Weekend Frenzies

This week was tight, Monday to Friday, all 5 days were tough for me! I was busy meeting friends who'll soon be moving out of the city, biding them farewell and promising to meet again, packing up my own bags planning to move out next month, studying for an upcoming test and also promising a few close buddies to meet, have fun and make merry this weekend, assuming it's one of the last couple of ones I've got with them before I leave the city!

When I was a student at school and college, there was nothing like a 'weekend', in fact I've always hated holidays then. This recent buzzword- weekend  has been very popular in the West where five days are devoted to only work and a two day break which is usually a Saturday and Sunday. With the onslaught of MNCs in India, everyone has adapted to the concept of the weekend rather effortlessly.


The weekend concept seems appropriate for people who work and require respite from their work, hence a two day break to cool their heels, but surprisingly every age bracket seems to have appropriated the 'weekend' phrase that the word has become pretty ubiquitous. Once Thursday dawns, the familiar 'What plans for the weekend' starts making the rounds not only in offices but even in schools, colleges, universities, supermarkets and other places. What is amusing is that even students in the hostel await their weekends as if they've slogged their ass off in the week. I understand that students also work hard but there's a lot of difference between the work done by them and a professional. The student has nothing else but studies peppered along with some love stories, games and hobbies. This student who has not a care in the world looks forward to the weekend!

I received a few messages yesterday (Thursday) wishing me "Have a happy weekend" and "What's the weekend plan?" as if the weekend is what I have been waiting for. Maybe weekends do matter to hardworking individuals who look forward to the Saturdays and Sundays, but not me! The weekend concept has become so very compulsory that some poor individuals who work on Saturdays and Sundays are made to look very very sorry since they literally don't have the weekend! Now how can anyone not have the weekend! Funny, right.

A weekend is common for everyone but not working in the weekends is not common for everyone. The so-called weekend people seem to possess a frenzy of somehow making the weekend interesting. If anyone says, "I will stay home, watch television and be lazy",  the weekendor says, "Why waste your weekend?" as if the weekend is a commodity! One looks forward to the weekend but when finally the week actually ends, there is the question of not wasting it, you've been working the whole week, the weekend's meant for rest buddies!

Well, well, coming back to me, I know I've things to do, go sign an attendance sheet awaiting my presence in the exam hall this Sunday, meet buddies, complete a few undone tasks, make up for a few things, rub off all the bad episodes, make a list of my favorite hangouts to visit, take a snap shot of everything I loved over here, shop, pack up and move out for which I've got just three weeks, but I don't wanna rush and spoil things coz I'm tired and I wanna revive!


I'd rather have a Sundae and try not to hop out tanning in the sun, give way for a couple of drinks and eats with friends this Sunday, coz I'm tired and weak this week(end)! Have fun!

Remember When

Remember when I was young and so were you
And time stood still and love was all we knew
You were the first, so was I
We made love and then you cried
Remember when

Remember when we vowed the vows and walked the walk
Gave our hearts, made the start, it was hard
We lived and learned, life threw curves
There was joy, there was hurt
Remember when

Remember when old ones died and new were born
And life was changed, disassembled, rearranged
We came together, fell apart
And broke each other's hearts
Remember when

Remember when the sound of little feet 
Was the music we danced to week to week
Brought back the love, we found trust
Vowed we'd never give it up
Remember when

Remember when thirty seemed so old
Now lookin' back, it's just a steppin' stone
To where we are, where we've been
Said we'd do it all again
Remember when

Remember when we said when we turned gray
When the children grow up and move away
We won't be sad, we'll be glad
For all the life we've had
And we'll remember when                                                         Alan Jackson

I sing this to myself every morning and probably every night before going to bed!

A Sincere Hostage

We all see people living in and around our extent of existence, but has anybody experienced the irritability caused when an intruder jumps from that area of existence into your personal space?
Very well then, I might want to give you company and share a dreadful experience of an unwanted intruder in my life!
There are people who are always busy, nah, not with their own lives, but with others'. They're always too desperate to find a way into a happy going individual just like a dog struggling it's way through the neighbor's fence. And yeah, the after effect is always painful, either the neighbor has to fence his property again or the intruding dog gets trapped or is bit by the one guarding it!
There's a dog, a stray one, but a pretty good pet of the whole neighborhood that tossed all the tasty tidbits at it, played go-fetch, cared for it and walked a dog walk every evening! The dog in turn guarded it's street and barked at strangers, and licked the little kids on their way home from school. But do all dogs stay the same? Faithful and friendly? Let's see.

One day this the dog got through the fence, but now what? There's no watch dog! The intruder had it's chance and started digging everywhere it thought it should, all for fun, not knowing what might lay beneath!

A sniff and a horse shoe!
An inch more across and an old wooden log!
A little scrabble and then a on old cracked plate!
Dig in more doggy. There it is- A bone!

The dog has got a bone, isn't that enough for a dog? But no, don't forget, this is an intruder, not just a dog! This nasty thing now starts digging the whole garden till the greens and the browns are exchanged. Not an inch stays where it was.
The discovered items are lined up across the fence, with dirty dribble all over the bone, the dog now barks at  the master as it lays on the freshly dug mud!

Was this all about the dog? No, this is about the hostage! Here goes the rest-
The master throws a slice of bread and walks in as the silly quadruped grabs it and growled for more. The master fed it more of dog food and led it through the door.
This was a dog that this master could lean on, trust and hence he found his way for a nap! The master was now this nasty dog and the hostage had no idea that this intruder brat was up to no good!
Within minutes this sincere hostage was left scarred and torn all over like his garden.

