2010 to Me

Years are poor specimens. They give us the time we gave for everything, and die before they could celebrate their first anniversary. This is my tribute to a year which is about to die in a few minutes from now, an eulogy that will be read after it (the year) is dead, in the ceremony that will embrace the infant year, born at the timed demise of the passing year.
Roughly about a year back, 2010 too was received with much the same enthusiasm and fanfare. The world celebrated it's arrival in varied many ways, with fireworks and lavish parties on one side and parleys and hungar and distraught and prayers the other. The year, however, slipped sleekly in and promised the same time for everyone.
The year was different for different men, here is what it was to me.
I could hardly remember how it all began, however, i'm sure that I was quite the lost in the darkness of its dawn, having not any plans for my future, when it was clear that I would complete my ug soon. And my worst fears proved right when I completed my bachelors from MCC, and failed the entrance into IITs. So, it was decided to act positively on mom's counsel and apply for a management course, which I did reluctanly for more reasons than mom's advice.
Departing from old friends wasn't the challenge, given the way I was raised and the resulting ability to locate the oasis within myself. The migration was simple and easy, but not without bitterness. There were moments of deep agony, which were just not displayed. Such, got shrouded in the hectic schedule that followed culmination of college. We knew the inevitable will sweep our lives sometime, and we didn't shy when the time had come. And we were sure that we cannot be divided merely by space, when love had connected our lives.
Faring the entrance in DGV was no task at all, and I took the entrance and sat the interview with minimal preparation since I had sheer contempt for the course. I badly wished Satz got through the selection, but was content when Sandhiya had made it. And had mixed feelings when Maiths made it. Ultimately it was Maithreyi's selection that convinced me to take up the course which I might have otherwise never considered.
Classroom metamorphosed from being an obnoxious whole to a fantasy world filled with thrills and pleasures I had always dreamt and desired all my life. It, now, feels like my prayers were finally answered. Still, like every rapacious devotee, I wished it happened much earlier in my life. Here, I earned the aquintance of twenty nine fantastic individuals, many of whom honored me by accepting me as their friend. We bonded well in very little time, thanks to the tyranny of the dept. head and the ample opportnities the course offered for interaction and team works. Very few like Vaishali aks, as I fondly call her, have forever changed the person I am by granting me their love, appreciation and unconscious support, which I cherish the most.
Internships,libraries, noisy exam halls and debates on obtaining sponsors and other means for raising funds set minds and mouths erupting and sketched academic life.
Treats, outings to parks, theme park, friends' home, beaches and many other places topped the dish the year 2010 was.
Amidst the new tide of activities, old friends weren't forgotten. We regularly met to celebrate birthdays, and watched films or simply met to chat, on common holidays. I cannot describe in words how my friends made each other feel important about oneself, despite the teasings and public humilations. If you have a friend, you sure knew it.
The most outstanding achievement of this year in my life was, me mustering the courage to propose a girl.I gathered all my courage, stood before her whom I'd known for long enough to make a marriage proposal- if love is the foundation for it. I did so more out of despiration to know if she loved me at all, though the role of the spontaneous temptation to cuddle her, boosted by the rare privacy we had, cannot be disputed. And finally after several rehersals in front of the mirror, I told her looking intently into her eyes all lies, about how much I love her and how badly I wish to be with her all my life. To my horror, she accepted the proposal, which I least expected, and made me the happiest man on earth that day. Little did I realise that it was a ploy to escape the privacy; she'd suspected my intentions and saw me a mere villain. Well, that was all of her chapter, no calls or SMSs from her any longer and won't respond to mine either.It was the culmination of my first fourth love, sadly this too in failure. he he he, u beleived in all of it didn't you??? lol!
Learning to drive car, discovering new routes-short cuts to places- in the plesant company of a distinguished friend, and the adjoining adventures under unpredictable skies made the year a truly remarkable one indeed.
It wasn't without bitter episodes; but those are for the new year to overturn.
The new year is born, yet 2010 will not caese to exist; not at least in my heart.
Farewell to you 2010, farewell to you!!!!

Aunt's b'day

I was convinced of flowers as b'day present for aunt after deliberation and thoughtful evalution keeping in mind the lucre in my wallet. This decision landed me at a florist who sat watching the funny insensitivity of Chennai's traffic on an evening which with the sun pulled down a few drops of the clouds, to make the roads ever more greasy. The little girl next to the lady, I guess her mother, seemed more interested in business as she bumped onto her mother on spotting me wanting someone to take my order.
I handpicked the master flower and left the rest to the belief I had on the florist, who in turn produced a beautiful little bouquet I proudly carried into Vaish aks home.
Auntie was at the helm of her usual chores, taking tuition's for over thirty children. She accepted the posy I stretched, wishing her 'happy birthday', and admired it more to please me than as demonstration of her real appreciation for the flowers.
That the air was vacant despite the presence of myriad of children signalled that Vaish wasn't at home. Yet I enquired out of sheer curiosity and got the truth,that aks wasn't at home, verified. I spent the following half an hour damning myself and a few kids who I was expected to help with their math. I was defeated by inadequacy of my literature in connecting with them.
I sensed that aks is home from the indifferent remarks that kept shamefully pouring in even as I deliberately neglected them. That is typically how mutually shameless we are to our idiosyncrasies.
We were soon in front of the computer, on fb creating nuisance as usual; me chatting under false credentials- aks account!.
Aks's aks arrived with her family and soon aunt blew the candle and cut the cake, thereby setting up the stage for celebration. Kids sat waiting patiently for their turn to receive the snack and cake, as Vais aks performed the cruel and disgusting anatomy to the cake. That I should stand witness to the mess she made in the name of dividing the cake, was my bad luck. But aks was the best for the job, to whom the cake meant nothing to the joy of treating the kids.
I noticed there was more competition for chips than for the cake, and I was myself a competitor. But when it came to autie's tasty Parupu Dosas, I had them all sans any competition.
It was a brilliant evening, the finest of its kind; one in which I could see that the best of man's creation is a family, and that for its sustenance more than one genuine wish goes into the sacred pyre. And that compromises are not just common, but also essential for its existence. It was with these simple, yet profound lessons that I bid adieu to the family.
But the story of how I got to start my adamant moped is something only aks and I know.

