the aunt who hated jackfruits. The group of nation builders led by his father felt it fit to have a snack break. And then of course NKP. Moni uncle who cleaned up all the inedible part got that waste as a gift as it made good food for his cows. The effort built in N K Pillai a big love for the sweet, common and undervalued fruit. The effort taught him some things more than getting jackfruits down. It gave him valuable lessons he always carried.
1. If the desire is strong enough help comes form the top of coconut tree.
2. You cannot be honest and enjoy Jackfruit without getting your hands dirty.
3. You can have Jackfruits without getting your hands dirty provided some fool dirties his hand for you