Happy V-jaya Dashami

It was 6 am in the morning and the Earth was shaking vigorously and a lot of people were running around screaming madly “Bhago Bhago!!” The screams were getting closer and louder and Vinod was rolling uneasily in bed. His head was spinning and eyes were heavy. Vinod tried hard to look around and things started changing their shapes in a bizarre fashion. For a moment, he saw Gowri screaming and running along with all the people. Instantly, he became alert and opened eyes completely, his body still shaking. It took entire half a minute for him to realize, that he was not moving by himself, but was being shaken violently. Before he could even think of saying something, Gowri stopped him with beautiful smile said “Welcome to Earth Sir!! Finally you got up, kab se chilla rahi hoon Utho, Utho.” All that Earth shaking he felt a moment ago made sense. He looked at Gowri. She was looking pious with a big deep red bindi on her forehead, wet hair curling down her shoulders. She was wearing a pleasant light yellow saree which was perfectly complimenting her complexion and that ever-present smile. Gowri did not say a word and stood there as though letting Vinod stare at her. All of a sudden, she winked at him with that ‘caught you’ twinkle in her eyes.

Vinod felt like burying his head deep, jumped out of bed, ran in to washroom, banged the door hard and locked it, but he still heard Gowri ‘s playfulness “You cannot resist me, Mr. Vinod” mixed with a hearty laughter through the door. Vinod always knew that Gowri had some magic over him, but this was one of those rare times he was caught naked. He looked in to the mirror and was surprised to see himself all red and realized how obvious his ‘fall for her magic’ was. Gowri knocked the bathroom door and said “Fresh up soon V, today is Dashami, hope you remember that.” “Oh .. yeah .. sure” he pushed words back hard through the door to reach her.

The moment Vinod came out, he was caught in Festive mood. He felt happy, though it was tough for him to decide if it was because of the beautiful sight he had a little while back, or because it was holiday for both of them, or may be because this was the day when the Mighty Mother destroyed the Evil.  Vinod loved God. He grew up listening stories of gods, goddess, demons, and believing that “In the end Good Triumphs over Evil, if it did not, then it’s definitely not the End.” Gowri too loved God, especially Maa Durga and Navratri is one of her Favorite festivals. Her love for this festival was very evident. The house was crisply clean and there was a low hum of sacred chants blended with faint fragrance of Agarbatti spread in air.

Vinod followed the fragrance and walked across the house towards the north-east corner. He came to a sudden halt, when he saw one of most beautiful sights he’s ever seen. On a raised platform, was a beautiful female in red dress, sitting regally on might muscular lion, spreading her eight arms, across the canvas, holding fiercest of weapons and yet wearing a blissful smile. Gold ornaments studded with emeralds and rubies were hanging down from neck till waist and her ears supporting radiant sun like discs. As a faint chill crept along his spine, Vinod let out a spontaneous ‘ah’ while his both hands folded up to join near chest for pranaam automatically. He felt assured and protected from bottom most layer of his heart and stood still without realizing how much time. Couple of tears rolled down his face unnoticed.

“V, where are you?”

Gowri’s voice brought Vinod back to his senses, but his mind with could not prepare a reply back immediately. He wondered how someone this beautiful, elegant, blissful slay most dreaded demons could or even hold such fierce weapons.

“Oh here you are ...” Gowri said as she was coming from behind. She slowed down her pace, as she noticed that Vinod was intensely lost in the picture before him, came and stood next to him calmly. She held his hand gently, leaned her head over his shoulder and glanced at the picture devotionally. Her mind prayed silently. Vinod came back to his senses completely, “She is looking awesome Gowri.” Gowri gave out a pleasant smile, still looking at the picture. She wished if time could pause this moment forever.

It’s my life, it’s now or never ….. Bon Jovi started shouted mercilessly with utter disregard to bliss both Vinod and Gowri were in. It was Vinod’s mobile ringing and he reacted as though he was programmed to pick the phone in one ring. He pushed Gowri’s head off his shoulder and sprinted across the house in 2 steps and reached his mobile. It was Suresh’s calling.

