“What story? Whose story? Who wrote it?” – She replied with a series of questions.

“Your husband’s story and I wrote it” – I replied

“You wrote it. I don’t have free time to waste” – She openly insulted my writing skills on just third day of wedding. And I gave her a disgusting look.

“Ok ok I am coming. Where is the story?” – She said and started reading it.

——————————————————————————————————————————-

I was sitting in my hostel room, studying for my last semester exams starting next morning, when my cell phone rang. It was a female voice from other end. I hung up the call in few minutes, threw the phone in frustration and fell on the bed motionless and lost. I opened the wardrobe and took out a packet with some letters in it. With shivering hands I opened one letter and started reading it. I don’t know how many times I read those five letters in next few hours. Millions of tear drops rolled from my eyes while I was continuously looking at the ceiling. Every single second of last few months flashed in front of my eyes……

“Rohan! I am going to my village for Diwali. Why don’t you come with me? You have never been to a village and you have your semester break holidays as well. So, you will get bored here.” – Ravi said.

For me it was like impossible to say no to Ravi. We were best friends since I was 2-3 years old. I asked my parents for permission and packed my bag. I was super excited to see a totally different kind of life style and was expecting a really nice time at village. I reached village late evening, totally unaware that this first village trip is going to change my life forever. It was dark everywhere. No prize for guessing, there was no electricity in the village. I was totally lost in that darkness. So I better thought of taking early dinner and go to bed. Sleeping arrangement was awesome, a bed on the roof top under stars. Welcome to village life…I said to myself and closed my eyes.

“Hey! Who is this prince sleeping here till so late?” – She said while pulling the bedsheet that I used to cover myself sometime in the midnight due to cold.

“Who is this? Let me sleep” – I said in frustration while rubbing my half opened eyes. With those half closed eyes, I saw a beautiful girl looking at me in strange with mouth wide open. I guess she was totally unaware of this guest in the house.

In the next minute I saw another beauty of nature, Sun rising from the other side of farm. It was 6 in the morning and this was probably the first time I was looking at rising sun.

“Good Morning” – I said to the girl whose mouth was still open.

By evening I guess she had collected all my biographical and geographical information. And honestly speaking I did the same. There was something in those eyes. I was never so desperate to know details of a girl. She was third among the five daughters of a farmer residing in the next house. Her marriage was fixed to some farmer and wedding was scheduled in eight months or so.

“Lucky bastard” – I praised would be groom’s fortune.

Generally in villages, people don’t wait so long for wedding date once it is finalized but in Megha’s case, this delay was due to some rule in their family that two weddings can’t take place in a year.

“What a silly rule” – I laughed in my mind.

It was not like she was exceptionally beautiful or something but those eyes had some magic for sure. Even though I knew she is already engaged, I was getting a feeling like I never felt before.

Slowly we started interacting with each other and we became really good friends in those 12 days that I spent in village. Megha was full of life and a funny girl. We used to do some random talks without any sense. I was totally enjoying her company. Finally the day came when I had to say bye to her. I was coming back to home and I had no idea when I am going to see this face again in my life. With heavy heart I said bye to her when she gave me a flower and requested me to come again very soon with her trademark sweet and innocent smile.

Thanks to career demands, i got busy with studies but Megha was totally alive in some corner of my mind. Sometimes I looked like a mad when i found myself smiling without a reason. A mere thought of Megha or her silly talk was more than enough to make me smile. That was a totally different phase of life when you don’t need anyone to be happy and you find yourself on totally new world where everything is so beautiful and is full of happiness. Even though you know that this happiness is false and there is no future of this relationship.

While i was enjoying life of that world, my sister’s wedding got fixed. Guests started coming to my place. So here came good time once again. One fine day when i came back home after evening cricket, i saw Megha was there. It was so pleasant surprise that i didn’t knew how to react and i was continuously smiling like an idiot. But i didn’t mind being an idiot as long as Megha is with me. It’s been hardly an hour she was here but she was looking like she is staying here for years. She came with my aunty and then suddenly i looked at aunty with tons of love and respect like never before. On the other hand Megha was doing her favorite job….talking. Once she was done with talking session with my sister, she took charge of kitchen and i was dying for my turn to spend some quality time with her and have one to one talk with her. And finally i got that time very late night.

“So finally miss busy bee got some free time for me. How much time do you have…10 minutes?” – I said with some false anger.

“No…2 minutes. First take your dinner” – she said with a smile and tapped my hand.

“I don’t want your 2 minutes. I don’t want to talk to you. And I am full” – I tried to extend my acting a little further.

“Megha! Let’s go to sleep. We have to get up early tomorrow” – my sister called her.

“See you don’t even have 2 minutes for me. Go and sleep. I don’t want to eat anything” – this time I said in frustration.

She made a disappointed expression and left. Now I was cursing myself for wasting these one and half minute.

Next early morning I left for a nearby town to bring my cousin. When I returned back late evening, my mother called me.

“What happened between you and Megha?” – My mother asked.

“Nothing. Why? – I replied in confusion.

“Last night she said she will take dinner with you and then she slept without eating anything. You said something to her Right?” – My mother questioned.

“Why can’t you speak politely? You know, she didn’t eat anything since last evening. Now go and say sorry to her” – my mother ordered.

Now I was seriously feeling sorry for being rude to her. Why she care for me so much? Does she like me? Does she love me? No no how can she love me. Then why she is doing all this for me?  So many questions run through my mind in that fraction of second. We were meeting after a month and it was our second meeting but still she cares for me this much. This was the first time I started thinking about her in a different way. Does she have a similar kind of feeling for me?

I got the answer very soon when she secretly took my hand in her while watching DDLJ on TV that night. A current run through my whole body and I was feeling like the luckiest person on planet. I loved the movie like never before and it became my most favorite movie for a different reason.

“Yes she likes me. But she is getting married in six months. Then why is she doing all this? She wants to tell me something? Will she break her engagement and will marry me? But how this can happen? Why not? She is not married yet. Let’s give it a try.” – I wonder how easy it is to come to a decision when you want it to happen.

Days become shorter when you start enjoying it. Her departure date came sooner than expected and I was in no mood to spend a second without her. She ordered me to call her regularly and asked me to give her my college address. That was the first time I saw those eyes wet and so was mine.

I travelled again some 1000 kms to get an engineer degree with a strong motivation that this college will enable me to become professionally successful and a small probability to spend a happy life with Megha. I kept both my promises of calling her regularly and sending her my hostel address. After like 10 days I got one letter from her. Trust me… even in the age of emails, getting letter is special. I won’t call it a love letter but those two words “Dear Rohan” and “Your Megha” were the most romantic words for me. I read those two words like hundred times and I was literally blushing the whole day.

