A night to remember

(The following, though a draft of mine, was checked and formatted by a few more individuals. Since I am very sure of forgetting a name or two of the list, so won't actually reveal my editing team)


I gazed down the hall. She was standing there, shimmering in the sleeveless white outfit and pearl necklace. Her hair was done as mop over her head, strands falling loose over her shoulder. The light seemed to form a halo around her giving her a magical aura of a princess from a distant kingdom. She had air of perfection around her like a piece of art, a da Vinci, a Monet. I realized I stood there gaping at her, awestruck and speechless by her beauty!

She was talking to her friend. Then, without any indication, she turned her face towards me and looked straight into my eye. She smiled; I reciprocated instantly with a half embarrassed and half disbelieving smile and tried my best to look away. I was clearly getting infatuated by her. I looked away slightly embarrassed. How could I behave like this! I am a married man. It doesn’t suit me, at least not tonight, I thought.

My head was getting muddled, thoughts were uncontrollably streaming in and there was little I could do but resign to them with a helpless sigh. If I floated around in this blissful oblivion shunning away from my duties, what would the guests say? After all, all these people have gathered here on my invite. I was the one who was supposed to see that everything goes well. So I took a deep breath and start to walk upto Mr. Mehta for a courtesy chat. I slowly moved from one guests to another exchanging polite nothings. The task was mundane but simple. The conversation did not matter as long as the glasses were filled and they kept me distracted from her thoughts.

But tonight, something was not right. The conversations were more mechanical than usual. All my focus was centred on one face or rather at avoiding that one face. I meticulously walked around her lest I betrayed an emotion, a scary thought after I gaped at her as if hypnotized just a few minutes back. I was taking this to ridiculous proportions as I now stood staring at the shoes daring to raise my eyes maximum to the level of the dishes on the table but not an inch more! Calm Down! Breathe! I told myself almost loudly. Never before did I felt this way since I was 17 and was out on my first date!

And then it happened. I was in a conversation with Mrs. Roderick and did not see her approach till I felt an electric current pass through my spine, goose bumps spread over my arm as I realized her hand brushed against mine. I must have been blushing beetroot red as I turned to see her smiling while walking past me. Suddenly, I had this intense urge to grab her by her waist and disappear in a magical moment. I wanted to be by her side and the rest of the world could well burst into flames for all that I cared at the moment was to be with her. I wanted to touch her, feel her, kiss her and never let her go. The day dream was so vivid that my stomach hurt as I pulled myself away from the thoughts. The wedding ring was hurting around my finger as it literally leashed me back to the social norms.

As the evening turned into night, the gathering started thinning slowly as guests began to go home. I saw them off in person as even the smallest assurance from them of their enjoyment unburdened some of my guilt. And they did. They thanked me for a wonderful evening and wished me luck for the future. After exchange of a few more meaningless courtesies and farewells, I walked out onto the balcony. There were a few more guests, who were a closer circle, but tonight I did not care and anyways, they were being attended to. So without any much worry, I turned and looked into the night. My mind was all blank. Slowly, it started again. She and her thoughts were there again. As I relaxed, I went over her thoughts, wondering what was so special about her that I wanted her so much. The answer was simple enough - Everything.

A Ronan Keating song started playing on to the music player and I closed my eyes, thoughts running deeper (I secretly cursed the person who played it as the song made my longing unbearable). As the last notes hummed, I turned around to see the culprit was. As I turned, I saw her waltzing down the hall towards me. My heart skipped a beat. Could this be it? I waited as I almost forgot to breath. I don’t know how long I stood like that, it felt like an eternity as she slowly glided closer to me. Just when I thought I could reach out to her she turned towards the dark night, staring over the horizon, with her long fingers gently curled around the railings. She looked like a dream.

After a moment, she was looking at me with that twinkle in those pair of eyes, as they fluttered teasing me to say something. I couldn’t think of anything and couldn’t meet those eyes, so I turned around looking into the same direction as she was, just standing besides her and enjoying her presence in blissful silence.

“How are you feeling?”, she asked in a casual tone. “A bit tired, but that’s fine”, I answered trying to sound as normal as possible, trying desperately to hide the shortness in my breath with sips of water from the glass I clutched.

