Yenna Rascala… Mind IT!!!!
Somebody has very aptly said that in India, there are two important religions. One is cricket and the other one is cinema. Cinema is so deep-rooted in an Indian’s life, that for everything, cinemas are sought after. The emergence of this tendency dates back to the time when cinema came into existence in India.
There was a girl in my neighborhood and she got her 10th standard results. Unfortunately she had failed in her exams. She was sobbing for the same and I thought of consoling her. I started telling her, that it was ok that she failed and it wasn’t the end. And I went on and on about what she can do next. For about half an hour I gave her a lecture. By then, her brother enters the room and says “Sis, it’s alright. Do not worry. Haven’t you seen that movie where the hero fails his SSLC even after many attempts but becomes an IAS officer the very next year! You might be an IAS officer too.” I didn’t know how to react!! But that girl got convinced that she’d become one too! Oh Lord!
There was one more instance when I asked a 4th standard kid as to what his aim was, he said “I’ll become a Doctor after doing my engineering just like how my favorite hero does, in a movie!”
Okay! I am not a movie-avert person. But then, I find few Indian movies too frivolous. Last week I was watching a kannada movie. A movie from the 80’s I guess. The hero is a cop. He wants to stop a supposedly illegal transportation. He goes chasing a lorry on his bike. He over takes the lorry and tries stopping it. But the lorry hits the bike. The hero falls down and the lorry goes off! Hero’s bike doesn’t start. And guess what the hero does! He runs and successfully chases the lorry, which is going at the speed of a minimum of 50kmph and also arrests the driver! But, mind you, the hero was NOT a Superman!
One more unique thing that happens only in Indian cinema is that, a hero and the heroin can sing; along with the background music. Don’t ask how. But they do. They can sing and also dance simultaneously. Music plays from a world unknown! And this usually happens in a garden or park but these days in locations abroad. This happens only in three situations when the hero loves the heroin or vice verse or both are in love with each other. Alright, they can sing and they dance. But sometimes, they get married and have kids. The kids grow up and they get married, everything happens in one song. Yes, in one song.
Okay all this is, somewhat tolerable. But I do not understand how a hero can just kill 100 or even more rowdies or villains in just one sequence. Alright, philosophically speaking, nothing is impossible. But please, even when all the 100 or more people are armed and the hero is unarmed moreover hero is already injured with 5-6 gun shots, one in the shoulder, one in the neck and one on each knee, still he manages to kill all the 100 people. And what makes me feel like fainting, is that, the hero never dies. Even when the whole of his body is injured! Somehow he doesn’t die. On top of everything, he can even donate blood in such a situation. Heights!
You can enjoy an Indian movie only when you are so able to willingly suspend your rational thinking and disbelief!
A hero can always take any amount of pain, doesn’t cry when anything goes wrong. A hero can sing, dance, be romantic and so on. We attribute all the things to heroes in the cinemas that heroes amongst us don’t usually possess.
And I don’t know why people get so influenced by movies like these! Have we lost our rational thinking or what! Ok, watch the movie, enjoy the stupidity, but why follow it! I am not trying to say that all the Indian movies are stupid. But then most of them are. Why can’t the directors show the audience, what is believable and acceptable! There is no meaning in projecting something as silly as these all the time and in every movie. Why cannot a real hero be shown? Why should a hero always be projected as someone who has super powers?! Ok if that’s what you want to show then make the hero a super-man or a spider-man then, at least we know the reason behind the hero’s brave and super-natural acts.
Stupidity cannot be ‘entertaining’ all the time. These days most of the Indian movies hardly make any sense! They are neither entertaining nor do they give any message to the audience. Then what is the use of making such movies. Why should we watch such ridiculous and illogical movies anymore! ; Enough of tolerating these ludicrous and nonsensical movies. Let us hope that our generation can watch movies which can be enjoyed and have something that we can relate to or learn from.
Everyday Conflicts!
