Mid-Summer Mango Months

Whao!! What an eventful month it was!! Days were long and nights short-less. Month witnessed hard-hitting hailstorms, road ruining downpours (we fondly call them MANGO showers), unkind sun and eves with tantalzing summer wear, but never a sunny day!!

Planet’s largest carnival, Indian General Elections, inundated my eyes with Flower, Hand, Elephant, Sickle and other crazy symbols; But Power cuts, job cuts, salary cuts, and road cuts ensured that "scissors" is symbol of the season.

Of late, companies that are part of my life realized they were OBESE and took a resolution to sport a leaner look! Result: some of my colleagues and friends are at home now, leisurely jig-saw-ing pieces of life torn so fast by furious fate. So far so cut! World really got LEANer!!!
Inevitable traveling made me suffer unavoidable hospitalities. My tummy has become a rock band now ... it roars, rumbles, thunders and does what not. Nature has started calling me rather quite often (sometimes missed calls too), and my musical stomach never had a dull moment so far, be it in office or at home. Troubled tummy won’t let me go to gym or office continually making me a homey!! I spend my home-arrest watching movies on TV and importantly IPL! You shoul know I like playing, not watching..!

Saddest news struck me as Feroz Khan passed away last Sunday. He was one of my favorite actors and always wanted to meet him. May his soul rest in peace!

If I look the season from office end, news appears rather different. This time, all the credit goes to those miserly species whose mission is to spend life in makeup, jealousy, calculation, discount shopping, bitching, blood, and boys! Five members of this canny species (statistically, half of the team) started liking kangaroo..! Ssshful grapevine is very informative but some say ignorance is bliss!! My manager is blissful, still battling the resource crunch created by last quarter’s attrition! I have no inkling of how he will weather this storm when it hits him!!! Lets hop to another topic.
It would be more than blasphemous if I don’t mention INFANTS when I write about my company. Infant, my office shuttle, is auto-engineering’s marvel. It is only vehicle on the face of the earth that beats Tata’s Nano hands down, both in cost and compactness. Tough slightly bigger than Nano, it seats 30 people...exclusive of driver, aila. Sometimes you wonder whether it was intended for normal humans. Because leg room between seats proves that it was originally designed for the people without legs. So, people with legs like me, who travel regularly, will surely lose their legs sooner or later in accordance to theories of Darwin and Lamarck. And width, OMG, fuses the butts of people sitting in a same row; I bet you cannot make out where your butt ends and the next butt begins. The real magic begins when this four-wheeled hell is crowded by 29 sweating and stinking girls at 5 in the evening and I am subjected to maddening decibels of Kannada cacophony(courtesy: our driver has a loud ear for music) amidst them....
Effluvium from 8 hrs sweat-drenched and inherently stinking 29 girls when blended with musical terrorism in an all-windows-closed, snail paced, built to paralyze, four wheeled WONDER, dear Infant makes my journey deadliest, if not delirious. But last week, when summer sun added its thermal charm to this nightmarish setup, my ply home was suicidal!!!That was an event. BTW, this is written by my ghost.

Piquant quote of the day

Somebody told it exactly to the dot what I always felt & believed strongly:

"Everything that comes into your life should either stay with you and become your strength or leave you and make you free. It should not stay with you and become your weakness."

Chronicles of homegoing

24th to 29th, i was away from all the din, pollution, office, ad nauseam shallow smiles and relationships.... Shiv Shiva (Jeez! equivalent) I desperately needed a break from this soul-tiring clamor.
Cool drizzle greeted me as i got down at 5 o clock in the morning. Drizzle was of the type, which evokes memories of special people in your life. But it was bit magical to get such a welcome in summer. That is how my holidays started in Bellary!

Every sunup on this holiday, i was a galloping wild horse, free and peaceful, in a pristine yet spruced ground. If not for my determined sprinting shoe and silent flirting of fresh sunlight with playful leaves of the verdant circumference, ground was tranquil. After an hour or so of exercise, horse go-eth casa and haveth long, lavish and aromatic bath. Rejuvenated me had a luxury to meditate and contemplate in nature-blooming backyard each day. Sense of harmony and contentment that dawned was simply ineffable.

Having royal breakfasts, lunches and dinner s with family is HEAVEN in itself!! It sounds cliché, but food prepared by my mom is so delicious that you feel as if u have attained NIRVANA while relishing them. No dish/cuisine was prepared twice in the entire week. I was literally spoiled for choice. I was forced by her Love to trash all my “calorie/balanced/ diet-bla bla” gyaan and become her “Chinna”. Sweets, snacks, desserts, juices, various other preparations indulged me day and night. I had talked and talked and talked without any worry: like wasting their time, or disturbing their schedule, expectations, or being judged or misunderstood or fear of affecting relationship!!! It was after long time I talked with absolute belief of being listened with Love, the way I do. I went for walk twice once with my mom and with my dad. (Talks on walks/jogs with your special ones are some of life’s beautiful moments, isn’t it?). Soumya was understandably busy with her MBA so had really less time to spend with and I visited Kavya and was consciously easy at her home. May she have a beautiful life!

I met my peddhama and peddhananna, had a friendly aggressive argument over some plan. I met my beloved uncle, who is my Godfather. I met my atthamma, pinnamma,chinanna, and had a nice time. I played with naughty tiny cousins and taught them some mischievous pranks!! Long live our Club (refer my woogly post). Not-so tiny ones (ssshful adolescents) had math and sport lessons.. Listened to their “stories” with lot of winks, mentally giggling at my past...hehehe.

Some noted events:
26th was KrisMo’s birthday, greeted him at Venki’s temple and met his parents; Lunch at Pearl brought all friends together, then in no time we were on the road Hampi-ward. Tyre went flat 5km before Hampi so decided to change the party destination. It’s been a tradition that on March 26th, things WILL go wrong. Krismo’s belief in this jinx reached zenith this time. Paeans to Believable Superstitions!!!

27th was Ugadi. Day obeyed traditional routines religiously. Lamps kept at sacred kiosk at home radiated serene glow all around transforming the place. Luck smiled at me, found Asha’s home. Her parents and Savitha gave me ample sweets and gifts. Asha’s sisterly advice, senior speak, her Marwari-Telugu, tips and yes Rakhi were part of my growing up before she got married.. She is a mom of 6 years kid now!! She was good friend of mine.

28th was my engineering college’s alumni meet. I spoke about making the alumni body functional and powerful. The board and lecturers received my ideas with nods and “ouches”, latter outnumbering the former. Dinner with maternal relatives added exclamation at the end of the day.

Drenching in unconditional love flowing out from 3 pairs of eyes, I realized and recalled all the events with them and a few other special people of my life. Strange pranks of Time! time was still; Time also galloped super fast! Don’t know why, didn’t feel like coming back but left on Sunday afternoon beaming a royal grin. It reminded me the toughest job my eyes and hands ever done: waving bye to the ONE in pink T with “Singapore” printed on it!!!