Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

is a Latin Phrase traditionally attributed to the Roman poet Juvenal from his Satires (Satire VI, lines 347–8), which is literally translated as "Who will guard the guards themselves?"

Corruption in India is at its highest point (I hope to god) cause i cant bear to see it more. I think this year i have seen highest corruption in India namely CWG(Common Weath Game), 2G spectrum, Adarsh Housing, Vedenta Housing and others that arent important to be on the front page for a week. I wasnt fond of Congress government but now this takes the cake. How much money they are spending in cash for votes beats the hell out of me.

I read in the article and i concur with it whole heartedly that congress government is a family owned business.First Indira Gandhi, then both of her sons now Sonia Gandhi and waiting in the line is her son Rahul Gandhi. In fact the government as usual wouldnt have budged if Anna Hazare wouldnt have gotten this much support from Aam Janta for Lokpal Bill. But i dont have high hopes for it too as the commitee or the people who will look at the reports would be from government. So will they convit their own people? You would be a fool to think Yes and not skeptical or cynical but practial if you are thinking NO. But on the hindsight atleast the water is brewing, its not sitting idle, letting algae spread its tentacles through our system.

Recently i was having a chat with my friend saying nothing useful will happen in our country and if we put effort to get rid of corruption, it would take atleast 2 generations after which we will see the results. Everyday i see newspaper and i read corruption either at small level or at higher levels. I still cant understand how our country is surviving and how Foreign Investors (FII) thing we are hot and are pouring money in our economy.

The movie "Wednesday" was the perfect example saying marta tau aam admi hi hai, whatever happens, the aam janta and common people have to suffer. The politicans after doing all this scandal will still try for re-election or try to come into power because history says that no politican has ever got convicted and i dont see it happening in future either. The rich people having hands in with the politicans will go in hiding and enjoy the wealth they have a-mass.

I love my country but not the people who runs it. Maybe we should also have a revolution like one that is happening in Middle East but still i dont see anything coming out of it because the next government will be same like the previous one. Good people dont survive in politics and you have to elect whats left and who has trampled other people to come to the top. I have to accept this and move on cause we cant do anything else except try to support people like Anna hazare but should not expect much from it.

A little mind exercise

Its been a while since i wrote something, in fact to be precise its been around 2 yrs and 3 months. I had no intention of writing it now either except for the fact that i had to kill about an hour and after browsing through internet, i had absolutely nothing else to do so i thought why not do some writing. It will give my mind some exercise. So here i m back on my keyboard and thinking as hell what to write. Its easy if you have a topic to discuss or you want to share an experience, cause then you dont need to think too much, atleast not in the case of the latter but in the former you have to put your arguments and present in the nice way.

It is true that ignorance is bliss. I think i had written previously about this but i cant help coming back to this topic. Until now when i wasnt gymming or didnt had the calorie table, i was bliss in eating cheese and snacks. But now i look at food in the different way. I look it not as the treat to my taste buds but how much calorie will i intake. Its not easy to burn calorie, i realised that when i would do cardio and feel o boy today i m so tired and must have burned 500 calories and when i see the actual figure, its disheartening... and so when i eat i think i am consuming this much calorie and i wont be able to burn it....o how i wish i didnt knew the calorie table....but no i had to know because i was curious, was being smart and now i am paying for my smartness.

Top of it the problem is i am indolent. That also hampers my progress in cardio because half of the time i am feeling lazy and thinking today i wont do too much as i m already tired. In fact every one who knows me keep pulling my legs saying today also you gonna skip your gym? I guess i m used to it because there is no point in denying and accepting is the best way. Another thing i want to do is to get back to my meditations. Its on and off, sometimes i would meditate and most of the time i wouldnt. All because of my lazy nature. I would promise myself from tomorrow i would be regular but alas that tomorrow never comes. Its like at the end of the horizon. U see it but it never comes. Heres another example, i am going to end this topic as again today i m feeling lazy to write more...au revoir my friends

Understanding the popular quote of Bhagvad Gita

According to Sri Aurobindo, Bankim Chandra Chatterji gave almost exclusive stress on the expression Kartavya Karma , the work that is to be done, which they render by duty, and on the phrase “Thou has right to action, but none to the fruits of action” which is now popular quoted as the great word mahakavya of Bhagvad Gita. This is indeed true because though I don’t know the whole of gita but this phrase I believe is known very well to me and I believe not just to me but to most of the people. We have unfortunately ignored the rest of the chapters in Gita. However what I wanted to talk was this popular quote of Gita. Until now whenever I heard this phrase I would accept it without understanding why is it so. I want to ask you one question, think of this popular quote and tell me why you belive its true and we should accept it? “Thou has right to action, but none to the fruits of action”. Give yourselves a minute and summon up some reasons. 

 My first reason was that we shouldn’t expect the fruits of action because if our expectations of work aren’t met then we would wound up getting disappointed and infuriated. Second reason was may be the work might be my karma and since it is what I have to do, I shouldn’t bother with the results. Tell me what reasons have you come up with? I never thought of considering this until I read a book from Osho and then I realized what message this quote carried when Lord Krishna told to Arjuna. Let me give one example. A painter is painting a picture. Now if he wants to paint a masterpiece and want to be known as Von Gough he wouldn’t be painting this picture with complete totality. At the back of his mind would be the result, the creation of masterpiece, the subtle details needed to be added to create this masterpiece. How much would he be enjoying the painting? And if a painter is creating painting with complete totality in it without any thought of how it will end up? He has completely ingrained in this painting. He has done with complete awareness, consciousness and totality. His work would be a masterpiece even though he wasn’t gonna create it in the first place. Think of a dancer, how she would dance if she is dancing for the first place or she is dancing because she feels like and wants to enjoy completely immersed in it. Would she have the same grace if she is dancing for the cup or for herself? Same with musician, poetry writer. We mess up our work if we keep an eye on the result because then we wont be working with full totality, consciousness. 

