Because Husbands were once Bachelors too

Before any of you let your imagination go flying let me state upfront that this post has (mostly)nothing to do with the Husband and concerns itself with the Wife's role to a large extent. I had intended to have the title of this post as "Kyooki Husbands bhi Kabhi Bachelors thee".But then for universal understanding,i decided to stick by English title ! This post intends to analyze the situation of boys after his marriage when he dons the role of Husband !

Two of my good friends have got engaged this month. Few days back , they were relating the Engagement experiences and sharing the photos of their fiances.On talking about their fiances,their answers were like this "Avan, Software company le work pannuran" (He works in a Software company), "Avan rombe sadhu type" (He is of a calm demeanor) etc. For people unaccustomed to Indian traditions, they must understand 2 words before we proceed further. "Avan" and "Avange".



Both denotes "He" in English but the degree of respect varies in both. 'Avange' is used to imply that we consider the person with respect (explicitly conveyed in the words).It doesn't mean that 'Avan' shows lack of respect yet 'Avan' is used on a informal level and the lack of respect can be explicitly seen. I presume that you would be scratching your heads over 'Avan' and 'Avange' so to make Matters simple,'Avange' shows respect and 'Avan' doesn't when using it in sentence.

You might be wondering why Am I probing this matter over two words which differ by two letters 'ge'. If you consider the yesteryear's generation,say our grandparents/parents generation, the respect the women had for their husbands was explicitly shown in the way they addressed their husbands. Those times the women considered their better half to be equivalent to God. Contrast that with today's scenario when some women not even consider their better half to be half better than them ;D. (Not that I regret that this change has occurred). Today many women consider their hubbies to be equivalent to friends. This change implies the growing confidence of the women folks which is good for everyone.

On a funnier note,what inspired this post is the pitiable situation of the men folks.We all know that Man was expected to work and earn income for the family. Excluding a few men who were in higher strata,the others belonged to the middle or lower working class. They either worked under someone for a wage or carried out the instructions under the supervision of someone. So mostly Home was the only place where he could expect 100% respect for him from his wife. I assume this gave him the courage and patience to endure the hardship at work and go on earning for the family. Contrast that with today's situation where Home would be the place where he least expects to get respect !!! Even his peers might respect him but that would vanish as soon as he enters his home. Say few years back the girls used to address her fiances as "Avange" which over a period of time changed to "Avan".But in the current fast paced life, it starts with 'Avan' itself !!! ;) Whereas for women the above scenario works in reverse manner. (Home is the place where they have guaranteed 120% respect,the situation at work place might differ)



Another point which i noted was that in most of the engagement photos,the girl would be flashing the brightest smile (Yes, the MENTOS smile with brightness of 105%) and the guy would be flashing a feeble smile (say, brightness of zero watt bulb). I assume both must be thinking about their future. The Guy who had been a free bird till now imagines himself as a caged bird. And the girl who has been waiting to catch hold of someone who can listen to her endless talks and who can take over the role of her paying her shopping invoices has finally found that person. In a conversation i had with my friends, it seems an interesting trend is been observed in IT industry. People who are bachelors generally work late and now there is a new genre joining them for company. Any guesses who ???

They are the people who have been married for an year or so. It so happens that once a guy gets married he starts for home immediately as soon as the clock strikes 6. This goes on for say 4-6 months after which the tireless talks and the unstoppable shopping takes the toll on him and he prefers the safe haven of the company for an extended extra time of 1-2 hours.

Considering all the facts,it seems that the current generation might mark the new era for the women. Not only are they going to get the 33% reservation in Parliament in India (which seems very viable in the current government period), the trends points that a day may come when Men would have to fight for their rights and ask for reservation in Parliament... [One thing which puzzles me is the fact that how the Women Bill hasn't yet been rectified and passed by the politicians taking into account the fact that many are married !!!]



P.S: The post was meant purely as a funny one and does not intend to undermine the women role in the family in anyway. Women are equal to men in every aspect(barring a few) and completes him. The current scenario where both the man and woman take equal responsibility of running the family and are in a equal footing is good for the family,society and the Nation as well. I also take this chance to wish my two friends a very Happy and a Prosperous future life with their hubbies !

The Adventures of Rim,Jim & Sim - Sim goes Gyming !! - Part II

P.S: First part of The Adventures of RJS - Sym goes Gyming can be read here.

