It just seems like yesterday....

"Oye you are getting me wet," I shouted as yet another splash of water coming from her kicks across the silent sea drenched me . I kicked back sending the salty water right across her face. "Thu...thu," she started spitting , unable to withstand the salty taste . And a few seconds later both of us were trying different styles of kicks , trying to perfect the one which would help land the maximum amount of water on the other person. And the poses struck while trying these , ranging from the thakida-thaka-thimi-malayala-bhagawathi pose to the Oh-god-I-stamped-a-fresh-cowdung-pose held the attention of a lot many curious passerbys. ... .Soon I was there walking along the shores of besse , drenched like a pig , with the sandals on one hand and the two little soft fingers on the other .The bottom of the jeans which was initially folded in order to resemble the height level of the traditional Patta-patti shorts
(the one worn by Raj Kiran ) had slowly lowered itself and carried loads of wet sand along with it , thereby perfectly supplementing the slow drag of the foot along the shores . We laughed , hit each other in the softest way so as to just about qualify as a 'hit', shouted and again laughed . Honestly , I don't know why we always laugh ........

The walk neither had a place to start nor a destination , but the nomadic freedom of strolling along the shores in search of the 'nothing' ( maybe because I felt like I had everything) truly made it special . The entire screen of the skies seemed to open themselves , as the stage of the sea shore was all set to witness a little peek-a-boo into one amongst the so many simple yet beautiful moments of our lives .

The waves kept kissing our feet and as they retreated the feet got a little submerged in the sand followed by a wide scattered scampering of the crabs into their holes . This happened for a few times and soon the feet got entirely submerged . And as we took it out , the laughs continued . Those meaningless laughs which had only one reason . Love...We kept walking , as if we were the only ones on the beach having our own special moments . The breeze seemed to follow us wherever we went . The upturned dusty catamarans , the smell of bajjis , the little quiver each time a zephyr sails across the damp parts of the body , the joyous shouts of the children playing merry-go-round , the footprints that you leave behind on the wet sand , the little boys with bright smiles carrying the smell of sundal along with them , The balloons which strew the sands with the help of the beach breeze escaping the wrath of the shooters who stand with wooden guns ,the couples who get cozy in their own world oblivious of the stares of millions around them , the astrologers wanting to have a share of my sweethearts tiny little palms in the promise of predicting a bright future - forming the backdrop , I held her hands whispering the hope of a future ,while the little fingers played around and held to each other promising never to part .

The wet footprints left behind us slowly got washed away under the gentle waves . The never ending horizon loomed across the ocean forming a thin line between the sea and the sky as the sea covered the entire endless stretch that my eyes could span . The wounds of our past slowly healed and vanished just like those footprints with the hope of a future called 'us' slowly embarking upon the horizon .

"Oye ", I placed my palms on her cheeks with my luckiest index finger being the first to touch, and a little-less-luckier middle finger coming second . I slowly hushed away a few strands of her hair which were playing around in the wind and tucked them behind her left ear . She smiled as always . This was the ...err.. I had lost the count as to how many times I had done that on that day . It started a few hours back when we had gone to get her a pair of shades , and each and every time she wore one I used to follow the ritual . Her blush accompanied by the little bend in her curved eyebrows whispering me the unspoken words 'How is it ? "...She looked heavenly irrespective of the shades ..."Oye .. What happened " she shook me as I again went into daydreaming mode .

"Nothing ...its just that I got lost in you , yet again..... ,"I thought

Soon after , with a one leg broken chair holding the plate of beach bajjis , and two other chairs holding us , the madness called love continued , as we savored the 'onion bajjis ' of besse . The conversations which never had a topic for the last two years as always continued too .

It was at this same place a year back she came up with a strange request

"Can you write a poem for me? "

I obliged and immediately went on like ....

"You know what ???"

"what???"

"I love you a lot !!!!! ....."

No wonder she never spoke about poems from that day onwards .....

