Short Story 1

Sweet Revenge

“I don’t want to go to school” said Arvind to himself as he opened his eyes on Monday morning. He could hear the dishes being washed in the kitchen by the maid. He frowned. He despised the maid. She would switch on the lights in his room while he was asleep to sweep the floor. Every Sunday morning he woke up because of her. The second person standing in line to ruin his day was his grandmother who would sit right outside his room and read The Hindu paper. He would hear the newspaper rustle as his grand mom turned the pages. Of all the things that his grand mom did this was most irksome to Arvind. Arvind always found ways to dodge her curious glance. It also amused him that his grand mom somehow never ran out of questions to ask. How much did you score in the test? How much did your friend score? What did you eat in the canteen today? Where did you go to play? Where is your new pencil box? For Arvind it was tiresome to answer the easy questions and too much effort to make up answers for the difficult questions.

Arvind never liked to go to school but today the emotion was stronger. His favorite chitappa was in town from the US. He had fun during the weekend and he was desperate to spend more time with his chitappa. He sat up and sulked some more. As he was devising his strategy to escape the boredom of school, his father walked in.

 “Good Morning Arvind!” He said cheerfully and gave Arvind a warm hug. Arvind loved to be pampered by his father early in the morning. Somehow it felt like his dad was not in a hurry to pack him off to school like his mom. He would give him a hug, run his fingers through Arvind’s hair and the best part is he would massage Arvind’s hands and legs. This would help Arvind warm up for the day ahead.

As he was basking in the warmth of his father’s lap, his mom rushed into the room. Arvind never understood why his mom was in such a hurry all the time. Arvind noticed that she always did multiple things at the same time. He observed that his mom and dad were very different from each other. She constantly gave Arvind advice and she would talk about inspiring personalities and she would read out interesting quotes to him whenever she found time. Arvind was not majourly influenced by any of this. He liked his mom being this way because all his teachers loved talking to his mom and hence they were really nice to him.

There was one more thing he did not understand about his mom. His mom had this uncanny ability to look at him and know what he was thinking. Not once was she wrong. As much as it amazed him it scared him too. Now as she walked in, he looked at her and smiled as if the smile could hide his thoughts. She screeched-“Why don’t you want to go to school??” Arvind could not believe this. How is it that only she has these super powers and he had inherited none? He thought to himself. He replied meekly-“I want to spend time with Raju chitappa.” His mom said “Raju chitappa is here for a month and we are going on a trip with him next week. You can spend all the time you want with him in the houseboat in Kerala.”

He should have thought of a better excuse Arvind pondered. He continued to sulk. Surprisingly his mom sat by his side and told him “Arvind think of 5 things that you are really looking forward to do in school.” Arvind asked her why.

“Because it will help you get motivated to go to school. Am sure you have plenty of fun things to do in school and while you are in school you never really think or Raju chitappa or anybody else for that matter.”

Arvind was beginning to buy the argument. Why can he not speak the way mom does. She makes perfect sense and hence always wins the argument. He quietly contemplated for a bit. He had completely forgotten about the junior football team selection. It was today. Raju Chitappa had gotten him a new colourful school bag. Yellow and blue with wheels. He loved it. He definitely wanted to brag about this to his friends. He also really wanted to try that new flavor of the chewing gum that was available in his canteen. He did not have money on Friday to buy the gum.

 By now Arvind was up and getting ready with new found zeal. It was also his best friend’s birthday today. His mom had helped him pick a copy of the “Diary of a wimpy kid” from Landmark on Sunday and it was gift wrapped and nicely placed in his bag. He definitely wanted to give this to his friend. He got ready within 20 minutes and rushed to the bus stop. He was the only one there.

He wondered if he had missed the bus. He waited for a bit and began to panic. Just then he noticed his father walking towards him with a sheepish grin. He had received a text message from the school informing him that today was a holiday. He had not noticed his phone buzz. Arvind smiled at his father and looked at his school bag sadly. He dragged himself back home and headed straight to the bed. He pulled his rug over his face and prepared to nap. The weather was quite gloomy as it had rained continuously the previous night. Arvind curled up and closed his eyes when his grand mom screamed from the hall-“Change your uniform and do whatever you want”. Even before he could react the maid switched on the light and started sweeping the floor. He quietly reached out to The Hindu, tore it into tiny pieces and strew it around the room. He thought-The tinier the better.

