Music Tree

 

So this tree is near the window of my dining room. It has been there for a while. It’s not big or its not small and I am not sure of what species it is. All I know is that it’s near to my window and got lot of leaves on during summer which during fall slowly change color from green to gray and when winter knocks they detach from the branch and free float in the moving breeze to rest on the cold soil. For most of the season these green leaves acts as a backdrop for my window apart from it also shades our dining table from the morning Sun when we have the breakfast. During July-August when the summer is retreating to mostly a mix of rain and sun it blooms with bright pink flowers and that’s the time the she is most beautiful. The branches swing in the passing breeze like each flower singing a song to other. Those days the backdrop of my window changes from just green to a mix of green and pink with pink been the predominant shade and I love it.

So as time passed by the winter went over and by the time I got out from the hangover of new year spring stood before me with the barren tree breathing life by getting dressed in sprouting green leaves. As days passed during April I started hearing strange noises during times when it was quite at home. Often I came from room expecting an uncalled visitor in my dining or living room but never found one. The days passed by and during nights when the whole world was stand still I could hear these crawling sounds that brought back the memories from all the horror movies that i had watched. One evening when I was sipping my black tea sitting in dinning room I saw this peeping tom kissing my windows when the wind gave it a lift. A branch of the tree had grown by and started touching my windows whenever it could get a hitch from the passing wind. Soon I realized that she was the one using my windows to play the music and ensure I noticed her. The music soon became part of my life and I started enjoying it. Then on a Monday in May when I came back home at evening I realized that something was missing and the dining room was brighter than usual. The backdrop had been removed and the sun rays were enjoying the block free entry to our dining area. The tree had been cut as part of annual maintenance except for the stem that was left out to start a whole new chapter. Now whenever I sit by my dining area I miss the backdrop as well the whole house misses the music which we were enjoying. But for every dark night there is a bright day ahead. I will enjoy the sunshine now and wait for her to grow back to what she has been and again to hear the music which she had excelled at.

ICE

 
It was the early 90’s and I had heard a lot about ice through various sources but never had an chance to see a ice cube apart from the Arun ball Ice cream my mother brought for me and sister whenever we had to go to dentist. After we ate the ice cream we preserved those balls and used it for various purposes like a cricket ball, to put in the few paise's we get as left overs. During those days our home did not have a refrigerator or in other words we never felt we needed one until latter when the advertisements made us think that we were missing some thing very integral to the day to day life.

It happened on a Sunday December early morning in 1991 when the temperature was dropping to less than 15 degree and everything was kind of freezing for someone who always lived in +30 degrees. We could feel how deep the freeze was when we wake up in the morning and take the parachute cocoanut oil from the kitchen shelf to realize the whole oil has been turned from liquid to semi-solid and it refuses to come out until we keep it near the burning stove for few minutes. We were staying in a rented house and brought our milk from the MILMA vendor who would distribute the packets early morning by placing them into the plastic bag we placed on our gate. As mom was making tea for us she wanted me to pick up the paper and MILMA packet.From my front door I could see the gate and see if the milk packets were placed in the plastic bag. As i went out I could see the morning waking from the crutches of the cold night and everything coming to life with the sunrise warming the horizon. As I grabbed the milk packets from the bag I felt the cold pass through my warm hands but what was more exciting was the few lumps inside the MILMA packet which felt like frozen milk. I rushed to the kitchen and grabbed the black sicssors from the kitchen rack and emptied the packets into a wide mouthed aluminum container which had ANU written on it when it was brought from the store. The name was more kind of marking a territory and my sister had her share of utensils which we both had a personal connection with. As the milk emptied into the container I could see those floating ice lumps that could have been created when the packet was inside the freezer when it was transported from the factory to our local vendor. On a normal day by the time vendor reaches our home it would have melt sitting in his cycle but today was special with the temperature favoring the ice lumps to remain in their state. I was excited to see a raw form of ice other than the processed ice that I ate from the Arun ice cream ball. I cried out for my sister and we fished those ice cubes using a spoon which had her name written on it. As soon it was in our hands the warmth of our body started it to change its shape and soon it just vanished into thin air remaining the traces of milk in our hands. Though it was only for few minutes the excitement carried a long way residing in some corner of my heart and comes out every time i see ice cubes. How funny is life, isn’t it?

Massage !!

 
The appointment was initially booked for my wife but she had to reschedule it as she had to travel out side the city. So when I called them and asked for rescheduling the appointment they said they would charge $30 for rescheduling. So without a second thought I decided to use that schedule for me.It has been so long that I have been looking forward for my first massage. I have read a lot about massages, visited their websites and was excited about the pleasure it brings when the warm oil meets the lazy muscles, to pamper the muscles to release all those tension and feel light. I always wanted one for a long time but never happened to book it as priorities often shifted gears and now here I was on my way for my first massage. I had no clue on to what was to happen there but I had heard from my wife that their ambience was soothing and the background music takes your thoughts into deep mystic woods to been lost and floating through it. As soon I reached there the front office gave me a form to fill it and as I did the paper work they had columns like what kind of massage you wanted and from my experience with all those readings before I wrote that I needed deep tissue and sports massage. I gave back the form to the young lady there at the front desk and she asked me to wait as my massage therapist would call me. I waited there in their couch flipping pages of an old fashion magazine.
 

