Saturday, September 15, 2007

One Little Smile




Thala nombu”, that’s what we call for the first day of Fasting. It’s very important for us as it marks the starting of Ramadhan. I got up early in the morning, directly went to the kitchen and had some bread n Jam. I drank two glasses of water, but as usual was not satisfied. Whenever I get up in the morning during fasting days, no matter how much water I drink, I’ll never be contented. It’s because my subconscious mind keeps reminding me that I won’t be able to drink water for the whole day. It’s more psychological thirst rather than physical. It will be at its peak on the first day. Somehow I managed to sleep with a bottle of water near my bed.

The moment I got up, I was very thirsty as I expected. My head had already started spinning. You see, everything is more psychological here. Many a times I go to office without breakfast. Also I had got up late. “Oops ill be very late today” saying that I rushed to my bathroom. I came out in the same speed and Zoommmmmm I went in my Unicorn.

Somehow I managed to reach office on time. Luckily, there was little work to be done by EOD. My PL came and started demonstrating some Quality crap. He asked me to click one button, I clicked the other. He asked me to scroll down, I scrolled up. “Ho my, what was happening to me?” I mused. Irritated, he went away.
It was a Friday. Unfortunately I remembered that only at 3 pm. I don’t remember when I skipped my Friday prayer last. “Ho Allah, forgive me. I have missed the prayer, that too on this day” I prayed. I was not able to control myself for sometime.

I thought I’ll go to mosque at that time itself but as usual there came a meeting at the wrong time. After the meeting, the guy who was supposed to give the code was missing. He is one of my close friends in office. I almost blasted when he came back but somehow I controlled. We should try your max to control such emotions on fasting days.

Phew, I delivered the code and ran to my bike. Aha, it was raining. “It never rains, but it pours” I shouted. Luckily, I had a jacket with me. I put that on and started. But the jacket couldn’t prevent me from getting drenched. By the time I reached home my shoes had become like a Rain harvesting container.

Ha,I reached home, changed my dress, took my friend’s umbrella and rushed to Mosque.

Things were even worse there. Too much was the rush that I was not even able to get my Favorite Noyambu Kanji (a special dish made in Mosques during Ramadhan). Never mind, I had one dried date and went for prayer.

As I came out of the Mosque after the prayer, my mind was still haunted by the day’s happenings. As I started walking, out of nowhere came a kid. He was about 3 years old. He came and asked me to give something. I was already irritated. So obviously you can guess how I would have reacted. I ignored him and started walking.

After a minute suddenly I felt like turning back. I turned and looked at him for sometime. He was going behind people to give him something to eat at least. All were ignoring him. “May be everyone had a day like me” I mused. At the end, a lady came and pushed him back. He was on the verge of crying. He went and sat in the corner with his hands on his face.

Without losing a moment, I rushed to the near by shop, got some eatables and went to him. When I gave that, he gave a very cute smile. I don’t know how I should describe it. No matter what words I use here, that won’t be enough. I smiled back and started walking. All the days happening had vanished from my mind. I was really very happy.

As I was walking, I called Mom and literally shouted:
Mom, I am soooo happy, do you know what happened today………
……………………….
“.

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Ramzan



Ramzan, the holy month when Allah revealed the Glorious Quran, is here again. The month of fasting, prayers and charity.

In the last few days I had been busy preparing to make myself ready for our holy month.

This month is a blessing for us, when we actually feel that there is some meaning in our life. We feel a sort of special happiness and peace. We feel we are nearer to God.

We sacrifice the entertainments, we control our emotions, we put a lot of effort to refrain from greed, lust, gossip etc. In this month, even an alcoholic (one of the biggest sins in Islam) becomes a teetotaler, a chain smoker becomes a non-smoker, the people who are too busy that they don’t even get time to pray, slow down to pray and ask for forgiveness.

It is a month of Charity. When we fast, we understand what Hunger means and thirst means. It reminds us how lucky we are and that there are millions of unlucky people around the world who can’t even afford a single meal in a day. Charity comes naturally in this month.

The month of Ramzan ends with Eid ul fitr when we have a special celebration after the 30 days of fasting. The day starts with a special prayer usually conducted in open Ground. Then we will prepare Biriyani (in which Muslims are the best) for lunch. All the relatives and friends meet in the evening to share the happiness and love.

Saturday, September 01, 2007

PALA




“Hey you Dunderhead, Don’t you know PALA is a city and Bharananganam a big Town”
I still remember Georgy who literally shouted when we listed PALA among the Tribal Villages. Right from our training days, PALA was always a hot topic.

We used to call Bharananganam as Birmingham. The PALA we discussed was actually a tribal village and Georgy was the leader(Moopan in Malayalam).
We made up lot of things like we have to swim across a river to reach Birmingham, how we can go for hunting and how the tribal girls come running to help Georgy. We always used to make plans to go there. Georgy was very proud to be the first ICICI account holder from PALA.

Few days back, I got lucky. I got a chance to visit PALA. Actually I was quite shocked when I saw few building there. By Jove, I saw an ATM too. Though we didn’t have to cross a River to reach PALA, the road was full of turns and curves and the Bus was always consistent about it’s speed. I was literally flying when the bus was taking Turns. It was a feeling of getting into a Dry Ride in an Amusement Park continuously for 2 hours.

One interesting but irritating thing about PALA is any building or Place you name; there will be two such places. First we asked for Bus stand, there were two Bus stands. Then the Landmark Muncipal Building, there were two. We wouldn’t have surprised if we had met two Georgys. Finally we reached his house and had a sumptuous lunch. And then we had our usual Chit chats and jokes before we parted.

That’s PALA for you, the happening place of India.
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