My alarm woke me up with its stentorian ways of wishing good morning! It was eight in the morning. I heard my mom laugh and say “I have never seen anyone who wants an alarm at eight in the morning!” I ignored the comment and jumped out of my bed still feeling drowsy and rushed towards the bathroom. It was already occupied. “It’s Sowmya there… she has gone for a bath” said my mom. “What is the hurry mom, anyway she doesn’t have to go anywhere. Why does she have to go for a bath now” I said, with a groggy voice and banged the door as hard as I could! “Wait” cried my sister on the top of her voice!
One part of me was getting worried that I’d be late to work. Whereas the lethargic part of me urged me to look at my bed with affectionate eyes and advised me “15 more minutes of sleep wouldn’t hurt” and there I was, back to my dream world. I was disturbed by my mom. I got up to realize it was already quarter to nine. I only had 15 minutes to get dressed. I brushed my teeth in what seemed like a few seconds. I was to take bath. But I suddenly remembered ‘when perfumes are here, why fear!’ This is my mantra to get ready quickly.
I was ready to leave. But I couldn’t find my bike keys. “Ok it must be somewhere” I thought… I kept searching everywhere possible. And found it under a heap of clothes. And another search was on, for my other necessary things. Finally I somehow managed to find everything. And thus I felt happy because it wasn’t often I found everything I wanted in my room, that too when I needed them the most!
So I got ready by 9.00 and left home. I was on my way to my work place. When I reached, I heard a lot of people greeting me but I didn’t have the time to respond. I had to report to the principal and sign in the ‘teachers’ register’. I hurried quickly. I was gasping for breath by the time I reached the office room. I quickly finished the formalities and was about to enter the class when the principal sent for me. I didn’t know what to feel when I heard what he said. “Madam, please ensure you don’t go with a chewing gum into the classroom” Oh God! Could I ever quit that habit! “Certainly, Sir” I replied and left.
Oh! The topic I was to talk about was “Discipline” ‘Awesome’ I thought and started my lecture. I started my speech but something pricked me from inside… this was not something which I should be talking about. My parents had always asked me to preach what I practice. Being an undisciplined person myself I felt I could not continue my lecture.
I somehow found a funny contradiction in my job as a lecturer. I was compelled by my position to urge the students to be disciplined whereas it took me herculean efforts to refrain myself from telling them that ‘it’s ok’ to be mischievous!
So I was there in the classroom not knowing how effective I would be in preaching them about “Discipline”. I told them how they should plan their day and work on it. I advised them on starting their day early and how they can organize their schedule. I suggested them to make a to-do-list and how it could benefit them in future. I was surprised how I knew so much about discipline. All the time I knew I was superficial. I just hoped my students didn’t notice. After all the gyan-giving, I came back home.
Before going to bed that night, I made up my mind I would wake up early, spend some time on all the good things like exercising, organizing my room, tidying up my stuff and so on. And I fell asleep. The next morning I woke up hoping it was still 6 but how can it be, it was 8 already!
What Mattered For Me The Most!!!
It was 6.25 in the evening. I was due, at 6.30. Within 5 minutes, I had to reach a place which was 10 kilometers far. I was riding at a speed of 120km/hour; a breakneck speed indeed. To my horror, I dashed into a vehicle. I fell down. My neck started hurting badly. I thought my neck broke. I was panicking. A male voice was calling out my name. I thought I was dead and I reached hell and Mr.Yama must be calling my name. Now the voice was getting louder and louder. And a hand shook me. That was when I realized that I was dreaming and the male voice was of my dad. I’d fallen down from my bed. Hmmm, it was such a horrible dream. I didn’t want to die so soon though.
My dad reminded me that I was late for work. It was already 8.30. I had to reach my work-station by 9.00. I’d to get ready and ride my bike till my workplace which was 20 kilometers far. Rash driving was my routine though.
I reached at sharp 9.00, in spite of a heavy traffic jam. And this talent of mine was the basic and also important requisite for my job. By the way, I didn’t introduce myself to you. I’m Amit Kartikeyan. And I work as a delivery boy in a pizza restaurant.