  Soon a lady in her early 20’s called my name and she introduced her as Natasha and told that she would be my massage therapist. She walked me to the massage room that was having a full length table like i have seen at Doctors office. She told me that I could relax and remove what is needed and she would be back in some time. I removed my watch, my glasses, my cell phone and my shoes and I waited for her at the chair placed in the corner of the room. As I waited I observed the room and it had all that’s needed for to create a  perfect massage ambience. A Chinese music playing in background, aromatic candles burning to fill the air with those relaxing aroma, a show table on the other corner with few show pieces on it like a small china man, Chinese dragon and few Chinese symbols which I did not understand. I waited for her to begin my first massage and after few minutes she knocked on the door and I said a big yes. When she came in she was bit taken back seeing me fully clothed and I wondered why which I realized that I need to remove my shirt and trousers for massage. That cleared a big confusion on should I be removing them or not and now she had clearly defined it that I can remove that and place myself under the warm blanket on the massage table. I did expect for the inner wears which I had thankfully worn a nice one on that day and placed myself under the warm blanket with a thought that what a fool i was to expect the whole body massage as fully clothed. In a while she knocked again and this time I was really ready and the stage was all set to go for the first massage. We started with small talks and about my expectations and which part of the body really needed more care. She said that some people will sleep during the massage, some cry and others laugh and I was wondering what would I be doing. As she started with massage I heard a new term called muscle knot which I learned from her and she kept breaking it. The massage gained momentum accompanied by talks about muscle, life, her country Peru, life at Jacksonville and so on. Massage started with the back and it ended at my foot. 60 minutes flew like a wind and there I was after my first massage and with not sleeping nor laughing or crying but feeling relaxed and light. She told me to take my time in getting back on foot and getting dressed up as some people have a dizziness after their massage. As I stood on my feet I felt as strong as ever and after getting dressed up I walked out and there she was waiting for me with a bottle of water. I thanked her and promised to be back once in a while. As I drove back home I realized I had one wish less in my bucket list.

Mustache

 
When I was in my 8th grade I got the first few mustache hairs that started growing from no where. That was first few signs of my transition from childhood to adolescence. A beautiful stage of life where you are a rebel for no reason, you are shy to talk, you start getting the first pimples, you are concerned with your dress, you start having your little secrets and the first time you start consciously looking into mirror to see how you look like. Within few months I got few more hairs getting added to my mustache or at least it started becoming visible when you look at me from 100 meters away. It was fun but I was conscious of it. Then time flew like the morning sun and I was in my 12th grade and by that time there was significant improvement though it was still like a thin line like in the movies created during the 60’s.
 

 When I joined college I realized that my mustache was an under performer as my batch mates had strong, thick mustaches. This made me more conscious of my mustache and I started thinking of ways to accelerate the growth. People recommend that I need to shave every day so that it grows faster, but I was too reluctant to remove my little mustache. I couldn’t find any cream or tablet to accerlate the growth. During those days I went to Sabrimala and a street vendor called me and recommend 'karadi ney’ (fat from Bears skin) to be applied on my face and that could accelerate the growth. I believe this belief came under the impression that since bear have plenty of body hairs applying its fat could replicate that kind of hair growth on humans. Whatever the belief was that blew up my pride on my little mustache into thin air and made me look more conscious. Soon life at college started picking up and I started realizing that life was much more than a mustache and it was always better to keep a french beard than just a mustache. So I started trimming my beard and mustache to create a french beard. Then I realized that I did not have a connection between my mustache and my lower beard. The idea was simple, get a black marker and put some dots and connect it. I did that few days and then soon I lost interest in walking that extra mile alone. By the time I passed out of my college I had a french beard that was not best but it was good on me or in other words I considered that as the best. As years went by and now when I look back to those days I feel how foolish I was to think so much on it as I should have realized that it had a natural cycle to follow and I just had to wait through it.

The night a nation waited for !!

