My search for the perfect one ends !

“Light at the end of a real long long long dark tunnel.” That’s precisely how I felt when I stood there in amazement. My eyes reflecting mixed emotions - disbelief, tiredness, satisfaction… I held in my hands what I now regard the softest skin in this entire universe. The touch … I can still feel it on my fingertips. A perfect creation – so simple yet so sophisticated; beauty and elegance par excellence… I forgot almost everything at that instant; it was a moment between us. Oh yeah! I had just discovered what I am gonna be passionate about for a long long time to come. Now that my dream of a perfect companion has finally materialized, I can sit back and recall my odyssey / ordeal, if I may call it so.

My search can be best described as a wild goose chase of sorts; I had no clue whatsoever of what I was really looking for. The only thing I ever knew was that mine must be unlike any guy could ever boast of. When I put my best foot forward with my companion, people should just stop and turn to look at the perfect pair we make. Well that’s the sort of vague search criterion that resided in my mind for over a month.

4 weeks back

There was this party and I see all these guys around me have one, except me. Feeling like an outcast, desperation filled my heart. Not 'just' any one, but the best one; the perfect one. I kept telling myself that If I dint find one that matched the description in my cranium, I wud turn insane. And I kept getting trailers of that during the special monsoon showers which Ill shortly be coming to.

Not knowing where to begin with, and with the kind of indecisive male I am, I took my problem straight to my dad - One stop for all my issues. As we all know it nothing in this world comes for free; neither did the help from dad. He started with his usual gyaan – “How many times have I told you, that u its high time u should have decided upon one. You are 23yrs old; people, society and blah… blah… everybody watches when u go out… and blah… blah…” That was the shower I was talking about, monsoon was yet to arrive. Despite all this I was hoping dad’s experience could be put to good use; I remember him saying, “When I was of ur age I had 4-5 of them in my kitty and all of them at the same time …” and there went his collar up!

3 weeks back

My family and I were visiting the Chennai City Centre – the latest and the biggest… (... ‘Manufacturer of people’, if I may call it so). Seriously, it feels as if the place is oozing with people and somewhere there was this weird pop-corn types of machine from which hundreds of people kept popping out every second. There was this “Sale” going on in the Lifestyle and my dad kept telling me, it’s the right time and right place to look for; difficult to find a larger variety than now, especially with so many people dropping in. I agreed with his analysis.

Somehow I doubted if it could all happen so easily. I mean, u walk into a shopping mall which is like buzzing with over a thousand people and still be able to happily walk out with one.

Even before my dad enquired, my mind was racing, competing with Schumi (I guess...), trying to find a convincing and fitting description of something even I was not very sure of. Alas, before I could begin using my brains, the inevitable question pops-up - "What exactly are u looking for?" It simply had to. So there I went with half my mind going left and other I donno where, I started with a vague description, to buy little more time. “It simply has to be unique, and ….” Disgusted with my beating around the bush I told with conviction in my voice, "Am looking for one with a tanned skin." “Huh?!” came the response. Obviously, he was not very impressed. But I remained adamant and that put him off. (I wish I cud tell him even Salma Hayek, one of the hottest dames, has a tanned skin. Of course, the comparison is a little far fetched, but as long as its tanned skin, I am happy). So now I was left alone on the 2nd floor to choose whatever interested me.

The problem, is not when there aren’t any, at least u know there aren’t any; the problem is when there are so damn many to choose from – long, short, Chinese, German, French, Italian… fair white, wheatish, dark skinned. While each one of them was interesting, I knew only a tanned skin would satisfy me. It wasn’t my day, just not. Returned home and now came the much awaited monsoon showers from every corner - my mom, dad, brother… And the worst thing was, while we all had gone looking for me, my brother was able to decide upon one for himself – short and of Chinese origin. Everyone went on to add, that I must have chosen a similar one. I pitied my ears… so this was the latest argument I was supposed to digest, that if not anything, choose what ur brother chooses. I mean is this Mahabharata and are we the Pandavas or something? Anything more about that day and ill loose my entire mood to write so we’ll move on.

