Life goes on......................

12^th of Oct, 1999 – It was the holidays after the term exams. Myself and my friend were standing on that street corner. He was pushing me and shouting “Po daaa. Sollu po. Naan inga wait panren”. I shoved his hand away and kept glued to the place we were standing. “Bayamaa irukku da” I replied. The conversation went on until he finally managed to convince me to go ahead. I started towards the yellow painted house. I was just hoping that the walk will never end. The sun was beating down mercilessly which added to the heat of the moment. Atlast I reached the gate, I was still hoping that probably a locked door will save me. But no, it was wide open and there she came in a round neck t-shirt and a skirt, the symbol of most studious people – a spectacled nose. We chose to sit on the stair case leading to the terrace

“Enna indha timela” she queried as she closed the notebook which she was carrying. I did not know what to answer. I knew for sure that she will not buy if am going to give some crap reason as ‘doubt in one chapter in Business maths’ I was trying hard to comeup with some story when she, realizing my helplessness immediately changed the topic. “Are you not joining us for the tour tomorrow” I asked (I knew already that the list of members going to Ooty the next day was already finalized and she is not making it). “No yaar, parents are not allowing, moreover its proving to be costly. So you guys enjoy” she said. “But this is the last year of schooling and after this all of us will be scattered, why don’t you give it a final try” I suggested. The conversation continued for a while and after that I suddenly remembered the purpose of me making it to her place and the plight of my dear friend who was waiting patiently at the corner of the street. So I got up signaling that I would like to leave. Her expression evidently read “Why did this guy walk in middle of a scorching day and after a few minutes why does he take leave without saying anything”. Probably If she had had even the slightest idea of what I was about to say she would not have been that eager to hear it from my mouth.

As I turned towards the gate and stepped out, I realized that I cant carry it with me anymore and If were to return without telling her, I will be bashed up by my friends, whom I had been troubling a lot because of this issue. So I turned back. She was still there, probably realizing that I wanted her to stay back for a little while. As I looked into her eyes, I could sense my throat turning hoarse. The words refused to come out. “Nothing….. actually what am trying to say is” I started….. “Since I wont be here for the next week on occasion of the tour and as days pass by I find it difficult to carry along this feeling in me…….” and then I SAID IT.............

Yes!!!!!!! I finally managed to sum up the guts to propose to her. What a relief it was !!!! I had been carrying it with me for almost a year and finally it came out. Of course, as with most cases, she immediately said a NO, gave parents as the reason and finally after negotiation she said she needed time. Feeling satisfied to have closed on a good deal I gleefully walked back towards my friend who was still waiting there in the corner.

The tour was over, so was the holidays. School resumed and still the signal was in Amber for me. Days went by and my hopes started to diminish and it started to tell on my otherwise very cheerful behavior in school. Sympathies started pouring in on my favour and for her, people took turns to give her a piece of advice on what they thought about the situation. No change yet.

4^th Nov, 1999 – It was my friends birthday. Yes, the same poor fellow who was waiting at the street corner that day. The whole class was celebrating it and I was joining them unaware of the greater celebration which was about to follow. Yes...... By the day end, atlast the signal showed GREEN. My joy knew no bounds. I was too happy and too busy rejoicing that I was not bothered to realize the magnitude and seriousness of the commitment which I was getting into. Years rolled by and what started off as an infatuation gradually grew into a long term relationship, inching towards the tying of knot....... It was a great feeling to live my dream, the dream of being together forever.

31^st July 2008 – Its her birthday today. Earlier, I had sent her a SMS wishes at midnight 12:00 not wanting to disturb her housefolks and then dozed off. As always for a 9:30 office I woke up at sharp 9:00. Not bothering for a bath, immediately I got dressed up, sprayed the best of perfume available and started to office. Upon logging onto my inbox, there I saw....... Her e-mail...... I opened and downloaded the JPEG attachment simultaneously as I was getting onto the content of the mail.

The mail read "Coming down to Chennai next month for my husband's relative's marriage" As I finished reading the full mail, the photo popped up displaying 'A lady carrying a cute little girl baby'. It was her photo with her new-born kid.

With a wry smile I closed the photo and carried on with the office work. Life moves on and so do I, but holding onto dear memories………

regards

J. Sri Kumar

Taking guard !!!!

Hi All………. (if at all for anyone who bothers to read this !!) This is my debut with regard to writing a blog. Don’t know how am going to fare in this. Anyways people learn to walk by falling down. So no issues…… As I take guard to start a new innings, I have no idea on how long I can sustain in the crease. Anyways I start off with a hope to enjoy the game till my stay in it....... Here I go !!!!!!!!!!!!!

All these days I was strongly of the belief that blogging is mainly for people who are jobless, who are on the job with a PC/Laptop provided by the company but no project to work on, who have a PC at home with high speed broad band connection providing upto 2 GB free download and no botheration about the phone bill since its paid by someone else in the family, who work part-time in internet centre and the list goes on……. Hence never have I bothered to peek into them since I was quite busy (seriously, believe me !!) with my ex-employer. I used to work for minimum of 13 hrs a day and had nothing else to do upon returning home but eat and hit the bed, taking along with me the curse of bunch of people who would have tried to reach me on mobile during the day, only to find that I chose not to pick their call for an important transaction on desk

Now having moved job and falling under one of the above categories which I have mentioned, I had recently got an opportunity to read few of my friend’s blogs (because I had to while away 8 prolonged hours at office). Once I was through with reading of his blogs it was a revelation to me. Having known him for close to 11 years never was I able to guess or sense that he had such a dimension in him. I should accept that I really enjoyed reading his blogs, for it solved the purpose of whiling away time for me and most importantly gave me insights on understanding my own friend whom, all these years I had thought that I understood him well enough. So I should say he was in a way responsible for me taking to writing blog. Not an inspiration though, but yes, a trigger definitely.

Coming to other reasons on why I started blogging…. First reason is obviously ‘currently I have no project to work on’. But if that was the only reason I still have many more options to while away time. Why Blog ??? The reason is….. being a hyper-nostalgic person who always chooses to freeze each and every eventful moments of his life and save it for posterity, who had always wished that he had just four fingers and the fifth one as a camera which enables him to capture each moment, I found blog to be the perfect platform to freeze some of my thought flows in the form of words. When after a few years if I get to revisit my blog it will be a wonderful walk through the memory lane. Again why Blog ?? I could have made use of maintaining a diary to record my daily happenings and I did try that. It lasted for two days and then I found nothing eventful or worthwhile to be jotted on a daily basis. Straight it went to the bin (both the idea and the diary).

Unlike my dear friend who was honest enough to accept that he started blogging to impress a few (and round off on one !!!!) my idea of joining the bandwagon is entirely different. I don’t know whether there will be anyone who will be interested to read my scribblings here, but I do know for sure that one person will be very eager and anxious to run through all the pages of this blog and will hold it close to his heart. Although the day is quite far and many more years to come for my ‘special visitor’, I don’t mind spending time now recording all my thought flows. Ok now, its wind up time at office.Since the purpose is solved I hereby signoff………

Wait wait….. Didn’t I reveal who the visitor is ??? Its obviously ME, a elder and more mature ME after a few years…………….

regards

J. Sri Kumar