And suddenly since I remembered that , I gave her a wink and sending a bajji through my mouth I mumbled

"You know what???"

She gave a naughty look of nostalgia and shouted ,

"I love you a lottttttttttttttttttt.............."

The echoes of our laughter broke through the waves of the ocean ....

I guess those laughs are still alive, lost somewhere amongst the waves of besse and and each and everytime we go to besse , a few more laughs get added to our deposits of love amongst the several others in the waves of besse.....

In the canvass of 'our lives' the splash of colors of hope , love and joy spread as we thanked 'fate'-the artist' , who had indeed done a nice job .. I wish time had just frozen there ....

Those crazy days , meaningless laughs , even-an-ass-hole-would-write-better-than-you poems , aimless walks , never ending drives , heavenly whispers , naughty winks .....

It just seems like yesterday........

ARNOLD KUMAR goes to the gym !!!!!

It was the ...umm ...I don't remember the exact count but must be the sixth or the seventh time I was glued on to star movies watching my thala ( our screen heroes for whom we would do anything ) sylvester stallone bash up the Russians in RAMBO 3 . All pumped up I went in front of the mirror , stripped off my shirt ...And giving a What-a-man look at myself , I shouted "yeaaaaaaaahhhhhh " which almost shook my entire colony (My downstairs mama has got yet another reason to complain against me in the society meeting ...).

I wrenched and flexed each and every not-visible-to-human-eye muscles on my body and called my young 10 year old brother .In fact he had come there without me calling him courtesy- my nasal capacity ."Count the no of packs " I called out to him giving a proud look .

"One . " he stopped . "And then ..." I flexed again ..."One" this time he sounded louder "and that's it ".......

"Yeahhhhhhhhh" I growled again and took two push ups (the maximum till date ) ... "Now count " I sounded like an arrogant goon .

"One "......."Ayoo , mummy , even thollai thangalai...please help me " ( Loosely translated - "I am fed up with his antics...mom please save me )...

Soon I realised I had just a single pack . Five short .

Oh god . I thought for five minutes sitting at the place where each and every guy on earth spends his maximum time and usually comes up with brilliant ideas .Soon I flushed all the useless ideas and came out . Decided . I am hitting the gym from tomorrow ...

"MISSION ARNOLD KUMAR " - from arun kumar to arnold kumar in three weeks ......

(coz sylvester kumar sounded weird )

The next day at gym...

"Macha don't over do ...just warm up "said my so called body builder , friend Visu .

"ha ha ...ethellam nee arun kumar kitta sollu ...naan arnold kumar da " I growled looking sympathetically at the other silly-small-boy-body-builders out there as I kept dancing around in a round disc which kept rotating from one side to the other along with me . This was easy . I mean for Arnold kumar , obviously , anything was easy .

Then slowly I lifted some weights and did a few other similar versions of it and finally when I went on to the leg crunches section . "Macha , you are over doing it ...do the leg thing next week else you wont be able to walk " he warned ..."Silly fellow ...kumar...arnold kumar machan " I replied with the poise of Reid & Bond ad.

He gave a smile for which I didn't know the reason then . I slowly worked for another half an hour and finally packed off . Felt great that day . Did some shadow boxing on the streets oblivious of the constant stares from the garment-factory figures and the so-called-ladies-college ....umm its hurts but still...Figures ( phew , I managed to type it )...

The whole day went about boasting about my adventures at gym . My poor bro was lifted into the air many a times as a testimonial for my gymming . Poor bro , I can imagine how I would have felt had someone lifted me somewhere close to the ceiling fan and rotated me ....

Finally I slept early as I was very tired .

The next morning ...oops sorry the next afternoon I was still struggling to get myself out of my bed . Felt someone should bring a stretcher to get me to the bathroom . Oh no . Each and every muscle ( don't laugh ...no comedy intended .I might have muscles ..miracles do happen ...)...coming back each and every muscle pained .