The next two weeks I was occupied with some work at office and actually dint have the mood to continue my search. So they went eventless.

1 week back

It was evening and my dad convinced me to continue my search. I gave in cos by now I had returned to my normal self of desperation. When asked where we were heading, he replied, “Vepery and Pyriamid”. “Wow! Dad knows the right places to look in for. Hmmm…” I thought. Incidentally, there’s a working women’s hostel and a girls college too in that area. He assured me, that he will not discourage me in any ways and will go by my choice, whatsoever. Well, we ended up searching the place for more than 2 hours and returning home empty handed. This time dad was silent, but my mom and brother decided to play the thunder and lightning respectively. “Phew, another wasted week”, I thought.

Lying in my bed that night I thought, may be it really was a wild goose chase, may be I never will get the one I desire, may I should just listen to my parent and settle down with just about anything. Looking up at the night sky, I cud see it was just impossible to bridge the divide between dream and reality.

The past week

It’s a Wednesday, and my boss informs me that I may be deputed to Vaashi (in Mumbai) for a period of 6 months. Back home, mom and dad are in an all-senti mood as I am supposed to leave the coming Sunday. As for me, I was happy to be going o the new place. I appeared excited about it. However, behind the sparkle in my eyes, and the smile on my face, my dad could probably figure that I wud be leaving without a sense of completeness.

Next two days, I am occupied with my work.

Weekend arrives. Dad hands over the command to mom to accomplish the search mission. Its Saturday, and after a whole day of shopping, my mom is still not tired. She tells everything was done except for the one I had been craving for like ages now. She was reluctant to return home empty handed.

The Scene: Lifestyle, 2nd floor, 5 P.M.

I stand there wondering if “history repeats itself” was gonna turn true. My brain was happily creating horrible illusions of scenes which would best suit in any torturing family drama on Star TV. Pity the viewers. Pity me now? I was glancing around, when suddenly came a voice from within, “NO!” what was I looking at? I was simply awe-struck by the beauty in front of me. An aura of silence seemed to have surrounded me. And then suddenly, it seemed like the climax of MI-1, everything was falling into place, all the partial images had pieced together to take the form of what lay elegantly couched in front of me. I knew this was it – the moment I had been waiting for. Everything was just perfect, the perfect curves and shape, the flawless tanned skin. Mann, I cud even sense the tenderness of the skin 3 meters away.

I stepped forward, and just did what my heart told me to – lay my hands on supposedly a genius’s creation. I managed to snuggle my fingers into the hollow which felt like all cushion-cushion.

Ill kill the suspense here... so u wanna see my companion?

The geniuses were the craftsmen at Club Tree – makers of genuine leather shoes, wallets, belts, and other accessories. And this where my story of my search for the perfect shoes get over. Now ain’t I ready to put my best foot forward?

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I really enjoyed posting this one. May not be the best one if i have to go by the readers' standards. Anyways, i'd like u to know that i had no idea of writing a blog thanks to my laziness.. until this real cute friend of mine gives me a tip to write on my search for shoes. weird na... but i enjoyed it all through.. Well she did have a lot of nice things to say bout me in her own blog - http://frostatmidnite.blogspot.com but i cannot equal a writer of her calibre - one of the very few "best" writers i have known. Do check out her blogs for some real interesting stuff... ull surely get hooked to it just like i have. Thankx Mots. And for all those ppl who wish to congratulate me on the simply stunning photograph which i have over here, I'd like to confess (to be read as Thankx ) Sneh was patient enough to edit the snap perfect to my expectations. I love that snap.

2 WorldS - so NeaR, YeT so FaR

Its been long since i've written.May be it was the excitement of the fact that I was beginning to write..

This blog is something I had thought of about 2-3 months back, just hoping to retain my original thoughts..

The 'two worlds' I refer to are two different stages of a human's life - childhood and adulthood.

