I am Righteous

          We all are confused at a point in our lives, what we are to do with it. Only a select few do what they feel is the right thing. Sheel was in a confused state of mind. He wanted to do great things in his life. He wanted to live life to the max. He considered Richard Branson, the Virgin founder as a God. He tried to emulate his god but he lacked certain essential components. He knew that he lacked something but knew not what.

          So, one day Sheel took a general ticket and boarded the sleeping class on the Chennai Mail from Mumbai to Pune. He did this to so that he can have the comfort of the second class for the price of the General. The train left Dadar, Mumbai at 11.55 PM and was to reach Pune at 3.30 AM the next day. 4 hours of journey only, bah, what could go wrong? When he boarded the train he noticed that the general class had actually a number of seats vacant unlike the normal case wherein it is filled to its brink. This surprised him but undaunted he still boarded the sleeper class.

Sheel got a very chatty neighbor who went on rambling on about his adventures. The chatty, yet concerned neighbor told him stories of how he had travelled ticket less on many occasions and that such a thing was not possible now-a-days because of how the ticket checkers had become very strict. This led Shell into a frenzy and he went on pondering as to whether he should get on the general class on the next stop. He thought about being righteous and doing what was right and not getting caught with the wrong ticket. So, he got up and went to the end of the train closest to the general compartment in order to align it in the next station- Kalyan. He met a bunch of police officers on the way who appeared very friendly and offered a helping hand. They told that he would not require going to the general bogie and could stay with them for they were also getting down at pune. He considered the help but withdrew when one of them asked for some chai-pani (bribe). He was unfazed that he was taking the right decision and doing the right thing.

Sheel got down in Kalyan and immediately bore witness to the humungous crowd pushing each other to get into the general compartment. Well, skeptical about getting a seat, but yet unshaken he waited to board the last into the bogie. He got no seat but he was brimming with self respect because he had taken the right decision. He kept his head raised high. He was then getting extremely bored and frustrated of the pain that was building up in his legs because of standing for a long time. He took a book and started to read. After a while he got so restless and desperate for relief and sat on the cold metal floor. His ass was freezing but at least he was more comfortable. His raised head started to lower. Eventually it was completely down, resting on his neck. He was very sleepy. Just when he was to go into a trance of a sleep, the train stopped and it ushered in a whole lot more people, construction workers, mostly. They squeezed themselves into whatever gap they could find, leaving absolutely no space for more. He got a strip of space and had to make do with it.

It was harrowing for Sheel and couldn’t bear anymore. Over that he found out that the train was an hour late. That was the last straw. Then and there he decided that he would no more be righteous in his ways for it is those who were not that got the comfort and happiness that life had to offer. Thankfully the train was not late, got down and let off the steam that was building up in his bladder and took a rickshaw towards home. He felt good that he had such an experience was rid of it. It was a freezing night in Pune and as he was headed home he went through the whole drama in his head.

One thing struck him very strong. He was the first to make a mistake and not board the general class in Dadar in the first place. Secondly, he made his decision to be righteous only after he was warned by the friendly co-passenger. So, effectively he was wrong from the start. His righteousness emanated from fear and not morality.

Every fool knows what is right, but only the wise know how to do the right thing.

To moon or not to moon...final installment

The day had passed and still no communication about the moon mission was received. Sanjeev was lying down on the lawn, staring at the night sky at the moon. He knew, India’s first manned mission to the moon had taken an unsuspecting turn. He was the only one in India who was not listening to the radio or watching television. He felt that the hype media had created about the mission was too much and we were so dumb as to have a mission that would just go round the moon and back and not land on it. What was the point of such a mission?

          But he was staring at the sky, although he hated the over hype, he wanted the mission to succeed. He was wondering what it would be like on the moon. He felt a chill. He saw the moon narrowing down in his vision. He was fast asleep in moments.

