Revisiting the past!

It was music that had driven me into the mall that day. Not that I hate malls but I don't particularly like spending my time in them unless there is a bookstore which is very peaceful and has an empty corner. Or there is an ice-cream shop that serves a great flavor of chocolate or something unique.

That day was special. I usually wake up with a song in my mind and the mall was playing the same old hindi film song that I was humming the entire day. I had heard that song more than Sachin's centuries but one more time would be a blessing. I entered the wonderful , sense the sarcasm, mall with colorful walls, balloons and people. I saw a couple standing on the escalator looking at each other, blushing. Wow, that feeling re-discovered, Alas! I saw an old couple holding hands looking through various stores. The old man wore a fancy jacket with leather patches on the elbow indicating their well-to-do background. Old lady had a grin on her face as she passed in front of jewelery store, some passions are born to die for!

However, the song that was being played had a rhythm that was making me skip a step on every beat. I was unaware of myself for a long time until someone looked at me and smiled and followed what I was doing.  I looked at my brother who accompanied me to the mall and was happy that it is shopping time.

That song took me back to my childhood days. I saw a child 6 years old, chasing cows, running away from them and making bows and arrows to hunt. He had a small tricycle that he would drag along with himself wherever he went. It had red rubber grips on the shiny handle and a black pair of paddles. The paddles had been worn out as the tricycle fell down while it was dragged up the stairs. I saw him in his school uniform a fine checked blue shirt and blue shorts. He was happy to leave for school every morning but would be more than happy to come back home. At times he had to sleep on stairs waiting for his mother, who taught Yoga, or father, who worked with an insurance company, to wake him up or carry him in their arms. He liked that moment quite a bit when he was lifted from those cold cement stairs to a warm embrace.

I do not know what brought me to a 6 year old me but it was magical. I remembered how I would run to my neighbors place to eat my favorite rice. It reminded me of small childhood things like walking in the night looking at the stars while the cool breeze would bring relief in summer nights. Running with an empty glass in hand to fill it with sugarcane juice from the local vendor, which was a routine. Coming back home, revisiting my past was a symbol that I exist through time. I have had my share of sour, sweet, bitter and colorful memories and they come back through music. Music!!

(Samey's) Won’t you try before you die?

(This is second part of a 3-part series of the Samey’s version of ’Wont you try before you die?’ written in response to the original story posted here on January 15, 2010 and also at http://successdefinestherule.blogspot.com/ on January 1, 2010. This is what Samey thinks of the story. Check the first part before proceeding.)

Contd..
“I am willing to tell you the entire story behind the kids, their mother, their passion, their dreams, but what will you do with it? How will it satisfy you? You, not a journalist or author just a common man!”

‘That’s it, I am a common man, doing uncommon thing. I traveled 300 km, left my job for the day, just to know what really might have happened, how the kids were able to save so many lives, weren’t there anyone else, not a single person was hurt in the accident except for this three, why the doctors were not able to give any proper information, there are many why’s, and that affects the common man. Somewhere in my heart, I thought I might somehow find the purpose of my own life, through this story!’

Bewildered at my sudden outburst on a stranger, who in someway was going to help me, he first calmed me down with his soothing words, “Oh, I am sorry, don’t wanted to offend you, but many reporters have came here for the story, and all treated it just for garnering the extra mileage for their career, no one was interested in highlighting the importance of the story. So, there are many stories in air, but all lacking the essence of the situation.”

‘But, Sir I wasn’t convinced with any of the stories, so I came here just to know what exactly might have happened.’

‘Your looks and thoughts are convincing to me, there’s nothing selfishness in it, but only the desire to know the truth, so I will tell you everything I know about those special kids and their family.’

Simply speaking, life can be amazing, just a few minutes before, I was despair, and don’t have any clue for my next step, and now I was talking to a person, who in my opinion would be the last person for me to ask for the mystery story. By his looks, I can easily figure out he was a road-side beggar, and I couldn’t believe he knows something more in the story. But, on the second thought, I was convinced that he will know many things, as those peoples have a good understanding about the masses and a good network too!

He started the story. “Let me take you five years before this unfaithful accident. The school boys were on their annual trip to Dwarka and its nearby area. It was certainly a pleasure trip for all. On one fine morning, when some kids were excitedly swimming near the bank of Gomati River, while others were entertaining themselves with the game of cricket around the bank, suddenly one of the kids got drifted away by the high current in the river because of the near-by Arabian Sea. The atmosphere soon grew from happy to panicky one. Even though there were many peoples around, but no one was able to do anything as the current, in the middle, was very high to handle for anyone. Without wasting much time, Jal got into action, initially he swamped hastily towards his drowning class-mate, and when current was too hot to handle for him, he amazed everyone by walking on the surface of water, thus saving the life of his friend in water within the period of 2 to 3 minutes.