   
 Then there are sets of arguments regarding this. The arguments are that if we don’t benchmark our work, how will we strive forward? If a batsman doesn’t enter a field thinking I need to make a century how will he play good and responsibly? Similarly in our case, if we don’t think today we are going to give 100% accuracy how will we improve ourselves? For this I said to my friend that 100% accuracy is the by-product and not the main purpose. How many times have you heard when coach tell to the player, play your natural game. Ok, sometimes you need to curb your natural instincts and play according to the current situation but if you play with century in the mind the perhaps the ball that normally you would hit, you would let it go considering a high risk and in the process lose your natural rhythm. If you are playing, dancing, painting, writing poetry, music with full awareness, totality then I bet you wouldn’t have to worry about the result because it would be a masterpiece. And if not why bother? Didn’t you enjoy doing what you did without focusing on the result? Isn’t happiness of working without stressing yourself over the result worth doing the job? 

 Then another set of arguments are if we don’t keep an eye on the goal how can we become ambitious? For achieving something we have to set our eyes on the goal. Yes that’s true but once the goal is achieved, will we be enjoying ourselves? I doubt because after achieving our goal we will set our eyes on other goal. The desires would keep on coming and we would be running after our desires and never onces enjoying the work we are doing because we are waiting for the goal to get achieved. Once it gets achieved, instead of enjoying the goal we will set ourselves for some other higher goals. That is why I am saying that the result is just the byproduct. If we would give our 100%, full consciousness and totality in work then that work would naturally be good.

 We always have faith in our teachings of religion and we never question and part of it is true because if you are going to question everything you wont accept anything because you will be finding reasons to argue, reasons for your ego to justify your intellect. So my reason is that believe in your religion but try to understand why they are saying because without complete understanding you wont be able to know the significance of it and accepting it as it is without its reason will lose its value and wont be remembered by you.

Walking Naked

This has been second incident in past 2 months that I have seen in paper. The first time was a lady ofcourse not walking entirely naked but in fragmentary state of dressing and walking down the street to protest. The second incident was another lady who made a bet with his male friend to take off her shirt in front of public and she too took off her shirt and walked down the street. Now it takes certain amount of courage to do it but to me walking naked to prove your point or assert a point seems a tad meaningless. We are looking at this superficial way and not understanding the point at subliminal level. 

I just want to ask you how many of you have walked naked? But ofcourse I am talking about it in your privacy of room. Even I am ashamed to walk naked in front of public but in my house when I m all alone, I have done it. If not, then do it. I tell you, it feels so light and liberating. You feel emancipative. Partly I am feeling light is because all my life I have worn clothes so naturally when I walk in state of nakedness, I am shedding 1 or 2 kg of clothes that I have worn. I vividly remember when I was doing basic course in “Art Of Living” where after the course was over, I had to stand in front of all the people who attended the course with me. We had to do certain type of breathing where we were letting go all of our ego and after that I had to perform what the teacher would ask me to do in front of the people. Some had to act like monkey, some had to jump like a rabbit, some had to bark like a dog and I had to dance like a retarded. I am not much of a dancer but because I had to dance like a retarded I am sure I played my part to perfection but the prominent point is after playing the part how I felt, I can’t describe it. That feeling was with me for about 40-50 seconds and that was when I felt how it feels when your ego drops. It was such a light feeling that I have never experienced it before and after that incident again I have never felt it. It was just at that moment. That moment was the moment when my “I” was dropped. I was with infinity. 

So walking naked just to prove a point is meaningless. In the second incident, she did it because her ego demanded it. I still sympathize with the first girl, she did it because she wanted to raise her voice and yes, she got the lime light. But let us also walk naked, why don’t we have courage to do it. I am talking about walking naked figuratively where why cant we shed our ego and drop our “I” because let me tell you only after that we will have infinite happiness. The feeling I experienced when my ego was dropped was of pure bliss. Never ever have I felt so happy in my entire life except during that moment. So let us all experience that moment and shed all the extra baggage we are carrying around.

Broken the 13 min barrier

Ever since I started jogging, my aim was to break the 13 minute barrier. Initially when I started the 4 KM Jog, my time used to be around 15:45 to 16:30. It would vary and then it started slipping below 16:30, so I chastised myself to push harder and until now my aim was to finish my jog under 14:00 minutes, give and take 10 seconds plus minus. Last week I would finish my time under 13:40 quite easily so then I started pushing more until last Friday my time was 13:02:20. My god I was so close to my target, I clocked 13 minutes 2 seconds and 20 milliseconds. So I knew I was on roll and this Sunday finally I broke the barrier and my time was clocked at 12:43:07. That is my best time until now and today it was 12:49:40. When on Sunday I clocked my best time I wanted to jump up and down like in the movie Rocky, Stallone does but I refrained myself thinking people will really think of me as crazy.

Whenever before I would clock my best time, I wanted to post it. I even had the notion that I would post my time every day but then I realized who except me was interested in my timings. Anyway now this new record has placed me in a predicament. On Sunday as I said, I broke my barrier so today there was this pressure on me to finish my run under 13 mins. Its like you are on winning streak, so everytime you go out to perform there is this added pressure on you to perform. This pressure is depriving me from the pleasure I take in jogging. Although the pleasure last only for the first 500 meters after which I start getting tired and then my thought would be when would I finish my jog. But still when the pressure was not there, sometimes I would take pleasure in listening to the music while on the run or thinking about something during jogging. Now today the only thing I was focus upon was my speed , to make sure that I could complete my run under 13 minutes. So now on one hand I have my pride that I have finally broken my barrier and on the other hand, I have my passion for jogging. Which one to choose now?

