Little drops of rain and a bottle of beer

Well this happened some time back. I was wondering one fine evening how to spend the rest of it, and then suddenly out of nowhere came two of my buddies Atul and Nagesh.
“Let’s go and have some beer, Anuj sir” were the first few words that I heard coming out of Atul.
To be frank, my thoughts, at that very moment was racing in the same direction, but couldn’t lift myself towards my bicycle and go to the beer shop for lack of company. And then out of the blue these two people like angels dropped from the sky.
“Let’s go” I said and we set off to the nearest beer shop which was a little over a mile and half. Even though we were going for a bottle of beer there was something else for three of us.
It was a perfect evening for beer. The sky overcast, a cool wind blowing and a evening with no serious business at hand.
So the three musketeers started off to their common destination and then the unexpected happened. The sky began to fall, well it started raining cats and dogs. But plans are plans, it cannot be abandoned. It was decided to stop at the bus stop half a mile down the road, but by the time we were there it was practically useless to stop. All three of us fully drenched and it was then that we decided, lets welcome our unexpected guest to our party. So it was Anuj, Atul, Nagesh, little drops of rain and a bottle of beer.
Well may be the little drops of rain had seen countless beer gatherings but it was the first time for the first three to be in the company of the little drops. With rains splashing on their face the three musketeers reached the beer shop and out came the bottles of chilled haywards black. It rained for the whole time the beer party went on. The little drops turned out to be ardent party goers and they stayed till the end. Once over the three drenched musketeers started back their journey towards their humble dwelling but not without a small bottle of whiskey. Oh! Well the unexpected guest (whiskey) dropped in and we could not deny him entry into our gang. So in the end it was
“Little drops of rain and a bottle of beer with the unexpected whiskey”

French fries and hamburgers

It’s a beautiful morning in Boston city. Arun is busying towards his fast food joint ‘The Eldorado’. Today he is doing an extra shift. With New Year round the corner ‘The Eldorado’ is doing some extra business. Arun is pursuing a PhD in physics at the University in Boston. His supervisor is on leave so he has got some extra time for his eldorado. Well the owner is nice guy, and as it turned out this guys grandfather migrated to US. And he hails from the same village as Arun. Though Arun hardly remembers anything of his village from the back waters of Kerala so does the owner. When Arun came to America with his big American dream he never realized a sarcastic remark in his MSc years by his teacher Tanmoy Chatterjee or TC in short could hold the key to his eldorado. `French fries and Hamburger’ yes that’s what he said.

Arun grew up in conservative family. His father worked for MNC so money was not a problem for him but his father still insisted that he should learn to earn his own money. After all for his father having your own money earns you self respect in this world. So, one fine day he announced he wanted to be a scientist. Hearing this, his father was elated.

“Very good Arun, it is very nice that you have decided to become a scientist. I think if you do engineering from computer science from IIT Kanpur and then go to MIT for your further studies it would be excellent.” was his father’s first statement on hearing his good intentions.

“No no!” protested Arun. “You don’t get it; I want to be a physicist not an engineer”

These words fell on his father’s ears like a sound of a 19th century canon fired inches from his ears. He had no words to express his feelings it was like he had frozen with shock, gone deaf and turned blind.

“Dad! Dad!” Arun tried to shake his father out of his momentary state of astonishment. He couldn’t believe his only son didn’t want to be an engineer. When he was back to his senses what he said will puzzle Arun for the rest of his life.

“OK. If you want to be a knuckleheaded ape for the rest of your life I don’t have a problem but officially I don’t like the idea.”

But still against his father’s wishes he came to Institute of Advanced Studies (IAS) in New Delhi to join an elite program which went by the name MSc integrated. After grueling exams and interviews he was one of the eight people selected for the program. His first day at IAS was uneventful. The first class taken by Prof Tripathi, a guy in his fifties. The way he carried himself around looked like his existence was a burden on him. Then the very next class was taken by somebody who jumped around the class like a Chinese crazy ball. Then it occurred to him it is the IAS you should expect such varieties. But the most interesting part came only in his fourth year when he had to take a course under Prof Tanmoy Chatterjee.