“Later on, the trip wasn’t much smooth, as there were some more tense moments stored for the picnickers. On the same afternoon, suddenly a gas cylinder meant for cooking exploded at the place where the tents were put up, and soon the tents were caught in fire. Many of the boys were stuck, with fire on three sides, and only one way was left for the escape. But sooner that side would be under fire too, as the air would spread it there as well. Again to everyone’s surprise, Vaayu stopped the spread of air in that direction. When the boys were escaping from this side, one of them fell, very close to fire; Agni picked him up, but was in for a surprise when he realized that he has got a special skin, skin that doesn’t catches fire.”

“Oh, that’s great, so this can explain how they might have saved so many kids on Christmas night, but now I feel more curious to know how exactly that have happened.”

“There is still more to the story, before we proceed. On their return from this trip, they got a stupendous welcome by the entire village, as the news of their extra-ordinary feats had already spread like a wild fire. Everyone was talking about their heroic deeds, making their mother more insecure and frightened. She clearly warned them not to do such things again; but they argued that the action was warranted in such situation. Even they themselves don’t know that they possess such amazing power. Further they argued that when they had done so many good things, why they can’t continue. They can also become SUPER-HEROES. This made their mother more insecure, and she took promise from them not to play heroes again. With heavy heart, they agreed with their mother that they will try to refrain themselves from anything like this in future.

“In last 5 years, they behaved as their mother wanted them to. They felt a little trapped within their worlds; they wanted to do something special with their powers. But the promise given to their mother would not allow them to experiment anything new. They could not follow what their hearts wanted to do. And thus, they all developed the fear of what actually was their strength. Soon, they became the regular kids, and forgotten all about their powers, but the fear of water, fire and wind was still inside them.

“Don’t you think many of us are brought up in the same way? Even, if we recognize some hidden talent within us, we don’t give it a try. Even when someone else realized this inner talent and wanted to nurture it, we are stopped after some extent. There are many cases where we see someone falling apart from others expectations, but those other peoples never realized that that was not the path he/she wanted to travel. We became a mere puppet of their fantasies…

‘Sorry to interrupt you Sir, whatever you told is correct to some extent. But, when the kids grow up, do they know where they want to go, what they should do, what’s good for them, and where will they be after 10 years? It’s the responsibility of parents/guardians to lead them to proper path.’

“Here, you may sound a little correct, but do you realize what exactly they loved to do, if the kid is good in sports or painting, you still force him to concentrate in studies more, as that way he will be academically more perfect. In other way, if the kid is good in studies, then you want him/her to concentrate on many other extra-curricular activities, so that he could be an all-rounder, which he may dislike. We never see what he wants; we only see what we want from him. You might give me examples of spoiled kids, where they are given complete freedom to follow their trades, and the end-results are devastating. Here, you may argue, see what happens when you allow them to follow their heart. So, my point is that we should see what good qualities they have, let them say what they want to say, listen carefully, see their confidence level, and correct them in the way they best understand, then only the whole exercise will be fruitful.

‘But, Sir, in our story, the kids should have been allowed to do the good things; their mother should have understood that.’

Instead of replying, he gave me a coin, and asked me to pick only head, and don’t even touch the tail. I was bewildered at the thought. Then, he gave me clean water and dirty oil and asked me to mix that. How hard I tried, the oil always stay at the top, while the water remained at the bottom.

He later asked what inference I draw from it. I said I could not see any point behind this exercise. He explained, “Whenever you have good quality; the opposite side is also true. So, with those powers, there comes the responsibility too. Would this small shoulder have carried so many expectations?”

He paused and then continues, “I don’t think they would have, but one thing was sure that this would have divided them from the rest of the lot, and hence deprived themselves from the wonderful and self-less childhood days. They might have taken everything for granted, and behaved like the immature adults much earlier. So, their mother was right in her own way in obstructing them to follow in that fashion.”

‘But, what about the other exercise?’

“Oh, that’s what we grown-ups need to do!”

‘What?’

“See, we can observe what are the good and the bad qualities of our children, and then show them what you meant by clean water and dirty oil. Make them understand what’s good and what’s bad for them. Convince them, and not coax them.

‘Agreed, but that way, she had ruined their powers.’

“No, she utilized it in some other way, she had realized their powers much earlier to that incident, and got Jal trained as an excellent swimmer, Vaayu a good runner, and Agni getting into martial arts. She never forced them to do all these, but convinced them that it will be good for them.

‘That’s nice. But, Sir, you said they had developed the fear from fire, water and wind after that incident, then how was all this training going to be helpful for them now?’

