One year. Gone.

I went to your place yesterday. Exactly one year later. The road no longer seemed new and unfamiliar, nor did the feeling of wanting to get there quickly. Of all the times that I have been there, yesterday I had a strange feeling. It was almost as though I saw a tiny trailer of your life and yet so much was packed in those few months that I look back and wonder whether it really happened the way it happened.

When I meet your mother, I feel as though I'd known her for many years and that I have a connection with her but the connection is not because of you. And then I look back and I am reminded of last summer when I somehow got through work each day and counted days until Sunday so I can just go to your place. Yesterday, it felt like I am familiar with every nook of your home. I forced your mother to take out more clothes to put in her wardrobe, clothes she'd just put away hoping she will just be able to live in the three saris she had lying outside.

Last year, I felt like your dad is coping better than your Mom. One year later, it's reversed. Your dad is still exactly the same as last year, your Mom has still learnt to do the daily errands and get by. It is strange.

When I got there, there were chants of Gayatri Mantra. An hour later, there was food served for the purohits. Another hour later, it seemed that the mellow air had slightly lifted. Everyone ate as though it was a task to be accomplished and thereafter just sat and relaxed. Everyone had you at the back of their mind but the conversations and memories have been recounted over and over. People talk about current affairs such as IPL and Sania Mirza as though at a social gathering, and yet it doesn't feel awkward. It is characteristic of an entire family trying to cope with an immeasurable loss.

Finally, Ekta and I sat your mother down and I sermonized. How she needs to do the bare minimum for life to keep going. Minor repairs around the house, buying clothes to replace the ones that have completed their useful life. Finally, we get her to sign off on a deadline for the things that need to be done. She says that she'll make sure all these things are taken care of by 31 July. The cell phone is still not functioning. I had plans to get it going yesterday but a long power cut foiled all the plans. Oh well, perhaps it is not time yet.

And soon it was time to go. With the promise to meet again on Saturday, the day before I leave this place I have called home for over two decades. Life will move and life will move on. I hope I can keep some of you with me, if not, I will keep your Mom.

TUM HO TOH, GAATA HAI DIL...

Hi,

I am not much of a blogger(writer). I have left that part of me long behind. Today was the day when I finally became an MBA, since the final trimester results were out. Even though there was euphoria all around, I could only feel one emotion, loneliness.

Words are never enough to express whatever I feel. However, whenever there is an occasion which commands the attention of the batch, I cannot but remember the person who was my closest friend in the college. I know that life would have taken, a more beautiful, turn had you been around, but nonetheless, there is not a single day when you are not remembered.

The trials and tribulations that we have faced would have vanished in an instant had you been around with your comforting presence. I know that there were many things left unsaid(which I would take with me to my grave), but dear friend, you can rest assured that your name has become immortal in the annals of IIFT.

The batch is incomplete without the mention of the person who gave it the humane touch, YOU.

This is just a small token of appreciation from a friend, a brother who can only hope that he can make you proud that you were ever associated with me....

Do wait for me....

Respecting Womankind

I suppose in the present day and age, while it is not very uncommon to find guys who respect women, it is still uncommon to find guys who would just unconditionally stand up for a woman whenever she needs it.

Gullu was one such guy. The fun-loving guy that he was, he would often say that everything is acceptable to him but he just cannot stand anyone disrespecting women. He spoke of at least a couple of times when he'd been involved in a brawl because he was standing up for a woman against another man who misbehaved or something. Such was his "passion" for the cause that he didn't care that women are an independent species, responsible for their own welfare.

I didn't realise how rare this characteristic is until I saw a situation that needed a guy like Gullu. Just someone who would stand up and beat someone up, if needed. And how it would have just come naturally to him, how one would not have needed to ask him to take a side. It would have been unquestionably the woman who was bearing the brunt of an abusive guy.

I suppose even someone like me does not care for mature and reasonable behavior in some situations, or perhaps sometimes the only reasonable thing is to slap someone.

Well, Gullu I wish you were here to do just what needed to be done in the situation. Just missed you so!