What's next?

He looked at the bunch of currency lying in the table ahead. It must be worth atleast Rs.50,000 he thought. And a smile spread across his rumpled face. His day was made. He looked into the mirror and saw a weak cadaveric face that showed no signs of any compunction. I am a thief! I should be ashamed! My dad would be ashamed of me!

Gone were the days when he used to be a normal middle class guy who had no issues in his life. But things have changed a lot since then. His father met up with an accident and they had to spend so much on surgery only to face his death in the end. All the money was consumed and he was left to find some way to earn money. With two younger sisters to support, he wasn’t doing well in the mechanic shop, the only place he could find a job. He needed atleast Rs.100 everyday to make ends meet. He started his ‘career’ when his boss left the shop with him for a day. He looted all the money he could and ran. Ran like a mad animal that had seen it’s only prey for the day. He ran…

Here he was. The journey has been smooth so far. He looted from petty shops, supermarkets, settled families, anywhere he could. But today’s was the biggest loot of all. This will solve all my problems! Atleast for now. Today’s was well planned. He knew from the hung banana trees and lights that the Kandar’s family was arranging some funtion. He hid himself behind the house at sunset. And waited for his chance. The bedroom light went off, for dinner probably. He silently climbed into the window of the room and looked around for the locker. To his luck, he found the money lying in the table only. It was his day…

He took the lump of money and put it into his pocket. Suddenly he heard some voices. It was more than a voice. Somebody was shouting. He swiflty hid himself behind the cupboard. Still he was able to hear the conversation.
“What nonsense? Already I have spent so much for this marriage! Why the hell is he wanting a bike all of a sudden?” a stern crisp loud voice of a male.
“Sssh. Please reduce the volume. He says he will marry Suhal only if we give him a new bike. And he is very adamant on that. Seems his friends have provoked him. We cant help it” a female voice probably Mrs.Kandar.
“But we have only 60,000 left! I had to borrow that amount also. We’ll be a doomed before this ends” Mr.Kandar almost in the state of breaking down.
“Please get him one. Our daughter’s wedding is more important. We had to search so long to find this groom. Don’t leave him. We’ll adjust somehow ” was the assuring reply.

Meanwhile the thief was looking at the lump in his pocket. So 60,000!! He then looked around the room. It wasn’t whitewashed for years and the furniture was pretty old too. The room clearly depicted the Kandar’s state of living. He made a decision. He took the money from his pocket, took out one hundred-rupee note and kept the rest in the table. The pen lying on the table was lifted and he wrote “Best wishes” on the note lying on top of the bunch. He jumped out of the room, and started running. Started running with all his might for he was happy today. He had shown that he too had a heart after all. He ran thinking which house next?

Note: This idea is entirely not mine. Have seen a similar scene in one of the Tamil movies.

On a Sunday morning...

“How much to Begumpet?” I asked the autowala who was generous enough to stop for me. “This goes till Ameerpet only. Rs.15” was his quick reply.Having been brought up with autorickshaws as the main mode of transport in Chennai, Rs.15 for 7-8kms seemed incredulously low. This is Hyderabad, I told myself and these are shareautos as they call. I understood the meaning of ‘share’auto pretty soon. Stop after stop, people got in and suddenly there were as many as six passengers and one driver in the small space! Four poor souls (including myself) in the back and one on each side of the driver…

Traffic signal junctions are a curious spectacle in Hyderabad. The flow of traffic is not well regulated especially in the evenings. I have been a witness to ten minutes of a single line flowing when the other three lines pile on the queue. On a Sunday morning though the flow wasn’t a problem. Looking at the traffic policemen, I was wondering if they would catch my autowala for overloading. Only when I saw other autos in the same plight did I realize the norm here. I also couldn’t stop being amused by the stick like figures of the traffic police. It used to be belly type ones in Chennai, I recollected. It added to the terror then (I didn’t have the driving license till some two months back!). The journey continued…

Tall, new, stylish buildings one after the other clearly meant that we were passing through Hi-Tech city and its famous Cyber Towers. All the major software concerns have their offices somewhere around this place including my office. Though on the outskirts of the city, it is one of the costliest areas given the purchasing power of the people living nearby. Real Estate at its peaks, all major exclusive showrooms, plenty of pretty women around (some spotted with cigars in their hands!), quite a place is this Hi-Tech city. Two of them got down when the autorickshaw stopped. Relief! Not for long. The vehicle was filled soon. Only this time a nice young woman sat beside me. It was quite a journey…

There is a humble gentleman in every guy. But one can’t help when a pretty girl is sitting beside. You start getting highly conscious of yourselves and start to look in different directions, do different things. I for one took out my earphones, switched on the radio and started shaking my head slowly, ostentiously enjoying the song being played. The song? There is one truth I found out about Telugu songs. All of them (well most of them) are simply copied from Tamil cinema! From A.R.Rahman to S.A.Rajkumar, every arbit song is dubbed and the radio is generally full of known tunes. Another truth: I hardly notice people conversing in Telugu here. Hindi is more prominent in Hyderabad which is clearly not the case in Chennai.

The autorickshaw passed through Madhapur, Jubliee hills (the varying altitudes of the roads got the place the name?) finally reaching Ameerpet. The lady got down and walked without caring for the poor guy who tried his best to seem natural. After making the payment to the autowala, I went in search of another to take me to Begumpet. Seeing the crowded ones come by, I wondered if shareautos here should be called spareautos (spare the autos!!)

