She & Me – Part VII
‘Me’ visited a local branch of the marriage registration office for filing a request for a marriage certificate. He had filled up the form correctly and had checked and re-checked the list of attested documents to be attached just to make sure that all papers were in order.
Me was waiting at the office for ‘She’, the lady who checks and accepts the marriage registration form.
She (after arriving 1 hour late): Yes?
Me: I wanted to apply for a marriage certificate
She: Have you already married and want to apply for a certificate or you want to marry here and then get it registered?
Me: I have married a few months back and I have brought this form and the necessary documents
She: Do you live in this area?
Me: Yes
She: Ok, show me the form
She: (mumbling and ticking) Age… Proof… Address… Proof… Photographs
She: What is this? (pointing to the city of the marriage venue)
Me: Gurgaon
She: Is this outside our Pune city?
Me: (trying to suppress a smile) Yes, it is in Haryana
She: Outside Pune city but within Maharashtra state, right?
Me: (suppressing my laughter) Err… no it is in the state of Haryana
She: Oh ok! Gurgaon… hmmm… this is in Punjab state, right?
Me: (suppressing wtf! expression) No it is in Haryana state
She: Ok then you will have to file the request in that city itself or the District Collector office of our city
Me: Well ok… I will take this form to the DC office then
She: No this form is for marriages held within our city. You will have a separate form to fill up at the DC office.
Me: But nothing has been mentioned on this form about venue of marriage!!
She: (smiling)
Me: I understand that the 100 bucks I paid for this form have gone waste
She: (still smiling)
‘Me’ later went to the DC office and found that the ‘marriages-outside-city’ form was fortunately free; though that form also didn’t have a mention about venue of marriage clause. A few trips to the DC office for lack of address proof (I guess officer’s hints of a bribe) and Me’s form was finally submitted (without shelling a single rupee in form of bribe). A month later three witnesses will have to sign a declaration at the DC office and then ‘Me’ will get his marriage registered and a marriage certificate. Now ‘Me’ can ‘legally’ touch his wife eh?
Labels: Conversations, Marriage, She n Me
Life is an old lady’s tears
One of the families in our neighbourhood in the earlier place comprised of an old lady and her son, who was afflicted with polio. The lady got a meagre pension from her deceased husband’s last job and the son had a bank job in which he was doing well when they left that place, to move into a bigger house, around 8-9 years back. I remember the son as a cheerful guy who used to play cricket with me, even when it was quite difficult for him to run around. During holidays I used to spend maximum time at their place. Somehow I did not get to meet him after they left to the new house. He got married, but I was not able to attend it. The lady being close to my mother always paid a visit to our house whenever she was in the neighbourhood. Around 3-4 years back I spotted him at the bank when I was running an errand. I went to his desk and noticed that he looked rather dull. He smiled back when he saw me but I felt that the cheerful guy which I knew was missing. My mom said that they were having some family problems and the lady and her daughter-in-law were not on talking terms. I am not interested in family gossip so I ignored the later part of the narration. After a few months I saw the old lady in tears while talking to my mother. I came to know that the things between the two ladies in that house had reached to such an extent that the son had asked his own mother to live in a separate house. We always hear or read stories of children neglecting their aged parents but seeing someone closely I felt very sad that day. Last week the lady had come to our house to see our Ganesh idol and also had brought a few ukdiche modak as prasad. She was looking very frail and I had to hold her by her hand while dropping her off from our house. Later back home mom told me that the son had stopped going to the bank and since he was absent for a very long time he was sacked from his job. He was facing a serious inferiority complex and had stopped using his crutches. Dragging himself on the floor he had refused to get up. So the lady was putting aside a major part of the pension as savings and was helping to fund the education of her grandchildren. She was skipping meals to save costs and on a few days she lived on 1-2 bananas only. Even then she was refusing any kind of help from others.
