Whispering Shadow

You are anticipating an important call. You keep checking the phone every 2 minutes to see if it is working. You even check your phone occasionally when you hear some other phone ring. And when it finally does ring, you hear that extremely familiar tone "Hello Sir, I am calling up from Blah Blah bank. Are you interested in a personal loan?" I am sure we have all been in that situation before, where you rarely get what you most expect. It seems to be the law of the universe. I think it is a incomprehensible trick your head plays on you. Why does it always feel you have waited the longest time for your bus? Why do you think that every other bus except the one en route to your destination stops by the bus stop but yours? Eventually when you decide to take a rickshaw, there you see it in appearing in the far end of the road. On a recent trip, we had confirmed reservations in a train and we were hoping that it'll be a fun trip to our destination, the whole groups of friends to...

I haven't visited the Shadows in a while because I was visiting some place else. A tiny sleepy hill station on the outskirts of Mumbai (don't know if 180Km qualifies as outskirts) was our destination for a well deserved post exam holiday. It is called Bhandardara. We went there to have fun and so we did to the fullest - climbing the tallest peak of Maharashtra, trekking among the clouds, catching frogs, going shoe-hunting when it is pitch dark, playing the most hilarious game of Bluff, getting caught in fog so thick that it could hide an elephant, picnicking near waterfalls and much more.Nonetheless, I am not going to make this post a journal. I am going to describe three moments which made me feel at peace with myself like never before. The first one came when we were sitting at a step on our trek up the Kalsubhai summit. We were half way up having crossed rickety ladders and slippery trails. At this point, I decided to take a break. I sat on a rock in admiration of the view. ...

It is quite a spectacular view. At one moment you are watching the high rise towers of Malabar Hills sitting on the comfortable parapet of Marine Drive. At the next, all you see is grey clouds. You can make out it is raining out there, there's lightning, and then there's thunder. It looks quite spectacular because of the wide canvas provided to you, a frame which you usually cannot zoom out on in a concrete jungle that the city is. You are so mesmerized by the beauty of the view that you don't realise when the clouds have caught up with you. For a while, you feel it is just the waves smashing into the breakwater, but as the downpour grows heavier, it finally sinks in that it is raining. But you don't want to get cover. You want to stand up, raise hands and feel the rain. It gives you the impression that you are standing on the edge of the world with no one else around you. The thunder overshadowing all the sounds of a busy city and the lightning giving a cosmic feel to ...

I am a self-confessed net-a-holic now but I wasn’t so once upon a time. So much so that I would only have a very selective list of individuals on my list, the ones I interacted with personally everyday. There would be the plain ‘wassup’ messages and the same old ‘nm’ replies. If you meet someone everyday and talk to them at least thrice over the phone when you are not with them, there’s barely stuff left to discuss online. I moved to India . I was all alone at least during the first few months. Having nothing better to do, I started experimenting by talking to people who I didn’t know personally. Not the ones you meet in chat rooms but friends of friends of friends or some long lost person whose name I heard in school. We started of as strangers but soon, I would know them so well that they would get a new status in my social hierarchy - that of net pals. It was not that the bond lasted forever, but yes there were a few precious ones who I held on to and am still friends with even ...

Yesterday, I found out how it is to be completely transported a different world. No sounds from the street. No phone calls. No thoughts of the impending exam. Just pure exhilaration, the kinds which you cannot see on your television set but only feel in the stands. I am talking of the T20 spectacle between Chennai and Mumbai which I witnessed recently. Before the match, I was confused which team to support. As far as cricket went, I knew my loyalty was with the Indian team but I had not yet made up my mind among the teams in the Indian Premier league. At the venue I realised I didn't have much of a choice. From the moment I stepped in to the end of the match, the crowd was only supporting one team - The Mumbai Indians. The Chennai Superkings were lost for support. I have been to a cricket match before but the T20 atmosphere was electric. Even before the match started the music kept the crowd going. The dhols and cheerleaders added to the fervor.People had started filling in th...

I had only read about old people being stubborn and child-hearted at their age until I started living with my grandparents. Fifty years separate them and me and it is quite substantial for a generation gap. But the trouble is it is not about a late night party or a trip to Goa, it is about the most basic of basic issues, like taking medicine or not exerting. If you had to think for reasons for not taking a pill, what could they be? It is bitter. It is giving me loose motions. Or worst come worst, I just can't swallow them. But here I here reasons like: Wednesday is not a good day to take medicine. This pill will give me a haemorrhage. The gold drops recommended by xyz relative are working just fine. The doctor doesn't know his job. You can only win a debate if someone is willing to argue. If there are two parallel arguments without any common grounds it becomes impossible to even debate, forget winning. Age on their side gives them the edge of seniority. Seniority means they ca...

There has rarely been a time in my life where I have had such diverse and confusing emotions as I have today. I was so looking forward to the end of college, but yet, when I face the last day of my college life this Saturday, I don’t want it to end. I never loved my college. In fact, the balance of indifference had tilted towards a sense of disdain to the ways of its functioning. So what has been this reason for the change? Is it the attachment with teachers? May be with their quirks, but that’s not a strong enough point. Is it the activities of the college? Well, whatever I loved about those activities has ceased to exist, so that can’t be the reason. I guess it’s the people, my peers, my pals. I have spent four years with them and during this period, they knowingly or unknowingly have become my habit. I am in awe of the intelligence of some and hate the sycophancy of others. I enjoy the humour and respect the humility of a few. In every way, each one’s idiosyncrasy and/or beha...