News Paper

The timing was 2 minutes. For what you ask eh? It was for staring at the screen and thinking what to write now for the blog. I am in a dilemma. I have this great story or shall I say experiences my friend had and I was going to dedicate this whole blog to him but then I thought its one thing sharing all his humorous experience with me but its another thing that I will share that with all of you. I cant betray his trust so I let it go otherwise I can vouch that this blog would have been greatest undoubtedly. But the bottom line is I cant so once again its back to square one.

Everybody’s proud of their nationality and so I am but I don’t know how many of them are aware that no civilization is perfect. There’s always a different side too of that civilization. I was reading about the mentality of Indians and it was funny. No doubt our civilization is the first (Harappa civilization 5000 BC, what did you learn in history) and the best but it also has its faults like many others. One of the common mentalities is trying and reusing gift wrappers, gift boxes, and of course aluminum foil. Ok u can say we are cheap but I argue that we are so concerned with garbage problem that what we are doing is called recycling. Recycling not just cans and paper but gift papers too and it has an advantage, its cost cutting. Of course a good way to say cheap but hey what can I say perhaps harrapa people were like that and we got those genes and I guess we will carry forward those DNA’s too.

I know one thing is that if I ever buy a news paper, I wouldn’t throw it just after reading the headline or until my travelling is over. I remember that during my vacation I was staying in a different city and working in a different city. So I had to travel by bus and then by train (GO known as Govt of Ontario) which used to travel intercity. The transit time was approximately an hour and half. My bag would have loads of novels, my Ipod and FREE daily magazine. Notice the word free in capital letters, if I had to pay forget it. So u know what I would do after boarding the train. I would look for a seat where someone would have left recent news paper. Usually I would find it and then I would take it, sit on that seat and read leisurely. That’s what I loved about Canadian people. They would buy the paper, read the headline and when their station comes they would leave the paper for me to read. How I thank them in my prayers. O lord give wealth to this people so that they can provide daily event updates to people like me who are always on the look out for free current newspaper.

During the journey I would read the paper then would put it in my bag and would come to the store. I wouldn’t toss that paper in the garbage can until I have read nearly all the article, even those which wouldn’t interest me but how can I let go of this paper until I haven’t exhausted its full potential. I don’t know about others, but one of my friend carried the same passion. Unfortunately his transit period was half an hour and also he was travelling by Toronto bus where there’s hardly any paper left. I do know that even when I was travelling in the bus as soon as someone leaves today’s paper before I even think about taking it, two or three people would be pulling at it. The competition for free paper there was more ferocious than a cell of sperm going for the ovary. It was a battle ground and we all were gladiators hungry for free recent news paper.

Our uncle also subscribed for Toronto star and in the morning when we had work to do, My friend and I used to take the paper. Poor uncle would search the whole day and after a day or two did realize we were snatching the paper so asked us to take the home improvement and all those girls section while leaving financial, auto and main times with him. Now who wants to read the latest fashion and how to improve your home? We did wanted to give him a peace of our mind but because of deference we restrained from doing it.

I guess there is certain attraction when you see paper lying around, which happens to be today’s paper and you didn’t pay for it (Also you happen to have the time to read). I don’t know about you guys but it does attract me stronger than Jupiter’s gravity or a gorgeous gal’s come on signal.

Snow

I remember my first experience in snow. I was so excited that I played in snow for almost 15 minutes. How I remembered the poem “ SNOW… gently falling, floating down over me and you, standing here standing there the snow is falling. White flakes come down from heaven above coming down like angels the snow is falling”. Robert Frost and Max Lehram would have given their approval for my love for snow. They would have said what a fine boy I am for carrying on their fervor for snow. But my notion changed when I had a shovel in my hand and a whole driveway to clean. How Robert Frost and Max Lehram would have turned into their grave when I would, instead of poem for snow, hissing/outbursting profanity for the snow.

During my first year in Univeristy, I was staying as a PG with a couple who had 2 kids. There were 2 of my friends who were staying with me as PG. So total there were this uncle, aunty, their son, their crazy daughter and 3 of us. Now this house was big and it had 2 doors garage so naturally the driveway would be big. Whenever we would come from the university and would see snow falling, profanity would find its way automatically into my mind. The whole way from University to house, we would curse it. At that time I did say that if somebody finds snow light, better refer them to me. I had a piece of mind to give them.

Aunty was kindhearted and she saw our appalling conditions so she asked uncle to buy a snow mover. Eureka, we were excited just to hear that. Atleast there is some hope for our poor backs. Uncle of course had to agree because queen ruled this palace. We went to the store bought a good 50 HP snow mover costing around $750. We were in state of euphoria. No more profanity for snow when it comes, now for a change we will once again enjoy it.

We were discussing this when we were coming back from University to home. We were thinking let it snow let it snow let it snow, no more shoveling and what do we see when we come back home. The drive way isn’t clean and the son is trying to start the snow mover. No, we weren’t crestfallen but were excited cause the son was trying to start the first time. Yea, the petrol has been filled up and now all it needs it’s a pull to start the mover. We gather around the mover anticipating the roaring of the 50HP beast. 4-5 pulls are done excitedly but all the beast managed to do was cough. Oops, our smiles were disappearing from our faces. We checked to make sure the petrol’s there and the tank is full. The instruction manual was checked to make sure we didn’t amiss anyting. Soon we were cursing, what kind of crap is this. Its new costing $750 and not working the first day. The son faithfully shows us our shovels and says get started, he is joining as soon as he wears the jacket and cap.

