A New Day

Titania had come dead tired from her cafe, serving her customers late till midnight. Her colleague was on leave from today as she was to deliver a baby soon. She was only happy to take her responsibility, as that would spare her some stressful time, where the customers constantly ask for better service without giving a thought to the load she was having; 10 tables but only one waitress, a bit too much to imagine.

So Titania had offered to do work of two people, in hope of getting some time to sit on an accounts computer! The computer, she thought, would give her a much needed break, 'at least for a few minutes na'. She was excited for her new role as accounts manager-cum- waitress, as her new designation, even if ad hoc, would allow more employers to check her profile and hence better chances of landing up on a new job. 'May be I would be a full time account manager in the next job'.

The day started. She had come early, all armed for serving the clients happily. Before anyone could come, she switched on the computer and set her favourite youtube songs playlist. An earphone was missing, but 'ha...its ok. Even the video will be awesome'. As the time gaining speed, the clients started pouring in.

"Two plain Sandwiches, Titania", "One hot Chocolate, please", "Yeah Hi, I would like to have a black coffee without sugar, can you let me have an ash tray ?" Requests for service had just started gaining speed. "Yes sir, your order would be coming in 10 minutes", was her usual reply, as the restaurant had promised a maximum 10 minutes waiting time for the customers.

Her youtube was still waiting for her to perform. The accounts computer had silently gone to sleep and there she was, doing her primary job. Even the Sun was done with his daily job. She was used to long hours of service, just that her colleague would assist her at times the load was high. But today, she was on her own fully. Her abs had started showing signs of fatigue, but they would have to patient for 2 more hours, as the cafe would close at 10 pm in the night.

The time had come for the cafe to take rest. Titania turned the status bar of the cafe from open to closed, and then picked up the cloth to clean up the tables and floors. Thought of a youtube playlist had died out and only a plain white bedsheet, spread on a spacious bed would strike her mind. But no, she had accounts to manage now. Whole day the computer had been waiting, and now his turn had come. For the next one hour, she would manage the accounts, making excel sheets for the day and calculating the net earning and any damage if encountered. By the end of it, she was already yawning and swinging her head in sleep.

She reached home 2 hours later than usual, meaning she would be having either hours less to sleep or 2 hours less from her life, talking to her boyfriend. She managed both, cutting 1 hour from sleep and one hour from her friend.

She slept, thinking that 'tomorrow, I shall have my earphones and will definitely grab some time for youtube.'

The new day has arrived, and her hopes are alive again, the hopes have filled her face with glow and smile. Let's hope she has her youtube session today.

That Gloomy Day!

They met on a gloomy day to finally bid a farewell.

A chilly day of Delhi winters, no sun shine, drizzle falling, moist eyes, crying hearts but still she smiled once in a while. She smiled because he loved it. He adored sparkle in her eyes, she adored his giggles all this while. If one was upset the other was too, if one of them smiled it transferred to the other pretty soon. There was a need of that pleasant feel. There was a sense of physical, mental and emotional presence. There was love, expression, compassion and fights too. They were way to many differences, but they thought they are meant to be celebrated soon. Then what was wrong? why the farewell?

People said 'it's just the fault in your stars'.

Today, was different. They met, however the excitement of seeing each other, poking, irritating & being naughty with each other, was missing. Today, was different as they had issues to discuss, things to be sorted, some fights to end and the much dark weather just complimented them. Everyone else around them however seem to enjoy it. They both crossed young couples exchanging their body warmth and enjoying the chills. Both were reminded of their own days. When even such gloomy days used to brighten up when they held hands, when they just exchanged a glimpse of each other and yes not to forget when she smiled for him and he held her tight. But, today was different. She quietly sat in a corner of a amphitheatre, he shouted, she cried her heart out. Then she complained and he responded with wet eyes, she felt some pain in her chest, the cold was now no more pleasing he dint know what to do, but in the corner of her heart she wished he did something at least.

