Modern Righteousness

"I would consider water service to be a better option" said the guy in the black t-shirt who just walked into the tea stall.

The worker in the tea stall was washing the bike there with water and a soft cloth, the owner of the stall (and bike) behind the counter, fetching his customer some cigarettes and small-talking.

"Water service? Water service once a week will cost much more than an hour of Dilip's time" said the owner.

Dilip seemed to be unimpressed by his owner's comment as he frowned at him, squeezing the water out of the cloth, into the bucket of dirty water. He then dropped the cloth and took the bucket in his hand with much difficulty. "It should be tough on an 8 year old boy" I thought.

So, I kept the tea glass on the ground, walked swiftly to the bike, got on and rode it away, rock music playing in my head and adrenaline pumping through my veins. Hearing screaming voices of the owner and the sound of the thrown stones, largely muffled by the "wrrrrroom" of the 4 stroke bike and the pulsing blood in my ears.

The 24th chromosome

There she stood, watching us all, singing something to us from behind the glass. If anything like this was there back when I was 20, they'd call it a zoo. Caged, sparsely fed and angry was she. Tamed by her keepers. She wasn't a creature to be tamed. She was a natural beauty.

Her wings, silver like the moon and feathered with those beautifully streamlined quills! Her beak, sharp as a knife, yet crooked as a hook. Her eyes, blue and glowing, reflecting the bright Sunday sun. Her neck long as a pencil, and legs like shoots of the bamboos that beautified her abode. Her skin ebony in shade and glowing. And her dress for the week, a beautiful red velvety gown that swept the glass floors clean. Yup, she wore a dress. And yes, she was human, almost.

The ripple, the tide and the tsunami.

Once, I was taking a helicopter ride from one island to another in the Andamans. It was picturesque, certainly! And I was at awe, just gaping at the beauty of nature. And then suddenly, into the calm ocean, my friend dropped a pebble. It made ripples in the calm, so beautiful in the blue. And at that moment, a thought struck me, I learnt a lesson, a very cherishable one. I call it "The ripple, the tide and the tsunami".

Finding some shoes to fit into...

As a 20 year old who's 75% through with his bachelors, you'd be justified to expect a decent amount of career oriented clarity in me. Well, I request you not to. In fact, I suggest you don't expect that from anyone my age in my position! You're asking me why?? Let me tell you a funny story:

Once upon a time, there was a young boy. He never had worn shoes; till the day came when his eyes suddenly looked down. His head fell and he realized every one of his friends wore shoes. Though there were some tailored shoes, most of them wore a single type of shoe : the slip-on. He asked them where they got the shoes and they said they earned enough to buy themselves shoes. So, our young hero told his parents that he wanted shoes. His parents asked him what type of shoes he wanted. And off the top of his mind, he told them he wanted slip-ons.

Leaky clouds and an improbably happy me!

In the UK, gloomy is gloomy. In Tamil Nadu however, gloomy with the smell of rain is almost as good as nature gets.

After a hot summer afternoon, struggling to manage all the shuttling between my hostel and the Instrumentation and Control Department, I went and sat inside the Control Engineering lab for a (yet another, grueling) lab session! And as I sat there, busily(!!). I was running through my mind on how I would talk to the professor who was planning to penalize me for having low attendance in a course. I was desperate. I was imagining staying back on campus when everyone else left for 70 days during summer! I was feeling angry at myself. A rage was tunneling through my veins but it suddenly stopped dead only for me to realize that there was hardly much that could be done.

“If she says you need to do it again, you need to stay back, Deepak! You need to complete the course. You don’t have a choice” I said to myself. “Pity yourself! But seriously, shame on you!”

I was distraught. I was helpless. The summer looked like a dark time to live in and my life seemed to be full of gloom.