Bessy beach

I grew up believing fairy tales are real, that their are places where happiness is the way of life and good always triumphs over evil without waiting for too long, and that time never makes one grow old.
Life seems to be depicting stories I was deliberately kept from reading to preserve surprise. The long ride with a fine companion on the pillion, amidst the traffic and doubts of making it before it darkens is typically not how an convincing tale begins. But that is how mine began.
We reached quite in time and the celebrations began. We walked like vagards and talked desperately like children and shot photographs on the shore, close to the sea and before the fire flakes that streamed out of the corns as they were shown over fire.
Their was no single best activity that evening, everything was best. From circling clinging to a friend's arm to walking abreast and the gitty merri-go-round, it was absolute fun. None of us wanted the evening to end, and it din't seem to.
But, we had to go; carrying memories of yet another fantastic evening. We left taking the evening into our head and the sand in our shoes and pants

It's my business

If love be obtained through bargain, I will not lay my will upon such an enterprise.
A life to live with love, i am sure, is far truer than to pamper in love's name.
The rewards I reap and relish are the news of her well being.

Phoenix

Words will fail you for once
Actions will freeze into silence
Passion will burn what of you remains
Time will tease you to turmoil
Patience will betray you
What in life remains u will ask
Wrong questions many will rise
In the dark room of misery will
The light gleam your shrouded wills
Can you, but rise! now
Can you, but thank your love
Could it be love yet stop

Indifference

Celebrating a wagon away
Caring not for the pain
Of a suffering friend.
Having not the courage
To stand up and stay back
Reluctantly opting to movie
Abandoned her, with only
Her umbrella under that
Hostile severe sky.
I let her go alone
Who badly wanted to
Be with us.

Day 1 at intern

The schedule was formulated with minimal scrutiny to ensure, I kept time on the first day of my intern at Chola MS and also, to save the embarrassment of being late for the future. And surprisingly I stuck to it! And patience persuaded with time when it appeared I might, in the end, be late by waiting too long to fuel my moped. Thanks to vacant broad roads and the zeal of a novice that got me JIT. I reaped my reward when, after signing the registry, I turned around and found my boss hurriedly pushing his hand to sign in the attendance register.

Very soon I was in the noble company of a book that I fetched from home, guessing that I may be left to amuse the chairs and other accessories near the reception. Much sooner than I had anticipated, a man roughly the size of a metre scale appeared in front of me looking for someone by name Saravanan. And it wasn’t until he mentioned, ‘trainee...MSW’, that I figured I was nick named Saravanan. Don’t ask me how? The world on the other side of the door resembled a typical kindergarten with, balloons and ornamentals hanging down the ceilings; perhaps a misunderstanding with Wordsworth’s, ‘the child in a man never dies’, worse even the proper understanding as, I felt on reflection.

It was an exchange of ‘hellos’ and brief intros with my hr’s team members that followed, before I was finally assigned, much like a project, after rotation to Mr.K.Sathish Kumar. I felt a strong sense of longing but, for whom or what I couldn’t evidently say. That feeling evaded as work piled up on the desk I shared with Sathish.

My first task was to verify fringe benefit forms to see if they were signed at all required columns and, mandatory documents attached. The forms weren’t too many in numbers, yet I took time dispatching them to precipitate an artificial sense of sincerity. Truly though, it is only skill that matters most in getting it, as well as the other two tasks that followed done, fast. Next was to sort drafts in the increasing order of their employee no.

I was excited when Mr.Sathish offered to take me to the pantry but that excitement soon faded as I found that, he merely took me to accompany him to restroom. The subsequent offer of milk after I rejected tea and coffee did not impress me.

I continued sitting dumb until we broke for lunch which, I had along with Sathish and his three other lady colleagues before we were joined by Mr. Metre Scale. I hardly spoke a word while, the girls hardly shut their mouths. If it wasn’t opened to intake food, it will be facilitating chitchats. I must say I liked it.

Back at desk I requested for work stating that, I should be doing some work at least to save me the embarrassment of sleeping at workplace. The prospect even scared a lady staff who escaped by giving me a broad smile. There was one ‘ticking’ task which I did in a jiffy and, relaxed at the generous view of the port the windows offered from where I sat, while the others had left for lunch.

The gentle man returned with more ‘HR related ‘work which was as uninteresting as any other HR job. Mr. Puru left before I started without signing my record. Yes! Opportunity to be a 420.

Rain accompanied me on my way back to home and, I was glad I had some company.