Lets get back to childhoods house!!!!

Just went through this quote "my childhood may be over but that doesn't mean playtime is..." and it set a flurry of emotions running accross my mind..This can be easily attributed to the fact that I make a concious effort not to let the child within me die and I proudly admit that I have been successful on many occassions.One of my favourite one liners have been "there's always a child inside everyone...we just need to bring it out" but alas how many of us do that.

Some genuinely want to do that but refrain from the fear of being rediculed...others silently go back to behaving childlike far from the eyes of any one..I never refrained from behaving like one whenever I felt like...Be it getting excited after seeing the first monsoon clouds hovering over my head, to the smell of good food being cooked somewhere, to the excitement of attaining something long desired, I have always let my emotions guide my behaviour and not anything else...Probably thats the reason that every child finds me a sought after companion who understands them and their mind well.This is because I step into their shoes at those moments and be the one with whom they can identify themselves...

I see many parents behaving in a strange way with their kids as if expecting the little ones to grow over night and understand everything..But little that they realise that they themselves have taken up the entire formitive years to have become sensible...Why cant they behave like the child and relive their childhood with them...I do that with every child I meet...My previous neighbours 4 year old son has an amazing remote controlled car..In my growing up days those were not the stuff that we used to get...so what did I do??I relived my growing up days playing with the car every evening once I was back home from work...The child got a company and I got to play with the car that I never did in my childhood....

We are all grown up these days with a lot of responsibility both personally and socially but even then a significant effort can be made to bring out the dead child burried inside many of us and not be ashamed of it...If only we can do this I am sure happiness and contentment will be knocking at the door.Small moments can be seen as lifes biggest events and troubled times can be easily treaded over but only with a child like innocence and ability to adapt to situations.....As children lets get back to childhoods house!!!!

Take on the Boss....

Sincerity for work is good and always appreciated but I as a person never encourage anyone to take dictats from your boss just because he/she is your boss.After all my belief always has been that we dont work for any individual but for the organization and no individual is bigger than the organization....Now this very theory of mine gets twisted like an bedsheet in the washermans hand before one of my friend...She was born to work for the organization that she works for and her bosses are the rightfull owner of not only her life but her heart and soul..Calculation of work hours is a must for her although every tom dick and harry in her office takes the liberty to work for just the stipulated time for which they get paid..

A recent illness did not bother her of her health or that it was not being detected but made her hairs grey by a few strands because what would they think of her in the office as she was not reporting to work for 3-4 days...That there is a clause of availing sick leave and other such HR policies makes no difference to her as she is ignorant about them and at the same time not bothered to exercise her rights...And people in her organization take advantage of this and grind her day in and day out...I wish she was in the west where people charge for their services based on the man hour that they have put into work...She would have been a millionaire by that rate.

But all said and done I like her dormant detremination to fight back...Its like a volcano ready to errupt but sadly which never errupts at the right place and at the right time..How many times has she assured me that she will take everyone head on but its just that the day never came at least not as of now and I dont know about the future.

I know for a fact that the inner strength that she carries is beyond comparison but at the same time I wish she could fight for her rights and give back the ones who think she is muted....I know you will read this my friend so it remains for you to ponder over these facts pointed so that you to realize it sonner or later.....

A tribute to Maggi!!

I sometimes wonder what most bachelors and students at large would have done had there been no invention of a particular kind of food-yes the Maggi noodles....Ever wondered how difficulat it would have been.Even the thought of it being non existant or extinct makes me creepy as for decades now it has been the staple diet of thousands who stay away from home or those who have not put their culinary skills at test....

I remember as a child it was not a routine thing to have maggi and it was only in weekends that I got myself treated to a platefull lovingly served by my sister...Some half literate aunty even put it into my mother that too much of maggi is bad for the brain...I dont know where did she come up with this theory from...I still cant forget the chicken flavoured one which is rarely available in Delhi thanks to the domination by vegeterian diaspora. Again as a kid when you want the liberty to enter the kitchen and try something on your own I am sure many would agree that the maggi was their first tryst with cooking partly because it required nothing but two cups full of water to be boiled and everything thrown into it....

From those days to the days when we drifted from the safe heavens of home to distant lands in pursuit of better education it was always the maggi noodles that was a constant companion anytime anywhere to feed the hungry souls who missed the home cooked food by mom more than anything else.The long nights when hunger cramps came suddenly in between studies or coming back form the college hungry and tired it was always the faithfull maggi that healed the nerves and soothed the stomach flat in 5 minutes unlike the commercial which boasts of 2 minutes.For a fact it takes more than 2 minutes to prepare.

From days as a kid to the days as a student and now that we are professionals slogging day in and day out only one thing remained constant-the relationship with maggi...Its been faithfull all these years just like a wife and I dont know how many years more to come but whenever it was called for duty it never failed to deliver.Always there to kill those insatiable desire to munch sumthing and that too in quick time...Maggi my friend you rock and for me you are immortal!!!!

The insane landlady....

