A Leaf Out of my Tree, A day Out of my Life ....

They say something’s are just not destined to happen no matter how close we come to realizing it. I didn't have to go any further looking for such a case coz i myself was a perfect example. I was almost at the fag end of my roller coaster journey and after going through all the bone crunching fights, the spine breaking rides and the nerve wreckling situations, finally i was there standing in front of my princess. She looked so very beautiful, so very opulent and so very inviting. And like a perfect bollywood movie all things were set for a happy ending. We both ran towards each other in slow motion with some 100 odd unseen musicians churning out romantic tunes in synch trying to make our union more pleasant & more filmy and just as we were about to loose into each other's embrace ..... "Tringgggggggggg Tringgggggggggg" rang the Alarm of my mobile phone waking me up and in the process throwing away everything out of the large window besides my bed, and that everything included my princess also. I had read once and the definition of "ALARM" which goes as this ... "An alarm (French: À l'arme - "To the arms") gives an audible or visual warning of a problem or condition." In this case though i could neither sense a problem nor any condition. I hated the tune of my alarm so much that i kept it as the tune which would wake me up each morning and believe me it was superceding my expectations with each passing day. I lied there looking up at the ceiling when i saw the Fan above hardly running; i immediately looked to my right and saw the regulator reading 2. How on earth did i curse my roomie for slowing down the regulator each night once i fall asleep and as if it was not sufficient, his snoring made my nights miserable at times. I looked at the time and it was 8:15 A.M. There are times when you want something to happen last in your life and arrival of the morning was one such thing for me. I got up reluctantly and there i was being transformed from a Human Being to a robot, the things i did after that can be purely termed as Machinic. Collecting the Newspaper & Milk from the doorstep, lighting on the Gas and making the tea, brushing my teeth as the Tea takes care of its own making, sipping the Half burnt Tea and opening the Page 3 of the paper first to check out the nice appealing and revealing pics, then marching ahead into the toilet to do the other more important activities which is better if not described in detail were the things that I would do each morning as if it was a programmed sequence of algorithms running in my brain. Words would desert me in describing how much i hate cold water and particularly when it ought to be used for bathing and again they would desert me in describing my heart felt thankfulness to my immersion heater. Being a bachelor, has its share of minor worries of which getting a descent ironed outfit early in the morning, definitely ought to be one. I on my part pickup whatever come close to the definition of "Wearable" and get ready to face the big day ahead. I wished our wallets could be as big as a lady's purse so that all the accessories can be dumped in at one place, but it was not meant to be that way so the most critical thing would be to gather all the necessary accessories that would have been thrown the earlier evening to each nook and corner of my flat. Just before leaving the flat, a silent prayer before all the Gods and Goddesses who sit majestically on one of the shelf of my cupboards & my Family Photo gives me the courage to fight all odds throughout the day. As i move out of my flat, people often see me coming out in a similar fashion each day. A tap on the right thigh, then the left, then the Shirt pocket and finally a tap on my pocket on the rear side just to check if i have carried my Cell Phone, My I pod, My ID Card & my wallet. The order of the things mentioned here is the way in which my hands move with the taps as said earlier. It was a kind of routine and subconsciously resided in my mind. More often than naught I take the stairs, not because am health conscious and love exercising but because the lift often lied in a break down condition. Descending down the stairs the thought that comes exactly after a couple steps is when did i re-fuel my bike??? If its the previous evening then i sigh a breathe of relief else i have to think about getting to the nearest petrol pump without getting stranded midway and i was lucky enough to do so whenever I ran out of fuel by hook or by Choke.

As i alight on my bike i feel like a king who is about to ride his majestic horse to the Warfield, in my case though i had a Flaming Red colored Horse. I had my Play lists saved on my I pod which are named as "English Collections", "Hindi Melodies", "Pop Albums", "Devotional Music" & "Soothing Ghazals" in the order of their display. Being the morning time i prefer either going with the English ones or the Devotional numbers, both the varieties are like chalk and cheese but i always was one who loves diversities. Am not particularly a fast rider and i tend to enjoy my ride so i prefer the 40-60 kmph mark, though that speed is again liable to change as per conditions. I have a very adjusting nature, so i really don’t mind decreasing my speed to 10 kmph if & only if that’s the speed with which a pretty girl is riding and at the same time i don’t hesitate in hitting the 80-100 kmph mark if am being chased by the traffic police or the Boy Friend of the pretty girl i was just taking about for that matter :-) Most of the times I reach office precisely after 20 mins into my ride and feel like Bryan Adams as most of the times the song which plays in my I pod by the time i reach hell.. Oops i mean office is "Cloud Number 9". Actually the song is again quite a diversion because i don’t know about others but at least i don’t feel like am on Cloud Number 9 particularly when i enter the Office premises. The other thing that happens each day as i try entering the office gate is the Guard stopping me and checking my ID Card. If he had his way i think he would literally pull me out if the moving bike, make me remove my helmet and cross check my face with the picture on the ID card with the aid of a magnifying glass.

Somehow I pass the security cordon and park my bike calmly in a place which is neither too far from my workstation nor the Gate, coz i am not a great walker and whenever I do so I prefer taking the shortest path. I enter the building and the thing I wish each day is the Lift door open for me; I hate waiting for the life to descend down from 5 to G as I tend to get impatient. Once I reach my floor I head straight to the coffee machine, grab a cup and reluctantly make my way towards my hot seat. A couple of smiles, a bunch of Hiiii’s thrown at random and I am all set to start one more day at work.

