The Last Call

It was time for the last call. He hated it but he has to do it. Whenever he made it he could hear deep sighs in the air. Some mixed with pain of going back to the real world and some in disappointment for the end of the party. Being a bartender for last 10 years he was used to all this. But unlike other people for him last call meant the end of his world as it brings back the memory of the ruinous night ten years before which not only took away his hopes, dreams and love but also his life. And for him it was all because of that last call.

It was September of 1999. Life was on a roll for him. He has got a great job and it was time for him to express his love for his college best friend and his companion is all walks of life. She used to work part time as a waitress in a bar to support her education. He was happy as he was now capable enough to take care of her and get her away from the humiliating life of a bar waitress.

He reached the bar at 11 in the night. The time of last call was 12 and so waited in one corner of the bar watching her. She passed him a smile and continued working. He ordered vodka for himself and started preparing his lines. He wanted to tell her about how deeply he loved her. How she brings hope and purpose in his life. How he wants to take care of her all his life. How he wants to give her all that she deserved. He could see himself walking the altar holding her hands. He could imagine their lovely little house and beautiful kids. A smile flashed across his face, the dream world was so lovely.

He was brought back to reality by a loud shattering noise. He was startled not realizing that it was his dreams that were shattered. He looked at his watch. It was 12. He looked around to see what has happened. He could see few people gathered around a table. He looked around for her but couldn’t find her. Anxiously he walked towards the little crowd. Somehow he struggled to make his way to a sight which was horrendous. She was lying on the floor in a little pool of blood. Smears were present all over her head. Her eyes were closed, forever, but she still looked beautiful. He fell on his knees and took her in his arms for the last time. He was not crying, some part of him died with her. People around were talking about the whole incident on how a drunk rich brat banged a bottle on her head when she refused to serve drinks after The Last Call.

A thing called Life

You were always there but I never noticed
As you were a part of my routine life
Your jokes made me smile, your teasing made me irritated
You were sometimes wise, sometimes stupid, sometimes funny and sometimes jerk
In all these forms I adored you
But I never noticed
Today when you are not around
I feel that something is missing, something that I never noticed
I can feel the void which no one can fill
If only life can give another chance, I would want to tell you
I may not notice you when you are around
But I do really “Miss you” when you are not…

Dedicated to my dear friend Gajendra, who is no longer with us :(.

There is something about Honeymoon

Yes, there is something about Honeymoon that makes people well less astute. Yesterday I was browsing one of my friends recently uploaded honeymoon pics in orkut. It is really fun to see someone’s honeymoon album, for one reason that it shows out many fascinating and bizarre moments at the same time. Here is some of the interesting stuff that one can see in someone’s honeymoon album.

• Females in awfully revealing outfits. Females, who would normally not even sport a kurta without a duppatta, will be seen wearing backless evening gowns, strange swim wears, short skirts and tight tops showing some of their desirable and mostly all undesirable curves. I agree that honeymoon is a very private and intimate occasion which fully justifies wearing sensuous attires but posting that images in public for everyone to see is little beyond sensibility.

• ‘We two are one soul two bodies’ pose. In other words man and wife very close to each other holding their, well not just hands. Ok, we understand, it’s your honeymoon, time to get cozy-pozy with each other but please posting those moments in public portal is embarrassing.

• ‘See my hotel room/bed’ pics. Guys, nobody cares what was the color of your bed sheet and walls of your hotel rooms. If you really have the itch to post some pics, we won’t mind seeing some good sceneries and picturesque landscapes.

• Lots of pics, really lots. People post like hundred odd pics of their honeymoon. Right from ‘here I am packing’ to ‘on my way to airport’ to ‘my coolie, my driver, my maid’ to ‘long queue at airport’ to ‘inside the flight’ to ‘hotel room’ to ‘dining room’ to ‘the loo’, you name it and you will find the pic.

• ‘I still love myself’ pics or in other words all solo pics. I have seen one honeymoon album which consisted of only guy’s pics. It seemed that he had his honeymoon all alone :P. Poor guy.

