This is a story about a girl named "lonely".. who has a hand full of friends and wishes to make her feel better...and this piece of story is about her life for fourteen months...the best and the worst she had..."
She daily walks through a construction site near her flat...a cute chubby boy keeps the bricks in place..one by one.......one day she askes his mom
"School jata hai ye?" (he goes to school??)
"Raghav is a small boy..didi he cant read much, im trying to send him to school. but i dont think he will be able to make it. didi aap padha doge kya...aap hi ki tarah ek din jayega office"
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Its one year and two months that she has been staying out of home, and possible that there are innumerable memories that she lived which she hasnt for past many many years...she was corky and lonely for joining ahmedabad as her training centre, not knowing who will she meet..how will everything be....this is how it goes...
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It wasnt a cake walk...we were drilled to the maximum we can...there were night outs not for fun but for studies..there were movies till 11 pm and studies from 11:05. There were fights, there were hatred...there were commotions to win over others and also there were tears...both for loss and gain.There were love affairs...and we had enemies for ever.....We cried, being desperate to pass our exams to save that so called "face" of ours from being thrown out..we laughed unstoppable at the corner juice shop 'cool point' so that we dont taste the salt in our tears....we worried for if one fell sick ... no one to take care and still we danced on hi-fi with desi hindi music at night 3 p.m.....we ate a piece of bread and half cup milk...we lived 75 hours on liquids for studies to kill...we listened to Rehman in Tamil.....we fainted not knowing what went wrong ..and we smiled to see others make it through the border line...we jived with every possible thing which can be called as party... we cried while we were leaving all this and shooting back to the world we came from...unbelievable but true...such is the story when u join ur first job in high money meltdown..such is the fear when u have hardly a thing to gain and a lot to lose...and such is the emotion when you make two such friends who dont know your language but still love you for what you are....
26th March...Last day at training...
"Lonely: hey where are you guys?? remember our last coffee??
P and L: yeah yeah we do, now u go wait into that ccd..we will be right there!!"
After 10 minutes
"lonely" waiting at the coffee shop and see's a big poster size red greeting card walking towards her
Lonely: hey card for what?
L:we are celebrating our friends birthday today.
and as i open I see two people who i have met 2 months back celebrating my birthday in march which actually comes on July...just because we might never get to celebrate it again together!!
...And we went far away from each other...no more words...no more commotions...the story of "lonely" "P" and "L" was over..
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Just like a wave being thrown out on the beach to find its way back to the sea..my posting was something similar. Mumbai...sounds big....noises Big and is Big. BEST, Locals, Rikshaws...you name it and suddenly all seems unfimiliar..all seems strange...stranger than fiction and wonder what one said
"the more you hope, the more it is hopeless"
My first day, and i see a blank air all around me...I came from a land where people hated each other but knew never to leave one alone and i was standing where people hardly knew each other and knew nothing but to leave alone...work..assignments...comparisons..constant judgement...jealousy...envy... you name it and we had it...I say we for like me there were many from my so called training camp in the same rigmaroll...I wonder those who have a cordial welcome....as we didnot even have a casual one....even before being physically present you turn into a virtual competition...such is what they say as Job....beat the bush...run for the mill...make the kill...or in no minute you will be the kill...then again such is the irony for proving oneself umpteenth time when you enter into the meltdown puddle....its hard to relate...but truth is not so easy to wind....
And then one day I see a funny little guy standing in front of my cubicle with a face being a question mark..
Funny: you dont need to stay so late....go have fun !!
and a funnier chuckle....First words of care...first hand for friendship....and havent you heard "a havoc in action" :)
just another friend...from another land..talking another language..
