My encounter with a young couple

The only time I get to spend with other people is during my daily trips via shared autos. People watching, as you all know is my favourite passtime. No, I wouldn’t mean to demean them by calling it my passtime, actually. It is unfortunate that people nowadays forget the hidden beauty of knowing others by simply observing their behaviour. These shared auto encounters are the most painfully bumpy and slow rides yet the most fun-filled moments of the whole day, for me. Frankly, I prefer this moment than the moments when I meet my real friends during weekends. I love the uncertain vibe that strangers carry with them.

The other day I met this young couple. They weren’t actually a couple, as I found out later on. It was the day rains hit Gurgaon for the first time this season. Naturally, the girl had to pinpoint the obvious a dozen times. The boy nodded on like an automated toy. It seemed that the nod was a reflex action whenever the girl pointed out the rains. The girl droned on about the beauty of rains. The romance in the air. The chill breeze sweeping her hair on her face. Now, if in normal circumstances, a girl threw pointed hints about rain and romance, any other boy would have spoken about bhutta, long drive, walk, or something!! It was all too easy for him. She was just a giggle away from giving him his first rainy wet kiss. I was getting intrigued by the boy’s silent battle. Surely, the guy wasn’t friend-zoning this lady! I noticed she was getting restless too. She then directly suggested that they should go for a long drive on his bike and then he should drop her home. He stared at her for a few seconds. There were prominent suspicious frown lines on his forehead. I was egging him on to refuse her but then came the nod. There was triumph in the girl’s eyes whilst the spectacles perched on the guy’s nose hide his brief emotions. Our eyes met as I got off at my stop and I was sure I saw distress in those eyes.

I might be wrong about all this. Maybe the guy got off too and told her simple and straight that he doesn’t want the long drive, the walk and her. Maybe the girl felt he wasn’t good enough for her and let him go. Maybe the rains planted seeds of new-found love between them. Maybe the parental units intervened and made them part ways.  It taught me the chick was a real marvel at getting herself asked out. It made me feel the guy wasn’t ready to let her face the truth. The girl wasn’t giving up. The guy might be in for a few more troubled dates. A lot of maybes. You got your bus. Or a metro compartment. Or a local train. Don’t switch off while you are travelling. Keep your mind ticking, maybe you will end up finding out what you are missing out on.

I can do anything for a job, Master!

This post might make me lose a lot of friends, but hey, if you are my friend, you know I give a damn. Ever since I started working, during my minimal contact with some chosen junior friends, I realize we don’t talk about anything except internships, CGPA, exams, moots, publications in journals, who is working in which firm, benefits of higher studies- AARGH, I think I will break my damned keyboard any moment now in anger! The list is endless. Why this CV obsession, I ask?

In college, I used to wonder and ask the same thing to my batchmates and seniors. They only brushed me aside because I was not a good student and I was accused of being casual in my career.  People kept asking me to switch to sports journalism and said I don’t have the aptitude for law. Pray tell me, in which career aptitude manual was it written again, that your job should be your passion? So, umm, guys who like cricket should go play cricket for India, right? Girls who like shopping should work for Westside, right?  Of course not, you say, with a sheepish smile. Another world changing revelation which I was told was that if I don’t have publications or a good CGPA or fabulous internships, I am going to be an unemployed, sad, unmarried old maid (yes yes, the other analogy is good grades=good success in your love life, yes I’m serious!) I know some people with great grades and an orgasmic CV, who are struggling to do well in their jobs. I also know some people who strived hard to make their CV run into pages, who ended up getting jobs where they wanted, but hate the shit out of it. What is the point of it all, I ask?!

The biggest nincompoops on the face of earth are those who work with an NGO or volunteer for one, just to build their CV or to get an entry in Harvard University or the like. It is like you cheat the children or old people you are volunteering for. How fucking materialistic can you get?!

Ranting won’t help,  because I have tirelessly tried putting this point across, but in vain. My solution is to answer their queries and kill these people in my head slowly and steadily. Do you have a better solution?

Whether you are from an Ivy League University, whether you have a pay package of lakhs, whether you slept with someone just to get a promotion, I sincerely, sincerely hope karma will come and strike you down.

