Back to the Memory Lane - II

Back to the Memory Lane - I

"Yes!!" I told to myself while taking off my sweater and keeping it on the seat next to me as it was not occupied. With that positive note in my mind, I could able to read the novel peacefully.

I heard someone saying a "Hi" and I ignored it as I was not sure whether it was addressed to me or not. Again a louder "HI" and the voice were not that pleasant. I looked up with expressing kind of some light irritation in my eyes. There was a surprise for me. She was standing there looking at the book that I was reading. I immediately expressed happiness in my eyes overriding surprise and that stupid irritation.

I responded, "Hey".

She smiled back to me and that was the first time she smiled at me. There was something special in her smile, name it as "different". I said, "Please sit", taking my sweater and placing it on my lap.

"How do you know that I came here to sit beside you?" she said.

May be she was trying to be very smart with me? But I didn’t care much about it. I replied, "Until now nobody took the pain of walking all the way from that corner of the row till here to say me a Hi!"

"Yeah, you are right. I was getting irritated by the guy sitting next to me. When he is awake he tries to be extra nice and when he is sleeping he snores like a frog"

"Hamm, that’s sad to know. By the way I was not trying to be extra nice to you. I was trying to help someone"

Shit!! Words came out of me! I hate it when people start giving explanation to defend their actions, but it was exactly the same which I was trying to then! I felt like I would not have uttered that line.

"Thank you, you made your point clear though I dint look for any clarification"

I smiled back to her cutting that conservation as I realized that I got into a strange conversation with a stranger!

There were a few moments of silence between us. I was looking outside the window, trying to imagine how nice it will be to fall through that thick layer of clouds below the flight.

"So, you are a software engineer"

"Don’t tell me that your other hobby is face reading!"

"I don’t have to look at your face to tell that" she answered with a smile.

"Yeah, I am one among millions of IT professionals. What do you do?"

"I am pursuing my Law"

"Hamm, Good! Good! We need some good lawyers in India to take up all old cases and give them an end before it’s too late"

"I don’t have any plan to do a revolution in that aspect!"

"Oh come on, you young generation have to change India"

"Can you make it as we young generation?"

I replied with all possible seriousness in my face, "yes, your honor".

She laughed. "Looking at the enormous count of pending cases, it takes ages to close them. And let’s talk something other than law and computers"

[Will continue this in the next post.. soon...]

If ever I had let the madness takeover...

From last couple of days [after this Day Light Savings Time] I am having tough time to fall asleep on my regular time [which is 11 PM]. And it was the same even yesterday. So rather than wasting my time by rolling from one end of the bed to another, I decided to do something different, like how differently I would have responded to some past situations if I was mad at that.

Incident#1:

“I need two years of commitment from you, to work with me” – this is what one of the manager told me, when he wanted me in his team.

I had to smile at that statement and responded, “I guess this is something which I can’t do right now”

“No, I want you to promise me that you are committed for next 2 years” came his reply!

“Nope, I really doubt about it, I think I am the wrong choice if you want 2 years commitment”

If I were mad at him at that time, I would have told him, “I dint even give 2 years of commitment to the company when I was joining, why would I give 2 years of commitment to you, that too after completing 3 years here!?, You must be kidding or how else you end up asking me something strangely stupid like this!!”

And I was telling my friend about this incident and there came his words, “You would have told him that you were not ready to give 2 years of commitment to not even your girl friend”

Point duly noted buddy.

Incident#2:

Many a times when I speak to a friend of mine, he talks about girls, girls and girls and at times it becomes a repetitive pattern. And one of few things which pisses me off is “repetitions”. I can absolutely hate it if I am not interested in that.

“She was one real b#@$&, I really had good time with her. Bla bla bla..” and continues [Sorry, I can’t get into the details]

If I was mad about listening to his stories, I would have yelled “Oh enough of this, I have had enough of this already, I am done listening to this part of your life. And yeah, if ever you think that it’s an achievement, you are hopelessly wrong! I bet you, there are better things out there to do”

Incident#3:

I remember this conversation with a friend of mine, when I was chatting with her:

She: u know what, it’s raining here, I stood in the rain

me: wow :)

She: I got totally wet

me: Hamm

She: u like it? I love to get wet in rain

me: At times I like it when it rains

She: yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. I love, I got totally wetttttttttttttt and then could not go anywhere with that dress

me: :-)

She: yeah, I was looking very transparent. so dint go anywhere

me: thank god!

I got myself out of the conversation that day, but given a chance, my madness could have responded to that situation this way “What exactly are you trying to tell now, and what is that you expect me to do now? Can you please stop this crap and yeah, you have got the wrong guy here”

Incident#4:

Though for being here [in Dallas] I get enough time to do “certain” things and I don’t do many things. But one thing which I do is cooking and I enjoy doing it. I do it my way and at times I try out different recipes which I find online and get to know through my friends.