They both got up, walked as fast as they could, she was faster this time. The rain was hitting hard they looked for shade to protect themselves and before they knew they were stuck in a stampede. People were pushing them from all the sides, wetness and chaos is all what they felt. She felt like crying more, she felt uneasy and was unable to breathe. But she held him tight! She held him tight thinking probably its the last time. He in return made moves which made her relax in that crowd. He struggled hard without hurting others to make her breathe if not more. On the other hand she did not mind falling on him, taking his support, being one with him. After her father it was him who made
her feel protected this way. She knew that thousands of people in the stampede wont hurt her, she had full faith on him.They both held each other tight, he motivated her and pushing the crowd they were out and could breathe at last.

But, not to forget, today was different. Different because they had to say goodbye. Goodbye to uncountable memories, sensitizing touches, ignited chemistry, endless talks, future plans, surprising moves, random pings, awaited phone calls, unexpected fights, memorable city tours, unmeasurable love, different expressions and most importantly Geeta ka Gyaan (lessons from Geeta). I am sure after writing this post hundred other things will knock my mind which did not make it to the list but were special to both souls chatting away over a hot cup of coffee.

Goodbye, because it was time to move on or rather move away from each other. If not mentally than at least physically. If not emotionally than at least formally. Indeed it was hard, today was different as their eyes spoke more than words, their silence spoke more than their actions, their throat choked countless times. But they had to do it. As night approached they looked deeply in each others eyes for the last time before they said the final goodbye!

Do they still hope to meet again?
They dont know that. All they know is, that, now they want to see life unfold itself .

8 ways to waste your time

With man coming of age and inventing technology to ease our efforts to waste time, there have become uncountable ways of wasting time in the contemporary world. While earlier, any activity other than sleeping would contribute to society (in fact even sleeping would), now there is so much variety of activities that segregating them into waste of time and utilisation of time is a humongous task. Let us start with first separating 10 prominent ways of wasting time.

1. Eating like a buffalo - How many times have you seen this ? An already plump person, sitting in a cafeteria and chewing something, seen anytime in the day troubling the cafe chairs. He came there just because he was a bit bored. He was a little hungry as well, so why not indulge into some poori bhaaji.

2. Talking like a radio - Endless talking. It was as if god wanted to give competition to human invention. A radio would still stop working once there is no battery in it, But this person would switch on his pandora box as soon as his mind starts getting unsettling thoughts of not dominating over the silence. With more network coverage, he can talk at length to anyone in the world, money flow being no bar to the flow of the words.

3. Sleeping - It is a universal favorite pastime. Just go into the bed, under the blanket, and forget that the world is going to end. What not, it is not going to end anyway, so why make an effort and save it or our lives, for that matter. It would be even more fun if your dad, mother of wife do not wake you up for going to office or school.

4. Procrastinating - It works as an equiliser sometimes. If a person is not getting paid as much as he liked, he would obviously do the work at a speed proportional to the ratio between his expected and his received. But of all the other times, it is such a great way to avoid tension (momentarily at least), to disturb friends in their work, to do anything you like. When you are in mood of procrastination, you will see any other work more interesting than the work assigned to you.

5. Youtubing - One video for taking a break, plssss. That video proves to be the starting hinge in a chain of videos. You would give your strict mind a little concession and decide to stop it just after watching this video, just to repeat the same exercise after this video ends. It doesn't stop till some higher power hits your fears and you close the browser tab immediately and come back to work.

6. Malling - Enjoy the sparkling shops and their designer clothes. Where you have the luxury of feeling like a king or queen, when the shopkeeper would do anything to make you feel happy about a dress so that you buy it. You also have freedom to do anything nasty and get away, because nobody would know who did it, and by the time cameras are looked at, you are already back to your home. You would see pretty girls and boys and have a nice time making comments about them. When you return home, the hours pin would have moved by more than a quarter.

7. Porning - Now you may have grown up, but remember the days when you needed it and they did most efficient service to you. It is an underrated hero of lives of many people. It may have done a good service, the value addition is zero but can never be negative, even if someone becomes addict. It may have caused you to score a D where you could have scored C in exam, but it would never have caused you to get an F. It is a philanthropic waste of time.

