Let’s Sneak-Out

“Yay! Finally the exams are over… come down guys.” This was the common dialogue running through the lobbies and the passages of our societies when we were in class 6^th, 7^th, 8^th, 9^th, or 10^th. “Tonight we won’t sleep. Hell, YEAH!"

Let's Sneak Out, Play!

Normally, back then, in the late ‘90s and early 2000, we were maniacs; like what a crab is to water and holes, we were to Cricket or playing. On a slightest window, we all had sneaked out from our parental monitoring just to be with our friends and hit a few balls. We were no different.

Adolescent got us friends for life; those imbecile groups of boys and girls incessantly vying and thousands of unsaid protocols to be followed, which we worshiped reverently. Coming up with codes which only the group would understand and even worse was the tagging of a name. A name tagged once, was tagged for eternity. Nonetheless, the adolescent was playful with every excuse for getting down, to be madly in love in an one sided love affair, attending schools and tuitions post school; bunking classes to go take a match, or to watch a movie, or to end a skirmish, or the most dreadful one, to take a girl out.  A thrill for the chase made life jubilant.

Now, the tables have turned, times have changed, whenever an exam ends, we hit to the nearest bar and get our drunk-brains out. Ranting about the miserable life, the upturns, the lost love, the broken-hearts, the cheats, pretending to be happy, dancing until we crash in beds and not waking-up before midday.  

A miracle took place, when we, just after the exams, unanimously agreed onto going out to play. Cricket!  

Cricket!? It won’t be wrong or far-stretched to say that none of us had played for a really long time. In the daily survival for the mundane, we had lost the definition of fun, enjoyment, excitement. Playing for an hour meant endless fun followed by two days’ of body ache. Body Ache?

Challenge accepted!

Location was set: a friend’s society with our pitch – a concrete based. Superb Bounce!

Without much dilly-dallying, after our exams, we headed for the location. We began and lasted for nearly 150 minutes with everyone going out of breath. Panting!

We are not the best players, none of us, but we definitely are a fun to watch and play with. We ran at our pace; panted more than the covered miles; the jiggling protruding bellies and asses; the fight over water much to one’s delight. No meaningless drunk nights and dancing in the clubs could give you that what a fatso friend (Vinit Shah) of yours, running like a Rhino, between the wickets just to be on a safer side.   

For a brighter side, how much fun would it be to first get drunk, all of us, and then make that fatso run?

Evil, I’m!  

A Clamoring Dream

“Come Fly with us, make the most of the open lock. Fly again!” The clamor broke out again; all with big and expectant eyes on me.

 I, with my recently shampooed cyan coat shinning and the strong crimson beak even more crimson in the morning rays, was perched well on the much-like-a-wooden-log stand, brooding over the options given to me to decide within a few seconds before the lock is done again. A golden steeled cage let loose from the ceiling, in his bedroom’s balcony, was my abode; my latest abode. One side was the open sky beyond the rods of the cage and the rods of the balcony grills and on the other side was the vastness of his room.

Stop brooding over, just Fly Away!

Today, all the senior members and the most learned of all that perched on the rod of the grills of the balcony had come to advise me. I was looking for my friends, the ones who would visit me every day and picked up an unsaid relationship; the ones more like me, but free. Today, the assembly had come on the grills of balcony, with everyone finding it difficult to balance on the sleek rods shaped in various forms to make the grill look more artistic. All the assembly squawked on me to let go the cage and embrace the nature; get into the wild.

I could hear the heart’s thudding and feel the pressure shooting up. For me, how could I leave all this, I have been with him for more than half of my life, he has made my childhood beautiful, he seldom locks me up. I’ve a comfortable life here, I’ve a swing, a pond for myself, the whole cage, variety of food, then what else would anyone want more? But the stories of my friends from across the grills of the balcony, the vast flying experiences, the kiss of the breeze, the flight in the rain, the chase, getting chased, falling in love, raising a family, singing the tree songs, the family-flying dance, the color of the seasons, all these seem like a beautiful dream to me. Meanwhile, the heart pounding so heavily as if to bludgeon someone to death. I had a narrow window of time to sneak out before he wakes up and loves me again for me to forget the world and sing for him and only him.

On a whim, I couched and got out; and suddenly, the clamor rose and turned into a big applaud. We took flights. I followed!

Felt the air above and below the wings, the use of wings. The heaving in air with the breeze until a smile broke my frown. I loved it!

“No, Stop!” I woke up with one hand in the space, in an upright position to stop my parrot, my beloved parrot, from leaving me forever. It took me a while to break the reverie and realize that it was just a nightmare.  I didn’t even pet a parrot but there still was the clamoring from across the curtains, deep in the balcony. I slid it through to see a few parrots perched on various levels of grills trying to get a mouthful of the food and water that I had stacked up a week ago in a pair of bird-feeder hanging loosely on the grills for the birds to savor on.