A few years back the son and wife had driven the old mother out of her own home. They had refused to provide monetary help to her and had left her to live off on her own. They had ordered her not to meet her grandchildren. Now the same mother is fighting a lone battle to feed the family of four and providing a decent education to the kids. What is her fault in this situation? Is life treating her badly? Rather than life it is the people who treat each other badly. How can a child, who has been brought up by his/her parents, neglect them when the parents need him/her the most? Isn’t it a child’s basic responsibility to support the parents? I mean the answers are so simple yet we fail to think clearly. That day I vowed that the least I can do for my parents is to respect them and be there when they need me. I hope you also realize it in time. Last heard my mother was trying to help the lady’s son regain his confidence and had given him some confidence-booster books by Swami Sukhbodhananda. I am not sure how much that will help but I sincerely hope the family re-unites and leads a happy and healthy life.
P.S.: Uploaded a few images of our Ganesh idol and the puja.
Labels: Childhood, Life, Pics, Self
In dependence?
Independence Day wishes to all my Indian friends.
Tomorrow the celebrations all over will be low key due to the swine flu outbreak (and mainly the panic). Independence Day always makes me think of patriotic songs. My mother loves almost every patriotic song I know of, and she even cries while listening to them. As for me, I never felt a sense of pride or a feeling of Indian-ness just by listening to the songs, except for two. One is the national anthem, when played after a victory (not in a theatre before a movie). The sportsperson standing on a podium, sporting the national colours, draped in the national flag. Awesome! It must be such a great feeling and a proud moment to stand on that podium and listen to the national anthem in the midst of people from all nationalities. The second song is actually a poem by the revolutionary Ram Prasad Bismil. It was adapted as a song in the movie Rang De Basanti. Maybe the movie sequence/situation is the reason the song is so inspiring, but I absolutely love the lyrics. I am sharing a part of the actual poem here.
Hai liye hathiyaar dushman taak mein baitha udhar,
Aur hum taiyyaar hain seena liye apna idhar
Khoon se khelenge holi gar vatan muskhil mein hai,
Sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamare dil mein hai
Haath jin mein ho junoon katt te nahi talvaar se,
Sar jo uth jaate hain woh jhukte nahi lalkaar se
Aur bhadkega jo shola-sa hamare dil mein hai,
Sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamare dil mein hai
Hum toh ghar se nikle hi the baandhkar sar pe kafan,
Jaan hatheli par liye lo badh chale hain ye kadam
Zindagi to apni mehmaan maut ki mehfil mein hai,
Sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamare dil mein hai
Dil mein tufaanon ki toli aur nason mein inquilaab,
Hosh dushman ke udaa denge humein roko na aaj
Duur reh paaye jo humse dam kahaan manzil mein hai,
Sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamaare dil mein hai
Dekhna hai zor kitna baazuay qaatil mein hai
I have not checked the news yet so I hope the ID celebrations in Pakistan went off well today. Hoping no untoward incident occurs tomorrow. Let peace prevail. Happy weekend everyone.
Labels: Independence Day, India, Songs
Life is a circle
Our company has seen a trend for the last 6-7 years that people spend 2-3 years here and then they join our client company. They become client contacts on one of the many projects we handle here. 2 years back I had a team-mate in this company with whom I shared a good friendship. We both were on the same level as in title/position and pay package, but never did any thought of personal competition ever cross my mind. It might be due to the fact that I knew I was working hard enough to prove myself better than the rest of the lot. One fine day this friend of mine told me that he has resigned from our company and is joining the client company. Frankly speaking, this was a pleasant surprise to me, pleasant because I was happy for him and surprised because I wasn’t aware that there was a vacancy at the client side and many people from our company had actually applied there.
Later when he went abroad, another common friend of ours told me that since most of the client contacts were pretty much impressed with my work, the friend had kept me in dark about the vacancy. For a moment I felt bad that I had not been pro-active to look up some sites but never blamed anyone else since they were looking for a job switch and they did what they thought was right for them. I mailed this friend asking him how he was putting up in the new country and asked him to pass over his new mobile number. He replied back that he was a client now and I was a contractor/vendor so he wanted to maintain a distance. I actually felt bad reading that reply. I was looking for my moment of vengeance since that day and a few days back I got the message that this guy was terminated on grounds of poor performance. Now he is jobless and with added responsibility of a newly married life. Sweet revenge? Actually it should have been but I felt sad for him. Maybe I should thank him for not letting me know the vacancy otherwise I would have applied, got selected (another client contact who is a senior told me last month that they were expecting my resume for that post and had finalized before the interviews to pick me up) and maybe got kicked out due to the recession period. I should be happy that I stayed back, did good job on the work front, convinced two sets of parents that I was a good boy for the girl I wanted to marry, got married with her, and I am spending a good time with my set of wonderful friends. Yes, I did miss out on a better pay package. I did miss out going abroad. But I am sure my turn will come one day. After all, life goes full circle.
