You will be admired and You will be missed, ALWAYS!

You reach home late from work. For a change, you are not active on Social Media and choose to sleep as soon as possible.

It is only when you wake up in the morning, you are shocked to know, what a loss that nation has suffered overnight.

Although you are not a keen follower of politics, neither are you a staunch supporter of any particular political party.

But still, you feel it like a personal loss.

In an era, when there were no takers for the concept of "Women Empowerment", when nobody thought of ”Beti Bachaao, Beti Padhaao”. Since then, you stood firm, portraying what an Indian Woman can do! You were not only an excellent orator but also a heavy hitter when it came to the action! You never forgot to empathize with the citizens of Motherland, whenever and from wherever they sought your help.

You will be admired, and you will be missed, Always!

ॐ शान्ति...

What is Life?

With wrinkled clothes and tousled hair, as you collapse on one of the ‘not so comfortable’ bus seats, it’s already dark.

The sun has set a few hours ago. You recall that it was still dark when you had left for work in the morning. You had a long tiring day.

“The sun also has lesser working hours than the corporate employees...” you curse the situation.

In this tiredness, too, the sleep deprives you. The dim lights inside the bus don’t let you read. The aimless scrolling on Facebook walls and checking unnecessary WhatsApp statuses of random people makes you feel bored.

Tiredness + Boredom - Sleep = Catch 22

It is when you decide to peep out of the window. And observe nature, that nature which is polluted because of the vehicular traffic.

“The bus is moving faster than usual...” Hardly did this thought strikes your mind when you come to know that the bus has come to a halt. The city traffic never betrays its commuters.

Outside the window, you see a small truck standing adjacent to your bus. It is like any other goods carrier truck, then what’s so novel about it?

But, still, it’s different for it carries discarded pipes, titles and other debris of remnants from a construction site and amidst this construction waste, you see men!

Men who are tan skinned, dusty haired and torn clothed.

Men who look just like you.

Like you, they too have had a tiring day.

But, there is one difference, one striking difference!

No, not that of the attire, attire is just a second skin, beneath which all humans look the same.

Then what’s the difference?

In the polluted air, amidst the honking horns of heavy traffic, on the bed of dust and dirt, all of them are sleeping, sleeping peacefully.

And you? With wrinkled clothes and tousled hair, sitting on one of the ‘not so comfortable’ bus seats, you realize,

“Life is what you make it...”


The Lunchbox

It's 6:33 am,
You have a bus to catch at 6.37 am, and the Bus Stop is 3 minutes drive from your place.
Yes, you are an Engineer, and it proves when you are quite habitual of doing things at the eleventh hour...

So, you are in the elevator with your better half (She is the one who will drop you on her Royal Enfield 'Jupiter'), and you have four floors to get down.
It is when the elevator has reached the third floor you realise that you have forgotten your lunchbox back home.
You ask (to be read as 'request') your wife to make the ride ready, and in the meantime, you decide to take the same elevator back home to collect the lunchbox...
When the doors of the elevator open on the fourth floor, you hear your neighbour shouting, "Son, your father has already gone downstairs with your lunchbox..."

It's 6.36 am by now...
You are absolutely in no position to catch the bus now. Thus, you call your friends who have already boarded the bus, requesting them to further ask the bus driver to wait for you.
Horror strikes when you realise that the elevator; instead of reaching the floor zero has reached level twelve! The doors of the elevator open to a school going girl who blocks the automatic doors of the elevator by standing between the two doors. And you are like "what the hell is happening!"
"Uncle (looking at your potted belly, that's what the kids call you these days), please wait for a moment, my Papa is coming."
You tell her that you are in a hurry, but your pleading goes on deaf ears. Girls, no matter how young or old are always tricky to handle! (No offence!). She lets the elevator go down only when her Papa enters the big box.

It's 6.37 and 30 seconds, and you remember the great cyclist Lance Armstrong who once said, "Every second counts..."

Meanwhile, outside your building, it's still a bit dark, and in this smoggy darkness, your wife who is waiting for you on her scooter sees a five feet tall figure running towards an auto rickshaw. She misjudges him to be you and starts chasing the auto rickshaw; your lunch box hung on the front hook of the scooter.

Thanks to your benevolent friends, your bus is standing idle at your bus stop, but you are nowhere near it. Feeling guilty, you ask them to let the bus leave.
Now, with the bus gone, you decide to take a lift from a friend who goes to the office in his car.

