PUN - EH ?

I wake up to the peaceful quiet of a Sunday morning. The one day I’ve been waiting for so eagerly all week. Sundays, I suddenly realize, have so often been undervalued, especially when you work from dawn to dusk six days a week. No bus to hurry for, nor the 1 mile trek early morning, enduring the weight of your eyelids, struggling to keep your pace while half the world is fast asleep. You forget the fear of meddlesome co-workers; minions of evil waiting to bungle your ingeniously knit plans on the first opportunity. You begin the day in a state of beguiling, even though ephemeral, bliss. Eudaemonia.

Pune. The Chicago of India’s western plateau (yes, it’s windy too). A city known for its lifestyle, splendour and luxury cars (which have so tenaciously occupied my thoughts of late). A metallurgical and materials engineer who would otherwise have been stuck at a secluded steel plant in a corner of nowhere, would be fortunate beyond expectations to pursue his/her career in one of the country’s finest places to live in.

Luckily for me, (if I might yet confer myself the esteemed degree of an engineer) my stars have guided me to this charismatic city – abuzz with life and activity. Towering, intimidating buildings, vehicles plying all day along busy roads, the asphalt level and free of undulations. No wonder a stranger in his early days is lured by everything that meets the eye. The evening sky mirrors the fantastic synergy between clouds and the sun, a sight that every nature enthusiast would want to capture on film and tuck away somewhere safe to be preserved forever. Perhaps the only thing lacking is the north Indian cuisine. But as goes the proverb: ‘Where there is a will, there is a way’; there is nothing beyond reach, and ‘the whole world conspires to get to you what you desire for’.

Add to this a spacious apartment, a motorbike, and four ‘idiots’ all set to explore the possibilities and mysteries of this paradise of a city. Isn’t it what we set out for from Roorkee in the first place, the town we’re obliged to spend four precious years of our college life – devoid of the charm of a BMW, the heights of skyscrapers and the glimmer of night lights? I wouldn’t be surprised if one would want to join the millions living in this city as its citizens. But I guess I’d rather be content with the fresh air of the countryside, the aroma of morning dew on soft, lush green grass, and the musical sound of a gushing stream nearby. Then again, there are other things that might make this impossible – for one, I am an engineer.

30 Minutes to Zenith

It doesn't concur often in the life of an ordinary mortal (with no mental superpowers atleast) that dejection of losing out on a staring-in-the-face opportunity is followed closely by the jubilation of achieving more than one would have fancied in the first place. What is foregone seldom finds its way back to the brooding lamenter; nagging him sharply, persistently, reminding him of the moment that could so easily have ensued in something much better but for that one mistake of indecision. But there are those rare, magical instances when a glimmer of hope shines through the pitch black darkness, tearing apart shadows of gloom that had descended to divest the heart of its merriment, depriving them of their morbid intentions.

I am perhaps one of the few blessed souls to have witnessed such a reversal in the existing status quo. A phone call and thirty minutes later, I find myself throwing my arms up in exultation, in complete contrast to the moribund disposition not so long ago. Thanking the Heavens, I animatedly dance around in the confinements of my room, mindless of the numerous chores pleading my attention. Then I suddenly realize I have climbed up to a rung of hierarchy that wields omnipotence, and is high enough for everybody at stake to have a clear sight of the steps I take. My every move is under scrutiny, and must culminate in the well-being of a humongous community. Maybe I would be followed at close heels by spies passing on every ounce of information to the bosses pulling their strings. Every premeditated step must be weighed cautiously, every direction foreseen thoroughly.

Or maybe this is just an idyllic beginning of an attempt to foray into hitherto alien territories and undiscovered competencies. A transformation in intellectual capabilities for the greater good. A sign of the persistent changes in life that make it all the more enjoyable. I hope there are still many more waiting to toss each one of us to the heights of ecstasy and individual contentedness.

To surprisals !

PS : As I write, I'm greeted with another great news ! What - A - Day this is turning out to be !