And suddenly my cell phone rang . "Come to my office urgently . I have some work for you " my mom spoke . Oh but why today . Anyway , with no other option I somehow managed to get up and when I began to walk . Oh , what the fuck . I was walking as if I had a football in between my legs . ( "Macha , you are over doing it ...do the leg thing next week else you wont be able to walk " the flashback played across ) ....I tried to join them but in vain .

Oh no , I was getting late . Will check this out later I told myself and soon I was there standing amidst the passengers of chennai suburban rail. And the imaginary football between my legs was still there . I tried different styles and position to bring them back together . But nothing worked and while I was still trying I saw a small boy staring at me and he wore a naughty smile . Then he stared at something behind me . I turned to see what it was . It was the diagram of a man with a huge ....ummm...ditch it ....it read ...Dr rajkumar ...some crap...contact me for cure of hernia ...Oh no ...Now I understood (My flashback went to those L.K.G days when my father warned me to wear an underwear or I would end up like that ). The boy was still staring with the I know-what-you-did-smile intact . Aaaarghhhh ...Naan avan ellai thambi (I am not him )...Its not what you think , dear young fellow ...Oh , but how do I explain . The stop arrived and I got down . He still kept staring and suddenly he broke into an uncontrollable fit of laughter ...Aaaargh...I quickly turned around and tried to walk normally ..But in vain ...Arnold kumar - the damage is done .....

I stood staring at the mirror at the end of day happy to get rid of the imaginary football (of course after a whole day's struggle ) and decided a single pack was much better for me .

Finally after much emotional trauma and tears , I , arun kumar , bade goodbye to Arnold kumar .....

And that's how the world lost Arnold kumar.........(Sobs)

P.S : I wish I never come across the boy in my entire life ...

Even I had a story . . .

The tanned brownish roasted skin on my face shone under the scorching 2 pm sun with sweat giving the final touches to the excited face. "6 runs of two balls” , I heard my friend bala shout . All of us stood tensed on the field praying for the bowler to do the trick. He came running in like a giant and with a quick twirl of his arm , released the ball. Thud ...the ball went for a four . The thunderous applaud from the opposition deafened my ears . The dismayed looks on the bowlers face aggravated by a several fold frown on his forehead were of no respite to us. "Come on machan..." someone shouted from the field. Just a ball to go. A win wouldn't leave us with a diamond studded trophy , a million dollar prize money announced by the govt or a home at bandra . In fact it was more than that . It would leave us with respect , the honor of walking out of the ground with our heads high and the priceless joy of winning . The bowler wiped the fresh stream of sweat across his forehead. Silence enveloped the ground as all of us stood there tensed . The bowler slowly came running in and with each and every step , the heart beats slowly increased . We all took a deep breath as he released the ball . For the next few Milli seconds every heart stopped . "thud "...the batsmen swung his bat with his full might . "yeahhhhhhh" the ground roared . This time the deafening noise was much more deafening as I had my voice supplementing it .The batsmen was clean bowled . Joy is always described by subtle emotions . But this time the fury of joy teared upon the wildness hidden within us and we all ran towards the center , growling , hooting , whistling and finally the mad scramble ended in a huddle . The sweat from each others shirts , mystically combined to give the intoxicating smell of success . We all stood as one . Victory was ours . "Watha..." we all shouted in unison . The heads stood high and the hands with the fists closed were open towards the all encompassing skies . We had won ...
"Anna , ten rasna packets " I shouted to our indirect team sponsor Mani Anna, waving out the hard earned ten rupee note . "Looks like you guys have won," he jovially asked , handing us our precious rasna packets. "Can anyone beat us? " a victorious arrogant voice retorted back from one amongst us . The boisterous laughter followed with Mani Anna giving us company for everyone of us knew it was our only win after ten matches and that too by a whisker ."watha teamukku oru 'O' podu "..........."Oooooooooohhhhh"the thunder bolted again . What a feeling . I still couldn't believe we had won . I sipped the frozen rasna savoring the taste . After all it had come from my hard earned one rupee . Felt like heaven ....honestly.

