Saturday 26 March 2016

We call it F...oreva


Disclaimer: This post is specifically written in dedication to the XII-F Batch of 2015-16 (KV Clt-1). None of the characters mentioned below are fictional. Any resemblance to a fictional character is purely coincidental. The events described here are also a little fast-forwarded, apologies for the time warp.

***

“I’m kinda busy, is it urgent?”
“Yeah very!  NDTV 24x7, right now!”
“Fine, will get back to you, bye!”

I look at my watch – okay, I have exactly twenty minutes to eat my sandwich, check that mail, and rush over to the ISRO headquarters to meet them. And now she wants me to watch NDTV news. Great.
Stuffing the sandwich in my mouth, I switch on the TV and flip over to NDTV news channel.

*Backround Music*

A smart, gorgeous lady reporter shows up in her suit. She still has that air of command in her countenance, like I always knew she would.

‘Welcome back to NDTV Indian of the year awards 2026, and this is Aparna V K reporting from Gurgaon.’

Wait, did she want me to watch her host an award show? Urgently? Gulping my sandwich, I almost turn to switch off the TV, and that’s when I hear this –

“The last year’s seen a dramatic boost in the field of Fashion Technology and Design, all thanks to this young lady who’s made her mark in her fashion career. Let’s have a big round of applause for the NDTV Fashion icon of the year, Farzeena V L! “

Whaaaaaat?!! Wow!! That really is Farz going up on stage! Our own Farz! I shared seats with her in school, hell, I shared my chamandi with her! And Aparna too…that fab NDTV reporter….my own Appz -TRrrrrr TRrrrr-

“Hello?”
“Dashiiieeeee!!”
“Yeah Jacob, check NDTV 24x7 now. Urgent”
“What? Okay listen, there’s an architect meet in Calicut this weekend…”
“So you mean, Warrier and Kapil-“
“-are already there yes! Is the model still in the headquarters?”
“Yes, I’m going there now.”
“And I hope Anjitha-Arya duo can make it, their protein research is underway and responding well, so pretty busy with that.”
“And you, miss Billionaire?”
“Don’t call me that yet Dashy. Anyway Ankit’s found a new bug in this system, we’re working on it. Will reach once we’re done.”
“Okie-dokie… see yeh!”

Their software company is doing well. Ankit’s been the bug-finder since forever! Ahh so many people to call! I wonder where Kp is now…last time I checked he was in Mumbai. Or was it Kolkata? That boy never does stay put, but his journal sure is quite out of the ordinary.
 Uh-oh, five minutes down already.  Need to check my mail!

*Checking my phone*

You have one new mail.

*Opening mail*

Sub : Change of date

The appointment in collaboration with New Media and Google has been rescheduled to the 26th of March. The letter of invitation is attached herewith.
P.S. We’re recruiting two new PJ’s, spread the news.

-Vibhoothi Anand
CEO, Google

*

PJ…programming  journalist; a name that caught up with me. Working full time in the IT field wasn’t exactly my thing, and thus emerged the profession that suits me the best - PJ. And now there are more of us of the same kind.

Whoops, ten minutes to go. I hope the ISRO scientists aren’t very punctual. That reminds me, what was it in the morning news about Arun? That he was perfecting some formula… based on neutrinos was it? He just might win the Nobel Prize this time. I wonder if he’s reached the town. Where’s my phone again?

*FB group chat*

12 F….oreva

Ankit Bossmark: Guys?
Me: Anku maaamaaaa!!!
Ankit Bossmark: Dashhyyy moleeeee!!
Malavika Jayaraj: Bhaaaaaaiiiiii!!!
Ankit Bossmark: Pengaleeeeee!!!
Shaikh Mushrif: (thumbs up)
Ajesh Vijayan: (thumbs up)
Arjun Haridas: (thumbs up)
Deepak Praveen left the group
Deepak Praveen was added to the group
*

Sigh. Ten years and the group got no better.