In short he was known was TC or transfer certificate. You can fall in the bad books of any guy in the institute but not TC. He was a transfer certificate walking around the campus ready to hand himself out to anyone who happened to be in his bad books. So what was he teaching Arun? The theory of condensed matter. Well apart from the theory he was good at swearing at his students.

“You guys are ungrateful mere mortals who don’t know how to respect people.” This would come if you fail to wish him in the corridors of IAS. But the quote of the century was yet to come. It was near the end of his semester that Arun decided to appear for Graduate Record Examinations to get into graduate school in America.

One fine morning he hurried off to passport office for his passport application. He made a mental calculation to be back in two hours for TC’s class or he might end up getting a TC. But then there is always Murphy’s Law and Indian bureaucracy. Put together what you have is disaster. So the inevitable happened. It took Arun five hours running from pillar to post to submit his passport application. The consequence TC is probably cleaning his rifle by now to put Arun in front of his one man firing squad.

Come next day 10’o clock Arun seated his usual last bench. Enter TC with his sarcastic smile and a beaming face.

“Well, Well who do we have here? Ah! Mr. Arun. What a pleasant surprise. After all you have found time to come to my class? May I pray to your highness for your forgiveness on account of my audacity to enquire about your whereabouts during my class yesterday?” were the first few sentences that came out of the beaming round face of TC. Arun was dumbfounded by such overtures from TC and he kept mum.

“Answer me Arun!” barked TC at the top of his voice. “Do you know whose class it is? It is my class. TC’s class. Nobody is supposed to miss it. So kindly let me know where you were at the allotted hour?”

“Sir! I went to passport office”

“What for?” barked TC again.

“For selling onions and carrots. After all passport office is a place to sell onions and carrots.” thought Arun guessing probably TC does something else other than doing something for his passport at the passport office.

“To submit my passport application sir”

“Passport application? Are you going out somewhere this summer? I thought you were doing summer project with Prof Ayyar in summer.” enquired TC with suspicion.

“No sir, I am taking the GRE this year. For that I need the passport”

“Ah! I see! You are taking ‘the exam`. ‘The exam` to move to so called greener pastures probably in search of Holy Grail or something of that sort. But guess what, I know what most of you mere ungrateful mortals end up doing there. Sell hamburgers and French fries. Yes! that’s what you do” the words poured out of TC like a declaration from almighty God telling Arun his fate when he lands up at some grad school in America.

“Well! Since you have not missed a single class other than that of yesterday I will excuse you this time or you could have seen your American dreams jettisoned in a matter of minutes. Don’t worry in your last semester at IAS I will be taking your advanced course on condensed matter which for you guys is being made compulsory. So don’t miss a class or you might end up getting the beautiful english letter ‘F` meaning ‘fail` or in your case 'forget your dreams`.” declared TC. For the rest of the class TC was in a jubilant mood for he had released the floodgates of his dam of sarcasm which was overfull for want of victim.

But the class and the remarks were an eye opener for Arun. After all the McDonalds sell hamburgers and fries all over the world and make a filthy some of money each day. So there is nothing wrong in selling them if you can get rich by doing so. Probably this guy TC at the end of the day walks to a McDonald to buy fries and burgers for his son. And then the question popped in his mind

“If no body sold any burgers, how the hell we get to eat one?” making this mental note he was waiting eagerly for the end of the class. The end soon came and he rushed out of the class chasing TC and screaming at the top pf his voice

“Sir I have a question?” said Arun

“OK go ahead” said TC thinking he had disciplined the kid.

“Sir, if no one sold hamburgers and French fries how would we get to eat one? After all those mcbergers and mcfries are damn tasty.” declared Arun with confidence. He had completely forgotten that he was asking this to none other than TC.

“You will pay for this. Memorize the letter ‘F` from English alphabet” said a furious TC who had by then turned red like a piece of iron in the blacksmiths kiln.

At that moment terror stuck Arun, what the hell he had done, what was he thinking, he could see his American dreams down the filthiest drain. The semester was nearing its end, he might pass TC this time but what about next year?

That was almost four years back thought Arun speeding up to ‘The Eldorado’. Now he really sells fries and burgers in his free time and he makes enough to enjoy a little relaxed life. He looked towards the sky and thanked God for putting the thought in TC’s head about burgers and fries.

