There's someone watching over you. Not in a 1984-Big-Brother manner, but in a way that mom mentioned when we were kids. There's someone watching over you, someone who's looking out for you, someone who knows what you need, someone who's vouching for you, rooting for you, conspiring to bend and contort the world into the shapes you imagine it in. But it's up to you to submit to this higher power without question or doubt.
Every now and then, you run into someone who changes your perception of how the world works, how your world works. For me, it happened twice recently. First, when I realised that I might have met my monkey mate (more of that in a bit), and second when I made acquaintance with this humble sardarji, who might have pushed me into digging deeper into what this life is about.
As promised, my monkey mate first. About a year ago, completely burned out, yours truly bought a bus ticket to God's own country, Kerala. It was a simple attempt to get far away from the maddening crowd for a good 10 days. Thankfully, my boss at the time didn't bat an eye before approving my leave.
I bought a Friday ticket on Thursday and was pleasantly surprised to get myself a seat without much of a fuss. Thankfully, I had a friend, Deepak, who had chalked out a plan for a little excursion to Coorg with another gang. So all I had to do was tag along. All new people, a clean sheet of paper, just what I needed to unwind. Well, no wait! I knew.... one, two, three... umm four, oh yeah, there was just one from the gang whom I'd never met before. Monkey. The basketball player, or so I thought the first time I saw her. She really wasn't a basketball player. She was just someone who looked goddamn athletic. And *ahem* hot. A bit out of my league, I thought initially. Thankfully, she turned out to be a bit insane. Someone you could peacefully fight with.
Fight we did, this girl and I. So much that the rest of the gang had to pull us apart, do this...
.......... just to keep the rest from tumbling into a frenzied killing spree and murdering all of humanity. Yep, it was pretty intense. But what's a friendship without a fight?
In all honesty, I fought because I never thought that this orangutan would be my friend. Self-defence if you may. Insecurity in reality. She fought because... umm, I don't know, she was playing along I guess. Or maybe she really hated me, which isn't really hard to do. Either way, our gang was fully convinced that this girl and I would kill each other. That's exactly the point where we began warming up to each other. I remember we were in the car, driving through the winding roads of Karnataka. Sitting in the middle seat, I was flanked by my friend Deepak on the right, and this ape on the left. Switchback after switchback, our sleepy Ms. Monkey kept getting thrown around, sometimes onto me and sometimes onto the door. I felt a little bad every time she hit the door. Then, she settled down a little, moved away from the door, and by default, leaned onto my shoulders, and stayed there peacefully. It felt relieving in a manner I can't put into words. I was a little tensed up, but the fact that she was comfortable by my side put me at ease. I knew she was fine there, looking all innocent and drowsy.
Like a lame idiot, I looked at her once or twice, only to see her steal glances at me. That's when I knew, this is one human I could be friends with for a lifetime. You see, I have a hard time making friends. Or, as the Flash says in JLA, "I could use friends."
She throws her weight around, acts all wonky, annoys the crap out of you, throws a fit, acts like a four-year-old, smiles like a four-year-old, ties her hair like a four-year-old. Holy cow, she's a four-year-old. But when you're down, she's got your back, she'll give you company till four in the morning, maybe put you to sleep even. And the best bit? She'll bring you back to the ground when you're flying too high. Monkey, what a splendid creature you are!
That brings us to the second person who made my 2017 better. He's tall, turbaned, and the humblest man I've known in a long time. I ran into him on the very first day at my new workplace. A corner seat in the office meant that he ranked quite high in the pecking order. But, something about his demeanour made him look approachable, someone you don't need to pretend with.
From what little I understand, he knows India, Europe and the U.S of A. like their maps are printed on the back of his hand. He told me something recently that changed the way I look at life. Mom says that we should be thankful for every new day that we get to stay on this beautiful planet. My friend is of a different opinion.
His argument goes like this. Suppose that you have come to a big city from a far-flung village. You're here to prepare and clear an important examination and are staying at a hotel. Now, what would you like to do? Stay at the hotel for as long as possible? Or would you rather crack the examination and move on to seek the next big challenge?
He says that everything we do isn't even close to "We do". It's some higher power working the schemes through us. We're channels through which the world is unfurling itself, second by second. Just like how Jim Carrey recently, and rather scandalously, said "There's no ME". Here's the hard part, and something we all must get a grasp over. Remove the 'I', the 'Me', and the 'Myself' from all equations, and life will become easier. How do you do that, thought? I wondered. Mr. Baljinder said, believe. Believe that you'll do what comes to you, instead of planning and fretting over it.