THE VACATION-VOCATION PARADOX

There are no bound limits to human wants and earthly cravings - one always desires for more. Be it a small child longing to experience the fervor of a brand new playstation, a shopaholic whiling away time lavishly on the latest gadgetry and fashionable attire, an amateur entrepreneur aspiring to reach the apex of corporate success, or a famished pauper searching for crumbs of bread within mounds of trash disposed of as useless by higher echelons of society - with each fulfillment is coupled a sense of inadequacy and avarice that propels us further towards still unrealized dreams and ambitions, and life continues to revolve in a circle around a central object, only the latter metamorphoses intermittently as time rushes by.

From velvety cholcolates to miniscule gadgets to swift bikes to good grades, most of my demands have been met to my contentment, albeit with censure and sometimes after much hullabaloo and tantrums from my side. There has been one in particular which has eluded me each time I come to wish for it, not one that can be realized by tangible means and measures - an extended vacation.

A day lost in travelling. Another spent remunerating for the hours of sleep the common IITian has so often been deprived of - at times cramming volumes of ominous facts and on rare occasions sweating it out on the badminton court (yeah, people do that at Cautley Bhawan !) or watching a critically acclaimed movie.
A brief excursion, lots of TV, occasional games of football, half a novel, a few mouthfuls of mom's blissful cookies; and before you know, it's time to pack your bags and head back to the land where unrelenting professors barge into your dreams and untimely exams draw out the little energy that remains after each wadded, eventful month.

If you've been working for what seems like eternity, you wish holidays were near. If you happen to be jobless for a long time, you look for better, fruitful endeavours. A holiday is seldom a pleasant respite from monotonous activity. It is a welcome change all right, but more often than not a pretext for shifting to some other selfish pursuit that is only somewhat different from our regular engagements - this especially holds for a B.Tech 3rd year undergraduate faced with the dilemma of choosing between a peaceful holiday and a promising, ambitious career.

Perhaps for now a 'holiday' is forbidden. But I'm waiting for the day when I have so much time just to lay back on nature's carpet in the beautiful sunshine and observe the clouds drifting across the blue sky - that I would truly call taking some time off.

BREAKING DAWN....

Dehradun
the routine day, 1995
8:00 pm

Stuffing the math home assignment into my schoolbag, I expectantly waited for dinner to be served while the newsreader on Doordarshan rattled on about the day's newsmakers, entertainers and illusive government propaganda directed towards political gain of the ruling party, especially considering the upcoming general elections (Of course nothing made sense to a standard 2 boy, solely interested in the 'Dekh Bhai Dekh' series that followed the 8'o clock news).
The day had been fun. Chasing dragonflies, playing football, discovering dominions hitherto unknown wandering through the vast 'greenlands' of SJA, and other arbit jackassery more than made up for the meagre study and scanty reading hours. A new day would commence next morning, starting 6 am - the matador would be honking at my door, waiting to ferry me through the biting cold to 5 kms away - and so after enjoying Shekhar Suman's lucid performance thoroughly with peals of genuine laughter, I retired to bed, ignorant and unconcerned of the tomorrow that was to come.


Vadodara
March 2007
9:30 pm

"Take it easy beta ! You have plenty of time left." - was mom's reaction to the way I was gorging up huge quantities of food, a spoon in one hand and my chemistry textbook in the other. Boards were knocking at my door, banging harder and harder as the time elapsed, raising dread and despair in the deepest confinements of my heart. After hours of serious pondering, I still hadn't been able to figure out the dynamics of rotation, which was resulting in a rather irritable disposition. It took a great deal of persuation by my parents to put me to sleep by midnight, assuring me I had done well enough to fetch me a 99 percentile (and weren't they right !). Horrendous dreams haunted me through the night, repercussions of having spent more time prognosticating the result of the Indo-Pak cricket series giving me the heebie-jeebies. After all, it was going to be my first step towards an ambitious career.


Roorkee
18th Feb. 2010
00:00 hours

The day has just begun. Every ray of light originating within the cosmos has vanished into thin air. Two years ago, at this time I would have been sound asleep. Today, life has assumed a nocturnal demeanour. The ecstasy of unperturbed slumber has long been forgone.
The midsems begin 10 hours from now, but I haven't commenced preparations, yet I couldn't worry less. I have the whole night to myself, time long enough to make amends. Staring blankly into the pages of a book that had until this time been lying in a corner, carefully preserved under a film of dust, I embark upon a voyage through the ocean of discreet 'fundas' and temporal laws without further ado. I might not be able to complete my journey, but the tools of conjecture and expression would come in handy to serve my purpose of making it through the stipulated 1 hour trial of mental ability, reasoning and mugging.

