One man standing

He stood by me for 15 years, bearing the work of two, standing like a tower. Never did it once complain or refused to cooperate. And now not having him by my side fills my heart with remorse and pain. It's been two weeks and not a single second goes by when I don't think of him.

He had a partner once, 15 years back but fate had its other plans. A swift strike by destiny left him alone with ruins of his partner. Thereon, he has dutifully lived a solitary life much like myself. Beside him lay the ruins of his partner which always reminded him of the good old times.

Journey from that point had been tough. Over loaded all the time, too much expectations and being ridiculed from time to time. But he was brave and determined. He took everything with a smile, which earned him the name 'Brok3n Smile'. He cherished it and motivated him to keep on going. He was tall and fair, and appeared a lot fairer because of the dead remains of his partner. He planned on living forever, so far so good. But destiny had its own plans.

I was in Bangalore for my IIM Lucknow interview. I was going to meet my school friends after the interview. Interview got over by 4 and I had some time to spare, so I decided to stuff myself with some food which for some mysterious reasons never shows up in my body. After asking the hotel receptionist, male as destiny had it, about the nearest Subway, I turned swiftly towards the glass door to make my way out. At that precise moment it struck, for a moment I didn't realise what happened, there was a silence! Then I heard the gate keeper saying something with the other half of the door being opened. People say that when death is near, one's complete life flashes before ones eyes. What flashed before my eyes at that moment was me sitting and watching the Saint Gobain glasses ad on tv where a lady throws a bucket of water at a glass door, and a man on the other side ducks thinking nothing was there. And there I was in that flashback laughing merrily at that ad. It wasn't my complete life, but I wasn't completely dead either. But someone died at that moment.

I came back to my senses. The receptionist came rushing to me, male as destiny had it, asking if everything was alright. Being a true sport (or rather not wanting to make a fool of myself), I said everything is fine, fine as butter. And I rushed out of the other half of the door which the gate keeper still kept open, he was still saying something I couldn't understand. Out on the street, I realised I was missing something. I couldn't figure out, until I felt it. My tooth, the lone tooth, my favourite tooth, the one which saw me through ups and downs, with which I had developed a deep bond was missing, well technically half missing. He was in level now with its partner. I couldn't believe it. I rushed back to the hotel so that I could take a closer look in the restroom.

The gatekeeper was still saying something standing there at the gate alongside the receptionist. They were looking at something on the ground. As I reached there, I finally understood what the gatekeeper was saying..."Is that yours?", and I looked at the ground, the broken pieces were scattered over the floor. The receptionist, male as destiny had it, asked if he could do anything. I wished he turned into a female and asked the same question. I said no thanks, went into the restroom and took a closer look. The 'One Man Standing' was no longer there, it was gone, gone forever.

