What I Saw And What I Felt !!!

It is a trivial incident that I witnessed a few days back, that I am putting forward in my words. It really was a petty experience, petty to the extent that some might scoff at it, but for me it was as subtle as it could be, strong enough that I couldn't desist from pondering over it.

I was standing in my balcony, looking at the hoard of people emerging and disappearing in the milieu. As it was morning time, people were rushing to their offices and few were returning home. (After the rush in the office.) Rush both the ways !! Startled and lost at the sight, suddenly something gravitated my attention and I was forced to come out of my self-imposed coma. 

What I saw was a pretty sight of two kids, who emerged out of nowhere and were hand in hand. Of course, one looked the elder brother(around 5 yrs.) and the other one small but cute sister, around 2 years. They started playing on the road, unruffled and unfettered by the movement of the automobiles. It was not that they were unaware of the perilous situation they were in, but the sole cause of playing and most importantly enjoying life, in whatever you have got, won over it. 

The kids were playing and suddenly the elder brother approached his sister. He went near her and whispered few words into her ear. She listened to the words with gasp attention. It vividly reminded me of the time I used to trick my sister into playing hide and seek, made her the thief first and used to hide in a place, which I was certain she could never figure out. I could sense this happening now.

And the same happened, the sis went near a wall, closed her eyes and started mumbling something, which I couldn't understand. Her brother started running on his small naked feet, made himself comfortably poised and hid himself behind a car which was far away from the place, where sis was still leaning over the wall, and mumbling.

Sister after a while opens her eyes fervidly, moves around in a circle, with twinkling eyes, searching for her brother. She moves here and there, to look for her brother. She goes near the bushes and small plants. Behind the wall and behind the pile of bricks. She tries again but fails. She tries again but ultimately the colour of her face starts fading. She starts treading quickly, going left and then right, straight and then back.. All this while her brother is able to see all his sister's movements and her failed attempts at finding him.

And ultimately, the thing happened. The thing that I was fearing to happen. The cute little loses her patience and starts crying badly, yearning for her brother. Small drops of tears start trickling down her cheek that made her look even more cute and lovely. She could sense that her brother was missing. She knew that she had tried whatever she could but could not find him and that made her poignant and gloomy.

What made me more amazed and moved, was still to be presented before my eyes.

After seeing his sis crying badly, the bro becomes happy, kinda the same happiness that we/I used to be, after fooling our little sis during childhood and feeling on top of the world. This happiness seemed to be offensive but was really sweet because it was wrapped with the foil of love and care. The guy runs a long distance to catch hold of his sis, whose face was, by now, drenched in a pool of tears. He runs, pulls her and hugs her tightly. Consoling her, he tells her that he was not far away but near only, pointing to the place where he was hiding. She too holds him tightly after winning him back, knowing that he has not left, he has not gone, he has not deserted her. The sight was very touching, emotional and thought provoking.

I have seen many people who are well to do, have all the means but still lament, are still unhappy and discontented. Problem lies in their attitude towards life. People tend to forget that there are many people who are happy with less than what we have. So, whatever be the situation, whatever be the condition, don't you ever forget to celebrate, with joy, this little span of time called Life. Fill it with happiness, fill it with people who love you, swell it with fun and swell it with vigour and let go of what you can't control !!!

I was swarmed with ambivalence, mixed feeling of bitter and sweet. Bitter because of the guy who made his sis cry but sweet coz he still cared and loved. And the cute sis, oh I just adored her !!! The instant ramification of the incident was far reaching. It started a chain reaction of thoughts, one after another. I was inundated with thoughts, and lost, thinking of the present day life where people don't care, where people are cozy in their lies, where there is mutual distrust, where there is pretentious display of affection and where there is less love and more hatred.

We are wealthy, still we are poor !!! Empty from inside, hollow, because we don't have the feelings as the duo had... Who actually were the kids of a destitute labourer-couple. And the kids despite having nothing, no proper dress, no proper footwear and probably no proper food too, had the most important prize of life called Love.

And, I continued my perusal of the environs with a silent but satisfying smile on my face......

Uttarakhand Disaster - The Good, The Bad And The Ugly !

The Uttarakhand catastrophe has brought to the fore, more things than just inability and spineless attitude of the so called government and the meanness of the political class.

During the time when thousands of lives have been lost, many are stranded, many made homeless and kin-less, we can find our politicians doing mud slinging over each other and politicizing the matter. There have been cases where these debauched people have fought over claiming sole rights for 'carrying'  the rescue operation. Allegations were made, bombastic claims were raised despite the fact that the 'real-saviours' , the class of people who risked whatever they could, played its role as godly and as humanely as possible, without losing its calm and composure. They are the Army personnnel, ITBP jawaans, who have and are still doing their part without stopping, unfazed by the terrain, unfazed by the weather condition and unfazed by death.

The political class of our country, of which we all know, how much they are capable of, in fostering scams, misappropriation of public money and many sinful others. But, when it comes to real task, real job, real show of courage, they unleash their real self, real character, real disposition. Knave, unapologetic, callous and churlish, that they are. Had it been a test of something like embezzlement, I am more than sure, that our politicians would outclass anyone.

When thousands are still missing and dying, politicians are making it a matter of pride for themselves that 'they' have actually 'led ' and 'carried'  the rescue operation. Some want to emerge as a Rambo in this sombre time, some 'want'  to donate a hefty amount, so that they can claim later on that they played a pivotal role in the operation. Some want to elicit political profit out of this grim situation. Some are claiming that the team from their states saved so many people including 'those from other states'  too, as if disaster struck people, seeing the states to which they belonged. 