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"Beep ,Beep " the mobile buzzed as I was sitting in my office cabin .

"Your account has been credited with Rs XXXXX "

It was the much awaited 31st of the month , but as always the strange sense of emptiness filled me . Its been 2 years and nothing seems to have changed , the emptiness keeps coming back , yet again . I sipped through the insipid tea churned by the coffeemaker , staring out at the vast emptiness of the skies through the stained glass window . A few birds flew happily flapping their wings against the winds , savoring their 'gifted' freedom of an unknown future .Yet another sip went in as I stared at those birds , at the vast blue skies , the stains on the window pane which created mystical blots on my vision of the skies .....I kept staring , lost in an enigmatic sadness which slowly traveled its way forming a lump in my throat .

How I wish ......


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With the bat resting on my shoulders just like you see in the mahabarata serial , I walked along with our team discussing the turning points of the match . We paraded the streets oblivious to the shouts of the autowallahs and other innocent passerbys . We were the winners . Soon the stomach-ache causing laughs followed as we tread to what we do the best - Pulling each one's legs . As always the usual targets of our team were the ones with the maximum carnage caused on their image . What a walk . The trees along the streets seemed to be dancing to our tunes , the vendors seemed to be singing , the breeze gently kissed us ...everyone and everything seemed to be perfect . The laughs , The pride and joy of victory walked alongside with us ....And why not , after all we were the winners

Probably the best walk I ever had in my life........

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There I was walking alone on the lonely streets of kolkata with just a stray dog giving me company on the hope of some food . A chill wind blew ruffling my hair and I gently closed my eyes for a second . And strangely there was no difference . The darkness had already set in . The slow steps , the longing heart which had become a slave to money and the desires buried long back combined themselves and mixed along with the chill wind whispering elegies of unknown languages into my ears . Finally , I reached the ATM , took out some money . Looking at the crisp 100 rupee notes I faked a smile ........yet again.

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"Ma , we won . I hit a six of sudheer's ball . It went off like ............." this was the fourth time I was telling her the same story . Still she listened with the same interest and curiosity . I hugged her and slowly went off to sleep . I dreamt about the match , The last wicket ,the sixes , the dive catches the rasna , the look on the opponent's face.......The entire match had a re telecast in my mind . I kept dreaming .

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I struggled to get sleep as I kept rolling from one side to the other . "Where will my manager ask me to go tomorrow ? Why the fuck am I here ? Why do I have to do this ? Shall I resign ? But its a lot of money . Will I get another job ? What will the world think of me ? Am I a loser???????? . With a storm inside me , I opened my eyes staring at the whirling ceiling fan - my only companion during those several sleepless nights. The clock showed 3 a.m .
Life was a mess.......


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"Ma I am going to play "....
"But its only 6 a.m ..." and before the sleepy voice of my mom could complete I was excitedly walking on towards our ground . Yup , our ground . I kept hitting shadow sixes throughout my walk . "Hi da , lets start " a friend of mine called out .The sun was at its merciless best as always .But who cares , we could brave the heat , the rains and the winds . After all , we were the winners ..... We played for the entire day and cursed it for ending so soon . It felt great and each passing day was a delight.

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"Oh god , Its 7 a.m already ", I banged the alarm , gave a frown which encompasses all the synonyms of frustration . I hoped the day had never begun . Hoped it would end soon . The mechanical life had begun yet again . The running had to start . The leather shoes ,the uncomfortable formals , the ID card which proclaimed me to be a software engineer hung across my neck . I gobbled a banana and set off for 'yet another day' .......