“Yes she definitely loves me and I should talk to my parents on this. But they will get angry for sure and it won’t be so easy” – I said again to myself.

In all her letters, she used to ask the same question. When I am coming to her village and I had no answer to that. One day she asked the same during call and I just gave her a random date. I don’t know why did I said that but I didn’t wanted to disappoint her. She got happy after doing some calculation that I was going to meet her exactly after 22 days.

As expected, I didn’t go to her village on that date and I didn’t have courage to tell the same to Megha. But very soon I got a month off and all I wanted is to be with Megha. I planned my holidays to spend first 10 days at her village and rest of time at home. I expected her to be angry with me for not coming on decided date but to my surprise, she welcomed me with a smile and behaved like nothing has happened. That was what I loved most in her. She never demanded anything from me and gave me all her love and care.

Next day when I was sitting in her room, I saw some lines drawn on the wall. I started making fun of it that Megha has started learning black magic or something. Megha didn’t say anything and left the room with a smile. Her friend gave me a disgusting look and I gave her a surprised look.

“Do you really want to know what these lines are for?” – She said

“Does Megha draw these lines for some reason?” – I asked.

“Yes! Do you remember when you told her that you are coming here, how many days were left? Now try to remember the number of days and then count the number of lines drawn.” – She said with the maximum amount of emotions a girl can generate.

Now there was no need to count the number of lines. And I was forced to feel embarrassed without my fault.

“Do you still want to know how much she waited for you” – she thrown the next lot of emotions that she collected.

I had nothing to say. So I just left the room. Megha was playing some silly girlish game outside. What kind of girl this is? So childish yet so emotional and mad about me.

“I am going to marry this girl and that’s final” – I said to myself.

On the last day before leaving for my home, I asked her to meet me on the roof of her friend’s house in evening. She came with sugarcane in her hand.

“Throw this sugarcane. I want to say something very important to you.” – I said while looking those beautiful eyes.

“Don’t say anything. You are going back tomorrow morning. Don’t know when we are going to meet again. So just sit beside me without asking anything” – She ordered with heavy voice while holding my hands.

“But I have to say something very important” – I insisted.

“I don’t want to talk. Can’t we talk later?” – She said and I agreed.

At that moment what I saw in her eyes, there was love for me and sadness of being parted next morning. In next half an hour we hardly exchanged a word but that is the most special moment for me and will always be. That was a sleepless night for both of us. And I left next morning with an excitement of finding daughter-in-law for my mother.

“Mom! I want to have a very important discussion with you. What if I say I like a girl and want to marry her right after my engineering and most importantly she is of our caste only” – I don’t know why but I preferred to say everything in a single sentence.

“What are you saying? Who is she?” – She said surprised.

“Megha” – I just took the name.

“What? Are you gone mad? Don’t you know her wedding is already fixed? Stop this and go to your room” – She ordered.

“I know she is engaged. But she not married Right? Engagements do break.” – I suggested an option.

“Don’t be childish. This is just an infatuation son. She is the first girl you met so you are feeling like this. Now stop all this and don’t make any issue on this” – She rejected my suggestion without consideration.

“No…this is not infatuation and I took this decision after thinking so much. And your first girl theory is invalid as Megha is third.” – I again made a point.

“What? Who are the other two?” – She looked surprised.

“That’s not the point. Point is…I know I will be happy with Megha and I want to marry her. Can’t you just talk to Papa on this?” – I said in frustration.

“No…I am not going to talk to anyone on your stupid decision. That’s a village not city. There society is very small. It’s impossible for a girl’s father to break engagement. It will ruin their family image infront of the whole village and then who will marry their other two daughters? “– She said in a bit emotional tone that can make anyone change his decision.

“Mom….Please try to understand. I really like her. Please give it a try” – I almost begged.

“No son. This is just not possible. Why don’t you understand? Don’t be so selfish. If you want I can talk to them for Megha’s younger sister. She is also pretty” – She suggested

“What non sense? This is not any exchange program. I am talking about Megha.” – I said irritated.

“That can’t happen and you need to understand this. I don’t want to discuss this any further.” – She made the conversation over and out.

“Rohan! Are you sleeping? Let’s go to canteen. I missed the lunch and now I am feeling hungry.” – Praveen shouted while knocking the door.

“No I am reading for tomorrow’s exam. Wait…I will also come.” – I replied.

I put the letters back to wardrobe, cleaned the tears from my face, and opened the door with my trademark smile. This is how they had seen me in all these four years. We all left for canteen.

“What Rohan… Is anything wrong between you and Megha? She stopped loving you or what?” – Praveen said

“Ha ha ha… It’s nothing like that” – I replied with a fake smile. That was probably the best expression I was able to give with that state of mind.

“It’s been ages she didn’t sent you a letter. Please ask bhabhiji to send a letter so that we can get sixth party from you.” – This time Manish said and everyone laughed except Nikhil. Nikhil was continuously looking at me.

We returned back to hostel in two hours. I was again in my room and tried hard to stop tears from falling down but failed.

“Rohan! Still crying?” – Nikhil said while entering my room that night.

“I am not crying” – I replied in heavy voice.

“Do you want me to turn on the lights and see or we can talk in dark? It’s because of Megha right?” – He asked.

“She is getting married in two days. And don’t ask anything else at present. I will talk to you on this sometime later” – I replied

“As you wish. Talk to me whenever you feel comfortable. I am always here for you. Don’t think much and try to sleep. We have exam tomorrow at 10″ – He left. I again lost in past.

“Mom! Have you talked to Papa about Megha” – I asked over the phone.

“That stupidity is still on your mind. I already told you I am not going to talk to anyone on this and you too stop thinking about her and concentrate on your studies” – She replied.

“To hell with the studies. Why don’t you understand? If you won’t do anything, then it’s fine. I will talk to Megha’s father” – I said in frustration.

“No…you are not going to do anything like that. Please don’t do anything that will let your parents down” – She replied.

“I will. I can’t let her marry someone else without even trying” – I said and cut the phone and immediately dialed Megha’s number

“Hey Rohan! What a pleasant surprise. You finally got time to call me” – She said in joy

“I want to talk to your father and don’t ask me why” – I said

“He is here. I am giving phone to him” – She replied and handed phone to his father.

“Hello! How are you? How are your studies going? When are you coming here again?” – He asked

“I am good uncle. Studies are going good. Few months and I will be an engineer. I got a very good job offer and I will get 30,000 per month” – I don’t know why but found it necessary to tell him my salary amount.

“That’s great news son. Your parents must be proud of you”- He appreciated the news

“Uncle…I called you for an important thing. Let me come to the point straight away. I love Megha and want to marry her” – I exploded the bomb.