We went out for a our dinner and once we came back, we were had to be content by hearing about Sim's theories on loosing weight. The unique thing about Sim is that you never know when his brain decides to come out of its dormancy and decides to do something. It is at these times that Sim comes up with some theories which makes me think as if he had a blood relation to Leonarda Vinci. One of his ideas was about body reduction. He was of the view that 60-90 days were a long time. He said 3-5 days should be sufficient. According to him, take the joiners and desert them in a lone island where there are plenty of cocunut trees.,.The food and other related stuff can be kept at the top of the cocunut trees, and whoever wants to have food, they can climb the tree up and down,. According to Sim, if this routine continued for a week, the participants will be guaranteed to lose weights.,. Jim was concerned about 2 things.,.One was about law suits which could be charged against the organizers for intentionally deserting the people and similar charges.,. Secondly was Sim's obsession with coconut trees,.,. As far as we know, he didnt know any Keralite girls, yet who knows.,. He has so many friends ;).,.

So went Sim, giving us ideas on how he is going to reduce his body and make himself a sort of Greek God.,. Iam an ardent follower of Gandhigiri and believe firmly in Gandhian principles, yet Sim's speeches was testing my resolve,., The thing is he wont allow you to sleep.,.if you close your eyes, he will come nearer to you and will look so closely at you as if you have dropped dead.,. And the more scarier thing is when you open your eyes while he is looking at you.,. His eyes will be so close to your face that you will get the biggest shock of your life.,. When asked why he does that he just remarks that he was analzysing whether we had slept or not.,. So similarly, on that day, he successfully kept us awake till 12pm(Our usual sleeping time is 10:30 pm), after which he rushed to sleep saying that he needed to go to Gym early next day and that we people had delayed him by making him speak !! Its when things like this happen, when you feel that Life is really unfair.


I usually get up at 7:30.,. Yet i was woken up at 6:00 on that day.,. Jim's usual waking time is 6:00.,. He wakes up and then after refreshing goes for his morning jogs.,. On that day, it was a mixture of sounds which woke me up.,. There was a yelp sound and then there was sound of astonishment.,. Hurriedly i woke up, assuming that there had been some bomb blasts,so i got up from my bed and went out.,. In the Main hall, i saw a strange scene.,. Sim was sitting hunched down, holding his legs and angrily glaring at Jim, who stood near him, equally frustrated.,. I couldnt understand what happened.,. Sim complained that Jim had stumped on his legs., Jim accusation was why the hell Sim lying there in the hall instead of his bed.,. It seems that Sim who had been told that one has to do a warm-up before taking up Gym activities had woke up at 5 pm and had been exercising from then.,. He did some stretching exercises and then some push ups.,. Iam sure he pushed himself very hard because while doing push ups, he had felt a bit exhausted and streched across the floor itself and within no time fell asleep. It was then Jim who had woken up, stumbled upon him and in the darkness, stumped on Sim's leg.,. Then Jim and Sim went on their own ways getting ready to go to Gym, while i retired back to my bed. Sim looked as if he would drop dead again, yet his valiant knight in him made him go on.,.


At the end of the day,when i came back to home in the evening,Jim was rolling on the floor laughing and Sim face looked so fallen as if he had aspired for an Olympic medal and missed it by quite closely. On asking i got a summarized version of the day happenings.,. It seems after going to Gym, Sim saw other people doing some stretching exercises., Since Sim had taken the effort to stretch quite early,he presumed he could go on with advanced level of exercising... He went on to lift heavy dumb-bells.,. His adversary,the Trainer came and told him to join the warm-ups group before he could go on to do advanced exercises.Sim said he had already done the stretch-up's., The trainer said to him to do a few more stretch-up, so that he will be in a right condition to exercise and asked him to do some push-up's. Push-up's being the Achilles heal of Sim, nevertheless decided to give it a shot.,. He did 2 push-up and that was the end of push-ups. It was down from then onwards.,.

Sim later wondered why he was not able to do Push-up's then, because he had just taken 70 push-up's half an hour before in the home.,. Well thats Sim for you !! Because of the inadequacy in doing the push-up's the trainer assumiing that Sim might faint, asked him to sit aside for sometime, relax for sometime and then come back to exercise. He should have known better.., Sim,who usually wakes late, was waiting for this opportunity. Both his mind and body decided to unite against his so called will to exercise and then when he went to sit down for sometime, it got changed to lay down for sometime,. He slept solidly for 2 hours,(he would have slept for more time), with anxious people around him.,. The Gym trainer had forgot about Sim's presence and it was the cleaner who found him craddled in a corner and then called up the administration to see more on it.