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Well , Its just been sometime and how much life has changed . Those days of joy , dreams , freedom , curiosity have slowly been filled with anxiety , frustration and sadness . As I write this I realize slowly how much I have really missed enjoying life for its simplest pleasures in the mad chase for money which promises the 'mirage' of a secured future and happiness . There were times when I realized there was something majorly wrong in the way I was living my life and I started looking for solace in the endless list of self-help books . But nothing seemed to help . But today as I took some time to dwell into my past , and my so called stories of my life , strangely it had all the answers to my unanswered questions . And I slowly realized the true answer to our search lies within us - Within the stories in which we were the heroes , and within the ones we dismissed of as too trivial . Well we are all heroes , and the stories we all have are one of the best ones ever . As I ponder over my so-called stories , I have finally decided . I am just one week away from my resignation .

After two long years , this day I did what I always wanted to do . Though I am financially poorer , no more a part of the esteemed industry , no more a respected person amongst my family , no more a sensible person according to the society ....I am finally free . Free to do whatever I like just like how I was ten years back . Free from my master called money . I am not really sure how long it will be before I go back to my master . But now at this moment I am free ...And this blog is a humble beginning for my new dream . Beyond the scolds from my English teacher who thought I was a too dumb to write , the fear of what people might think , and beyond my own doubts of whether I could really write something a little better than crap (honestly , I still have it each time I write ) I finally decided to go ahead . And it seriously feels great each and every time I sit down to write . And its heaven when I receive a few comments and the thought "maybe it is just a little better than crap " crops up ( Though I am still not really sure ) .But nevertheless finally I went ahead and did it. And what a difference it made . I finally had the courage to do something just for me . And for those who have read till here , thanks a lot , for unknowingly , you have made someone believe in his dreams and follow his heart. Its just not about the blog , its just about making time to do things which we always loved doing but kept postponing because of the fear of what others might think and because of the innumerable reasons we thought about as to why we wont be able to do it . But finally after all these years a little 5 minutes that I spent while walking across my old school playground , which brought in all those sweet memories , has taught me what I was missing all these days . It was the courage to go about and do something which you really enjoy . For once, finally , I didn't do something for money or to spruce my resume or to impress someone . Feels great......

And if in case you ppl ever get some time off , try switching off your mobile phones , go to your terrace , lie down for once without bothering about the dress getting dirty , plug in a pink floyd , feel the cool breeze in your hair and try recollecting those wonderful stories you had where you were the heroes or heroines, where you did everything you dreamt off , where you wandered with the spirit of an adventurer enjoying the warmth of the sunny afternoons , where you cycled your way towards freedom , nursed your wounds from the first fall like a warrior....The ones which your heart always died to tell to the world and most importantly to YOU . Each of us have a story to tell hidden there somewhere deep within the dust laden chambers of our hearts and you never know your story might just be the answer to what you were always searching for , just like how it happened to me .

For all the heroes and heroines , that's it for now , keep cherishing those golden days while I shall be back soon .

P.S : sorry for the long post

A litlle bit of life....etc

A girl crying in the middle of central railway station chennai . An angry father accompanied with a shocked mom blasting her . "appa , I am not lying to you . Please trust me " the chocked voice cried ......

Unflushed toilet , deadly smell from the dried shit which would make you pass off koovam as fragrance , amidst this stuck hiding in the toilet was a bespectacled thin lean boy trying different versions of pranayama not being able to grapple with the smell.....

In case you watch tamil flicks , by this time you must have guessed what the story is going to be about..But hold...just read on...

A few weeks back ( in the month of december 2006 ),
the gang as usual ,under the able leadership of mr bajji had zeroed in on yet another useless place namely sweet chariot at the isphahani center in chennai for the usual weekend outing. The usual kalays had begun and as always vani and suppy are the targets . “Guys , I am fed up searching for new places in Chennai ..We need to come up with something new ..” bajji sparked off what happened to be the start of an amusing adventure . “How about going out of Chennai “ , daddy came up with a eureka kinda expression . 3rd year of college , bunking the boring lectures ,unused pocket money , secret trip outside Chennai that too with the girls…the offer was too good to resist …20 minutes of serious discussion and we had decided…Destination Bangalore !!!!