I love my job. Because, driving all the vehicles at high-speeds is my passion. I love riding bikes. Though the company gave me a bike to ride, I insisted that I would ride my own bike. And the company agreed. Everyday, I start riding my bike from 10.30 in the morning. That is when the “pizza-corner”, the restaurant where I work, takes orders for home-delivery. As you know, home-delivery of pizza has got a great demand these days. It has become a new fad in recent years. My company has its own policies regarding home-delivery. If the delivery is late even by 5 minutes, a discount of 50% will be given on the bill, to the customers. And the same amount will be cut from the delivery-boy’s salary. So every delivery boy has to concentrate on the job, as his salary is in stake.
I have made many friends here at work. Most of them are still studying and are doing part-time jobs. One of them is Sheetal. I like this girl in a special way. She is talented, very active, friendly, very strong a girl, who’s very independent. She’s doing the last year of her graduation and at the same time, she’s a member of a social-service organization. She does all these “save-earth” marathon and stuff like that. She’s one of the kinds. And the other one’s Ryan Winston. We all call him stone. He’s dead contrast to what we call him. He’s very sensitive; very girlie, so to say. But he is a boy with a great heart. He gives a part of his earnings towards charity he, also, is a student. I have to admit, that he’s very talented and brilliant. He is also, one of the kinds.
All my friends here are so matured, so responsible, so dignified and all that, at times I feel I’m an odd-man-out. But, being with these all-good-and-no-bad kind of people, I feel so weird. I used to feel in the beginning, that I am working with a group of antique pieces. I used to ask myself, as to, why these people can’t be like me, enjoying life, going the way life takes you and all that. But as I got to know these people from close-quarters, I realized that everyone enjoys life in their own way. However, Kudos! To people of this kind; because, they find happiness in others’ happiness. Okay enough of praising the goodies.
I don’t really have to tell you what exactly my job is; because, you already know what a delivery boy does. Let me tell you about my first pizza delivery experience.
It was a bright sunny day. I dashed into the supervisor’s cabin and I asked him for a job. He enquired as to, what job I could do. I said I could ride a bike with high-speed. So I myself suggested him to take me as a delivery boy. The supervisor looked ambivalent. Of course no one would agree to employ me for my attire. I was all bearded and shabby looking. I understood that from his looks and I convinced him telling I’d go in a well-dressed and decent way. The supervisor still hesitated to tell me anything. After few more minutes of persuasion, the supervisor at last agreed to try me.
The very next day, I had to deliver pizzas to a house, which was 12 kilometers far. The time given for me was 20 minutes. It was really challenging. The thrill in the job, made me like my job more. I had five more minutes to go. I was near a traffic signal and for my bad luck; it showed red by the time I reached there. I couldn’t afford to wait. I looked both the sides. Traffic cop was not there. I just raised the accelerator and rushed forward. Unfortunately, a cop followed me. I had to miss his sight. So I just kept going forward. Somehow I managed to deliver the pizzas on time. But I had to pay a fine for not following traffic rules. Paying the fine was not good. But the thrill I gained was over-whelming.
And one month got over like in no time. I got my first salary. That day, was the best day of my life. I had a great feeling that I had not had in the 23 long years of my life. It was my, hard-earned money. I had many times earned money in bike-racing and sorts. It was all easy money. But nothing had given me as much pleasure as this one. I went home. I gave the money to my father. He looked at me. A surge of happiness and pride was evident in his eyes. He didn’t express, but I understood that he was really very happy with the salary I got, although that was not what an engineer would earn!
Yes! I had done my engineering in a very renowned college. I was not a bad student and at the same time, I wasn’t good at all the subjects. But electronics had always been my field, right from my child-hood. I pursued my engineering for four long years with great-expectations about my future. I got bad results in all the semesters. I was the coolest guy in the college so to say; A very easy-going kind of guy. I always used to go on rides with my friends. Girls used to love being with me. With all these kinds of enjoyment, I don’t know whether I missed out on my studies, but I used to get very less percentage. And in the end, I was still expecting to get a job and a great salary.
It was my last semester in the college. After a lot of struggle, I got a project to finish; after that, was campus recruitment. None of the companies were ready to recruit more people; because, the storm of “Recession” had already hit the IT world in a whack! And apparently priority was given to those geeks, who got the highest of marks. And the rest of us, were told that we would get jobs after one or two years.
