"What's in a name?”

What was his name? We wondered…..But "What's in a name?”

Though he is not on the dot punctual but every morning around 7 the bell would ring and without asking who it was one us would scream “coming”. My mother opens the door most often for him and in case he is not on time, she will ask chantingly “Bhaiya got late today?” I never heard of any response. I guess the time he took thinking for some excuse the simultaneous task of refilling the milk cans got over. And my mother without realizing that she asked him a question would collect the milk cans and shut the door.

Once in two or three years when he will ask for a price hike my mother would use her bargaining skills efficiently and say “Bhaiya you are serving us since ten years(hearing this since I was five), we deserve some discount.” Authoritatively she will quote a price for the monthly bill to which he will agree submissively.

I sometimes wondered did he acknowledge that in last 20 years I have grown from the little girl who used to rush to open the door at 7 in the morning to collect milk cans from him to young and independent (or rather semi-dependent) lass.

Last Saturday I was busy reading newspaper (obviously gossip column) bell rang which I completely ignored and dedicatedly continued reading newspaper. My mom first completed the ritual of screaming “Coming” and then opened the door.
“Bhaiya got late today?” she asked. But this time I heard a reply
“Didi, Aafreeda is getting married” he said.
“Aafreeda?”
“My daughter” presenting a box of sweets he said “Nikah is on 29th”
“Congratulations” said my mother

After shutting the door she asked"did u know his daughter's name is Aafreeda?"
Obviously I knew what she meant. within a split sec she asked "What is his name?"
We wondered....22years..and we never knew his name..But ironically enough...."What's in a name?”

So she fell for him…

So she fell for him…

“its always like he is standing there, every one is looking at him….appreciating him talking about him, cheering him and then he ignores all the people and looks straight into my eyes and then…..he gives me a smirk….as if he is saying now you know I am superior” is what she used to say…... Few words changed eventually but the meaning changed drastically.

I remember initially she didn’t used to like him much (I don’t know whether the feeling was mutual) in fact she used to envy him sometimes or may be most of the time for his intelligence, competence and the fact that being almost same in work he used to get all the recognition and appreciation she wanted.

It was difficult for her to accept that one is still better even if two are best.

I don’t know how everything happened but what I know that everything happened at snail’s pace. She fell for him and the simple sounding four letter word LOVE, changed everything and now this is what she has to say.
“Every one is looking at him….appreciating him talking about him, cheering him and then he ignores all the people and then he looks straight into my eyes and then…..gives me a smile….as if he is saying now you know I love you”

getting nostalgic

Few days back I went to a place which used to be a favorite hangout for me and my friends in school.


It was the place where.........(guys hold on your imagination and read..)

My friend was teaching me how to ride a scooty. We started on from a secluded road but I got over confident or may be it was the crazy notion that every teenager has that “…nothing can go wrong…..”I turned the scooty towards the market and increased the speed.........My friend was constantly asking me to slow down…..but how could anything go wrong…… everything was under control…..under my control.

And before I could even realize anything I heard “…I told u to slow down”. It was voice of my friend. I opened my eyes and saw people around….me and my friend were lying on road…I could see stars above her head(were there any stars above mine??? Never mind) The funniest thing was that I was still giving race to the scooty with my hands lying down on road….. I took some time to realize that we have met with an accident.....

ohh shit...accident....!!!!!When we were back to our senses …..We still were not feeling any pain. What we both were scared about were our parents…..I looked at my friend she had bruises on her knee. And I had bruises on my hand the rare view mirror of the scooty broke and the glasses were all over my hand. I had major wounds on my knees, shoulders and face (very near to eyes). We went back to my friend’s home and looking at the severity of our accident we decided not to tell our parents about it.

We changed our clothes as the jeans got torn around the knees and the next two big things to deal were
1) get the scooty repaired
2) hide the big bruise near my eyes as rest of them we covered with our clothes

We dashed out all the lil cash we had to get the scooty repaired and believe me it was very ‘lil……..I spread my hair over my face to hide the wound near my eyes……..but I guess mothers of all smart kids(or dumb kids who pretend to b smart) are a lot more smarter. Her mother smelled detol and we were caught.

Next thing we decided is that that we will tell our parents that the other person was driving, so that we can save our skin and all the blame would go to the other person. Which could have worked if our parents never met……..but they did.

We were taken to hospital…both of us got a big injections and believe me sometimes things can go wrong.