Ideals create hypocrisy

Our mind holds onto the fixed ideas with which we have identified with ourselves. If we have a certain idea of how we should be, then we cannot accept the experiential truths of our beings. Osho has so brilliantly explained this. For example if we have the idea that we have to be brave, that bravery is valuable, then it is difficult to accept our cowardice. If we don’t have any ideals, then we don’t have a problem. We are a coward, so we are, we accept it, we don’t condemn the fact, we don’t reject it, we are what we are. Even Sri Sri Ravishankar said that “Things are as it is, it is we who label them as beautiful or ugly”.  

So ideals create hypocrisy. I bet out of 100 persons if I ask what do they hate in another human being 90 out of them would say hypocrisy. Have you seen the irony of it? People have the ideal of not being hypocrites, and hypocrisy comes through ideals. It is easy to say but try not to have certain ideas about yourself. People are carrying so many ideas of how they should be. For example if one thinks of themselves as “kind” person then they wont allow themselves to recognize and accept angry feelings when it arises. But anger is fact and the ideal is just an ideal, a fantasy of mind. I have to see and realize that I am only the moment-to-moment, experiential reality. Some moments I am angry, some moments I am sad, some moments I am jealous, some moments I am joyful. Moment to moment whatever happens is accepted.

Whom to blame for boring movie?

What should one do during boring movie? How can one pass the time? There are so many people I would love to blame when the movie is boring. I would start off with the director and producer for making such a movie. I mean the writer could write crap but still it’s the director’s call to see if the script will keep the audience stick to their seats. This week I saw the movie “Mere baap pehle aap”. I was itching to leave my seat and roam around during the movie. It took an iron will discipline to keep my butt glued to the seat. Besides girl sitting next to my friend didn’t help the matter either. She was hot so my attention kept going towards her and then to top of it, the movie held least interest so how could you blame a guy for not watching movie but her? I am itching to grab my friend’s throat on Monday because he suggested me this movie saying it’s very nice. We are gonna have an interesting session concerning how he liked this movie. So second person I would blame for the boring movie is the guy who suggested it. 

Another suggestion would be to talk during the movie. Make some feverish comment but for that too, you need some good material in the movie to comment. The main theme of the movie was comedy but I laughed around 3-4 times in the whole movie. The movie was so boring that I was paying attention to minute things like my kidneys full, getting cramp in my legs, what are my neighbors talking about, when will the girl laugh sitting besides my friend so that I could judge how her sense of humor is. I was paying attention to her with such scrutiny that if I had paid such attention in my studies, I would have been awarded doctorates degree by now. Don’t blame me, blame the director for making such a movie. I bet he must have slept like a dead horse during the inauguration of the movie. Also I choose this multiplex which is 18 kms away from the city is because it has splendid pop-corns. Before the movie, we chewed the pop-corns to our heart’s content and then during interval we ordered the same and the guy brought another flavor because our flavor was out of stock. Great, first the movie now the pop-corn. We were lucky the gal didn’t left the movie from the middle, although one couple did left and I commented saying smart couple and the guy heard my comment and said thank you and I replied don’t mention it, give me courage to see this movie whole. But I triumphed and finished the whole movie. I am so proud of myself. I think I deserve a courage medal. Any body wants to nominee me? The lines are open, please pick up your receiver and nominate me for the brave heart medal.

By the way, director comes at the top of my list.....i blame him for creating a boring movie...how about you?

Elucidating the looks

Until now I have been given many looks, but the last look I got still haunts me. Its those memory burns, the one where the image is set in your mind and you can play it again and again as per your convenience. Last week I had to go to Rajkot for Investor’s camp and organizing of the event was lodged on my shoulder. Boss sparingly gave me his jiju and his Honda CRV so that I can go there and arrange hotel for the event. He has installed siren as well as red light(which can be removed) on top of his car which portraits it as a very official looking car. We were in a hurry to catch freeway so that we could beat the traffic and so every time we would face barrier in traffic, on comes the light and siren. People were scrambling to give us side so that we could pass. Funny incident was we were passing through a narrow section where generally there are universities and colleges. Because of admission rush, there were lots of students and peers and we had to persist in using the siren and horn. In front of us there was this guy in a side car scooter. We were continuously using siren and I saw this guy turning into a house whose gates were open and I was inquisitive why is this guy going into the house and then he gave us that look….look which elucidate “are you happy? I had to go into a house to give you side”. We were laughing at his face when we passed. I felt bad but it was pretty funny. After that there was a heavy mayhem at the cross roads and once again jiju started the light and siren. It was at that moment I saw her, the gal (let me add she was so easy on my eyes) who was opposite us in her activa and she was giving me that look which interpreted “you think you own the world arrogant prick”. I mean we were moving at 0.5 meters an hour, it was that much heavy traffic and she wasn’t blinking at all and staring at me giving me that look. I was sitting at the front and the worse thing is that I returned the look. I inched my neck upward to show “yes baby you have to move…whether you like it or not”. That look lasted for nearly 1 and half minute. Until now I have been given many types of look, some come on look, some don’t disturb me but never a look with a heavy dose of vengeance especially from a girl.

Now I know why they say power is addictive. I was stepping on her rights. I should feel awful since we all have equal rights but I was showing in an ostentatious way who’s important. I wasn’t thinking about her vexing or aggravation or discomfort . I was concerned about my situation and since I had the power, I was using it o pave my way. So although I should feel bad but the power screened me from seeing that and that is why I say power is bad as well as addictive. But the girl was beautiful…too bad we started on the wrong side otherwise I would love to carry on. The disadvantage of putting red light on the top of the car was when my boss came for the event and he was itching for a drink. As soon as he reached Rajkot he called a guy from the roadside and asked where can I get drink and that poor fellow seeing red light thought this might be police and said “I don’t drink…I have never touched it and I don’t even know where can we get it” and ran away saying that…..even the jiju when we were looking for hotels asked me to take out the light otherwise the hotel people would think we are there for raid….i wanted to ask him what kind of raid...raid as in u....cmon u should know but didnt had the courage to ask him....that my friend is an disadvantage.