*Beeeeeep*

‘You have five minutes left to reach the ISRO headquarters’

Damn! That’s my robot, Dodo. Bless Swaroop and his top notch Robotics Company for it; comes in handy almost every day. I must leave now. My Harley Davidson, here I come! (And bless whoever made that bike too, perfect for my height :p)

*Kasturba Road junction. Signal is red.*

Alright. There goes my last five minutes.
“Darshana?”
I turn around.
“Varsha! Wow hey, long time! When are you reaching Calicut?”
“Within a week…signal’s green…see you soon then!”
And she drove off in her scooty. Things are coming out right. This is going to work. If Shivani’s back from her MNC, and Malavika gets a leave from wherever she is, that makes the ten of us. Off I go.

*Reached ISRO headquarters*

Now where did they say they would be? Oh, there’s the office.

“Excuse me? I’m Darshana Suresh, here for an appointment at three?”
“Ah yes ma’am, with the Aeronautical Scientists Kiran D.S and Akshay E?”
“Yes them”
“Room no.8 ma’am”
“Thank you”

I walk up to room no.8. Someone sneezed. Why did it sound so familiar? Wait, was he here too?
The door opens, and standing before me is our dear old laughing Buddha.

“Mushrif!”
“Hi Darshana!”

With a wide grin I’m ushered into the room to see both the other tall scientists grinning back at me. Standing among my classmates, I’m reminded of how very small I am.

“Is it ready?”
“Yeah, here it is.”

He gesturs to an irregularly shaped structure veiled with a golden tunic. Underneath the veil, as I see when uncovered, is a miniature model of our school building, complete with a tiny playground, the children’s park and the butterfly garden.

“It’s perfect isn’t it?”

I nod, unable to look away from the intricately designed structure. Kapil and Warrier got it all right.

“I bet they’ll love it.”

And then, all the four of our phones beep simultaneously.

*FB group chat*

12 F….oreva

Abhishek P Nambissan: My car broke down, no petrol.
Aparna V K: Go to Arun :p
ArUn S Raj: For the last time, I don’t work in a petrol pump! I’m the head of the petroleum department of  HP gas!
Aparna V K: Arun’s Gas :p
Vibhoothi Anand: LOL!
Me: BTW the model’s great guys!
Malavika Jayaraj: Wow, so what time?
Akshay B: 9.30 am, East Hill. When everyone’s there we’ll go to school.
Abhi Kampurath: The seminar hall, probably.
Akash KP: And then we’ll present our legendary masterpiece to the school…
Vigneshnath E.K: From 12 F 2015-16 batch.
Ankit Bossmark sent an image


*


I look back at the so called ‘legendary masterpiece’ and smile. Most of us are hardly ever anywhere close to school. And this would be our first re-union after passing out.

“Alright, let’s get this thing to Calicut!”

And the team gets busy with our little school. Yes, we’re coming back. And now that I think of it, if we ever do get a chance to meet our past selves all worried about the future, all we’re going to say is this… ‘Wait and watch dear, ‘cause you’re gonna move mountains!’




Monday 21 March 2016

A Solitary Euphoria

A Solitary Euphoria ; source: comments20.com


“Don’t open the door if it’s someone unfamiliar.”
“Okay mom.”
“Keep the balcony closed. And chain the door too, and in case someone does-“
“-I’ll be fine ma! “
“Okay okay, lock the door. Bye. Call if you need something okay?”
“Yeah okay, bye.”

FYI, my mom isn’t going away to England, she’ll be back by evening. And no, this isn’t my first home-alone time. But then, moms will be moms. Shaking my head, I went back to my study. I stood there staring at my textbook and it stared right back at me. My eyes slowly risked a glance to my bed, and then darted back to my book, lest it found out my thought process.

Walking casually back to my table, as if I were only going to sit and spend the rest of the day with it, I halted yet again.

Should I?
I’m with you.

