Necessities... you gain some & lose some

Bis wiedersehen... Until we meet again

“I close my eyes, and it’s just you that I see… it’s a choice between you or the darkness that’ll set upon.” Jay was a poet in himself, albeit, only with a few drinks guzzled down.

How come none of the interesting stories start without alcohol? Humans… inhibitions thwart us.

Nevertheless, Jay wasn't any different.

Who could blame him. Alaska was an intriguing character. Not one that words would easily define.

The sun finally set on this day too. To them, it was another night, but to me this was an end of a story which I wished was incessant. I was a good student, and teachers liked me, but never once did I miss school. College too was fun. The fights, the friends, and stories of it all… Yet I was glad it ended when it did.

Something felt missing after she said "well then... See you soon I hope" and like that she was gone. German never seemed so interesting. Alaska... Yes... Quite like a hurricane who came and who left, leaving me with just the traces of life she had shattered all over. Smashing all the beliefs I had summoned till this moment... The wall that wasn't just unbreakable but impenetrable, she touched it with her fingertip and pushed it down. For everything you could find wrong about her, existed an equally viable reason that would make you feel the wind she was, the tool she was, and then you'd be too, where I stood. On a two way street pointing if she was the perfect person, or she wasn't, the "wasn't" street lead back to reasons why she indeed was... Murmuring with nothing in her mouth, and screaming while crunching on food, she could make me smile... Wasn't that enough? She was, for me... Enough... Looking like an angel descendant with her hair tied back, and even prettier, if possible, with them left open. She wasn't fair, or brown, or dark... But then humans aren't supposed to be made of gold... The poet in me came out a little more often nowadays, as I lost myself again in her deep brown eyes.

P.S: an excerpt out of Jay's diary

It wasn’t hard to see the guy smitten, shining pink with every exchanged look with Alaska.

But there were others as well… Prakash aka Moses for example. With his 'oxymoronic' smart antics, he was a being with a hard life. The lazy perfectionist who wanted it right, but hated to fix it.
Rhea tried again and failed again to sit as far as possible from Moses and I especially. The pretty girl was the butt of the joke. A real sport too!
Well, she had a reason to hate some of us... "I want it!" She said, and with a wink I innocently added "That's what she said.". She was an innocent adorable butt of the joke! and if I said butt this many times, one could notice a smirk on a few faces, especially Prakash, Jay, and Alaska. Me? I stayed away from the grimy and filthy humor you see,

Right next to him sat Rahul aka Duke. The slurred voice, and a knack of immediate decisions had landed him in soup more often that he would accept.

But it was time now. The friends I had grown close to in mere 8 weeks were to be told goodbye. The time spent together was immensely short, but I hoped the friendships built won’t be the same. 

*All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Under the lens...

I started writing this blog to show the world, the beautiful people I met. The following chapter is from that one novel that never saw the day of light. Hope you guys like it.

under the lens

A tale of lives

“Baba, why is Ammi jaan so fat?” questions pondered out of a small kid barely six or seven years old.

“She’s not fat beta Adil. She’s carrying your younger brother with her”

“Why?” was an obvious question, with eyes getting curious as if his Ammi had taken his rights... to play with his favorite toy, to nurture it… to take care of it and show Ammi and Abbu he could be the elder brother, even though he knew not what it really meant.

Baba tried to reason with him, but soon enough, gave up.

Adil, now a twelve years old grown boy, was not like the fragile kids he usually played with on the streets. Taking care of his five year old sibling was what he enjoyed the most.

A three kilometer distance would be covered in a mere fifteen minutes now as Adil came home as early as possible from school, running, panting, only to prove he had taken up this duty well.

He held the tiny dainty fingers, but his hands were not big enough either.

Nevertheless, he wouldn’t complain of it. With Zahir in his lap, Adil was the apple of the eye for the elder sisters and parents too.

“Adil, you are now the man of this house, so it is my duty to let you know what our family is facing” Abba said, face stern as a stone.

Adil had just had his dinner. The biryani had become a scarce scenery past few days in the home.