First few days of the jobless year, went well. A season of spring, I can call it. I just enjoyed my life with my friends. I went on long rides, I went to clubs and I boozed with my friends; after all, its human tendency to get bored with things which are frequently done. And thus I got bored with all this. I stayed back at home most of the time, watching TV or chatting online or something of that sort. My dad used to indirectly abuse me everyday. But how could I help it? Controlling recession wasn’t in my hands. One day, my father’s wrath pissed me off, so badly, that I went for a long ride with full speed of 120km/hour. I hit a lorry. For my misfortune nothing happened to me at all, but my bike had gone for a toss.
I was really depressed in life. And I tried all methods to end my life. But nothing seemed to work. Whenever I tried killing myself, I would join hospital at the most. And that would be it. Many a times, my father would even go to the extent of crying, seeing my state. My mom would literally cry. My father tried getting me a job, through his contacts. I worked as an accountant in a company for 15 days and I quit. I worked in a mechanic shed. I did many odd jobs. But I never liked any of the jobs. I always thought that they’re not the jobs that I must be doing, being an engineer. I aspired for a white-collar job. I never wanted to do small jobs. I was completely lost. I was helpless.
It was almost one year after I finished my engineering. But things were still the same. I didn’t have any interest in life. I’d grown my beard. I never even minded if I were presentable or not. One fine evening, I was sitting on a park-bench. I saw an ice-cream vendor, who was speaking English very fluently. It’s tough to find English-speaking ice-cream vendors in India. That man interested me a lot. I went to him and spoke to him. He was an engineering student too. He said “it doesn’t matter what kind of job you are doing for the kind of qualification you have. The thing which matters the most, is, my friend, whether you are happy with your job or not. It’s just for time being that we have a rough phase. When our country itself is suffering a lot because of recession, why add our burden to it, pal? Why to waste our precious energy doing nothing? It’s better to do something or the other. May be something you have a flair for. Why don’t you work too, like how I do?”
His words moved me. That was when; I realized that I was a burden not only to my parents, but also to the whole nation, if I sat idle. That very day, I went into the pizza-corner and joined. After joining the restaurant, I saw many people like me; people, who’re studying, people who’re degree holders, many of the well-educated youngsters, working hard here without wasting their time and energy. We all would get jobs in some or the other company, one day or the other. But till then, we don’t want to waste our wits and skills. Not only pizza-delivery. There are many jobs which require youngsters. May it be social-service, may it be politics, may it be anything for that matter, all that we have to understand is that, our country India is dependent mainly on its Human Resource.
I keep suggesting all my friends to engage themselves in some job or the other. You get to see what life is like, when you work one-level-down. You also get exposure towards the true Indian economy. You’ll get to explore your own skills and your primitive instincts which are latent within yourself. Nothing can be as beneficial as doing some job or the other, rather than waiting for “the dream job”. At the end of the day, what counts is, if you are satisfied with what you do or not.
A story with a cup of coffee!
I was there sitting on my favorite chair beside the window which had always given me room to my inner feelings. I don’t know how, but strangely this window purports to be responding to my feelings. My hand was feeling warmth of a piping hot cup of coffee. The coffee was just the way I would like it, strong, hot and its aroma spread in to the whole room.
The taste of coffee was long-lasting and was still lingering in my mouth. Coffee resembled my bitter-sweet feelings. The nostalgic feelings were mellowing sweet things in my mind. It was as if somebody was playing an old movie in front of my eyes. All the good and bad things were just rolling in my memory.
I was missing him more than anything. It was raining. And I always miss him whenever it rains and I have a cup of piping hot coffee in my hand. And I miss him when I’m seeing a sunny day, all bright. He was a man of such great energy and enthusiasm, which wouldn’t match even the young people of the present time. It’s not only me, feeling this way about this man. Everyone who knows him would say the same thing. Oh! I always miss him.
It was early days of our marriage. One rainy evening, I was reading a novel. He came into the room. He just asked me to go out to the terrace with him. Oh but then, I hated getting wet in rain! But I thought I should make him happy at least once. I always had refused to do whatever he wanted me to. We were so contrast. Like North Pole and South Pole. But this time, I wasn’t going to upset him. So I went with him to the terrace. We were getting wet in the rain. He was a man with a lot of aesthetic feelings. He was just enjoying himself in the rain. And there I was, standing beside him and hoping for the rain to stop soon. I must say I didn’t quite like the whole getting-wet-in-the-rain thing. But I just loved to see him enjoying himself like a small kid. His enthusiasm and innocence were so contagious that, after a while, I found myself enjoying the rain too!
