Month: June 2005

  • Unreasoning

    The day was over, and he could go home, he thought happily. He checked his planner for the last time, to make sure that he hadnt left anything incomplete… he also reviewed the decisions he had made that day.. he was a meticulous man, who could coldly analyse facts and figures and arrived upon conclusions based on usually unerring logic.. but wait, he wasnt any inhuman monster, on the contrary, he had the right amount of humanity and compassion in him that made him a just and fair man… almost perfect…
    but just as he got out of his office, his happiness vanished, for he saw the rain pouring down, and since the city planners hadnt planned enough, traffic snarls all around… this was the third day in a row that he was having to go through this, and he was irritated..the journey home, that normally took only a half an hour would once again be stretched to almost two hours…as his car waded through the traffic, he fondly remembered the days when he could zoom on this very road..
    and as though God had heard him, almost miraculously, the traffic began to clear, and pretty soon, he could indeed go fast.. as he was cruising along, gradually picking up speed, he noticed an old woman quite a distance ahead, standing on the edge of the street, selling flowers to passers by, who, today, were more interested in getting to their respective homes before the next shower hit..he wondered how her life must be, having to go through this day after day, in her old age…
    unknown to him, she had two grandchildren to raise.. the children’s parents had died, leaving her to take care of the kids, who had just started going to school.. between what their grandmother earned, and what they got from doing errands after school, they just about managed to survive..their grandmother insisted they go to school, for she knew that was the way out of their current lives.. that was why she went through this day after day…
    He was driving quite fast now, and had almost reached her, when a young man suddenly started to cross the road.. his blaring horns seemed to have no effect on him.. he was far too near for the brakes to have any effect, and besides, because of the rain, they would be almost useless.. the median and the traffic on the other side prevented him from making any attempts to his right.. the youngman was in front of him, and the old woman on his left..
    in the couple of seconds he had, he actually thought, and made the decision… he groaned inwardly as he heard the wail of the old woman.. even though she was hurt pretty badly, the crowd had seen what had happened, and didnt harangue him, instead helped him carry her to the car… he looked around for the young man, but he seemed to have disappeared…
    as the car zoomed away, the young man stepped out of a corner and cursed himself… earlier in the day, he had been diagnosed with a terminal disease.. all he wanted, was to die…..
    until next time, who decides and how??

  • Human, after all…

    As she sat in the coffee shop listening to the conversation, she wondered how she had ever become part of this group.. of late, she was trying to avoid them, but she couldnt be too obvious about it.. at present they were all she had..But the sweet syrupy camaraderie sickened her.. because she knew all the backbiting and tale telling that happened simultaneously within the group, not just about the others, but about people within the group too..
    she had become part of the group because she thought they were genuinely different from her previous group of friends..but over a period of time she realised that all said and done, they were all the same within…she was one of the first members of this group, and all the members were personally known to her, for she was the person who brought them in, but she wondered whether any of them would understand if she tried to discuss this with them..
    therefore she decided not to say anything, but gradually move out without too much fuss, and find another set who would be her kind of people, and this time she would be a little more careful about choosing the crowd..but damn, she thought, bloggers were supposed to be different!!
    until next time, what exactly is ‘different’?

  • A Matter of Choice

    As he finished answering the last question in his aptitude test, he smiled at the irony of it all…
    There was a time, a long time ago, when the fear of injections and vaccines had put a noble thought in his head – that he would become a doctor, a doctor who would take care of all the illnesses in the world, without hurting patients.. well all patients except some teachers,a few boys from the other gang and some assorted enemies he had made during his seven years of life so far…
    But after he had heard his grandmother say that there was nothing better than to be able to sing and bring joy to millions of people, he had thought he should become a singer…considering that he had been won a whole lot of music competitions at school and otherwise in his twelve year life, he had every reason to believe that he would make a good singer…
    He hated the injustice happening in the world, the way humans were treating other humans who were less fortunate than them… how humans were taking things for granted, and going along a path where the only aims were achieving more power and money without any concern for anything around them.. at 15 years of age,having been a part of the school debate team for over 3 years, he did believe he would make a good lawyer…
    engineering was a good career option, especially if you were the kind who could build bridges,airports, railways etc.. that way, he could become directly involved with the development happening around him.. 22 years of life had taught him that noble thoughts had to go hand inhand with practicality, and there was a career to be made…it also taught him that an MBA could be a ticket to future successes.. that was why he was writing the aptitude test…
    as he finished the aptitude test, he realised that it was quite similar to life.. for there were a lot of questions in which he felt that all the choices given were possible..
    unfortunately,among the options, he could never find ‘all of the above’…
    until next time, life’s like that….

  • A New Start

    It was only a few days after the second world war ended. The victorious army marched into the city, the city which was all set to bask in its new found glory under the new regime…the army was tired, from the long march, but more so from the fierce skirmishes with the remnants of the enemy forces… but it had marched on, knowing that this was the dawn of a new era, and that they were about to make history…
    all around them, people lined the streets, eager to welcome the forces that would take control of their country, their destiny, and eager to catch a glimpse of their leader, who was, by now, a living legend… the man who had fought their oppressors in different ways at different times, who had been their prisoner for years.. who had travelled across continents, with one burning dream, that of a free country..and that dream had been achieved, when the enemy had surrendered unconditionally…
    the enemy had been part of a coalition that had called themselves the ‘Allies’ during the second world war, and had been ruling the country for centuries… but the ‘allies’ had been devastated in the second world war, and the man and his army, who had been fighting the allies were now about to take charge of the country… for he was the leader of the provisional indian government that had been formed during the war, and therefore the rightful leader of the now free country…
    while the rest ofthe city blissfully celebrated, a few men huddled together in a small room, trying to chart their future course of action…these men were the working committee of the indian national congress.. the congress which believed that it had done all the hardwork to get the country free, but did not get what they considered their rightful due, not by any lack of effort from their part, but because of the shocking defeat of the ‘allies’..for all of them, their joy at attaining freedom was tinged with a bit of sorrow, but all the more for a certain jawaharlal nehru, the man who would have been ‘king’ instead of netaji, if the die had been cast differently….
    until next time, each different past could have meant a different present…