It was then the trainer remembered that there was a person who had gone to rest. The other people had a hearty laugh and then Sim came home red-faced and then went about his daily work.,. I didnt know if i had to pity Sim or laugh at him.,. Yet being a good room-mate i could just give him a decent smile, before retiring to my bed and then laughing on it when-ever i recall the incidents.,. It seemed the next day,he had an appointment with the Gym dietician to decide on his eating habits.,.

PLATE OF DIET

Later next day, though didnt wake up early, he went promptly by 6 to meet the dietician.,. There the dietician had prescribed a food schedule and asked him if he had any doubts. Sim, looked at the schedule and asked him if he was supposed to eat that before or having his normal diet.... the diet included fresh juice,vegetables and Adequate fluid.,. The dietician then went ahead explaining the food course and explained No oily items and Fat drinks.,. I suppose Sim had imagined Water just as water, but to have "Adequate Fluid" as his main staple diet, came down quite heavy on his confidence., The two things which Sim can never let go is Friends(you should know which type) and Food.,. Now since he was in a dilemma to choose one over the other, to put it in his way "Losing one eye for the other". Still his reaction surprised me.,. He continued to went on for the Gym classes, though i couldnt see any noticable changes in his physique. (He had no intention of paying heed to what the dietician had said).

Later after a week, it was revealed to us that he has been seeing a girl who had being coming to Gym.,. Actually, the second day when he had gone to meet the dietician, before meeting the dietician, he had been waiting outside and it was at that time when the girl had come along.,. He made friends with her, and instead of going to Gym, he had been taking her around the park early morning,. (Gosh, i never knew the usefulness of parks ).,.


So that had been Sim's inspiration to go to Gym early morning, inspite of the dietician foreboding of having Foods he loved. When i ask him why he left going to Gym , didnt he stand to lose out the money, he said just:

"Every exit is an entry somewhere."

Well, thats the end of Sim tryst with the Gym.,. Though he didnt get a six pack as he wanted, he wound up by thinking that its what his attitude which mattered more than his thoughts. To put it simply
"Its what you want others to see and perceive you which matters more than how you really are".

I tell you, Sim sometimes defies logic !!

The Adventures of Rim,Jim and Sim - Sim goes Gyming - Part I !!

Promises are made to be broken. And here Iam breaking a promise which i made to Sim. Well, Iam not actually breaking a promise. Its months since this happened. Someone had said that a Promise is as good as when it happens. As time passes by, its not a promise anymore. It becomes a memory. and you can always recall some-thing from memory. So here Iam following that philosophy of recalling from my memory (and not breaking a promise. mind it ! ). Not to forget the effort i made in convincing Sim about putting his story into words. Though he was a bit adamant initially, saying that the story may undermine his image, i was able to point to him the fact that noo matter what he did, his face is never going to appear in the newspapers/magazines.




Alternatively, he has a chance to put down his face in a story and might be considered for knighthood someday when a benign kings comes to know of the Mighty Sim's chronicles. I think the idea of Knighthood, was too tempting for Sim to neglect.So here Iam penning down another chronicle from our life, working for some others person's knighthood. (Life is unfair sometimes !! ). Since everyone is convinced that Iam recalling from my memory and have indeed not broken any promises, let me go through the formal nuances of explaining what happened.

All was fine till one day, Sim had this strange notion of having six packs. You see recently there was a craze of six packs.,. you can call it SixPacko-mania.,. Just because some actors appeared in a movie with a six pack, and had a body like a greek warrior, everyone wants to emulate him. i havent been able to understand how a six pack will improvise someone's look in real life. What motivation spurs this craze for a six pack body etc.(exception being you wanting to impress someone). I had always thought of Sim as a connoisseur in the taste of woman. (To the extent he had created a separate Club for giving tips on making gf and retaining them,back at college). Yet sharp minds get blunt sometimes. The same was the case with him.

