Category: Life Ordinary

Erica’s birth delighted a whole lot of people. there was something about her that made them believe that she would make her mark in the world. and she did nothing to dislodge their faith.on the contrary, her accomplishments were noted by everyone, and she was a sort of benchmark among her peers, and even her elders.her actions seemed wiser than her years, and people considered it very normal because the people who had a hand in her growth were certainly very intelligent folk. her morals were of the highest standards and she always stood for values like truth and justice. she resolved issues with wisdom and pretty soon her stance on issues were valued and respectedby people everywhere.
as far as her own growth were concerned, she was very industrious, and made friends of the same kind. her growing popularity and ability to influence others attracted a whole lot of people with different dreams.. people who wanted her help to realise their dreams. and when these people grew in stature, so did she, because she was the reason for their success.of course there were some rotten eggs among these, but not too many in number to seriously affect erica’s character.
a lot of people considered the early years of the twentieth century, a landmark time in erica’s life. she fought for all the right things during the time of the first and second world war, and further enhanced her reputation.
towards the end of the second world war was when things started going wrong. experts believed that it all happened because erica suddenly started believing that she could get away with anything, because of her global stature. her actions suddenly became extremely selfish. her ego bloated and she started vociferously declaring in words and deeds, “am erica am erica” until it finally became “america”. the rest,as they say, is history.
until next time, dont let the ego hurt you!!
oops, almost missed, happy valentine’s day, peeps!! 🙂

(circa 2002)
He waited impatiently for his potential customer to meet him. Exciting times, he thought. After only about 6 months of work experience, here he was, poised to become the top selling sales guy in the country, for the company. Quite an achievement, considering that he was not even in one of the metros, which were the best territories for any sales guy to be in, especially when the service you were selling happened to be a nascent thing called broadband internet. These were times when internet cafes and their customers were quite happy with the speed that a dial up connection gave them, and internet access itself wasnt exactly common.

The last few days had been a maddening rush, he was competing with someone he knew only by a name,a counterpart in Bangalore, who was a couple of years more experienced than him, and who had the luxury of working in a city that happened to be the nation’s IT capital, a city which had enough people who were educated about broadband technology.

In the past few days, he had used all his contacts and leads, and now had a score equal to the guy in Bangalore. Today was the last day of the month, and unlike his ‘opponent’ he had no ace, up the sleeve or anywhere. At least he had given the guy a run for his money, he thought.

That was when he got a call from the customer care department; he crossed his fingers. “There’s a guy who seems to be interested. actually very excited, insisted he wanted to meet you today itself”, said the customer care executive.

And so here he was, waiting for the man who could tip the scales in his favour. The wait was over and he shook hands with a middle aged man who was apparently into the shipping and cargo handling business.

” Timely information is essential for your business”, he started his sales pitch.
“I agree”, said the man, “so i thought i should have an internet connection, and a fast one at that, but i am a total ignoramus as far as technology goes, you’ll have to educate me”
“It doesn’t get faster than broadband”, he continued, and gave the man the entire spiel about the under sea cables, routers etc. The man appeared slightly confused, but convinced nevertheless.
“Sounds good”, the man finally said, “I’ll take it, but from what you say, I guess I’ll have to buy a computer first.. how much does a good computer cost these days?”

until next time, know your opponent…

P.S. please use comments.. we can finally be free of haloscan.. yippee!! 🙂

Just another normal, working day. but in a building that was arguably the most dynamic in the world, which made everyday more than normal and boring. he worked in one small office in one small floor of the huge building complex. a small but exciting office, in an exciting building…only he didnt feel the excitement at all, he believed he would have felt the same way in any other building. pushing papers in administration and housekeeping couldn’t be exciting -period!!

he walked in and found there were a lot of earlybirds today too… some meeting happening, he could tell, from all the smoke around…. the smoke had nothing to do with the thinking, more to do with the cigarettes. he had warned them at least a million times not to smoke in the general area of the office, but that only made him, in their own words, “the butt end of all the jokes, no pun intended”, ha ha!!

he told them to take their meeting to the meeting room, which was met with a lot of protest..but he was firm and finally had his way.he busied himself with his work, thankful that their meetings were now happening elsewhere.

