'Metro Lives'

Some smile, some stare, some sleep, some just sit, some read, some talk and someone like me write too.

I am not really talking about what people generally do all day long. But I am actually talking about what people mostly do while traveling in metro.
Traveling in the Delhi Metro almost everyday at different points of time gave me an opportunity to see people from different cultures, occupations, languages etc.
Each one of them has a different story to tell and rarely do I see the same set of people.

The first timers- this set of people is always seen in the metro. They travel for the first time in metro and are usually accompanied by some one who keeps telling them about the number of stations left. Their eyes are fixed on the metro station chart right from the time they enter till they reach their desired station. They listen to each announcement so carefully that nothing in the world is more important than listening to it and if they won’t hear it the metro might take them away somewhere.

The most commonly seen group of people is the FM gang. All they do is listen to music all the time. Switching from one station to another, involved in their musical world. Well I think when someone like me who regularly travels from the first station to the last that is, Indraprastha to Dwarka Sector-9, I think listening to music is not a bad idea.

Then we have the most enthusiastic people who just talk, talk and talk. No matter how full the metro is they want to just speak it out. This group comprises of students, office goers, lovebirds etc. By here I just don’t mean the one who chat face to face but also the ones who are continuously on the phone making me realize how technology is getting cheaper. But something is sure that they have loads of things to say.

Metro has made life more timely, happy and comfortable. People from all walks of life travel in it, some just to experience and get the feel of traveling in an A/C which is rare in any other Delhi transport unless and until one owns one; some due to distance as it makes the journey cheaper and less frustrating due to heavy traffic; but no matter what each journey in it makes a different experience all together with different people around

That smile...

That smile….
Last Saturday, I was travelling in a crowded blue line bus. Like any other blue line bus it was stinking with that sweat everywhere. I took the bus from South Ex and there was hardly any place to sit. I could barely stand too. All eyes of people standing had their eyes hooked on to the people sitting, all ready to grab any seat they get. The people sitting felt like the rulers as if the world works under them.

In that frustrating environment, the bus stopped at the next stop. An old woman with complete tattered clothes, with uncombed hair, wrinkled face ran towards the bus who might have been waiting for long hours on that stop suddenly had a sign of relief on her face with the arrival of the bus. But as soon as she entered the bus she could not find a single place to sit. So she stood for a while and that sign of relief had completely vanished from her face.

With that modesty, a man suddenly stood up who was sitting right in front of that old lady. She was so happy that the smile on her face took away all the frustration of the environment. I felt as if there is at least one happy and content person in this world. That smile was like fresh gerberas which is hard to find in a person with an age full of experiences of the tough world.

May be it was just a seat but for her it meant sitting and travelling at least for an hour comfortably. That comfort which she might not be feeling very often brought about that smile on her face. A smile of true happiness and of achievement…

I LOST HIM AGAIN...

I knew I never had him from day 1.
He was just passing by but I stopped him in my life. I still remember the day when I first met him and actually thought that he was the one I’ve been looking for all these years. After that day though I saw him everyday we didn’t really speak to each other. I didn’t realize that he liked me too. We were going on our paths but destiny plays its game too. We met again, this time to become friends. May be friends from his side. I still don’t know how and when I started feeling so strongly for him. The whole world could see that in my eyes. But did he see that? I always used to ask myself that. I wished he could & would see me in the same way. But…

From the direction I never saw, she came, he saw her, and didn’t look back. I kept waiting for the time he would turn back and see me but he didn’t. He was in Love. Yes, I lost him. But he still spoke to me, he saw my possessiveness towards him, which he hated. His kiss on her cheek, his hand on her hand, his eyes looking in her eyes made me felt like asking god that why did he do this to me? Why did he bring him in my life when he was never mine? Why? Why?

I wish I could erase myself from their life so that they could live happily and could erase my memory. But the contradiction is that we always forget important things and remember especially those things that we should not. But then he called me his friend. So I decided to be his friend till the time possible. He called me more, more than he called her. Why? Even she wondered and hated me. I empathized with her but seriously I wish she could understand that I liked the attention, as I loved him. Yes I loved him. I wish I could tell him. But I could never. One fine day he chose to part ways with her. She cried and that day I felt bad for her and first time felt as if I loved a person who didn’t care about her. I fought with him. The next day they were back. This time more into each other, killing me more. But this was not for a long time. He parted with her again and this time never to return in her life. Was I happy this time? No, I felt guilty.

Now we chatted for longer hours, met a lot, but he always maintained that distance which I always wanted to break, which I could never. Then from his past direction, she came, she was his friend in the past, like I was in the present. He saw her and realized he had loved her always. She felt the same for him. Yes, I lost him again…. This time he went and never looked back… I lost him again. And lost him forever… but all this while I just regretted that for once I could tell him that I loved him. And still Love him.