What makes me raise an eyebrow

Many times in the past, sometimes during a random conversation with a stranger, sometimes while reading the paper or watching news I have always felt a little let down by myself for not updating myself with sufficient information on a particular topic. I have never been good with general knowledge or facts or current happenings in the country, in the world etc. I have always been too lazy to read and know my stuff. It has never done much damage because of my EQ. I can always talk about something with a total stranger and ensure that person is not bored. I have never been in situations that are awkward because I do not know what to say about something. But deep down I envy those who know stuff. Not boring useless facts. But real stuff. You see, only if you know certain things you can voice your opinion in that matter. Your brain can be put to good use if you can first assimilate information and the analyze. And its always good to know more. Just the mere activity of exposing yourself to varied aspects of life is good for you and will help you immensely.  So I feel this quite frequently, I ponder about it for a while and then I let it go. But the reason I havent made any progress in this area is because I aim to know everything about everything instantly and it is quite obvious that only leads to burn out. So this time this feeling hit me when I saw Brexit on every social medial platform and I thought to myself whats that word? By then half the world knew. I quickly googled it and read all that I needed to know. What am I going to do differently this time? I have decided to select around 10 different areas of interest of mine. In these areas I want to know everything there is to know. I think if am an authority in these ten topics it is enough of an achievement for now. I want to make it an everyday ritual to read about these topics and I dont care about anything else in the world.

Here are my ten topics:

1. Education-Mostly about foundation and best practices in the country and the globe.
2. Marketing-I want to be updated about digital marketing , best practices, success stories
3. Behaviours- I want to read as much as I can. I wish I could do a masters in psychology sometime soon.Emotional Intelligence. Psycho-metrics. I want to understand human psychology.
4. Success Stories-People and companies
5. Cooking-I have liked cooking since I was very young. But unfortunately this has taken a back seat in my life.I want to be a great cook so I want to be aware about various healthy recipes and global cuisines.
6. Acupressure-I have recently started finding this very interesting. I want to know more and understand acupressure better.
7. Age old remedies and practices- In this mad rat race where everybody is running towards the future I want to go into the past. I want to bring back some wonderful Indian traditions. I want to be able to make my life richer by practicing some of these age old practices. For example-I want to use a stone mortar and pestle to make chutney and not my electric mixer. I want to be able to to construct a house for myself with an open area in the middle. I want to do the infinite number of things that our ancestors where doing which kept them healthy and happy. I want to be instrumental in bringing somethings back and helping others experience the same.
8. Yoga- I want to know more about yoga and importantly do yoga. I secretly want to be a yoga teacher :P But thats impossible now because I doubt if I can even see my feet if I stand up straight, leave alone touching.
9. Movies-I want to understand how to make movies. I want to make few short films this year. I have asked Nishant for a handycam. I want to learn the basics of photography, script writing, editing etc.
10. Books-I want to read the work of different authors and understand different writing styles to develop my own writing skills.

I was tempted to include politics, economy, finance, world affairs etc. But I am really not very interested. If I overhear something I may care to listen. Otherwise I dont care much. I am comfortable not knowing. Hmmmm I like my list, I never realized I was such an interesting person. :)

Last week...

On 12th April I travelled to Bangalore by train. I was in Bangalore on 13th and 14th for official work.

On 14th I flew back to Hyderabad and reached Shamshabad at around 4 30 PM. My husband picked me up and we decided to visit our relatives because it was Tamil New Year and we went there, spent time with our folks and reached home around 11 PM. I came home tired as hell, had dinner and crashed like never before. I then woke up at 1:30 AM. No that was not a typo. I really woke up at 1 :30 AM. What did I do? I bathed. After that I packed. Because I was leaving to Bombay for my cousin's wedding, I am promising myself. I will never opt for an early morning flight no matter how cheap it is.Ever again in my life. I had booked a cab at 2 30 AM. We reached the airport at around 3 30. The flight was at around 5. The only highlight was I ate at that Idli Factory place. I somehow crave for Idlis everytime I go to the airport. As if I have been living in some foreign land where I never get idlis. Once we had our idlis we boarded and flew to Bombay. We reached around 7 AM. We directly went to dadar where the wedding took place. We were infact early for the wedding. We changed, got ready and attended the wedding. I ate breakfast for the second time, Who says no to Sabudhana Khichdi.( I was all nostalgic about hostel days in pune when I ate this ) I met all my relatives, took tons of pictures and had a lot of fun. Booked a hotel around 2 PM after having some really heavy lunch. Aaaah what amazing Modaks. I wish I had packed some. Once we reached our hotel we crashed. No alarm. Nobody to remind us that we had a reception to attend. No clue how or when we crashed. Just crashed. I woke up at 6 30 PM. ( Which is when the reception was supposed to start). The first thing I checked was if my hair looked alright after sleeping. I was really in no mood to shower again.) We figured we were really hungry from sleeping. So we ordered some bread omlet to our rooms and ate well so our energies are restored to socialize again.  ( I love room service. So therapeutic) Then we got ready, clicked some more pictures and left to the reception. We had fun again till 12 AM. Left to our room and crashed again.