“What!!! Why you want to marry her? I mean her marriage is already fixed and I guess you know this. By the time you will complete your engineering, she will get married. Don’t embarrass me son” – He said loud and clear

“Yes I know. But I can be a better husband for her and I love her” – I said

“This can’t happen. I will talk to your parents straight away and will ask them to control their son. I can’t break this wedding. You will marry Megha but then who will marry my other two daughters? Don’t call Megha again” – He said and cut the phone.

“Shit! What I did? Why nobody is trying to understand? Why this old man doesn’t understand her daughter will be happy with me?” – I said to myself in irritation

I tried calling Megha again but she didn’t pick up. After some ten minutes my phone rang. It was Ravi. I was in mood to talk to him so I rejected the call. He called again and again and put my phone on silent. Then I got a message from Ravi.

“See Rohan. I don’t know what made you think that Megha’s parents will agree to your wedding with her. I respect your emotions but whatever you are doing is wrong. Stop all this right now or you will lose your best friend. Megha’s parents are blaming me for bringing you here. They are saying wrong things about your parents that they can’t control their son and all. Happy Now?”

My phone rang again. This time mom. I picked up.

“Mom! I know what you have to say. I don’t want to talk to anyone. I will call whenever I will feel like” – I said and cut the phone.

Ten days passed and I didn’t talk to anyone. I did try calling Megha but no one pick the phone and I was slowly moving in to depression. Then one day I got a call from Mom.

“Hi Mom! I will call you later” – I said and tried to disconnect

“Hey listen… I have good news for you. We talked to Megha’s parents and they have postponed her wedding till your engineering and then we will decide how to handle all this. We will find out a way don’t worry. Now happy?” – She said

“You are not lying right?” – I was unable to believe what I heard

“We are doing so much for you and you just don’t trust us” – She replied

“No it’s not like that. I lost all my hope. That is why I am unable to believe this. Please say it again” – I said with joy.

“Yes son… this is true. You concentrate on your studies. Rest everything I will take care. Don’t worry. Where they will get a son-in-law like you” – My mother assured me.

“Yes… very true and you will not get a daughter-in-law like Megha” – I tried to be funny.

Mom smiled and cut the phone. And now I was relaxed about my wedding with Megha. I thanked god for finally making it happen. I immediately called Megha to double my happiness.

“Hey! Did you get the news? Everyone agreed to our wedding… very soon you will be mine.” – I said in excitement.

“Oh! I thought I am already yours.” – She mixed some naughty expression while saying this.

“What’s the matter? You look in totally different mood today.” – I asked.

“Didn’t you like it” – She smiled.

“I like whatever you say” – I tried to be romantic.

“Go and study. You have to pass all your exams and get a job. I want to be with you all the time as soon as possible” – she was expressive for the first time.

I hang the phone and I was literally dancing. Dancing with feeling of being in love. Love with the most beautiful girl in this world. Few more months passed like that and I was continuously talking to Megha and my love for her was increasing day by day. I think now it was my turn to count the number of days.

That number of days was decreasing one by one and now my final semester exams were just one month away. But then I don’t know what happened, her number was unreachable. It’s been a week I didn’t talk to Megha so I decided to ask my mother whether her number is changed or something.

“Mom…. I was trying to call Megha. Did she change her number?” – I asked.

“I am not sure. Her elder sister is expecting a baby, so Megha went to her place. It might be due to poor network signal in that village. I will try to connect.” – She replied.

“Are you hiding something? Is everything ok?” – My heartbeat was increasing.

“No…it’s nothing like that. I will try to connect and will tell her to give you a landline number. Your final semester exams are just one month away. Concentrate on you studies”- She replied.

“Ok… meantime I am also trying. Bye mom” – I hang-up

But even after so many desperate attempts I was unable to reach Megha and I got busy in my studies. Few more days passed and Megha was still so far.

“Rohan…. Tomorrow is first paper. Call me while doing the revision.” – Praveen said

“Sure…I will start after lunch. Come to my room at 2 PM” – I replied

He said ok and left. I closed the door and as I opened the book, my phone rang.

“What the hell? Who is calling me at this time?” – I left the phone with irritation.

“Hello… Who is this?” – I asked

“Hi…This is Ankita. Megha’s friend” – Reply came from other side.

“Hey Ankita… How are you doing? Where is Megha? I am trying to call her. Her number is changed?” – I threw a series of questions

“I was right. You don’t know anything. She is getting married in two days. Megha is not allowed to step out of house. Megha said your final exams are going on so I should not tell you all this. Nothing can be done anyways. Her parents are not ready for marriage of you two.” – She was giving me the saddest news of my life and I was still not in a mind to believe it.

“This can’t be true. I talked to my parents. They promised me that Megha will be mine. She can’t live without me. Please ask Megha to call me immediately” – I was in a shock state.

“Megha can’t call you. She wrote a letter for you that I have just posted. She requested you to do nothing till you get that letter. God bless both of you” – She said.

“What do you mean by do nothing? This can’t happen. I can’t let somebody decide my fate like this. She is mine and will be mine.” – I replied and hang-up the call.

“Rohan! Open the door. We have exam at 10 AM.” – Praveen knocked the door.

“Yes I am coming” – I saw the clock. It was 8:30 AM already.

All papers of our last semester went well and my college life came to its end. But this was not the end I was waiting for since last four years. I got engineering degree and a decent job offer but all these were looking so useless because I had lost the purpose behind getting all this. Megha is a married girl now….. Married to someone else. And I didn’t even get a chance to talk to her before her wedding. This was my last night at college and I was busy packing my bags when Nikhil enter my room.

“Done with your packing and all?” – He asked

“Yes! I am leaving tomorrow early morning. When is your train?” – I replied casually

“Tomorrow noon. I am not here to discuss train timings and don’t pretend that you don’t know anything. Tell me what happened? – He came to the point straightaway.

I took out a letter from my pocket and moved it towards him. Nikhil started reading it….

Dear Rohan

I was a simple villager girl who clearly knew that she has to complete her studies up to maximum of 12^th and then have to get married to a simple villager guy and spend rest of my life with him. I have always seen life of a girl like this only and I was very much ready for it. Then one fine day, you came to my life. Rohan….you remember our first meeting when I pulled your bed sheet to wake you up and you were totally frustrated on me. That time I don’t know what happened to me, I keep on looking at you. There was definitely some attraction in you and I was completely lost in it. Then I started looking for reasons to meet you and talk to you. I know you have also done so much research on me. Then we started spending time with each other and I realized that I am so much special for someone. You made me feel so special and beautiful. You gave me all your love and respect. Much more than what I actually deserved. That feeling you will never understand. In fact no one can understand. You made me feel that I am much more than an ordinary villager girl and I also have rights to see dreams. Finding you beside me, I started seeing dreams and you turned all of them in reality. I started living in a strange world of dreams. And it all happened because you were with me…. Always, no matter what.