          (Beep)… (Beep)…..Sanjeev woke up to a weird environment. There were blinking lights and beeping noises on a black background. He was right below a bulb like object that was blinking in a never-before-seen fashion. It was going on and off but it seemed as if the light coming out was black. He felt a black beam of light emanating from the bulb. He looked around and was astonished to find that he was hovering. He shrugged heavily and fell off on the floor once he was out of the scope of the black beam. He noticed a door and opened it into a hallway with four other rooms. He opened the first door and found the five astronauts from the hanuman mission suspended on thin air in a similar fashion as he was.

          He narrowed his eyebrows at this queer sight not able to understand the plight of his situation. He however, proceeded to the five with the intention of waking them up. As he closed on them he noticed their complexion was pale. Ignoring this, he tried to wake them up but soon realized the reason behind the pale complexions. They were dead.

          Petrified, he returned to the hallway to find two figures of no particular shape hovering towards him. He panicked and tried the second door. He opened it to find a series of cars, varying from Fords to Lamborghinis and Peugeots to Tatas, luxury cars to commercials ones all in a neat arrangement. He narrowed his brows further. Realizing the two disfigured hovering towards him went for the third door. He opened it to a party in a discotheque, and the dancers were only Bollywood actress in sleazy dresses. Finding his predicament fishy and yet not discarding it completely went for the final door. It opened to a bright room with echoes of his name being repeated in a thunderous manner by a familiar noise- his MOM……

          Sanjeev woke up in his bedroom to reality……a frustrating day at the office.     

Off with your heads pronounced "OPHIUCHUS"

          We were in the midst of a fictious story involving Indias highly optimistic future endeavour into space and a breaking news has broken out.

          Earths axis had wobbled from its usual orientation around 3000 years back. This was due to the gradual influence of the moons gravitational pull. This led to the Zodiac months being pushed back by a month with the introduction of a new 13^th sign called “Ophiuchus” which is greek for serpent bearer. The truth is the Babylonians knew about it and did not like the idea of 13 Zodiac signs (probably they had something against odd numbers, odd is’nt it?).

          So, If you had associated yourself with a particular sign, well, guess what, unassociate yourself with it. The following will help you with that:

Capricorn: Jan. 20 - Feb. 16
Aquarius: Feb. 16 - March 11
Pisces: March 11- April 18
Aries: April 18- May 13
Taurus: May 13- June 21
Gemini: June 21- July 20
Cancer: July 20- Aug. 10
Leo: Aug. 10- Sept. 16
Virgo: Sept. 16- Oct. 30
Libra: Oct. 30- Nov. 23
Scorpio: Nov. 23- Nov. 29
Ophiuchus: Nov. 29- Dec. 17
Sagittarius: Dec. 17- Jan. 20        

         Personally I am not superstitious but it feels good to be changed from Virgo to Leo. Now, I am a lion as compared with a woman I was before.
Let me end this with some trivia

Firstly, the Ophichus character traits: honest, intellectual, sexually magnetic, prone to change and jealous.
Secondly, The new star sign will cause major discontent worldwide, if recognized as an official sun sign. ( I would love that, since it will prove the superstitious shit we have been following blindly)
Thirdly, The number 13 is not considered auspicious among the astrologers.The buzz around the 13th sign is making the doomsayers predict a disastrous 2011. (What about 2012 that Nostradamus and Mayan civilization have predicted, did they also hate odd numbers......)

To moon or not to moon.......continued

There was uproar as the whole of India rose in celebration as the communication from Hanuman indicated that they had indeed pushed themselves out of earth’s atmosphere. The glitch they encountered was a minor one and Dr. Grewal was quick to fix it. They were set and plunged forward through the nothingness of space to a distant object which was growing bigger and bigger as if it was coming towards them to embrace the first child of India.

          The longest time taken to reach the moon is 5 days and the minimum is 8 hours and 35 minutes. Hanuman was slated to encompass this distance in 12 hours. Now the legs, torso and the neck of the spacecraft was left behind on earth which were slowly making a descent in a direction opposite to that of hanuman but in a much slower pace. Hanuman was headed towards the moon and there was nothing that could stop it.

          Its thrusters were shut down as there is no resistance in space and an initial acceleration would continue to grow without disturbance. Communications were full-on as the various equipments were cross checked with the aid of instructions from the control center. It was 9.00 pm in India and everyone went off to slumber to get up to the news of Hanuman over the moon.