8. Joining Dharna and rallies - Yo Yo AK Singh. Dharna has become a fashion now and you are free to go to Jantar Mantar and shout for our rights. Your manager or professor is not giving us due recognition and we need to go to dharna so that our voices are heard collectively. You are not concerned about the time which could have been utilised by not joining the protest of some social worker and doing your work. Going to join a political party rally is a matter of pride to you, more than getting pass marks in college. Of course, college or office can be done anytime but politics, it is once in a lifetime chance.

Hope you got some inspiration to waste your time. I will utilise my time soon, just after this video ;)

Childhood

I am very fond of my childhood days. Every moment was eventful and every action was a lesson in itself. Every story was a doctrine and every smile was intimate. Some of the incidents I have seen or gone through, that I can recall are:

There was a small kid in a park who came to me, saying "bhaiya mere thumb mein chot lag gayi hai. Aap mujhe ye chewing gum de do half, ye sahi ho jayega" (Elder brother, my thumb is injured, please give me half of this chewing gum, the thumb will get fine). I instantly remembered that I too had done the same when I was 5 years old. I asked my bench mate to give her half five star because "isse meri khaansi theek ho jayegi." She indeed gave me her half chocolate. In return for that incident, I too wanted to give my half chewing gum to that kid, but I didn't, for fear of chewing gum doing bad to the kid.

Once I was playing in school when I wasp stung me on my face. My face was swollen red and paining hard. I had to abandon my game and rushed to classroom where I sat heads down and slept in seconds. I woke up only to realise that I could not even speak without pain. All the more painful was the fact that all my classmates could see my distorted version. After I reached home, I was laughed at by my elder sister, and was labelled as someone having a gulab jamun permanently in his mouth. Thankfully, my mother gave me some medicine and the swell effect died out by the night.

I also see a small labourer family constructing a home in front of my house. They wake up early, take a bath in open, with women trying to hide while at the same time trying to bath. What intrigues me is the free movement of their young kids. They roam freely here and there, as if the whole world is their play ground. They make marks on the road and play stapu, not afraid of any vehicle coming on their playground. A toddler moves carelessly on the road, while the mother is keeping an eye on him from distance, lest a vehicle spoils his 'vishva bhraman'. One kid is staring at the side view mirror of a car, adjusting her hair repeatedly. They do not even own a house here, yet they have made their world so easy here. Dear kids, may you always be blessed.

The path of adolescence

You know, I am not the author of the post. I am just a common teenager. I am here just to write down some common challenges faced by people in my age group. It may seem funny to you that I am projecting my age group as an already vulnerable group which needs protection, while also aspiring to reach the skies. But on thinking a little, you will realise the seriousness with which I am writing here.

You can associate me with any of the mid sized humans you see in your house, in your locality, in your highways, in your urinals, in your garbage dumps, in your TV shows, young CEOs as well as among the prodigies. I can be seen enjoying in the discotheque all the night and also picking rats in the night for cleaning a locality. With such a great contrast in my life, you can think of me as an embodiment of life. And because I am still growing and changing, you should add to my definition 'with potential of greater growth and change'.



Just a few years ago in my life, I was considered a blessed person, child of god, star of many eyes. And just with changes in my body appearing, I started getting cautions, warnings and advices about how to behave with different levels of society. It makes me sick and angry at the hypocritical beliefs of people around me. Just ignoring the society gives me peace now.

I am also given a lot of toys to experiment with. Earlier the toys were very amusing to mind externally. The toys I got this time are also very amusing, but they go inside me to amuse me. I just tried them because the old toys would just not excite me. But you know, cigarette and tobacco can be used for variety of other purposes as well. I would never have come to know that tobacco can be used for cleaning teeth as well, had I not taken it. And waste is that fellow who has not had some sessions of weed smoke in his life, they say.

You know, I was also taken to Delhi for giving me a job for good money in return. There was hardly any doubt in me for my uncle with whom I had grown so much. Why I was given a household work when I had never touched a single utensil was beyond my comprehension. I had done 10th class so a clerical job would have done good. But now I think I am lucky, as many girls of my age are working as flesh workers in my own apartments. I hope nothing like this happens to me.

Ah, please don't tell me what to do and what not to. My father is the richest in the town and I am his only child. I am into drugs and I drive my car at high speed. I also have a big business of selling porn videos, but what is wrong in that? I am also, in a sense providing jobs to people. I have received a scar on my face and can't hear with one ear, but it's ok. I enjoy the risks in my life.