I cried every time you went back from my village and then I used to feel happy that we are going to meet again in few days. In your absence, I used to smile like a mad. Originally I was not a mad but you made me the one. But I had no objection in being a mad because you were there in my madness. I knew whatever I am doing is wrong because my marriage was fixed but nothing was in my control.

Then one day you I came to know that you want to marry me. I don’t remember when the last time I was so happy. I have never asked so much to God even in my dreams. Then I realized that what important you wanted to tell me that night when I stopped you saying anything. But in life, everything doesn’t happen as per the plan and we have to accept it even though we don’t like the outcome. By now I guess you must be aware that why we are not getting married and why everyone hides this from you.

You were totally lost when everyone disagreed to our wedding and you took some steps that made both of the families almost enemies. They started blaming each other and things were getting worst day by day. You lost interest in completing your engineering and you cut off from everyone. We feared that you might come back without completing you studies and your future will be ruined. So we decided to hide my marriage news and lie to you that everyone agreed to our wedding. I am sorry for lying to you.

Please don’t be angry to your parents and don’t ask any questions to them. I know it’s hard for both of us but if everything goes as per our wish then that’s a story not a life. This wedding had never a possibility and we have to accept this. We have shared a really nice relationship and we will continue the same till our end….i promise. We laughed together, sometimes we cried for each other, we waited for months to meet, we prayed for each other. You have given me so much of sweet memories that are enough to smile for the rest of my life.

Now tell me when are coming to my village to meet me? And inform me only when you have finalized the dates and booked the tickets. Otherwise I have to wait for you as always. I have almost painted my room by drawing lines on the wall.

That’s all for now. People will start questioning when they will see me writing letter. Take good care of yourself and keep smiling. You look so nice when you smile. And yes…in case you are crying right now then please take a photo of yours and send it me. You must be looking damn funny while crying.

Pease don’t come to my wedding!

Always yours

Megha

“I don’t know what to say. You tried your best but we don’t get everything we want”- Nikhil said after reading the letter.

“I understand man. But I love her and I am going to miss her forever. Anyways, no point in discussing all this now. What a perfect time they have selected for the wedding. I can’t do anything except crying” – I replied with a smile.

“You talked to your parents on this?” – He asked

“Yes I did.  She explained the same thing and I understood. Honestly speaking my wedding to Megha had very little possibility and I was trying my luck on that small hope” – I said.

“You ok?” – Nikhil raised his concern over me

“Yeah! I am fine” – I lied

“Your face doesn’t support your statement” – He suspected.

“Stop being a detective and let’s go to canteen. I don’t want to discuss this anymore” – I insisted

“No bloody canteen today. Let’s go to the city and have some beer. What say?” – He suggested a better idea.

——————————————————————————————————————————–

“I want to meet this girl. Why didn’t you ever tell me about her?” – She said with heavy voice and moist eyes

“This is past. So didn’t felt like telling you. But today I don’t know why I told you all this. Might be because she is coming tomorrow with her mother for a doctor appointment” – I said with some hesitation.

“What? She is coming tomorrow? I want to meet her alone and I will meet her” – She said and went out of the room.

Next day Megha came and doctor confirmed her pregnancy news. We all were so happy for her but I was a bit restless by thinking about my wife’s meeting with Megha.

“How is she?” – I asked my wife at night.

“I am feeling sleepy. Just turn off the light please.” – She completely ignored my question and my heartbeat increased to its threshold limit.

“Rohan…. you know what?” – She broke the five minute silence of the room

“What?” – I asked instantly

“She still loves you” – She said and put her arms across me

I just hold her tightly in my arms and turned the lights off with so much of relief and respect for my wife.

When I was kid, I read somewhere that Man is a social animal. As life progress, I heard the same line from multiple sources. Earlier I didn’t know the meaning of being a social animal. I belong to a small society of a small town where almost everyone knows each other personally by name and face. Then I saw the village life where people spend most of their time in interacting with other. Observing all this, I was in the process of understanding the concept behind Man being a social animal.

Here animal refers to all the living species on earth. So man is also an animal. And since man live in a society, know their neighbors, interact with them, make friends, and help them when needed; men are called social animals. My concept was all clear. Then I moved to college, interacted with other students and mapped the situation to my society. Here college was like a society and people were interacting with each other and making friends. So “Man is a social animal” thing was totally applicable here.

But after college I moved to metro cities for job and took a nice rented apartment in a big society. Population of this society was more than that of my village. Here also I tried to map the social animal concept to the society people. But I didn’t find any point to start with the mapping process. Here we don’t even know the names of people residing in next apartment; leave alone the other apartments. We say we don’t have time for all this. I believe, being social is one of the basic difference between man and other animals and we don’t have time for even that. What kind of society is this? Is society limited to a 2BHK or a 3BHK apartment?

Now I understood it was intentionally written that Man is a social animal instead of Human is a social animal. This was not a statement or a thought but a reminder. A reminder that you are on earth to spend a social life, not an individual life. And this social life is not limited to your family. As far as man Vs Human is concerned, there is nothing wrong with women being social. They are perfectly doing their job. Men stands nowhere when it comes to being social. Women know exactly who has bought a new TV or who has gifted new jewellery or a new sari to wife. Here I first wrote “his wife” but then I removed “his” word. They always keep news about the whole society with all the details, leave alone their names.

Here the question is, is there any harm in interacting with neighbors? If not then why don’t we do? Why do we refer them with their apartment number? Unfortunately we don’t have any answer to these questions. And we don’t even have time to think about. We find it totally ok of being concerned about Poonam Pandey strip show status and not even thinking about the health status of an old couple residing alone in next apartment. Is this what we call socialism? I don’t think so.

1^st Jan 2011 00:00 AM… this time I was in company of Anupam, Amit and Kedar. Four friends and New Year celebration. Definitely better than the last year. It was time for a small booze party in night followed by a day trip to Nagarjuna Sagar Dam. Yes trip to a Dam on Jan 1^st sound a bit unusual but you really don’t have much choices if you are in Hyderabad. Trip to a Dam is definitely better than a Boring Fort in its last days or a temple. Anyways, we didn’t went for a trip since a long time and what could be a better time than New Year to have one. Dam was ok and we had really good time. There was nothing much to do except driving here and there and taking some random photographs. But still….Spending a day out of Hyderabad was far better if you compare it with an option of drinking all the time in that 3 BHK apartment.

Yesterday I thought of recalling all significant things that happened in my life in last one year and to my surprise I was not able to recall any such moment. Nothing major happened in family, relationship status Single throughout the year, same job, same responsibilities, same work, same desk, same chair and same computer. One can say that my life has become boring and non happening but here I have to keep in mind that if nothing awesome thing happened to me in last one year then neither any bad thing happened. And I am thankful to God for this.

