The Gift

The Gift

May 26th
It was the first monsoon rain in berminganam, a small village in kottayam district, kerala.
Kerala monsoon, something which every keralite misses when not in kerala. The first rain with the smell of earth spreads happiness and love. You can hear the birds singing with joy. Even the crow’s voice becomes sweeter. It’s the time when you feel like thinking about people you like most.

George as usual was sitting in his balcony with a book. He was neither reading nor enjoying the beauty of the rain. He was in his own world, thinking about Rachel.
Rachel Philip, his Best friend, or to be more correct, who was his Best Friend. May 18th is her 22nd birthday. Twenty two years back, the day when his best friend was born, the day when God had send his dearest angel in heaven to earth as his Rachel. Yes, she was truly an angel.

Rachel was everything to him or may be still she is. He was bewildered, if he should get her something for her birthday or not. They were no longer friends now. Few months back, they had parted vowing they won’t care for each other anymore. Still he cared for her.

Finally he decided he will buy her something.
But what?

He didn’t want buy her the usual gifts that a boy gives to a girl.
He wanted to give her something special.
He knew her likes and dislikes, after all once she was his Best Friend, a friend with whom he shared everything.
He was cogitating about things she likes most and there was only one thing she loves more than anything and that’s Classical Music.
She had started learning Classical Music, when she was 3 years old. From that day, music was her religion.

So he started researching on classical music.
First thing he always does when he hears a word which is not very familiar was to Google or search in Wiki. He didn’t have much idea about classical music.
Whenever he asked her to sing, she used to sing some film songs because she knew George. That’s how she was; she perfectly knew what he likes and what he dislikes.

After searching for about an hour or two, he finally found a DVD, a concert video by a famous classical singer in e-bay. For the first time, he was buying a serious gift like this. George’s usual gifts were always something funny.








May 29th

He was still very ambivalent about giving the gift. After much thought, he finally gave her a call.

He said “Can I see u today; hmm in our usual meeting place, wanna talk; won’t take long; just 5 minutes”.

Suddenly her tone changed and he told “Don’t worry, nothing big”.

She said “ok”.

And they met.

He was sitting on the bench waiting for her with the gift.
He saw her coming from a distance looking down. She smiled at him. There was a time when he was ready to do anything under the sun to see her smiling. Even now, he had not changed much and that’s exactly what he is doing now.

She sat beside him and he said “Happy Birthday”
She smiled n said “Thanks”.
He looked at her eyes and
said “ I think I should give you something today, right? “
He took the gift from the bag and gave her. She was a bit shocked because she never expected George to do something like this after what all had happened.

She slowly started opening the packet. He could see the curiosity in her eyes, wondering what the gift was. When she opened and saw the gift, she was silent for a few seconds. Suddenly she started laughing hysterically. Not laughing exactly, she was half laughing and half crying. George just sat there looking at her without uttering a word. He wanted to speak, ask her if she liked the gift, but couldn’t.

They didn’t talk for sometime. At times silence speaks more than words.









Rachel was not a quiet girl. But sometimes, they used to sit like this without talking. If George breaks the silence and asks “Why are u not talking”
She’ll say “Stupid, if u can’t understand my silence, how will you understand my words”.
So George will try to assume what she is thinking.
Most of the times, poor George will go wrong.
And she will shout
“U assume too much
Consider the word ASSUME...
By assuming u make an ASS out of U and ME both... ASS-U-ME... Get it! “
saying that she will start laughing.
George used to think
“There is nothing as complex as a girl’s mind.
Ho God, tell me anything, ill do;
But to read a girl’s mind, sorry I can’t”

This time, George didn’t break the silence.
After sometime she looked at him and asked “U still care for me George?”
He said “I am afraid, I think I do”
He paused for a sec and spoke
“I can’t stop caring just like that, am like that”.

Then they had some general chat about life and work. She asked him “Why are you becoming slimmer day by day, can’t u eat properly you idiot”.
He smiled.
That’s how she is, very caring. That is exactly why George couldn’t stop caring. He did have many close friends, but no one was as caring as Rachel. He could talk anything to her and she used to understand him perfectly.

After sometime George said “let’s go”.
He didn’t want to go. He wanted to talk for some more time. He wanted to say how much he cares for her.
But some things are like that; can’t be explained.

She slowly got up, to part once again, may be forever.
He said to himself “May be we may never sit and talk like this again”.
And they walked.
When she reached her place, she looked at him
and said in a very low sweet voice “ Take Care”. George could make out with how much care she told those two words. All his friends do say those two words often but when Rachel tells that, she really means it.
He said “U too take care”

“Ill always care for you Rachel, no matter what happens” he said to himself and smiled.

My Credit Card

My Credit Card

First let me tell you what I did this weekend…

Saturday… morning… I did some shopping…
Evening … I continued shopping…

Hmm Sunday morning…
Any guesses???
Yes… again shopping… ;)
So was Sunday evening…

The credit goes to My “Credit Card” …

Well what is a credit card…???
It’s a small, thin plastic cut in rectangular shape…
With a unique number, your photo (that’s optional), a magnetic strip containing the information about the card n card holder…
It looks good in your wallet… an array of credit cards… Gold, Silver

It’s called “smart money”…
And you see regular ads showing “How it’s not safe to carry money…”
“Use visa/master card”…

Some ads even show… “U can get girl friends only if you have a Visa card”…
(Actually saying… it’s not completely untrue…
It’s always better if you have a credit card, especially when your bank balance is low
and the girl friends number is high)

From the day you join any company…, you will start getting calls from banks…
… or may be one day before joining (one of the banks came with a credit card offer on the previous day of my joining… J)