 Just as he was about pick the call, he heard a lion’s roar “V  ... You dare not pick the call now.” It was the roar of lioness rather; a lioness who is clearly ready to pounce upon and rip apart anything which enters its territory. Vinod looked at Gowri and was stunned at her transformation. Her eyes brows came closer with anger and face turned deep red as though all the blood in body was directed there. Her breathing was heavy burdened by insult of being pushed away.  Her eyes were half filled with tears and yet eyesight was piercing.  

Vinod cut the call almost as a reflex, but could not move any further. Both stood in their places for a couple of minutes till tension in the air diluted. Gowri came back alive first, “thanks for listening, I dint want to anything to disturb us, hope you dint mind.” She ended the sentence with a smile. Vinod tried to smile, but it did not come out in full. In the last 2-3 minutes, he felt the intensity of Gowri’s reaction. “Am sorry” he apologized genuinely. He felt guilty that he spoiled the moment together – so much enslaved to mobile and office. “That’s ok, don’t be … I’ll make tea for you in a moment” Gowri smiled in her same whole-hearted pleasantness and walked in to kitchen.

Vinod felt at ease a little and slumped in to couch. His mind somehow could not comprehend the transformations he saw in Gowri in the last 30 minutes from being beautiful to blissful to brutally angry and back to beautiful. All of a sudden something struck him. He went back and looked at the Picture which had the same assuring smile as always. But then, he clearly understood how, when Her devotees are threatened by evil the same assuring smile will be replaced by something fiercer even for the fiercest evils.

Nothing official about 'It'

<<Disclaimer - Strictly for back benchers. Whatever has been written just Read. Enjoy. Forget ;-)>>


<< Warning - If you are not a back bencher, please don’t read further. Don’t tell me later I am a racist ;-) >>

It was 4 pm on a busy midweek day, and Vinod was struggling between completing a priority deliverable due in 2 days and a much needed ‘tea break’ impulse being put up by majority of neurons in his mind. With every passing minute more neurons were joining the resistance, and finally Vinod gave up. He looked up over the upper rim of his cubicle to see what Suresh’s doing. Suresh looked deeply absorbed in work and was staring at his laptop screen. Vinod decided not to disturb him and rose to get a quick cup of tea.  “Buddy, look at this” Suresh called out with a little excitement. Vinod instantly got childishly curious listening to excitement in tone. Some back-bench acquired senses instantly told him he is going to look at something interesting. He took two quick leaps and came behind Suresh to peep in to this monitor.  Suresh was looking at some pictures of Sonal with her friends on facebook. “She went to Ooty recently? Wow” Vinod said with a wink, “seems she had a good time, too many sexy babes in one pic and no wonder you were looking so focused.” “You are not seeing the point bro’, if all the babes are in this pic then who took this pic?” Suresh looked up in to Vinod’s eyes as though searching for some reaction.  ‘Good question indeed’ Vinod thought. He took over the mouse to scroll to next pic. “***k?” a confused irritated sound came out instantly. Vinod just managed to keep the decibels levels of the ‘F’ word between him and best friend. Suresh nodded his head with full contempt and a hearty smile after getting the much expected reaction from his friend.

“I need a tea break badly now” Vinod announced. Instantly Suresh (Win + L)ed his laptop and joined his friend for the break. “How did he manage to join them, that ‘half-girl’ idiot?” Suresh started enjoying Vinod’s irritation. Both went to canteen and all along the way Vinod was letting out his surprised + frustrated + agitated + irritated mood reeling at barely audible decibels. Both of them sat on their favorite table at far end of the canteen, from where they can see each and every one in canteen. Though many sit at that place, only few will have ‘vision’ – Suresh calls this table his ‘High Nest’. He read somewhere that Eagles build their nests on the highest possible point on a mountain, which best suit their long and sharp line of sight. Though knowing that the actual reason Eagles build at high point is different, Vinod encouraged Suresh’s idea of calling it ‘High Nest.’

