Eternal lightness of no data

My smartphone has been wiped clean of all data twice in past two months and is in the safe custody of the service center.

My desktop was formatted ten days back.

My laptop has just a couple of word files and nothing else as data.

Microsoft and Apple. Two giant shoulders that I stand upon and see the world. They are like sleeping babies for me at the moment. Shhh.....hushhhh....no noise....no data....no nothing!

Hold it.

Don't feel sorry for me yet.

I do have backup. Some of it at least.

But alas.....my lacie (storage disk) is away. To be exchanged under warranty. They say the data can be saved. I believe them. But I believe in data only as long as I don't have to pay for its retrieval. Else I will assume it all to be gone.

Am I living a digital curse? Sure looks like it.

So why and how am I so calm and serene right now?

Because when all is gone, nothing really matters!!

What you really really need pops up from someplace and presents itself.

Copies of your most recent projects are generally in the mail or with your business associates or Clients.

Photographs that matter are up and about on facebook and the whatsapp galleries of your friends.

All phone numbers are synced to some email account or the other.

I thought I would collapse without my phone or computer but I eat, sleep and behave just like I used to. Not much has changed. Just a few things.

I upload a little less. I interact a little less online. I cook a little more.

I also wait a little more for others to listen to what I have to say.

I indulge in quick mental math when giving money at the laundry.

I also count the money any shopkeeper returns. You will be surprised how many times they have had to return me some more because they made a 'silly mistake' adding up.

Hopefully I will buy a new smartphone soon.

Till then I will use my mind and its powers to do all things simple.

Like baking a cake without looking at the recipe....

Blog kyon nahi likhti aajkal??

How I wish I could make you smell burnt rice!

Why would I want you to do that, you may ask.

Because…..

I do not ever want you to ask me agin, "Why don't you blog anymore??"

Every time I just want to give myself some time to read, write or just be, there is bound to be some chore that will so horribly wrong that I regret having even thought about sitting down for a read.

Don't believe me?

Here you go….

I sat down to read my own blog. I started wondered why I didn't write anymore. My cousin and a friend recently asked me the same. The more I wondered, the more I read my own posts. The more I read them, the more I regretted not having written in the recent times.

My mind wandered to the topics I could write about.

Endless possibilities thrilled me.

"It's time I got back to writing for myself. This blog has been neglected for too long.", I vowd.

I was swimming in the cozy comfy sea of blog-title-land when a strong burning smell startled me out of my reverie. Even before I could log onto blogger, reality came back and bit me so hard where it hurts the most. In the heart silly!

I have a train to catch in the next four hours.

This rice here was to be our dinner for the night, on the train.
Good luck to that!

Off I go to the kitchen while you read this post.

Ab dobara mat poochna…..blog kyon nahi likhti aajkal!!!!

एक मैगी प्रेमी की टेर

यूँ ही अचानक एक दिन
गु़म से हो जाओगे
ज़रा भी इसका साया होता,
तो तुम्हें कुछ और चाव से खाया होता

पानी थोड़ा कम ही मिलाया होता
कढ़ाई में चम्मच और प्यार से घुमाया होता
स्टील की प्लेट नही,
चाँदी में सजाया होता,
तुम्हें कुछ और चाव से खाया होता

तेरी सुनहरी लटों को
फोर्क पर नही, पलकों पे बिठाया होता,
निहारा होता

सँवारा होता
ज़रा और फ़ू फ़ू कर के
सुर्रर्रर्रर्र से गटकाया होता
तुम्हें कितने चाव से खाया होता

मिल जाओ कहीं तो कसम से
अदालत में एक डाइलाग ज़रूर टिकाया होता
'ग़र मैगी खाना जुर्म है माइ लाड तो ये जुर्म मैंने किया है'
जज को यूँ दो टूक सुनाया होता

कावेरी हो या औली
तवांग या बमरौली
तुम्हे हर जगह मैंने पाया होता 

कितने चाव से खाया होता

ओह मैगी,

तुम्हें कितने चाव से खाया होता!!

The math that doesn't add up

Confessions of a helping hand

• You threaten me with sexual harassment accusation because I got out of my car on an empty road to help you? I stopped despite knowing it is not safe to do so. I stopped because you stood there, next to a supposedly injured friend, pleading passers by to help you. I stopped when no one else would. Here, take my car keys but please kill me too because if I go back alive I am going to tell people not to help strangers, no matter what the situation. 

• We were on our way to a function. We saw you waving frantically for help by the roadside. We stopped. So did another vehicle, which magically appeared from nowhere seconds after we slowed down. Now you and yoaur gang threaten us with knives. Here take all our belongings and please kill us too because if we go back alive we are going to tell people not to help strangers, no matter what the situation. 

• I am a mother of two. There was no way I was not going to stop when a little child stood in the middle of the road bawling. I park my scooter by the roadside to ask what happened. The little child miraculously stops crying and a van drives up. Now I am in the van, my hands are tied and clothes are torn. I pray you kill me too because if I go back alive I am going to tell people not to help strangers, no matter what the situation. 

• We had a wonderful vacation. We were on our way back. We always make it a point never to drive after sunset on the Highway. At 3:00pm we see a happy group of youngsters wave and go past us. They are probably returning from a good trip as well. We don’t know how but we get a flat tyre. We see the boys reversing their car. We thank God for their presence. Little do we know that it was a pre-planned daylight Highway robbery. Little nails don’t lay strewn on the road just like that. Here, take everything we have but please do not kill us. You can see we have small children. 

• We are on our way back from the theatre. You were blood soaked. We stopped immediately and rolled down our windows. We wanted to help you but remembered all the stories we had heard and wondered if we were going to be the next victims. Without waiting to roll up our windows, we sped past you. We read the newspaper this morning and are left wondering if it was you they mention in the tiny column ‘man dies in a roadside accident’. We will never be able to come to terms with the fact that we could have helped you but we didn’t.a

• I was on my way to office. Saw a teenager asking for help. I was in the middle lane of peak hour traffic. I knew it was impossible to come to a halt. I went ahead. It tugged at my heart and I felt guilty. I took a U-turn and came back to help him. It turned out that there was a college project they were experimenting about 'how many people stop by to help a stranger'. Damn, now I am late for work and will get a late mark on the muster.

We are trained not to halt at unknown places. We are trained not to trust people especially a child, a woman or old frail septagenarians who are used decoys. Someday I might be that genuine bleeder on the road and it could be my wife hysterically trying to stop passing vehicles. We know no one will stop. Their hearts will skip a beat. They might even miss a meal or two with a heavy heart. They are all good people but they will not stop. For every me, they have heard of at least ten of the above. The math simply doesn’t add up.

टोपी क वज़न

एक फ़ौजी की टोपी

इतनी हल्की,
के ख़ुशी से
बल्लियों उछलती है
हवा से बातें करती,
Cadets के हाथों

इतनी भारी,
के छह कांधे भी कम पड़ते हैं
अंतिम बिदाई में