That's The Way The Cookie Crumbles..

No, not my cookie. The other day, I had gone to meet an old friend of mine. We decided to meet at Mc Donalds. By the time I had reached there my friend still hadn't arrived. So I was waiting for him, when this little kid, who seemed to look not more than six years old, came to me begging for some money. He seemed pretty clean looking for a beggar. He had put on a multicolored full sleeved shirt and trousers that looked very old, but neat. His hair was messy, which I think he did it himself, for the "effect" and his face had sum black marks on it, again which I think he did it himself. He was walking normally and coolly until he came to me. Looking at me, he suddenly made a sad expression, bent down a little as if to show off that he doesn't have a right posture and held out his hand. I held back a laugh.

"Didi, please give me 50 paise, I didn't eat anything from the morning." he said. "What will you buy with 50 paise?" I asked. "Anything!" he said. "Who sent you here, to beg?" I asked, to which he stared at me for sometime and then replied, "nobody." "Oh, so where are your parents?" I asked. "They are not there. They have gone up." he said, meaning that his parents had died. "Oh, so you must have some friends, to beg along with you" I asked. "No, I wander on the roads alone, now please give me the money" he said. "Wander alone eh? You don't go to school?" I asked. "No I don't. Now please give me the money!" he pleaded. "what is your name?" I asked. "Tara, now please give me the money, please." he said. "I will not give you 50 paise, I will give you three rupees, will you tell me who sent you to beg?" I said, handing him the money. "Nobody sent me here." He said, now standing straight and making a happy and healthy face, looking at the money in his hand. "Oh, so you don't have a home, and nobody sent you here. So where do you sleep?" I asked. "At my elder sister's place." I was a little confused, "Oh, and where is your sister's house?" I asked. "Saroor Nagar" he said. "That is very far! How will you go there with no money" I argued. "Didn't you just give me money? I'll take the bus." he said, with a naughty and mischievous grin on his face. " Okay, then what will you eat if you spend money on traveling?" I asked. "I'll eat at my sister's place!". He laughed a very kiddish laugh filled with impishness and walked away and started begging other people.

I was surprised at his smartness! He nicely took away three rupees of mine, on the pretext of having a conversation with me! Wow! I felt like such a fool. But I couldn't help laughing at myself. That little creep made such a jackass out of me.
He nicely earned his travel expenses from me, and will give that money to his so called sister, who will feed him a feast at night for begging and making idiots out of people like me. That's the way his cookie crumbles. Beg for money, cleverly, for the bus ride, go home and hog on his sister's cooking!

Strange Connections

I already wrote a blog on how I went on a holiday to Bangalore. So there, I stayed at a cousin's place along with my family. He lives in a comfortable house with his wife and two and half year old son. The moment we entered his house, the little kid was ready to greet us with his mom. I had never really met him before. He was blushing all over. He's a kid after all. We all got comfortable in the house, unpacking things, sipping coffee and all that. All the while the little kid stood behind his mom, silently blushing, peeping and smiling at me. I went and pulled his cheeks, smiled at him, tried to tickle him, and poke him so that he at least would start talking.

Every body was trying to play with the kid. His parents asked him to sing songs, introduce himself and ask every body for their introduction. He didn't pretty much do everything he was asked to. He came up to me and smiled. I gave him a peck and smiled back. He touched my cheek and ran away. After that he started following me wherever I went. He once even followed me to the bathroom. I was finding it very funny and cute. He had trouble pronouncing my name, so he called me "A-ne-keeya". Every now and then he would come to me, and hold my hand and take me to his room, show me his toys, and recite nursery rhymes and sing songs. His parents were shocked and so were the others, since he was not responding to anyone except me. He wanted me to feed him breakfast, play with him, talk to him and listen to him, which I did patiently. He wanted to do everything on my lap or while sitting next to me.

He ran behind me all day, and at some point it did start getting a little annoying. You cant keep the kid happy all the time, and at the same time, you cant make him sad too. So I was as patient as possible with him. That evening we went out shopping along with the kid's parents without telling him about it, leaving him with his grandmother. I was told that the kid always wanted his mother around,and would cry if he didn't see her. That night when we returned, my aunt told me he cried because he didn't see me. They made him eat telling him that I would come back if he did. He was all shy and coy when he saw me back home, and then again started being silly and cute, and was dancing around me chanting "A-ne-kee-yaah" every time. Later that night, he was sitting by my side, with his mom, when he called me "mumma". I didn't know how to respond to that. I just smiled at him and said, pointing at his mother " No, mumma is here, right next to you." He said "No, you are mumma", and then gave me a kiss on the cheek. His mom had turned pale. She tried diverting his attention, talking to him about the songs and rhymes he learned lately.