Once when he was out for a movie with a girl, the girl had remarked that the hero looked stunning with a hot body. The fact was that the girl was trying to tease him up and was playing with him, yet Sim was much smitten about the girl that he took her remarks too literally. At this juncture, it is pertinent to know the physical anatomy of Sim. Sim was a kinda normal looking guy.,. No great shapes or such.Well, there used to be a slab of fat hanging around his stomach as a circus ring. Chubby chap will be more apt to describe him !! He had a great sense of humor and so called gracious nature made him a connoisseur in making many girls as his friends. And when the girl had made this remark, in his efforts to impress her,he convinced himself that he will go to gym and get himself into a good shape.

On that day, Me and Jim were back at home, idling away the time. We were looking for a nice topic to talk upon when someone knocked the door. Some say, Opportunities dont knock and come, yet i disagree with that. We opened the door and one look at Sim confirmed the fact that he was the perfect opportunity for us to idle away the time.We welcomed him in and were surprised to find him dull. Generally Sim entertains us with stories of his adventures/mis-adventures with the girls and how he played the knight in armour etc. Some of the stories sound so unbelievable that one will be tempted to believe that his life was a remake of the Hindi Bollywood movies.,.Anyhow, we detected his infelicitous situation we asked him whats was the matter. He then unwinded himself and explained the whole situation and told us his decision to go for Gyming. I was tempted to tell him that the girl would have been talking in a lighter sense and there was no need for him to do such a big sacrifice( Wondering how its a sacrifice, wait and see !! ).

The reaction from Jim was far away from being enthusiastic. He just said "Buddy,April is yet to come". He had assumed that Sim was kidding about this one. But the determined and sober face of Sim convinced him that he indeed wanted to go to Gym. It was a bit hard for Jim to digest this,as he had been trying to pull Sim to gym along with him. Yet Sim had been comfortable sleeping in his bed, and had found no immediate motivation.,. Yet a girl had come and with a single comment had made him to join Gym. Sim said that its not only because of the girl but also because he wanted to maintain his shape. (albeit he was lying slightly) and since Jim had prior experience of going to Gym and is still going he can help him in it. Jim refused to take him along with him citing the fact that since his words were not respected, its equivalent to him being not respected and that Sim can go to a different gym.

So i was left all alone in over seeing their bickerings and finally it was agreed that Jim will be a consultant to Sim to determine if he really needed to go to Gym. He asked Sim to touch down the floor without bending his knees. Sim tried doing it but as much he tried he was able to reach only to his knee level and not below that. Jim exclaimed "Man, you should have been in Gym, 8 months back. You may get a Heart attack any moment". This was because Jim had consulted a health specialist few years back and he went through this routine and it seems the specialist had told him about the exercise and explained that not able to touch one's feet , means his obesity levels had reached high levels, a indication of upcoming heart problems. Since then, Jim considers himself to be a health Specialist and he remarked casually that Sim's day's were counted as he was not able to touch the knee itself. What Sim had forgot was that he had had a heavy dinner and that his stomach was full.,. In that situation any person would have found it hard to touch their knees.,. (Sim remembered the fact, 3 months after he left Gyming and told us about this.)

Anyhow, that remark from Jim, motivated to take up the Gyming as soon as possible and he swiftly went outside remarking that he will be back soon. He was gone in a puff, that neither me or Jim had any time to reply. Sim was back again, in 1 hour with a Gym's brochure waving in his hands as if he was waving a Akomeogi (or Japanese folding fan). He said he had enrolled in a special fast course Gym session which will began from tomorrow and that he will be in a good shape in 3 months. And yes, for the first he told us his original weight. You see there is a electronic weight m/c nearby our home.

Whenever we used to pass across that, Sim used to stand on it and then put a coin into the machine.The machine will give his weight printed in a paper. Sim had an unrealistic way of convincing himself of his realistic weight. He used to see his weight in the paper and then remark. hey how much will my shoes weigh. he then answered himself that it will weigh 200 gms each and then deduct 400 gms from the total weight. Then he will say that the jeans pant he was wearing would add another few hundred grams. Then his watch added few grams.,. Likewise he will deduct around 1.5-2 kgs from the total weight.The total weight will come around 93 kg(after so much deductions.) He will happily remark that he knew that the machine was defective and then he will reduce another 4-5 kg. Then he will suggest to himself that he need to increase his weight slightly so as to have a proper weight-height ratio.