9 different versions of lie for the same cause . The parents were convinced. And everything was planned , right from the journey to the stay . 3 whole days at Bangalore . But as it always happens , there was a small blotch in our proceedings . While we had booked our tickets the names of the 4 girls were not in order but instead in an alternate manner with our names in between. But we were in no mood to retreat and we decided to go ahead .

The day had come . We , the guys were there beforehand and I had the ticket with me . A rough plan was for the girls to somehow manage and send off their parents without allowing them to come inside the station . But with the kind of smart ppl that we had , it was an outright failure …
Vani’s mom , manju’s dad and mom had come inside the station . We took to hiding inside the next compartment .

We hoped that they wouldn’t take the pain to check the chart .
2 minutes left for the train to start . Plan was fine till then .
Everything was fine till then and the train started moving .
“ooooooo…gimme a five “ … The joyous celebrations had begun..

But suddenly the train stopped again . "WTF ...What is wrong with the indian railways "I swore . And suddenly the hero within suppy awakens and he swings out of the compartment a la james bond style ( only the gun was missing ) and peeps over . The coast is clear . No problem guys he signals a thumbs up .


Just a few seconds later came the shock . "Guys your game is up . My mom has found out everything " .The message in my mobile displayed ..
"macha what happened ??".. I flashed my mobile to daddy . And soon the train picked up . And a few minutes later as we went to our compartment we got the shock of our lives . Vani and manju were missin ." They got caught " came the explanation .

There was a silence for the next 5 min .Then slowly "macha , if you dont mind can you pass the lays packet " . That was all it required for us to come out of the so called sad-feel and soon we all feasted on the lays packet still trying to fake a sad face .... "well there is no point cribbing lets go out there and enjoy" was the conclusion ...and once we come back we shall sort things out .

Bangalore arrived and we were soon unloading our bags at the rooms of the hotel . Wow . Finally we are out here all by ourselves . Though there was a little nagging thought about the other two , little did we know about manju, for the fraud that she was , we had underestimated her .
"Guys we r comin there along with vanis mom as you all know that our industrial visit is very important for our internals ...wink ...wink" the message buzzed...She had pulled it off , yet again ...
Vani and Manju joined us the next day ...

Whoaaaaaaa ...We were all together again.......

And what a trip it was ... A disc outing which miserably failed eventually with us landing in a restaurant which we thought was a disc where we had to pay an entry fee and later go back and plead them to return it back , an outing to a temple after which there was a strike called and we had to walk 5 kms back to our hotel ...But inspite of all these debacles -the thanni party , the dancing , those dumb c sesssions , the I-Confide sessions , the millions of photos clicked , the vetaiyadu vilayadu movie , bowling alleys stood the test of time in our memories .

Probably the most daring thing that we ever did as a gang .

I know its a very long time since we all met and the probability of catching up again is very miniscule..

But however the days that I spent with my beloved gang were the best days of my life . I still miss them and at some small corner of the heart the belief that we shall all meet once again still lingers .

We all must have had our own gangs and sadly with the clock ticking by lot many gangs have become a part of history . We would have had millions of misunderstandings , fights , ego , why-did-he/she-do-that questions , but however at the end of it all that matters now are the days we all had spent together under the sunny afternoons with shoulders rubbing together standing as one - THE GANG ...This is dedicated to all the lucky souls of the world who had been or are still a part of the lovely gangs ...

I miss you ppl.....

How I wish ....

There were people running around here and there. The smell of jasmine swept through the entire house . The ladies had their oiled haired pinned down in the traditional kerela style and the white sarees made them look even more beautiful . The men were at their smartest best , with the traditional shirts and 'mundu' and kept talking as always with an I-know -everything arrogance . The ladies scampered here and there spelling out the names of different things like the fruits , the steel thattu and so on , along with concern about their whereabouts . The younger members of the family were eagerly clinging on the balcony grill waiting for the first sight of a white ambassador . The scene out there with different fruits and sweets arriving each and every passing moment would have led anyone to mistake it for a home-version of coimbedu market .