Honeymoon is a lifetime spent in weeks. Cherish it, live it, enjoy it but don’t let people like me make fun of it.

P.S. - All these are my personal observations and pointing to anyone in particular.
P.P.S. – May be I’ll also do the same when it’s my turn :D.

The New Ramp

We have seen fashion shows on ramps, hotels, lounges and even restaurants. Recently I have discovered a new kind of an unconventional ramp. The reason behind calling it unconventional is that it is not primarily meant to display designer cloths, accessories, jewelry, footwear etc. The primary purpose of this ramp is…well any guesses…I’m sure you will not get this one…traveling. Yes I am talking about airports.

If I recall my childhood days, traveling to some place usually consisted of a long 12-24 hours journey in a train or a bus. My mother used to dress in a comfortable saree or kurta which was not very expensive or exclusive. The whole idea was to have an easy travel and prevent expensive attire from getting ruined. Now a day it’s a complete paradigm shift. When traveling has reduced from days to just an hour or so, the concern of comfort has already vanished. And with rising status of people the showoff business has taken a grand leap.

Now when you enter airports you are dazzled. Skimpy jeans, short skirts, hot pants, backless tops, halter necks, Armani jackets, designer wears, high pencil heels, cufflinks, accessories, expensive perfumes, watches, sunglasses, jewelry, handbags etc are a norm. You name it and you will find someone wearing it. Mothers have nannies to manage their kids as it is not possible for them to display style and cater to kid at the same time. Males are busy chatting and displaying their top end mobile phones giving a damn about…well…anything. Woo hoo it surely does look like a ramp.

So when you travel next time, there are two options. Either be a spectator and enjoy the show or be a model and rock the ramp.

Laws of attraction - The story of Venusians

So it’s the time for gals’ side story. Gals are supposedly more delicate creatures and their ways of expressions are very subtle and mostly consists of gestures, smiles, body language etc. So when guys believe in blurting out all what’s inside them, gals prefer a silent mode. Also when guys’ actions and behavior is pretty indicative of what is going inside them; it is very difficult to predict what is going on in gals’ mind or heart.

They care and care a lot. They care for their families, friends, colleagues, everyone. And so if they are attracted to a guy, they go an extra mile in this aspect. “Ohh!! You have got fever. You take rest and I’ll get you dinner.” “You are still in office. If there is some work related issue, please tell me. I am here to help.” These sweet gestures are enough to sweep anyone of their feet. A word of caution here – these feelings can be for good friends also and not necessarily for a person they are attracted to. So take some time before jumping into any conclusion.

Body language is more of a reliable indicator of attraction. Mostly gals won’t get physical to all the guys. This includes patting on someone’s back, holding hands, sleeping on your shoulder, caressing your hair, tickling you etc. So if they are doing all this to you, then there is certainly some spark between the two of you.

They make their presence felt. So if a gal likes you, she will be all around you. Even if you are separated from a distance, your mobile will keep beeping in regular intervals with her tiny texts. At the end of the day she will discuss all little little things that happened. And of course your mailbox will be flooded with her cute, pink forwards like flowers, teddies, romantic quotations etc.

They will dress to please you. Their wardrobe will suddenly be updated with all yours favorite colors and patterns. They will wear a smile on their lips and a twinkle in their eyes all day with just a single compliment from you.

They will buy you presents which will include all things you always wished to have. They will try to make all your events like parties, outings special and successful.

They will be vulnerable when you are around. They will discuss all their problems with you and will take all your suggestions seriously and will act on those.

Well if you are lucky enough, they will actually tell you what they feel about you. And if they don’t say, then you may have to guess from all the above indications. But again do remember the caution that I have mentioned. They may just be thinking of you as a good friend. But be optimistic guys, friendship leads to love.

This ‘Dil ka Dard’ can victimize anyone anytime. And when it hurts it shows. And when it hurts pleasantly it shows all the more. When next time you fall in the clutch of this highly contagious syndrome, do spread it :).

