And There Were Those Anguished Long Haul Days

A rough phase of life is definite to hit every single one over their lifespan and how well one reacts to those situation displays one’s willpower and the ability to sustain over the long run. And here is one such period in which the protagonist had to face some really hostile days.

                                  

The story rewinds back to a time in the past and is set in the hustle bustle capital city of Tamil Nadu, Chennai, where Vinesh is in his final leg of graduation. Well as I say it is from Tamil Nadu and as the protagonist is a male then for sure you should have guessed it by now that by default he is in the process of becoming an Engineer. Vinesh was well blessed with a great family, amazing friends, had a good paying job offer too, right before he even completed his studies and so he felt that life was being so generous with him. But, little did he anticipate the events to happen in the short run.

Graduation was over and he was eagerly waiting for the call letter to make his move into the corporate world. The initial few days’ right out of college, he gave himself a break and traveled back to New Delhi to spend some quality time with this family who were stationed there. Days flew by and there was no news from the company that had hired him. Very slowly it had started bothering him much and he could no longer accept being idle when most of his friends, who were all working with a different MNCs had already started working.

So, Vinesh packed his bags and decided to come back to Chennai, with a great hope on the city that it would definitely lay a new path for him. By the way that was his initial step towards success & the first lesson that he learnt, i.e. staying confident and having belief on your city, as it will never fail to support those who come seeking for its help. Once again days in Chennai weren’t a piece of cakewalk as day in and day out was a total struggle. Normally his weekday starts off early in the morning, dressed up well in formal attire and packing his backpack with all relevant documents and multiple copies of CVs, as he heads out in searching for jobs, hitting every single tech park of the city.

Just a small packet of biscuit is all that fuels him up for the rest of the day, and stepping in and out of companies submitting his profile across the cities was something that he never even dreamt off doing. But when reality hits you hard, you ought to do certain unimaginable stuffs right. Though no companies called back he never stopped submitting his profile. And on other days when there wasn’t any walk-in drives happening, he would stay back at home happily cooking food for his friends who shall return home after a long tiring day at work. So, over the dinner, everyone used to share their respective stories that happened over the day and Vinesh used to be a silent spectator listening to all the stories of his friends. Of course he enjoyed them initially, but over a period of time, it started having a negative effect within him. Depression was slowly eating him up and he did not wish to bother his friends by sharing his sadness with them. And neither did they understand his plight that they kept continuing with their everyday story.

Months flew swiftly and all those who had promised of helping Vinesh in bagging a job went totally unresponsive. Here is where he learnt his second most important lesson towards success. Nobody gives a fuck about your life, it’s only you who will have to plan and work on chiseling it. It is after all an artificial world, where relationships are all just faking out.

But, little did he knew that it was just a matter of few more month during which he had to go through all the current mental struggles, before which the lessons learnt actually will pay him off, though not permanently but as an interim break from the present situation. So, ultimately the city didn’t fail to support him and neither did his attempts to figure out a way go in vain.

Lesson well learnt is what he understood closing his eyes that night and thinking about the new beginning that is to happen the next morning. 

A totally new life waits ahead with lots of surprises and memories to hold on to.

She moved in, but I had moved out – Part 7

So, just a small recap from the previous part, I was getting excited upon the news of moving to a new academic block, our regular academic session began in which Mithun & I shared most of our classes, and finally Mithun had woke me up from my nap just to share his excitement of finding Meenakshi in the same class and where I got petrified of a totally different sight.

A girl of peaches-and-cream skin tone with perfectly threaded eyebrows and waist length brunette half straight & half wavy hair had walked in right behind Meenakshi. Her eyes were calm and they were an instant attraction. She carried a perfect hour-glass figure with the right attire & accessories matching her complexion and structure, ending it with a neat box heel sandal. A shinning gold wrist watch slides down her smooth waxed arm every single time she moved the few strands of hair away from her face and a neat shade of “Starla” nail color gave a finishing touch to her beauty.

At the very moment, out of nowhere, the following lines started playing in my head, on a continuous loop.

“Chubby Cheeks, dimpled chin,

Rosy lips, teeth within,

Curly hair, very fair,

Eyes so blue, lovely too”

Do the lines sound familiar to you? Well, of course every one might have sung this famous nursery rhyme in their childhood.

I felt like the composer of rhyme composed it by looking at her, as it rightly exemplified her. She moved in gracefully with a broad smile that totally illuminated her face. And all these while my eyes were totally glued on her, ignoring what Mithun was saying to me or any other guy in the class, as this was the girl whom I wanted to meet right since my first encounter.

She was Ms. Elegant!

Thanks to my mind that it instantly put aside every other junk stacked in my brain and started prioritizing with the new job of just observing her. My eyes were in parallel acting swiftly to capture every single frame of her and getting it uploaded right away on to my hard disk.

Say, for another ten minutes or more, she was still involved in some sort of casual conversation with Harini, one of our other classmates from Coimbatore but I was doing just one task and it was to keep looking at her. And then suddenly it happened! She turned around and looked at me for the first time and it brought instant goosebumps within me. Her face was naturally radiant and the dimples were an instant eye catcher. Looking at me she gave a small smile.

“Khalaas!” I truly can’t express that feeling through words

(Honestly, even now, smile adorns my face while reminiscing that moment)

Getting back to my sense, my mind that was processing rapidly all these while did not expect this sudden bump to hit it that it got jammed totally. Not knowing how to react to the situation, I felt a gentle smile would do the justification. So, I acknowledged her with a warm smile and to my disbelief she welcomed it, turned around and blushed. Her peachy cheeks were turning bright red and she seemed to relish the moment.