Your wife is back by now; damn upset with you (to be upset with you is her birthright! She is born with it).
She rides you to your friend's place; a distance of 2 to 3 km which she covers cursing you for your stupidity. You are all ears, but you don't dare to utter a single word. (You may call yourself a lion, but you very well know that you are a lion from the circus and you also very well know who the ringmaster of this circus is)
And as you reach your friend's place, you ask (to be read as 'plead') your wife to leave. You are worried that you may faint due to her curses...
And for the first time in your life, she agrees and takes the road back home at a top speed of 10 km per hour.

Husssshh... You feel that the drama is finally over...
But, hang on...
Where's the lunchbox?

It's still hanging on her scooter which is now parked outside your building...

‘This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda.’

Disciples of God are followers of the King today!

“There are long queues of people waiting outside a TV shop. All the box-shaped devices, big or small are displaying the same picture - A five feet five-inch-tall figure is manoeuvring the ball in all the directions of the field. As the young and old, with their eyes glued to the Television screens, watch in awe, the stage is set for yet another Tendulkar Century!”

Giving nightmares to the bowlers as he redefined batting, Tendulkar as a bowler too, was a treat to watch. He may get hit for runs, but then he would ensure to take wickets, he was every captain’s safe bet when it came to breaking the long partnerships of the opposition at the crucial stage of the game. After all, it's not an easy feat to take 200 wickets in International Cricket.

As Sachin remained the pillar of the National team, he along with his teammates, Ganguly, Dravid, Sehwag and Laxman, collectively termed as the ‘Fab 5’ formed a team which taught us to win matches consistently not only in the subcontinent but also outside it and thus brought Team India to a formidable stature which it enjoys today.

Tendulkar: From a boy-wonder to Child Prodigy to the Little Master to God. His journey was awe-inspiring. His cricketing career, a 24-year long walk on the 22 yards was the entire childhood for the kids born in the early nineties. Thus, Tendulkar remains even today, in their hearts not as a mere cricketer but as an emotion. The mere mention of whose name gives them goosebumps.

When Tendulkar hung his boots in 2014, there was a strange vacuum in the hearts of the cricketing enthusiasts, those nineties kids who were all grownups now. This void, however, was soon filled by a Delhi boy who was once himself among those nineties kids who grew up watching the great Tendulkar bat. And thus the stage was set for Virat Kohli.

As his career progressed, he proved to be a more lethal weapon of the Indian squad, a deadly combination of Ganguly’s courage and Tendulkar’s discipline.

Being Virat is not easy though, when every day you are being watched closely and when you are always compared with the Master who is your admiration in cricket. But, Kohli did not let the outer world hamper his inner self and kept scoring runs, breaking records after records. Very soon he may go on to break Tendulkar's record of 49 ODI centuries which at one stage seemed unfathomable.

As Kohli remains the cornerstone of India’s success, he with the likes of Dhoni and Rohit Sharma are taking the reins of the team further whose seeds were sown by the Fab 5.

Kohli: From a Star Player to Captain to the King, the journey is on at it’s going on a rapid pace.

As we approach 2020, there are no more long queues outside the TV Shops. Thanks to the Digital India movement, every hand now has got a big or a small device which can now store a plethora of apps and an unimaginable size of data. And at the end of any cricketing day when people browse through the cricket news, Kohli has already hit yet another century.

When they look at the ease with which Kohli scores runs, these people who were mere toddlers in the nineties, who in the cricketing arena call themselves as the disciples of God, they are followers of the King today.

Little Things...

Mornings in Mumbai, though not really cold but are dark. In this darkness, the street lights are consorting with the moon, which is yet to set, to spread the light.

There is enough traffic on the road to refer this time of the day as ‘peak hours’.

The watch on your wrist seems to be deceiving as it shows 6.30 am.

Just 6.30 am and yet another ‘busy’ day in the life of ‘Mumbaikars’ has already begun.

Amidst the plethora of auto rickshaws, school buses and milk vans as you hurriedly make your way towards your bus stop (that place, where you will meet your daily commuting agent, the company bus which will further take you to your workplace), you come across another bus stop where the kids are waiting along with either of their parents for the school buses.

It is here you overhear a voice,

“आई, आज bus आलीच नाही पहिजे...”