I had witnessed this umpteen number of times and it always surprised me as to how he can convince himself of his weight without ever feeling guilty !! Yet that was Optimistic Sim for you !!
But today while he was returning after getting the Gym's brochures, he repeated the similar ritual of standing on the machine and putting in the coin. Surprising was the fact that he read the actual values in the paper and didnt indulge in any gimmicks.,. He came back home and showed us the paper slip which said the weight to be 94 kgs. That when i realized that this guy is up to something serious.,.


To be continued...

To read the introduction story of Rim,Jim and Sim Adventures, click here.

5 Similarities between a Girl Friend and a Book

I just got this idea while conversing with my friends. One of my friend was lamenting on the absence of a Girl Friend in his life and he felt as if he was wasting his precious bachelors life for nothing. And he wondered when he will meet his first love. One of my other friend , a kinda book-oholic, always said that Books was his first love.



This contrast between the two , stirred the devil inside me to come up with a new post: Comparing the pros and cons of having a Book/GF for a company. And this been quite a delicate issue, I have tried to my best not to hurt anyone feelings, and if any one still takes it personal, you should know who to point your finger at ;)

Here we go ahead with the comparisons...

1) One Overt similarity will be that both of them give company(companion) to the individual concerned.

2) Over a period of time, you get bored with the 'same' her(the girl) /it(book) and switch over to something else. This is true in both the cases !!
Corollary: (As always, exception exist !!)

3) A good book/girl friend teaches you something, which will change you for the better in your life...

4) A book quality can be directly or inversely proportional to the number of pages. For eg. a small book of 150 pages can contain invaluable information.,. Also, there are books such as Encyclopedias which not only voluminous pages but also the same amount of information.Same goes with the Girls. In case of a girl, the beauty can be directly or inversely proportional to the intellect. Though the 'inverse part' is true in most of the cases.

5) Echoing the above point, Appearances can be deceptive both in the case of Books as well as Girls. An attractive cover neednt necessarily mean a good book. Similarly, an attractive outward appearance might/might not be an indicator of an attractive character.

To sign off, i would like to leave with this thought. Many of us have heard the saying - "Behind a successful man, there is always a Woman". Iam yet to hear a saying:

"Behind a successful Man, there is always a priceless book".

Well,well what i hear. Did someone say that Books are being discriminated ... Welcome to the real World ;)

P.S: I would like to see how many more similarities one can come up with. If any of you can add to the above ones, (in lighter sense of course ), it will be fabulous. Lemme see how many flex their creative muscles...!!!

The Diary Pages Finale

Hi,

Just came across a blog page where the entire Diary Pages has already been published. For those who were gripped to the seat, reading the first page of the diary, you can check out the remaining here.


Will end the Diary Page edition with a saying:

As with all other things, what one can expect always from a woman, is the 'unexpected'.

I can see many of you nodding your heads off ;) The saying is admittedly right...!

The Orange Girl - II - Contd

As i gradually floated back to reality from the wispy magical romantic moment, i was in for another great shock. There sitting before me was the Orange Girl. I was sitting in the side window seat and she was sitting in the opposite corner at the window seat. The movie reverie started again, this time with images of Rajesh Khanna humming the tune "Mere sapno ki rani", and chasing the heroine Sharmila Tagore,aboard a train. The only difference was that we were sitting on the opposite ends of a single compartment, instead of she on a train and a me on a jeep. But why bother about such small details when you are focussed on the big picture !!

Just then my reverie was broken by someone. Now obviously irritated by the sudden intercession, i looked on to see who was it. An man was standing on the inner side of the compartment. He was of middle age. He asked me: Son, is the lower side berth your seat. I was like yes it is. He then asked me if i can shift over to the middle berth as he had muscular strain and he can take the lower side berth. Usually this had become a natural phenomenon whenever i traveled by train, i had to exchange the seats with someone if i had got a lower berth. Actually its not the concept of giving my seat that annoyed me, but the fact that once you feel that you have settled comfortably when someone comes and asks you to move which didnt go with me. And in this case, not only was i disturbed from my reverie but also was asked to give up my seat.


Just when i was about to say no, without giving it a thought, when my super conscious mind began to work. It dawned on me that if i exchanged seats with the person, i will be sitting on seat opposite to that of the Orange Girl and that i had a good chance at having a conversation with the girl. I had heard of the adage "Give something to win something" Now i was seeing it working in reality ;) So i in all my best manners pro-offered the man,my seat , which the man accepted happily and i was a much happier than him. I always took precaution to book upper berth so that i needn't have to exchange the seat.. but in this case, i got lower seat against all my expectations which ended up with me getting a chance to sit opposite to the girl. (Another proof of divine premeditation). Just when i went and took my place opposite to the girl, a boy came and sat near her. This was some thing completely unexpected.