Both brought tea for themselves and settled in their High Nest. Vinod stopped his reeling and said “I thought Sonal was sensible, she proved to be just any other girl.” Suresh seemed agreeing to that, “For sure, all girls seem to have this ‘Thing’ for SRK type guys.” “What’s type??” Vinod put down his tea cup and looked at Suresh. Vinod’s eyes gleamed with some exciting anticipation. Suresh is good at analyzing people and has this funny way of expressing that analysis.  “SRK types Vinod, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai types” Suresh said making some gestures of handshake in air. Vinod nodded his head like his trying to understand as he said “Oh!! is that ……?” Suresh stopped a giggle and said with a wink, “it’s just ‘It’  ... nothing more, nothing less.” A giggle of the same frequency which Suresh stopped started appearing on Vinod’s face, “Hmm  ... SRK types... huh? ... nice way to name‘It’.” “Don’t you think the name for this breed is apt? I mean they will be all over girls always – eat them, drink them, be them” Suresh continued with some ‘Eureka’ excitement as though he is discovering a new concept, rather rediscovering a new concept here. Vinod interrupted  with mild hesitation “Sleep them too?” He somehow could not accept the fact that this idiot could have actually had a ‘chance’ with Sonal. Suresh burst out in to a hearty laugh, “that can never happen buddy, SRK types are rather homely and harmless guys and moreover, Sonal is a real sweet girl, you know that!!” Vinod nodded in acknowledgement, he has a very good impression about Sonal, but yet somewhere he could not understand or accept how a sweet girl like her be friend to such a jack ass.  Suresh tried reassuring Vinod more “These guys, correction rather ‘It’ will just be something like friends, help them in all sorts, and have that rather sugary sides.” Vinod smiled whole heartedly at the correction and added “So the best compliment ‘It’ would have got is cute or sweet!!”

“Exactly!!” Suresh yelled out, “they will do anything; they just want to live and die in vicinity of a female.” He continued, “They will carry their shopping, book travel tickets, call regularly to find out if lunch/dinner were had on time, and the list continues.” Vinod was enjoying this conversation, though he was unsure if he was enjoying as this conversation was reducing the his irritation or he actually started believing there is an entirely new species of men which he dint realize till date. Suresh concluded, “Trust me buddy, ‘It’ is an entirely new species!! A revolutionary discovery since man was born!! And I should be getting a Nobel for this.” Vinod loves when this best friend is in this kind of flow and appreciatingly patted on his back and said dramatically lifting his half-empty tea cup, “I hearby nominate Sir Suresh for Nobel”

“What’s the party about?” a sweet voice interrupted Suresh’s Nobel Prize Ceremony. It was Sonal and she was looking sweet and simple as usual. Both the guys instantly felt a wave of happiness all over them. Sweet and simple always had some magic on these two. “Kya chal raha hai?” Sonal comfortably sat next to Suresh. Vinod direverted the earlier topic, definitely not a topic before girls, “We saw your Ooty snaps on FB, nice pics!!” “Oh, you saw!!” Sonal screamed mildly with innocent excitement, “the trip was awesome, so cold it was and chilling.” “The snaps are really nice” Suresh joined, “who took them?” he added. Sonal seemed hesitant for a moment and then opened up,”Muthu joined us” and then she leaned forward as though telling a secret, “don’t tell him that I revealed this. He asked us to not to tell anyone.” Suresh laughed out loud “If he dint want to let anyone know he came along with you guys, he really should not have been in the pictures.” “You guys knew he came, then why you asked me?” Sonal put up a ‘you guys are unbelievable’ face. “Told na Sonal, we saw the snaps” Vinod put up an honest answer. “Hmmm …” Sonal gave a pause and said, “that’s ok, anyways I cannot understand you guys, especially Muthu, he is so moody. I don’t even know why he said not to tell anyone and he would not tell me.”

Suresh looked at Vinod, “add this to the ‘It’ list, moody!!” Vinod smiled back mysteriously. Sonal became curious, “what list?” “You won’t understand kiddo!!” Suresh said with a mocking expression. Sonal face turned red, “Don’t call me that, Am not a kiddo and I understand everything!! You tell na Vinod what list?” Vinod hesitated but looking at her innocent face decided to tell her, “We were talking about Muthu just before you joined, and Suresh was listing out charecterstics of guys like Muthu.” “Not guys, call them ‘It’ they are like guys, but not guys” Suresh immediately said. “You guys are so mad, he is a really sweet guy.” Vinod and Suresh looked at each other for a moment and immediately burst out in laughter. Sonal looked at them confused, and got up, “I have meeting now and got to get back to desk. You guys joining?” Having their share of fun and laughter at ‘High Nest’ they too got up.

