A Game of Marble

"There you go", said Amitabh triumphantly, afterall he has hit the marble and his total marble count stood at 10 now.He was a newbie in this marble business, but he was no rookie. Within a week he has almost mastered the art of hitting a marble by bending his fingers expertly and aim like (or atleast pretend like ) someone who knew his marbles.

"Have you seen Aditya", asked Sukhjeet. "Nah", said Amitabh while trying to gauge the best way to hit the marble so that his marble would end nearest to the pegging hole and help him score the 'goal'. "Abe teen din se school nahin aaya hai (he hasn't come to school since 3 days)", said Sukhjeet.

"I am also playing", said Gautam while walking towards their small marble 'playground" from the classroom. Amitabh sheepishly looked at Sukhjeet. Gautam was a master marble player and letting him play with them would mean loosing some of the marble they have collected so far."We are not playing for real, this is a jhutthi mutthi game between me and Sukhjeet", said Amitabh trying to build a background to avoid playing with Gautam. 'Oh, alright, I will also join you", said Gautam in his flambuoyant way, so typical of someone good at marbles. "But we are not playing for real, you get it right ?", said Sukhjeet, giving his last shot at shooing Gautam away and playing at peace with Amitabh, with whom he had a chance to win some more marbles."I get it, we won't play for real but we can still play for points ...right ? One hit , 10 points" said Gautam. This seemed to be the clicnher, and Amitabh & Sukhjeet (now assured of safety of their marble "wealth") abondened their game to let Gautam joined them.

Gautam stood at the small pegging hole, took 1 marble each from everyone, shook them between his closed palms and threw it away from the whole on the ground. Now the goal of the game was to reach to the pegging hole, while hitting other's marble as many times with your marble as you can. Every time you hit others marble you will have to score the goal with your marble by hitting it inside the pegging hole.

As it turns out, Sukhjeet's marble went the farthest, Amitabh's was second nearest and Gautam's, the closest. Seems like the throw wasn't so random as it seemed at first."Oye haan... Gautam do you know why Aditya hasn't come to school for so many days" , asked Sukhjeet suddenly, continuing his conversation which he started with Amitabh with Gautam now. " This guy is still stuck with Aditya", said an irritated Amitabh, " if he didn't come, he didn't come, must be having fun at home yaar, who cares".

"Nothing yaar, I was asking just like that only", said Sukhjeet, " actually, I am missing the toast he used to bring for his lunch, he told me his mom toast it with something like butter but not butter, and that is why it tastes so different and so good.

"Cheese".

"What ?"

"That thing like butter which is not butter is called cheese, Aditya told me this and you know me, once you tell me something, I don't forget", said Amitabh, cashing on the opportunity to brag about himself. Something which he has started to enjoy since very recently.

"There has been some accident on the bridge, A jeep collided with the truck, Aditya was also there in the Jeep. He is in hospital right now. That is why he is not coming, my elder brother was talking to his frind yesterday, he was talking about Aditya's sister who also in the jeep. But Aditya will not come to school for sometime now." said Gautam, feeling a tad proud of providing a information meant for grown-ups only and quoting his sources as well.

"Yes I know, Aditya & his sister will always go home in their Papa's jeep, I wish my Papa's also had a jeep like that. Once Aditya invited us to his home across the bridge, we went in that jeep to his home during the interval , it was so nice and bumpy" said Amitabh, a little lost reminscing about that glorious visit.

"Did he break any bones ?" asked Sukhjeet out of curiosity.

"I think so, his left arm I guess. But my brother was telling his friend that his head got struk with the jeep's window very badly, his head is all wrapped up in bandages right now. He was unconcious for two days."

"Like the Mummy in Duck Tales ?" asked Amitabh, who was feeling a little left out in this rather serious conversation. He was still remembering the little trip they had. Aditya was always like that, sharing his tiffin with everyone, inviting them to his home and letting us use his new new things, he thought ruefully. Aditya not coming to school was not a good news.

"he he...sort of, I can only imagine, Aditya all wrapped in bandages, running behind us for our marbles making scary mummy noises... ...wwooooooo ...woooooooo ..wooooooooooooooooooo" said Gautam and they all started laughing.

And with that Gautam hit Sukhjeet marble once before hitting the peggin hole. He was, as expected the winner of the game. They started another game but midway someone shouted from the classroom, "Oye, Neppo is here, come back to class if you don't want to be flagged once again". Nappo (aka Napoleon) was the nick name they had given to the Principle of the school who was very strict and very short. How he was named after a French war legend in a school deep down in indian hinterland was a mystery. However, thanks to this, every kid in the school knew who Napoleon Bonaparte was (a really short guy, a detail most relevant at that age). The fact that Neppo always did his inspection with a short stick in his hand like a sword, just helped his notoriety as Neppo.

So they ran back quickly to the classroom, not before collecting & counting their respective "marble wealth".

Boring Hippie that I am

Hippies were known for their incessant travelling ways. The whole world was their home. They would leave one home and move to another home. I guess, normal people felt a little jealous of their 'free world' policy.

But those were the glorious 70s(an era that I personally identify more with than the one I live in), slowly & gradually, this 'tribe' began to wear out. More and more people joined the mainstream (Some actually became the CEOs of big MNCs :P did someone say Steve Jobs? ). Today hippies are mostly folklore, a nostalgic reminder of the past that was. No more men/women with long hairs, no more people with weird glasses (not really weird, but just tinted, big & round actually is more like it :)), no more drug and marijuana overdoses, and no more unanimous contempt for the 'establishment' without really caring about the reasons for it.

