Perspectives!

One incident; neither to be blamed; but the fact remains....

He passes by the supermarket. He is reminded of something he should buy. He stops his bike. He switches off his bike. He looks back. The road is empty except for a young girl walking just behind. He assumes that she will move and pushes the vehicle a few steps back for a parking space. He turns the vehicle to face the supermarket and releases his bike stand. He finds a rock just under his bike stand and tries to move it with his shoes. It doesn’t seem to budge. He gets down, lifts the rear of his bike and places it back at a new place. Now, the ground is too low for the vehicle to stand steady. He manhandles it to a new place which happens to be just an inch away from the original place with the rock. He parks his bike comfortably. With a victorious smile of accomplishing this parking feat, he locks his bike and turns around. He finds the young girl still standing there rather close to his bike. “Why is she standing alone in this dark? Probably boyfriend”. But to his surprise she gives him a dirty look. He winces, shoots her back a dirty look and walks away. “Dunno what is running in her mind. Girls can sometimes be impossible”.

She is walking alone on the road by a supermarket. She notices a guy in a bike suddenly stopping few yards in front of her. She finds the road pretty empty except for this guy and a few vehicles passing by. Just when her thoughts are drifting away, she finds this guy looking back at the length of the road and also giving her a casual glance. He pushes his bike a few steps back and finds a parking space. Just when she is about to cross him, he virtually blocks her way and lifts his vehicle to a new place. “Wants to show off that he is a Hercules”. She tries to move again but he is still meddling with his bike stand and doesn’t seem to let her pass. “What an arrogance!”. This time she is determined to cross him and go on with her work. She sees that he has parked his bike and still, it hasn’t moved much from the original place. “What is he doing lifting the bike and keeping it at the same place? To what extent can guys go to show off!”. He successfully parks his bike and turns back. “Look at that smile at having successfully irritated a girl.” Her thoughts indexed on her face as a dirty look of contempt. But, to her surprise she sees a dirty look creeping across his face too. He walks away. She winces. “Dunno what is running in his mind. Guys can sometimes be impossible”

The fact remains that there was a guy, a rock and an uncomfortable parking area; a girl, a guy blocking her path lifting his vehicle and a look of contempt exchanged!

Descriptions

There are two ways of describing things. The first would a very ordinary way of telling things. Just put it plainly; that would be something like this:

On a sunny summer afternoon, when Arun was riding his bike, he respected the signal by stopping because he saw the traffic police and continued on his drive home when it turned green.

Now if the same scene had been taken from an award winning book, it would have been described like this probably (!):

Like any other June afternoon, Chennai was taking a sunbath. A sunbath that tans its roads a dry brown, sucking moisture from every possible corner. Even the walk from the shore to the waters of the sea in Marina beach would seem endless. Had the sea evaporated a little increasing its distance from the shore? Every skin would give out as much moisture as possible to the environment through its sweat, only to be absorbed the very next instant and leaving behind an air of body odour. In a crowded bus, such an odour would fill the area around its source. But people in a bus would not care about such petty issues. As the Chennai MTC bus charges on the roads, reaching the destination safe would be top priority and worry. It would be like civil war between two-wheelers and buses. Buses the large intimidating lions and two-wheelers, the small cunning hyenas. Arun was one such hyena. But two-wheelers had the extra privilege of being the lion and the hyena. To a cycle and careless pedestrians on the roads he was the intimidating lion. To the bigger ones like bus and lorry, he was the hyena. He had almost breached the amber in the traffic lights, like any other Chennai-ite would do. But the brake lights of the car moving in front of him glowed cheerfully, asking him to stop. He still had the chance of over-taking the car and criss-crossing his way between the first few vehicles that would start streaming into the main road from the alley way in the left, where the signal had turned green. But he thought the better of it as he saw the “mama” (traffic cop) waiting in the shades of a shop, acroos the signal, to pounce on the bike which breaks the traffic first. So, that answers the extra-cautious car’s behaviour. He manoeuvred his bike between the first row of cars to form a new row in front of the stop line. Three vehicles followed him. The fourth one foolishly got stuck between the centre median and a car and the biker blinked foolishly. He decided to stay there till the signal turned green. Meanwhile Arun had shooed a beggar twice, politely sent away the book-seller who sold India for ten rupees, Naphthalene balls and ear-buds for five rupees and the man who sold a pocket diary with all the train, bus and fight timings, your daily horoscope in one word and the all the possible route maps in bus. He stared the LEDs in the signal. It had always reminded him of cockroach’s eyes. He remembered reading/hearing/over-hearing somewhere that cockroaches don’t have eyes like humans. They had hundreds of tiny compartments that organised the light entering the eye. He imagined each LED as a compartment and the whole red signal as a single cockroach eye staring angrily at the waiting passengers. Angry that he had insulted it by crossing the STOP line, angry at the authorities for frying it the humid sun, angry about the boring life it had to lead on the roads. “It’s not my fault” he thought and continued to wait for the signal. The timer had come down to 10 seconds now. He had already noticed a few vehicle roaring into life, two short honks from two different vehicles from behind (The honks meant “You, on the first line, hope you’ve seen the timer reaching ten seconds”) and the roadside sellers going back into hiding, cursing those who had failed to patronage them. The timer had reached five seconds by now. He loved this moment. Most of the engines had started and the bikes and cars behind him had become restless. He hadn’t started his bike yet. 3...., 2....., 1..... and the signal turned green. In a moment he button-started his bike, raced past the last signal-breaker vehicle from the right alley way where the signal had already turned red, crossed the traffic-police would could do nothing but shout a “hey you”. The next moment, he was way ahead of the honkers who had nagged him in the signal!