There have been several cases were the stranded people were persecuted, thrashed, looted and left to die by the locals. There was a case where a family was forced to give a ransom amount in return for a small child who was abducted by the locals. Food was sold at a price that was just unjust. The time that demanded rising to the occasion and lending a hand of help, people made  this an opportune time to pacify the mammon inside, to hurt the already aggrieved and to debilitate the already languishing souls.

The only silver lining and a matter of pride that came, was in the form of our jawaans  from Army and ITBP, who worked with mammoth perseverance, courage and will, to rescue the stranded ones. They worked despite the environs filled with trepidation, fear and dread. These gritty guys made people cross the gorges, rivers and mountains, more often than not carrying old, weak and small ones on their backs. It must have been an ordeal for the jawaans  to carry out the operation, but they never made tall, exaggerating and pompous claims as our politicians, who are still fighting for their claims in rescue operation.

Making grandiloquent claim, while sitting in the cozy comfort of the sofas of home is very easy, whereas it takes a big heart to jump into a precarious, dangerous and grim situation like this and be of any help, risking your own life. Army is still in the last stage of its operation, trying to rescue hitherto stranded people. Still has it not given its hope; because it is something they thrive on. My sincere symapthy to all those families who have lost their kith and kin. My heart goes out to the jawaans who were killed in the helicopter crash that occurred while rescuing the people. 

They are the people who need to be exalted, eulogized and celebrated rather than the politicians, who are just a class of depraved people.

They are the ones who really have walked into the battle field, defying death and risking everything. They are the ones who have risen to the occasion. They are the ones who have given life to others. 

And, they are the ones who have rekindled and restored the faith in humanity and benevolence.

Theirs not to reason why, 

Theirs but to do and die”

                                 ― Alfred Tennyson

And Thus The Sweet Sojourn Ends!!!

The dusk of our engineering life has finally arrived & at this juncture of saying good-bye, the nostalgic feeling is at its zenith.Being a part of an institution which sometimes made us jittery sometimes confounded, also instilled in us endless love for the friends,teachers and it‘d not be inappropriate to say-instilled love for the PESIT ambience in totality.The feeling of parting is inexplicable.

When we were new to the college,everyone was nervous,startled to see a new environment.The aura was a bit overwhelming but still all were enthused to come out of the cocoon to explore the new world, in which we had stepped.

Days and years passed slowly & we got embedded into the thick of things of our college----slowly yet steadily flowing along with this river.We made friends & more friends, never realising that we would miss them later. We were happy most of the time to such an extent that sadness rarely touched our lives.

How can i forget some of the times which will always remain afresh on the petals of my mind--------

 Few teachers were so stringent that they made us to open our eyes forcibly (like the Tom in cartoon who uses stick as a lever to keep his eyes open but here we were not allowed to use a stick...as it was not necessary too..we could do sans-stick too) but the teachers never knew that we were sleeping with our eyes wide open.Yeah, we mastered that skill.

 Then, there were teachers who were so boring that it was imminent to get a nap while pretending   to be attentive.Obviously, the feeling post that POWER NAP was so..so refreshing.  :)

When the teacher pointed to us for talking in the class we managed to put such an innocent face & looked at others, although knowing exactly that he had pointed us.And ultimately, we firmly asked-“Who sir,me..?”.We really mastered these skills beautifully.

Some of the teachers will definitely be missed.They have given us so much inspiration & encouragement that has helped us a lot and we are grateful to them.They treated us like their own children always guiding us,always wishing us good luck and always ready to help us.

Being a boy obviously is more fun.Outing with friends,talking in the class,making strange sounds,aah i will miss them all.Talking about friends’ crush was always a hot topic.And sometimes, we used to take a girl’s name in front of some friend so many times, attaching her name to each of his work that it had the effect of that guy really liking her.This was love-birth(of course was forced).Such has been the domination of friends in our lives.

Celebrating friends’ birthdays at the strike of midnight will be missed badly.They made our birthdays so special by their sheer presence and vim.I used to say –“Bohot ho gaya yaar,ab mat laat maar”(regarding birthday bumps),fearing injuries & happily cursing them.But now the feeling is like---I don’t fear being injured,i want those bumps.I know now that i will badly miss these yellfull b’day celebrations.

Exam-time needs special recognition.This time added more strength to our bond.The late night group study,explanation on cell-phones and to add to this sometimes even asking the portion, the night before the exam will be missed.That feeling after exam—“Saale khud to teacher bana nahi payenge aur hum logon ko de dete hain banane ko”---these memories can never be obliterated. There is no anodyne to eliminate this pain.Friends in our lives are so indispensable.Our lives,our secrets,our thoughts are so inherently tied to them that parting away from them is tearing me.

Never let sadness eat up your life or cut the tree of zeal from your life.Let yourself loose,free yourself from ego,see the world through open eyes,forgive people,help the weak & last but not the least do your bit to make others happy. Friends be like a tree,flexible & moving according to the winds of life but be firmly rooted to the ground with the roots of virtues.Never compromise on your virtues as they shape you and are pillars of your life.For surely then,we can  feel the wind of happiness blowing in our life,singing sweet tunes in our ears & filling our lives with passion & enthusiasm.

All the 2007-2011 batch students be it my friends,be it people whom i know well by face but never talked to or people whom i have never seen,i dedicate this part of my life to you all.I have celebrated this phase of my life.Some years after if we face each other, at least say a simple-Hey,which will remind us that we were once a part of the same journey........

Earlier, i wanted the college-periods to end as quickly as possible but now i want this period of my life to extend azzzz muchhhh as it can.I am helpless,can’t dilate the time, else i would have.I wish all my batchmates, specially my class friends & close friends and they know who all they are-----Allll the besttt in life. :) :) :)

                              Numb,nostalgic,lacerated & heart heavy with pangs, i am still pondering--------

                                         “WHY DOES EVERY GOOD THING COME TO AN END???”