Tiki Mausi gives concerned looks to my cover-up-smile & leaves for some work. She’s phrased it in words, Out-Loud, the question silently creeping in my mind & left me to deal with it.
TIP Foundations, an enterprise, a dream fermenting over last 8 years… All efforts to plan it out since last 2 years… An ambition to set things right in the country I love… An ambition to get my friends together… A dream to Live / Die for…
A MTech degree from an University, primarily to compliment TIP Foundations; to gather related expertise, knowledge, contacts & experiences…
A new job, promising a handsome salary & new venues to explore…
You quit your 1st ever company, holding a nice position to pursue your dreams… You come home to realise all of your friends are too busy fighting their lives… You somehow try to make things happen, but your energy keeps falling short… Your application for the MTech & the hushed up Delhi tour… Your mausaji’s forcibly uploading of your resume on the internet, so that you could get back to the conventional path of earning… As you start getting calls for job interviews, your state of complete confusion… And to make things intense, your policy of not-objecting unless you’re sure of holding a strong, valid ground…
As you stand evaluating your options, your mind wanders off into a world of its own. May be it doesn’t want to do the hectic calculations & own the risk of taking a decision towards shaping your destiny. Seems it also knows the magnitude of variation each path would lead to.
As you stand staring at the open, green fields, lightning strikes & yeah there you are standing, feeling the “baaris k chhinte” (dash of raindrops brought in by the wind) of the 1st rains of the season on your face J …. You see some teens playing football in the rains… Some voluntarily falling & wading through the small muddy puddles… You somehow have the urge to join them… doesn’t matter that you don’t know them… Somehow your mind says, “Yeah right!! You are 25 not 15 anymore!! :P” Before the argument in your head could possibly intensify, its twilight & with the setting sun, the boys end the party n head home…The monsoon has a healing effect of its own… You are moved by a flashback… Those wonderful days of childhood…
The eager wait for heavy rains, hoping it forces your school management to declare a rainy-day-holiday J … The eager wait to wear your new raincoat to school… But somehow every time the lashing-heavy-rains managed to stop just at 9:30am, when you start for school and you are forced to spell out curses under your breath :P After all, when can you use your new raincoat if not in this season…
In the evening, when mummy comes home, your searching looks at her hands, to see if she’s bought some garam garam (hot-fried delicacies) Aloo-chop, Baraa, Singadaa, Piyaaji, Baigani for you & your delight to find either she or papa have them packed for you JJ
The mere thought makes your mouth water & you are smiling before you even realise it… You miss those days… Wish someone was there with you to enjoy the awesome climate… You sms a friend asking if she wants to join you & shoot off for a walk-in-the-rain!!
You somehow miss a combination… The 1st rains, a long ride on the bike with her sitting behind (all scared!), with the hot-fried-delicacies & a cutting-chai on a halt on the way… You wish she was in the same city with you…
As you walk on, you see some people enjoying the 1st rains, some trying to look as if they tried their best not to get wet… Bells ringing high with prayers in a small temple on the footpath… The large sewage swelling like a mini river beneath the bridge on the way…
I somehow feel, you ought to be in India to enjoy the rains…
All my childhood days, I used to think, how cool it would be to enjoy the rains in a foreign country, where you can splash the roadside puddles (without thinking of all the dirt & cow dung it could have possible washed in), where roads are supposedly clean… And when in California, I couldn’t really enjoy the rains because of the chilling winds that accompany or may be because one is not exposed to the burning heat before the season of the rains :P … Whatever the reason be, it’s the monsoons in India this time and am loving it!!
After a long walk, when you head back & stroll inside the society roads; with the outside din of the traffic dying out, the din inside you rises in pitch for you to make a final call… Which path to take??The rain slows down, you head back to the dry n warm comfort of home; to change n sit like a good boy before Tiki Mausi is back :P
As you reach home, you see a text reply from her, wishing she could join you. Again, a smile covers your lips… & this time it's not a cover-up-smile... You may not have found an answer to the boiling hot question, but you have been healed to stand up & face it!!