On way back to desk, Sonal tried explaining them all the excitement of her trip in a couple of sentences. Suddenly Muthu appreared out of nowhere and greeted Sonal swinging his hand in full excitement, “Hi how are you? …” Before he could say further, Suresh said “Hi Muthu, we are here too.” “Guess he dint see we ‘guys’, Vinod added stressing the word guys. “Hi” Muthu said meekly and immediately turned back to Sonal “What happened you look so dull? Dint you have lunch on time?”

Vinod and Suresh again burst out in to uncontrollable laughter without even bothering about anyone being disturbed on floor.  Muthu left immediately without even bothering to look at them, something told him that the laugh was directed at him. Sonal tried stopping them from laughter, “ab kya hua?” Vinod who was now holding his stomach due to pain from that laughter managed to say “another item in the list checked.”

Sonal looked at them with muse, ‘how can these guys laugh so heartily’ and finally said “you are guys are so unbelievable” and started walking back to her desk.

3G - Gas/Gandhi/Gowri

“****     ** ***** *   **** idiot!!” Vinod cut the call and almost threw his mobile out of frustration.  He dropped himself in the couch and wondered what to do next. You eagerly wait for 5 long miserable grueling days for that one perfect Saturday morning, and this is how it has to start, curses!!  If this is how it started, imagine the rest of the day!! Imagine rest of weekend!! Vinod started feeling helplessly depressed, as though his dearest possession – WEEKEND - is being taken away from him by force.

Gowri walked in with a hot cup of tea, for herself and Vinod and comforted herself in the couch next to Vinod. Vinod took a sip of tea, “Wow!!” he let out a wholehearted contempt. “How can this beautiful female get this perfection each time and every time”, Vinod’s male ego ensured that these words won’t follow the earlier ‘wow’ successfully. After all it has been doing it every day for last 3 years. Gowri also took a happy sip of tea and asked What’s irritating you V? Vinod’s mind instantly came out of ‘Wow’ and went back to its previous irritated state. “********** Idiot” a mumble came out.

What’s irritating you V? this time a more assertive sound came out. Vinod’s let out his irritation “Owner is not agreeing to sign rental agreement”. “Why?” another question immediately popped out this time less assertive. “That idiot does not want to show the rent we pay in his income  ... ‘chor saala’ does want to pay more income tax!! For him nothing has to be on papers or legal and moreover tries to give me bhashan on trust between fellow humans and strength of a word given” Gowri knows they need some residence proof to get the address for domestic gas connection changed and they are running out of domestic gas. She let out a deep sigh “What now?” Vinod shook his head along with a lot of curses whirling in it... “Let’s see, there should be a way around, perhaps a self-declaration with an advocate attestation should be enough.”

“It’s actually ironic”, Gowri exclaimed, “that we being educated, having awareness still end up either doing nothing or encourage people like our owner evade taxes.” Vinod did not comment back. He knows Gowri’s passion for dreams like 100% justice, pure white money, responsible governments etc., and she can talk/ argue/ for hours on these. “What do you think V? Isn’t it an irony” She tried pushing her passion. ‘Don’t fall for this Vinod’ his inner conscience urged ‘it does not matter what you think – this irony will go on at least an hour and does not stop until it touches PM, Anna, Modi, Sonia, freedom struggle and even to an extent if Obama becoming president again controls these fraudsters in India .’

“May be its Ironic, but this time it’s going to get you gas at home” said Vinod calmly. 

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that am going to forger owners sign on whatever affidavit am getting done and submit it” Vinod kept his calm.

Gowri did not know what to respond and what to choose between - Gas or Gandhi, picked up tea cups and went back to kitchen. Vinod smiled at his calm Gandhian victory and quick changed his clothes to get gas home.