Well for what happened in the final year it’s anybody’s guess that he did not encounter the ‘F’ word. How did that happen is history? May be TC did not take the course or it was not made compulsory that’s for another time.


Disclaimer: This is a fiction any resemblance to anybody anywhere is purely coincidental

The water tank on the top of my roof

The water tank on the top of my roof
Filled with water to the top
Proud to serve its own kingdom.
It was a bright sunny day four years back
When the first drops of water fell in his belly
New as it was built by an expert mason
It brimmed with joy
For it was going to serve the people below,
For years to come with fresh flowing water,
But things changed little too fast
Four years down the lane,
The tank has developed a crack,
The mason lied to him four years back,
He was told he was good for twenty years
But he is old in just four years.
Fresh flowing water seeping out to waste,
But still the tank tries to serve its best,
With whatever little it has left,
The beautiful water tank on the top of my roof is dying,
Because someone four years back was lying.

The water tank on the top of my roof,
Saddened by the lies remained aloof,
The zeal to serve long gone,
Filling the vacuum was hatred,
For everything that was even distantly mason,
Helpless it was being unable to move,
To strike a fear in the very heart of those,
Who could lie to him without a guilt,
The very same mason who had got him built,
The helplessness put in him a sense of despair,
But then he saw the sun,
Rising from the east setting in the west,
The world had changed in its life time,
From good to bad and bad to worse,
But it still rose in the east and set in the west.
Then he saw the moon,
Ever pleasant even in the darkest hours,
The beautiful water tank on the top of my roof threw away the rope,
Because in the sun and the moon he could see a ray of hope.

The water tank on the top of my roof,
Delighted by his new found hope,
Reasoned with all things mason,
Whatever came his way was destiny,
May be the mason made an extra cake,
May be the mason filled an extra rack,
Out of what was meant for the tank,
But could he enjoy the starlit nights
Or the sound of blowing air,
Or the chatter of falling rain drops,
Or the chirping of countless birds,
Or the majestic view of the vast fields,
That was there all for the tank at all times,
The treasures that the mason could not take,
The treasures that the mason could never make,
The treasures that the mason could never taste,
For he has blinded by his own excess,
The beautiful water tank on the top of my roof was smiling
Because its new found treasures were multiplying.

There do exist a water tank on the top of my roof which is four years old and it has cracked.......

The feel of freedom

On an unknown countryside,
With the setting sun,
The birds returning to their nests,
A train whiz passed.
It was not an ordinary train,
For it was for freedom,
Freedom from daily hassles,
Freedom from the monotonous song,
Along the side lay the barren lands,
Fresh from the harvest,
After the seasons fest,
To the eyes it looked,
A land smeared with gold,
For the hay under the setting sun.
There was music in the air,
A different note for every stroke,
Everything looked different,
For it was a world much apart
For the clouds looked different,
The trees were greener,
The livestock more lively
The birds more chirpy
And the air smelled sweeter.
With every passing moment
My heart filled with joy
For I was a passenger in the special train
And it was a special train
For it was for freedom.

The tale of a weary summer

Note: This is a poem i wrote long back. Many people did not like it but still i am putting it here. Actually that is the fun of having your own blog. Write any god damn stuff.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In a land not so far,
There came a traveler,
Driven out from everywhere,
For he brought bad luck,
To wherever he went.
Some said he was an evil spirit,
Some thought he was a demon,
Some merely thought he was a bad dream,
But nobody knew who he was.
His beard, as white as snow,
Was long but without a glow,
His clothes were old and worn,
For he had traveled too long.
He knocked at an inn,
The old innkeeper opened,
His mouth fell open with the sight,
Of an old man so overcome by fright.
He welcomed the old man into his inn.
The old man sat down with a heavy sigh,
Thinking of all the places that were dry.
He went there to bring an end
To the dry spell that was there.
For he was the one who will set the rain
Autumn will follow with the rains
Then will come the winter
Followed by the spring,
When the flowers will bloom,
New leaves will take shape,
Butterflies will fly
Birds will sing
The old man of the forest will dance,
But alas! They never gave him the chance.
For they drove him away,
For he was the one
Who had scorched their lands,
Dried up their wells,
Forgot to set the rains,
Or did he forget??
Or it was the will of God??
For he did what He told him,
Thinking thus he fell from his stool,
On the dusty floor, for he was weary and old.
The inn keeper helped him to a bed.
For the old man was his guest.
A week’s time the old man was fit,
A scorching summer set on the village.
People knew now he was the one,
Who was driven from far away lands,
For he brought bad luck.
But they kept quiet
For he was their guest.
He stayed for weeks,
May be ten may be twelve,
The village soil burned and baked.
Then one day autumn came
Without the sight of rain
The people became restless
For two years in row
They had no rains for their crops to sow.
They started whispering words