Truth, A Political Suicide

I am not a political savvy person, in the papers I just glimpse at the headlines because usually its all political piffle. Either there’s political unrest between two communities, backward caste asking for their rights or some local murder, suicide or theft. Now cmon who wants to start the morning reading that. So I just skip through the headline, browse through the sports section, read the sports articles and also gossips from celebrities. You know its funny but I find that gossips more entertaining and transpiring than the front page headlines. But reading about backward caste asking for their rights seems funny to me. First they want to be treated equal. Granted, now a days no one discriminates anybody by their caste. Its all about your abilities. Then they want special rights and concessions because they are backward caste. Now isn’t that an irony? You don’t want to appear as backward caste and yet you are in front of the line holding the card stating I am backward caste so give me concession. Now if you wanted to be treated equal, go ahead and stop asking for all this concessions and special privileges. I would be so embarrassed going into reputed university on the basis of ST/BC (Special Tribe/ Backward Caste) seat. Its humorous that they try not to show that they are ST/BC and yet on that basis with haughty pride they accept the seats in university. Actually some of the leaders should talk to them about this before they start creating more havoc in other states but who wants to state the truth. This statement is definitely a political suicide because believe it or not truth hurts …..so who wants to take the mike?

Hope an anomaly or grotesque reality?

Hope is the quintessential source of our greatest strength but in this world there is two of everything. While on one side it is decidedly source of our greatest strength, on the other side of the coin it is our greatest weakness too. Greatest strength because we have seen in history how unbelievable work has been achieved solely based on hope and weakness because it blinds you from the reality. On pretext of hope, one is not ready to accept the present situation. But to me, the former one far weighs more than the latter one. What good would we be if there would be no hope? Indeed there is imperfection inherent in every human being but to complement that we have our source of monumental strength “hope”. Theres this great movie called The Shawshank Redemption. In that movie Tim Robins is convicted of a murder he never committed and is given sentence of 50 years or so. He is planning to escape and during the course of the movie, in one scene where he and Morgan Freeman are dining, Morgan Freeman comments on how bad the situation is and Tim Robins says that “they can take away my books, my bed and my food but there is something which they can’t take away and that is my hope”. Morgan Freeman gets skeptical and says that it is that kind of talk which will get him in trouble. It is classical case of paradox that I am talking about. Two persons seeing hope in two different lights. Both are in their way correct which brings us at last to the moment of truth, where in fundamental flaw is ultimately expressed and the anomaly revealed as both beginning and end that which side are you on?

Vibrations

What kind of vibrations my friend is attracting? That’s what I always ask him during travelling. He is the most unfortunate person I have ever come across and I am not saying this based on his testimony but something I have seen, witnessed first hand. Poor soul. I had good fortune that atleast sometimes during travelling I do come across some good babe or some good person as my travelling companion but he……never ever..let me repeat it again …..NEVER. He would always express displeasure in telling me that all he gets as travelling companions are smelly illiterate, uninformed, soiled, sordid, vile, obscene ….that’s it, I m out of vocabulary here but hope you are getting a general idea. I thought may be he might be exaggerating. So one time we went to the movies, usually there would be atleast 1 more friend so the friend with bad vibrations would always sit next to me. I mean we both go to movies for talking only. Who would have heard that you go to see movie in the theatre? That is preposterous. So the other friend of mine would always complain that we are disturbing him. Anyway since this friend would always sit next to me and on the other side would be my friend so I never had to test his theory. But one time we both went alone to see the movie. We got the platinum ticket, I mean cmon its 200 Rs ticket plus only 8 seats are allocated for that segment, there’s this sordid sort of fellow sitting next to him and next to him is a white guy. This sordid fellow looked lost in the English movie. I did have to say that probably my friend is right that he is attracting all sorts of this kind of weirdoes only. After movies we were leaving the theatre and we saw that sordid fellow starting the rickshaw (auto 3 wheeler vehicle) and this white guy sitting in it and then it all clicked. Like dominos crumbling in a line that the person sitting next to my friend was a rickshaw driver and this white guy bought him the ticket to see the movie. Such a nice gesture but I couldn’t stop laughing that in premium segment my friend still managed to attract a rickshaw driver as his next seat partner at the movies. I wonder how much of the movie did this fellow understood. So that droved the last nail in the coffin. From that day all my skeptics have evanescence. Even in plane, he had attracted a foul mouth obscene fellow. Poor guy and here I am hoping that a splendid babe would accompany me in my journey.

Yesterday only I had an embarrassing moment. My friend and I went to this café which now is our usual hangout place for weekend. The good thing is that the coffee is decent with lots of eye catching scenery. We were in middle of good discussion when two gals walked in and sat opposite my table. So the set up was like in front of me was my friend and behind him were this two gals sitting side by side so my friend had to turn his back to see them while all I had to do was glance above his shoulder. This one girl was good to look at but I was too preoccupied with my discussion. At subliminal level, I was watching her but since we were discussing my favorite topic i.e. philosophy I gave that a top priority but my friend broke my spell. He said that whenever he looked at her she is checking me out and bang I am out of my zone. Now the occasional glance I gave at subliminal level has passed on to conscious level. After that how can I carry on with the discussion where you need full gist. So we talked on office matters but now my attention every other minute (wait make that every other second) would divert to her. Things were going good in fact great until time came to pay for the bill. No wait don’t stretch your imagination. I know you must be thinking the old routine where we don’t have the money to pay right? No? well I guess you haven’t seen too many hindi movies then. So we stood up to pay the bill and I found something different. Instinctively I checked my fly and holy shit it was open. In a flash of second, I closed it, faster then an eye could miss, faster then mach 3 speed but I guess that gal was like a high definition movie camera where you can slow down the movie to 1/100th of a second. I knew she saw the replay in her mind at ultra slow speed because after closing my zip I saw her and she was watching what I was doing. There goes my pride. It went for a long long vacation.