Every now and then, you run into someone who changes your perception of how the world works, how your world works. For me, it happened twice recently. First, when I realised that I might have met my monkey mate (more of that in a bit), and second when I made acquaintance with this humble sardarji, who might have pushed me into digging deeper into what this life is about.
As promised, my monkey mate first. About a year ago, completely burned out, yours truly bought a bus ticket to God's own country, Kerala. It was a simple attempt to get far away from the maddening crowd for a good 10 days. Thankfully, my boss at the time didn't bat an eye before approving my leave.
I bought a Friday ticket on Thursday and was pleasantly surprised to get myself a seat without much of a fuss. Thankfully, I had a friend, Deepak, who had chalked out a plan for a little excursion to Coorg with another gang. So all I had to do was tag along. All new people, a clean sheet of paper, just what I needed to unwind. Well, no wait! I knew.... one, two, three... umm four, oh yeah, there was just one from the gang whom I'd never met before. Monkey. The basketball player, or so I thought the first time I saw her. She really wasn't a basketball player. She was just someone who looked goddamn athletic. And *ahem* hot. A bit out of my league, I thought initially. Thankfully, she turned out to be a bit insane. Someone you could peacefully fight with.
Fight we did, this girl and I. So much that the rest of the gang had to pull us apart, do this...
.......... just to keep the rest from tumbling into a frenzied killing spree and murdering all of humanity. Yep, it was pretty intense. But what's a friendship without a fight?
In all honesty, I fought because I never thought that this orangutan would be my friend. Self-defence if you may. Insecurity in reality. She fought because... umm, I don't know, she was playing along I guess. Or maybe she really hated me, which isn't really hard to do. Either way, our gang was fully convinced that this girl and I would kill each other. That's exactly the point where we began warming up to each other. I remember we were in the car, driving through the winding roads of Karnataka. Sitting in the middle seat, I was flanked by my friend Deepak on the right, and this ape on the left. Switchback after switchback, our sleepy Ms. Monkey kept getting thrown around, sometimes onto me and sometimes onto the door. I felt a little bad every time she hit the door. Then, she settled down a little, moved away from the door, and by default, leaned onto my shoulders, and stayed there peacefully. It felt relieving in a manner I can't put into words. I was a little tensed up, but the fact that she was comfortable by my side put me at ease. I knew she was fine there, looking all innocent and drowsy.
Like a lame idiot, I looked at her once or twice, only to see her steal glances at me. That's when I knew, this is one human I could be friends with for a lifetime. You see, I have a hard time making friends. Or, as the Flash says in JLA, "I could use friends."
She throws her weight around, acts all wonky, annoys the crap out of you, throws a fit, acts like a four-year-old, smiles like a four-year-old, ties her hair like a four-year-old. Holy cow, she's a four-year-old. But when you're down, she's got your back, she'll give you company till four in the morning, maybe put you to sleep even. And the best bit? She'll bring you back to the ground when you're flying too high. Monkey, what a splendid creature you are!
That brings us to the second person who made my 2017 better. He's tall, turbaned, and the humblest man I've known in a long time. I ran into him on the very first day at my new workplace. A corner seat in the office meant that he ranked quite high in the pecking order. But, something about his demeanour made him look approachable, someone you don't need to pretend with.
From what little I understand, he knows India, Europe and the U.S of A. like their maps are printed on the back of his hand. He told me something recently that changed the way I look at life. Mom says that we should be thankful for every new day that we get to stay on this beautiful planet. My friend is of a different opinion.
His argument goes like this. Suppose that you have come to a big city from a far-flung village. You're here to prepare and clear an important examination and are staying at a hotel. Now, what would you like to do? Stay at the hotel for as long as possible? Or would you rather crack the examination and move on to seek the next big challenge?
He says that everything we do isn't even close to "We do". It's some higher power working the schemes through us. We're channels through which the world is unfurling itself, second by second. Just like how Jim Carrey recently, and rather scandalously, said "There's no ME". Here's the hard part, and something we all must get a grasp over. Remove the 'I', the 'Me', and the 'Myself' from all equations, and life will become easier. How do you do that, thought? I wondered. Mr. Baljinder said, believe. Believe that you'll do what comes to you, instead of planning and fretting over it.