I put the glass down and before I could think or stop myself, I blurted out “Shall we dance?”, and before I realized she said “Sure”. Had I planned it I would have been a nervous wreck. But things were going on an autopilot like a divine script controlled by destiny. Que Sera Sera I thought as I took her hand and stepped into the hall. There were a few couples who were dancing on a slow track. All eyes turned towards us, but it didn’t matter anymore. I put my hand around her waist, the song changed to an Eric Clapton number – Wonderful Tonight. Perfect! I thought as a slight smile escaped my lips. As we started moving to the rhythm, she looked up and slowly said in her musical voice “It was a wonderful evening. Thank you for such a good time”. I smiled.

“Happy marriage anniversary, Mr. Mukherji”, she continued. ”Same to you, Mrs. Mukherji”, I said, kissing her on the forehead, as she rested her head onto my shoulder.

Faking it – acquaintance with gossips and controversies

Imagine, you are reading something quite interesting, when you hear a low murmuring somewhere near. Normally, you won’t pay any heed to such mono-syllabic sounds, but when it starts appearing in an intermittent fashion, often lined with a full sentence in between, what do you do in that case? You keep aside that that interesting piece which has been in your hand all this while, and try to tune your ear to the lower frequencies of human hearing so that you can actually hear what is being said. Suddenly you hear words which are too cheesy and mushy (though my friends may be at different opinions with this) and you suddenly you realize that you have a gossip here… (Okay gossips are for the fairer sex….)…or may be a possible relationship to talk and ponder over… Yes, a relationship. For the better or worse, that depends on what kind of relationship. (If you are still thinking what kind of murmur, you can ask any of your friends who has spent a quality time of his life in hostels and is acquainted with those poor souls waiting in anticipation for the night to end to meet some special people next day and meanwhile murmuring in mono-syllabic tones into one of the finest inventions of all-time-a cell phone)

Okay, you might say, how does this relate to the title, and I would say it does when the person in consideration (the above said murmur may or may not be an inspiration for this post, I can write a disclaimer if you want), though it can be seen in full light, fakes it saying what murmur is being talked about. See, (s)he is obviously Faking It. Now the question is why that person is faking or rather trying to brush aside the issue. There might be a great many reasons for this. May be there is actually nothing in that murmur to talk about or may be that person does not actually let the people know about this. Whatever might be the reason, it surely will keep your mind occupied, and racing to distant thoughts. You might even get into your Sherlock Holmes instinct search for clues in the daily behavior of the person in consideration, which might irritate him/her and he/she might resort to desperate measures (common tactics include maintaining distance with people while on a call, or not taking the call immediately but calling up later when no one’s around).

Here some might argue that every person should have his/her privacy and others should respect that. I agree and I do respect that thought. But my point is, if it’s really a relationship they want to go ahead with or if they are not too comfortable with the relation, they should let others know too before the news comes out in some other way. I know you might be thinking what if there is actually nothing to tell. Then why this secrecy? What is the reason to be all hushed up?

Many a times it happens that, initially after faking for quite sometime, the truth comes out as expected but in a different situation. Particularly, at a time, which we say, is “not a good time”. These untimely revelations may cause a lot of friction between people with healthy relations. Again, people might argue that when a person does want to discuss it, it’s his/her wish. Also, when they seem its time, they would definitely reveal it to the world. I again agree to that. But isn’t it moral enough to let know about yourself who actually care about you and not to people who show on your face that they care but mock at you when your back is turned? Isn’t it moral enough to let people know so that they could help in case you may need any? Why do they have to fake it all the time like those celebrities,”No comments please”, “Oh it’s nothing like that”, “No No, we are just good friends”, etc. It always helps to SHARE your thoughts or perspectives. You may gain something out of it, may be learn from others’ experiences. It’s not good to let people make a controversy out of such things.

This post might seem a little obscure and boring, but what I want to say is that it’s never good to hide these things from people who have faith in you, care for you and think you as a part of their own self. My personal experience says that it is never advisable to hide even the tiniest part of information or piece of news from your near ones, especially those who are related or can be affected by that. Never helps in strengthening bonds of friendship and kinship. Announcing it at a later stage may also be like adding fuel to fire, making that person believe that he/she is no longer into your circle of trust even when there has been no wrongdoing on their part. And this goes for not only announcing relationships, but in matters or activities which everyone close or living with you should be aware of, however trivial they might be. It builds Trust- an utmost essential thing required in any relationship.