Do you love kids? Most of us do.. rite?? Ever wondered what makes us love them? Are we even conscious of the fact that we love them.. I suppose most often it is an un-conscious process... I am attempting to understand, if not all of it, atleast some portion of it...

When we were kids, we wanted to grow up very fast, be in control of people who controlled us, be able to do all that we wanted to without absolutely any sort of interference. The grown-ups seemed to have all the power in this world. They are the ones who make all the decisions, have money, drive cars/bikes, watch television for long hours while we study etc... While this is what we thought that we wanted to do, we also did what we knew the best - play hide-and-seek, fight for petty things and again become friends almost everyday, cry for chocolates and ice-creams, read comics and watch cartoons, be playful, comic, simple and guileless; in short, as innocent as we could ever be.

As we grow up, and come across all that we wanted to do, and are not able to do quite the same things, most of become nostalgic. "Yaar, I wish I cud go back to school. or I'd give anything to live my childhood once again". Not that there is something right or wrong in it; its simply human and I am referring to this tendency of man to evade the reality and be anachronistic for sometime. Something similar to the old phrase - "The grass always seems to be greener on the other side". Its like while we live in the world we do, we always crave for a life in the other world.

So our love for children cud possibly arise out of the fact that we are all trying to picture our lives in their; because we know that we may never be as innocent as them , as simple as them, again (unconsciously again , may be). Now it may seem, that as a child it was far too easy to cry, laugh, fool around, be naughty; I mean it seems so effortless. Now to do the very things, one may need to think. Not that is not possible, its just that in our efforts to conquer all that we wanted to we "forget" behaviors that came to us so naturally. However, some people are still good at them. And these are probably the people with whom children are able to better connect than those who are "trying to picture" their lives in kids and have "forgotten" their old behaviors.

Thus, while these two worlds, see the other pass by them everyday, each wishes to be on the other side only to want to come back someday.
As far as the blog goes, I may not have have been to capture all that I felt in the days I had initially thought of it; nevertheless I have attempted to pen down something "we all know". Another reason cud be the fact that I am thinking of a feeling that I recently experienced, (which some of you may know if you had got my SMS) :

"A beautiful day ... After tomorrow"

I am planning to write more on that. Hopefully I'll write, before another thought conquers ma mind.

This is given - Good Things Happen to Bad !

Guys, my second post and its already getting serious.
(Pardon my unstructured style of writing... I am just penning down every little thing that is hitting my mind.)

This was the topic given to me in a communication training.

"GOOD THINGS HAPPEN TO THE BAD"

Well, good things don't happen to bad; rather they make good things happen for themselves.
Infact, everybody is responsible for his/her happiness. But the question is -

"To what extent are u willing to stoop down, to make things work for u?"

Most of us are bound by our virtues, taught to us in school, given to us as free advice at various point in our lives - honesty, discipline, truthfulness, blah ... blah...

Everybody has a different perception of the right and the wrong. This reminds me of an argument I had with a friend of mine. He wanted to take leave for a period of 5 days, to attend a friends marriage. But, was doubtful if the manager would allow him. I suggested that that he could tell, "Its my brother's marriage". He turned it down saying, "That'll be lying". But after a some thinking or I don't' what was going on his mind he thought he would say that it is his cousin's marriage. Now was this not a lie? According to him it was not exactly a lie, because his friend was as good as a brother to him.

The point to note, however, is that we come across everyday in our lives, people having their own policies, principles and virtues. But if you look, closely most of them are silent believers of

"The only thing I can't resist is - Temptation".

I believe that the crude reality is -

"People alter their virtues, principle etc according to their
convenience."

Thats the hard fact nobody want to come to terms with. And this is what keeps the good things happen again and again for the so-called bad.

Why I call them "so-called bad" is related to another thought that I often think about - "Patriotism". So Mr. Reader ! (yes, u only. The one who is reading this now) "Are you PATRIOTIC?"

Some diversion ... What is patriotism? According to the dictionary - "Its love for one country ... "
So do you love this country? If your answer is a yes, then may I ask - What makes you love this country? Consider that you had been born and raised in a totally different country say, "XYZ"; you would be patriotic towards that country. If thats what it is then would you like this country (my) less.