You had all the necessary ingredients for a movie. A hero, a heroine and a villain. Though masquerading as a hero was pretty easy and romantic, the concept of villain entering the picture was a sore thought. As long a villain appears in a movie , it is fine as our Super heroes are bestowed with unimaginable luck and power and they thwart the villain easily. Where as in real life, its a different ground altogether. I dont have supernatural powers,(though luck seemed to be in my side, divine premeditation ;) ) and i was wondering how to face this new challenge. .The girl had become just one of the other girls. Not any more a Dream Girl, the status reserved only for my soul mate.The girl and boy were talking happily obvious to their surroundings and to a smoke burning opposite to them. [me ;( ]. You see, life has a funny way of throwing up surprises. When you feel that you have scaled the world, it comes behind you with a lead pipe and know what leave you wondering what the hell went wrong. And sometimes, when you feel too lost, you have the lady luck smiling on you.

Fortunately this time, i was on the kinder end of the life. A lady(The Orange Girl Mother, i came to know this later) came and said to the boy, "Arun, enough of pestering your sister. Now come out. The Train will start shortly.". The words couldnt have been any more sweeter. My lousing spirit became lively again and the back ground music of "Mere Sapno Ki Rani" song started off again with renewed enthusiasm. The boy went outside, the girl also went outside with her
BROTHER, and said Good bye's to her parents and relatives. I didnt mean to eaves drop on their conversation, yet it was like the Orange Girl's parent had escorted her to the station where they had met one of their other close relatives. So they were in the next compartment having a talk, wherein the Orange Girl had come to her seat.The Boy(her brother) who got bored with the elders talk had come along to talk with his sister. So All is well that ends well. The train took off slowly and the journey started. It was like only 3 of us were in the compartment, (I, the orange girl & the Old man who was in the opposite side seat). I wanted to have a conversation with the girl but being not exactly a REMO, i preferred her to start the conversation.

As her parents had left, the Orange Girl took out a book and began to browse through that. I had heard that Like minded people tend to go well together. So not wanting to stay behind, i also took out my book, and began flipping the pages, emphasising more on making sound turning the pages rather on on reading them. Sometime went by. I wanted to ask her name. For that starting a conversation was imperative.But then my tongue seemed to had made a decision to play tongue twister. Even if you tried to speaking, no sound came out. Yet, since it was lucky predestined day for me, i had another chance. The Orange Girl searched for something in her bag and let out a sigh of desperation. And then she looked at the Old Man's bag.Being a born Sherlock holmes, my intuitive detective skills suggested that she had missed something. But what, i think, my intuitive detective skills weren't sufficient to fathom. But then i followed up her direction of eye vision and found that she was looking at the water bottle in the Old Man's bag. Putting together the jumble
pieces, i figured out that she would have missed her water bottle and that she was thirsty now.I thought i will ask her if she needs water, and hence bringing together my best manners, i said "Water". Actually i wanted to ask her "Do you want Water", yet due to the tongue twisting game, my tongue was indulged in, just the last word "Water" came out. On hearing water, she got a bit surprised and presented a blank look.

Reprimanding myself , i repeated again "Water"( Ooof,Not Again !! ), but this time, i shook the water bottle which i had for emphasis. She smiled a bit and took the bottle and drank water. Then She returned the bottle with a sweet Thanks. Words couldnt have been anymore sweeter. The word 'Thanks' kept on echoing in my ears for sometime.I tugged the water bottle to the safe interiors of the bag as i didnt want any more people to come asking for water. Its not like i didnt wanted to give water to other, yet this water bottle had achieved a significant value. Then only it occured to me that i hadnt yet asked her name. Now that her thirst was over, she went back to her book reading. I had a pretty uphill task at hand.