Instantly recognize!

There are many basic human natures that inadvertently come out of every individual typifying their personality. One of them is the need for recognition. Everybody wants to get recognized at some point or the other. And there are no exceptions to the previous statement. What might change are the levels of recognition one wants and the group of people from whom they want the same.

It starts right from the time we are born. The baby needs attention always and the constant attention it gets from its mother is the recognition it desires. The youngster needs recognition from his peers and the teachers. The teenager tries all his might to get recognition from his opposite sex, however trivial may the matters be. Similarly the employee seeks it from his managers, the society etc. It’s a never-ending game, a game where satisfaction is never achieved.

What is recognition then? Is it something you desire when you do something out of the ordinary? Is it getting a genuine applause after a presentation? Is it valid for only big things or do small deeds need to be recognized? Depends. Depends on the individual. Depends on the various facades in one’s life. The same person has different needs as an employee, as a lover or a husband, as a member of the society while the levels of the needs vary according to where their hearts lie the most.

What is instant recognition then? Simply put, you do something and expect it to get acknowleged instantly. In a cricket match, as soon as the batsman scores a fifty or a century, the crowd applauses in union. But generally, instant recognition is for the small deeds. You do, get acknowleged and forget about it. It may be as simple as a ‘thanks’ one gets for opening the door to a lady. It is the only form of recognition everyone expects and gets daily. And the delight that one gets for such a trivial thing is so immense that it can keep a whole day going.

Ofcourse there are a few occasions that might be called ‘exceptions’. These pertain themselves to one of the facades of a person’s life. Only when this happens the word ‘humble’ has its meaning. Do ‘humble’ people in office remain the same at home? More often than not the answer lies in the negative. It’s an energy waiting to be released but only others can release it. Accumulation of it leads to stress and other complications. What can we do to help it? Give it to others! Give recognition to all the small things and the people who help you or make you happy, instantly. Give them the happiness even when not asked for and you’ll start receiving them more frequently. Give it to your parents (they never ask for it or need it, but surely a thanksgiving to your parents makes them happy!), give it to your lover (dare not to!), give it to your peers, give to a stranger on the road, give to everyone. In the end, you'll have some nagging feeling in your heart which makes you smile.

P.S: Always know that the author here doesn't expect you to comment everytime. But think. Does it make him happy?

Things you would remember...

“Are you sure?” the tall stout guy asked him.
“According to the tip off we have received, it must be there only” he was given a prudent reply.
“But that’s far away! The travel takes one and half hours easily. Should we have to go?”
“Come what may I am going now. Coming or not?” the bespectacled guy asked.
“Anyone else to give company?”
“Doesn’t matter. Oh come on!”
“Why the fuck they have to choose such a far away place? And you have seen it already!”
“Me leaving. Bye.”
“Wait! Me game too!”

Eventually they found three more for company. Their journey started. They were getting late. The buses weren’t comfortable. It didn’t matter. For what is in store was something special. There was a big queue when they reached the place. Do they know too?
Suddenly everyone turned towards the road. There they came. Shouts all around and the people in the queue knew instantly that they chose the right movie to watch at the right time……

This is one experience of mine I’ll pleasantly take away from my college life. If you are still wondering, it was the night when all the girls from the college are taken to a special movie screening. It was in my second year. “Ghajini” was the movie in Srivenkatesa theatre, Trichy. It was a ‘privilege’ to share the show with them especially when it was a night show, something we could boast of in our hostels. Receiving the right tip off about the movie and the theatre was imperative. Thankfully I had my sources…

Now the experience is somewhat mixed. You know that all the so-called babes of your college are sitting behind you (well they get the top seats, we had to fight for the bottom ones) and still you couldn’t possibly do anything about it. I mean what can one do when all the security personnel from the college are also accompanying them not to mention the professors with their families (why family?! Using up college’s money! Bloody cheats!). And what can 5 guys do when a herd of the female species shout for anything and everything (Gosh! They shout loud!). The ‘outsiders’ or the normal audience had also taken note of it and it was funny seeing people making faces and dancing in front of the girls, probably the top beauties from Trichy, before the show began. We felt like telling them that they are OUR college girls. But how can we and what purpose does it serve?

The movie. Well having seen it already, the focus of our eyes lay behind our backs. Making note of the reactions they give for various scenes was indeed interesting (not to be elaborated!). Of course they made a note of us too. The interval was the time we could have had some serious fun. The girls weren’t allowed at first to the stalls. Being magnanimous, we offered ice cream to a few (via SMS) and got rejected bluntly. Some luck! The girls were let out later and we got to see a glimpse of the people we see and ‘admire’ everyday in college, yet again in bright light. The movie ended without any more frills. We desperately wanted to get into the college buses along with the girls for the return journey. That would have made our day. That was not offered too. In the end we had to catch the local buses (scanty services in the night) to reach our hostels. So what did we get out of everything? Nothing much. Except that we can proudly say that we had been there in that show even after some 3 years!!!!!!

Epilogue: There was another show “Unnale Unnale” in Cauvery theatre in my third year that we(myself and Kaushik Ram) managed to attend. Similar experience. The final year show was, to our utter disappointment, screened inside college itself on the day it happened.