That’s all as of now. It’s time to say good bye to office and head towards home. I might get some beer at this time if I hurry.

My train was scheduled to reach Warangal at morning 9 and it was running 1 hour late already. I made some calculations that even I sleep at 4, I will get 6 hours of sleep before getting down and continued the text exchange till 4. But as per AC boy, train did some kind of makeup in night while I was sleeping and reached Warangal at 8:45. Good thing was, I got a connecting train for Hyderabad at 9. Compartments were looking like certificate of India’s 2^nd position in population and that was the last train running in Indian history. Somehow I found a less crowded compartment and adjusted my luggage and myself in a theoretically comfortable position. I noticed something like a girl sitting in front of me. She resembled main villain of some cheap south Indian horror movie in many ways. And then she smiled. I am telling you, that smile can make anyone lose faith in God. I immediately left that place and came to the door. It was a totally different story at the door. 3 people were fighting over sitting at door. I wondered if government should start reservation for those door seats. Some train vendors were selling many things, mostly dark in color. I recognized only idli and vada. Even after spending 4 years in south (that includes 2 and a half years in trademark south), I found rest of the name unpronounceable.

I wrote all these because I am here sitting in office with absolutely no work to do and feeling sleepy. I yawned 6 times while writing these two paragraphs. This doesn’t mean I build satellites or work on rocket science on other days but I take 9 to 10 hours of sleep for sure but last night only half of that. Ok…I give up now. I better take some coffee and smoke to get rid of these unprofessional yawns.

This race is directly connected to human desires and its nature to compare self with others. All of these things have no end. I believe, the biggest illusion in human life is the “enough” word. Enough money, enough comfort, enough saving, enough monthly income, enough property…extra extra. There is nothing called enough in life. At every point of time we think that ok….this much is enough to spend a good life and we start running towards it. After a certain period of time we do achieve that “enough target” but then we find ourself in yet another race. Comparing ourself with others and running.

At some stage of life we do understand that this race is an illusion but by that time we realize that we forgot to live. We waste all of our time in collecting comfort for life and the time we think we have enough for a great future, we realize that actually we have wasted all of our life. Do you remember when was the last time you spoke to yourself? The last time you tried to understand your life. The last time you spent time with yourself. I do this on a regular basis. I try to understand where my life is heading to. I don’t believe in rebirth kind of stuff. I have only a finite number of moments in my life so I guess I have rights to spend a part of my life for myself. I have rights to live for myself. I have rights to do things that make me happy from inside.

I totally admire girls as far as living life is concerned. They know exactly why god has given life to her. We all should learn how to live from them. They spend one-third of their life in collecting cloths of all possible weird colors and rest two-third in searching matching accessories for those cloths. Sometime I wonder even God is little biased towards these girls. They gave them some kind of back-end communication system to let them understand what their life is meant for. Through what else medium, a girl would get an idea of spending ten days in decorating the whole office on multiple themes. That too just for a five minutes display at a completion with no prizes. I can’t think of any other possible medium of such an awesome idea. If you can think of any…please let me know.

Ok that was a joke (of course made by God).  But seriously…. We are so much involved in this non ending race of making life better that we forgot to live. Someone has very well said that “time keep on decreasing with time”. So Live before you lose time for it. Being ambitious is good but running towards it like a mad is bad. We all should work hard for a better and secured tomorrow but at the same time we should spend some time for a satisfactory today as well. What is the use of a better tomorrow if we have wasted today in some unnecessary competition? It is important to note that today is time when we can live our life to the fullest, not when we will be surrounded by knee and back problems.

So from the next time, before comparing yourself with others and start running, do think twice that do you really need to be a part of this race and where your life is heading to. You got this life only once and life doesn’t mean only tomorrow….today is also a part of it.

The main actor of this story is a normal IT professional like millions in this world. He is working in Chennai with one of India’s top IT service provider since last 5 years. In these five years he wished only one thing, an onsite opportunity. He resigned three times and every time he was retained by his current employer with a promise of onsite opportunity. His third resignation didn’t go waste like the previous two and he got an onsite opportunity for a client in Denmark. With full of happiness and satisfaction, he came Hyderabad for visa processing and his first overseas travel. He reached Hyderabad mid March and he was supposed to fly early April. He got visa stamped on time and everything was going smooth until that disastrous day.

One morning he found his bag wet and then he realized his passport is in that bag only. He quickly checked his passport condition but it was too late by then. His passport was all wet and front page was completely destroyed. We were looking for source of this damage and we found that water was coming from the refrigerator. One of his roommates (that’s me) had kept that on defrost. He shown his passport to company immigration department and they declared that it’s a damaged passport and he can’t travel on that. He immediately went Chennai to apply for a fresh copy of passport. With lots of effort and some 20,000 INR, he got his new passport in three weeks. But then Denmark consulate refused to transfer his visa on new passport and advised to re-apply for a fresh visa on fresh passport.

He did exactly the same and put application for issue of new visa. Finally his application was approved and he got a fresh copy of visa and he was all set to fly. Then he faced some issue in forex and ticket bookings and this delayed his first ever overseas travel by another three days. Then the day came when he had everything to fly. He got forex, tickets, hotel bookings and most importantly visa. His flight was scheduled to fly first Hyderabad to New Delhi and then New Delhi to Copenhagen. He got formal farewell and best wishes from his officemates and he left for home to pick baggage and from there to airport at 6:00 PM on 10^th of June as his New Delhi flight was at 7:50 PM. He reached home in next 10 minutes and pressed button to call lift, then he got a call from his project manager.

“Hey! It seems some issue with your visa. Come back to office” – Manager Said.

He immediately returned back. His manager shown him the scanned copy of visa and told him that embassy has stamped visa again on his old passport only not on re-issued one. So he can’t fly on that and he need to wait another couple of days. It is embassy mistake and it should not take more than a couple of days to get visa on new passport. Also his manager advised him fly as soon as he get new visa without considering the time. Finally he got the fresh visa on Saturday 12^th June and flew for his first onsite travel.

This was true story of an IT professional who bravely faced all possible obstacles in his first overseas travel and came out as a true winner at the end. It feels really nice to see pictures in his orkut album. Enjoy dude your first of many onsite opportunities and I wish him much smooth process in future.

Moral of the story: Never defrost your refrigerator when there is even a remote chance of onsite travel of any of your roommate.

I was supposed to publish this post on 14^th of June and I pressed the publish button as well. But as soon i hit the publish button, my site crashed and it started showing “This website is coming soon” message. Even Godaddy team was not able to find out the problem. They said everything seems fine with your website and hosting account and they escalated this issue to their technical department. It took 6 days and 24 emails to finally resolve the issue. I won’t say that issue was resolved because they have just allocated me a different hosting account and I have to upload all my posts and data again.

