Her Gaze

When a child peeks out of the window, what does she see? A world annexed by adults who are impossibly taller than her. She can't help wonder what lies beyond what she's able (or should we say, allowed) to look at. There's so much going on and so many words exchanged.

Most of them don't even make sense to her innocent mind. Regardless, she likes being alive and part of this fledgling scheme called family. She finds comfort in love and friendship. It's only when she moves away from the living room towards the window that questions flood her.

The trick behind growing up hasn't really hit her yet. As of now, she's the only constant in this ever-mobile universe. Amazing! She stands there short with her eyes stretching wide open. Someday, she'll be on the other side of the window. The only problem is, will she seek answers or will she keep moving like the rest of us? 

Memories

The idea of disappointing her troubles him. So what does our hero do? He ponders. Deeply. About the various possibilities that lay ahead of them. This makes him starkly pessimistic but utterly realistic.

Success has been alien to him for the major part of his life. So he goes ahead with the thought "I don't wish to disappoint her...blah bla" and then does what he has to do. At least what he presumes he has to do. Guess what he does. He creates memories. Loads of them. Good, bad, silly, forgettable. But he creates them with her as sincerely as possible. Because at the end of the day, they aren't in a worldly relationship. They don't stick to labels or vice versa. They are what the purists can call soul mates. And they might be mistaken too. What they can't be wrong about are the memories. Besides, you can't add an ex- to memories.

Memories flourish whether you like them or not. The thought process involved is almost sacred. Like them. Perhaps why he thinks "I don't want to disappoint her again...blah bla" before going back to her. Repeatedly.

I am that jerk you shouldn't call!!

I still don’t understand why people call me up for relationship advice? Why? In my opinion, if by any chance in the future there are three human beings alive in this planet, you me and your partner and you need relationship advice, you should talk to the blue sky rather than me. I shouldn't be even the last person to call up for a relationship advice. But, people do and surprisingly, they claim that my advice has helped them.

Personally, I believe I am a complete jerk when it comes to relationships. I find maintaining friendship with a few people a strain. All the pre-requisites of a ‘relationship’ bother me. I can’t talk over the phone for more than 15 minutes (unless the subject is my favourite sport or politics), my weekends are normally filled with football or Sit-Coms (illegally downloaded), I don’t have any answer to the question ‘how was your day?’ and a hell lot of other things that are needed to maintain a relationship that won’t make my partner a serial killer (me being the first victim of hers).

Yet the people call. A friend of mine called me up this evening to discuss about the latest mistake that he is going to commit. I told him what I’ll do in his place (which is not the best advice to be honest) and then I realised, why these people call us? I have come to two conclusions and either of them might be right or wrong (there is a bit of Schrodinger in each one of us). First, they call me to get the outside view, a view that most normal people shouldn't give and secondly, I think they call me up to know what not to do because whatever I do, while in a relationship (I have been an unbelievable jerk), shouldn't be done.

The next time you are having partner issues and you pick your phone to call me up. Think again, one press of a button might ruin your life.

Relationship Advice (free ka hai, le lo): If it’s complicated then it is not going to work out. A relationship should be like Philips, Sense and Simplicity.

The 'PM' essay.

Remember those school days when they asked us to pen imaginative essays on 'If I were the Prime Minister blah blah'? If only I was enlightened enough then to begin my first and final paragraph as follows:

If I were the Prime Minister of this chaotic country, I’d have not wasted a minute on writing this silly piece of garbage. Besides, there's hardly any probable merit attached to this futile exercise when all that matters is the score a student grabs at the end of the term—forget his/her reading skills, pronunciation or the ability to sustain a conversation in English. No offence to the authority. Just that I’d be having far more important things to deal with if I was the PM. Like making sure more concrete steps are undertaken to educate our kids in a manner that will make them feel learned and proud of their mother tongue, not forcefully Anglicized with an overdose of lingual superiority complex.

Nice try though, teacher.

Sincerely yours,

Honorable Prime Minister of India.

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