..Jhonka sa..

After about one and a half years,i heard the song from Fanaa: " Dekho na"
I had kept my self away from it, deciding that it was a better idea to just let it fade away with time..like so many other things..and had convined myself that it wasnt such a song that burying it in a deep grave would do much harm...and then today, somehow, as i flipped channels settling on V, and got back to work, it started..the tiny ringlets of water floating around with the soft float of that serene and pure music.
The song seemed like a new one, i did not remember the turns of the melody and the intermittent unisons of the instruments;even the words eluded me-but as the song progressed, it slowly started coming back to me-when I was in love with the song, and many other facets of life,when I recognised every string attached to it,when i hummed it in all my evening and night walks...
Was a pleasant and benumbing 5 minutes of the song...but i have quickly shifted to another,lest somthing so painfully tucked away in the cobwebbed corners of my memory, pushes itself out into the still vulnerable present.

Finally cleaned my Scooty, that I got sent from home (its one of my few school possessions still with me :) ), and rode it today. Cutting through the breeze, and almost curfewed road(Sunday wears that look in Madurai), it was the taste of freedom like good old school days. Of not totally being at the behest of destiny, of being able to go wherever i wish to (literally) and hold my own reigns.
One ride does it all !!!

"Waqt ne kiya kya haseen sitam, tum rahe na tum, hum rahe na hum..

..Jayenge kahan kuchh pata nahi,
Chal pade magar rasta nahi
Kya talash hai kuchh pata nahi
Bun rahe hai din khwab dam badam...

Waqt ne kiya kya haseen sitam, tum rahe na tum, hum rahe na hum.."

"If life doesnt make you laugh,you just dont get the joke"

Planned a market visit to Karaikudi today, for which I set off in the morning, keeping my arrival time to be
9:30am through an hour and a half's travel from Madurai to Karaikudi(as everyone had told me). However,
after almost 2 and a half hours of wobbly back breaking journey (the roads in Maharashtra were definitely
much better), I reached my Chettinad Distributor's stock point. It felt like walking into some other era, the
house was what typically is shown as a South Indian house in movies, with very high ceilings, falsely
thatched in some areas, the nondescript "jhula" , the daunting garlanded photographs of various Gods and
Goddesses all around; and mind it, this was Not his house, but the stock point which has seen Biscuits being
bought and sold ,for the past 50 years.
Market visits always tend to confuse me. As in , if I am an ASM, what is the basic purpose of a my visiting the
market. At this stage of my territory handling, it is about understanding the subtle (or glaringly big)
differences in my territory, from one area to another; some may argue it is required for being in touch with
the actual happenings, vis-a-vis competition or one's own standing; I still feel all this can be gauged, by
spending more time per shop, rather than visiting more shops, and may be by spreading one's coverage
area.Anyways, as my mind raced through all this,while I walked from shop to shop, my musical heart would not
rest unless it successfully played a silent song ( a lot of times its timed very ill), "Mere man ye bata de tu, kis
or chala hai tu,kya paya nahi tune, kya dhund raha hai tu.." , making all my existential queries all the more
emphatic.
But ironies do not stop in life ever. So as I walked to one shop on the College Road beat of Karaikudi, my
senses picked a fragrance, that, for a split second, transported me back to the supermarket near our
apartment in Nice, France, called "Casino Supermarche" which by some strange coincidence would have
smelled the same in one of its ailes.
Weird is a word not enough when such experiences keep happening...
Also, when your mother tells you that 08-08-08 is being discussed all over the news channels (who never
seem to have enough for 24*7, but these analyses), so please be careful, and you brush all of it aside, till
your innocent market visit has a mini-adventure, as your car breaks down in the midst of dark wilderness,
and you are with a driver who cannot communicate in the language you understand. But as my mother
would explain, I had managed to visit a famous temple near Karaikudi (every place here has a famous
temple), and God did help me sail out of my mini adventure without much ado.
Truly Shantaram seems so perfectly right when he says : " If life doesnt make you laugh, you just dont get the
joke"

Women in Indian Army

One piece of news(in the midst of all the tension in the country right now), that made my heart skip,was the announcement that women would now be eligible for Permanent Commission in the Indian Army.After almost 20 years of experimentation with different modes of employing women, the Indian Army has finally opened its doors to women beyond the Short Service Commission, making them at par with men in the services..almost...because it is still non combative..may be some day The Indian Army would open that front too..just hope this time it does not take 20 years.

Bridge across..

Its a hectic working day in the depot today,with the usual reports and communications that have to be made and sent, it being the beginning of the month.

However, somehow, right in the midst of the formats and excel sheets staring at me from my laptop,this came back to me..all in one...(something that I had scribbled on the white board in Jai and Bhobe's room, in 1st year of MDI-don't even remember, in what frame of mind I was when I wrote it):

“ When this world does not seem to work,
the weariness is too much to bear,
yet the mind pulls those strings-of consciousness,
to remain here,
I could only make that journey
to another plane of being
and cross that bridge..
…..the bridge across forever.”

///Friendship///

Thanks to "CNN IBN" which reminded me through some hilarious comments made by Cyrus Broacha that its Friendship Day today, I wasnt taken by surprise when I woke up to find so many "Friendship day" forwards sitting in the Message Inbox of my Cell phone.
I did chat with some of my friends today- thats not something unusual, some part of my Sunday generally goes in telephonic conversations, most with friends-but today I spoke to Neetisha after a long time (except for the short call I made the day when I heard of Blore blasts). Its weird how Neetisha and I have been good friends from MDI , but in terms of the time we have spent together, in each other's company, it has not been much. The best part is, whenever I close my eyes and remember moments with her, the image that comes to mind is of her immaculately clean room in MDI (in 2nd year) and our times in the Airport Raod Pizza Hut..instead of days of MDI!!
Which brings me to a point that somehow I woke up thinking (before actually realising today is Friendship Day) by strange coincidence- what does Friendship actually mean? As in,there may be several ways of expressing a bond that is more precious or special than any other, but does it come with its baggage of expectations like other human relationships do?? Does it also have that oft dreaded and confusing word called "committment" attached to it? Or of a Time frame to it? Because in my experiences (and I am always accused by my mother, to have "so many friends" ), I have had the most complicated and unexpected ends to the most cherished and closest friendships I had, so much so , that I am not even aware of the other person's current scenario in life, from being pals who knew the happenings of the nth minute in each other's lives. So much for all the concern and closeness shared and the most treasured gift of a true friendship- of understanding the unspoken.

May be the true test of any relationship, be it a friednship, is the test of time;may be its only the situation when it mattered, or may be its plain destiny.
At this moment, can sum it up in this SMS I read today-
"EK din zindagi aise mukam pe pahunch jayegi, Dosti to sirf yadon mein reh jayegi Har cup coffee doston ki yaad dilayegi Aur hanste hue ankh nam ho jayegi Office chamber mein classroom ki tasveer ban jayegi par chahne par bhi proxy nahi lag payegi Paisa toh bahut hoga lekin use lautane ki wajah hi kho jayegi
Jee le is pal ko mere dost..kyunki zindagi is pal ko fir nahi dohrayegi"