Its Special

It was a special occasion, and I was a little nervous. Will my date go all right? I stood at the doorway waiting anxiously with my camera and the best smile I could muster.The van drew up and out they poured – my breakfast & luncheon date - 50 special children with absolutely special, almost divine smiles on their faces. I was told that they were shut out from the cacophony of the world – they couldn’t hear or speak. But seeing them all excited, and chattering almost nineteen to the dozen with their hands, I found that I was the only dumb character around – actually, I was dumb-founded.The children’s guardian acted as the interpreter – he told me that they’d already thrown at least a dozen questions at me - “Howdy”“Why do you just smile and not answer?”“Why are you just holding the camera – don’t you want to use it”“The flowers in the garden look great – do you grow them yourself”“What is for breakfast?”Uhhh ohhh, I shook myself out of my reverie, and rushed forth to arrange the breakfast dishes. By the time I came back with the piled dishes, the children had already organized themselves into groups, and were waiting patiently. Breakfast was a heady affair. The kid’s joked galore, laughed aloud, appreciated the food – all with gestures. I marveled at their happy faces and moved around clicking them. Some of them struck poses, others just stuck out their tongues and some even offered to click me!!!!!Then came the magic show organized for them. The magician was just too good. I was mesmerized for a while. Then looking around, I saw, some the kids were in the same boat as me, following each movement of the magician.At the far corner there was this guy, shyly “talking” with his hands to this girl at the other end of the room – aha whispering sweet nothings I guess.The girl blushed at something he said. I looked away – didn’t want to trespass on the lovers.Another corner 3 of those spunky, naughty looking guys tried to smother their giggles….they were sharing a private joke, or maybe thinking up some wicked pranks.Two other girls in the centre of the room had scowls & were wildly gesticulating to each other. The interpreter told me, they were fighting. One stern gesture at them & they stopped “fighting”.Wow…….I marveled at their internal rhythm……the sound of silence was so divine.Lunch came & went – I already had about 50 photos captured in my camera.Soon it was time my dates to go back. Hmmmm, they were all over the place talking to me again – hey, hey hold on – I raised my palms & asked them to stop chatting & listen to me…..and then I “spoke” in their language the only 3 words I’d learnt…..My hands told them “I Love You”They were speechless – probably for the first time in the day, and for a moment I thought I’d messed up with the words…and then they just circled around me & hugged me real tight.,By the time they trooped into the van, there was a tight knot at the base of my throat as I bravely tried to smile.

Rosy Love

Ram Kewal was probably the oldest serving member of the college. He had been the college gardener from time immemorial. Generations came and went, the faculty changed, principals changed, but Ram Kewal and his magnificent garden stayed on and on forever.His heart and soul lay in the garden. He had magic fingers and could coax the roses to grow out of even sand. The college garden was always filled with roses – summer, winter, monsoon, spring - the roses just bloomed all year round. It was indeed magical.Ram Kewal knew of his special ability, and also knew that in each of the rose he actually planted a bit of his soul. Hence he guarded the flowers very zealously. Working day and night, no one knew if he ever left the garden.All for the sake of his beloved roses, Ram Kewal studied the soil, the weather reports, the behaviour of the ants rather closely….and in recent years, he watched the month of February rather concernedly.14th February was always circled in red on his calendar - he hated that day. The students would try and sneak into the garden, and pluck the roses. Ram Kewal had tried everything to stop them, but to no avail. It tore his heart to see such gross injustice.This year, he stood in front of the garden with a huge laathi in hand. Soon enough those impudent brats came along. Seeing Ram Kewal in such a ferocious mood, they didn’t dare approach him.However, they lingered near the garden gate for a while, and when it was clear, Ram Kewal wouldn’t relent, they shuffled on.

One of them muttered, “Arrey 14th toh pyar ka diwas hai – you should give us some roses in the name of love”.

Ram Kewal squinted and replied to himself “ Mein apney pyar ko hi toh bacha raha hoon”

The Valentine Cacophony

“This Valentine’s Day is going to be great for Gemini & Libra, but Saggitarians better beware. For others it will be OK.”
No, this isn’t my prophecy , but some astrologer’s statement I overheard in the radio the other day.
Gosh – now if you found this funny, sample this –
Girl: “Darling I erased your presentation my mistake”
Guy (in a dazed voice):“Super”
Girl: “I know your promotion depended on it”
Guy (same tone) : “Awesome”
Girl: “Are you listening to what I’m saying”
Guy (same tone) : “Wow”
Then a voice over says, “Come to XYZ Beauty Salon and get a total makeover for this Valentine’s Day”

Yeah sure….the “makeover” is so extraordinary, that it seems to have reduced the guy to a silly puppet with severe problems in verbosity.
I mean give me a break – would I really want my man to be so word challenged, when I spend a bomb to get that diva look? Nahhhh – I’d rather have him spouting lots of words, poems & songs :-)

And if the advertisers had their way, they would almost coerce Earth to change her shape to a heart shaped globe (for 14th), and emit a pink aura instead of the blue haze. And, Mr. Cupid – hrmmmp – you’d be asked to smarten up – whats with flying around with a silly bow & arrow, and missing the mark completely many a time!!!!

Whatever!!!!! I just find all this cacophony about Valentine’s Day quite weird.
Think about it - its the day celebrated for love. And for love to grow, isn’t peace, quietness and intimacy important?

For me, Valentine’s Day is to appreciate your love and thank them all. So on this sunny afternoon, nibbling on the wonderful choclate encased strawberries (another reason why I love Valentine’s Day is because the confectioners go ballistic with gorgeous choclates & what nots – slurrrp) and listening to Carpenters belt out “There's a kind of hush all over the world tonight All over the world you can hear the sounds of lovers in love You know what I mean Just the two of us and…..” I include this wonderful piece I found in the net.
This echoes my sentiment totally –

When I was little, I used to believe in the concept of one best friend,
and then I started to become a woman. And I found out that if you allow
your heart to open up, God would show you the best in many friends.