We woke up the next morning. Again no alarm. But the good thing was we had planned nothing for Saturday. It was a day allocated for chilling. We had breakfast. Bread Omlet with overload of butter. We got ready and left to Bandra for a little bit of street shopping. That was a lot of fun. Then we ate some ice cream from Haagen-Dazs. Then my aunt called me and insisted that I visit few temples with her. Just because I wanted to be with her for sometime we went to two temples. Then we went back to the airport. Waited there for a long time because we were very early. We skipped lunch because the icecream was too filling. We grabbed a sandwich at the airport and missed the idlis and dosas and vadas in Hyderabad airport. Mumbai airport sucks. We boarded at around 9 PM. Best Pilot ever. This guy helped me overcome my fear of flying by talking for abnormally long periods of time whenever he got the mike and by landing really well. After almost a year I am experiencing panic free flying. I saw the pilot get off the plane and board his car.I was tempted to go and say hello but was afraid that I might look silly. We reached Hyderabad around 10 30 PM. We were starving so we had some pringles on our way. We decided to meet my bro-in-law for dinner. We quickly checked all the late night eat outs and finalized Shah Gouse. We had never gone there but we have heard good stuff. But considering it was 20km away from the airport and the fact that we would be going away from home and also that we did not have our car with us, we changed the plan to something more within our comfort zone. We decided to go to Hotel Golkonda. They serve midnight buffet. We were so hungry and famished. We ate and ate and talked and talked until 3 AM. Reached home around 3:30 AM. Crashed again. I woke up in the morning had breakfast and chilled a little. Did nothing. Moved very less. Had lunch and crashed. Woke up around 7PM. Had coffee watched TV. Again just sat around like a zombie. My day doesnt end here. We left home at 10 PM after I bathed and got ready. We had a movie to watch at 11 PM. Came back home around 2 30 AM. Crashed immediately.

I look forward to a very ordinary week.

Here are some pics:

Nishant and me.This was in our room right before we went to the reception.

This was at the wedding in the morning.

With my brother Lalith.

This was at Bangalore before our big meeting.

What is the point in taking normal pics...All these pics were clicked in Bangalore capturing our emotions before/after/during the meetings.

Babumama

This is another long pending post. I have been wanting to write about my grandfather for so long.

Today inspiration has arrived.

My grandfather's name is V S Gajapathy and we lovingly call him babumama. He is a retired veterinary doctor. He is extremely awesome. He has seen so much in life and he has taught us so much. My brother and I have looked up to him since we were very young. He is the true definition of "man of the house". I am so very proud of him for so many reasons. He has a house in Chennai which is far away from the city. This house was paradise for us when were kids. Every summer vacation we would long to see him. Everybody there would wait for us to arrive from Hyderabad. He used to have a temper that we were a little scared of back then. But the discipline that he used to inculcate also has helped us in so many ways. My father looked up to him so much. He can speak on any topic. He would have some amazing insights on everything under the sun. I have seen so many people come home simply to talk to him. 

When I was a child I was extremely attached to him. I still am. Whenever he fell sick my father would ask me to call him. And my father used to tell me just listening to my voice was enough for babumama. He would recover. Medicines were not required. That is how much he adored me. When you are a 8 year old these inputs really matter. I have come to realize that recently. I remember I would promptly pick up the phone to talk and I trusted what my father told me blindly. It was almost like I was in control of everything. It made me feel so important and more interestingly it strengthened our bond so much. Babumama and I would exchange letters. I would write a detailed account of how I was performing in school. I still remember that he used to give me some feedback about my handwriting every time. He motivated me and inspired me to always do better. To take care of my health. Even today when I speak to him he first thing he asks me if my health is okay and if am eating right.

Babumama loves biryani so much. I found out about this only in the recent few years.