Sunday started at 9:00 AM. I turned on the motor to fill the water tank and started doing all necessary activities. Then I left home to buy home stuffs for coming week. On the way I saw some readymade eatable item and I thought of finishing my breakfast then and there. After some one and a half hours I returned back. Then I saw water has exceeded the water tank capacity and my lane was looking like a flood suffering area. “Nice! Water tank is full. Now I have enough water to wash my cloths and finish other activities.” – I thought. “What is this? Government call it a City and they can’t even provide a good drainage system” – I blamed Government for water on my lane.

Hyderabad gets too hot in summer and temperature rises to 44 and 45 degree centigrade. Thank God I left all fans running while leaving home, inside temperature is not much. Then I moved to washing area, turned on the water flow, put all my cloths in washing machine and set the wash time to 80 minutes. In 80 minutes, one round of detergent wash and 4-5 rounds of water wash will over and my cloths will be completely clean. Now it was time to shave. Since I am used to wash my razor again and again, I left the tap open to save my effort in turning tap each time. Then I took shower for an hour and put washed cloths to get dry. After that I left home on my car to watch a movie. I was running late for the movie and traffic was pathetic. I was driving fast by changing road lanes very smartly. Screw glowing side indicators while changing lanes. Who the bloody hell cares. My theory is…keep on blowing horn while in traffic. People will automatically give you the way. Trust me…It always work in India. Then I tried to overtake a three-wheeler and that hit the side of my car. “Stop you bastard” – I shouted. I screwed him then and there. I tell you, these three-wheeler drivers don’t have any driving sense. Oh no! Not again…I got stuck at a traffic signal. I saw the traffic light was red and was showing some 60 seconds. I pressed the accelerator when there was some 5 seconds left in traffic light turning green. Thanks to my idea of blowing horn continuously for those 60 seconds, I was able to move so quickly. On next signal a traffic policeman stopped me for fast driving. I immediately gave him a hundred rupees note and moved ahead. India is great.

Kudos to all my smart moves, I reached theater on time. There was a long queue at ticket counter. Screw these bloody Indians. I moved straight to front of the queue. Few people opposed but till then I got the tickets. I took a ‘paan’ and entered into the auditorium. Movie was going nice and I didn’t want to go outside, so I spit the ‘paan’ below my seat. While going out, I spit rest of the ‘paan’ at the wall corner. Now I was not in mood of going back to home, so I headed towards an ancient place nearby. Believe me…real beauty is in natural places only and you can see true art in these ancient places. Then I took a stone and draw a beautiful arrow passing through a perfectly shaped heart and wrote my name above that arrow and my girlfriend’s name below the arrow to mark my visit to that monument. This will remain as a testimonial of my visit. I believe all of us should do this. This will show the number of places you have visited.

At 11 PM I returned back to my home. Thank god…. I left the lights on. It was not dark inside. I walked to bathroom to wash my face then I realized there was no water. What is this? What’s the use of this government if they can’t even fulfill basic requirements of common people? They are all corrupt and busy in making money by any medium.

You must be wondering who the hell is this irresponsible, irritating, immature, impolite and careless person. I am you. I am pretty sure you must have done and continuously doing, if not all then some of these things in your day to day life. And at the same time we feel offensive if someone call us bloody Indians. It is always easy to blame government for everything. We blame government for not providing us even basic facilities and doing nothing to make a better India. Here we need to realize that Idea of a better India starts from your house, your society and your behavior. No one except you can turn the dream of developed India in to reality. If you can’t build a developed India, make a developed Society at least.

A woman plays a vital role in expansion of mankind; it is impossible for any human to come in this world without her support. She feeds us in her womb for nine months and suffers all the pains without showing any sign of regret. She plays lot of other important roles in our lives without which it is not possible for us to live a happy life. However, still our behavior toward women requires a substantial change. A woman starts facing discrimination in life straight from her birth and this whole story continues till her death. We talk about social and economical development in India. But even after so many years of development, we are not able to give any respectable place for women in our society.

In India, almost everyday we find cases where women are burned alive. Hundred of women are molested or raped every day around India. The biggest difficulty with the women is that there is no place in world which is completely safe for them. Almost every man believes them only as the object of sexual satisfaction and nothing more. This is a matter of immense shame for country like India where we give lot of respect to our mother and even claim our country as our mother. A country where we worship women in the figure of many goddesses like Durga, Kali, Saraswati, Laxmi and believe newly born girl as image of goddess; still we do not provide the much needed respect to the small innocent and insecure goddesses present among us.

It is truly hurting to give pain to one of the best creation of God. Women are the only creature in this universe which is burned before their death. If we start counting, women suffering are endless. God has gifted them a great emotional power; it is only due to this we are not able to see their pain. Most of the time she remains in the sufferings but still she does not show her pain to others.

When asked for step towards improvement of women condition in India, we give reference of govt. promises about gender equality and women reservation. Very recently I was part of a discussion on women reservation in India, where Tanay raised a very valid point. If we pass this woman reservation bill and make it in implementation, we won’t be able to give true appreciation of their designation and achievements. We will be having perception like that particular women is here not because of her talent or capabilities but because of this women reservation. Second is superiority perception of man in our society. Whenever a married couple doesn’t have a kid, we always blame wife for that. Even if wife asks her husband to go for a checkup, man takes this as a pride issue. What’s so egoistic in this, I don’t understand. We all are humans and nobody is perfect in this universe.

We need to understand here that it is a tough task to consider world without them, however the decreasing number of girl child shows some concerns. We need to come out of the double standards against the women and provide them with a good world to live. Then only we can dream of a better nation and a developed country in true sense.