I was listening to this retro song by Aerosmith “Falling in love (is so hard on my knees)” and of course the lyrics are meaningless but what was the idea behind this line? Why writer did said falling in love is so hard on my knees. Now one of my suggestions is that perhaps because of love commotion the guy has to be on his knees to repent or apologize. But this thought wasn’t my first choice. In fact none of the choices came and I really had to use my brain to come up with a suggestion. Actually my initial and strong thought was ……..do you know why boxers are denied/renounce….er.. how can i say...hmmm…..exchange of body fluids (thats better) one month before the fight? The answer to that question was my first and instantenous thought. I bet the thought processing must be in nano seconds. What is your thought when you listen to this “Falling in love is so hard on my knees”?

Skipping schools

There are so many books on espionage, counter espionage, there are even books on how to make an atomic bomb but no books on what I needed the most and that was art of skipping classes. It would have saved my ass big time. My timing sucks I guess because according to most of our parents we have to study hard during 12th and supposedly goof around during the college days, at least that’s the picture portrayed by our movies. But hey its me, how could I ever get it right so I goofed during my 12th and seriously studied during my college years.

Skipping classes is not a big thing; it’s the getting away that is. Regrettably I didn’t. My standard things in my school bag were a water bottle, a cricket ball, one towel. That’s it, no books no pens nothing after all those things wouldn’t be useful on our farm house. One another problem for me was that all my friends were in economics class and I was in Business Maths (B.M) class. Now because of good grades in 10th, my parents asked me to choose B.M because you have more chance in scoring in B.M then in economics. I am not saying that all those guys and gals in economics section were thick or vapid but of course in B.M, we were recognized as elite in the whole school and here I was among those creams of elite and instead of scoring in B.M, playing cricket. So coming back to my predicaments, there is something called attendance. I am sure you are all familiar with that term and you had had to fill your presence, at least on paper to count that you have actually attended the class. More familiar term is called “proxy”, which I know guys who share my point of view would know it better than anybody. So my friends in economics section didn’t have any such problem. There were lots of guys willing to cover for them, like filling their attendance sheet so that on paper it would be counted that they have attended the lecture. In my class, everybody were studious and no body was willing to fill my proxy because I guess they were afraid of outcomes if they get caught. Until now even I don’t know what would be the outcome if somebody did managed to get caught, I guess I should leave it to my imagination. So I said fuck that, still I am gonna skip classes and will play cricket. It was the matter of pride now.

So in the morning, we would gather around school and wait for the school bell to announce that school is in session, would grab our bikes and ride to our farm house and play cricket. Then again would come back to school, would mingle with those people who did attend the school and would find out if anything unusual happened or not like any announcement or something. This routine carried for a while. However the school people did found out that some of us are skipping classes, so they made mandatory to approach teacher’s desk in the first class and sign the attendance sheet instead of passing around. Damn now that is the problem because once in the class there was no way we could skip class with our school bags. I mean after all we have to get out of the school and the guard posted by the gates was not there just to shag but to catch people like us. Who says anything is impossible? It actually means that nobody has done it so far and we are born to break the limits. We found a solution, risky but you need to take some risk. We would sign up during the first lecture (god knows how I managed to attend the class without any pen or books, it seems enigma to me now) and when our first lecture would be over, there would be one guy on the ground floor whose primary job was to catch the bag that we would throw from our class window and to throw to another guy who was waiting outside the school. Then on pretext of going to the washroom, we would leave the class, scale the school wall and back to cricket. I wish school would have recognized my potential as a good wall scaler, I know some of those people who work at night and deprive sometimes people of their treasure would indeed have recognized my potential and I am sure they would have given me some sort of trophy. But life Is never fair.

So, this scheme of ours was working well until one day our P.T teacher (Physical Trainer) came to the ground and the catcher seeing him scampered. Now the guy who was throwing the bag didn’t know this so he threw the bag and holy shit, the bag hit out P.T teacher on head. He was knocked out for couple of seconds lying flat on the ground. I mean gravity was at work here too. What miserable luck we have, its like sitting in north pole during the world war, oblivious of the bombing and first Nazi inter continental ballistic missile got fired and during the process of elevation got itself short circuited, lost its projectery and landed right on top of us. What a mess, our P.T teacher saw which window was it, made some calculation and announced himself as Atilla the Hun. Mind you he was in a mean mood but I was lucky as I was in another class and I didn’t throw my bag so I was safe. What a close call but most of my friends got caught and I hate to think what happened to them.

Now normal people after getting caught would have stopped this shit, but no not us, we were plain dumb guys. We said forget the attendance lets go our own merry way and skip classes. There again we were doing the same old thing, waiting for the school bell to announce that school has started and then would go to play cricket. The worse thing was that my dad caught me when one day we were just chilling out at a café at 7 in the morning (during school hours) and my bad luck that my dad was teaching my sister to drive the car and first I saw the car, knew that it is familiar so saw the number plate and damn its mine and I saw who’s driving and my dad was staring at me and I was staring at him. It was love at first sight but this kind of love I hate to elaborate. My mouth was hanging open like fresh fish just out of from the water. You know I became psyche at that time. I swear I saw my future (that too without crystal ball or any tarot cards) at that time and believe me it wasn’t looking rosy to me at all. I was thinking of buying some heat resistance cream which I could apply before meeting my dad because I knew I was gonna burn in the hell. Later on my dad asked what you were doing and I had to tell that I bunked the class. I had no choice, what should I say I was doing at school hours wearing school uniform with my friends at café. I am so glad for my terrible memory that I forgot what he said but I am sure it wasn’t a pat on my back. That I would have remembered till the day I die. Also once I was bunking my karate class in the evening with my friend and his scooter broke down so we were under street light checking whether the petrol is there or not and all of a sudden I hear a voice asking what happened. Man I was chilled to my bone hearing that because it was my dad asking and I said we were checking the petrol and he asked what we were doing here because this is not the way for my karate class and I didn’t say anything. Would you believe my luck, don’t know what inspired dad that he took my bicycle out that evening to ride it so that he can get exercise. I swear to god after that incident he never touched my bike. This very day when ever my friend meets me he reminds me of that day asking was that the only time your dad took out your bicycle and why in gods name did he come there? Its like he came just to catch me. God and I had a private session after that.

