A girl with 5000 messages

My life was happening right in front of me and I was living every bit of it, straight out of college, working in a cool place, riding my kinetic to work, meeting new people, going out with old friends, parties, movies, concerts…et al.

One such day, my dad anxiously announced that the application process is completed and I’ll be heading out to Griffith university in Gold Coast on Feb 3rd, aieh aieh aieh… I had something planned for that day, and it was my dad’s birthday, how could I possibly go.

The next few days went puff in the air…my mom is either shopping for me or hollering at me to shop for this and that, meanwhile in the background instead of helping me do whatever that needs to be done, my brother would teasingly sing “tu kal chala jayega tho main kya karoonga”. My sister who recently got engaged was busy giving me words of caution of how to manage, how to behave like a grown up.

The day of my departure, dad faxed a letter to inform my uni’s of my arrival and to have someone pick me up at the airport. My dad briefed me for the 100th time “don’t go anywhere”, “stay put at one place”, “don’t wander, be careful with your passport and luggage”. I was leaving India for the first time and neither my family nor I was ready to let go. I couldn’t keep things straight let alone all the advice that was coming from left and right. He gave me US $ as I’d need it for stuff. Wasn’t I heading to Australia!

From Hyderabad >> Madras >> Singapore >> Brisbane >> I reached Gold Coast. I patiently waited for 10 full minutes at the airport. Since it was Sunday, I wasn’t sure if the uni’s coordinator checked my dad’s fax about my arrival. But each waiting minute was only gravitating against home; the stillness of the situation was too much to bear. Before I knew I was sitting in the back seat directing the cab driver to take me to uni. He was like “yeah ! I know where this place is…” and I silently hoped that he did, bcoz I didn’t : )

The novelty of the place was almost getting to me and I was absorbing the city, the endless blue water, the yachts floating on bay, streets brimming with life, surfers heading to the beach. Meanwhile, my rational personality was reminding me that I wasn’t in a city with familiar alleys and nooks like Hyderabad, the night when my brother yelled at me for driving back home late in the night was coming to my head. During this fight of personalities, I realized that the cab was slowing down to the point of halt and the pager on the dashboard was beeping with messages.

The cab driver excused to make a call and I braced myself… though my thoughts were going haywire. The cab driver returns to ask me “do u know what just happened!”, and with my adversity creeping up on me, I said I’d know if you clued me in.

With his thick fingers and tattoed hands he showed me his pager, which read, if there is a young Asian girl in your cab heading towards university, please call this no. He continued saying that my coordinator didn’t find me at the airport and is getting worried ! aye lo ! and sent a msg across all the cabs. He just got off the phone with her and now she wants you to come to this address instead of the university. My practical side of personality was still in mild conflict, but the chirpy side won! We then headed to the residential address.

In a reflective mood he shared this was his first time in his cab driving expereice that one msg was relayed to all the 5000 cabs at the same ditto time and I smiled pondering that it was a first for me too.

After a long haul of 20 minutes, the cab stopped right across a beautiful spread beach. As I climbed down the cab, I was soaked in the warmth of the new sun, and I found myself at the entrance of a white fence of my new abode.

I tried to pay the cab driver but he smiled and said he takes only Australian dollars….

Baday dino kay baad....

The letters for the room mates were left on the kitchen table, going through that stack of mail, the emotion of randomness in finding a letter with your name on it, is not something we experience these days with email. The click of a button does it….before email era a letter from home would stir up a sensation of .....of the way, you’d open the door and find a long lost friend at your door step.

One such day, a letter arrived from my mom. I grappled the moment, made tea, closed the door and tore open the letter…. and to my surprise all there was in the letter were the lyrics of Pankaj Udhas’s song “baday dino kay baad”... my mom also wrote -- remember how we use to listen to this song, in the living room watching chitrahaar and use to wonder how did the singer wrap such strong sentiments in few lines….

As I was reading the letter, I realized i wasnt alone, I was in that living room with my mom, sitting casually with no care in the world.

Many years later, one day while driving back from work, i heard on a FM show that Pankaj Udhas will be in town, so i pulled over and jotted down the contact no, got 2 tickets for me and vamsi. I couldnt wait for the day to dawn any sooner. On the day of the show, an idea struck me, wouldn’t it be nice to tell Mr. Pankaj Udhas how his song influenced me. In case i meet him, I thought I'd give the note to him and so I penned down my thoughts.