(“Mother, I wish, the bus should not come today”)

Unable to resist your smile, you look in the direction of the voice, the little boy must not be more than six-seven years of age. This reminds you of the famous Marathi nursery rhyme, “सांग सांग भोलानाथ, पाउस पडेल काय?” (where the kids pray to the Lord Shiva, to tell them if it would rain so that they will get a holiday from school) But, it isn’t monsoon and the sky shows no signs of rains so the school kid can only pray that the bus shouldn’t come.

Somewhere in your mind you pray to the God that the little boy’s wish should come true.

Somewhere in your mind, the song, “सांग भोलानाथ, पाऊस पडेल काय?” keeps playing and you realise that you have reached your bus stop.

“Hi, Good Morning... what’s up?” One of your colleagues who has already reached the bus stop greets you.

“You know what?

“आज bus आलीच नाही पहिजे...”

You reply spontaneously.

God’s Grimace

Disclaimer: This article is not against any God or Religion but is against Human behaviour. Any resemblance with a particular God, Religion or Place of worship is purely coincidental.

It’s a Sunday Morning. You wake up early and decide to pay homage to your favourite God (Yes, in a country where there are so many Gods and Goddesses you do to have your favourite one, don’t you?)
You board the train which is jam-packed (Alas! Sunday isn’t a holiday for local trains) and travel for almost an hour.
You reach the place of worship to find an incessant queue of devotees. Soon you too become one of them.
You are piously waiting in the queue with your hands joined and eyes closed when a sound falls on your ears “एक आदमी का पचास रूपया”...
You don’t need an interpreter to tell you that they want you to pay money so that you can pay respect to your Lord.
A righteous self tells you to withdraw and join that queue where they aren’t charging. But it’s too late, you have already reached the cash counter, and you end up paying.
It takes a few more ‘crowded’ minutes before you enter the main hall of the Lord. But where is He? You can’t find Him. Many heads are creating a hindrance between you and Him.
Finally, your Eyes meet His. Hardly had you started praying when you find His eyes grim. Confused, you stare at Him, and the Lord begins to talk to you...
“Welcome son. Good to see you here. So, paid 50 bucks to see me?”
Ashamed, you lower your eyes. You don’t respond.
“It was I who created you, gave you an ability to think, and out of this thinking you could invent the concept called ‘Trade’.” The Lord continued.
You are confused but are eagerly listening.
“And today you have put me, your own creator on Sale.”
You have no words. You are still listening, gaze lowered even more now.
“I am omnipresent. But still you come here, pay money to see me, and then you offer me a plethora of things. Do you really think that this barter is going to work? I can see everything, good, bad and ugly, and your future is a consequence of your deeds in the past and the present. That is your Karma. Your money and other offerings simply don’t please me.”
You feel like apologizing, but before you could utter a word, a human voice hits your ears,
“यह कब से यहाँ खड़ा है, निकालो इसे बाहर”, one security personnel instructed another.

There resides a Super Hero in You

You board the train to travel to your native town for the festival of Diwali.

The train is running full house. You can see people waiting for the Ticket Checker with their 'Waiting' Tickets.

With a confirmed ticket in your wallet, you consider yourself lucky.

No sooner did you complete the ticket checking formalities and hit your berth for a good night sleep than you catch a glimpse of a kid.

He must be 3 years old and is notorious. He is sharing the berth with his mother.

Making you nostalgic, He reminds you of those days when you too were of his age and used to share the berth with your mother.

As a kid you never slept alone on the berth. You always feared that you will fall down.

Years went by and you grew up. From school to college and from college to office things happened.

At times you succeeded and at times you failed.

But somewhere at the back of your mind the fear still persists- the fear that you will fall down in Life.

You are lost in this reverie when the kid approaches you and startles you with his innocent question,

"Uncle, are you छोटा भीम?"

You don't know how to respond. You simply smile.

No matter how kiddish a questiom, your thoughts gather and revolt,

If a kid can fantasize the super hero in you why can't you identify him. Why do you live in a constant fear?

They say, Kids are Avatars of God Himself. Unknowingly this kid too, alike God enlightens your mind.

There resides a Super Hero in each one of you. Finding him and using his powers to its fullest is the need of the day.

This Diwali, let's unleash the Super Hero within. Come let's give up the fear and pave the way for courage.

Here's wishing you a Happy and a determined Diwali...

Let there be Light...