Love you mom....

The young mother set her foot on the path of life. "Is this the long way?" she asked. And the guide said: "Yes, and the way is hard. And you will be old before you reach the end of it. But the end will be better than the beginning." But the young mother was happy, and she would not believe that anything could be better than these years. So she played with her children, and gathered flowers for them along the way, and bathed them in the clear streams; and the sun shone on them, and the young Mother cried,"Nothing will ever be lovelier than this".

Then the night came, and the storm, and the path was dark, and the children shook with fear and cold, and the mother drew them close and covered them with her mantle, and the children said, "Mother, we are not afraid, for you are near, and no harm can come." And the morning came, and there was a hill ahead, and the children climbed and grew weary, and the mother was weary. But at all times she said to the children," A little patience and we are there." So the children climbed, and when they reached the top they said, "Mother, we would not have done it without you." And the mother, when she lay down at night looked up at the stars and said, "This is a better day than the last, for my children have learned fortitude in the face of hardness. Yesterday I gave them courage. Today, I have given them strength."

And the next day came strange clouds which darkened the earth, clouds of war and hate and evil, and the children groped and stumbled, and the mother said: "Look up. Lift your eyes to the light." And the children looked and saw above the clouds an everlasting glory, and it guided them beyond the darkness. And that night the Mother said, "This is the best day of all, for I have shown my children God."

And the days went on, and the weeks and the months and the years, and the mother grew old and she was little and bent. But her children were tall and strong, and walked with courage. And when the way was rough,they lifted her, for she was as light as a feather; and at last they came to a hill, and beyond they could see a shining road and golden gates flung wide. And mother said: "I have reached the end of my journey. And now I know the end is better than the beginning, for my children can walk alone,and their children after them."

And the children said, " You will always walk with us, Mother, even when you have gone through the gates." And they stood and watched her as she went on alone, and the gates closed after her. And they said: "We cannot see her but she is with us still.

Mother is the whisper of the leaves as we walk down the street; she's the smell of bleach in our freshly laundered socks; she's the cool hand on our brow when we're not well. Our Mother lives inside our laughter. And she's crystallized in every tear drop. She's the place we came from, our first home; and she's the map we follow with every step we take. She's our first love and nothing on earth can separate you... Not time, not space...not even death!

Love you mom..
(I got this article through a forwarded mail & couldn't stop myself to post it on my blog.)

Freedom

It might mean the liberty to do what one wants, but truly it depends from person to person. Freedom is something that everybody wants in someway or the other. Well I am not talking about those 6 Right to Freedom guaranteed to every citizen, but the one that actually and truly affects the person, physically, mentally & psychologically.

Who doesn’t want to laugh freely when a joke is cracked? Who doesn’t want to shout at someone or slap someone so hard for insulting him or her in public? Who doesn’t want to cry when there is actually a crisis?

Yes, there are times when one wants to do all these things but somewhere in his mind there is a restriction. The restriction of losing something after the freedom that one has. Everybody would love to laugh on joke cracked but if it involves the person himself or herself, his girlfriend or boyfriend, or any relationship that he might lose after that one piece of joke, he is restricted.

One would immediately want to shout or slap that person who had insulted him or her in public unless and until that person is your friend who must have just said things without thinking, or probably the person you love the most but who just don’t care for how you feel. Is this freedom?

Everybody is emotional and it is very easy to tell a person that one does not have emotions. How would a girl or boy feel who wants to show how strong he or she is but he or she just can’t because the people around him or her may not accept him or her like that.

I know after reading this anybody would say that one always has a freedom to walk out. But is it actually easy. Those people you live with for such a long time, you love them, they too loved you in someway; is it easy to just walk out of it? Some might be thinking about self-respect here. But when our parents embarrass us because they are actually the ones who know the real ‘us’, where does that self-respect go then?

Anyways, all I can say is that everybody does have the freedom to do anything but they should atleast try to put themselves in the other persons shoes, just to understand for a moment how he or she would feel if inspite of having the freedom to walk out of a relationship one just can’t. Maybe it might stop you next time from making a joke of another person or insulting him or accusing him of having no self-respect because there might be a very big restriction in that persons mind to respect your freedom and to accept everything you say with a smile. But that nowhere means that he or she does not have freedom.

ANNAPOLIS-movie review

A movie about life at a navy academy where students are taught not just discipline but are made to realize who they are. It revolved around Jake Huard (James Franco), a young man who dreams of attending the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland. It talked about the fact that it is not easy to do anything in life but to give our hundred percent to whatever we do. The film was about working in a team and that “every team is as strong as its weakest member”. Any mistake that the weakest member in the group did, the whole team was punished for the same. The movie highlighted how a person proves himself in his own eyes. A story that talked about how both internal and external motivation in a person can have a big impact on his life.