Where are we heading to....

Yesterday night I wasn’t feeling sleepy. After restlessly tossing in bed for sometime in the hope of getting a good sleep, I finally gave up. My cell phone showed 2:30 AM. What the hell was my first reaction. After sitting still and glaring at the darkness for sometime I decided to turn on my laptop and do some time pass. For people like us the word time pass is now confined to laptop, internet, chatting, orkutting etc. I always wondered why orkutting is not yet added in the dictionary. With recession seeing mass impacts and inclusion of ‘Bangalored’ in dictionary, orkutting is next to follow. Anyways that’s a topic for separate discussion.

So I logged in to see if some friends are online, of course the only hope I had was to find friends who are outside India . Or if insomnia has a mass strike too the way swine flu had then I could find my friends in India too. Unfortunately insomnia still has to catch up. Seeing no friend online was quite a disappointment. God!!! Now what? Suddenly something caught my attention. I saw my cousin online and his View my webcam at 2:30 AM was enough of a draft to snatch away my remaining slumber. And yes I am not being melodramatic and impulsive; the only reason for this bizarre reaction was that my cousin is in class 5th which means he is only 11-12 years of age.

I buzzed him and asked what is he doing? This is how our conversation went.

Me: Hey. What’s up?
My Cousin: Hey di. What keeps you awake this 2:30 ;-)
Me: Well. I should be the one asking this question.
My Cousin: Yeah…right. Well I am chatting with my friend.
Me: Hmmmm…is it not too late for that.
My Cousin: She is in US so I have to match the time.
Me: :O how come you have a friend in US.
My Cousin: She is my online buddy.
Me: Ohh ok. So what are you talking about? And what’s with the webcam?
My Cousin: Sorry di. It’s too personal to tell.
Me: Is anyone aware that you are up so late.
My Cousin: What are you talking about? They are going to reprimand me bad if they’ll come to know. Please don’t tell them.

OMG!!! Personal!!! Was my first reaction after this conversation. When I was of his age I didn’t even know what personal implies. For me computers were only meant for learning BASIC language and paint brush. Online buddies and webcam was a far cry. And I didn’t even dare to dream about doing something without telling my parents.

I decided to do the RCA of why there is such an enormous difference in thinking pattern of youth today. RCA!!! Uff these IT jargons won’t leave me alone even in the middle of the night. Btw RCA is Root Cause analysis. I could think of many reasons like – Impact of western culture, peer influence, increased nudity and profanity in cinema etc. All these reasons don’t even need further justification or explanation. And infact parents today are well aware of all these factors and they do try to prevent their kids. But I personally feel that the main reason for this drift is that parents of today are not able to spend much time with their kids. So when it is the time to imbibe values and teach culture to their children, parents are busy earning, working, partying, socializing and traveling. They are not able to give sufficient time to their children but they do provide swarming resources to them by fulfilling all the demands. This is making matters worse.

My chain of thoughts was broken by the alarm. It was 6:30 in the morning and time to get up. I wasn’t feeling too bad about the sleepless night as I at least gave a thought to a problem which I’ll be facing soon when I’ll have kids.

Advancing is not bad. We cannot expect things to be the same as they were twenty years back. This will be indicative of stagnancy and non progress. It is a great achievement to see children of today well versed with technologies like computers, internet, media, cellular phones. What is missing is the wisdom to distinguish between what is good and what is evil. If we elders can inculcate this sense in the coming generation, I see a bright future ahead of us.

Autumn Tree

There I see you going far but I cannot do anything
For that was destiny to do us apart
I always thought to hold you back with something
But I know you will not stay
You think that life will be the same without you
As I have so many still clinging on to me
You don’t know that I will not be the same when you are away
My dear friend stay happy wherever you go
But must not forget there is me standing right there where you left me
Still with open arms to embrace you
Says the tree to the departing leaf
No matter what happens to me in the years to come
I just want you to know that I will always love you..