Hunting for a house can be difficult more so when you are looking forward for a house that you can call your "home" and not just a mere four walled worksmanship of cement and bricks....I know this for a fact as I have been staying at various rented accomadation since the time I decided to move out from the safety of my own home in persuation of a career 10 years back. Luckily I always encountered such landlords who never interfered in any matters as long as I was on time to give them the rent but not all are that lucky and this I found out yesterday.

One of my very good friend just recently shifted and took up a house with an old lady in karol bagh.Now everything was fine and they shifted in the first week of May till my brave friend discovered that the house was infested with numerous house lizzards that kept crawling out of every nook and corner of the house.I dont blame these little reptiles as the locked and unkept house provided a safe heaven to live and breed freely...Little that they themselves knew that soon their freedom would be robbed by my friend who hates them just like a cat would hate a mice...But strangely I found that this runs into the family as her younger sister is equally terrified of the lizzards...Well who could assume the lizzards would ultimately have the upper hand and soon my friend and her husband were house hunting again.

This time the lizzards acted as a boon as the present accomadation is far more better comapared to the lizzard infested one.An apt comparison would be a suite in a Taj vs the rooms in an yatri niwas.The happiness could be measured from her excitement everytime she called to tell about the new house...I too thought "alls well that ends well" but no all was not to be well and here comes my protagonist the "insane land lady"...They vaccated the house on 22nd may hardly living in it for a week or so and that too in parts.Ideally it should not have been considered at all but the lady insisted on keeping the full months rent as well as the next months and to top it the electricity and water bill that they never used...

I too accompanied them last night hoping to get some sense back into the lady but hats off to her as she remained insane even after three sane people tried their level best to see her sense and talk the same.Her insanity can be used as an example as she didnot want to consider a security deposit as a security deposit God knows why???

Her constant dialouge "humara toh yehi tarika hai" made my blood boil but I kept my cool considering 20 thousand rupees was at stake.A settlement was nowhere in sight and ultimately we even threatened to take her to court and the police but that too failed to bring about any visble signs of the lady crumbling...Finally a call form the broker and some soft talk made her give back the money post deduction of 15 days rent which was nothing but a compromise to get the larger sum back...By this time I had become her most hated enemy and she even commented that I was not the cousin as I was pretending to be...

I admire the guts that the lone elderly lady displayed and her calmness in handling the situation but even then I can only consider her insane as she never goes by the law of the land but only by her disgusting "apna tarika".....Stay alone without a tennant old lady thats the silent prayer that I sent once we came out partly victorious and partly exhausted.And the celebration was over garma garam plate full of "rajma chawl"......

The Invisible Passenger...

A lot of people curse the autorickshaw drivers for being errant with their passengers but trust me not all are of the same breed...For a person like me they are the life support system as I usually dont prefer travelling in buses.(My this particular habbit also got me rebuke from a friend who believes in travelling by buses even if its absoulately necessary to reach home early or even if she is too tired)...This gave me the chance to experience the good bad and the ugly side of these particular breed of homo- sapein who run from one end of the city to the other day in and day out..Sometimes the irritation in their tone or behaviour can be attributed to the fact that they themselves are a harassed lot-by the traffic cop, by unusually long jams in the heat and low wages all culminating together to make them take out their venom at the passengers...

I experienced different kinds of auto drivers, some exceptionally good and informed about the political scenario or the current affairs, some good at describing the laws of the road and traffic, and some discussing how they missed out on education but thier children are studying in the best institutions of the city...I generally start a conversation with them if the guy looks friendly enough as it kills time in the snail paced traffic of Delhi and also gives you some serious peek into others mind and their thought processes....

Now you must be wondering what has all this got to do with the title "the invisible passenger"..well it so happened that I was on my way to my office in south ex from lajpat nagar.I was as usual on an auto hoping he would make me reach on time as I was late on that particular day, but as luck would have it we got stuck up in the moolchand underpass for almost 20 minutes as a sand laden truck gave away unable to bear the weight or so I thought...This made us talk about the situation on the roads these days and so on and so forth..But soon he narrated an incident that happened with him just the previous evening.He was on his way from panchsheel when the auto was stopped by a lady of around 30-35 years as described by him.She waved her hand near sirifort auditorium and asked him to take her to lodhi road. He asked her 40 rupees for the same and she sat without any argument unlike the "delhi passenger".... He caught her glimpse in the rear view once or twice and saw that she was bearing an expression less face staring at the traffic as it passed by..Soon the auto crossed the defence colony traffic signal and was climbing the flyover when suddenly he saw his passenger was no more sitting behind...She just vanished into thin air and there was not a trace of her...As he narrated this both of us had a shiver running down our spine as it was something very unusual...He stopped the auto and started thinking all possible things that might have happened like the girl jumping out of the auto etc..but he could not believe his own theory as he did not even sense her movement out of the autorickshaw...

There was nothing that he could do but only sent a silent prayer and returned home earlier than usual to narrate and discuss it with his family...On my part I became suddenly aware that I was now sitting in the same space shared by his invisble passenger and didnot know how to react...I finally reached my office and paid him his due thanking him silently in my mind for sharing this amazing experience and making the otherwise routine journey a little more exciting....