This sincere hostage has been left with scars only for letting this intruder go it's way!

My sincere apology to all those wonderful pets, I love you, never meant to steal your faithful friendly caring image- A dog has always been a man's best friend; but mind you, stray intruders like the one above can turn out to be the most vicious predator!

Here's a warning for you intruder, and for all the others struggling their way in, if I find you digging through my space ever again, I'm not going to be a sincere hostage anymore!

The Teen Cry!!! Please Don't Die!!

Always we hear the cry from teenagers, "Where do we go?", "What do we do?"
"My answer is this: Go home, mow the lawn, wash the windows, learn to cook, build a raft, get a job, visit the sick, study the lessons. Your town doesn't owe you recreational facilities and your parents do not owe you fun." "The world does not owe you a living, you owe the world something. You owe it your time, energy and talent so that no one will be at war, in sickness and lonely again. In other words, grow up, stop being a cry baby, get out of your dream world and get a backbone, not a wishbone. Start behaving like a responsible person. You are important and you are needed. It's too late to sit around and wait for somebody to do something someday. That someday is now and that somebody is you!"

John Tapene, Principal, Northland College, New Zealand!!

       
Every morning I wake up and read the newspaper that proudly publishes the achievements of the youngest blood of its land, kids promising to become the bright future of India. Every time these teens from high school come out with discoveries and inventions I wonder if I could bring our the same level of creativity in me a decade back in time!

But in the squeezed columns of the same I also read about suicides by teenagers, very well born and brought up, with loving families and lots of friends, and all we find is a suicide note stating the causes like mental harassment, failure in examinations and tests, social ditching, joblessness etc etc etc...

A suicide note doesn't make up for the precious and young lives lost in a bottle of rat kill!!!

Work hard, try till you succeed, your failure shouldn't be your last attempt, and your last attempt should be the one till you succeed! Let not your failure be the last thing to happen to you!

Just because somebody you like doesn't feel the same for you doesn't mean you've got nobody on the Earth who'd still love you for what you are. Love yourselves, your life and the people around you. Think of them, your loved ones, your mum and dad, your friends, the way they'll be left broken when they hear you're no more...

Think of those who have nobody to care for and nobody to love, they're still living, making their every minute worthwhile for the world to notice, doing something different. It could be making a reaper nobody thought of earlier, or it could be another social worker helping the ones who really need it, it could be another Benjamin Franklin or another Mother Teresa out there... Remember that all the people now known to the world are known only because of their deeds but not for what they felt or how they lived!

Foregoing sleep and giving up a fancy lifestyle isn't an easy task. What do you think those soldiers and fighters out there on the borders of the nation are guarding it for? To let young blood be shed by inspired suicides? No, they want you alive and working and successful, hoping that someday another Curie, Miller, Archimedes or an Einstein shall come out in the open showing his fellow humans a new way to live life...

If it can be that one thought, that one incident or that one person that inspires you to give up on life, why can there be millions of the same to encourage you to live in a better, happier and more successful way? There are many good reasons in everybody's life one can be proud of and I'm sure even a couple of them are enough to make you breathe till your nineties!!

Had your parents done the same thing before you, you'd still be a sperm or an egg of the future!! Live!! 

Down The Memory Lane!!!

       I was reading another blog lately that had a lot of posts randomly imaging the author's memories... And  I found myself pondering my oldest memories, trying to choose one which I longed to live again...

   There it was- A day from the lovely early 90's, my childhood!

       I saw a garden in front of a house while a three year old me sat in the cozy lap of Nanaji at sunset during summer! Our house was near the beach, I've been living there since I was only a couple of months old till I grew up to be a smart teen!

       I can still remember the last rays of the sun for the day falling on us as I sat looking up at Nanaji, wondering how beautifully his old white skin glowed in the sun, and then he'd smile down at me, rub my cheeks, pull my nose, or tap on my head and say, "Eat your ice cream little sweetheart, it's melting fast!" 

        After I had finished gobbling down the ice cream he'd take me around, show me his garden, water the plants and cut the weeds, and I'd dive my fingers into the mud hoping to get another distinctly shaped stone or a colorful shell to add to my collection, I still remember naming and decorating the box I had put aside for it, "The Precious Box" (Mwahaha)!!

       All this time while he'd be busy with his dear plants, I'd gaze at the setting sun that no longer burnt my eyes, kill some ants (I pity all those creatures that fell into my water trap, I was a bad naughty kid back then), feel the breeze that was fresh off the sands of the beach and see the birds flying up in the sky wondering if I could ever fly like them or the superman or the batman till a low lying plane would scare me off with it's rumbling noise and I'd jump straight into grandpa's lap!!

       After all this I'd sit watching Bugs Bunny and Tom & Jerry stuffing in dinner which was always one of my favorites-there would be cutlets, Maggi, sandwiches, pizza, the famous Mumbaiya Pav Bhaji, even Vegetable Khichdi or anything special that'd come to mind would be on my table- all homemade, and Nina made them all very healthy for me, adding lots of veggies and desi ghee to her dishes without compromising with the taste (my masi is a great cook).

I must say I was pretty pampered back then...!

       I now know that every single memory in my head, that which I miss the most is going to be one of those moments in Mumbai, the whole of my childhood!

       I miss those days, and I miss Nanaji the most, Mr.Nihalchand Shah, your world still has your seat unoccupied, and vacant it shall ever stay! Love you grandpa!