"They have come " the young voices shouted . The voices echoed through the halls , kitchens and finally through the bedroom where the bride was getting ready . The word 'commotion' no where did justice to what was happening now . People got frenzied and started giving the final touches to the positioning of various almirahs , bedsheets , chairs , tables ...But honestly most of them were exactly at the same position even after the final touches . The laughter of excitement , curiosity emanated from the brides bedroom . The so called big shots of the family stood at the steps welcoming the huge groups of people who had accompanied the groom . "Welcome " they all recited at different intervals .

Soon the people had taken their position. The calenders fluttered with the ladies searching for the auspicious time while the elders kept conversing . At one lone corner of the room , through the window panes which smelt of fresh paint , two beautiful eyes tried to sneak in through the numerous heads ,trying to get a first glance of the one with whom the remaining life was going to be blessed with . Amidst the smiles and giggles , the bride somehow managed to get a small space through the heads .

He sat there elegantly dressed in black bell bottoms , and a crisply ironed white shirt . His big moustache handsomely complemented his face and he looked around the room when he got a few second respite from the array of questions posed at him . Just as his eyes scanned the room and were about to return back to the set of people , he saw those two lovely peeping eyes which sent the promise of a life together and the excitement and commitment of a joyous future . The two eyes met for maybe a few seconds , and love was in the air instantaneously ( and of course the music "run thana num thana " - the one from old Ilayaraja hits played through the background ) .

"Ask the girl to come " one amongst the elders had called .The entire crowd stood silenced as they waited with bated breath to see the girl . The girl came with a few new stainless steel glasses filled with coffee , whose aroma mystically mixed with the eagerness in her eyes transforming itself into a all-encompassing smile . And suddenly ..."thud " somebody hits and the coffee spills over .

"Idiot what are you doing" . Rubbing the remains of the coffee drops on my shorts I flashed a black and white photo to my mom . It was the wedding day photo of my mom and dad which I had discovered while cleaning the almirah. "I was just wondering how your engagement must have been " and gave a sly smile . She gave me a nostalgic smile and nodded her head getting lost in her thoughts about past...."Idiot " she slowly whispered in a chocking voice and left the room with the smile intact. As she left the room , I saw the picture of my dad hanging amidst a few garlanded flowers on the wall . I gave a deep sigh......

How I wish .....

What a maggi !!!

Knowing her penchant for laziness I had my doubts as to whether she could cook . But dismissing all my doubts , "I know to make maggi " she replied . I dont know if I-know-to-prepare-maggi would be considered anywhere close to the art of cooking . But the fact that I was impressed by it would let you form an idea about how much I knew about cooking . I always preffered the final step in cooking . Eating .

Now that the great cook was a maggi expert I cut the maggi packet and broke down the maggi amidst thunderous applauds from her . I bowed to show my respect and gently told "now you proceed madam". "Oh , but I dont know to operate the gas ". Now the man in me had to come out to the front . I did all the necessary permutation and combination and finally gave her a smile of victory . And I quickly dialled my mom to get the details on how to operate the gas . "Thu " the spit narrowly missed my face ...

Soon with the gas burning , we were all set to cook our first lunch . After 5 minutes of reciting the process from the torn maggi packet and yet another five minutes of anxious wait ( the one where you walk across here and there in front of a maternity ward ), the maggi was ready .

I took two plates and she gave a stern look after which I dumped one plate back to where it was . Slowly we emptied the so-called-maggi into the single plate . Had it been a little more solid I would have rolled it into a banana. Anyway just like the ones who had never seen food , the two forks fought across each and every corner of the plate picking each and every noodle . In 3 minutes the , best lunch of my life had got over. I looked at her and gave her a smile .

I slowly took the maggi wrapper and read the ingredients ,
A little bit of maggi ,
A small amount of water ,
A little bit of masala ,
A little bit of chopped vegetables ,

And I gave a pause , looked at her..

"And loads of love " we shouted in unison and soon after the laughs filled the room.......

What a maggi !!!!!