My friend starts kicking the machine and instead of stopping him, I joined him too. Its only later when the third friend comes to our..no sorry machines rescue and asks us to stop it. We were fuming. The heat was enough to melt all the snow in the driveway. He got so angry that he was pushing beyond human endurance. We were impressed and inspired but he was like a human machine, kicking the snow and shovel and basically doing work in 10 minutes which took the son and me half an hour. It was latter part of the day that I had to rub pain reliever on his back and shoulders. He was that pissed.

Then comes the fun part. We had to sprinkle salt on the steps and the driveway leading to the basement. Now this salt is not like the one we eat. Its solid and like small pebbles. We were generous in spreading on the steps. The idea was that if overnight it snows, because of the salt sprinkled on the steps, in the morning atleast the steps wont be covered with snow. So my friend and I would sprinkle generous portion of it so that we wouldn’t have to clean the drive and steps. Even the son concurred with our theory. He would sprinkle generous portion too. In 3 days we finshed whole 1 kg of bag…oops uncle was angry. So after that he would stand like a nazi general and we would get as much ration as during the world war, the nazi camp prisoners would get. Uncle would give us a minute portion of salt to spread. I would try to calculate how can I cover the whole steps in this microscopic amount. I would ofcourse think of asking for another ration but uncle would be standing like a hitler and I would think too bad for those who would be crossing the steps in the morning. Usually It would be us or aunty only. We had to carry the risk. Anyway later on the beast did start and we got relieved from shoveling.

There are these happy and humorous experiences with snow and I intend to cherish it as long as I can remember. Let it snow let it snow let it snow…Let uncle for a change learn new words of profanity when its snowing and the machine is not working.

What should be the title for this post?

What should be the genesis of this blog? For past few days I was itching to write a blog but had no idea what to write. Its not like sometimes when you know, you sit on the computer (its an expression, don’t literally take the meaning that instead of sitting on my chair, I am sitting on computer) to write something and then you realize that you forgot what you were going to write. Its just like sometimes coming into the room and then scratching your head thinking why was I here? Cmon no, its not some short term memory relapse. My memory’s ok although its only during the exams where they disappoint me. I have my mark sheets to prove that. That is my principal pretext to my parents for my exalted marks. Ok I have substantiated here that you or I have no idea where this topic would be going or it would end up where. As thoughts would come into my mind, I would re-arrange, filter, will ponder on it and then would write it. But why am I filtering the thoughts? Why cant I write what comes into my head? Partly because I don’t want my blogs to sound gibberish, partly I don’t want to share some of my innermost feelings. Oh what a web of lies we weave. It is a big quandary.

I came upon this reading by Sri Sri Ravishankarji and perhaps we should look into it too. He said that beauty is the language of heart. When you read poetry, sing a song it is always from the heart. Analysis or explanation is from the mind. Justice and equality are from the head. Uniqueness is from the heart. Heart makes everything special. But, what do we usually do?

If there is any negativity we deal it from the heart, and something that is positive we deal it from the head. If there is suffering, we exaggerate it. If there is problem, we blow it out of proportion. You might have noticed that. When we were child and we got a small scratch we would say “I cut myself so terribly, what is my blood group? I need to know so that I can tell the hospital guys that I need 2 litres of blood”. Right, now here I may be overstating but point remains the same. But our human mind is so infirm that if something beautiful comes by we look it from the head. If somebody is genuinely praising us, we would think I wonder what he wants from me now…why is he buttering me up? Am I right? No, then perhaps its me that should learn this point, while you can happily skip the blog. And if Yes,(good, I am not the only one in this whole wide world) then sit comfortably, rub your eyes, stretch your arms and now come back to reading.

We need to change. Even if we see one good quality, we should exaggerate it. Let us see the negative quality through your head, your mind. Analyse the negative quality, reason it out. “Why is that person behaving like that? Maybe they are stressed, tensed…….” Don’t see negativity through your heart, your heart becomes sore. You store the negativity in you and you become miserable. The person who bitted your head is long gone while here you are thinking about it in your heart and making your present moment miserable. What good does that you? If it doesn’t then why are we doing it? Everybody wants to be happy right? So why cant we choose to be happy instead of relying on the circumstance to make us happy.

There’s this one friend of mine with whom I don’t talk any more. Sometimes when he calls to meet, I avoid him giving vague reasons. May be I am storing all this bad experience I had with him in my heart instead of my mind and that is why I don’t feel like speaking to him any more but what the heck? I will call him tomorrow and see what is he up to? May be will give myself a chance to see if we could be friends again and even if not then atleast I will be satisfied that I did try instead of doing nothing , rejecting him and letting our friendship going down the drain. We will see…we will see what happens. Till then Live life…….(I hope my memory doesn’t fail me tomorrow and I do remember to call him otherwise god help me)