Don't you please think that I am too dumb at my age to be able to think all this. There is one of my mates who had cleared his graduation at an age of 14 itself. Challenge, when presented to me can not ever be too hard to crack. I can even defeat Vishwanathan Anand in chess, for that matter.

I am also a tea seller. I serve tea to all these employees coming in the afternoon. I wish to be someday like them. I learn what they say. Now I even know what a stock market is and why the sub prime crisis happened. I wish to earn a crore rupees.

I am a girl. I consider myself very sweet. I wish to be a good mother and please my family, so that never in my family a sad moment troubles my people. I know many friends of mine want to make their name in the world but I also know that my happiness will live with the happiness of my family. I hope nothing happens to my politeness and purity. Else my dream of a happy family will be blurry.

I think I am a big resource of energy. I hang on to any opportunity that comes my way. Sometimes I get good results by hanging on, other times, I make my life an exact opposite of happy. Once I got a teacher without asking. I love him, my teacher. He took me from the garbage and taught me how I landed into this mess. He also taught me how I can leave it. I wish all other adolescents like me get a teacher who would lead them to a happy life.

I wish all the readers also treat any adolescent with a sense of responsibility, assuming that they have an immense reservoir of energy in them.

Meet our weekly most read author - Neha Sharma

In the first week of opening the blog to public, the most read article has been "Sarpanch meets the US President". The article has been written by Ms. Neha Sharma, doing Phd in communitisation in healthcare from Delhi University. Her work is mostly oriented towards rural India.

Neha is a sweet girl who is very sensitive for elderly rights and wishes to do some thing big for making lives of old age people better. The mentioned incident is just a small one of what daily happens with the elderly in today's society.

Her field of research involves investigating efficiency of implementation of central government programmes for women and child development and health. Her work has been referenced by the PHFI and PFI.

In her free time, she, like many others, goes for shopping and enjoys spending weekends under the winter sun. She also involves herself with the Art of Living Foundation.

She likes to contribute to social causes and is ready anytime to give her hand to improve lives.

Seedha Khada hai (Standing Rigid)

Ragging sessions are sometimes filled with immense fun. Nowdays, it is a dreaded term to be used commonly; the trend had started around the same time we had joined the college. Some disciplinary probations, some terminations, some warnings etc, first two months of freshers stay witness such incidents, with increasing commonality nowadays.

But I am sure even now, the air in IIT K would not have dried off. It still must be having the cheer and excitement we all associate with these 'informal interactions.' Those sessions sometimes can even determine a career path for someone. Like one of my friends, who was put into Ham club, just for the sake of associating him with a club, and later went on making his career in this field only. Many budding speakers, writers and painters also emerged.

There was this hindi extempore speech competition in one of such sessions. The seniors would give us some small phrase, which might have another meaning as well, which young boys would grasp quicker than the civilised meaning. There were titles like 'Aam ke aam, guthliyo ke daam", "Angoor ka ras" and many more which I can not recall now. But one title, I remember very rightly.

We were sitting in Hall 2 quad and the senior would call any one of us freshers randomly, asking us to pick any chit from the lot containing the topic from speech. One of my friends got "Seedha Khada hai"!

I must admit that I had no clue what I would have spoken had I been given this topic. It was indeed a challenge not to utter any word demeaning or unhealthy but at the same time maintain the essence of the title. My friend was nervously smiling, looking at our faces, with a puzzled face. I was expecting my friend to back off. But he didn't, and came up with something.

He started with a storm that was destroying all the villages in Orissa. People were getting killed and government was helpless. There was no hope that could console the villagers that things are going to be fine again. Their crops, their carts, their huts, all were rendered useless by the heavy storm. But there was one tree which would not fall even after such a strong storm. Wo ped abhi tak "seedha khada hai. Aaj is ped ki sthaniya nivaasi pooja karte hain" (That tree is still standing tall and straight. Now this tree is worshipped by local residents). A story well framed and appreciated by all of us.

I was amazed by this story. It also left me wondering about the capabilities of mind to create. It can create anything at any moment. My love for creativity further deepened that day.