I am glad I enjoyed my college life to the hilt and didn't worry too much about my career. I went with the flow, woke up later after I graduated when the time was right and opted for what I love. I was fairly successful in whatever I did, and I am glad my efforts did not go in vain. And after I started working, I realized concepts and intellect matters, not mugging endless pages of words and numbers. A little part of me wants to go up to all my detractors and show them what I am but then I realize it's not worth it. People talk because they have to talk.

P.S.- I know some people would go, “Damn, this is one jealous bitch.” You may keep your money and gold plated resume, and my middle finger, while you are at it.
P.P.S.- I promise this is my last serious post. The funny Mads is coming out of hibernation soon! :Dc

Value your life... just like I did ;)

The last time I scribbled out here was a formal post for the Yuvraj Singh meet (Cough cough) written by a zoned out Madhuri. I promised myself I will get back to blogging when I am myself and it shouldn't be a fake Me out here. So, here I am, and I did miss this little space where I barked whatever came to my mind and my blogger friends stood by loyally without making any judgements. 

Speaking of blogger friends, I attended Harshita's wedding- my first blogger wedding. I met Arpit Rastogi too there and needless to say, we three hit off awesomely well and I had a blast. Met Abhinav in Bangalore in December (again) and I must say he is becoming more handsome as he is ageing :D Currenly with my best friend turned blogger Sreeja in Delhi and she's the reason behind the glow on my face (And the pimples because of the sleepless nights we have due to our constant chatter!). After a chaotic 1.5 year after graduation, this is the happiest zone I have ever been in, touch Oliver Wood. There's a lot of changes in my life, mentally, emotionally, biologically (Still a virgin! I was talking about my weight loss, perverts!). Where do I begin? 

I don't begin :P

Here's a little piece I wrote for a friend who was supposed to give it in Toastmasters and couldn't write a speech due to paucity of time. That friend didn't plagiarize this speech in the end, so here it is! I promise you, it is not preachy and it does have the Madhuri touch in it!

How often have you heard your peers talk about regretting the time they missed out on spending with a person they recently lost? Or that popular, multi-talented jock who got stuck with a 9-9 job and was never again content or successful in his life.  Or surely you aren’t that insensitive to not have shed a tear or two at Rahul’s expression when Anjali boarded that train.

Let’s not forget the guitar class you never enrolled for. Or the ballet class you added at number one in your now-dusty to-do list. So, the morning jogs you keep postponing everyday, can be done with those crutches you will wake up to every morning, isn’t it? And you know you are going to be invited for the wedding of the girl you aren’t going to ask out, at least in this lifetime, right?

Friends, before you hit me with brickbats… or rather actual bricks, today we are going to have a little introspection in our respective lives. I want you all to close your eyes... I’ll keep mine open to watch out for those bricks coming my way…. And think about at least 5 things you could be doing now if you weren’t at your respective companies. *waits for some time* You could think of more than 5 things, am I, right?

The words ‘shall’, ‘will’ and ‘must’ should be knocked out of the English dictionary. Such wistful promises are not going to do you or me, a favour. It is in our best interest that we do not depend on reincarnation to bring us back as the person we are in our next birth. Why not enjoy each minute of what you are doing? Wait, wait, wait, I know what your first defense is going to be-Everyone is supposed to hate their jobs. It will end up badly. I’m safer here, in my cocoon. Maybe. Maybe, you will hate what you are going to take up next. Maybe, the chick or guy might turn you down. Maybe, those salsa classes might not help the ever clumsy you. Behind all these silly permutations and combinations, the risk might be worth it. Dodging obstacles was all we did our whole lives. When the 10^th and 12^th Boards didn’t gobble us up, aren’t we up for more?

So go for it. Pick up the phone and talk to your family, not your boss. Order that extra costly pizza and see that movie you have been meaning to watch, with the friend you have been dying to meet. Because when you go to bed every night, you shouldn’t dread tomorrow’s dawn.

P.S.- What shit is blogpost upto? :O I can't format for nuts! And no, I won't shift to wordpress :|