Till 10th I used to spend all of my time at home itself. I guess I was known by no one in my society. Then eventually I started spending some time with other guys of society. I started playing cricket in ground of Govt. Girls high school which was right in-front of my house. I can totally understand that sarcastic smile on your face after reading the last line. Don’t worry its very obvious. I hope all of you know what a high school means. 6th to 10th class, in case you don’t know. School time was 9:00 AM to 3:30 PM and as a proof of normal guy, I used to keep all my studies aside at sharp 3:20 to donate next 20 to 30 minutes to appreciate God’s best creation. All these girls have nothing to do with my love story. It was just to make you feel jealous. My love was growing at her own pace in Mr. and Mrs. Agarwal family, Whose house was at the entry gate of school. There were total 6 members in that family. Mr. Agarwal (famous as Chattan Singh), Mrs. Agarwal and their four calendars (3 daughters and one son). I will just skip any information regarding the son who was youngest among them. Come to the three daughters. Those three girls are perfect example of continuous degradation of quality. Let me start with the eldest one. Riya… that’s her name. She was the most famous personality in our society. Here I have a little doubt as Chattan singh was giving her a tough fight as far as popularity is concerned. I will tell you an incident for better understanding of Riya’s popularity and reach. There was a guy in our society who used to flirt with second daughter of Chattan singh. One day that guy went to their house with one of his friend to propose the second daughter, which she immediately refused once again. After that they had a long argument cum oral fight. How do I know all this? I was watching all that live, standing on the roof of a non working bus standing on the girls school ground. Why roof of the bus? To get inline of balcony height to achieve best visibility of all this drama. And I was not alone. There were nearly 15 guys standing on those two buses and enjoying a live action cum romantic movie. I guess this is called a true 3D Hi-Definition movie. Ok coming to the action. Those two guys made some high pitched arguments and then moved back to their own house which was close to Chattan singh residence. Within 15 minutes to all this drama some 20-25 guys came on motorbikes and screwed that guy. This was just a small example of Riya’s popularity and reach. But Chattan singh is not less. He is popular in his own way. Being father of such a fighter plus extremely beautiful girl itself is a recognizable popularity.      

Coming to the second daughter of Chattan singh. She was a very shy and conserved kind of simple girl. Exactly opposite to Riya. Height 5’6″, extreme fair color, spotless skin, build somewhat on heavier side but not fat. That was Vidya, Vidya Agarwal.      

“Excuse me sir. I want to take admission in your tuition classes”…. A sweet voice dropped in our ears like honey and our eyes including our head turned towards the voice. Vidya was standing on the gate of chemistry coaching center. My heartbeat skipped for a second. I noticed everyone was appreciating that beauty, obviously by their eyes. “Please come in. Just wait for some time inside the adjacent room. We will talk after this session.”….Munishwar sir replied. She went inside and sir continued the teaching session but by that time my mind and body were at two different places. That one glance had done its job. After some time session ended and we headed towards our homes. While everyone was praising Vidya, I was makings plans to “PATAO” that girl.      

She got admission to 5:30-6:30 AM batch and my batch was 6:30-7:30 AM. Just missed na? Practically speaking you can’t try on a girl who is centre of attraction for boys of two batches. So I decided to start my PATAO plan from my society only. As you can see from the picture, her balcony was adjacent to the playground where we used to play cricket. So that became my starting point. But it was not that easy. I had to execute my plan successfully without being noticed by other guys of society. I knew my society is full of NARADMUNIs. Even if one person had got a small clue of my intentions, my love story would have become popular much before its beginning and that too with so many witnesses of imaginary incidents. I had to make all my moves very carefully and wisely. Finally I got noticed by the girl. First milestone was achieved successfully. Then love story continued with exchange of smiles here and there. I noticed that she used to stare me very secretly from here balcony. My plan was working. I started going to the ground daily without a single miss; Sometimes twice or even thrice a day on Sundays. Eventually duration of our staring each other session extended. I used to reach on job at sharp 4:00 PM and she used to come at her balcony or at rooftop and we used to stare each other without exchanging a word for hours till the natural light dims. Two young people can’t continue their I-stare-you-stare session for so long without getting noticed by others. So eventually we got noticed by other cricket team members and within few hours, all of the society was aware of our growing love story. The details and depth of love story with other people were far beyond the details even I had. Now this love story was all open. But till then I had successfully crossed the second milestone. Now we used to stare each other fearless. Ohh I forgot to tell you that Riya was married till then. So that obstacle was also out of scope but Mr. and Mrs. Chattan singh used to give me “stay-away-from-my-daughter” look and in reply I gave them ”your-daughter-is-awesome” look. I kept both of them in totally ignorance list. My worries were not over. With society awareness program my elder brother also came to know that his brother has grown up. But good news was, he just gave a casual smile on this news.      

Then Mr. Sanjeev Kumar made his entry in my love story. He was ‘I-play-rarely’ team member of my cricket team. One day when I was coming to the playground, he met me on the way and joined me to the ground. None of the other team member was there and I was sitting on the concrete bench placed on the ground (the place where I used to sit daily for staring session). So he came to the bench and sit beside me. After some time she came to her balcony and started staring me. Sanjeev was not aware of my love story and he thought she was staring him. “Hey Rajeev, see….she is staring me”- he whispered. “Obviously dude, you are looking so smart today” – I replied with a smile. Next day he came with one of his friend (probably he wanted to show him his Casanova avatar). Next day one more guy, and eventually I had to stare Vidya with me surrounded by 10 more guys. This was not working, I had to do something extra. I moved one step further and started calling her. It always took 8-10 blank calls to get connected with Vidya. Blank calls were so normal to her family, courtesy Riya. So it was not an issue for me. On the other side, Sanjeev started believing that she seriously likes him. One day I told Sanjeev that I had a conversation with Vidya at coaching and she said that she likes Sanjeev but she hates his moustache. Sanjeev will look smarter with clean shaved. On that day itself I found Sanjeev standing at barber shop and looking at mirror with one finger on his moustache. That was the time when one last hit was required. I told him that he seriously looks better clean shaved and my statement was supported by our four other friends. As expected we witnessed a moustache-less Sanjeev that evening. Honestly speaking he was looking funny but we had to act like now he is the hottest guy in city. All I was waiting for was next morning. I was standing with Sanjeev in front of his house and waiting for Vidya to come out. At 5:00 AM Vidya came out for tuitions on her bicycle. She gave a serious glance at both out us, laughed aloud and moved ahead.      

“Have you seen it? She was smiling after watching you clean shaved. Now she is all yours man” – I said. That time I tell you his chest became broader and he blushed.      

“Now as we know she totally likes you, it’s time for you to move one step further and let her know your feelings for her” – I said.      

“I know yaar but how? It’s not my cup of tea. I feel shy and nervous in all these things” – He replied.      

“Why don’t you just write all your feelings on a letter and give it to her. You don’t even need to go to give that letter to her. I will talk to Jhunna (another guy in our society) and I am sure he will deliver your letter to Vidya” – I convinced him.      

“That’s a great idea. I will write a letter today itself and it’s your responsibility to get it delivered in her hands” – Sanjeev said.      

“Sure man, anything for you. Don’t worry. Write a letter in such a way that she get totally impressed” – I said.      

Next day Jhunna came to my house with sanjeev’s letter for Vidya. That was funniest letter I have ever seen. It’s a ten years old story so I can’t recall all content of that letter but I still remember the beginning and end. That was written with help of his pundit roommate and was written in purest form of Hindi. Have a look at the beginning and end of that historical love letter:      

प्रिये प्राणेश्वरी,      

मैं तुम्हारे प्रेम रूपी सागर मे गोते लगाये जा रहा हूँ फिर भी अधर मे ही अटका हूँ. तल का पता नहीं चल रहा. मैं तुम्हारे हृदये की बगिया मे अपने प्यार के फूल उगाना चाहता हूँ जिस से हम दोनो का जीवन गुलशन गुलफाम हो जाएगा.      