I was lost that night, in thoughts. My whole family was surprised by how much he fancied me more than anyone else. They were talking about, how we might have been related in our previous lives. I didn't know what to conclude. Maybe the kid was lonely, and was happy that I was talking to him, or maybe his mother was not as friendly as I was. It was strange. Very strange. It is indeed very difficult to analyze a little kid's psychology.

How It Is To Feel Like Ice...

First of all, A VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY BLOG! It turned one on 5th! I wanted to blog on that day celebrating it's first b'day, but couldn't since I finally went on a holiday. No, not with friends, but with family. It was some experience that I had. My dad had casually planned to take us on a trip to Bangalore to visit my aunt and cousins, since I had been everlastingly pestering him about how badly I wanted a break. Considering that, he decided to take us to Mysore and Ooty too. We reached Bangalore on 2nd May, and stayed at my aunt's place. I shopped my heart out that evening in commercial street. Next morning we left for Mysore in a tourist bus that we had booked for ourselves. We reached there by mid-noon, and boy was Mysore hot! I was sweating like a pig. Nevertheless, it was a real green place to see. You can hardly see any empty, barren grounds there. Every place is literally a garden. In the evening we checked out the Mysore Maharaja Palace. It was one of the most sexiest palaces I had ever laid my eyeballs on. It was shimmering in the evening sky, decorated with golden lights everywhere. It was like a magical piece of art that stood in the thin air. But tragically, we were not allowed to go inside, due to security problems.

We left for Ooty the next morning. The vehicle we were traveling in had to drive through forests of Nadamalli in Karnataka and another forest whose name I don't remember, in Tamil Nadu. We were told that we might come across wild animals like elephants and tigers. My eyes were wide open rummaging around the place, but in vain. I couldn't spot a single wild animal. I saw a deer though, which isn't what I would call wild. Then the vehicle drove through mountains, climbing and turning around sharp hairpin bends. It was like sitting on a roller coaster that moves in slow motion. We could sense Ooty from a distance as it had started to get chilly. Nobody had carried woollen clothing along except me. But it didn't look that bad anyway.

Ooty was beautiful. Everything about it was so green and pleasant and cold. I had some of the yummiest chocolates there. We went boating, and horse riding after which our bus parked at a location from where we had to walk to the famous botanical gardens. My parents, brother and I started to walk. Thats when it started to rain. At first it seemed like a temporary drizzle since it was common on top of a hill, but later it started to rain heavily and then it started to hail! There were only medium sized pieces of ice every where. People were running for shelter, and so were we. We found a place to protect ourselves from getting anymore drenched at a vendor's shop who sold items that he imported from Tibet. We were frozen. To add spice to the situation, we were in our cotton clothes, and had nothing to cover ourselves with. I was shivering, and laughing and expirating fog out of my mouth. I just couldn't help it. It was fun! I was giggling like an idiot despite of my dad's chagrin who hates any form of rain. My skin felt prickly all the while. A few pieces of ice even fell on my hands and feet which made me shiver even more. We waited there for a while and then decided to walk to the bus. It was so cold that I could not sense anything on my skin anymore.

We had to cross a street full of rain water and mud. It was like walking in ice water. Or maybe ice water would have been warmer. The moment I stepped on it, my foot became numb. After walking a few steps, I felt like frozen, hard ice. My fingers turned blue and my toes were aching because of the cold. I still had to walk many more steps to cross the lane. After every step I told myself, " a few more, and then you will be warm." After what seemed like ages, we reached a shop where my dad asked for some towels that could help us dry ourselves up for the time being. We had to adjust with handkerchiefs anyway, since they had no towels for sale. We started our way to the bus again, but this time, my brother and I ran. Just for the heck of it. Cold air hit me like a blow, with hail from above and our feet were so torpid that they were almost dormant. But we ran. I felt frozen and fragile, as if I would break open any moment. It was like the whole place was like a refrigerator with the chilled room leaking from the above. I never remember feeling so cold in my life. I have never felt snow or never been to many hill stations that have snow peaked mountains. But I doubt I'll feel this cold again.

There..I finally casted my vote!