Labels: Company, Life
Ek kunwara phir gaya maara
Last month end we friends attended a wedding reception of an engineering classmate. He lives in UK currently. Many of the guys in our group are scattered due to job related postings so I had written a mail to the group just to cheer up people who had missed attending the event. Posting it here to keep this mail stored on a shared site so that anyone of us can visit it in future even if jobs and mail ids’ keep on changing.
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From: Sudeep
To: “Ajit”, “Anky”, “Darya”, “Dukkya”, “Bhopya”, “Amdya”, “JP”, “Shirish”, “Suraj”, “Babaji”
Date: Tue, Jun 2, 2009
Hey guys or should I say Hey COETians :p
Wassup? Most of you missed attending JP's wedding reception on the 31st so thought to write down a detailed mail of the entire event so that you can relive the moment, virtually. After much discussion among the group of 11, finally only 4 could make it to the venue and the 5th one being JP himself. I am sure that by the end of this mail you would be either happy not attending with us or repenting for the same reason :D.
As decided over mails we were to meet at Amdya's place at 6:45. Much to our surprise Amdya was the first one to reach his home and a greater surprise that he was watching Da Vinci Code on his computer. I am sure that the movie must be an adult version of the original because I can't imagine Amdya all alone at home and watching Robert Langdon and Sophie, running across the Grand Louvre, completely dressed. Shirish, as usual, was late by around half an hour. Ok fine.. mostly I am the one who is late but this time I was the first one (leaving Amdya aside) to reach. Later someone had initiated the topic that I have become punctual after marriage, but someone else (yes, yours truly) successfully changed the topic. Now that it was clear, after a few calls, that only Amdya, myself, Ajit and Shirish would be going to the reception we quickly discussed about the wedding gift for JP. Amdya was the first one to suggest - his personal hard drive with his complete pr0n collection (spelling altered so that office id's don’t block the mail). 'His complete' in the sense, which he has collected diligently over the past few years. We had a good laugh over this suggestion and then Shirish suggested that we (mainly Amdya) gift JP a pillow. For those who are wondering whether a pillow signifies something nasty or $exually explicit, please hold on to your vivid imaginations. Pillow was suggested after the (in)famous 'Pillowgate scandal' at JP's room after Amdya's highly intoxicated state and later JP being (almost) pushed to tears saying "Arre! Amdya ne mere pillow ki waat laga di" in his inimitable style. Ajit was of the opinion that we would be embarrassing JP by gifting him in front of other people since it was specifically mentioned in the invitation card not to bring bouquets/gifts. But the others were already wondering how embarrassed he might be seeing us among all the erudite people there, so that thought was scratched out immediately. Thanks Shirish for mentioning about my initiative for the gift in another mail thread but actually it was Bhopya who had instructed me on phone to get a gift since JP would be leaving abroad and we were not sure how soon he would be meeting us again. Amdya blurted out Planet M in between and we 4 headed towards the music store to see if we could get something for the music lover JP. As Amdya and I were skimming through movie titles under the Romantic genre, Shirish insisted that we get some C-grade Bollywood movies. He also pro-actively fished out a list from his pocket which featured movies like Chetana, Radha Ki Jawani, Shaadi Basanti Ki Honeymoon Gabbar Ka etc. Sensibility prevailed and we bought Notting Hill, If Only, Music & Lyrics, 'i-can't-remember-the-name' and The Pursuit of Happyness**.