“You are right, that is the unfortunate part of this story. Their performance had dipped significantly from their onwards. We adults don’t realize that we first make our kids do something, sometimes against their wishes, but after one such incident, we ask them to back out, when they have actually started taking interest in the activity. This surely hampers their thinking process and hence kills their creativity process.”

‘True, but my mind is not able to understand how they would have lived like this. Last, what I heard about them was that they were going for some different project relating with finding the creative zone of an individual, and that they would not have taken this with these fearful mindset, I presume!’

“Will tell you about that only after we have dinner at my place?

So, now I was going to exchange a dinner with a roadside beggar. And what getting in barter, a peace at heart within and a wonderful story outside!”

(What is the project Samey is referring to and how the secret of the Christmas tragedy night gets unlocked? Check in the concluding part of the story, very shortly.)

(Samey's) Won’t you try before you die?

(This is first part of a three part series of the Samey’s version of ’Wont you try before you die?’ written in response to the original story posted here on January 15, 2010 and also at http://successdefinestherule.blogspot.com/ on January 1, 2010. This is what Samey thinks of the story.)

Wakaner (Gujarat). Three brothers – Agni, Jal and Vaayu are going to be awarded ‘Abhimanyu Award’ posthumously on the Republic Day function to be held at New Delhi on January 26, 2010 by the honorable Prime Minister of India. It is learnt that they died while saving lives of their school-mates from the fire that broke at the school’s annual function held on the Christmas Night. The bravery medal will be collected by their widowed mother.

What makes it an interesting story, as the local people recalls, is that they were completely opposite in nature with what their names would suggest.

Agni was afraid of Fire, Jal of water and Vaayu from wind.

So, was it that they were able to overcome their fear, but only when they were near to the death? The mystery behind the accident, where magically no one was hurt except for the three brothers, continuously remains to be unsolved, as none of the school authorities or school staff could answer. Even the doctors, who performed the post-mortem on the bodies, were unable to arrive at any conclusion to the real reason behind their deaths.

While reading the above news published in The Times of India, I was completely convinced that there is something in the story that could meet an eye. Thought some News Channel would be airing what they term as the inside story. While browsing through various channels, I was amazed as there was nothing but only the mention of their names for the bravery award, no related story about them. What was difficult to understand was that there was not a single statement from eyewitnesses.

It is impossible in country like India, where even a small road side accident would become BREAKING NEWS for the channels, the same stories flashed repeatedly, and different eye-witnesses accounts are beamed for the extra TRPs, how can they miss out on this?

Many questions were bothering me, ‘why there wasn’t any detailed report about the cause of fire, why the media was not able to break the silence of the doctors who performed post-mortem on the bodies, and why the teachers and other school staffs could not give any convincing information?’

I grew restless and could not sleep that night, my mind was continuously thinking about those kids and their sudden death. So, I decided to travel to Wakaner, meet their mother and get the background story.

So, next morning, I started early for the place, which was a good 300 km away from my town. Bad roads and slow public transport prolonged my journey, and hence I was able to reach my destination in only more than 8 hours. When I reached there, I was completely tired and frustrated, so I decided to refresh myself with a cup of tea at the nearby stall. At least, I would be able to inquire more about those kids, my research can start from their onwards. While relishing tea, I heard some people were talking about them, but I did not find the conversation at all interesting, as they were telling the old stories, the same stories circulating in the media.

Frustrating though, the excellent tea make up for it; thought it was worth traveling so long at least for the tea. So, I went to the owner, paid bill and thanked him for such a wonderful tea. But, instead of replying to my greetings, he started mumbling to himself “Those bastards don’t have any other topic to discuss, what about the mother of those kids, for whom they were so much?”

Suddenly I realized, I was about to make a mistake, I traveled so long just to get the story. May be I was acting a little selfish there! Really, what about the mother of those teenagers? Was it the right time to talk with her?

Even though I inquired, “You know their mother?”

‘Yes, I know their mother as well as those kids for many years, they have saved life of my daughter too; they were truly gifted, but when I saw this people talking bullshit, I could not withstand that, so got a bit irritated, I am sorry for that .’

‘Its OK, so you know something more than what is being circulated?’

‘Unfortunately, yes!’

‘So tell me, I am here, as I just wanted to hear the real story. I am not a journalist not a writer, but you see I am interested in this, without any selfish motive. At least I want to know what was so special about those kids.’

‘They never listened to their heart, that’s what was special about those kids.’

Further he refused to share any more details, and got engaged with his work. I was baffled why no one was willing to share something more they know in the story. After several minutes of persuasion, he at least got ready to tell me what he meant by “they never listened to their heart.”

‘I won’t tell you the real story, but I can answer your question with another story!’

‘Another story?’ I was shocked. But, without caring for my expression, he started his story.