Owkiie-dokie. So I bid temporary goodbye to my books, grabbed my phone and hopped on to my bed.

You do know that you’ll stay glued to your phone for at least half an hour, don’t you?
And you do know that there’s nothing you can do about it don’t you?
You should clean your bed.
In a Half-hour, please?
Fine.Half-hour.

And so, I went through my routine cycle from FB to Quora to my favourite blogs and back to FB, followed by one or two Ellen DeGeneres interviews, AIB and a couple of music videos.  When I finally wasted away a good deal of my time, I got up, all rejuvenated for the cleaning.

Shall we?
Oh yes we shall.

Music up, blinds down, vibes on….here we go! A large fevicol bottle in one hand (my mike), and the other holding dad’s pants (part of the cleaning process), I danced my way to the living room and back, singing all along. And then reluctantly putting the mike away I resumed dancing with the clothes, making a fold with each beat, and then swinging my way to the closet to keep them in stack.

Naa naa naa naa naa….everybody wanna steal my girl….
Naa naa naa naa naa…..everybody wanna take her heart away….

And before I knew it, the bed bore nothing but my five pillows and a neatly folded blanket. But why should that stop me from the music?

Naa naa naan aa….oh yeah!

I naa-naa’ed my heart out till I ended up flat on the floor. Sigh, so long since I sang out loud…so long since I danced like mad…so long since I got to be with myself! I stay hidden you know, in the inside, and don’t show up unless there’s no one else around.

Then I talk with myself so much, ‘cause not another soul can understand me like I do, I laugh and dream so much, ‘cause not another soul can relate to it all like I do, I smile and do whatever that comes to mind, ‘cause not another soul can know why, like I do.

Presently… my mind turned to its favourite hobby…wandering…

Hey, remember that cute guy from that movie ?
Oh yeah, gawd those eyes…I could just look at them forever!

And there, I rushed over to my laptop to get a glimpse of that heartthrob, and soon found myself playing and replaying his movie.  Uff, that killing look! I reclined on my chair lost in la la land….slowly letting my thoughts to drift over to my crush, and feeling insanely happy to think of him. Then I got up once again slamming the laptop shut, and I ran around the house like a free bird, the way Ranbir Kapoor did in Tamasha. And then I sat down on the floor again, hugging my knees, with a stupid grin on the face.
Aah, such bliss!

I love being with you!
I know right?!
 I wonder if everyone talks to their other side, like I do with you.
 I don’t know, just the mere idea of talking to you seemed absurd to my friends.

Like I said, not another soul can understand this euphoria of mine. They’d call it split personalities. But no one’s going to know about it anyway, about our long conversations, our dreams, and wishes, and secrets together. No one. They say that in the end, you’re alone in this world…but isn’t it enough to just have you? There’s so much more to you than you can even imagine. I know because I discover myself a little more each time I’m on my own. And if I were accompanied by anybody else all the time, that other side would’ve never showed up, and I would’ve never known about that amazing (ahem) side of mine.
And now, I cherish my own company, which somehow forms the elixir of my life.

You know there probably are people who are one and the same inside and out.
Rare.
Aye, rare. But there must be. Lucky them for having themselves as a whole all along.
But then, there’s no fun in bringing you out all the while!
Uh-huh…The less you reveal…
…the more they wonder!

*DinG DOnG*

Mom’s here? Already? Wow, time flies. I went up to open the door and felt the inner me slowly sink back in.

“Did someone come?”
“No ma, no one.” Except for my other side.
“Oh good, you folded all the clothes!”

I grinned. That’s how you satisfy mom when you’re not studying, no questions raised about that. And now, my mood to study had returned, and I was back at my table to resume where I left off.

 I guess that euphoria with the hidden side surfaces mostly because of being suppressed for long. It’s good though, for I sure wouldn’t want to spend my every day in wonderland.That would be a life with no purpose. No. It is enchanting only when once in a blue moon.
So until the next time we meet, dear me, let’s get busy with life!