For the old man with the white beards.
Then one day the old man disappeared
To reappear with a young man,
As handsome as the Gods of heaven,
He was his son Jora.
With Jora came the rains,
For he was Jora* -the autumn rain,
The rains fell for weeks,
Driving the dry that was for everyone to speak.
On a clear morn,
The old man and Jora long gone,
The inn keeper lay still on his bed,
By the last step of night he was dead.
The winter set in followed by spring,
The old man of the forest danced again,
The flowers showed their full bloom,
The butterflies flapped their colored wings,
The birds sang their little song,
For sorrow of the land was long gone
And here ends the tale of the old man – the weary summer.



*Jora – means autumn rain in Hebrew

This is the last time I go for a girl!!!

Anuj and Raghu were having a nice cup of coffee on a cold weary night. Suddenly,

“Thud !!!!!!” sounded Raghu, banging his hand hard on the table.

“This is the last time I go for girl. No more girls. Only research. You know Anuj, these girls are hypocrites.” Raghu declared with an air of absolute authority.

Anuj still silent busy enjoying his coffee and the pancake he picked up on his way out of the cafeteria. The cafeteria was warm but still both of them preferred under the star studded cold night.

“Are you listening you ever eating hippo? I just had a break up and you are behaving as if nothing happened. You are my best friend. At least show some sympathy.” Raghu roared at Anuj.

“Yeah yeah.. I understand” Anuj said nonchalantly taking a huge bite of his pancake.

“No you don’t understand. You only say so.”

“You don’t get it, how hard it is to loose the love of your life?”

“Guys like you think love is like a pancake. As long as you eat it put all your attention on it. Once finished forget it with a burp. Anuj its hard to find true love” Raghu was almost in tears saying those last words.

Anuj finally got to understand the gravity of the situation and slipped his remaining pancake in his leather jacket. He had never been in this situation before. A heart broken fellow in front of him almost in tears. He had no words to console him though he knew this was probably Raghu’s zillionth break up since he had joined iit for his phd 4 and half years back. Anuj has seen only his last two break ups for in the initial years both of them had different groups of interaction. The one before this was not that grave. He intoxicated himself with good deal of vodka and went to sleep. Within a week he has trying to draw Parul’s attention towards himself. Parul happened to be a PhD student from the chemistry department. Only god can tell who got attracted to whom but within two weeks the two of them were often spotted together at various locations inside the campus. Walking side by side, chatting, giggling. And then after 1 and half months, here he was with Anuj declaring confidently that all girls are hypocrites and Anuj was a ever eating hippo.

After a long spell of silence Anuj finally asked “ How did it all happened?”

Probably Anuj had just done the worst mistake of his life. With nothing else to say he had to ask Raghu something. So he asked what he perceived to be the shortest question to ask. But sometimes the shortest of our questions has the longest of all answers.

“It all started with a bang like in big bang theory. I was having a cup of tea in lounge. After five minutes she too came with her labmate. We exchanged glances. And that very moment I knew she also has feelings for me.”

“How can you know from just a glance whether somebody likes you or not? “ Anuj interrupted.

“Don’t interrupt. Just listen. Just as you know by smelling food whether it will taste good or not I know by just a look whether somebody is interested in me or not. Like that girl over there inside the cafeteria. Though she is sitting with her boyfriend but with a corner of her eye she is looking at me.”