          Hanuman was equipped with a dummy probe that was a small scaled model of a lunar landing vehicle. It was to be operated remotely by Shravan and his crew to test its feasibility on a manned moon descent. If successful a full size model would be designed and used in the next moon mission. The Indians were cost effective. The whole cost of the program which includes the two missions would be less than half compared to a one time mission to the moon. Although, the time taken would be doubled but the chances of failure were reduced considerably.

          The nation awoke to the news of Hanuman closing in on its target. The dummy probe was launched and in exactly 6 min, 45 seconds was reported as a failure as the probe hit a crater, lost balance and fell into the chasm. The intent Indians were disheartened, but their heart leapt when the news came that, although a failure enough data was collected to not hinder the next mission. All was well. The next step was to catapult around the moon back to Earth.

          This phenomenon is governed by a force called centrifugal force. Due to the interaction between two bodies of different masses, there is an invisible force that binds them together. You experience this when you are in a vehicle and it swerves sideways and you are pushed out of your seat. Hanuman was to take advantage of this phenomenon and catapult itself towards Earth. The return journey was estimated to be around 9 hours.

          Hanuman was heading towards the dark side of the moon. Communications would black out during their period behind the moon. Shravan in an exhilarated voice said; “See you on the other side of the moon and the other side of Indian history.” He did not have the slightest inkling that, that statement was just a euphemism for what was going to happen.

          There was radio silence for around 2 minutes. Every Indian’s senses were tuned to receive only one stimulation, the first communication after the blackout. The control center was nervous as this was a crucial period. At exactly 2 min and 32 seconds the communication should have resumed. 3 minutes were past and there was no reply. Hanuman never appeared on the other side of the moon………. 
(will be continued again for the last time....)

To moon or not to moon....

                ……..static……;”Can you hear me…..Hanuman……static……”…….;”Have you left……atmosp…..”…..static……please respond…..;”I repeat, ha……………left…..earth’s atmosphere”. There was no reply.

                The year is 2015 and India’s first manned mission to moon – Hanuman, was to make or break history. The Indians were so confident they did not bother to suffix it with roman numerals. No one in the least; expected India’s first manned mission so soon but it was underway. It was made public on july 5^th 2015 on a Friday. Since then, the media had followed it voraciously. On july 5^th the construction was ready and the planned launch was set to September 1^st. This period was used by Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) for analysis of possible errors. This date was postponed to September 7^th, the shortest postponement in Indian history, due to some last minute technicalities and was made known to public mid August. Everything was set and ready by the sixth of September. Five were chosen for this meticulous mission – Air Marshal. R. Shravan, Air Vice-Marshal. G. T. Bahadur, Group Captain. S. Malik, Group Captain. S. Shankar and Dr. Vishwas Grewal. All within the age groups of 30 to 45 years. They were selected after scrupulous procedures in conjunction with NASA. The whole launch along with the radio conversations was broadcast on every channel on T.V., Radio, Internet, etc.

                On September 7^th from Shriharikota at exactly 18 hours and 43 minutes, the countdown from 60 began. 60, 59,…., 34,……, 21,….., 13,…., 10,9,….., everyone held their breath; they were pressing the radio against their ears, sticking their eyes close to the television, they were glued to the live telecast on the internet,4,3,2,1,0, gasp, BLAST OFF. There was a thunderous uproar as the engines blasted the solid fuel, which on combustion, created a humungous thrust. For a second or two the rocket remained stationary and then started to inch with a pompous vigor. One other thing happened, the long lasting anxious but still breath of every single Indian, gave way to awe inspired by the majestic display of might.

                The rocket is a multistage one with three stages. The Indians had done something wonderful and different. The three stages had three distinct types of fuel used which was only tested on the unmanned missions of Chandrayaan III and IV. Also set in place was an electronic system far superior to its predecessors. The rocket design was the same as the conventional ones but with minor modifications. The moon mission was divided into three phases. Phase I involved the launch and exit of earth’s atmosphere; Phase II involved the approach of the moon, slingshot around the moon which will encounter the dark side of the moon, and the approach back to Earth and Phase III involved reentry. The Purpose of the mission was to collect data for successful manned landing on the moon and information about the moon’s surface, atmosphere, etc.