Now whenever my kid would bunk classes and if he gets caught, I will let him read this article and tell him son, your old man also tried but I guess we are not favored with good luck when it comes to skipping classes so why fight the fate? Forget it and be a good boy. Hope that inspires him because reading this story, hmm leave it I fail to find more words here but if my son laughs reading this article in future, boy o boy he is going to get a slap on his face.

Man errs...until his strife is ended

I was reading this novel “Fist of God” by Fredrick Foresythe and it made me think about all our arrogance as a human race. The novel was based upon Gulf War and the story writing was superb but I can’t seem to overlook the reality that how much WMD (Weapons for Mass Destruction) we have created. The technology for destruction is million miles ahead then the technology we are researching for upliftment.

Does man deserve his name Homo sapiens? It was not given to him; he gave it to himself, in his arrogance imagining he was sapient. It was a fancied sagacity. We elected wrong leaders; we gave our future and that of our children to those who saw only good in destruction and exploitation of our natural resources. We fell for the dangerous optimism of the ignorant or worse of the financially interested. We exhausted our resources, both spiritual and physical, religion ceased to offer consolation, our political system gave no enlightenment. Suppression took place of fulfillment.

It is saddening but true that in a world crying out for medicine, tools, housing, life itself, our greatest efforts went into inventing of murder machines and the ways to tear our planet to pieces. Were we capable of developing new morality? This is the question that first came to my mind after I finished the novel. Will future men regard the earth’s resource as finite? Which ofcourse they are but in their arrogance fail to see it or will they continue their blind squandering of them as if they had no end? This remark is for those OPEC countries who think because they have 100 years of crude, they can hog the planet earth by their petroleum.

Also I heard a lot of cries about ethics when scientists were cheering about their successful cloning experiment. I read the argument both ways, their usefulness and their dangerous outcomes. The only dangerous outcomes people or religious people condemn is that it is not ethical. Who are we to play god? The usefulness is confined I fear to only those sectors of people who can afford them. But what about those who really need it but don’t have the resource to pay them? What about third world countries citizens? My opinion is that we reasoned that regardless of the danger to life on this planet we did not have the right, as people to play with the product of three billion years of evolution on our planet. Who are we, as people to believe that we are free to apply techniques to living things that will deeply confuse their genetics? I am ofcourse not speaking of animal or plant breeding, I am speaking of creating mutations.

I am afraid to see the path that we are going, going in the name of progress but it really is an engine of destruction. Yes we have to arm ourselves to protect our mother land but so are the other countries thinking the same thing and where will it stop? Until now only read about the virtues of global warming but saw this summer first hand. It was raining here in the middle of summer which can only account to the none other than our global warming effect. Not many people would think about it, they would just shrug off and would go on their business, but this is our business. If we fail to see it now I fear it may be too late to do anything other than face the consequence.

A short horror story

I read this book called “Worlds true horror stories” or something like that. In fact it focused more on spirits and all stories were true i.e. they have not just been fragment of imaginations but true story with dates, time and location. Interesting to see that most of the mishaps have been noted in England. Since 16th century England had noted and recorded many witches and spirits incidents. The first time I read this book was when I was 12 yrs old and it scared the shit out of me. Every time I would see outside of the window at night and I would imagine a face staring back at me. My parents were upbraiding me telling why you read this book. I proposed them to read the book as still it was interesting and they denied it out rightly. Perhaps they saw the after effects it had on me and so they wisely kept away from reading it. Now I know how that kid in the movie the sixth sense felt. “I see dead people”, no way not me, you got to be crazy to think that, I am talking about that kid in the movie.

Anyway I have a short horror story to tell. It started with a man buying a house at the outskirt of the city. It was a beautiful house with a big garden and French windows overlooking an expanse garden and pathway leading to the dense woods. Things were good in the beginning as always is. But then subtle things started to happen. Some things which are conventional, which you hear whispers about it but still ignore. Some rumors in the city but you still disregard it because at the back of your mind, you are skeptical. However things started to change in 3 months after the man possessed the house. Suddenly without any warning recession came. Finance minister began yelling about high inflation and slow down of GDP growth rate. Suddenly all the sectors started declining in their growth. Inevitable happened and that is the guy couldn’t make the mortgage payment. This had to happen and within six months the guy had to leave the house. But the next month, things started to get better just like snow melting and sun coming out, the economy stopped sliding south side and began to make a remarkable recovery. The property value got doubled in just 2 months after the guy left the house because of non payment mortgage for his house.

That is the different thing that there was a dead lady in the basement but still the property value wouldn’t have been affected. Such a horror story which shakes the core out of me.

Jokes...but at whose expense?