When he was in Hyderabad last time I ensured I bought him some real nice biryani and when we travelled to Chennai few months back we parcelled paradise biryani just for him. Listening to him talk about his youth and how he spent it with his friends is just pure bliss. He has spoken to me about his friend who was a muslim and this friend's mother would cook the most amazing biryani. He is most happy when he talks about his younger days. He is such an amazing narrator. The listener always yearns for more. 

The thing I love most about him is the fact that he has been there for his family throughout. From a very young age he started taking responsibility and he has done true justice to this aspect of his life. He has supported everybody who needed him at every step in his life. He has made a difference to so many lives and I do not know if he realizes this. I want him to know what a huge influence his life has had on all of us. So many generations. My youngest cousin Pratyush also adores him. He is a true man and has set extremely high standards for everybody in our family. I love him, adore him and respect him. His care and concern can ease life's biggest issues. He is the most precious and worthy asset that our family has. I am so blessed and lucky to be his grand daughter. 

I usually dont put up pics where I look so weird. But this photo is so precious. It was taken during my wedding while I was getting ready. 

Clarity

STAGE 1: STUPIDITY

Like everybody else, for once, I also had a long weekend. We had two days off for Pongal followed by the weekend. Idle mind is devil's workshop. This is so absolutely true. Being jobless I wondered a lot about several things and before I knew how, I found myself on the way to an astrologer's house. My mother's friend knew this guy really well and I went along with them to see this astrologer. I am not going to get into the details of what exactly happened there but I have decided that I will never ever do this again, In this post I will explain why.

STAGE 2: REGRET

It took some time for me to figure out what was happening. After my visit once I was back home I was terribly upset and depressed. I don't know why. Nothing bad was told to me during my "session". But somehow I couldn't help feeling confused and guilty. I felt guilty for letting down my intellect. You know how you feel when you have done something terribly wrong. You feel it in your gut. You regret what you have done. And that evening I did not understand why I was feeling all this. It took me a long night to get over this terrible feeling.

STAGE 3: CLARITY

After a lot of thought and a few sadhguru videos I came to realize what exactly had happened. I am immensely grateful to sadhguru for helping me sort this issue. I felt all the above emotions for a reason. The fact that I had decided to ask somebody else to predict my future rather than trust my own ability to create a destiny of my choice is where the core issue lies. This is the same reason why I find prayer very confusing. A lot of people have told me during tough times;"leave it to god". How can I?? As long as I am breathing how can I let anything or anybody decide even the tiniest aspect of my life. My mind will simply not accept this. We are not meant to know about the future. We are supposed to discover every day and live every moment and create life the way we want to.It is completely our decision to make. If we realize the immense potential that we have as human beings there will be no reason to go seeking for comfort or answers or reassurances. Every year is a great year, every day is an amazing day and every minute is the bestest time to start any good activity. Life will always be good. And everything that happens to me is a direct or indirect consequence of my very own actions. All this made me think some more about my own life.

I have one single purpose for being alive. I always knew that touching lives gave me more joy than anything else in the world. A small act of kindness brings enormous contentment and joy to my heart. I will continue to live this way and will live a very meaningful life no matter what.

A few days after my dad passed away in 2011, I found this piece of paper at home. This is in his very own handwriting. It is a quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson. I am always moved when I read this quote because it reminds me what a great life my dad lived and how gracefully he accepted everything that life gave him. I want to be just like that. I like the last line the most. "To know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived". For me this is clarity. 

"To laugh often and much; To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded."

The wait

I am a very happy person. Small things make me happy. Nice people make me happy. Good food makes me happy. Long conversations, meaningful conversations, funny conversations, basically all kinds of conversations make me happy, work ( for now ) makes me happy, creating art makes me happy, listening to music makes me happy, watching well made movies make me happy, staring into empty space makes me happy, rain makes me happy, writing makes me happy, reading makes me happy...i can go on...

More than all this , getting a good haircut makes me v.v.v.v.v.v.v.happy :D 

I'll explain. Since I was a child this has been my most favourite hobby.