suddenly he heard a muffled knock from the meeting room. first he thought someone was playing a prank, but as it became more frequent, he decided to go and check it out.as he neared the meeting hall, he could see a lot of smoke coming from under the door. he tried to open the door, but it seemed to be locked. as he was standing confused, he distinctly heard a shout for help. without thinking further, he kicked the door open, and immediately felt the heat.damn smokers, he thought… he quickly got the fire extinguisher and successfully dealt with the flames.. but then he noticed that a few of the personnel had lost consciousness and some were in shock…

and to think that he considered his job had no chance of excitement. but perhaps this was the only exciting thing that would ever happen to him here, he mused as he dialled the emergency number – 911…..

far away, a bearded, turbaned man, was watching the same building on a small screen… he paused as though he had decided, smiled and made a small note – WTC, 9/11 ….

until next time, keep building some excitement

A dark, cold night, not unnatural in this time of the year, he thought as he drove fast towards his master’s home. and not exactly a night one would want to venture out on, but this was a life or death situation. life or death for his master’s son. a worthy son of a worthy father.

the medicine he was carrying could save the son’s life, a life which could be very important in a few years’ time, for his master was a very powerful political personality and his son was poised to take over when his time came. and he was already showing signs of scaling heights that his father would himself have loved to touch. in short a very worthy personality in his own right.

but that was until the sickness showed up. it gradually spread in him till he was a shell of his former self. all the doctors in the land were consulted, but even they could not give a correct diagnosis, a cure was far away. that was when his master heard of a practitioner who could perform miracles. he was said to have travelled in far away lands, and had cures for diseases which other doctors couldnt even diagnose correctly.and he lived up to his reputation. after he had seen the patient once, the practitioner correctly traced back all the phases of the sickness. and thankfully confirmed that he had a cure.

as he urged the horses faster, these were the thoughts that played in his mind, and he was happy that he had been chosen to carry the medicine safely from the practitioner’s clinic to the master’s house. who knew, he might be altering the course of destiny itself. and so it was that he saw the little boy crossing the street only a few seconds before the possible collision. his mind worked furiously. if he tried to stop the horses, there was a definite possibility of the carriage skidding on the snow. if he didnt, the child would get trampled under the horses.he made his decision, and the skid threw him out of the carriage onto a wall. there were only two things he remembered as he was losing consciousness – the child staring wide eyed in shock, and the sound of a bottle of glass shattering – the bottle of medicine.

he was taken home, and regained consciousness a few hours later. as soon as he woke, he asked two questions – one answer made him feel miserable, and the other made him sigh in relief. his master’s son had died, for the medicine hadnt reached him in time, but the boy was unharmed. in fact the onlookers had said that his actions were heroic and most humane.

he saw the boy in the corner, and called him close. the boy muttered his thanks and the man smiled. his wife said that their rabbi was there to see him. as the little boy was waving goodbye, the man asked him,”whats your name, child?”.”adolf”, replied the child, “adolf hitler”.



until next time, beyonce makes a better destiny’s child

He woke early, as he did everyday.. and as usual the first thing he did was to clean his bicycle..he wanted to win the race today, for he wanted the prize badly… he finished all his morning rituals, and checked the time to be sure that he was not running late.. he pedalled fast towards the group of houses where the other kids stayed, this was his warm up exercise. in the distance he saw the kids ready, on their bicycles. this was where the race started, everyday, and they raced all the way to school, almost 3 kilometres.

his presence was acknowledged by fleeting smiles on the other kids’ faces… he could feel the excitement in them too. they finished saying bye to their parents… the parents, of course, had no clue about the race.by mutual consent, the race began…there were five kids totally, including him.. but he knew that only a couple of them were a serious threat to his winning.. but sometimes he felt they performed as a team against him, perhaps because his house was slightly away from theirs, and he didnt play with them in the evenings…

the road that was the ‘racetrack’ had steep climbs, rough roads (if you could call them roads)and steep descents, all of which made it exciting to all the participants. and towards the last stretch, was the steepest climb and one could see the finish line, the school, in the distance.and this was when the kids pedalled extra furiously in a final bid to win the race on that day.

but it was he who won, like every day till date, having outsmarted and outpedalled all the others on the way.. a feat more remarkable because his cycle was an old one, as compared to the others who got new cycles every year.he smiled broadly and waited at the finish line, the school entrance, for the others to catchup. they smiled at him, as though acknowledging his skills, and told him they would give him his prize in the evening. he waved to them as they went in.

he had a kilometre more to go, to the market, where his mother waited for him. together, they would sell vegetables all day. in the evening, while the other children played, he would sit with the prizes he had won – old books and newspapers. as he pedalled the last kilometre, he was happy at winning the race, but he wondered who was actually winning every day in life – him or the kids…..



until next time, winning isnt everything, and its definitely not the only thing…