Have you ever thought that whenever we joke, it’s either at the expense of somebody else or on our expense. The latter has minute percentage. I have just realized that many times I joke of course I joke at somebody else expense but those aren’t the crude jab, just the harmless little fluster. Yes, no doubt I get the predictable reaction that is laughter but then I thought will the joke be taken as a bona fide? I mean the simple solution would be to step into his/her shoes and I did stepped and I had no problem with that. You see my nature is very humble. Even if somebody compliments me, flatters me I would be visibly flustered, very embarrassed and will try profusely to change the subject so that I wont be in the lime light. Even my friends know this especially my cricket playing friends. Everytime I would bowl an excellent over or took a prize wicket, they would all congratulate me and I would just shrug off and say I was lucky. So now even after playing grand when they would come to congratulate me and as usual I would shrug and then they would complete my statement for me saying “ yea you were lucky or it just happened isn’t it?” and I would say yes that’s the way it is.

From childhood the only good thing I know about me is that I accept my nature. Every person has their bad qualities and I suspect they don’t know about it but may be they don’t want to see the mirror. I would consent with what ever bad or good qualities I have because I am accepting it. So my point is whenever somebody jokes at my expense and if there 1 % of truth in it, I would laugh and would bear no grudges. For jokes to be effective, actually it has to have a small proportion of truth and rest fiction otherwise a whole dose of truth isn’t funny. So I had no problem when someone jokes at my expense but how many people would be offended? I never realized that. Now theres this distinction between joke and pulling legs but not in a joking way. I know the exact word in gujarati but don’t know in English otherwise you might get a better picture of what I am trying to say. Perhaps an example or something might throw some light on what I am trying to say. You know sometimes when you don’t like a person and you want to say something mean and direct but you don’t say in the direct language but would make it a joke and the ultimate goal is to make him realize what you are trying to say or jab at him. That’s the best I could do right now. So I was saying is there is a distinction and I never ever would do the latter because I don’t know how. Some people are very efficient and could do it without even a moments notice and impromptu but I am not cut out for that. Anyway even I am not sure where I am going with this but what I am trying to say is that if I continue to joke then may be my nature will become like this and at every opportunity I would be making jokes at somebodys expense without realizing the implication it may have on the other person. Than I would be too late to stop because this habit would have been molded in my nature by constant process.

One things is sure, I just thought about this and writing it but I can guarantee one thing is I wont remember any of this stuff tomorrow. Its like preaching one day and then forgetting about it. Start fresh everyday that’s what I believe in. you need to have some justification for your terrible memory and the start fresh sentence looks good so it serves my purpose of cloaking my terrible memory.

voyageur semblable

It was always a dream that some beau fille would sit next to me. Doesn’t matter where I am travelling. Ok, one part of my wish was fulfilled but the latter part of my dream is where I am still most despondent. Usually whenever I am sitting in a movie theatre, to my recollection no magnifique fille has ever sat next to me. So one time we three friends were watching this movie…I forgot the name of the movie…Will Smith was in it, it was movie about the virus where Will is the doctor trying to cure the virus….like I,Hero or something (no not I, Robot but I think I, Legend..yes I think that’s the name). Damn my memory. Anyway this gorgeous gal sat next to me and disturbed me. First putting her feet on me and knocking some of my popcorns. The one thing that annoys me is people coming late in the movie. She came late when the movie was already started so I was concentrating and she came blabbing and I turned to give her a mean look to convey her meaning that lady put a sock in it but as soon as I saw her visage I came to my established and natural mood that is forgiving. What you don’t believe it? Better believe it that my nature is forgiving. So the most natural thing was for me to check out who was with her. I saw a profile and the hair was short so I assumed must be her boyfriend. Damn my luck. She was a living testament to the power of dumb. Asking dumb questions to her partner and I guessed her partner was more dumb cause all I heard was grunt from him. I felt like I should answer all her questions, that way I would strike up a conversation. During the interval when lights came on and what do I see? That her partner is actually a gal with short hair. Merveilleux I have some chance. So I said to my friends now watch how I talk with the gal and after the interval I would be damned if the girl ever uttered a word. What was going on? This girl who couldn’t stop asking questions like gabbar singh is sitting behind her and saying “jitney saaval karagi utna waqt jiyagi” and now she has left her destiny to fate. Man that was a piss. So found a beau fille but couldn’t strike a conversation.

That’s not the only time. One of my dreams was that of course u guessed it, once again a beau fille would sit next to me on a plane. See on a plane, you cant run away and you are there for atleast 12 hours that gives plenty of time to get acquainted. I had certain magnetism towards window seat but not anymore, the reason, you have to ask your fellow passenger to move when you have to take a leak. So I was at the window seat, next to me was this beau fille dutch girl and next to her was this fat Chinese guy. As soon as she sat, I thought ok this is going to be my best trip. Usually I hate travelling in plane, its so boring but well well my starts have turned. So first thing I said is that “I hate when I get window seat because I have to ask you to move when ever my kidney gets full” and she in her heavy English accent says yes and that’s it, end of conversation. I keep making funny remarks but I wasn’t getting anywhere. I said to myself excellent bhavik, you have more chance of surviving if the plane crashes and you fall without parachute than with this babe. So I ask her and the fat guy to make some room so that I can go and take a piss which u could say about my mood too. Ah one thing felt good, getting my kidney empty and after 15 mins I bloody cant believe it, its full again as if I never visited the washroom. Oh oh what should I do now, its not gracious to ask them again to move but damn I cant hold it any longer. I see and both of them are sleeping. I hope lady luck didn’t hear my profanity, because I didn’t need any more piss from her. I had more than enough piss to handle her piss (puns included). At one time I had this notion where in the movie dumb and dumber jim carrey does with the beer bottle. But in a plane no way. A measure/ test of my resoluteness. The one hour I had to hold was pure agony, after a while as soon as this gal stirred, I asked her to wake up the Chinese guy and let me pass. Boy after the visit, I was so fatigued that even if that girl would try to start the conversation, I would have to put her off. My dream trip just turned out to be an excruciation trip.

Moral: never take a window seat in the plane, always opt for aisle seat and if things turns out ugly, do what jim carrey did in the movie dumb and dumber.