“Adil beta, a great man once said, Allah provides enough for everyone’s need, but not for even a single man’s greed” Abba had taught his boys a few good lessons in life, and he had done it well.

The family lived in less, but every spoonful was served with a platter of laughs and jokes. The ambiance of the kitchen that had just cooked a simple roti with any cereals available could easily be confused with that of a hotel serving buffet spread lavish.

But today was different.

Adil knew something had gone wrong. The situation so wayward, it was a tough task to fix the damage. One could sense it.

He knew not of what it was. He knew though that something was wrong indeed.

“Adil, you are now the man of this house, so it is my duty to let you know what our family is facing” Abba said.

“Yes Abba jaan,” Adil replied.

“The factory I was working in has been closed. Everyone has lost their jobs.

Adil your sisters will have to be married off and sent to their own homes soon.” Abba paused, almost choking now.

“I have got for us a cart on rent. Early mornings from tomorrow I’ll bring vegetables and fruits. Let’s hope we can sell a good amount and make some money. God forbid if this doesn’t work out, we’ll be in deep waters.

“Abba, what time you’ll be back home?” asked Adil.

“I’ll be back by noon, beta. I’ll hopefully have my lunch at home, and then go back with the cart. Hopefully, I’ll be back home by nine or ten p.m.”

“No Abba.” Adil replied.

Abba’s dismay was intolerable for Adil, and his reaction surprising to everyone else.

“Beta, if vegetables aren’t sold by evening then they’ll start going stale. Leave apart profit, I’ll have to pay for losses then, in a matter of days.”

“Abba, I never said vegetables won’t be sold in the evening.”

Abba was back by two the next day. Adil was off by a quarter pass.

His feet didn’t fit in his father’s broken… tattered shoes. Not yet. Yet, his competence was worth applauding.

A new duty? So be it. Life had thrown in a new challenge. But if only he would have bowed down this easy, he wouldn’t have been the Adil he was. He knew to fall, but not getting up after the blow wasn’t in his text book.

The father-son duo had started playing relay with life, passing the baton of cart, and hoping the other one scores more in the pocket.

With Zahir sitting on the cart biting into a mango at times, and a cheap mango candy at others, Adil walked determined of making his father’s worries his own.

He still tells fondly when that day at quarter to six his dad had a tear drop in his eye, a lump in his throat when he witnessed the cart empty to its last green leaf as Adil handed him a good heavy cash bundle.

The heavy bag lit with silver colored coins and a number of currency notes was what Abba jaan had not expected in a little over three hours.

“Take it Abba. It’s going to come every day from now on. I went to all of neighborhood where I knew people. The vegetables were fresh, and knowing people helps. It sold like hot cakes.

An year later Abba was ill, serious. Market was far, and school was too much of a liability.

Market was from now on his area. This is where his journey to school ended.

The tattered white canvas were replaced by a pair of comfortable sandals for the tarmac was now his playground. Zahir, helping his own favorite hero with his soft little hands at times, would sit on the cart, breathless, after every half an hour.

He knew not of not pushing hard, tearing the envelope. He still doesn’t.

A few years later the world seemed a whole lot brighter the day Badi Aapi got married. The day he paid for the marriage hall, and the moment he declined a single penny from Abba for the welcoming and food for guests.

Next day, he was back on the roads.

He was older now. He looked even more so. Sporting what seemed to be a butchered French beard, wearing a netted skull cap, he wasn’t alone now.

Zahir was somewhat an adolescent now. A keen student in classes, an interesting speaker on the roads. He had mastered the techniques that Adil had presented. Make friends. Sell the vegetable to their mothers. And was he good at it!

“Adil, he has cancer. The last stage” doctor said.

Adil had called in the doctor when Zahir lost 19 kilos in less than three months. He wasn’t even overweight to begin with! And now his ribs could be counted right through his shirt.

When none of the babas and hakims seemed to be able to shrug off the evil spirits that were apparently feeding off of on Zahir’s soul, a doctor was brought in.