Anuj tilted his face a little to see if there was anybody inside the cafeteria. He was surprised to see there was a girl and boy sitting enjoying there cup of hot drink. Anuj didn’t notice them coming for he was busy with his pancake.

“May be she is trying to see who are those two blokes who are sitting outside in this cold winter when we could have enjoyed the warmth inside.” said Anuj with anticipation that Raghu might buy his explanation.

But god has made some people with a perception that they are ladies man.

“No you don’t understand, you fatso. She is trying to look at me. Every girl does that even if she is with a guy .”

“May be there is no sense of commitment now a days. So why don’t you go on with your story as to why you had break up” Anuj said pulling back Raghu to the topic they were discussing or rather to the story that Anuj was listening. For it was well past midnight and Anuj had only one thing in mind. Go back to his hostel and slip into his huge quilt his parents gave him on his twenty fifth birthday. They wanted to give him a wrist watch but Anuj wanted a huge quilt. For him only two things mattered food and sleep, rest everything is secondary.

“I knew this is the love of my life. So far what ever girls I had been with they were not the love of my life in true sense.” Raghu started his narration which seemed to Anuj will last till morning and he will miss his beauty sleep.

“You know it is one of those rare feelings you have when the cupid really strikes you. Anyway what would you know. For you food is everything .”

“Then i started saying come on Raghu go and speak to her this is it. If you miss this chance you will be sad for the rest of your life. I was waiting that I get a few split minutes when she would be alone”

“And then luck smiled at me. Her friend went inside to pay the bills while she waited outside the lounge. It was lucky day. There were lot of people trying to pay there bills. So I knew she will be there for atleast ten minutes. I walked up to her and said hi! I am Raghu from physics departmenmt”

“She looked at me surprised or rather I should say she was taken back by the way I introduced myself so fast when we had been making eye contacts for just couple of days. Believe me that was the longest 15 seconds of my life. But she replied with a smile I am Parul from chemistry department.”

“Wow! What a beautiful smile she had. That was my mistake. I fell for that smile. In reality she is a hypocrite”

Anuj listened to Raghu hoping that the break up part will come soon and he will be back in his hostel under the quilt.

“I hope Anuj I am not boring you” asked Raghu

“No no! not at all” Anuj replied for he knew he had to go through the whole story. So better now then later. If it is too late he will drop an email in his supervisor Prof Ramanujan’s mail box requesting him for a leave telling him that he was doing literature survey for the latest idea that the prof gave him for his phd problem the previous day. Of course not forgetting to add that he didn’t have much success.

“Shall we have another cup of tea or may be we can meet sometime in the evening and go for walk” continued Raghu

“Anuj do you know what was her reply. I have never met another girl with such a straight forward reply”

“She simply said are you formally asking me out.”

“I was stunned. I said you can think so.”

“In that case I don’t mind another round of coffee she said”

“Then we started of with a regular chat. I came to know she was working with Prof. Dave. And you know surprisingly she was also working on nano particles. Really that was a lucky day. Then I told her I am with Prof Ramanujan and working in nano particles. After that it was like smooth sailing. Her favorite colour is red same as mine. Lucky number 8, again same as mine. She loves to study a lot. You see she was completely my type.”

“Then why did you have break up?” Anuj interrupted trying to cut a long story short.

“Wait! I will come to that. Before even you can understand my point of calling her a hypocrite you have to know the circumstances that led to the conclusion” Raghu sneered back.

“Ok carry on” Anuj said trying to frame an email for Prof Ramanujan in his mind.

“Then it was full time affair” Raghu continued

“We used to meet regularly in the evening after lab hours. Even during lab hours our tea times were fixed so that we could have tea together.”

“So what did you talk about?” Anuj said trying to look concerned

“We talked about all sorts of things. Like weather, studies, future plans anything under the blue sky.”

“Future plans? Plans about what?”

“Plans like where we would like to go for our post docs. What we would like to do after phd. And so and so forth”

Anuj still couldn’t get the fact, if everything was so sweet why the god damn break up happened. Because the consequences were really huge, first this Raghu is emotionally broke though only for few days, second he has to listen to a love and hate story which if penned down will probably exceed Romeo and Juliet, and third he has to write an email to Prof Ramanujan telling something which he has never done. He thanked god for the idea in Prof Ramanujan’s head otherwise he would have to take a sick leave which incidentally he took two days back. Anuj was really running out of ideas for this kind of leaves.