I always hated the taste of coffee. I would reject it at the first set. And he, my husband, loved coffee more than anything in this world. He loved it and I would hate the smell of it. But he always respected my likes and dislikes. He never expected me to be the way he wanted me to be. I never wanted to hurt him. But even the smell of coffee would nauseate me.
But one day, he made me sit in front of his favorite window, which had a beautiful view of a park and the blue sky. With cool breeze just spreading its fresh perfumes. He came with two cups of hot coffee. He just sat beside me and asked me “do you like the view?” I could hear myself say “oh yeah. I just love it”. He had this smile of satisfaction on his innocent face. He took the coffee mug into his hand. I knew he wanted me to give him company. But he didn’t say anything. I didn’t make any move either. I was just seeing him. He sipped from the cup of coffee. I was staring at him. I was wondering why coffee makes this man so happy! I could see him relish it. I just grabbed the cup in my hand and I did just the same as him. And that’s it. At an impulse, I loved coffee. I don’t know if it was because I loved him, or the coffee was really that good. I still don’t know.
It was the first anniversary of our marriage. We didn’t want to celebrate in a great ceremony. We just threw a party to our closest friends, which numbered to only 5 people. We didn’t gift each other anything. But we just thought we’d do something together, that we have never done before, in our lives ever. So we thought we’ll have a moon-light dinner and we thought of having champagne. It was his idea; the whole champagne thing. We had a nice dinner. Somehow my cooking was very nice that day. After dinner, he opened the champagne bottle. He never had any drinks too. He told me he wanted to have it with his wife. I know it sounds strange. But the man was a strange one by himself. I must rephrase strange to unique.
I had never had drinks… but I knew a little about its effects. I had heard it from my friends. They said, a drunk person speaks his/her mind out. So, when I finished having the first peg of champagne, I started speaking a lot. I thought I was high. I kind of spoke a lot of things about how I felt about him, how he had brought happiness into my life and all that. The last thing I said was”I Love You”. It was the first time I’d told him that. For that matter, it was the first time in a year of marriage that I’d spoken my heart out. I could see he was smiling the whole time. After sometime, I felt sleepy. So we just went in and slept.
The next morning, when we were having our early morning coffee, I could see my husband staring at me continuously without a wink. And he had a taunting smile on his face. And I gave a “what-is-it” look. His smile was broadened. I said “what?”. He started laughing. I felt a bit embarrassed. I just looked at my face in the mirror. Everything was fine. I went to him and I asked “what is it? Why are you laughing?” after laughing for some more time, he said “oh u spoke so many things yester-night when you were high on champagne!” I said “oh I did. Didn’t I? I don’t remember a single thing!” strangely I remembered every bit of what I’d spoken. It wasn’t supposed to be this way. My friends always said that we wouldn’t remember what we’d have spoken when we were drunk! He laughed louder and said “it wasn’t champagne that you had yesterday. It was just a cool drink”. I could feel my blood rushing into my face. I was blushing. Oh I so wished I had tasted cool drinks sometime earlier, or at least had seen what a champagne bottle would look like! He had tricked me. And I had become a victim of it!
We had two beautiful years of married life and then, we had a great gift. We had a daughter. We entered into parenthood. We both got along with it so well as if we were parents all our lives. Though we had a really nice time seeing our daughter grow up into a little girl, we had some problems to cope with.
Our daughter had some breathing issues when she was two years old. We had to admit her in a hospital. She was lying on the hospital bed with saline tubes sticking to her little hand and a big oxygen mask covering her cute little face. Somehow I knew it would all end. And I was brave. I had never even thought my husband, a brave man one that, would cry like a baby. He just couldn’t see our baby in that state.