My advice- never hide news or info from your friends, family, beloved ones. It hurts.

Time, Mishaps & Ano-moolies

Sigh, long time since updated my blog. Reasons? Not many, some rather personal stuff to take care of, but nevertheless very important stuff, they could not be ignored. Anyways, enough with why I didn’t write anything earlier. Since it’s a new year, so let’s reminisces on what all happened in between.

A major event was my trip to God’s Own Country, the beautiful state of Kerala. Made that trip with parents, of course. (I am considered a big bore or sometimes snotty, sometimes a snob, other times some other adjective, to go on a trip…so people avoid me, anyways...). Visited a few places like Cochin, Munnar, Thekkady, Kumarakom, Alleppey, Thiruvananthpuram-Kovalam. The trip was via Chennai, so had a chance to go to Marina Beach too. Since I hv forgotten most of what I did in that trip, so writing a travelogue won’t be possible. But I do hv some pics to show…on picasa...

http://picasaweb.google.com/prateek2712/Kerala09GodSOwnCountry#

Right. Apart from this, there was again my failed attempt to get through any MBA exam, though my peers in other fields are excelling, which is actually creating a situation which throws only one question everyday at me, “Do u want really to move ahead or not?” I mean, Ya I want to but I don’t hv any idea how. Anyways, this fight between my concerned mind and my confused mind would go on for some time(maybe some years, and we can name that period as Some Years War, or Battle of Minds, or something to put it in history books and increase the syllabus for school children…..)

Also, we (as in my friends and me) had some light and some dark moments at this time…of which I remember nothing……had some eat-outs….Dipak’s bday….3 major festivals(my apologies if I miss any)….

Worth remembering thing is that our small company got a major job project to do for the Oil Sector biggie. Imagine a work force of mere 100 people to work on a project which requires 5-6 times the strength. Is this another “300” in making? But we will have to change the name….

Another thing worth remembering is my purchase of Nokia E72, the latest QWERTY from the Finnish company. Till now I hvnt explored my new possession completely…but with time, I will master it….

Hey, did I tell u guys, that I even got a DELL laptop with mobile broadband internet connection? Doesn’t matter.

One thing that happened, which I will never forget…the 31st night….a tragedy that actually made me think that life is too fragile and too unpredictable…..
Other trivial things during this time were some marriages, some nice movie releases like AVATAR 3D, 3 IDIOTS, KAMINEY and so on.., my Bday (Ya, a very trivial thing...for actually most of them…)….apart from other things…..

You must be wondering about the title….(those who know me are actually not wondering about it…because they know only I can come up with such stupid title, anyways)…..I did describe what all took place in the period between my last blog and this one….so that comes under TIME……some mishappenings like the 31st Dec night one….comes under MISHAPS….but what the hell is ANO-MOOLIES…..? Yesterday, when there was nothing to do, I visited my blogs of my friends….which inspired my to visit mine too. Since, blog sites are blocked in our office, so had to use a proxy server…( No, I wont eveal the proxy name; won’t want either u or me to get into trouble)…..Since it had been 6 months since my last post, so the total hitcounts at that time was 500+. But the proxy server showed a staggering 1 Miliion+, with daily visits of 500+. Now that was something which made me jump with joy and spill half of my coffee on the table….but then again, I thought, It can’t be…I have total faith in my writing…and so many people wouldn’t hv visited…so I asked my friends to check it out, which confirmed that I cannot be more popular than already what I am. So that anomaly on the tech part stunk like Mooli ke Paranthe (Mooli-a seasonal vegetable from India, available mainly in winters. In English we commonly know it as Raddish. Paranthas are Indian oil baked pancakes, eaten with different types of vegetables, assorted curry preparations and stuffings.)

So that sums up the title of the day……more updates to this blog are suppose to follow….I mean…I wud try to update more frequently…..which anyways doesn’t matter….whose gonna read them anyways? Ha ha….

Ciao…..