What more will a guy ask for, other than this!

In your teens, normally if a girl looks at you and smiles; unquestionably you get butterflies in your stomach and I have heard a lot about it from my friends. But, for the first time when I experienced it, it was like a sudden rush of adrenaline flowing through me and as if all the other hormones that were on sleep mode were suddenly activated. It was one of those rare happy moments of my life when I had experienced such adrenaline rush; well of course the last time was when my brothers were born.

Amidst this cute moment, I failed to notice that the staff was already there in the class and she had been talking to Harini. Shortly then moving to the center of the class she gave a small self-intro and asked us to do the same. The guys in the front rows started introducing themselves finally ending it with Mithun and I. Now the staff turned her attention towards the girl’s side and so did we. Mithun was equally excited to know more about Meenakshi as how I was to know about Ms. Elegant.

Meenakshi started and finished off her part in an instant and she sat down quickly, to which Mithun was totally disappointed. Next in turn to speak was my girl. As she stood up, her thick free-flowing hair glided gently on her back like the waves that hit the shores. She introduced herself as Sri Vidya, from Bangalore. Her voice was so soft, she was very attentive and clear in speaking about her, just to make sure that I get hold onto every word that she spoke (which I learnt it later).

Finishing her part she sat, flipped her hair sideways, turned towards me and gave a small nod, asking if I had taken down the details. Well of course, every guy tends to put in his full attention on the girl he likes and I am nowhere different from them. In fact I had noted down inch-by-inch of her from head to toe. But being a good boy (as how the society tagged me) I acknowledged her with a small smile and for the next few minutes our eyes were glued on to each other. This new feeling was something first of its kind for both of us and we both seemed love it. So, we just ignored the rest of student’s intro and were busy with our own task.

But, when you have a friend like Mithun, your special moments aren’t supposed to last longer. Mithun shook me vigorously, as it seems he had been lately noticing the short romance that I was having with Sri (that’s how I always refer to her) and also purposely since he was annoyed with Meenakshi not speaking much.

“Hey Dude, get back to your sense and focus on the class. May be you can continue with your romance, later”, said Mithun, turning my face away from her, still pissed off!

I turned around and stared at him for ruining the lovely moment and started focusing on the class, though not whole heartedly. My mind was constantly hovering and over the next forty minutes, Sri & I would have exchanged looks at least 10 – 15 times.

The class came to an end and as per the school rules girls moved out of the class followed by the guys. On the way to the next class Mithun started pestering me with questions. “Well, you always stick with us but had never mentioned about her. So, how did this happen?” asked Mithun, cornering me inside the class.

“See there was nothing to hide from you guys. What you saw today happened for the first time”, I said, but Mithun was not ready to accept it.

And I was very sure that Mithun would definitely reveal the incident to Kishore and he will not take it easy and light. So, I had to warn Mithun to shut his mouth and keep this incident to himself and we made our way towards the boy’s staircase.

So, to what extent did this first sight between Sri Vidya & Raghav take them into?

Wish to know more? Then please stay tuned until the next part rolls out!

All eyes upon you!!!

At the very moment, you step into DXB, you could hear people calling out the city as the land of Arabs or even as the land of expats. However, as I stepped out, to me it was the land of wonders.

Every single step astonished me in this scintillating city. It was really a great feat achieved by the nation, in such a short span of time, transfiguring the desert into one of the world’s most acclaimed city. Be it the downtown or the outskirts, everything is as per the books and hardly one could come out with any concern.

Amidst the chaos of this busy city and shifting population, there, at a distance, she stood majestically that I stumbled upon the very first look.

Wrapped up elegantly as in a wedding gown with tiny beads, shimmering to the sun’s departure, she was bewitching.

And as the blanket of dusk wrapped its cover across the sky, her charm was intensifying slowly and gently.

Within minutes she was radiant, right from her head to toe, raising a jealousy eye among the other hotties of the region. Well, I could not lift my eyes off her and neither were anyone across the city. Her curves ran down flawlessly. Every other second she was draped in prodigious colors and livery, elevating the euphoria within me.

The moment I saw her first, I thought that she had just overstepped the clouds, growing beyond her limit. However later did I convince me that she grew infinitely high just to hold a bird’s eye view of her admirers. For a stardom of her stature, she needs to have her eyes wide open as the chances of her diadem (“world’s tallest building”) might shift hands.

Well as all know, the Burj Khalifa stands at a height of 829.8m from the ground. The visibility radius of it spans across 98 kilometers over the Persian Gulf, making it unquestionably visible to any eye, no matter when or where.

Wait a minute… Wait a minute!!!

I seriously doubt if it is we who have an eye with her always?

Or maybe it’s just the other way round. I feel like she holds a constant vigil upon all us thereby, reminding every single time that “you are being watched”. She ensures that the city and the Persian Gulf expand in all the horizons and the people are focused towards achieving it.

Well, that is something remarkable of its stature. So as I kept thinking of it, there was a loud bang behind me. And as I turned around, the fountains at the base of Burj Khalifa were ready for yet another elevated performance.

Enjoying the fountain show and being mesmerized by the great LED illumination on the building’s façade, I could hardly make a move. I wished I sat there all night just gazing at the aesthetic beauty across me. However, it didn’t last long as the reminders and agendas in my cell phone started snoozing.

So with one last look, I just turned back and walked away controlling my desire. Later, as I stepped onto the metro, this particular thought kept hitting my brains.

        “You are being watched!!”