QUEUE UP INDIA!!

The Chinese are being taught to stand in queues while waiting for buses, trains, at theaters etc., for the upcoming Olympics… the scene looks hopeful, may be someday the consciousness comes home too..
Long time back when some superstar (Guess it was Mr. Bachhan) said `Hum jahan khade hote hain line wahan se shuru hoti hai`….., I am sure he dint mean to make it a national slogan. And everyone who travels in a metro, has had tickets booked at the railway station, travelled by domestic airlines, shopped in big-bazaar, lined up to get a pre-paid coupon at the food court in any mall, you must agree with me that waiting for your turn in a queue in India is a pain,…. With the aunties pushing at you, trying to get through to the counter as quickly as possible, and never mind if in the process,they have to crush your toe with their cart full of groceries, or hit your back with the heavy handbag, keep elbow-ing you till you are forced to move and make way, … forgive the aunties for they have noisy mom-in laws and hungry kids waiting at home. What irritates the hell out of me are the pretty damsels who would make a distressed face at the guys who are also waiting in the queues and have them make way for her-highness, you can often find one of them brush against you and wave a 500 rupee note at the guy standing behind the pre-paid food pass counter so that she can have the pass first, or push her baggage from right over your shoulder at the security check,…..Yes you are beautiful, now back off, I was here first…..
A friend of mine tried to reason with me, in a country of 1.13 billion, you cannot expect to find everyone queue up syatematically….but that is exactly the point I am trying to make, isn’t it time we accepted that we will have another hundred people waiting ahead of us wherever we go…is that not reason enough, that we must learn to stand in queue and wait for our turn, I dont see anyone who is not in a hurry, who is not as busy as I am, who does not hate waiting as much as I do….

I could be.....

....a painter…..
Or a photographer, or a pianist, or a ballet dancer…..
But here I am, sitting in front of my computer system, doing things that anyone could do…..living life through forwarded good morning mails, tea-breaks, half-days, cricket matches, traffic jams, daily soaps…….. why am I doing what I am doing, why do I have to take orders, why does the boss have to be right always , what is it with projects that just cant get over on time, what is it with the dollar ,why does my kids’ school act so pricey, why cant in-laws do anything but complain, why did I get married, why did I have kids…….
Why can not we just stop cribbing about the way life is, meet her and ask the poor thing if she finds us fair.
The mechanic in you, WAKE UP!! Fix the engine and everything else that is making noise….and if you think you can get somewhere, I think you can get there without making much ado about it

9 to 5 lives...

One of these days, I was listening to my Boss talk about what is considered to be the parameter of success in present times , and as could be expected of a person who has worked for over 10 years in corporate, he believes that standards have risen to unattainable heights, and like every concerned and demanding(more often than not, demand is the only concern) citizen, he also blames the society (the ultimate culprit which no one ever cared to affiliate to a traceable, describable entity) to be responsible for this . According to him, a person is judged by the position he has in his company, and the no. of zeroes in his paycheck. True to much extent, and what left me thinking was not this times-have-changed cliché, which people of the better generation use to amuse themselves thinking that they had the easy way out of life, and things have only gotten worse. (I must make clear that my Boss does not belong to the glorious past; he is very much a contemporary). But I could not somehow agree when he says that an individual cannot follow his real vocation as not having a fixed, 9 to 5 job is considered to be the calling card of a failure. Why so, and why not. We usually get enough time to follow our whims, live recklessly, do nothing, achieve nothing….. and then when we decide to come back home, we are welcome. A 9 to 5 job is more choice than compulsion, a choice we make together with another millions who fall in same social status as ours, the same income group, who take the same 7.30 bus as we do, who have the same challenges in front of them, finishing tasks, meeting deadlines, making presentations, coordinating and mis-coordinating things…… and cribbing that the work just doesn’t seem to get over.

Why blame the villain society when it travels in the same bus as ours.

Answering machines......

How I hate those.....I have always had a problem communicating with answering machines. The moment the (not-so-sweet) [read irritating] voice says `Please leave a message after the beep`….I start groping for words, how to start, how to go on….how best to summarize everything that I wanted to say to the person, in a concise, precise way……I often begin saying something and hang-up quickly with a small ‘forget it` or `never mind`…… Yeah never mind that I had something to say, possibly something important, and you would not have listen to it.

And those times, I wonder how is it to live with, to be in a relationship with answering machines. With people who would always be not-so-present, when you have things to say, questions to ask, or simply something to share with. A friend whose husband is too busy with work, to be around for the kids' birthday, for the weekend outing, for the family gathering, or even for everyday's dinner,, would often say she has to leave messages for him whenever there is something she needs to discuss with him, and wait for him to get back to her......and as is expected, they remain undiscussed, and untouched ultimately.... and now she doesn't feel the need to discuss things with him, it doesn't matter even if the calls are not returned.

Though its not only the time factor that makes answering machines out of people, more often than not, it is the unwillingness to listen, because that requires answering as well. Usually, things are heard, heard just right, but still left in the answering machine, in the hope that the caller finds out a way to fix the issue himself, or just forgets about it.... and seldom do we realize that all it takes to save a relationship from falling apart is picking up the call, and saying 'I am present'...Who-so-ever might have coined the term communication gap,... what I believe is its communication or the Gap, and either of it for sure !!

I doubt, therefore I think

wonder how it feels to be saying things at a place where it would be heard loud, speaking your heart out on a public forum, for everyone to read and know and judge and comment ..... lets play and see!!
I talk a lot, I am heard by people as well, and in the course of being judged,misjudged, praised, criticized,loved,despised....I realized that ultimately every bittersweet moment will fade away with time, something which caused pain would be looked upon as a mere spelling error..... something which brought joy will be just a date marked in the calendar...
What is it that stays then,... words tucked safely with the curtain of time, so that when I draw it everytime to let the sunlight come in, they roll down and spread all about me, and I can have it all back, to recall, to rejoice !!
Words could be the weapon, and they could be the shield.....and when used in complete honesty, they could be eyes,ears, skin and mind.
My words are my mind, what I think is what I wish to pen down, and what I wish to pen down is what I see, and hear and feel about people I have met or those I meet everyday, what I see them doing, what I hear them saying, and sometimes, what I doubt about the things I see and hear......