Me being from Udupi [which is south west coast of Karnataka], I use coconut [Believe me, not as much as my mother or any Udupi people does] while cooking, though not always and not for all the recipes. And I don’t like direction unless I am trying out a new recipe. A friend of mine says, “Lets prepare chicken/fish. But don’t put coconut in that”

I simply say “yes” with a smile. But if I let my madness take over me, I would rather say, “What, now you are instructing me on what I am suppose to do and what I should not? If my cooking is a problem, why don’t you do the honor? I am more than happy to eat anything that you prepare, irrespective of how good or bad it is! Do you want any more discussion on this?”

Incident#5:

After reading few of my write-ups, someone made a comment about me, “Is he living in a dream world, can he manage to do something like that?”

Immediate response from my madness would be “Oh come on, you are here to judge me now for what I write? They say don’t judge people according to their appearance or what they wear. I guess we need to discuss on that, why don’t we catch up on this a bit sometimes?”

“It’s my own space and I could write anything – real, fiction, fantasy, I don’t really need to give any damn about what others wants to read out of it or I don’t need to be told by others about what I am suppose to be writing and what not!” ;)

I could not help myself from laughing after recreating all these situations and I slept wearing a smile on my face J

Back to the Memory Lane

I can still feel her smell, like early morning jasmine which is covered by dew. She always liked it whenever I play with her long curly hair, curling her hairs with my fingers, immersing my face on her hair and taking a deep breath, pulling her towards me and spreading her hair on my face. She always felt like a real women when I appreciate her hair. She would say, "Boy, you seems to be in love with my hair and not me"

It was during my trip to Finland when I first met her. I was in Frankfurt, hurrying up to catch my connecting flight back home to Bangalore. Immediately after getting out of elevator I saw someone trying to grab few stuffs spread all over the floor. I saw her from backside and the first thing I noticed was her long curly hair. I went to her and asked, "Do you want me to lend a helping hand?"

"No! Thank you!" was the immediate response from her. I looked back at her and that was when I saw her face. She was young with a beautiful face, but it was stiff and unfriendly. I dint care to bother much and got back to my business of locating my gate number.

I started reading a novel which I do most of the time during travelling. When the boarding started, I got into the long queue and I noticed her standing much ahead of me. Once after occupying my seat, I looked around, not to get a glimpse of her in particular, but I saw her sitting in the same row as mine. She was talking to someone sitting adjacent to her and she was smiling as well. I was still looking at her and changed my sight after realizing that I have been gazing at her for a while. I leaned back to take a nap as I was very tired.

I had slept for an hour before waking up. And the next thing I did after wiping by eyes was turning to my right to get a glimpse of her. It came so naturally that I dint even know what I was doing until I could see her curly hair dropped all the way till her lower back. She was sleeping, facing the closed window. I dint make any effort to shift my view. I knew that I was in love with her hair. And that was the first time I ever liked curly hair. Otherwise I always used to appreciate girls with silky long hair.

I closed my eyes only to continue seeing the images of her stiff face and curly hair flashing in my imaginary world. I tried hard to focus myself on the novel. Probably after an hour or so, again I looked at her as if I was there for that business. Couple of seconds passed by without any happenings. Sitting at the very end of the row, finally, for once she turned quickly and glanced at me. I have been waiting for her to turn and look at me. I dint waste a single second, I gave her one of my best little smiles, dimpled one. Though she dint return the smile, she sounded very happy, I could make out that. It happened in a flash, but still for once I had this feeling that it’s just the beginning.

[Will continue this in the next post.. soon...]

What does it take to have confidence?

When I was in Bengaluru last month, I happen to read an article on Sachin Tendulkar.

Once, during an ODI match again India, Brad Hogg [Australian spin bowler] got this prized wicket of Sachin.

I am not sure whether he kept that ball with himself and asked Sachin to sign on it during post match session or whether he asked Sachin to sign the photograph of the dismissal, but what happend next is very interesting.

Sachin took that object [ball or photograph] signed it for Brad Hoggy and underneath his signature, he wrote, "This will never happen again, Hoggy".

And Hogg could never manage to get Sachin out afetr that!

I wonder what does it take to have that much of confidence!!!

Anshul, my nephew who is 7 months old now, started standing without holding anything. He knows (?) that he cant stand by himself for more than 5 seconds and he will be falling down, but still he dont give up.

Everytime he tries to stand, he will do it for 3-5 seconds, he does all the drama to make sure everyone at home sees him standing and he smiles, laughs, claps and finally falls down, only to end up weeping. But it lasts only for 5 mins, and again he does it :)

For them, "No failure is final, until one succeeds"!