I voted today, and I feel elated! Me and my best friend were so excited that we woke up early and went for a morning walk before casting our votes. We stood in lines, waited till our legs almost dropped down, and finally got the black mark on our fingers. My friend and I have started calling them "The Fingers". We even considered not taking our bath for a few days! But you can't do that if you have your mom around. On the whole, it was a crazy, tiring and most importantly the day we voted for the first time! :D. To the people who haven't voted because of the problem with registration and voter cards, I feel sorry for you, the system sucks. For those who didn't even bother to get registered, I feel sorry for you too, you so need to get a life.

Rrraaaandom!

Today, I was going through some of the old posts I hadn't published, when I came across this one. I had written this on 23rd October 2008. I couldn't stop chuckling at the stupidity of it, and was amused by how much things have changed in the past few months! I don't know why I didn't post it back then, maybe because I knew it was stupid!

It's been exactly three days that I finished writing my final exams..and you dont want to know how bored and lazy I already feel!"Alekhya!wake up!"..that's how my day starts these days.."wake up!its 11.30am!" and goes on.. my mother's screaming.I dont blame her though..I have become a lummox!

I have only been readin from the past few days..I finished reading The Kite Runner finally!This has been my second attempt to readin it,first having failed on an account of depression that the book led me to.There have been books which touched me,at the most,just moistened my eyes,but this book made me weep!At one point,I actually shut the book and started weeping.I was so moved by it,that I have started downloading the movie now.I hate u-torrent sometimes,or maybe my computer doesn't like me!It refuses to download successfully everytime I am dying to watch a movie.I tried limewire,but my luck was so damn good that after downloading 83% of the movie,it said error..and went down to 9%!(sigh).So the point is,Iam still downloading it,and have decided to stick to torrent,and will definitely smash my PC if it doesn't download the movie properly this time!(how I wish I could do that!).I have started reading A Thousand splendid Suns now.

These days I miss my school days a little too much.I did my schooling from Our Own English High School,Sharjah,U.A.E.I came to India after my 9th grade,and started studying here.I so hated it,but I managed to pull it through.Sometimes I wonder how my life would have been had I studied the rest of my grades in Dubai.It would have been like a cliched "zameen aur aasman ka farak" kind of a difference,but yeah,I wouldn't have been what I am now.So the point is I am bored,and out of ennui,I am being nostalgic!

You know sometimes people can get so damn annoying!I hate my college!Its probably one of the most "un-exciting" and "un-happening" colleges in the world.And people there are such that even if you sneezed,the entire college will get to know where you sneezed,at what pitch you sneezed,if you covered your face while sneezing,or where your hands were while sneezing,and when you sneezed within a day minimum.(I hope you got my exaggeration).In short everybody gossips about the dumbest thing around, which is so not me.So I feel outcasted in a wonderful college like that. Having only one friend who atleast to an extent is like minded,can get frustrating. But in a way I have got used to it since I had no other option!

 

I so want to go out of town! But everybody around me seems to be busy.But I am still waiting for college to re-open so that there will be some academically challenging things to take up with a whole new set of subjects waiting to play with my brain! I hope they dont bore me too.Kathak classes are fun though. Sir makes us dance for a whole one hour or more sometimes,that makes me feel fresh and I love kathak. I am waiting to perform on stage,but that might take a while.Besides all this, I catch up on my favourite comedy movies or serials,because laughing is like my stress buster and also makes me feel on the top of this world.I love to laugh.When me and my best friend get together,we laugh so hard that people at my place get scared hearing us sometimes!My brother tells me he has nightmares about our laughing.Yeah right.He is another bluffing buffallo.I love annoying him,and he annoys me more!

Anyways,I'll sign off before I write any more crap.I'll get back to reading and will go do kathak for an hour in the evening.

Mind's a Mystery,So Sell it Clever!

Mahatma Gandhi once said “You can chain me, you can torture me, you can even destroy this body, but you will never imprison my mind." The quote moved me.The mind indeed is one of the most treasured tools of an individual.Polish it and use it regularly well,or leave it to rust.It is ubiquitous,nebulous and traditionally genetic.It is a possession that cannot be comprehended fully by anyone,sometimes by one's own self too.

Mind is clever,imaginative,nervous,intuitive and many more things which is beyond exegenesis.The mind is the reason behind every deed an individual performs.It can memorize a small multiplication table to be responsible to a terror attack.A small cabbage sized organ like the brain,can create a larger than life big bang theory and can destruct people's lives through terror attacks.Its a mystery to me that a small mind could be responsible for everything that we do.