Starting a conversation would not only be hard but very tough. You see, when you get smitten , not only your tongue refuses to abide with you, you have heavy gushes of air going up and down your wind pipe, making it look like as if you are inhaling huge gushes of air. Not to say about the heart beat. It skyrockets to around 120 beats/minute as if you had just finished a mega marathon race. Yet my brain with divine intervention, recalled a learning attrributed to my reading habits.I had read somewhere that when you feel highly tensed up and unable to concentrate, follow the steps to become calm again. 1) Close your eyes. 2) Take a deep breath. 3) Count from 1 to 10. 4) Then, how many times should one do that ... Hmmm.. Ya, got it. 3 times. Ya. Repeat the steps 3 times. . So applying Zen methodology to effect, i did the required steps. By the count of 10 at the 3rd time, i had returned back to my normal state.(Amazing Isnt !!). For those of you Agreeing, Thats a stupendous 'No; for you. Its like this, i had returned back to normal state because i had concentrated on my breathing. By focussing on something else rather than the one which caused the anxiety, i was able to calm myself.

Now i felt confident to start conversing with the Orange Girl. But again the very thought of her threatened to raise my anxietiness again. Immediately launching into action, i asked her "What is your Name" ? 'TICKET' ,came the reply. Whatever the answer i was expecting, 'TICKET" was way beyond what i expected. It might be true that along with globalisation, Indians had taken a liking to foreign culture, adopting various practices of the foreigners in our life. Assuming that people had taken a liking to English Names like Briddget, Matilda, by all standards "TICKET" seemed an unusual name... Again the sound "TICKET" came. I looked to my left and found the Ticket Collector checking the Orange Girl's ticked. I realised only then that i was lost in my own world, and had not seen the TC and mistook TICKET for the Girl's name. I took out my ticket and waited. Meanwhile the Old man furnished his tickets and was explaining to the TC that his friend will be getting on to the train. He was pointing the name, Arun in the list saying that he has his ticket who will be joining him in the next station. Sometimes, one experiences a stroke of brilliance. Similar one happened then. I was planning to ask the girl her name, why not look it outright in the TC list.Congratulating myself for coming up with a clever strategy, i went near him and gave the TC my ticket , all the while scanning the page to find my name and a girl name neaby.

Aha, i found the name easily and brimming with excitement as if i had been awarded the Nobel Prize, i came back to my seat, her name already imprinted in my grey cells.It was quite late by now, and it was time to sleep.The girl started making arrangements to sleep. I too realised that having a conversation was not possible now and that i will do that in morning once i get up. I too went to sleep. It seemed that i had slept for a while, because when i woke up , and checked out the Girls seat, she was not there. Which meant i had slept late, i checked if it wasnt too late. I saw that in the corner of the seat, she had left her handkerchief. I took her kerchief and went out the train. The train was still standing at the platform, meaning that i still had time to find the Orange Girl.. I went outside and saw in a distant distance, she was walking at a slow pace. I raced fast and called out her name. I reached her fast and offered her the kerchief.

She smiled and then took the kerchief and said Thanks. Since i had run, my heart was beating fast, i somehow managed to say- Anything for you. The next answer was like a slap in the face.."Naiye"(translates to Dog). I was like what.. After all the romantic thoughts, ending up like this. Though i didnt want to utter obscenities to a girl, i thought i will get the kerchief back from her. I pulled the kerchief from her hand for which she pulled it back. I wasnt going to let it go like this and if she persisted i will show who Iam. I heaved the kerchief with all my might, for which not only the kerchief got pulled from my hand, i felt a hard hand on my back. "Ravi naiye, get up from bed". Its 9 now, only 3 more hours for the exam to start. It was my friend Mohan who was pulling my bedsheet away from me and was trying to wake me up. Meaning, Orange Girl, Ticket, Kerchief all was a part of the dream. ;-( Today was the last day of the exam after which our semester hols were supposed to start. Seemed like, i started imagining about my holiday schedule even before it started.

Mohan said that he was trying to wake me up from 8 and i was uttering words like "Tickets", "Water" etc. Thanking him profusely and cursing myself for sleeping over time that too on a day of final exam, i rushed up to refresh myself and do a final round of revision. The fact that the Orange Girl had come only in dream making my point stronger that my dream girl was somewhere waiting for me. You never know When you dream materializes, yet will cherish the memories of the Orange Girl till then. :)

THE END.

Note: I hope you liked the narration and if you have any comments on that i would like to hear from you. I also thank my roomie Laxman for his help in framing some parts of the story and for patiently listening to my countless narrations at weird timings.

Dedicated to all the singles looking for their soul mates. :)