Sunday, October 30, 2005

Ant on a floating leaf

Like an ant roosting on a floating leaf,
Here sits my soul holding itself in this beef,
Carried along by the rush of the stream,
To some unknown land, coming in my dream.

Days go rushing by, ant goes travelling by,
Never knowing what is coming by,
Or never bothering what went bye,
Floating in the stream, the ant goes travelling by...

Ant wonders why I am here,
Or am I going anywhere ?
Quests after quests, leading it nowhere,
More thoughts, mind goes in despair...

Am I the king or a slave or a mere witness,
Came here just to see this world distress,
The more it tries to find out its self,
Who am I ? the quest leads it back to itself.

People try to define their fate,
With awe confidence, describing in prate,
But the destiny has already been defined,
Then how can they say, they reach the undefined.

Like an Ant on a floating leaf,
Goes my life floating in grief!
Where does the flow take me ?
Wherever it be, its the purpose I shall be...

On The Wings Of An Alligator

With the enthusiasm for the coming day, I closed my eyes...

Suddenly, a loud sharp cry of some lady, pierced my ears. With a shocking shiver, I opened my eyes, and stood up in bed,to see what had happened. It was early morning and my friend had switched on the stupid box. I had the anger of boxing those advertisement agencies, when I found that, the scream was indeed made by a silly lady, for losing her hair during her bath. Another stupid one suggesting her to use Livon Hair Oil to prevent losing hair.

After that I lost my courage to sleep again and thought of getting ready for the picnic, which our company had planned for the day. With the usual sluggishness of early morning, I had an adventurous bath and within an hour, became refreshed for the journey to come.

The sun had already risen well to see me and we felt we were getting
delayed for the planned event. To cope up with the time I spent in the bathroom, I had to struggle hard to keep my hair in position, while sitting on the bike, which was streaming through the sprouting traffic of Bangalore highways.

Finally we reached the spot. I can't remember the number of buses
scheduled for the trip. But I luckily got into one of them. I found that none of my friends were in it and that made me a little nervous. The occupants were all sitting dumb and open mouthed. I was a little bewildered, on whether the bus was going for some funeral and I got into the wrong one. I looked around scratching my head and found some of my colleagues, calling me from some other bus. I realized that I had got into a bus meant for married people and there was another one for dazzling bachelors.

I took my breath back and ran towards my day. I don't exactly remember why, but I prefered to switch to my friend's bike, which was following us althrough. The journey by bike was far more flexible, with the two wheeled automobile, climbing all the terrains of the region and pushing across the slippery stones, making its way through. Passing across, a sign board captured our attention. It was on some waterfall, whose name attracted us. We decided to see the Chunchi falls and took a diversion...

Even though the name of the cataract was a little amusing, it turned out to
be a scenic one. Not so high, and deep, which made us to try some adventurous poses. It was a moment, to see the cascade splash on to rocks, spraying droplets, giving rise to a fine art of iridescence. We had a big photo session over various spots to capture as much of the fall as possible. It was a little piteous to watch a small boy, occasionally jumping into the waterfall, after climbing the whole set of steep rocks, to make his day got along. We paid him a nice amount,which I cant exactly remember, for something which we wanted to do, but he did it for us.
The journey back, from the fall was one of the rarest adventures, I ever
had. Luckily we discovered a short cut from the waterfall, to Magadhattu, our
intended picnic target. The road was totally empty and was well set forth for a bike race. I felt literally flying, when the two wheeler "pulsed" across, the narrow crooked road, in full speed, testing its engine capacity. In between, we had to pass through a sub rural village, the one of its kind, which I saw for the first time. They were looking at us helplessly, with strange faces, as if we were some aliens, with a flying shuttle crawling on the muddy roads, splashing the dust all across.

I don't remember, how much time I spent on the bike, but we ultimately
landed on target spot. I found some of my friends playing in water as if they were trying to get back to their childhood. It was really interesting to watch one of them practicing mosquito catching with frizbees, and then passing it to others, with some new found methodology, analogous to throwing a rotten egg. I did indeed catch some frizbees passing by, and later switched to capturing the beauty of the sangama to my kodak collections. I even tried to pose myself for a photo, standing on a lonely sharp wood, in the middle of water. It took so much for my friend to take that snap, which landed me in wounding my feet, from beneath, which added a bit more challenge to the picnic.