We take the national pledge... "I am proud of its rich and varied heritage...". How many of us really do think of all this in the given 24hours of our everyday life?

The truth is - in our 24 hours everyday, we sleep long hours (because our body demands it), go to our respective workplaces (because we need money), meet our friends (because we need to feel secure, have our own bit of fun, and not be left alone), travel to and fro between home and work (cos we have a lot of work to do at both these places) and eat a lot (because we need to survive) and over this period of eating, we need a topic to discuss, which is everything related to this country. It could be india's cricket match; the politics; the film industry; the share markets; the scams; the media .... and this is where we decide who is good , who is bad; this is where we form our opinions.

Now who really knows what this good or bad person is doing in his/her personal life. Mr. Sachin Tendulkar would be busy chatting with his wife; the tatas and the birlas will be busy signing important deals; the politicians will be having a feast in their luxurious homes...

And when someone questions us, "Are you patriotic?" Our answer pops up in unison ,"YES".

I don't say patriotism is non-existent. Yes it does exist, but only with those people who have not got things the way they wanted, they may not have got justice, so they start a revolution. This is how most strikes, processions, rallys happen. You and I, never join such things because it does not concern us. So it is really a matter of "concern". The day something starts bothering us, we start to feel the need to change things, with the unconscious motive of alleviating our own problems.

The world may or may not praise you for the sacrifices you made... and even if it did after your death, how does it concern you. You are dead and gone, and the dead don't feel; they don't receive the awards,the medals, the praises thrown in the media. So enjoy life while you are living. Live the way you want to.

I would love to write more, and I surely will, but for now I will let you guys digest this.

Remember..

"Its still a jungle out there. Survival of the fittest is what works.

Selfishness is not bad.It is just potrayed bad by people who want to control you,
exploit your innocent mind.

Wake up !!!"

MY First Blog - This One Is 4 U Johnny Boy !!!

Phew !!! How cud i expect everything to go smoothly? My first Blog and I dint know how to post it the right way. Anyways... as they say - "It's better to make all mistakes in the beginning".

So here it is ...

John, I read your blogs and was compelled to pen down my own thoughts. I cannot help smiling , the moment I think of the 'powder incident'. I wish I had done such a thing :-)

Johnny Boys' page -
http://thisleftfeelsrite.blogspot.com

k. For those of you who might be reading this, for whatever reason, here goes something bout myself...
I am Rahul, working in an IT company just like half the young janta of this country is. This is where i met John.

The first time i saw John (if i can remember correctly) was while playing Table Tennis. Dint talk to him, but was just wondering

how do i beat this guy, he is so good and i am no where close to him.

I dint even know his name then.

Then after a few months came along a task, where i had to co-ordinate with some guy called John. All I kept hearing from all corners was - John !!

He's too good. He will help ya out.

Ok,so that was it. I was waitin for John - the messiah.

The moment i saw him and it was like - Ok. So this is John. We had to send out some nice, ecxiting, bubbly mails on the intranet. I was tensed for i had never done anything like that before, and was planning frantically because I could not do anything better at that moment.And here comes Mr. John, who cool'ly starts with -

Hey i've already written something.. which i will complete and forward to you; just doo= the designing and upload the mail

.So that was it. I wait wondering whats gonna happen and then I see this mail pop-up in my mail box, I was in all shock and awe for this guy had written out such a Fantastic(actually i am having a little trouble thinking of adjectives) mail.

We went on to send out 4 or 5 mails after that.
The duration was short but he sure has left a lasting impression on ma mind.

John, i never would be able tell this in person thats why it here where i am speaking my mind out. I am so damn glad to have met you, work with you. And what I admire in you the most is your writing (without doubt); your handling of loads of work with absolute ease, and never complain; and your cute :-).

I dont know if anyone has reached this far for all that i have written, but John, i hope that by now atleast a faint :-) would have appeared on your face.

Johnny Boy THANKS !