Movie Experience at 27/-

It's been one week of my leave, spent meticulously on sleep and food. But now it seemed that sleep was leaving me. Nights were especially difficult, I had to wait long before sleep came to me. The situation was deteriorating with every passing day, I had to do something to get sleep back in bed with me. I couldn't imagine the night without her. I needed to impress her, show her how far I can go to woo her back to my bed. And then I got the idea of going for a movie. At first it wouldn't be clear how could going to a movie get me my sleep back, but then it ain't a normal movie experience.
The nearest movie theater from my house is Payal Talkies only 13-15 km's away. There is another theater about 10 km away but as the rumors go it doesn't have an entry gate. The movie being shown at that time was 'Welcome'. So after a final resolution I decided to go for the afternoon show expecting a bit low turn up since the movie was going house full. It was Christmas, traffic was low so I finally managed to reach the place in about 25 minutes or so. As soon as I entered the premises of the theater, there was the line, multiple lines in fact. I was well before the show around 1 hour before hoping that the lines would be empty and I could be ahead in the line. Cursing everyone around I also joined the line. The counters were not opened as of now. I asked the guy in front of me when do they open, he said half an hour before the show, so half an hour wait. Then I noticed another line of ladies, their counter was open and they were given tickets. I was like what the ^&?#, and there were guys drooling over that line some for fun, some in the chance of getting their tickets from the ladies. Then half an hour before the show, the counter opened and suddenly instead of a straight line, the crow changed the formation into top of arrow kind. I remained in line, hoping that my chance would definitely come, slowly and slowly the line progressed. Finally, I was near the counter about 6-7 guys behind, when the line stopped moving and slowly it started dispersing. I was surprised as to what was happening, asked the guy in front of me who said that the counter is closed and they are not giving tickets anymore. The ladies line was still active and they were still getting their tickets. It was for the second time I was like what the &$#@. I was in a state of anger incapable of reasoning as to what to do next. Is that it? that's the end, this is what I came for so far. Crap! Then I noticed the guy, whom you usually see in such situations. The rate currently was "27 ka 50", 50 bucks still sounded cheap having shelled out 100,125,180 bucks for a movie in hyderabad. Still like an ideal indian I started bargaining, I quoted for 40 which he readily agreed to my surprise thereby making me give that wretched feeling that I should have said even lower. They guy told me to wait for a 2 minutes, he will get the tickets in the mean time. I wondered from where? but he was back in 1 min only with the ticket all crumbled, I gave him 40 bucks and went inside to enjoy the show.
Now these theaters are pretty different from the PVR, ImaX stuff. There's a huge screen or rather massive screen with the seating divided into ground and balcony. 15 bucks for the ground seats and 27 for the balcony. So I found my way upto the balcony. You don't have a seat number written on the ticket, find any empty place and just sit. Now the fun starts, having dutifully taken my seat I was taking a look around. People were coming in huge numbers, mostly young guys hardly any females. At that moment, a guy comes in with his gf (I presume) holding their hands together. All that was visible was their silhouette against the giant white screen. The whole theater got excited, and started yelling "Haath Chhod", "Haath Chhod". The guy released the hand immediately and the two started walking more closely. The movie started, one could hardly hear anything the introductory song being played. Everyone was yelling, cheering, whistling. It was deafening. Slowly the people cooled down, but there was this deafening noise everytime Katrina came onto screen, or Nana made some witty comment. There was a scene where Akshay moves his hand on Katrina's belly (Gosh!), the whole theater got excited again and there was uniform shout "Haath hata", "Haath hata". It was the second time that the mob had objections to the position of the guy's hand, it seems that the general people are really concerned about the guy's hand are (atleast in the company of a girl). Finally the movie ended and then there was the roar again from the mob.
Having watched the movie, I realized that no matter what movie you watch here you are going to enjoy every bit of it. After all it's the environment which really makes the time worthwhile.

ps : for those who are concerned whether I was able to get sleep in bed with me, yeah I was successful and we had a great night together.

pps : this isn't the first time I had gone to see the movie in that talkies, but had been one in a long time.

Boring is fun!

One always expects that life should never be devoid of any excitements. Every now and then some thing out of the ordinary must happen. However, this doesn't happen always. We follow the same routine everyday, wake up in the morning (time may vary from person to person), freshen up (degree may vary from person to person), go to work, work (amount may vary from person to person), return from work, then go to bed. Not including the various breaks (number may vary from person to person) taken in between for food, sleep, carrom, TT, fooz ball etc etc. Every single day the same routine, always wishing that something new would happen today. However, one wonders what it is that we are expecting. Do we expect that we will meet someone new in our daily routine? Is there going to be a celebration in the office? then comes the blank...what can we expect to happen new in such kind of routine, hardly anything. Even the two events I could think of are less probable. This blank then leads to another question, what is it then that drives us throughout the day? every single day. Is the work so attractive and motivating that it wakes us up every morning? The answer would be a doubtful no. Though there definitely are days when you look forward for the work ahead in the day, but it's not always. Then are these occasional days the source of motivation for our everyday work, that we come everyday with the hope that this day could be one of those occasional days. Maybe.

Finally we settle for this daily routine, hardly expecting anything out of it. Going through the day as a mechanical robot. Everyday being the same as yesterday. Slowly, this boring routine becomes the only fun thing. The desire for something new dies off. The mind stops looking for anything out of the ordinary. We settle for it. The boring life.