‘Once there was a girl, there was nothing special about her; she was normal human as me and my daughter. One day she was playing with a matchbox, suddenly her mother noticed that and warned her never to play with fire ever. The restriction continued as she was growing. Everyone around would tell her not to do this, not to do that, not to play with fire as they fear it may hurt her. So she never tried to touch the fire in her life-time. One day she died in an accident and her body was taken to SMASHAN-BHOOMI, where according to the Hindu custom; she was to be cremated. Everyone were for a shock, when they saw that the girl was really special, as she was gifted with a special skin, skin that doesn’t catches fire!’

I asked almost immediately, ‘So, what about those kids, Sir? They too got that special skin.’

‘No, not all, but one got a special skin that doesn’t catch fire, the other could walk on water, while the third one was able to change the direction of wind.’

Saying this, he stopped and immediately asked me to leave as he doesn’t want to share any more details with me now. May be, he was asked for the same story by many other persons, so was more frustrated. But I still haven’t got the answers to all my questions!

‘When those brothers have these super powers, did they realize it only on the day they died? Did they never try to play with fire, water or wind, because they were told not to do so? And was this the cause for their fear from basic elements? They might have died like a hero, saving lives of their friends, but why were they not able to save themselves when they were so special?’

I still don’t know what exactly happened in that school. I tried to persuade the tea-stall owner to tell me what happened on the mystery night, but he would not budge. Was he hiding something or himself don’t know much either, but his grave face when he was mumbling initially, say some another story.

Irritated with myself for having left my important work for that day, just to satisfy my inner hunger for getting the real story, I sat on the footpath near the stall, wondering what might have happened on the unfortunate night, when they have this amazing power, how can they just could not save themselves?

“I am willing to tell you the entire story behind the kids, their mother, their passion, their dreams, but what will you do with it? How will it satisfy you? You, not a journalist or author just a common man!”

(Who is going to help Samey in unlocking the secrets of the Christmas tragedy night? Catch more in the next part of the story.)

About Story (Won't you try before you die?)

TO ALL THE READERS OF THIS BLOG, I will be posting my side of the story (with the same structure, but with a change I thought it might have happened) on 20th, 23rd and 26th of January 2010 in 3 parts. Come back on the dates mentioned, and do comment, even if you dislike it. I will take it as a suggestion for future write-ups.

Enjoy Every Step!

Samey:)

Tweet that!

So, I remember my Dad saying "Watch the evening news, it shall help you in future." "Read news paper, it has the latest." Now he does not say that anymore.

However, that does not mean I should lose track of news and events around. I found that I am not the only one concerned and community called Twitter has a lot to offer, when it comes to this. I have just started using this and am exploring the features and depth and breadth of the spectrum it offers.

However, if you want to be on the map of modern technology, a highly recommended website which defines itself as " Social networking and microblogging service utilising instant messaging, SMS or a web interface." This provides an easy interface for users to follow their friends, colleagues or personalities or even news. You also have 140 words to update others on your own happenings. This is a website which has a lot to offer to the marketing divisions of companies, while studying more about consumers.

Though, it is to be seen how successful this effort would be, it has surely created a wave that is travelling @ speed of forest fire.

Cheers!!

Share your experiences. Tweet me @ nileshmdeo.

Happy Friendship Day

So here I go, another blog, a fresh page waiting to be scribbled on. Thanks to Govind for the concept, which I think would bring a kaleidoscope of thoughts in front of readers. Welcome!

I was told to scribble my thoughts on friendship. Life is a journey which is full of surprises and one which has many ups and downs. Fights, either internal or external, go on continuously. Friendship is the boat that can sail you through these turbulent times. I don't mean to point out that this is the sole reason to jump into friendship but off course it is one of the many.

Let me share with you an instance from my engineering college. One fine evening after exam I called back home, since I was staying in hostel, to talk about my paper. My father was on the other side and he said in shivering voice, 'We are all fine here but your mother is in the hospital and would be discharged soon'. With millions of thoughts flashing back and forth in my mind, I was awestruck. I tried to find out more and with papers to follow I was provided with limited information. Without waiting for another second I called my best friend. Now, when I started explaining him the situation I was holding tears in my eyes. However, he was strong and told me that 'you have to be more patient and this too shall get over'. I kept my cool and those words added so much of strength in me.

It is not only that I realized the value of friendship through these times but no matter what, a friend is what you will always search for when you feel alone. Off course, there are exceptions to all the rules. However, you can share a stupid joke, a crazy memory or be yourself when you are with a friend. This day I remember those moments when I ruled the world while being with my friends. Its like a magic potion that kicks in life within me, whenever I need some.

PS: Share your friendship stories here! We don't offer any free gifts for doing that but we would be more than happy to hear from you about your memories. Have fun!!!