It wasn’t like we were some couple from heaven that we had a very happy married life with no tussles at all. Yes, we had a very happy married life, to a great extent. But once or twice we even went to the extent of getting divorced. But we always had those sit-and-talk-it-out sessions, which would help us out and put us out of the misery. Just to get rid of our anger, we would even hit each other. And that would be it… we would smile and laugh together, the next minute.
When our daughter was fifteen, we had a big fight, right in front of her (I guess that was the first time SHE had seen us fighting), she had to calm us down! Oh she played the role of our parent. We both did feel ashamed that we fought in front of our daughter. But we were surprised to see our daughter, our cute little girl talking sense to us! It was a great moment. She was already so big!
Then when our daughter got a chance to go abroad for her higher studies, we had no choice but to agree because we couldn’t stop a mountain of energy from just having its way. I guess she had inherited that from her father. She is so much like him. So passionate, ardent, zealous so on! Though I had no intention of letting our only daughter go so far away from us, my husband talked me into it and I had to agree with the majority.
After few years we married our daughter off and she settled in India with her family. Meanwhile, my husband retired from his job. He had made enough plans for his retirement. He wanted to travel, he wanted to do something great, like you know, being of some use to others in the last stages of our lives. And I couldn’t agree more. So we started our expeditions. For almost five years after his retirement, we went to places, adopted kids from all over India, and gave them scholarships for their education. We donated money to free hostels; we conducted blood donation and organ donation camps. Oh they were all lifetime experiences. We met many people. W made many friends. Many young volunteers, who helped us with our work, happened to become our very good friends. Our daughter and her husband would also help us whenever they found time. My husband wasn’t still satisfied. He wanted to help more people for longer period and not just donating meager sums. So he wanted to have a perennial source of income which would help us do the services. We thought of starting a business. One thing we hadn’t done yet.
We started making serious plans about some business. But what business could we possibly do, with 60 years of age on our back! But till then it never had occurred to us that we were so old. My husband had kept both of us so young and lively.
At last, we decided to start a business, which both of us had a lot of love for. “Coffee” was the first thing to bring us both together so close. So we decided that we open a coffee shop. We didn’t make any big investments. We turned our house itself into a restaurant. I must admit many young friends of ours had helped us with the whole work.
We started the business. We had all kinds of people coming to our shop. But it took a long time. For almost six months, our business was very slow. But later it started catching up, as went enhanced the look and ambience and used some modern technologies and methodologies to attract customers. The enhancing-the-ambience was wholly our daughter’s idea. She and her husband worked days and nights with us, to do that. And then, there was a regular income for us, so we could continue our mission, the very purpose for which we had started a business at the first place.
Eighteen months back, the part of me which kept me alive went away. Yes, he passed away. I was dreaded for almost a year. Because every part of the coffee shop, the home, the surroundings, even my own self reminded me of him.
You know, life really heals every wound… in a slow and sensible way.
Now I still miss him. A lot. But I don’t cry. Nor do I feel upset. Because, he has loved me enough for hundreds of lifetimes. I know he still does.
As of now, this home cum coffee shop, my daughter who is just like her father, my young friends, the so many kids that my husband and I adopted, the so many commitments which we still have, and this window… the door to the sweetest part of my life, are keeping me afloat.
Accounting My Opinions!
Everything happens for the first time. And then on you get used to things or get familiar with them. But few things stay as mind-boggling as they were, the first time. Accounts, is one such thing that has ever happened to me. The subject always seems to bewilder me. It demands a different behavior, attitude and outlook.
After the lovely school life, with high aspirations, I attended my first commerce class in PU. It was an introductory class and the lecturer kept babbling about the whole different world of commerce and its semantics , for one whole hour . But I was too amazed and charged up to listen to the lecture. The next class was “Accounts”.
First thing we were going to learn was “definition and principles of accounting”. Definition was quite alright. But then manifested, ‘the obscurity of accounts’. The principles wouldn’t just make any sense to me. Every time a principle was taught, I went on to become more confused and my face would have a 1000 watt question mark on it!
Principle #1: Going concern-concept; why should the company assume it’s going to be there forever?? [When, the fact is, nothing would last forever]
Principle #2: separate entity concept: this was the first time I heard anything as senseless as this one; the company has a separate identity. It is a person by itself??!!! Incredulous!