I often imagine sitting over there, am I at the right place, had I done something else would that have given me more satisfaction but then I recall the days when I was incessantly working hard to become what I am now a “SOFTWARE ENGINEER” so no regrets but definitely sometime down the line I would do something different which would satisfy my creative hunger. As I think about all this I unintentionally press the F6 button and as I see my Inbox getting updated with the new mails, it fills me with dread just thinking about the ordeal I have to go through the entire day.

Humans Makes God Helpless

It was a chilly winter night, i had just stepped out of the cottage where we checked in a couple of hours back. The place was heavenly, as of now it was only the look and feel which made me think so, but the explicit meaning turned out to be true very soon. I was wandering around and found for myself a comfortable log, which had laid itself comfortably about a couple of metres from the cottage. It was pitch dark all around but a glow somewhere far off down the woods illuminated the environ deemly, just enough to get a glance of objects around. I seated myself comfortably and looked at the horizon ahead of me, i could still faintly hear the music and discussions going on inside the cottage. Unintentionaly though i was diverted from the noise, because i dont exactly remember the last thing i heard sitting there. I think i heard something which diverted my senses, might be some1's foot step, hushing of the bushes, rolling of a pebble dont exactly remember but something which i felt took me off from that place to a different sphere all together not physically but mentally. I saw a shadow converging behind a huge banyaan tree which stood firm since time immemorial about a couple of feet from where i was seated. Had i been in my usual senses i wouldn't have dared to sit there once, i had the inkling of anyone being there apart from me. But since i sat there unmoved waiting for the things to unfold, i strongly belive i was transported somewhere else into a different realm. I could now see the actual being who was just a shadow a couple of moments earlier. There he walked off in front of me and he had something in him which made the ambience so serene and pious, i mean i had a different soothing feeling altogether. I watched him go by calmly, he was someone with a white silken robe. I was not able to picture his face though as the place was not blessed by enough illumination. He walked at a steady pace and stood still after traversing a fair bit of distance. He stood there looking ahead as if introspecting on something. It was time for me to get up and catch up on him, so thats what i exactly did. I went upto him and asked in a calm and nervous voice " Excuse Me !!! are you one of the tourists who have come overe here for a vacation ? " There was no word spoken to reciprocate mine and silence again brooded over the environ which was just disturbed by my voice. I stood there and repeated myself & this time a bit louder. There was a reply this time, a heavenly voice echoed through the woods which said " How are you Son ??? How have you been all this while ??? " Dont know why but these two questions seemed just enough to nullify the slight fears which i had, i felt as if i was talking to some1 i knew since ages. " I am Fine Sir, just doing great, how about you ??? " i replied, he nodded his head without looking at me and said " I am sad, very sad or should i say am worried son, am worried about all of you" saying this he slowly turned around. That was the first time i actually saw him he was a fairly tall old man with long white silken beard, his white robe which he had over him glowed majestically and it seemed the moon was outglowed hands down by the shine the man had on himself. Just the fact that he didn't have a Halo around his head hardly created a difference because the shine he had wouldn't have been enhanced to a greater extent. He looked sad, worried and i felt like he was very much perturbed by something. " Worried about us ??" i asked, " Yes, worried about all my children and you are no different" he said, hearing this i knew i was talking to GOD, in the midst of the chilly winter night, near that big log i was talking to GOD, its quite unbelieviable but i was sure he was none other than the creator of this beautiful world himself.
I had a million wishes, a million questions for him and it was just a matter of time before i was going to shoot them on him, i looked at him and saw tears rolling down his heavenly face, i was standing there seeing GOD weeping just the way we mortals do. To be true i was dumbfounded seeing the lack of godliness and glimpses of weakness in our creator. I dont know what gave me the courage to walk up to him and pat him on his shoulders, " What makes the creator of this world so sad ??? " I asked, he looked back at me and said " Religion Son, its the Religion which makes me cry" Each day i see my children vociferously praying to me in separate Churches, Temples & Mosques and the next moment they are hell bent on having each other's blood just because they have religious differences. My children can always pray to me and feel releived but whom am i supposed to pray ??? I have to fight my own battles and the toughest thing is i dont have anyone whom i can fight my battle with, i wish there was nothing like a religion tag attached to my childrens, i never even want them to pray me because thats where i feel they get the kick to fight. I being the creator would come to the rescue of my children even if i am not asked to. I was feeling like GOD now as i was the one who was supposed to hear the problems even GOD had in his life. A thought crossed my mind "How happy GOD would have been had we, his children silently admired & appreciated his creation".
I patted on his back again and said " Had you taken a day extra and put some more senses into the minds of your children, we both would have been laughing with joy now, and it wouldn't have really mattered if we had a day extra coming between Sunday & Monday to increase the count to 8 " GOD rose from his seat, smiled at me and said " There's nothing called perfect my son and i myself ain't either" but i can always take a chance to revisit my creation.

I on my part was not sure when god would take action but right there i decided a thing, the next morning i am going to rise, i wanted to be in a world devoid of religion because thats what even GOD wants us to do :-)