“Then every week we used to go out for dinner. Sometimes on Sundays we will visit the mall and have dinner and come back. If anyone of us had to do shopping we would go together. Then when she had her qualifiers I used to accompany her to the library and study with her. So in a way that helped for my qualifiers as well, after a week we were going out she came to my room for the first time. I had spent the whole day tidying it up. We chatted for almost five hours that day. I told her about my family and off course about my drinking problem. And she turned out to be a good listener. Then she told me about her family. Her father is an officer with the navy. She has a younger brother who is pursuing medicine in AIIMS.”

“After that we went out to the restaurant in the campus and had a nice dinner. Luckily she is also non vegetarian. So we really didn’t have any problem selecting items form the menu.”

“Things were really going smooth then fifteen days back I popped the hardest question”

“I asked her whether she was serious about me and is she going to talk about me with her parents and stuff like that.”

“She said her parents won’t be a big prob. In fact it won’t be any problem at all if she were to marry me or something like that. Then she started talking how liberal her parents were and how she felt bad about certain things that are expected of girls in this part of the country. Then she was emphasizing on the fact that she is very different from the girls around her. She is very open minded that is why many people don’t like her.”

So Raghu continued with his narration of his numerous rendezvous with Parul. Then the part came for which Anuj was eagerly waiting for.

“This was last Friday” continued Raghu, “I had sprained my ankle and couldn’t move around”

“She came to see me in my room. And I was really yearning for a bottle of rum. I asked her if she could get me a bottle of rum from somewhere.”

“Her reply was like a shocked what?”

“From where did you expect her to get the rum?” Anuj quizzed

“Why from the shop at the campus gate? She said she is so forward and stuff like that and she couldn’t get a bottle of rum from there, that too in the day time”

“I guess she didn’t get you that and you broke up”

“Look anuj, I cannot spend my whole life with a hypocrite. At one hand she says she is blah blah blah and on the other she has problems in getting a bottle of rum”

“That may be a particular case. May be she is against alcohol and stuff like that. But somehow she adjusted to your drinking problem thinking she might be able to get rid of that. So you should have also adjusted to her reservations in going to the liquor shop.”

“Anuj you don’t understand the way she refused to bring it didn’t show she is against alcohol. Basically she is hypocrite”

“Ok what ever you say” Anuj agreed with Raghu though he could't understand how somebody becomes a hypocrite if he or she doesn't buy liquor from a liquor shop. In his heart he thanked god that the story is over within two hours. It was 4 in the morning. Anuj thought may be he will send the mail to Prof Ramanujan and then go to sleep. After all for Anuj sleeping anytime of the day is perfectly all right.

That was three months ago and still today he could not understand why Raghu had a break up. Raghu has kept his promise so far. He has not messed with any girl in the meantime. Anuj now firmly believes that Raghu has learnt his lesson from his last affair. Prof Ramanujan is already demanding more work from both Anuj and Raghu.. They are having tough time finishing their jobs within the deadline set by their supervisor. May be that is one of the reason why he is not messing around, thought Anuj. It had been a long day. Both Anuj and Raghu had a nice tough talk from Prof Ramanujan. Suddenly out of the blue raghu says “You know Anuj I think that lady with curly hairs in our junior batch likes me. I saw her many times staring at me”

“Oh no! not again Raghu” Anuj sounded with lot of disappointment.

Raghu started to say something but Anuj did not pay attention to much of what Raghu said on their way back to hostel. The first line from the conversation he had with raghu on that cold night flashed in his mind again and again. As an after thought Anuj thought may be Raghu should have said

“This is the last time I go for girl before the next time.”

Disclaimer: This is a fiction any resemblance to anybody anywhere is purely coincidental

Ambigram

This was created by me and one of my friends for a t-shirt. but somehow the guy responsible for printing the t-shirts screwed it and the whole thing looked really sad.

last set till i make more

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Some more

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Ink Prints

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