Two hours before the show, Vamsi called to say he cant make it as he is stuck at work. It was too late for me to think of canceling the show, so i pulled out my rocky (my xterra) and drove to this far out town. Meanwhile it started to pour, it was 7.30pm on dark cold rainy night. After many missed exits and bad turns, i reached but sadly the show started, that didn't waver my enthusiasm to enjoy the show.

At break time, i went backstage, but met him only after a silly indian lady wanted to get his autograph for her soon to be son-in-law! The way she asked him was what irked me... So, my turn came and I gave him my note, exchanged pleasantries and returned to my seat.

An hour into the show, I looked at my watch and wondered maybe I should head back or it’ll be too late and i had to stop at a gas station too. Just then Mr. Pankaj Udhas announced that the next song "Chitti ayi hai" will be his last for the evening. He also added that "i want to dedicate this to 2 people here in the audience, when i call names please do stand up". First he said, he wanted to dedicate this song to his friend who organized the show and second for the young lady, Imtiaz, who gave me this beautiful note, it's for both of u, who gave life to the meaning of the song…

I was dumb struck, could it be true, it was unreal, while we stood, the whole auditorium rang with the resonance of claps and whispers and i cant tell u how profoundly this moment had stuck to me since then. Then he sang....that beautiful song and I as I looked around, I realized that the grand concert hall was transformed to my living room, where me and my mom were watching the song on tv and sharing a moment...

I found my Murari Lal !

 here's the thing, people who know me, know that I love my rocky ! well, it's kind of offbeat but it's the name of my SUV. I know I know...everyone who rolled their eyes, just bugger off...

People who drive yellow-xterra's share a thick kinship of unexplainable overbearing pride, kinda like Harley-davidson clan's, or so I'd like to continue to think. So, whenever a yellow xterra would drive past me, I'd give a quick nod or wave my hand to show my respect for the same taste.

V would see me do this and say nobody really cares, they are driving at such a speed that they wouldn't even know, I don't know why you keep doing that, and on and on. But I knew deep down in my heart, that I'd find a person, that one person, who shares the same respect and return the good faith gesture.

So, one fine morning, rocky, me and V took a drive to the near by book store and after a cup of starbucks that ran deep into our blood and woke our souls, we picked the books we wanted and started our drive back home.

There I see a shining yellow xterra closing the distance between us by inches, and v looked me and said no ! please not again, cant we just go, without you doing all the charade, so I disapprovingly cast a glance at him and while I was saying whatever, my comrade, the one person I was looking for gave me the wave and nodded even before I did.



Vamsi smiled and said finally you found your friend ! and i quoted rajesh khanna in the movie Anand....mujhey mera murari lal milgaya, babu moshai...mujhey mera murari lal milgaya, babu moshai...


My search ended.

Meeting on a Friday afternoon ?

it's Friday afternoon...on a humid sunny day... we all know what Friday afternoon's mean in the work life. It's the high point of the entire week, u are this close to being out, u r this close to having an almost perfect weekend ( dream on !), anyway, my crazy team lead mentioned something to my PM and he called for a "Meeting". Don't be worried now, we have a application upgrade and it was to go over who's doing what, who's calling whom and what's going to happen at what time.

Anyway, the dreaded meeting was scheduled from 4pm to 5pm. As soon as I received the invitation, I was like "what the hell, not on a Friday", well it's a unwritten rule, almost like a unspoken declaration that everyone hates late Friday meeting, we all wanna prove that we have a life outside of office, we have it or not is another question. But as a rule of thumb we don't like being here after 4pm on Friday. right ! rye...t!

So, while confirming my invitation to my PM, I just included my comments as "4-5 pm ?" I was secretly hoping he would get the hint. Lo! he did....

He rescheduled it for 3-4pm, well my life can go on now. I confirmed the meeting with a reply of thanks. As soon as we entered the conference room, my PM saw me and said, oh ! Tia (I'm called that at work BTW) was going to have my head off if I wouldn't change the time of the meeting.

I was almost embarrassed but heard the laughter in the room ! That broke the ice in the room, everyone started cracking up laughing and agreed in union that somebody finally voiced their thoughts, it was a moment of glory, a silent war that I battled on behalf of the people in the meeting and I / we won.

The meeting was over in 20 mts.

My first blog !

Hi...this is my first blog...even as i'm writing this, I can feel the creative juices flooding into my head to write more, write something, write what i feel, this is my space, the lightness in my heart is so compelling that i cant consume myself to think further. I'm going to ramble a lot...hope you ( who r u !) get the drift of my blathering drivels !

By the way, you are most welcome to add your comments !