Merciless!

Another Confession… this was a long kept secret… got to get it out now!

May 2014: It was getting worse! She was getting on my nerves quite often, had to put an end to this relationship. She wouldn’t leave me easily… I had no choice!

May 31, 2012: I was making a major move in my career, a move purportedly up the ladder. I had decided to take up the promotion and leave my hometown. I had to leave my family back and stay alone for at least year in my new role.

Well, this story is not about my career move. It’s different. It’s about her!

Just a day before I left the city for the Metropolis, she was introduced to me by a colleague. I wouldn’t deny it was love at first sight, but couldn’t express it so easily. I was cautious, just gave a few glances and let the day pass.

She travelled with me in the flight, we didn’t speak. I just smiled at her, not sure if she reciprocated. But I was fine, she didn’t have to. But I kept thinking, she was gorgeous… well not the right word... demure may be. She was much more than all that, at that moment, as I closed my eyes and the flight took off, I had no idea that a rollicking hot relationship was waiting to unfold. I would discover soon…!

I was busy settling down in a far off apartment, shuttling to work by bus, hitching a ride with colleagues, eating out at new places, getting used to the change of weather. That weekend I came back to my hometown to take my car and a few necessary household items. On Sunday night I drove on the highway and again started thinking about her.

I needed new company in the new city, someone new to spend time with, someone who would give me all the attention, and be with me all the time. I let the thought pass as driving all night meant the focus had to be on the road. After 11 hours of driving, I reached my home-away-from-home, in the early hours of Monday, a fresh start to the work week beckoned. It was a day that things started to churn.

The Monday began with my office providing me with a new mobile number. I still was using the earlier number and was wary of the prohibitive money being spent every time I spoke on phone. (Back then mobile roaming charges were pretty high, and picking up calls from unknown numbers were a strict no no).

Later that afternoon the new number buzzed for the first time. I was excited. It was her. Don’t even ask me how she got my new mobile number – this is one secret I’d rather not talk about. I eagerly wanted to be home early, easier said than done on a Monday.

As I got home late and tired, she was with me. Yes, we were alone and it all began to unfold fast. We talked, we laughed, we played and we…! I can’t go into more details though. It was just the beginning. She demanded my attention all the time, she got it most of the time. I was in love! The new relationship was breezy, we were together almost all the time. Shopping malls, multiplex movies, beach, eating out, long drives and yes, she even accompanied me to the cricket matches I played on the hot Sunday afternoons. She was my sole chat companion and all those night video calls… Let me stop there.

It was less than a year before I moved back to my hometown. She followed suit, not that I detested her move… I loved her company… but things started getting sour soon.

Back to May 2014: It was getting worse! She was getting on my nerves quite often, had to put an end to this relationship. She wouldn’t leave me easily. I really had no choice… the two words that I dreaded the most was going to end a love-hate relationship of two years – ‘Break Up’ was inevitable. A smooth ending was impossible though.

I hatched a plan to eliminate her, without any remorse. It was a restless Monday, I decided the time, the place, the modus operandi and above all the getaway after committing the crime. I chose the deserted under construction multi-storey building a little away from home for staging the ‘accident’. 

The light was fading, there were hardly anyone in the street, I stealthily walked along with her into the building and climbed up the six floors, with little or almost no conversation happening. Once at the top, we moved to the rear or the east end of the building and looked west, the sun had set and the sky was reddish. Leaning on the parapet I just looked at her, she didn’t look into my eyes. In a cold merciless moment I just pushed her off the precipice and walked down the stairs in a hurried pace. There was loud thud, the watchman and a few workers living in the nearby huts rushed to the spot. They were all aghast at what they saw, she was dead before she landed on the ground. I exited the lane fast to reach home, I heard the approaching police van siren, my heart was pounding, and my steps became faster.

An hour later I was sitting at the dinner table and trying to forget the incident of the evening. Hard as I tried, it wouldn’t leave me, that's when I turned to browsing on my new iPhone and a smile escaped by lips as I thought – rest in peace blackberry!

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Picture: Internet

Festivals and Branding Mantra!

Jo tumko ho pasand wohi baat karenge… Tum din ko agar raat kaho, raat kahenge!

Today was Akshaya Tritiya, also known as Akha Teej - the third lunar day of Shukla paksha of Vaishakha month. The birth of Lord Parshuram the sixth incarnation of Lord Vishnu, is also celebrated on this day, it is also the day when Veda Vyas began to write the Mahabharata.

But that is the puranic significance. There is more to it than that for most. The cluttered newspapers with advertisements and the clogged roads in the main junctions tell a different story!

Over the past two decades there has been a fleeting change in the celebrations of Hindu festivals. Not without a reason, there is a concerted effort to rebrand the way festivals are celebrated.

Celebration – is the key word, not observation, and a celebration that is only getting extravagant and we have too many occasions to celebrate.

I remember the time when a Rakshabandhan meant besan ka laddu or motichur ka laddu from the ubiquitous Balaji or Bajrang Sweet House. It wasn’t long before Chocolates, yes branded for the occasion, made itself synonymous with the celebration of brother-sister relationship. Cadbury’s did revolutionize the branding and packing of the simple occasion.