Something something…      

………      

तुम्हारे प्रेम का पुजारी

संजीव कुमार      

I was laughing to death after reading that letter. I asked Jhunna to preserve that letter as delivering that letter was never in the plan. I was not expecting such an awesome letter from Sanjeev.      

After few months my tuitions came to its end. Course was over. Now what? What to do? My mind was running fast. Here I took help of Rajiv Kumar Niraj, my friend and tuition mate. We both were most favorite students of Munishwar Sir and he sees a potential IIT-JEE qualifier in me. It was time to take advantage of this favoritism. First I find out what is currently going on in Vidya’s batch. Organic chemistry nomenclature was about to start. I went to the teacher along with Rajiv K Niraj and expressed my concern over lack of preparation in organic nomenclature. He immediately asked me to join a batch to revise that topic.      

“You should join a session to revise this topic. Why don’t you join 12:00 Noon batch. There we are about to start this topic”- He said.      

“12:00 Noon! It won’t be possible sir. That is time for self studies. I don’t want to disturb my rhythm. Any morning batch sir? Ok leave it…  I will prepare this for myself and will ask you in case of any doubt” – I said in most polite form.      

“No no… self study will take some unnecessary time. Yes, there is one more batch where this topic is about to start. But that is too early 5:30 AM” – He suggested.      

“No problem sir… Morning studies are best. I will join from tomorrow” – I said with relief.      

Next morning I was there in her batch. At 5:25 she came and looked totally puzzled by finding me there. Now my love story was running with pace. Daily morning at 4:30 AM, I used to call her to ensure she is not sleeping. Then I used to wait on road by doing some false adjustments or unnecessary cleaning of my bicycle to kill time till her arrival. Then we go and return together on our individual bicycles to Chemistry coaching with so many talks on the way. I was loving my first love or crush whatever it was. Believe me, acting like you are trying to understand the concepts of a topic of your expertise is very difficult and I was doing that with so much of perfection. After a few months, course of that batch also got over. Now we were left with no choice. Now regular meetings would be impossible. Only telephone calls and evening staring sessions will be available. We continued our love story with these two sources and appeared for 12^th exam. I got first division and she got Gandhi division. Gandhi division is 3^rd division, FYI for those who don’t know what Gandhi division is.      

Then I moved to Patna for a year for IIT-JEE preparation. When I returned back after IIT-JEE exams, I got the news that she got engaged and wedding is scheduled in few months. I called her and found that she was happy. She was telling me about the guy she is getting married. I was listening to her with a smile on my face. That was a genuine smile as I was also in a serious relationship with my girlfriend by then. It was time  for both of us to move on. Finally the day arrived when I got my IIT-JEE result. I had cracked it with AIR 3212 and she got married exactly 2 days after the result day. We both were happy with respective results in our own way. I do missed her a lot whenever I went to the playground after her wedding.      

I met her couple of times after her wedding with exchange of smiles. At our last meet she was with her two little kids and gave me you-too-should-get-married-now look. It was a love story where nothing went wrong. It was a love story or not, I have a doubt in that. It was a great feeling and we both enjoyed it. We did nothing wrong, we never ever touched each other but still kept a special relationship. God bless her.      

With lots of love      

Rajeev      

Disclaimer: All characters appearing in this story are real. Any resemblance to any other person, living or dead is purely coincidental.      

Note: you must be interested to know about youngest daughter of Chattan Singh. You better ignore her. Her nick name is Phulan. I still don’t know her real name. When she come to balcony, batsman gets out on very next ball and bowlers get punished by 30 runs an over. Do you still want me write about her? Even if you say yes I won’t. Otherwise my blog will start throwing 404 – Page not found error or your browser will start crashing with unknown error found message.

I believe it was one among the many cases of Child sacrifice. I don’t find any other possible reason behind such a brutal act. Since last couple of days I am reading about child sacrifice culture in Indian mythology. India is leader in Child Sacrifice cases. Country which is progressing so fast still has the rituals like child sacrifice and human sacrifice. Moreover this is not the single case. Within last few years, we have seen lot of these types of cases from different part of India.

When I searched for a definition, Wikipedia says “Child sacrifice is the ritualistic killing of children in order to please, propitiate or force supernatural beings in order to achieve a desired result”. I am surprised that even in 21^st century; some mentally sick people justify this cruel act by making arguments that Durga, the Goddess of power and strength, get pleased by offering blood. It’s so ridiculous. How a God or Goddess can be pleased by killing his/her creation. Even if god can be pleased by this, why don’t you offer your own blood? Why an innocent child who doesn’t even know what is his/her fault?

In most of such cases, the sacrifices were done by females and not by the males. Can’t they think for a second that this child is a son or daughter of a woman? How a woman can do this to the other woman? In one Pune incident, the child was taken to the temple made in the one room of house. Lady there performed the rituals for some time and then cruelly killed the child. The lady has given the reason for doing this is having her own child. Why this kind of degrading has come up in our values? Why we are so selfish? Lady has killed the child of other for getting her own. This is the degradation of our values. We are becoming highly self-centered day-by-day. We are concerned with our self. With the other’s pain we are not concerned. Lady has never thought what will happen to the mother of child. One more interesting thing which is coming out is most of cases; the involved person in sacrifice is known one. Child is chosen with most concern for sacrifice and it is tried that the child for sacrifice should be like the child which is desired. Really how cruel it is, killing someone which you like.

Secondly a major cause behind all this is a belief in we Indians that woman without child is not real women. Women without child are treated with so much of hate. Even whatever reason may be behind this, these women are looked badly. This causes an insecurity complex in these women and provokes them to do anything right or wrong. We are required to change our outlook toward these women if we do not want to repeat these things in near future. Other sacrifices are done by the tantriks (who pray for black magic). They also can go up to any level for getting desired results. Therefore children become the main victim for achieving their goals. In one incident a tantric told a young man that if he hanged and killed a small boy and lit a fire at his feet the smoke from the ritual could be used to lure the pretty village girl he had his eye on. In another incident, a tantrik killed a child and ate it to acquire supernatural powers.

Irrespective of the given reason, child sacrifice is madness. These kinds of rituals must be stopped. No one can justify such a brutal act by any possible reason. Child is called as face of God and Goddess. This is so stupid to believe that any God or Goddess will get pleased by killing their own face. Some hard rules need to be implemented and must be strictly followed. We, the common people can play a vital role in destroying any such ritual. This need to be stopped at any cost