                Hanuman gradually increased speed with altitude with only one intention, to attain the escape velocity of 11.2 km/s before hitting the outermost layer of the atmosphere. With the beginning of its ascent the first set of communications from the control station began. The world was listening to this communication with intense anticipation. There was no activity going on throughout India. The communications revealed a successful launch and a successful ascent. There was rejoicing everywhere. Everyone was shouting, the whole country was cheering. The rocket passed the troposphere and entered into the stratosphere. It was like a baby trying to escape the warm womb of its mother, slowly but steadily inching towards freedom. It was now in the mesosphere heading towards the thermosphere. It had achieved its target velocity. The communications became more and more heated. Hanuman was nearing its goal. It was almost there. Phase I would be a success very soon. But, the inevitable happened. India could hear the voice over the static from Hanuman. It was Shravan;”There seems to be a problem in………….static……….”

                If there would have been a cardiogram attached to every Indian it would have registered a short and simultaneous lull. The heartbeat of every Indian had temporarily stopped………….

(will be continued)

Two is company and three is a crowd

Mr. Twomany was a very peculiar man. You cannot call him eccentric though because he wasn’t. But he was peculiar. Why was he so or how did he end up being so, out of the ordinary, no one knows. What I do know is what was it that made him peculiar and this is what I will be talking about.

The bitterness of coffee is what makes it different from other beverages. The sensation that it provides is what everyone is after. No one likes a sweet coffee. Mr. Twomany was such a man. He used to have exactly two cubes of sugar. Well this is not peculiar, is it? But he used to have two cubes of sugar no matter what the amount of coffee there used to be. You bring it to him in a small cup or in a jar if you will, no more than two cubes dear, was his reply. This was the case with everything. He would handle no more than two bills at one time, applaud no more than two claps, open no more than two letters at given moment, everything he did was in twos.

He used to get up in the morning at 5 on weekdays and 6 on Sundays and holidays and go for a stroll from his house to a lake situated near his house. He enjoyed the serenity. He loved nature because everything about nature was continuous and not discreet. One night he was woken up at around 12 by the bickering of the dogs outside. They were having a  heated discussion about which garbage dump was the best provider of quality food and no one was willing to come to a conclusion. Mr. Twomany tried everything possible to make his weariness cloud his hearing and make him go to sleep; but the fact that there were more than two dogs quarelling kept eating into his thoughts. He got up with a jolt and dashed outside in his black pyjamas towards the lake. He wanted the sanctity and he got it. One more thing he got was a chill piercing through the flesh, down to his bones. He had to return.

He was on his way back at a good pace. He neared his house but the heated discussion among the street dwellers had become even more intense. He got really angry and picked up a brick lying beside an under- construction building and tossed it at them and as peculiar as he was, went for the second. In his obsession for the second brick he had misdirected his first one onto the innocent looking window of the nearby jewellery store. The alarm went off and the police were quick to react. They caught the dumfounded man with the second brick in his hand and immediately escorted him to jail. The brick was intended to quiet the dogs and quiet them it did, indirectly. The dogs were as agile as they were loud and scattered off instantly, alarmed by the noise the alarm created, clearing the area for police to arrive.

He spent the night at the local police station, on the hard bed; devoid of the luxuries of the night. The next day he was presented in front of a very shrewd judge. His pleas went on deaf ears as he was caught red-handed. He was sentenced, on grounds of no previous misconduct, to imprisonment, for three years……

Boy ordinary, oh boy

This is a story of a very ordinary boy. Everything about this boy is so ordinary that the term ordinary itself will lose all its meaning. I advise the readers to proceed no further if they are expecting something magical. I will assure you that the boy is as far away from extraordinary as a fool is from cognizance.