One friend's best is needed when you're going through things with your
job. Another friend's best needed when you're going through things
with your family. Another when you want to shop, share, heal, hurt, joke, or just be.
One friend will say let's pray together, another let's cry together,
another let's fight together, another let's walk away together.
One friend will meet your spiritual need, another your shoe fetish,
another your love for movies, another will be with you in your season of
confusion, another will be your clarifier, another the wind beneath your wings.
It may all be wrapped up in one woman or man, but for many it's wrapped up in several, one from 7th grade, one from high school, several from the college years, a couple from old jobs, several from the social network, on some days your mother, on others your sisters, some days your boyfriend or husband and on some days it's the one that you needed just for that day or week when you needed someone with a fresh
perspective, or the one who would just listen without judging... those are good girlfriends/best friends.
I thank my girlfriends and boyfriends, those who honor intimacy, those
who hold trust, and those who hold me up when life is just too heavy! What the hell – even those who didn't!
The special bond we share is unique. Thanks for the words we've shared..
The laughs, the tears, the phone calls, the emails, the shopping, the
movies, the lunches, the dinners, the talking, talking, talking and the
listening, listening, listening....
So whether you've been there 20 minutes or 35 years,
I love you!

Muaahhhhh & a Happy Valentines Day.

The Year of the Rat

The Chinese New Year heralds in the Year of the Rat. Aha – that’s my year…..and I’m reminded of my favourite rat story.

Ok folks, it goes like this –
Once upon a time, our office got shifted from the city to somewhere back of beyond, in the suburbs. The building was pretty ooh lala – all high tech & state of art design, super gizmos fitted in and what not. At last the “shifting in” day dawned and the bunch of us who work together marched in to our department with huge amounts of cartons , to do lists and what nots.
Our team consists of Donald Duck, Hulk Hogan, Dandy, Pansy and Devil (ie me).

So, all of us set down to working through our cartons – emptying the contents, arranging stuff in our personal cabinets…you know the works.

Suddenly – Crash, Boom…….I turned around to stare at Pansy - “why the hell is he acting so lousy?”
Pansy had this extremely peculiar expression, his jaws were moving up & down soundlessly and his palor – an awesome shade of yellow.
“Goodness, if the Jaws director wanted to make another sequel, he had his actor ready - the expression was close to the one the victim sported when just about to be devoured by the Jaws”
Pansy managed to get some voice back – an extremely shaky one though – “Chuha” is what he managed to say.
Deafening silence – all of us froze in our tracks. A Rat? - here? – in this fortress, where even the fly found it difficult to enter…..boy oh boy

Within minutes, we were all blabbering.
Harmless, affable Donald D ordered for the kill.
Hulk Hogan looked like he was just about to draw out his sword and duel the rat to death.
Dandy tried to remember the names of Rat Poisons available in the market.
Pansy was checking his pulse, and
Devil was busy hoping that her sneering grin wasn’t getting noticed.

We quickly emptied our cartons locked our drawers & cabinets, but the rat had disappeared. Pansy was adamant he’d seen it & with each passing hour, the size of the rat became bigger & bigger.

Next day, Pansy’s sighting was verified – we all got darshan of the sharp creature. Darting in & out – enjoying the attention it drew. The rest of the week was pretty lively. We kept a look out for the creature. Dandy & I had mastered the art of sitting cross legged in our fancy chairs (we didn’t want our toes nibbled by the rat). Our room corners had heaps of white rat poison powder (almost looked like rangoli), a rat trap gleamed magnificently beside Hulk’s table. Pansy kept contemplating whether it was time he went on medical leave.

Over the weekend, the rat must’ve decided to be adventurous & try out the white powder – When we entered on Monday, the smell of a dead rat was over powering.
But even in death, the rat played hard to get. Everyone ran round in circles trying to figure where exactly the rat had died.
All drawers were emptied, cabinets scoured thoroughly - but to no avail.With all those fancy sockets, conduits for the wires, God alone knew where the rat had decided to breathe its last. Whatever, but breathing was getting difficult for us.

The next couple of days we tried to concentrate on our work – with all the smell and a swarm of housekeeping guys moving in and out.
The observations were dramatic –

Donald D had done a research on “spread of plague and its after effects” – we got regaled by it everyday.
Dandy found great excuse to spend more time in the cafeteria, checking out the cricket scores.
Pansy kept asking if rats become ghosts and how it was wise not to work all by yourself late in the office, until the rat’s soul was put to proper rest.
Devil realized how a combination of Sandal/Musk/Lemon room freshner, dabbed every 1 hour, just about countered the dead rat smell.
Hulk Hogan was too busy to think – he always had huge sets of instructions for the housekeeping guys. How to open the fancy conduit, how to dismantle the sockets. The funniest theory Hulk came up with was that maybe the rat had climbed up to the ceiling (yeah sure – just like Spiderman right?), opened the AC duct cap & decided to die there!!!!! Wow – such great theories – improbable is a word Hulk obviously doesn’t believe in.

And then one fine day, when probably I was convinced that we’ll have to die in this rat smell, viola, our team of Sherlock Holmes (read housekeeping boys) found the rat’s body. It was nicely nestled behind the huge printer.
Masks on, Heave ho - rat was taken out with much fanfare………

The next two hours, our entire team enjoyed some Indian batting on the giant screen in our cafeteria, while our swanky, gizmo filled room with fancy knobs, conduits, sockets got treated & sterilized.
After lunch, we walked into a hospital smelling room (you know that extra clean, sterilized smells hospitals have).
Amen to the Rat.