I, now, had regular visitors – birds of various kinds and species – in the balcony ranging from a Sparrow to a cute Maina, to Pigeons and obviously Parrots. These birds filled my mornings with eclectic melodies. I gave them food, they made my day. It is delightful to have them everyday and know them more and vice-versa. Now, my presence don't scare them away. They know me!

After all said and done, what was that dream about?

Do I really wish to break-free myself and fly again leaving everything behind?

Follow Dreams? Like Parrots? Like birds?

Dreams, I tell you!  

Dancing Dilemma!

'Now what? Science, Commerce  or Arts? What are your further plans? What is that you seek? Do you even know how fast is the world growing? and scores of other questions, which were sine qua non. were bombarded upon us during our time. I, forever, was on the receiving end of this foray of ever probing, poignant and perplexing questions. I'm sure even you must have also gone through the same if you're the same type as I am- 'Career choices, I don't get head or tail of it.'

I, 15, had only finished my class 10th; that too with decent scores. I was more of an impetuous decision maker, I still am; so never cared what will come after this and that. Besides, what would a 15 year old one know about seeking goals in life. For once, why would he even care two hoots about it, as he is still engrossed in adolescence and its ceaseless curiosities?

Dance with the Dilemmas

Everyone kept going about the same thing like they got a bee in their bonnet! Even you must have been hit by the same torrent of bullets of questions just like me. I was gunned down by the gun of questions, often used  by the terrorist-R (relatives).

I was pretty calmed about myself and had, at least, sorted out it in my mind to opt for science which I eventually did, One down thousand more to go! The decision to take up science was out of a whim. Earlier, I thought of taking up Arts and graduating in Arts, since commerce had no chance as I hated that very word, to pursue for UPSC exams.The game of whim is such, that I chose Science over Arts with a thought of, which was a big folly, if I'm to crack UPSC exams, I might as well crack it in style and with pride by opting Science!

On the first paper of my 12th final exams, I turned into an adult in the eyes of the constitution of India. The Dilemma then was not of choosing a stream but of taking CET or not. A CET could make you an Engineer or a Doctor; no CET will leave you with plain B.Sc. The eternal fad in India, that parents envisaged for their children, either to be an Engineer or a Doctor. I went one step further, with dilemma playing at zenith, breaking the conventions. I chose B.A.!

Most of you must have, despite taking a stream, changed your paths, because either you couldn't fathom a thing or some other stream tricked you into taking it up. At least, then, you may have settled in the new stream. As, fortune or bad fortune had it, I again shifted from B.A to B.Sc., after completing one year out of the three year course. I was not contented! I needed more! As my dilemma played its tunes whim danced more.

Back then, before shifting to B.Sc,, a trend had surged in. A trend of becoming a Pilot. Many jumped in with the glamour and the early earnings it fetched. I, too, with complete ground training and no practical flying lessons, was the one!

Post that, I hated everything as I couldn't be a pilot. I loathed B.Sc., which was recently taken up. Recession not only shut many companies in the US but also shut my scope of being a Pilot, about which I'm happy, today!

Quickly, I was abosrbed into the plain science graduation course and got over my so called depression. I did my graduation in Statistics.

For once, things started making sense and a clarity was achieved until one of the Terrorist-Rs broke about taking up MBA as a back-up before going for UPSC. Like an innocent cow I opted for CAT.

We all know what CAT does to an average student. I was the one to face the same brunt of CAT's which every other student faced who aspired an IIM- A/B/C and didn't get through. To keep the fight up, as my spirit was still unaffected, I moved for UPSC and within a year's time realized that a back-up is must.

Dilemma danced again, yet another time. I was unsure, as to back my self up with what? Finally, resorting to MBA-CET, a younger sister of CAT, I got into a reputed B-school in Mumbai.

First year, second semester made us choose again for a domain. I, much like others opted for Marketing, as it only deemed fit.

I'm currently in second year, vis-a-vis a host of choices to choose to make a career into it. Picking up, within Marketing various sectors such as FMCG, Digital Marketing, Media...

Now, given the experience I have had with the dancing dilemma, I'm sure life is full of choices and we're full of dilemmas, that too the dancing ones. We all have made wrong choices. Don't lose your hope. Sometimes, being shameless helps; it helped me take taunts of thousands, including a few professors who should have been encouraging instead of discouraging. Be shamesless but never insensitive. Empathize! It is never too late to start! Let your dilemmas dance. Take a whim! Go crazy! Stay flexible! Make memories, make mistakes. Learn! Because, Someday somewhere you will hit something so strong yet so soothing that you will settle down for it or with it.