My bothered sleep

4.10 AM

I finish reading one of those much hyped up books – The White Tiger. I had finished the book in one go starting at around 8.00 PM. Advantages of being a boy in the home! My sister couldn’t have done that. Now the fact that I finished the book in one go doesn’t mean that the book was exceptionally interesting. The last book that had finished in one go was Harry potter and The Half Blood Prince. But what a shame to compare the White Tiger with Harry Potter! I finished the White Tiger because I knew that once I put it down, I would never feel like reading it again. It takes a lot of courage to sit in a lecture, which you know would never catch your interest. The White Tiger was one such lecture. At 4 in the morning, I did not have anyone to share my frustration with. Cursing the Booker prize committee, I went down to sleep. A neat, peaceful sleep on a January morning is really a solace! I imagined waking up at 9. Only five hours of sleep. But it’s okay.. it was a cold January morning. So sleep would be a paradise! Good night Chennai!

(Snore…)

6.10 AM

The alarm in my mobile religiously blares at its usual time. My dear alarm.. I am on leave today, so pls sleep with me...

(Snore….)

7.20 AM

Mobile rings. Friend is calling. It’s only 7.20 in the morning. This must be wee hours in your standards. What are you doing calling me at this time? I’ll get back to you dude. (Mobile silenced)

(Snore…)

7.50 AM

Rosa poo chinna rosa poo instrumental. This time it is the roadside musician. He continues for 5 minutes. The sound dies off slowly. He must have got his earnings from my home, my neighbour and from the home opposite to ours.

(Snn.. Snnoo.. Snnoooorr.. Snore snore. Pls snore; At last lids are heavy)

8.10 AM

Phone rings. Who kept the cordless in the bed? “Hello..” Some long lost uncle catches up with me. “Yes uncle I am fine.. dad is here.. I’ll give..” “Dad.. call for you..”

8.30 AM

Dad wakes me up. “I am going out. Lock the door from inside and sleep.”

Wow! What kind of dad asks his son to continue sleeping at 8.30 in morning.

8.35 AM

No snore. I am not feeling even least of a bit sleepy. I’ve given up. It is “Good morning” now. My day has begun.

When it is decided that you shouldn’t have a good night’s sleep, the whole world co-operates with the decision. But I am determined to get the sleep I had lost. This would be crazy challenge. But only those who don’t sleep properly know the importance of it. Today afternoon.. or tonight.. or this weekend.. A time would come when no one would have the power to disturb my sleep. I’ll wait patiently for the time. Till then, let the world conspire!

The first blog post

I TEXT MESSAGE MY FRIEND:

“Hi XX, I am planning to blog..”

Reply – “That is a good idea.. But why suddenly..”

And the chat continues for an hour.. The topic changes after this very reply. There is no mention of blogging in any of the conversations later that day.

Two months later..

“I really ‘ve to take dis blogging thng seriously.. creating an acc.. n den updating regularly.. I don no if I’ll do it!”

Reply – “You’ll do more than just maintaining.. don worry.. and what are you planning to blog on?”

I did not think about this..

“!@#$?!@?&*”

One and a half months later..

“Am leaving out of station 4 a month to Rameshwaram. Think I’ll ‘ve more time to think seriously about blogging J”

Idhula bomma smiley onnuthan kedu

“Ya.. Come out with a nice name”

Name? Ya, I have to name it la!

“!@#$&*?!@”

One month later.. Back from my month long stay..

TEXT MESSAGE FROM FRIEND

“Hi check out my new blog.. (and the blog address comes up)”

Thought goes blank..

“!@#$%&*^?!@#%$^*@>?

One and a half months later

It is official.. check out my new blog at sid-mirroroferised.blogspot.com

What will it contain?

I’ve realized that even after one and a half millennia, I’ll not be able to answer that. One and a half month is like a microsecond

How will frequently will it be updated?

I don’t know yet. Please refer previous question for explanations.

Why don’t we wind up asking questions! I hate to say “pass”, “I don’t know”, “Will c” etc… So I’ll think what I can say for sure..

And here it is…

There could be times when this blog would sound like nonsense and crap. There could be occasions when this blog would make you think. But, for all that we know, a day might come when people would quote “Siddhart in his blog says “………………………..” and that day I would not regret this decision taken after 6 months of thinking, taken amidst a busy office schedule, taken with many deadlines within a week, taken where there is little time left to spend with family and friends and still stay cool with them… and that day the mirror of erised would show my face.. just my face.. smiling back at me!

P.S. - For the benefit of those who do not know about this mirror, let me explain it now. This Mirror of Erised makes its first appearance in the first part of the much famed Harry Potter books – Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. Unlike other mirrors, if you stand in front of this, you wouldn’t be seeing a reflection of yourself. You will rather see “nothing more or less than the deepest desires of the heart”. So, only the most content human being will be able to see himself as he is!