Fear

Fear…who doesn’t have it? There are lots of types of fears. Mine is facing the difficult situation. How many of you if have the option to opt out still stand and face it. I would like to count the raised hands. Ok you have raised your hands but think have you really stand your ground? Not standing really exasperates me. When ever I am facing a situation which I don’t like then my reaction is simple, to pass on the buck to somebody else. Atleast I don’t bury my head in the sand thinking since I can’t see the situation, it doesn’t exist. If given a chance, I would pass it on to somebody else before the other person has time to even say his name.

So I would think why can’t I step up to the plate?. In fact why is it that I am facing it? I was not always this deep thinker. In fact 2 years before I would hardly think what life is. I still search for a definition but I know its impossible to find it exactly because each one has their own meaning and view. But I vividly remember that when I was stoned smoking weed and thank god I had the presence to be in the bed and not to make fool of myself in front of others I was thinking something and what I thought really shocked me. I mean where did these thoughts come from? I never had thought about it before so how could it have come in my consciousness now. Perhaps it has slipped from my sub conscious. The thoughts were why am I here? What is the purpose of my life? I swear I felt like matrix where I felt that my body is here but actually I am not here. I am somewhere else (call it the soul or my real body) and I couldn’t shake off that feeling. I was so confused what is reality and in the early hours of morning when I became sobered did I realized that perhaps this is the reality and not what I was thinking. So my question is why do I get to face this situation. My reply is simple because we need to learn from it. Until I wont learn it, life will continue to teach me. Life is a tenacious teacher. It wont cut you any ropes. Until and unless you learn it, you will get it. It’s the law of attraction. The more you try to avoid it, the more you are focusing on it and what ever you are focusing on, you will get that only. Universe doesn’t know the no answer. We keep thinking I don’t get sick but universe doesn’t understand the denial statement. It sees that you are focusing on sickness so it will give you sickness. What we should do is focus on that I will remain healthy. Then we are focusing on health and we will get that.

Ok I have understood the meaning that life is trying to teach me to face the situation but I can’t do it. Passing the buck is easy and I get the guilty feeling but only for a succinct period. I feel guilty and then I would realize thank god I am not facing it and my guilt would vanish like the darkness with the prelude of light. Being aware is one thing. That is the first step. I have stepped the first step but the next step is where I am facing the difficulties. May be I have to bite the bullet and that would give me the confidence to face it the next time because running away from it is by no means any excuse or solution. Sooner or later I had to face it because not every time there would be some one to bail me out but let me try to face it when my back isn’t up to the wall. Atleast I could say that even when I had the choice, I still stood firm on my ground and faced it. How about you? What options do you choose when you are in unwanted situation and you have the choice to run away from it by leaving it to somebody else. May be its time for both of us to step up on the plate.

Previous life’s morning rituals

God it was a brisk life when I was juggling studying and working. It’s typical but not for me. I who’s king of indolent, slothful, lethargic, otiose…ok enough of adjectives had to work and study at the same time. The odds were more for physicist to invent time travel than me to pass out with flying colors. But look at me, I defied the odds. Although the comparison here is erroneous. Of course, we all know time travel is not possible. Not even in future because time is an illusion and we can travel only from point A to point B, but since time does not travel, we travel being in illusion that actually its time that’s travelling so how time travel can be possible. Ok, the train is off the track. Let me get back to the track. Where was I? Oh yea, the brisk life.

So my morning ritual was something like this. My friend and I used to share a room. I would wake up first at 5:15 AM (for me that’s middle of the night). Would finish the brushing and would wake my friend who actually wasn’t as lazy as me but still I had to push him in the morning. He would finish his brushing and then would go down to the kitchen for breakfast while I would go for a bath. After finishing that my friend would go for a bath while I would eat breakfast. At that time uncle would wake up because aunty and we used to go out at the same time for work and she would give us the ride to the place. So uncle(I don’t think he even brushed in the morning cause many times foul breath would come out, not from his body, I can differentiate that smell but from his mouth). That stench was enough to wake me fully and be on my toes to run if he tries to talk with me. Usually he would and I as a good and polite boy had to indulge him. Damn why did my mom raised me to be a polite boy. Anyway uncle would make tea, not for me silly but for aunty because queen ruled that palace. I don’t drink tea, I would have my milk, my bagels or if I could find croissants, would make sandwich for my friend and myself, pack it along with juice and would sit on the computer.

It was fascination to sit in the middle of the morning on internet. Don’t know why because hardly at that time someone would be online but still we used to sit on the computer. Meanwhile aunty would come down in a hurry, would drink tea and would have her toast in a matter of minutes while we both would lace up, go out, would remove snow from the car, start the car and heater and would sit for some early morning entertainment. We both knew what conversation we would hear in the morning. It was very characteristic. Aunty would say

“Pankaj, jaldi kaar maudo thai gayu”
(“Pankaj, hurry up, I am getting late” )
“Harsha, jaldi uthti hoye tau”
(“Harsha, if only you could wake up early”)

“Pankaj, savar na paur ma magaj mari na kaar”
(Pankaj, don’t irritate me in the morning”)

Uncle would laugh and would say ” heheheh harsha bol biju shu karvanu che?”
(hehehe “Harsham so what else has to be done?”)

Then aunty would give him the list of things to do, would remind him, no reprimand him to pick her up at 3:30 and not to be late, and then would ask us children if we need something. That my comrades, was my daily ritual for almost a year. Boy how I missed those rushing off days. Now I would wake up at 7:30, would read paper, relax a bit would watch TV and then go to work. (yea I do brush and bath, that is assumed). I even stopped my meditation, man am I becoming lazy.

So the moral of this story is even after being grilled like a sergeant for almost a year, I still am becoming lazier than ever. Perhaps some people never learn. Its you I am talking about not me.

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.