Nowadays… I can even make out from the number and the call timings… if it’s a credit card guy/gal…
They will talk very politely … “Hello… this is Ms X calling from Y bank…”
If am busy or in a bad mood… ill cut the phone without uttering a word…
Usually that will make my conscience prickle …
Ho I should have talked… or at least should have told “sorry, not interested” …

Sometimes I try to see things from the credit card agent’s shoes…
They are doing their duty… it’s their job…
How bad they will feel when someone cuts the phone without uttering a word…
Whole day, they will be calling people like me…
Whole day, they will be hearing “No” n “No”…
Sometimes I ponder… How happy they will be… if they hear some nice words from their customers…
After all… they too are human beings…
So when I speak (that’s rare)… I try to be polite…
I wonder… how many people think like this… but next time… when you get a call like that…
Try to see things from their perspective…

If am free… I talk…
Usually I politely decline
Telling… I already have the card…
Then they will tell “its life time free… do you have gold card… blah blah”
Ill keep saying “yes… yes…”
Finally they will ask me to refer someone…
Well ill give my roommate’s number …
A small favor that I can do for my roommates ;)

Actually… some of my friends wait for such calls… to talk… especially if it is a sweet female voice…
I have seen people becoming friends by such calls… then affairs… well well…
and one extreme case that I know… it finally ended up in marriage…
See… credit cards are very useful… ;)

Hey… ill tell you one more enthralling incident… ;)
Once… project meeting was going on…
A very serious discussion…
Everyone very tensed… PM thinking what to do… how to solve this problem…
Suddenly the phone rang…
“Well a ringing phone has to be answered”…
The call was received and put on speaker…
And everyone anxiously waiting… for the caller to speak…
And the caller spoke…
“Hello… this is Mr Sundaram from XXXX Bank; we are offering a life time free card…”
We fell about when we heard this…
Suddenly the tensed situation changed to a comedy situation…
Credit cards do have such uses… which we never realize…

So far so good… Its useful in numerous ways… provided you have some control…
U’ll never know how much u spend… until you get the bill…

Wonder y am writing about credit cards all of a sudden…
Its coz… today morning… I almost fainted when I saw my credit card bill…

It’s a wonderful thing… product of the new generation…
Pretty useful most of the times… very handy…
But … its looks like a word which I used very often… is missing from my dictionary…
Guess what… it’s the word “savings”… J

My first Infy Bus travel

My first Infy bus travel

Today was my first Infy bus travel…

I was a bit excited yesterday… coz morning ill be going in INFY BUS J
Well I slept late as usual…
And as my mosquito friends don’t sleep, they tried to keep me awake for sometime…
They are ideal for BPO jobs (oops PJ L)

Well I can’t blame those mosquitoes…
Coz that’s how they live… they need blood to subsist right?
They are also one of the God’s creations like us…
In one way, mosquitoes are much better than humans…
(We humans have a wrong conception that we are better than all living things on earth in all ways)
They are just hurting us coz they need blood to survive…
That’s their food…

Well we humans hurt other creatures just to make our life better… for luxurious life… for power…
Wars, deforestation… we destroy our mother nature… for our selfish motives…
Ho we humans have no right to denounce those innocent mosquitoes…

As Bill Watterson rightly put this idea via his cartoon character “Calvin” (something I love)
“Calvin: I was reading about how countless species are being pushed toward extinction by Man's destruction of forests. Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us.”

Ho am I diverting from my main topic…???
Ok I am back…

So I slept and got up just 1 minute before the alarm… at 6:49 am…
God knows … but I get up just a minute before my alarm rings…
I am not sure how this funda works… but somehow the time gets stored in my brain…
May be coz the alarm sound is something I loathe… may be its something everyone hates… J

Last time I got up early was when I had to go to Chennai central to say adieu to my dear friend… that too on a Sunday J
One reason I love my weekends is that I can get up late… J I think it’s the case with everyone J

So I got up n had my bath n so…
But as usual I was late…
My friends had already started walking…
And I was searching for my wallet, my mob…
Ho my god… tension was building up in me…
Not today…
I don’t want to miss the bus on first day itself…

Phew… finally I found it and I ran… and I ran….

But whenever I saw a stray dog… I had to slow down…
U see… these dogs are not as intelligent as we humans… u know… J
They won’t understand that if I didn’t run… ill miss my bus
They have only one thing stored in their memory…
“IF (ANYONE RUNS)
IT MEANS THEY ARE THIEVES
END-IF”
Looks like God has fitted a Read only memory in its brain with this “if loop “ programmed (oops a bad joke, never mind… )
Worse part is… there is at least one stray dog in every cross road… L

It took around 15 minutes to reach my bus stop…
Ya I joined my friends on the way…
They were as usual dreaming n walking…
Poor me… I had to run all the way … that too am in formals…
Ho god… I can’t imagine me running with a tie..

And when I reached a stop… a bus stopped in front of me… Bus number 15…
I was about to board… my friend pulled me back… saying … that’s not our bus…

Finally came our Bus… BUS NO : 22… (2+2=4… hee hee just telling for your info)

And when I got in… I saw a friend who was once very close to me…
She was shocked to see me… so was I??? J
We both gave a weak smile as if we were meeting for the first time…
Well there was a time… when she would have been the happiest person if I had come in the Infy bus…
Well things change… friends change… nothing lasts forever…
Friend becomes foes…
Foes become friends…
Sounds funny… but that’s truth…

We had seats only in the back…where we can sit together…
And we started… J
Started our journey towards Infy…
Towards our destiny… ;)
Isn’t that we were waiting for…
Isn’t that we were dying for… ;) ;) ;)

We as usual had our normal conversation (to rest of the world, it will be a abnormal conversation; we talk all kinds of crazy things; well I can’t tell that here)

Finally we reached infy… J
That was my first travel in Infy bus… hope u enjoyed the journey with me… J