Then we headed for the venue with Ajit driving the car, Amdya sitting beside him and Shirish and myself in the backseat. Talks went on from Darya's accident (a new version was created of the incident since Ajit was not aware, sorry Babaji you were not the originator of this version like the other 3 versions :p) to Andaz Apna Apna. Most of the funny lines were re-delivered from the movie. Aila Juhi Chawla to Yeh Teja Teja kya hai, yeh Teja Teja. It was decided that we should all gather at someone's place and watch the historic movie together. Maybe after the T20 WC final. During the dialog deliveries we lost the diversion near the venue and had to go a few kilometers extra for taking the next turn towards the venue. While heading for the next turn we spotted Sadanand Residency, a huge building glowing with lights. A voice in the car said "Is the venue Sadanand Resorts or Sadanand Residency?". He he he.. so we decided to check out both the places and halted near the Residency building first. The car parking gave an impression that very few people would be inside the building so it was decided that 2 of us would go in and ask for JP :D. No one voluntarily came forward, so we went to Sadanand Resorts, which fortunately was the correct location.
When we entered the reception hall on the 2nd floor a single known voice ARRREEE!!! boomed through the crowd in front of us. Guess what guys, it was Mehta. Not the Electronics professor, but Pratik Mehta. It was quite (initially pleasant) surprising to see him there as no one from us knew that he was back in India. This guy has moved from Sweden to Switzerland to Germany to USA and currently he is in Austria. Yeah we also initially thought that his 'exploits', which we had heard during the year after our graduation, were the reasons for the countries to expel him but he has been around the world for various reasons like internship, studies and jobs (the regular ones). This guy will give a very tough fight to our original loudspeaker K.D. We guys were seated in the hall and Mehta, looking towards the stage, asked (should be read as shouted at) JP, who was posing for the camera, "Oye JP, change your position. Kya raat ko hi positions badlega kya?". The initial thought of JP being embarrassed by us was instantly washed away :-). With Mehta as company, naturally the topics of discussion were how-Mehta-accurately-told-us-about-adult-movie-timings-during-engg and how we all had troubled all professors of our college. The conversations as usual involved professors JSK, Nagoshe, Chinni, Chirmule etc. We also recollected how JSK had cried during one lecture and how Ranga had confessed of throwing the chalk towards Modak (which actually had not hit him) :D.
The ambience of the entire venue was very nice. A good thing was that the crowd was limited so the bride and groom could talk to every person on the stage at a comfortable length of time. We were not aware that JP had invited A R Rehman to play in the background. Rehman was performing exactly in front of the venue and when we were having food on the terrace we could see the Balewadi stadium lit up brightly and dazzling fireworks along with Rehman's music. The food was wonderful, esp. the non-vegetarians found it finger-licking good :-). JP and Nilshia were looking beautiful in the traditional wear and were smiling throughout the entire ceremony. We all wish the couple to smile like this forever and have a nice married life.
We clicked a few weird (actually these should be called natural) photographs which I am mailing in a few minutes. While driving back to Pune, Amdya was either sleepy or scared in the front seat coz he mentioned a couple of times to Ajit "Kasla raanti chalavtoy gaadi". In the backseat Shirish and I were stuck on Paresh Rawal's line from Daud, "Imandar baap ka jaandaar beta, roz use karta hai Colgate".
Darya, Sudeep, Dukkya and JP are the names which have been scratched out from the Eligible Bachelors' List. Who will be the next one? By the way, if you are not aware one of our good friends outside our group, Tathya/Narya is getting engaged to a Mumbai girl. Going by the fact that I have troubled him a lot I am sure that he won't invite me to the wedding. Nor do I see Shirish and Babaji getting an invite. So who ever will be attending it please do mention what happened to Elsa ;-).
** My company had screened The Pursuit of Happyness for us. Before the screening, one of my colleagues came into my cubicle and asked us, "You guys are not coming to watch the prostitue of happiness?". Had I written the spelling of coming as cumming (like many spell it in text messages), it would have led to an entirely different connotation for the question, right?
P.S.: In case you are wondering how I have managed to write so much, well I possess a skill known as multi-tasking. I assign all tasks (including mine) to multiple junior resources. Multi-tasking is in ;-).
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Have a great weekend everyone!
Labels: Friends, Letters, Marriage