Covered from his color to the thigh in white, wearing round framed black colored spectacles, a stethoscope hanging from his neck, he had a calming presence. The news however was too unsettling to be calmed by anything less a storm capable of clearing all of the humanity from the face of the earth.

Yes that would have calmed him.

He was to save money for the coffin and six feet of land now, than for any chemotherapy, while Zahir lay there coughing blood, in pain, yet, Alive!

And 13 days later, no more.

But, time heals the gravest injuries and pains. This too, passed.

Now Adil was married. Now Adil was a father. Now Adil was a worker here and he was good at what he did, like always.

“Sir! Please this check on sir” he said in a broken English, taking my mind off of my coffee.

I went to his work table. The workpiece needed some adjustments. That was what my life shared with the workpiece.

This time, the guys...

The girls were beautiful as they were. The guys, well let's just say they were nice!

"Okay, you want to know about the guys? We never had this friendship, but rather alliance all the way. The partners in crime that I made in a matter of 120 hours. The bond that existed for ages. How do you put it in words?”

The glass left with just the last sip of the whisky that he stirred in his glass, like he was stirring the thoughts in his brain. The cigar now nearly stubbed out, he fiddled with the lens of his glasses.

"A bunch of bonkerheads... That’s what everyone was.

“Dude, how are your lips so pink? Alaska had asked in that husky, but buzzing tone of hers.

Jay had replied with ‘That’s gay’… in a tone even more buzzed.

And an argument emanated thus there on. There was something off about her”

He had taken life with a dash of salt, always. It seemed he had had a life worth living.

“So, Jay… one of your close friends?” I said.

The sun had reached the horizon now, the sky gray more than usual, but his thoughts captivated me, the image of all these friends he had made, was bewitching.

“Well, when high, the declaration was I’m his brother… oh that lad cladded in white looking like a fuck that day couldn’t hold his drink. One who could was Jacob. That guy could drink. He was the brother one would wish for. The guy ready to help, with his eyes, some way or the other fixated upon Rhea in every pic, he was fun to be around.”

“Rhea? The typical Delhi girl?” I asked, and he retorted;

“She was every bit as beautiful, dancing her way like a dainty flower. A book can be misjudged by its cover. She was more than the pretty face, she was indeed, a lady worth the name.”

“Anyway, about the guys, we were just… guys. Rahul’s bike was the ride, to ride the town. Be it close or far, he had learnt pretty soon, with any of us around, he was the pillion on his own bike. Jay and Rahul were brilliant debaters with alcohol down their system. It went up a notch with the amul boy Prakash joining in. With the wits of a stand-up comic, and the looks of a decent kid, he was lethal with his jokes. He did try to grow a beard on his face, that drinking aficionado, but to no avail.”

“These were my friends. Lost some of them on the way, some of them stuck by. Life goes on is all I’d say.”

He took the last sip. The glass seemed empty, finished, like his stories. But I could tell he had lot more than it seemed.

*All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

More Friends than Acquaintances

"Keine Ahnung"... She had told.

"No idea... she answered, if she sought the bliss that happiness is, or she had given up on the search of it. 

She wasn't happy, of that I was sure. Engulfed in the mysterious labyrinth of life and it's enthralling surprises, even life had disappointed her more often than not.

I had had many such conversations with her."

He was lost yet again in the enraptured past he had lived.

A classic old fashion whisky glass with a rare classic blend of whisky in one hand, and a cigar in the other, he had lived a life that could grow in the people covetous desire.

The dew glistened, running down the glass edges, just as much as the glowing ice inside.

He continued...

"Letting people know she could be weak wasn't one of her best suits. And switching to replying with few short German words were her reflex actions when she felt she was going weak in those moments. But what fault was it of hers! She had portrayed her face as that of someone strong for so long. It broke her everytime she couldn't do it. 

Alaska was an enchanting character. Someone who truly was more than what meets the eye. 

Her freckled smile with the dead deep eyes could leave anyone perplexed, if one dared looking deep within them."

"And your other friends? You don't talk of them much really." I asked.

