Missyou Service

I dont think so the word would recaptulate any notes or nuances, though I do think it should besiege your heart with refrences of a long lost calling. Although till now you would sure be getting positive halos but let me warn you of the sign post which reads "Sharp curve ahead".

From past few months Time magazine has a small section [Lexicon] where they introduce some new terms which have come into existence with light to the circumsance or conditions. I thought maybe my conditions also calls for a similar action.

It happened a few weeks back when I got an odd sms with a dab of shaayari, at first I thought it was a wrong sms (just like your garden variety wrong number), but then few minutes later a more longer one knocked my door, with a full red gleaming from its eyes I mean ... you get the drill. As the sms had ended with a "Khuda Haafiz", I thought the mis-chances of such happening would be remote. And before my chain of thoughts could travel out of the confines of my imagination three more landed on my doorstep, like baskets of uninvited babies that are left unattended (was that the damn stork again!) now what to do!! Ironically or what my hindi in english form (damn this mobile people for not inventing hindi fonts everywhere) is not very good and it was taking me a whole minute to digest the contents. And gosh they were pretty heavy stuff thrown back, so I thought to return the favor, and more so in the same devilish charm my unknown benefactor had secretly bestowed upon me. Our company landlines route their numbers through some GSM technology (in case of out of city calls) which means that most of the time you would see a mobile number flashing on your screen. And then the phone rang on the other side,

She: Heeeellloo
Me: Heelo, I got a sms from this number
She: What!! I didnt sms this number (what she meant was you jerk I was fooling with a different guy and yours wasnt it!)
Me: (I thought when confronted its better not to beat the bush) My name is Shadab my number ends with 08 and I received a couple of sms.
She: Ohhhhhhhhhh!! (read my long lost love) sorry, I guess I would have mistakenly ....ilarkbfsra... (some gibrish) would remove your number.
Me: Ok.

I thought I had happily closed that chapter when half a minute later I get another delivery, ".....Appne hamein kaise bhula diya....". Hmmmph now thats a puzzle; I hardly knew that girl forgetting comes later in the story, more so after the climax. But I thought this foolishness should end here and now, and having read a recent hoardings of a call filter service introduced by my cell phone provider, (the service couldnt have been introduced at a better time), Lo, the deed was done. To my surprise the sms still came pouring in, so I revisted the site to look for some finer prints and there it was "The service activates 24 hr after its submission, and only for calls". Hmpppppph, so that indirect approach didn't work as planned, I have to go to plan B which is take the bull by its very horns. And so I called from my number, .... for clarity and privacy I wont mention the dialogue delivery in full but what I was enlightened with was the fact that miss call is a way of saying Miss you while sms like the ones I was receiving were its smaller siblings. Hmmmph having being annoyed more than my fair share I try to huddle some logic in her head reiterating that it wasn't working and that so will not this (get the waft). Poooh. after that initial call, I didnt receive any sms for whole day. And I thought my power of persuasions had worked, but the next day I got a call which I cut, then another, another. This time I called my cell phone provider to really do their stuff, and guess what, it did. But did I get a sigh of relief, nope, some jerk head had introduced their service with some jingles attached, now everytime I had a call from the barred number I get an sms too from Vodaphone stating "Your call barring was has successfully barred the __ number at __ time". Arrrrggggh, what was the use, the person can himself sms me while the calls even though barred still makes me pick my phone, they could very well, have called it Miss you service, as they cant block the sms while the call itself spurs an sms. So instead of the person the phone company does the missing you act. And thus my very own Term.

Leaving persuasion in the gunny bag I blasted the miss you person and finally its all over, the service is no more and so have my phone stopped beeping frantically every hour. Silence is a bliss, the missings are no more missed, atleast not by me!!

15 sec of fame, cooking, woman

This weekend was a tad different from my other weekends when I simply sit at home, clear all the washing stuff, laze around the house, play some violin and finally doze off reading a book. One of my office colleague "T" is getting married in a few months and as little birds gathering straws for their new nest, he also in the scrummage rented a new house. T and another colleague C were invited to visit and enjoi some cooking while we banter along. Being a bachelor, his home was a bit ruffled up with things lying around here and there. Never mind. We started with cutting and peeling and joked about how after a few more months this would be taken over by his wife and would look much more organised, while C congratulated T on being a husband cook many wife's would love to have :). Finally we made our chicken and for of our vegetarian C tomato purree mish-mash. Being on the same cross roads (but searching-not-there-yet zone), T recommended me some money saving options and other things that I may need to care for before putting my foot in, and then we scribbled about our office boss, life in general and the girls in office who would be off-limits for our so called "to-be-soon" married friend (at-least in theory).

This was the first time in life when I actually cleaned raw chicken though I have been eating it for the past twenty eight years, but being the single son and living at home ,never felt the need to practise or try my hand. Here in Bangalore also I ate mostly at office mess or got the tiffin facility delivered at my doorstep. But I like cooking (many will frown a brow at that). Its just that life didn’t allow me a hand, this saturday I really felt like experimenting and it felt nice, but then didn’t wanted to ruin our only source of food ;). Maybe I will learn it from my wife directly, but being her only husband will she allow me :D hehehe.

Before leaving T asked if anything was missing I just remarked it needs to be more organised, to which he replied he has left it for now, although no mater how good the things are stacked "its only a women who can make the home complete"; and ofcourse I second him without doubts. Hats off to those lovely ladies as mom, sister and wife.

Returning back I headed to a mall which advertised some mega sales, so thought of the long pending shirt shopping I was planning for some time, but reaching there I found the whole city junta buzzing around like bees next to an unkept stall. All good spoils had gone and I returned back empty handed. Before exiting the mall, I saw a crowd frantically hovering around a circle with blaring music. And I also whizzed in, to see some college boys and couples huddled in to dance out a few steps on the bollywood music in the background and the comparer trying in to mesh in a few more people to get them their very own fifteen seconds of attention or was to shower a few moments of happiness in this artificial surrounding she and her company had so diligently orchestrated. While some young lads held their flashy mobile cameras filming that out, others eyed along the best chic around.

And I standing there wondered; "Happiness" is such an elusive quantity, people go whole length and yards to get it, other rake it on the sides while still others cash in while others pretend to have a good time, but even if it was for that fifteen minutes; atleast they forgot everything around; and enjoyed.

Right now -----

I just finished reading Jug Suraiya article in TOI his tickles style of writting has been my source of inspiration from long; thanks Juggy.