Well we all have started talking of the world cup that’s coming up next year and the hopes are high, as the spirit of winning last world cup has not dried up within everybody. I still remember that evening when we won the world cup as I was watching from my two-bed room in Thiruvanmayur, Chennai. We had planned extravagantly for the Finals buying in 44 bottles of beer and named it beer-festival. You never can imagine how difficult it was to transport 44 bottles from the beverages to my home and the auto guy who helped got inspired and even gave us discounts. Ahh.. the faith in humanity restored.. :) ..Anyway, in short, we were well prepared for that evening and everything was running on schedule. As the crimson light outside was fading away with the sun setting down the horizon, the hopes inside each of us was levitating.  The little crowd that I invited to share the spirit of world cup had assembled around the pile of bottles that we stacked in a beautiful order. So then it was time to do some pre-match analysis within and lots of speculation on who will win, score a century, get a hat trick. The needles of the clock was sliding beautifully in a constant fashion that brought us closer to the opening of the first ball of the world cup final 2011. As I watched my little crowd there, there had been lot of changes from what I saw in the beginning. My roommate was physically there with his eyes closed and travelling through the dreamland. He had the privilege of joining us in the pre-match analysis and going to dreamland before even seeing the first ball of the world cup final. Soon the 44 bottles emptied out with spirits within us as roaring and an entire nation swinging to ups and downs of each bowl delivered. Soon Sri Lanka was out for a modest score of 274/6 that was something that could be chased down with the strong Indian lineup.  But to make it melodramatic the Indian batting lineup was swinging sometimes making us feel victory is so close and at times giving us a bitter taste of failure. But as the story unfolded, we won the cup and then it was time for us to celebrate it, as we couldn’t contain our emotions within the four brick walls. So we decided to hit the beach and voice our celebrations. As expected we met with multiple flocks that had the same spirits and chanting Sachin and India which was breaking the silence of otherwise a peaceful night. We walked and talked and with the night moving in felt the tiredness of the hard won victory and time to hit back home. As soon I saw my bed and I fell on it and the next thing I could remember is the next day with the newspapers celebrating the victory. Now almost 4 years have passed by and the again a entire nation is waiting to taste the victory of success again!!!

A Week without Napkins !!!

Call me eco friendly or call me lazy but I have lived almost one week of my life without using one single piece of napkin. It started with last Sunday when I reached home after soccer and realized that I was running out of napkins. Since it was already dark out and running low on energy after 8-4 defeat I was not in high spirits to drive out and buy the napkins. So I decided to call my friend called procrastination and he approved my idea. The next day started cold and I woke late with my mind commanding my body to sleep more to wash of the physical wear tear of yesterdays defeat and mind won. The day raced down to evening and by the time I was out of office I thought why not go home change the business attire and put some casuals on go out for shopping. As soon I reached home to appreciate all my days work I decided to brew a cup of black tea to soothe my body and soul with the freshness and warmth of a hot tea. As the tea was brewing I opened amazon prime and just browsed to see if they had some new action movies over there and soon when i realized that earth was still moving it was 09:00 and then had to call off the idea of shopping. So that’s when I decide to use all the commercial news letters that I get through mail to replace napkins. So I identified the ones that are soft and could suck water pretty well. So I opened a new rack for my new napkin alternatives. That’s when I decided to challenge myself with this crazy idea.Then the next few days flew with me each day waiting for those news letters, advertisement that could fill my arsenal for napkin alternative. I never had so much of appreciation for all these advertisement that these big retail chains print than this week. But believe me though at times I cursed the idea most of the times I have been successful and water has been very friendly to let it absorbed by these alternatives..Now just one more day is left in my challenge to beat the belief that live without napkins is impossible :-). I will stick on for the rest of the day and who knows may be for one more week. But at times its good that such crazy ideas gives a different perspective and even play a small, a very small role to save the world.

21st AGENT OF CHANGE

Change is the word that is most beautiful at times and at times most lethal. You love change when it happens for good and you dislike it when it tears apart your comfort zone. Change touches you every day, every second with or without you knowing it. Agent of change has been having various forms throughout the different timelines in history and now when we stand in a world made smaller by those long running optical cables across it, the agent of change has never been so close to us.

Back in 90s, we had the telephone landlines that helped us to get connected with each other and as we moved towards 21st century cell phones came that made us closer. Though they made us close we were never close enough to know what exactly is happening each day in your friend’s world. Then orkut came that changed the game, the way it had been being played for all these years. Orkut brought a new dimension to our life until the day we started logging into facebook that showed us that the new dimension shown by orkut was smaller. Though I joined FB in 2007 I was never an active user. Before I write further let be clear that I am not here to write praise songs for FB.

Slowly with passage of time my inbox started getting numerous requests from my friends and from people whom I had no clue who they were, as the race to increase the friends count had started. FB had started making its mark in world’s largest democracy and the marketing gurus were realizing the potential it could open up for a one to one marketing. Initially I logged just once in a week and that soon changed to once in every day which soon ended with every couple of hours. The fun of exposing my life to others and pleasure in peeping into others life were all time high. Number of likes for every crap we put out there was like medals on the chest. I could see change sitting in my home, at park, car or even at office just by running my fingers across the smart phone. I could see change kissing my friends every second. I could see where they are, what they are doing, whom they are with, what they are eating, what they wear, did they sleep or woke up, did they exercise, do they love their mom, did they graduate, did they engage or break up, how it looks when it rains in Dubai, what movie they saw, which car they are driving and even what they are feeling right at this moment...In a nutshell I could see every second in their lives when change touches it. As we walk down further and the present becomes past and part of the history I am sure this agent of change would be remembered for a long time, for the generations to come.