The Milieu – 23rd August, 2006..

The setting - Mumbai Airport, while it could be just any other airport in the country
The Characters – The disgruntled husband, the tense executive, the excited family, the power-broking CEOs, the beautiful yet seemingly out-of-reach air hostesses, the sad girlfriend….every one of them tell a story that is so vivid that it cannot but, stop you for that split second in your track and merit a stare.
But if there is one story that has been quite apparent to me in the past week that I have been around the country, it’s the story of how a bunch of idiots have managed to put the fear of the living dead in the people of this country.
Airport after airport tells the same story….the fear of the next…
Be it Raipur, Indore or the Mumbai airport, the abysmally high level of security check that one has to go through is praiseworthy on one hand while at the same time, being a sad example of the terror-stricken times we are living in.
To see people going through the motions in between all this is also a poignant reminiscence of how human emotions and contact have now become very carefully played out dramas..indeed of Shakespearean proportions. The great man might well be happy if he were to see the scene today at any of our airports; nary would he have found a larger group of actors at one single stage.
Its disgusting how one has to constantly be on the vigil while at these places. Even the slightest hint of a “non-regular” expression on your face is enough to bring the Khakhi-clad guards asking you for your details and frisking your bags. Did somebody mention that the archetypical police officer does not do this in our country? I think its time to change our idea of the police officer as this corrupt, baton wielding, big-bellied hulk out to threaten people and the law.
He is now the sleek, well mannered, honest officer who is out to protect the airborne denizens of this country from evil forces. And he does it exactly as the law authorizes and expects him to.
To cite an example, my colleague was not allowed to carry a bag of batteries in his baggage and was promised delivery of the same at the destination. That we forgot to collect the same when we landed at our destination is a different matter altogether.
So all this hullabaloo does seem to have had its side effects. Our airports are now safe and our journeys safer, if all indications are to be seen and believed.
Shall continue….

The Surge of Urge

Its been that kind of a day. Just seems like nothing went right through the day. The frustration is accentuated when you realize that people around you and who claim to have your best interests at heart are all 'put-ons' of the first rate and wouldn’t think twice before stabbing you in the back.
To find people moving up the ladder just because of an inanity called the 'Gift of the Gab', while you know that your little finger can probably think better than all their brains put together, just puts you off.
The thought of putting in my papers has crossed my mind several times the past few days, yet the sense of almost obligatory jubilation that I have to endure at my company’s extremely good results is also, in small way, ensuring that I hang on!
The frequent holidays in the last week or so have seemed like sheer drudgery between this ‘surge of urge’. But how could that be? I am not particularly enjoying my job and yet, my days off from office seem difficult to get by (should have listened to Vishal and got a more interesting social life earlier!!). An Oxymoron if ever there was one....'moronish' it certainly is....or is this a symptom of turning into a workaholic? I checked with my brother and luckily it’s not yet a medical condition that the docs deem they need to work on (no pun intended).
I have been trying to get over this drudgery by planning a trip to my B-School to work out opportunities to spend some time with juniors. But like the proverbial rock, I have been steady enough not to get out of my cocooned haven on holidays, thus postponing it week after week, even though the thought of having wasted an entire day at home keeps coming back to haunt me at the end of every day off that I have ‘enjoyed’.
I shall do this 'back to school' business very shortly, even if it calls for a trip down to the ol' a lma mater on a Sunday.
The silver lining in all this is the fact that I am off next week on a week long jaunt across Maharashtra. Irrespective of however honest your intentions are and even with the leitmotif being 'work, official travel is fun, especially given that very little work, albeit the official kind, actually gets done when you are out of office!!!!

The Dictum

As per the authority bestowed with the royal highness and the dictum that followed....

I am thinking about .....how I am going to fill this page up!
I said .....the most wierd thing in office today and nobody raised an eyebrow.
I want to..... tell the world to bloddy understand that they've got in me , a rare jem.
I wish .....I could return to school.
I hear ..... the best music at office everyday....and not from my senior always.
I wonder .....what would happen if I had the power to make every wish of mine come true.
I regret .....not having told people how much I loved them, much earlier.
I am ......getting bored with my job now.
I dance .....to my damn conscience always.
I sing .....only when I am at peace.
I cry .....when somebody shows pity on me.
I am not always ......as patient as I am now, in filling up this list .
I make with my hands ......what I cannot with my words.
I write .....very little after the 'stomp of the comp' brigade.
I confuse ......the hell outta most people I know.
I need ......to take a break from work and a good night's sleep.

Thanks MV, for easing my apprehension about continuing with my tryst with the virtual.....I am beginning to quite enjoy this...

Oh! To write your first Blog..!!!

I have decided to join the big world of blogging, thrust as I am by societal pressure to have a virtual presence. Apparently many of my friends are not getting enough of the physical me!!! But it doesn't seem such a bad idea after all...and something that is overdue. I have been procrastinating this for the past few months and now I shall have a sound sleep, or so I think!

It is with a sense of trepidition that I am entering this arena. This is so typical of anything 'new' we do in daily life! 'New' in most cases, carries a sense of nervous brevity and excitement alongwith, so typical of what is happening with me today.

I had thought it might be easy to pen down your thoughts...but it is turning into quite a challenge. The initial excitement has given way to a sense of disbelief at how diffciult it can be to write down what you are thinking!!! And I've been thinking all the while that I am quite the master of words...

The saving grace is that I have actually made the start and have got through that most difficult initial bit.

oh! To write your first blog!