Even though I have already wasted much time writing this post, I gain inspiration from Robert Frost's beautiful lines of poetry:

"The woods are lovely, dark and deep
But I have promises to keep
And Miles to go before I sleep
And Miles to go before I sleep....."

THE ADVENTURE

Suddenly, I heard the rustle of leaves and there, standing in front of me was a giant T-Rex, exactly similar to the ones I had seen on television in ‘Jurassic Park’ the previous day – apart from the fact it hadn’t been created by some fancy computer program. I recalled what the hero had instructed his team to do in order to escape being mauled by the hideous creature – not to move a muscle; only I had no team, and neither was I acting in a movie. Nevertheless, I wasn’t a palaeontologist, and no other idea happened to cross my mind at that time. I could feel its warm breath on my face as it scrutinised the stranger that had wandered into its territory. As I stood motionless, still as a rock, I couldn’t help wondering how I had arrived into this unknown, dark, prehistoric jungle where dinosaurs walked amongst thick tress and humid environs, a stream running through the dense growth.

I was playing cricket with my friends after a long time, and needed a four off the last ball of my innings to win. The bowler hurled towards me a bouncer on the off stump and making room, I heaved my bat to play that glorious upper cut the Master Blaster had first introduced into world cricket. I won with a six, the ball disappearing into the distance among tall grass and weeds. I was filled with a sense of pride, but it seemed my friends weren’t – nobody else had any more energy left to retrieve the ball. Vitalised by victory, I jogged to where it had fallen. It was lying in a trench I never knew had existed. As I climbed down into the ditch, it caved in, and I found myself falling through darkness, for an infinite time, blackness increasing as I descended. I felt relieved when finally I bumped into solid ground. But there was nothing to be pleased about. I had landed in this forest, lost and bewildered.

I saw giant creatures I had only read about in books – maybe I was dreaming, maybe this wasn’t real at all – how could it be, unless I had travelled in time to millions of years back the timeline. I pinched myself, and it hurt, filling my inner self with dread and despair. How could I ever get out of this place? I wandered around, looking for help, but there was none I could fathom. And thus, I had encountered this monster, and now I stood petrified for dear life.

It worked. I could feel the earth becoming lighter again, as it receded away, uninterested in the statue of a man transfixed by terror. Cautious about the dangers that awaited me, I then resumed my adventure in hope of returning to the comfort of my bed and the excitement of my precious PS2, which, now, seemed like a gloomy prospect. Treading through the rugged terrain, I finally came to a place where the forest seemed to end its domain abruptly. I was staring at a wooden cottage, conspicuously standing alone in the wilderness, and I was once again baffled by the turn of events. But there was something else that was about to throw me into a tizzy. I went inside to look if it was inhabited. Turned out it was. A bony, green weirdo with a bulging head and disproportionate body popped out of nowhere and without stopping for breath (perhaps ignorant of my state of mind), told me “Congratulations Sir ! you are the first person on Earth to have discovered the secret land of ‘Nothinglikethisexists’ and are therefore, the rightful winner of our first prize – an all expenses paid trip to Mars, the land that boasts of the finest school of magic – Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Oh, and I forgot to mention, you’re a wizard. Here’s your conveyance.” ‘It’ signalled towards a shuttle floating in mid-air. Exhilarated, I boarded the ship that would fly me all the way to realms unseen by the common man. An alarm sounding like bells clanging aloud went off, indicating my ship was ready for take-off. But gradually, the sound of the bells faded off into the distance, replaced by shouts of “Wake up! It’s 9:30 in the morning. How come you’ve become so lazy?”

Mom was trying to awaken me after I’d slept for 10 hours straight. Well, one doesn’t enjoy that luxury at IITR; so I wasn’t to blame. Besides, what else are holidays meant for than to make up for things we crave for in college - including peaceful slumber? I wonder if she hadn’t, I would have been the first one on Earth to set foot on Mars, and Hogwarts !