What I managed to do effectively was … I never told my parents about the wound that was there on my shoulder and even today my mom spend some quality time thinking from where did I get scar on my shoulder…



It was the place where I met first road accident of my life…… It was the place which made me realize that you should always pay heed to your friend’s advice….

Especially when a friend is sitting on the back seat and that too without helmet…

Why ???

I was in a restaurant waiting for my sis to get food for me. I was looking in the direction of my sis so that I don’t miss her as the place was so damn crowded. Doing so I saw a lady come and sit in front of me. She was with a girl who seemed to be around 12 so I guessed she might be her grand mother. The young left her instantly with a small girl who seemed to be around 2 years to get food.

She was very old, she took a while to sit and adjust to the bright lights of the restaurant.
I kept looking at her and before I could even realize I was staring her. She kept looking at the floor and not even for once she looked up or at me (I would have been damn conscious if someone stared me like I was staring her)

I got really curious and wanted to know why she seemed to be so disinterested in everything... the people around.... the food and even her granddaughter who was sitting beside her and could have fallen from the chair any moment.

I was asking my self why she is here if she didn’t want to be. ……..

All I could think was may b bcoz her grandchildren wanted her to be there and she complied unwillingly...

Do we live for others when we grow old???????????

'coz I Love U

Sometimes you are a smile on my face
Twinkle in my eyes

U are a wish
When I close my eyes

You are tears in my eyes
When my heart is not light

You are the one in my arms
When I am alone

You are the silence of my heart
When the words I speak are left unheard

You are my reason to remain

You are my craziness

You are my sweetest dream
When I wake up smiling

You are in my lies
When people ask why I smile

You are my shadow
When I walk the streets alone

Sometimes love
Sometimes Life
U are with me every time

Stray Pet

Yesterday I was in my sleep and was disturbed by a noise. A noise that I figured out was the noise of dogs barking on streets. One of them started and all others joined. All of them barked in chorus. I tried to go back to my dreams but could not…the noise was getting louder and angrier. I just couldn’t sleep and irritated I started abusing all of them for disturbing my sleep.

For my sadistic pleasure I started imagining all the stray dogs in a spooky place and all of them in cages. I was enjoying visualizing all of them one by one (whatever there names were……some of them wouldn’t even have names) detained….barking helplessly but no one would come to there rescue as it was my dream….my imagination. They all should not even exist I wished. I was enjoying being a devil and I almost back in my sleep that I saw a very sad looking brown dog who was not barking at all as if it has been betrayed.

I woke up immediately and lying on my bed I tried to recall where I had seen the brown dog. And it was not too long that I realized that the brown dog was Jackie. Jackie – yes it was Jackie our stray pet …..It was a stray dog but was a pet for all of us(me and my neighbors)…….Jackie was our hero….. Jackie used to walk along us while going to school. We used to discuss Jackie in school, while coming back from school in bus and he used to wag his tail and wait for all of us on our bus stop. We used to play with him but what happened to him. He was there when I was 10 and now after 10 years I couldn’t even remember what happened to him…..where did he go??? How I never realized his absence….and how did he just disappeared even from our conversations….

Many questions popped up in my mind except.... is he dead…???...as I already knew the answer

Realization

I have always been in love with Gurgaon. The city where I was born and brought up- my home. To be in love with the city where you have spent your lifetime is quite natural but I have also been proud of it. The malls, skyscrapers, even the traffic jams and all other chaos. I could never think of settling down to any other place in this world at any cost.

Few days back I went to Manali with my friends. I have never been so close to nature. As soon as we reached there we went to the riverside and I was mesmerized by the serenity of the nature and it cannot be expressed in words. Even right now (writing this blog) I can close my eyes and recall everything. The sound of gushing water, the clear sky, the purity in the air…everything I can live them all over again. After the whole day when I feel a bit exhausted and searched for a soothing song to hear and relax I felt helpless as the sound of water gushing is the best music I have ever heard.

I wish I could sleep on one of the rocks there for eternity……yup “Lay like this forever till the sky falls back on me…..”

When we were returning back home there was a strange feeling a feeling unknown. The feeling of being home again was missing. The gushing sound of water was missing instead there was noise of honking horns …... I couldn’t see the sky shining with stars…. All I could see all around was skyscrapers…hoardings…bright lights…the purity in air???? I felt I’ll choke… I wanted to go back…..back to my home….this was a place unknown.

I realized nature is where we all belong ….