I don't know what it is about some random stranger chopping off few strands of hair. It comforts me. It excites me. It is almost a magical feeling to walk out of a parlour. The euphoria is so high that sometimes I need to sit in the salon for a while to calm down.Of course all of this is true in case of a good haircut and not a tragic one. I do proper research before I venture out for this purpose so I haven't really had any bad experience so far.( in my adult life of course. As a child it was one disaster after another ) Because as a child I would go to some parlour named after the owner like Pratyusha Ladies Parlour or Pooja Ladies Parlour. In my high school I started going to Kim Fung which was acceptable then. Because a Chinese lady cut my hair and she was pretty cool. And now finally I have found my place and my hairdresser and I don't intend on being disloyal ever. I must thank my good friend Soumya for introducing me to this place and guy. I highly recommend ENVY in Inorbit mall. If you ever go there please ask for Gulfaam. He has magical hands and is always excited to try something new. And please note I stay 30 km away from Hitech city in Hyderabad. Imagine how good he must be if am willing to travel 60 km and spend 3 hrs just for a haircut. 

So why is this on my mind! Yep you guessed it right! I got a haircut!!! It was long pending. I have been wanting to look different for a long time now. Somehow shoulder length hair is just not me. Let us not even discuss longer. Of all the different looks that I have tried I like this one the most. Firstly it is so comfortable. It is so easy to maintain. I believe it looks smart. I like the fact that not many girls prefer this. And we all know how much I crave to be different. And the best part-I get to cut my hair more often :D And my hair grows really fast. So before you know it, I will be on the way to my next visit to ENVY. 

This time when Gulfaam was cutting my hair I was wondering why I enjoy this process so much. And I finally found the answer. I love the wait. That time between the commencement of your haircut and the completion. It is filled with hope. You don't know the final result. The excitement. The anticipation. The wait. That's what I love most.

If you are wondering how I look...

If you are wondering why I had to take a pic of myself in a mirror and if you are wondering why couldnt she just ask her husband to take the pic ? Please refer below pic. I did ask.

Happy Birthday Vasuda`

This is such a long pending post. I have been meaning to write a little something about my friend Vasuda for quite some time. Our story is pretty cool. We have known each other from the time we were born. Obviously it took us time to figure out that we were meant to be such great friends. But yes we knew about each other's existence since then. Our mothers were best friends in college and theirs is a 40 year old friendship ( OH  MY GOD!!I did not realize this fact until right now ) Me and Vasuda have met on various occasions while we were kids and once we met right before I started college in Symbiosis and we spoke a bit. Then we met when I was in Bangalore for work and we spoke a little more. Then she came down to Hyderabad for her ISB interview and we spoke a lot. She came down to Hyderabad for something else and we spoke and spoke and spoke..And over the past few years she has really become this perfect companion for me. Though we stay in different cities, she in Bangalore and me in Hyderabad, it has never really stopped us from connecting. Our phone conversations have set new records. People at my place know that they should leave me alone for the next few hours if am on call with Vasuda. A lot of people who know me would rate me as a very confident person. Vasuda does too and we keep joking about my over confidence issues as well. But there is one thing that I have always wanted to tell her. I am this confident and strong and bold because of a handful of people in my life. People who have instilled this confidence in me. They never did it consciously. They did it very effortlessly. Primarily these people are my family. My parents and of course my brother. I am who I am today because of them. But once I became an adult I definitely needed some more people to continue boosting my confidence. It was really important to me that a few others felt the same way about me as my family did. And I am fortunate that I found this confidence in a few best friends who have helped me retain my arrogance:P And Vasuda is one person who does this with such consistency. Every phone call with her makes me feel good about myself. She agrees with all my mad theories and opinions. She has always been proud of me and has motivated me in so many different ways. I know how much she likes to listen /read about herself so I will specifically mention the best things about her: She is really funny ( which means she can make jokes and she can understand my jokes as well ) She is very patient and a great great listener ( If you are confused about something call her , she will show so much interest in your confusion -its freaky, very few people care that way ) She is very honest about how she feels and is very open to suggestions ( you can tell her anything and she will take it the right way..I never have to think if its the right thing to say. I can just say it and I know she will take it in the right spirit. ) She is super intelligent( I told you right? She gets all my jokes and finds me funny as well , all criteria to test intelligence passed) She is a really good person at heart ( She cannot hurt anybody ever and she is really harmless and innocent and not at all arrogant or rude or any of those things that I would use to describe myself )

One thing that I have always sulked about is her gifting ideas (these intangible gifts!) I have made it so clear to her that I don't like intangible gifts that now I don't get that either!!  Just to show her how frustrating it is to get a poem as a birthday gift I am giving her this zen tangle drawing as a bday gift :P There! I had my sweet revenge finally! Stare at this painting all that you want! End of the day you will realize a gift voucher is much prettier :P Happy Birthday Babes!