The local bus trip was an unforgettable event. Since it was more of an
antique than a bus, the driver got a little worried, when he saw our number and offered us to sit on the roof at our own risk. I managed to climb to the roof with my wounded leg, since I knew that its going to be an experience of a lifetime. We sat over the bus, hoping the beetle would move soon. Atlast, after a serious try by the driver, cleaners and wrestlers from our side, the bug slowly started moving. It was a true adventure, and an experience, when the branches of trees were coming against us, and we all sitting in lines, were waving across, to escape, like a flag flapping in the wind. The bus was moving through all the ups and downs and me sitting in the front, felt like I were in some roller-coaster ride, to miss a heart throb.

We reached the spot called Megadhattu, a rocky cascade, witnessing the
artistic talent of nature over time. It was truly a masterpiece, and was hard to
imagine such fine carvings are not by any human, but a true endeavor of nature. Even though the name of the place suggested that, the cascade used to be jumped across by capricorns, it was a little incredible, viewing the width of the flow. I don't remember, how long I spent in there, but we started back on the roof itself. This time, it was pretty crowded, since many more had switched to the roof from the ground floor, because of our adventurous delineation. Hence I had to compress myself as much as I can to find my space on the lap of somebody else. This time the waving of our heads against branches were too rregular that I could occasionally here some strange screams, followed by a curse to the neighbor.

This seemed the end of the adventure and we all got into our leased buses.
Since I was a new entry to the bus, I had to compromise the back seat. The bus was moving ruthlessly over humps and we being in the back seat, were experiencing like we were in some hurdle race. An anthakshari was going on in the background, and in my nap I could occassionally hear something like "kyonki saas bi kabhi bahoo thi" from one of our naughties. The bus was jumping too hard, for me to forget the idea of having a nap and joined the anthakshari team. Very soon the team got too spirited and many more silent colleagues joined. The light system of the bus, imitated a disco room, and we all started dancing for some unknown music. The environment soon got very hot, when all got into a dancing spree. The spree was too high that the dancers were blind at they were jumping on my wounded feet. I had to move towards the
footstep. The door was closed, but I had to make sure that it was properly locked. I made a bent, when one of the dancers fell against me, the door got opened and we were thrown out ...

Suddenly, a loud sharp cry of some lady, pierced my ears. With a shocking
shiver, I opened my eyes, and stood up in bed,to see what had happened. It was early morning and my friend had switched on the stupid box. The story On the wings of a "butterfly" was about to begin...

Footprints in the sands of time

Like the deciduous leaves of a gigantic tree, our group is deteriorating day after day. Recollecting the days gone, we arrive at that auspicious day, which started it all, that one-day at sona 3.

<>What an awesome day it was, when we all, from diverse directions and cultures, sat together under one roof listening to one of the "never-remembered" lectures on Bhanjare, with a handful of intermediate buffoonery by the HR head. That Augustus day at Sona 3 when, none-of-us knew each other, and was trying to make private groups, our "bhanjare man" indulged in with a new trick of acquaintance, "the circular interaction", which began it all and which through its simple principle of understanding each other, has created such a wonderful friendship.

Whenever the clock turned 11, you could see an exotic flower, with forty wonderful petals, all well arranged in a circle, with the most beautiful four of them carefully placed at the centre, chatting and drinking tea, surrounded by a chunk of astonished musical instruments. Those boring lecture hours, when we could see a sleeping Simha, a smiling Sheik, a stubborn Sai or a snoring Susama, and the lecturer remarking, "I can see two people sleeping over there", and we asking each other, weren't those, myself and you, who were sleeping !! The day at Nandi Hills, when we all turned skittish, playing around and teasing monkeys. How many dogs and monkeys were stilled, when the camera flashed in the hands of our renowned bluffer, Biplab.