"What's to talk? The typical Delhi girl I found in Rhea was always fun to make fun of. She was a good sport though, I have to give her that. I barely remember her sitting in the class or on any of our outings with her head not cupped in her dainty palms. Butt of the joke, almost all the time, she was a doll of a person. An easy person to read, she had the expression of despair and anguish brazed on her face, the moment she would see any of us."

"But it was all in good spirit."

"What about the guys in your group?" I asked.

"Now why would I talk of them?" He answered with a wink.

*All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Necessity: Friends and acquaintances alike

Oh! What a day it was, he remembered.

The topic was “fun”, and he had had a lot of that. Oh he did.

"I remember the days as clear as crystal”, he started his narrative.

“It was the time of my life. I had wished for new friends, and God, did I get a crazy bunch! In 18 days… we were friends.

And it only got better with the lot inebriated. Bunch of bonkerhead drunkards I had befriended. That was then, and there's today… They stuck by me.

A few of them were lost on the way. But that’s the way it is, right?”  He continued his tale, cleaning the dust off of the glasses that looked like, they had witnessed his life.

“One morning was spectacular, more than others. I had failed myself and hence continuing the streak, with a mere 13 in my German test. The teacher, a lady in her 50's, I guess, was kind enough to simply call me up and clear up some doubts.  It was the same teacher who teased me with my liking for salsa. And she was a charm. Nevertheless, my friend, the literal personification of Alaska young, had scored a 19. She was ecstatic. She was in a league of special individuals. 5 to be precise, who had passed. To celebrate our failure, and so she could rub her success in our faces, the plan to visit a nearby brewery was almost obvious.”

Sitting with his face rested upon his folded knuckles, he looked lost. Ages had passed, but he remembered the day. That one could tell.

“Alaska, sat right there, right in the front. Both, of the table, and of the beer tower.

I sat with another pretty face Rhea. Blowing smoke, along with the lad cladded in white, his name escapes me… Yes. Jay, I guess, on the pretty pink face. Bad manners, I know! But who think of that while the guy on the other side has a Jack Daniels in one hand and a cigar in the other, and the girl, a “Long Island” cocktail. With both buzzing, I was merely a spectator enjoying the show.

You don’t drink, then you are the butt of all jokes. So was I for a good part of the day. All the slurry tones hurling disappointments towards me for being a vegetarian, non-alcoholic idiot.

The day ended with Rhea trying to snort her sunglasses, a few guys punching my arm, Alaska biting and tugging my arm, and Rhea again wondering how it didn’t hurt me, tugging the hair on my arm, harder.

A friend smashing a mug on the floor trying to high-5 me, and a few keeping dead quite to themselves for most of the time.

Yes. It was a good day, that one.”

Stepping in a new world. A step at a time

What started out as an obsession, turned into a passion.

Do not have a single idea why, but I know now, what happens, happens for good.

Started to learn a language with the most dedicated mindset, with the focus of a Jedi, but now, it seems to be fun!

Its true though. Learning a new language opens gateways to not just a new country, but a way of life.

It only gets better from here.

So, I have been learning German now since a while. Thanks to whatever reasons pushed me towards my passion of learning languages, the help is deeply appreciated. 

The friends I made in these 17 days, I don't know they'll stay for long, I don't know if I will, what I do know, talking in German, with your Indian friends, while we strut upon our hindis and englishis and what not, it was fun.

Met a few guys here... Who think my life as a non-alcoholic vegetarian is sad beyond par.

Met a girl here who shares their opinions.

They won't stay with me forever. The memories will. Yes. 18 days have been that "Spaß" 

I try to speak in Deutsch and I do sound like a douch, but well, who's in a hurry.

Learn something fun, something that interests you. May not be financially that wise a decision, take it nonetheless. I did. And seems to work for me. t might for you too!

Have a great day ahead! 

Tschüss!

Well... the necessities really

Hey guys!

About myself, umm many would say that I speak of myself quiet a lot! So, as an attempt to not do that, well I love writing. That's all that matters here, right now. So if you do find any of it interesting, do check this space, for my takes on the days' happenings across my country, or in my life. And a few short stories too. What's life without that now! right?

Stay tuned. See you all lovely people around!