But mind you, 70s or not, long hair or not, dirty filthy stink or not and ‘pot’ or not :P, hippies still do exist, right amidst the normal people, disguised as THE normal (sometimes more normal than the normal people). Now this new "tribe" has two clans, the one who were born that way and the others who had to become that way.

The first clan have learnt the way to masquerade themselves, to 'gel well' into the society. Even though in our modern world, nobody really cares even if someone is really weird, members of this clan take due precautions. They are, from the day they were born, the citizen of the free world. And they love this world, where travelling is so much faster and reaching out to people super easy.

The other clan is just the boring non weird kind junta who has to go the hippie way, because they have been forced to live this life for very long time. Did you ever noticed the ways of a perpetually travelling salesperson, consultant or just a plain person whose job hopping involved moving a lot ?

Being a hippie is not how you look; it is for my utter lack of creativity," the state of mind". They are the people who can never really settle down in a place because who knows when they will have to make a move. They keep most of their essential stuff in the front pockets of their travel bags, so they can access it without ever really 'unpacking' their stuff. In fact, they are good at packing, but really bad (or downright lazy) at unpacking. It just seems too much work, when one has to undo it anytime soon.

This attitude towards unpacking stretches itself to everything. Friends are made but not really. Who knows when one would have to say good bye. The less involved one is, the less it hurts. Relationships are best avoided, especially ones with the strong strings.

This also means that at times one has to fake a lot of things so to avoid being called the 'stoneman', but long term faking, they say, becomes a habit hard to break. Hence when it comes to something real, one doesn't really remember what 'real thing' was like. And before one actually remembers, one is too far away to really do something about it. And then there is the next thing waiting for one to fake. Who's got the time to mull over the water under the bridge?

For those who care, I belong to the second clan; you can choose yours and be glad if you don't belong to the tribe at all. These are tough times for "proselytized" hippies.

Sitting here in a waiting lounge moving from one juncture to another juncture of my life, I hope that I would be able to settle down soon. I still hope to see the world, and yeah the whole of it. But I also hope to find a place where I know I would want to come back to, when I am weather beaten, jet lagged and too tired to travel any further. The place where I would plant some seeds and see them grow into trees, the place I would be able to keep a pet, the place I would lay down knowing deep in my dazed slumber that this five and half feet ( let's add 3 more inches for some 'leg space' here :P) of earth would not mind carrying my weight till the day I would sleep never to wake up again. But then, I have a job to do in a “globalized” world and to an extent I have made my peace with my inescapable mobility. Now I look forward to seeing new places, trying out new things (food, clothes, and habits among other things) . Well, what choice do I have? It’s fun at times and at times plain frustrating. But such is life, utterly oblivious of one’s likes/dislikes. It just loves to have fun at our expenseJ.

So to make peace with the life that I had, here is to all the places I have been to, to all the dirt I washed off my feet and body, to all people who came by, stood by me and then wished me farewell, to all who loved me, liked me and hated me to all the joys, to all the sorrows, to all the heartburns and to all the pleasant surprises,. And finally to all the years that have gone by, not for being golden or anything, but for being the years of my own life, the parts of my very own story. They are my most precious possession.

Here is to having some more of them :)

Cheers!!!

Stay Beautiful

Growing up.

Freedom also means taking decisions which are not easy. At times we need to parent ourselves and do what is best for us even when it is boring, entirely unimaginative. When we start taking responsibility for everything that we do, that's when we truly become an adult.

Questions

Love is a strange thing ? When can one say that one is in love ? Like a disease it has phases too and hence every phase has different symptoms.

Is it when you just want to look at someone endlessly losing yourselves in her big deep eyes ? or is it worrying about her just a little more than you do about others ? Is it the flutter in your heart when she smiles everytime ? or is it when you exactly know what she is going to do or say when something happens ?

Is it your heart skipping a beat when you touch her unintentionally for the first time ? or is the peace and comfort you feel when you hold her hand? Is it the stage when your eyes are too full of her to see something negative in her? or is it the stage when you are aware that she is just like you, flawed and fragmented?

Is it the initial hopefulness(may foolhadiness too) when world seems to be endless with possibilities and everything around you seems to be pleasant but irrelevant? or is it the time when you know that world may not nice, future may not be perfect, yet present is peaceful enough for you to be with her and thank god for that ?

Is it the time when there is nothing in this world which you wouldn't do to make her happy ? or Is it the time when you know it may not always be possible, but you take solace in fact that you wouldn't do anything to make her unhappy,knowingly.

Is it when it always feels like springs, colours seem bright, birds chirp happily, sky is just the bluest of the blue and looking out of a window is a cheer up ? Or is it when air around you seem damp, blue of the sky is not blue enough, nevertheless life is bearable because she is in your arms ?

Good Luck Dear Friend

At times one gets too busy in one's own life that we completely lose track of people around us, and if you are in a b-school this might happen quite a lot. In fact it takes a while before you realize who you have lost along the way. Not to say that life here is very busy, it is just that we form a very small circle of people and tend to lose ourselves in that circle only. People out of this immediate circle get lost in the background. You see them once in a while, say Hi and move on with your life.

A week ago, while surfing orkut (which indicates the abundance of time available) a friend's name flashed in my friend list and it struck me, that I haven't seen her for quite a while, inspite of fact that she is in same campus. Then it also struck me that she was dropped from the college due to poor academic performance. When it happened, I was also one of the many people who felt upset to hear the news. But soon enough, we got immersed into our lives and soon enough it was 3 months after that fateful day when we got the news.

Conveniently I forgot that a person existed around us and she was a friend. I am not sure why I am writing this but I felt bad for forgetting a friend so quickly, don't know why.

Anyways, all the best my dear friend, may you do well wherever you go.