            The world came into existence into the tiny eyes of this boy on the 7^th of September 1988. His mind was flooded with pictures, bizarre and mystical. Before that all he knew was the shade of red and some muffled noises (inside his mothers womb that is...). He was revealed to three set of intent eyes, three sets of eager ears and two mouths and a green patch for a mouth to be precise and a pinch of pain from the holder of the green patch. He started crying. His bellows were heard throughout the small nursing home in palayamkottai, in the remote part of the district of Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu, in the land of mystics and mystery - India. He was conferred with the name bestowed to lord Hanuman on the successful revival of Lord Laxman with Sanjivani herb (Epic of Ramayan). This was because of the procession of monkeys from the house to the nursing home and the monkeys at the window sill of his mother’s room in the nursing home. Well come to think of it this is not just ordinary but ordinary with a twist of superstition.

            Well, given his godly birth the boy was expected to be religious but he was as far off from that as human brain trying to achieve full potential. He was unbelievably naughty, I can tell you that. He was a self proclaimed rhinoceros. His mind would be so active searching for his next prey. His grandmother had to buy slippers every week, grandfather replace his glasses every month, mother a new set of utensils every quarter of a year and father, had to clean up the mess with involved every field from electrical to plumbing. This continued for three, grueling (for his caretakers) and fun-filled (for him) years. Then he was introduced to another member of his family. A baby girl so fat and chubby, you could replace the sofa for next to nothing and what a good replacement it would be. Well there was a hiatus in his activities but he resumed full operations, once everything was settled. Now he had one more victim to vex. And he did it with such boisterous vigor and might I add he continues to do so till date.

            His childhood was short lived like all the good things in the world. His next challenge was his schooling. Well what can I say it was ordinary! He was much into a sport called cricket. He loved it so much that he played every day of the year. He played when it was sunny even when the trees showed fatigue, he played in winter even when the street dogs shivered and hell, he played even on rainy days, when the Indian drains were transformed into full-fledged rivers. The thing he sacrificed to play was his studies. His parents were against this line of thought and coerced him towards the mental activity, which in India is not actually an activity for the brains and rather an activity for the memory, if you get what I mean. But, he refused to change religion.  His religion was not studies and he was an iconoclast. Good for him I say…

            Then arrived the crucial juncture, of the transition from school to college. This is marked with a very competitive exam. Everybody either chooses Engineering or Medical fields after this point in India. The little genius (do note the sarcasm here) did the same and followed the rat race into Engineering, ordinary though he was. But for that he had to surpass the greatest challenge-the exam. He somehow realized its importance and went full-on with it. He started studying hard as opposed to his philosophy of hardly studying. His sporting hours began to diminish. What could not be accomplished by weather or by parents was accomplished by the infamous Indian education system. Well, not surprising though because he was an ordinary boy. He did qualify for National Institute of Technology in the field of Mechanical Engineering. The institute is second only to Indian Institute of Technology (but he never brags about it).

            This is how he became an Engineer. Engineering was a great experience for him. He learnt a lot. He learnt the good effects of alcohol, conversion from a pure vegetarian to a non-vegetarian, and so on and so forth (I dont want to get into the gory details). He learn everything except that which was necessary.But, ordinary as he was he did it with just a first class certification. Here on, began his career with a company. Ordinarily an ordinary boy would have something extra-ordinary about him; but this boy is as ordinary as one can ordinarily get.

            At this crucial point I will interject because I was describing his past and have come to the point of his present. I am this ordinary boy. So I will end this in an ordinary manner, which ordinarily is not the case with stories. So, this in the only part of the story, that is not ordinary. The extraordinary part of this ending is that it is not the ending!!!!

            It is infact just the beginning because someone great once said; “The purpose of life is to End” and I am still hale and hearty. Someone else who is also great (in my perception all are) has said;”If you try to achieve something from the bottom of your heart, then the whole universe conspires to make that happen”. I believe in this and have embarked upon a mission to achieve a particular goal. It is not just money or fame (who doesn’t want these. Someone who says they don’t actually do and are the biggest hypocrites) but something bigger and would certainly like to share it with you all but not at this exact moment. But until then…………….