And so went on the class… leaving me with doubts which are still unanswered!
I somehow coped up with the theory part of Accounts… but balance sheet was one major head ache. Loss is considered as an asset! I was bewildered.. and I still continue to be so.
I started feeling commerce is a world of fantasy and fallacy combined together in major proportions with something called behavioural patterns, human resource, strategies and stuff like that… after 5 years of living, eating, breathing and sleeping accounts I am still left with a whole bunch of question marks. In the world of accounts everything can be entirely real or everything can be a window dressing. Money which we note on accounts to be gone, would be something called a “non-cash expense” money which, in balance sheet is termed to be an asset can even turn out to be something which is made up!
With all those things obscure and confusing accounts has still got a nice ring to it. Accounts, if understood in a proper way can actually take business and also individuals to great financial positions… accounts can also provide shelter against unexpected misfortunes. But dumb-heads like me do not have the proper attitude (or should i say aptitude) towards accounts and that’s what makes us live ignorant of accounts.
However being an accounts student for 5 years, I wish I could write good things about accounts. And educative thesis about depreciation, appreciation, debt-equity ratios and stuff like that! But accounts still seems illogical to me!
P.S: it’s just my comprehension of accounts. Stereotyping not intended!
roller-cat-coaster!!
Life itself is a roller-coaster. And in life there are a few small rollercoaster rides which could really matter to you. I am going to talk about one such roller coaster ride that I experienced recently. Since I want you to experience a surprise element about what the roller coaster is all about, you need to just wait till I tell you about it!
I reached the place like almost 2 hours in advance. They told me I cannot sit around in that place. I was clueless of what to do. I found a place where I could sit. It happened to be a school. I sat there wondering why I so stupidly reached that early. I saw a kid. He was waiting for his mom, he said. I couldn’t resist talking to him. I was too bugged to sit quietly. I started a conversation. After a while he had to go. And I had to let him go. And there I was, all alone, thinking how to kill time. I called up a friend. After a while my friend had to go too. Oh why on earth are people so busy, I thought. A crow there which was equally busy as my friend was too busy to notice I was not its bathroom. And it mistook my head for a restroom! At least I had something to do now. I got on with cleaning…
And finally the wait was over. I went near the entrance. The security guard checked my identity and all the required documents and let me in. There were two more verification counters to be passed before there was a security check. It took me few minutes to pass through the verification counters. After that was the security check. The lady took me into a room and checked me all over for any kind of weapons, equipment etc. Once I cleared that checking I was asked to leave my bag at the security counter there and was asked to sit in the designated waiting area. I was waiting there for what seemed like an eternity before I was called.
I was asked to give my photograph and finger prints. It was again for security purposes they said. After the so-called biometric data collection, I was sent into the battle-ground. Till then it was like some airport security check. There were two people wearing over-coats that looked like a life jacket (something like a jacket which life guards in the amusement parks wear). They both verified my documents and ID once again and then asked one more life guard to escort me. I was escorted to seat number 22. And then it started feeling like a pre-roller-coaster-ride moment.
They positioned my documents on the table and asked me to be seated there. I was to read a “Dos and Don’ts” list which was there on the table. It was one more hour before the roller-coaster ride would start. You have this feeling of excitement added with a little bit of fear and a little bit of anxiety before you start your ride on the coaster. I was feeling just the same. I started reading the Dos and Don’ts. I organized my ID, my Admit card and the two pencils etc, on the table. I looked at the clock. I looked at the person in the next cabin. And the time seemed not to move. I bit my nails. I set my hair right. I again read the dos and don’ts. And so I went on for what felt like an hour or something.
After what was half an hour the life guards (the coordinators or whatever they are called) came to check all the required paraphernalia once again (Like how in an amusement park they’d come to check the seat belts for people on the roller-coaster). After fifteen more minutes they came back to switch on the computer monitors and then once again to log us in. Then, to verify the bio-metric details which were now being displayed on the computer screen. Then they came again to give the username and password. The life guards collected all the things on the table excepting the ID. And the ride (test) would commence in fifteen minutes. I was waiting. Waiting to see what was in store for me. Then like the security announcements a tutorial began. It scared the hell out of me. I was growing more anxious. I was sending silent prayers to God; That I should not foolishly press some button or the other lest the test ends or something goes entirely wrong.