We laughed...we roamed around mumbai like junkies at free...coffee shops..pizzas..bandra worli sea link....chai n mumbai rain...few of the bests that i ever had into the land of no mercy.... this funny guy who came long way from a funnier looking land way down south of coconut trees and back waters knew that being alone is not so easy at it looks...needless to say Rehman's Tamil songs were changed into Mallu lingo with Mallu food..in a few days a beautiful pent house was converted to my home and every night as the forest in front of my house used to sleep...i used to close my eyes and thank for the pinch of joys i had..
For a funky... dorky room mate who used to work 20 hours in action and cook awesome masala curry..For a paradise house...where clouds used to whisper in my ears...For "A" one of my training chums who could make me wet like hell in rain and offer a mug full of coffee...and For that funny looking friend...and letting him make this world a better place..and for the few scatterd around the country like "P" n "L" who would somewhere someplace just think of me and say...yes we had a nutty Bong friend!!
But happiness is limited...We laughed for watching funny movies...and cried for people talking filth about us...we shared the hottest coffee and fought for the toughest misunderstanding...we prayed for peace.. and we longed for joy.....and in this push and pull...we became the best of friends we can....The story of that funny guy n me shallowed when another big splash came with yet another change in city....
Once again as i could find my way out of the mess...i could find myself in a lesser crowded ..placid city of schools...where there were no more locals to run cross country at night 12...where there were no more leopolds where "A" can take me drenching in the rain...where there were no more beach sides..where i can sit for endless hours with a quite friend..n where there were no more people helping u to cross the road....My difficult pretty city 'Mumbai' was left somewhere behind..leaving me in this townish city they call Pune....
New office...new places....new stations..new house....change of houses....no place to sleep at night....empty rooms....hollow heart....no friends....no coffee's ..... everything that was over revisited all over again... and bet anybody knows better than me the meaning of deja vu.... but life has its own way to make you realise the better part of living...
I changed rooms faster than a bus changes oil....and i made friends faster than a fly passes by...once again the jig started....morning bus...daily shift.... return bus...coffee with new found friends..get togethers....dinner parties....shopping...movies....roaming the whole world around up on a bike.....walking...walking long roads with funny and others....washing....cooking.....fishing.....and then again sitting on a park bench with a "stranger" experiencing the world over and no words to say....
My sleepy child within...suddenly grew up aeons at a stretch....not knowing how did she become one...which she never wanted to be.....in this city of maps and arrows how could she manage to get lost...and dont they say ... "reality is stranger than fiction"
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And so the "lonely" to ahmedabad was with bag full of people....some who love her...many who hate....with hindi bengoli english and tamil songs on her cell fone...she often walks ..... long walks ..when she returns from office....trying to find out the meaning of last fourteen months...was it the drill and joy where she found "P" and "L" the best of friends one could get.or was it the mumbai rains where she met like "funny" and "A" ..or was it the park bench where she sat with "stranger" and not talking a single word...or is it her cuisine which ranges from andhra mess...to appam to bong fish to vada pao to sindhi kadi.......or is it those half torn photographs in her wallet..of her mom. dad n sister...who she left somewhere behind....fourteen months back.....
And suddenly her phone buzzez to number reading "home"...the same one..from which she has been receieving a call sharp at ten at night ... no matter which place..which room...which club....which rain...and which city she was......that number called just to ask.....
"everything is fine?...are you happy?"
And she knew "The reason for last fourteen months"..... its the chase..... living each moment...experiencing faith distrust love hatered agony pain sorrow joy..everything...just everything on earth....and at the end knowing..that at some far land there is a home....her home....where she can go back even when this chaos around her is messier than ever...her peace...her faith...is intact where she left and is safe gaurded...till she finds her new home.....where she can find the same peace for the rest of her life.....that phone call is just to remind her that she has still miles to go....and so till she finds it ... it is the chase to find...her Home far from Home.....A chase worth a lifetime!
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Raghav and her mom stood in expectation.....for "lonely's" reply...and a mild rain started pouring
"didi, paise nahi denge...chalega kya??"
"chalega.....kal se shuru karte hai Raghav"
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Another one up for chase!
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