During my days in college, we didn’t have the Shoppers’ Stop or Lifestyle or their kind of Valentine’s Day. The revolutionising of ‘expression of love’ only began after the greeting cards’ majors Archie’s and Hallmark started making it quite a wonderful reason to up their sales. They soon added more days to the Calendar. Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Woman’s Day and Friendship Day cards were just taking up as much space as the Birthdays and Wedding Day cards or more.

While cards could only confine themselves to the ‘greeting’ part of the occasions, the ‘celebration’ part of the business was left for the branding gurus to think over creatively. Yes, they did quite a fabulous job in re-branding the entire gamut of greeting into celebrations. Around the time the Indian Economy started looking up in the mid 1990s, the purchase power too increased multi-fold. “Extravagance” crept in.

While the western concept ‘special days’ started getting saturated, westernization of traditional Indian occasions and festivals became the norm, initially with Rakshabandhan. Soon Diwali, Dasara, and even Karwa Chauth got branded with special packages.

So, coming back to today – Akshaya Tritiya, an auspicious day for new beginnings, also regarded as a Sarve Siddha Muhurat. The Sun and Moon are believed to be at their extreme brightness on this day, so also the planet Venus, at its exaltation this month. This auspicious occasion has been quite phenomenally milked by the Gold sellers associations over the past decade and half.

Things changed drastically with the gullible Indian masses falling for what began as “buy at least a gram of gold today” to “invest in gold, jewellery, diamonds and more today”. Touted as a day that would bring lots of good augury for ‘owning new gold’ on this day, people flocked almost all the jewellery “malls”, yes that’s what they are these days. They put traffic sense to the winds and parked almost in the middle of the roads across the main junctions. The summer heat was no way a deterrent for the “good luck’ hunting folks.

What amused me most were the newspapers of the day – Front page jackets with leading jewelers advertising in full throttle. Endless advertisements with colourful offers all across the papers, and ironically a huge front page banner news item that said – Cash crunch hits common man hard – ATMs go dry – people quite literally starving, followed up by editorials and lead articles on how the government has made the citizens’ life woeful. They are unable to afford to buy basic necessities, but lined up well with their plastic money for the glittering yellow metal

It was a different story in the end – The marketers and the branding gurus ensured that the ‘auspicious occasion’ surely brought much cheer, good luck and loads of wealth to their "clients". The commercial peddlers of our traditional festivals are laughing all the way to the bank, while the mere mortals are clutching gold jewellery in one hand and Debit Cards in another, looking out for the elusive ATM that can dish out money.

Did I hear someone singing... Jo tumko ho pasand wohi baat karenge… Tum din ko agar raat kaho, raat kahenge!

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Pics: Internet

Vaazhai ilai saapadu

 - the panacea for mobile phone addicts!

From my Vijayawada Diaries

For a South Indian, especially a Hyderabad bred Tamilian who has a penchant for full-meals saapadu, moving to Vijayawada, the first information I got was "Aah, Food is not a problem!". Well and truly this heartland city of Andhra Pradesh offers a wide variety to suit one's taste buds and more to a gourmet's delight.

I found myself at home with the numerous tiffin centres and the Andhra Mess serving hot and spicy meals typical of the region. However, I was missing home, missing that simple food.

One cloudy afternoon I strolled into a street with some expectation. It was named after Chakravarthi Rajagopalachari. The name evoked feelings of familiar terrain, but there were too many electronics and computer peripheral dealers dotting the place. For a moment I thought it was Chenoy Trade Centre, Parklane, Secunderabad or Ritchie Street, Chennai. Then I spotted the welcome board - 'Meals Ready', hungrily I walked into the restaurant.

"Take token at counter", said the old waiter. The genial owner sitting at the cash counter smiled as he handed over the change and a token. The radio behind him was playing retro Hindi music on Vividh Bharati. 'Mann chahe geet' and lazy hot afternoon lunches can get one nostalgic, reminds of School days! Kishore Kumar’s voice ‘Koi laute de mere beete huve din’ is soon lost in the aroma and cacophony inside.

The place had an air of the old-world-charm of a Mylapore Mess. The well laid out vaazhai ilai (plantain leaf) was enticing enough to expect a feast. The first item on the leaf was akkaravadisal (sweet Pongal), I learnt later, that they serve rava kesari on alternate days, my eyes brightened up - the TamBrahm choices are so predictable. I got lost in the paruppu (dal), vellarikka kootu, vendakai poriyal, moru kozhambu, even as I was busy sifting through WhatsApp messages with the other hand. This was followed by the favourite sambar accompanied with appalam. It was at this moment that the waiter cautioned me to look away from the Mobile phone.

He just said "saar, rasam!". Lo, the phone is put aside as the Tamizhan skill of balancing the ends of the vaazhai ilai comes to the fore as the rasam runs across the rice to all corners. What followed was a mobile-free involvement in enjoying food. The meal ended with the customary thair saadam with suvaiyana Andhra avakkayi.

The current season of extreme dieting apart, the experience is just not enough and craves for an encore, of course sans the mobile phone browsing.