The test began; the roller coaster ride of CAT. I didn’t realize how 140 minutes passed. I still don’t know what to say about the exam. I don’t know how I performed. But all that I can say is that, it was one helluva ride I enjoyed.
This was my CAT coaster experience. Hope you liked reading it!
Thanks.
On a Sunday… in my school!
School always reminds all of us of our sweet old days… our naïve friendships, small joys and the ever-memorable bygones. You always have this special place in your heart, for your school friends. When I was in school, I don’t know what used to hold me back, but I never used to mingle with my classmates. May be I had my own mental-block. I was in a cocoon.
After school, I joined a renowned college in a big city, which happened to mould me into someone entirely different. I became an extrovert, loosened myself up and came out of almost all my inhibitions. I made friends with many people. A new ‘self’ of mine came into being.
But then I was missing something in life. I had no one to look back to. I had no childhood friends, no such great memories in school, I almost felt like there was no past, to my life. But I wanted to go back to school again, enjoy the old times with the friends that I had back then.
One night I sat down to think and realized, all the time when I was refraining myself from enjoying, my friends in school had always tried to pull me out of my shell. But to no benefit. They had always tried to make me feel one among them. Oh! I was being such an alien!
Believe it or not, I wasn’t even in touch with any of my school friends. What do I do? How do I get back to them? I had no idea. We had no Alumni association in my school. I felt so hopeless.
At that moment, I remembered my only hope, my only savior; The Social Networking Websites. I first tried searching and found none of my school mates. Then I tried with the school’s name, then with the town’s name. Finally I succeeded in catching hold of 10 of my schoolmates in there.
It became like a big networking thereafter. One by one, all my schoolmates got in touch with each other.
I first met two of them in Bangalore. We spoke for hours together. The same girl who hadn’t even said a ‘hi’ when in school, had met them in a city and spoken for hours, I’m sure it was a matter of surprise to my friends. I wanted to see them all and we all wanted to meet. Years had passed since all of us got together. So the three of us put the same idea across and decided that on a Sunday after 4 months, we would all meet up; the whole batch. We never thought of the odds.
Our first step was to get in touch with all the batch-mates. It wasn’t as easy as we thought it would be. For the whole 4 months we kept trying to contact all our mates. When we were trying to contact our friends, we understood how badly all of us wanted to meet.
We all had the same feeling. All the people I spoke to were first surprised that it was me, who was speaking to them, then we spoke about our school and the old days and then we would all feel the same longing to go back to school. Finally, the Sunday was a week away. And our excitement had no limit.
The choice of place was decided unanimously. It was our school. Some of us approached our school management and got permission for our “Re-union”.
We were all set, for the great get-together. I was late! I was late by almost half an hour. But it wasn’t a day for excuses! I went there and all my friends came to me with big smiles, we all hugged one another, almost everyone had come within reasonable time and we all gathered in the auditorium.
We all gathered, yeah. But what were we supposed to do? There was acute silence. None of us knew what to do next. We sat there, like that, for a while. We wanted one of us to break the silence. We were all shocked for the way we were behaving but then we didn’t know our next step.
Slowly we all started murmuring. Two of us got up and gave a small speech about how all this started. Then we had each one of us speaking something or the other about our school, our class, our teachers and we had no stop. The day went on with lots and lots of fun. We all chit-chatted, sang together, ate together, danced together, laughed to the happiness of our hearts. And we also cleaned the auditorium together.
It was time to put an end to the day. None of us were willing to do so. But then we had to. After all we couldn’t be there forever. We all exchanged sad looks that we would have to leave this fun and joy. Then slowly all of us realized it’s not the last time we’d meet. We all decided that we’d meet often. We all bade goodbyes to one another.
We had all left with a light heart and happy feelings. We made something. We created something that day. We made it a memorable day. It’s not often that you get to make memories like this one.
Ah! That was quite a day!
Hope it was worth a read! Your comments are most welcome!
ramyajyothsna 