Different people have different opinions and ideas.Some people decide to use them,some people don't. They prefer to stay in their safe little box and maintain a low profile. I believe everybody in this world has extraordinary ideas.Ideas that can change the world's outlook. But somehow people refuse to use them,discuss them. Maybe due to inhibitions,lack of confidence or ego.Again here,the mind plays a trick.Its multitasking amazes me!It can produce,inhibit and reproduce at the same time.It is even capable of storing trash! For instance,I remember my father's old friend's brother's second daughter's birthday(whom I haven't met or seen till now).Yeah you can call me mad,but honestly,I can't erase it fron my head. Okay I am deviating from the topic I was talking on now.See what my mind does sometimes;). So ideas can be clever,dumb,useful,useless and so on. But how will anyone know what your mind is like unless you share your thoughts? Generating ideas and thoughts and not putting them to use is equal to being dead.

In the current scenario that we live in,the mind can get constructuve or destructive. Its all about how you set you neurons to work. Let your mind,filled with clever ideas help the world be a better place to live in,or let it get involved in world destruction,or maybe let it do nothing. What ever you let your mind do, directly or indirectly effects every one around you.

And I can go on and on about this. Even books written by Mario Puzo haven't been enough to be able to prove what the mind is actually all about. So its an ocean,and my blog has by far been too hypothetical to keep you interested anymore,so I'll stop here.

"Great minds discuss ideas,Average minds discuss events,Small minds discuss people."-Eleanor Roosevelt. (I don't know how much I agree with this,but yeah cleverly worded.)

Stupidity,Priceless Humour and Unselling ear-buds..

I travel to college boarding the college bus everyday.Our college is situated almost 70 kilometers away from where I live,so the transport the college provides is most convenient compared to the long never ending journey in the city buses.The bus stop is around 4 kms away from where I live so I keep travelling all day...home to bus stop,bus stop to college,college to bus stop,bus stop to back home.Every evening when we get down the bus,there is a throng of vendors selling almost anything.There is this particular vendor,around 60 years old,who piqued my and my friends' interests because of the peculiar and rhythmic way he sold ear-buds."Maaaaay-dum!maaaaay-dum!(Madam!Madam!) Onlllly phai rupiss!".Neither did anyone pay attention to him,nor did they buy his ear-buds.I would always wonder if he never got bored standing there and selling things which hardly got sold.I felt sorry for him.But the first time we heard him,we couldn't help but laugh.He sounds acutely funny.He noticed this,and thought he had amused us.So he started saying "Maaaaay-dum" even more loudly from the next day on.After a few days,our gang had stopped laughing realizing that it would be rude and started ignoring his presence(though his maaaaay-dum would make us titter a little).Little did we know how much he was enjoying our attention.The funniest part was,he had started to fancy my friend Nupur!

We actually realized that when one day,we normally got down,and completely ignored him,he gave a nice bold flying kiss to Nupur.This time everybody laughed except me(you see,I didn't want to provoke his interest and fascination for my friend further),but looking at them,a little later even I burst out laughing.Nupur also laughed,since she didn't know what else to do.

A few days passed and the man had started to get annoying.This time he had come up with new witty one-liners to amuse us.He once looked at Nupur and actually said"arre,yeh to meri Radha hai!!'(she is my Radha!),for which all of us had a "wtf?!" expression on our faces.We found it very hilarious,but we made sure not to laugh in front of him.He tried this a few times.Then,he started using other cheeky words.He didn't seem to give up on Nupur at all.He started calling her "jaanam"(beloved).Every time she passed by him,he would call out to her,"jaaanammm!".

Everybody in our bus got to know about Nupur and her oldest fan,and she had become the butt of all our jokes.These days,our bus stops way ahead of our bus stop because of certain traffic and security problems,so the old man hardly gets to see Nupur,as she goes home taking another road.We saw him every day though,and his search for his Radha is endless.I told others in our gang to make sure not to laugh in front of him.Laughing will only make him act more smart.It would be like a hint for him to continue his stupidity.

Its difficult to comprehend a street vendor's life.Maybe this old man is bored with his life,and is just having some fun.But one thing I appreciate about him is that he never gave up on his ear-buds.I don't know how much money he makes everyday,but he still comes there on the same spot and tries selling them all.He atleast has some dedication,even if it was we who stabled it a little more for a while;).We haven't seen him for a long time,but still hear his loud"Maaaaay-dum!" every evening.