<>The lecture days got over very soon and the little birds got their wings to fly to their destinations. Still the binding was so deep in us that it was pretty difficult for us, not to see our names in the mailbox. The days when we didn't know how to use BCC for sending mails and a Ravi Kumar shouting, when he found that our big grouplist almost vanished those dainty sardharjis'. Once again we all came together, with the advent of the Annual day, the boys, practicing "Hum he naye, Andaaz kyum ho purana...", and its tempestuous exposure at the stage, when we all started dancing, adding to the thrill. I still remember, a shy Ratan, who was deceptively pushed to the stage by Mark, when we all entered to rock it. <>Those beautiful days at the Games Village, when we used to promise each other, of accompanying in jogging early morning, and cheating each other when the sun opened his eyes. The evening walks with Rajeev, when we used to share the happenings of the day. And back in office, those countless sardharjis, that flowed through our ws9, everyday, with the ultimate target of making our day happy. Happy days went on and on and our first anniversary came up. The endeavor of Anil and Ratan in arranging the fantastic trip to Shivasamudram, which marked the pinnacle of our closeness, epitomizing how much we cared each other, the still pending issue of Aacharya's Marriage party which filled in our mailboxes for long, the white rice scandal, brought out by Suresh and Sudhansu and finally an accused Subrath, all blossomed our days, through. <>Once again came a season to freak out, the 19th Annual day. Neelu was buzy in accumulating the prizes and decorating the stage, when all others had created a pandemonium in Sona 3. Some practicing their "Bhol Chudiya...", Some picking up steps of Saathiya, and somewhere a set of trainees were getting packed up. In the center you could see a Prasad and his team, setting the plot for their drama, on how to propose to a lady, "without any daring lady component in the team".

The days went on and on and on and here we are... At the juncture to say good bye ... That Beautiful flower, with forty petals under one stem is no more. Some have been taken away by wind, some got dropped by excess heat, and some hanging around, not knowing when to break loose. But wherever we may be, we shall always be bound by that omnipresent truth of friendship. All those days we spent under this wonderful Organization, shall always be remembered, like the "Footprints in the Sands of Time".

A White Wall painted Red

I got selected in Motorola, and had a medical checkup as it used to be. It was in Wockhardt, and since it is very near to my company, I smuggled in for the checkup during my office hours. As soon as I entered, the receptionist verified my checkup-list and asked me to wait. I sat on the nearby sofa, relaxed. Soon a chap and his girl friend came and sat just opposite to me. They were chatting and looking at me, curiously. I thought for a moment, why, Am I that handsome? Again that lady was staring at me ! I found a little embarrassing, but didn't show.

Later one more lady came, she too, for a medical checkup, probably a company provided, just like mine. She was of my height and good looking. She came and sat beside me. I didn't care. Soon the receptionist called my name and I went to her, and while talking, I just turned around to have a glance at the lady who was sitting near me. Only then I found a photo hanging from the wall, with a subtitle saying, “Save your kid from polio, Take a vaccine today! ", I was taken to my feet, but didn't show it up !

Later I moved up to the X-ray room, and found this lady following me. She was filtered at the X-ray room entry and I went in. Later I came back and moved on for the eye checkup. This lady came back from the X-Ray room and again sat near me. I wanted to ask her, her name, but soon the eye specialist called me and I moved on. Coming back, I found, she was not there. I found myself a little nervous. I enquired the receptionist about that girl. The receptionist responded, by telling, she had gone for blood checkup. I waited quietly. Receptionist asked in a stentorian tone, "Don’t you want to check your urine and stool ? ". I woke up to the situation and moved on! Coming back, I found her sitting over there. Oh yes! I just moved on and sat near her. She was not looking at me, so I asked her name. She said, "Anjali ... ", and then she asked me mine. I asked her, which company she has got into. She seemed too polite and said "siinz", I couldn't hear it properly, but what’s there, I responded, "siinz is a very good company". She corrected, "Its not siinz, its nssiz". Still I couldn't hear it properly. But I didn't give up. "Oh, I think one of my friends is working in
nssiz". She arose again for the second time to correct me, but this time with a little more sound. "Its ANZ technologies". I tried to hide my impatience, "Oh yaa, you have the office here itself naa, in Cunningham road?”. She was going to reply, when the receptionist interrupted and she was called for the ECG test. If they did that test on me, at that moment, they could have traced some abnormality in my heart!

All my tests were over and she had something pending. The receptionist told, I could have my lunch and come back, since the doctor will be back only by 2'O clock. I looked back, but she was not there, and I hesitatingly retired for my lunch. I came back by 1:30 itself, hoping to find her there, but was disappointed to see one more guy sitting beside her. I think it was her company-mate. I about-turned and marched towards the hot Cunningham road for a walk to make it 2 pm.