Shit happens.. Life is like that... It pains too, but then its really alright isn't it?



Like someone once said,

"Pain is Inevitable, Suffering is optional"

Bad things will happen in life, mistakes, rash decisions, weak moments and more incidents which will challenge your very ability to take life...

But then its upto us, what we learn from the incident(if at all)...

I've always felt life is all about choices, you have a choice each time, in each situation, in each road you take ... everywhere...

You score less in your exams, you have a choice, study harder and build your strengths or just be sad and lose out on studies and get involved in the wrong places..

Your career is not going right, you have a choice, either you stick it out and compromise or just do what you feel is right and follow your dreams...

Relations are not working out fine, you have a choice, either make it alright, sacrifice, compromise, forgive, but work it out, or else make your stance clear and step out.

Whatever happens in life, take the best things possible out of it and move on... thats whats most important, move on ...

Probably the best philosophy in life is to always keep on foot ahead of the other...

The Encounter

When he entered into the restaurant first, the first thing that struck me was the sheer innocence and sweetness that was etched all over his face. Not more than 10, was my first guess, on second thought I thought he may be around 12 or so. He was as thin as could be humanly possible, with probably just skin wrapped over his bones, but his face was angelic. But for unfathomable reasons, I could immediately see troubles and problems, safely kept inside away from the prying eyes of all. Along with him came his father, trundling behind him, with an unpleasant grin on his face. I grinned to myself and said, surely this little fellow must have forced his budget constrained father to visit the restaurant and this was the reason for the father’s annoyance.

They took a seat diagonally opposite to me, so I had a clear view of their activities. The waiter came up with just one menu card, which was apparently not enough, because the father took it and began scanning through it. He struck me as an inconsiderate father who does not even consider the fact that his son may also need to have access to the menu so as to order whatever he likes. He began to get all restless and fidgety, he asked the card from his father once or twice, but to no avail, he then asked the waiter to get another one, the father didn’t make any response of any kind. After a while, the father signaled to the waiter to come, in all probability to place the order. The child signaled his father about writing something with his hands, but the father just gravely shook his head and began pointing at various items on the menu card to the waiter.

After this he went out, where to, I don’t know, and apparently the boy didn’t either. He called again to the waiter and asked him what the order was and checked it against his own menu card.

Almost five minutes passed away with the child fidgeting away and throwing quick glances to whoever may be giving him more than a cursory glance; still no trace of the father. Now the child becomes restless and moves away from the table. He goes outside in the direction to where his father had gone. A minute later he appears, with his father and two other gentlemen, both of them gesturing with their hands rapidly and using greatly expressive eyes. His father was also gesturing back in the same way, then he turned and I saw the hearing aid, the father was incapable of hearing or speaking.


I felt a sudden lump in my throat. The inconsideration that I saw at first was gone, what was left was a person who felt threatened by the more able people around him, waiting to snatch away his authority from him, to show him subtly, sub-consciously that he was an outcast. I wondered at the life he had lead until now. How he might have been treated by his peers in the merciless stages of childhood.
A reverence rose for the man who despite the mutiny of his existence had come out as a winner, he chose to lead a normal life and held his own regardless of his own shortcomings.

The friends of the father were looking at the child with a look of deep affection reserved for the favorite nephew. The cheer and the enthusiasm in the actions of the people were palpable. Leave the child, everyone else was incapable of an oral conversation. Surprisingly at first but more and more apparently later I noticed the child take part in the silent conversation. And suddenly everything seemed at ease, just the way it was meant to be.

It embodied the fragility of the people, how vulnerable they are, the wounds they hide deep inside in a place they hope no one could see, the strength in the same innocent faces, the compromises that the child had to accept as a part of his existence, the strength that it gave to his character, the patience that would be a part of him, the father who stood up against the odds, who would command respect from his son for the man he is and above all the affirmation of the victory of the human spirit.

After all .....

Two more days .. Thats it, thats all is there before his son turns 16. Its not just everyday that you turn 16 and the party on the birthday was definitely going to prove that point. He was unwilling to spend so much money on a birthday party at first, but his son's insistence made him give in. After all, his son reasoned, you don't turn 16 everyday...

His son .... he still remembered it clearly, the first time he held him in his hand, his tiny eyes closed in blissful sleep, his hands balled into tiny fists. It was all fresh in his mind, as if that day was just yesterday.

It was not smooth sailing for him during those days, he was the sole bread winner and the job didn't pay too well. His son came in as a ray of hope into his life. His smile seemed to wash away his worries. Even though the difficulties in life persisted, everything seemed manageable.

Every evening his son would wait for him to return home so that he could ask him for a ride on the scooter, the ride done the smile on his son's face was priceless. What wouldn't he do to see that smile.

Compromises were something he had learned to live with in his childhood, and something he continued to do. His son was growing up soon, and he had to ensure he got the best of everything. His income had stabilized to an extent and he was satisfied with the fact that he was able to provide for his family. His son had new needs, the reasonable ones had to be fulfilled. The unreasonable ones were not given into. He knew he wouldn't pamper his son and make him unworthy of a respectful living. The reasonable ones had to be fulfilled even if it was in lieu of his necessities.

"Dad", his son said, "I need new shoes for playing football, the ones with studs on them, all the others have them, I can't play well enough to get into the team otherwise !". He knew his own shoes could wait, they'd been with him for the past 4 years now, uncomplaining and sturdy, torn at some places, but nothing a trip to the mochi couldn't fix. He knew they could wait. His son's football ambitions however had to be nurtured.

His son looked up to him, he knew he couldn't afford to be slack anywhere. He knew he was his son's hero. He was in his most formative years now and discipline needs to be imparted. Care needs to be taken so that his son does not stray away from a good life.

His son was turning 16 day after and he was proud of him. He was doing well in college and played for the school team in soccer. The dreams he had seen were coming true.

The party was all set to begin, all his friends had arrived. Quite a popular lad his son was, he knew that and was proud of it. His son was flaunting his new cellphone, N-series or something, they had bought it in the afternoon as a birthday gift.

The cake was simple one, good one nevertheless, OK wouldn't do.

He was sitting on the couch watching the proceedings, smiling contently. His son came up to him, gave a quick one arm hug and sat down next to him.

"Dad, I've always wanted to ask you something ..."

"Go on... ", he smiled encouragingly.

"When is your birthday dad? why haven't we celebrated that ever?"

He smiled, patted his son's back and said nothing. The party din was all around, but he seemed to be unaffected by it.

He looked back at his life, the compromises he'd made, the sacrifices.

There were days when he had to live of rat infested rooms with five other people sharing the room. Days when he had to go without food or proper sleep. He knew what it meant to earn money. He had learnt it the hard way.

Merry occasions like birthdays never found a place in his life. Those were luxuries he couldn't waste hard earned money or valuable time on.
He had faint recollections of a date being scribbled in his birth certificate he had chanced to see once. But he had failed to associate any importance to that day. It was just another day, in which you have to work in order to get paid.

Life was a struggle and all he knew was that he had to come out on top.

He had kept everything aside, he had lived his life for his son, to make him a good person, a person he would feel proud to call his son.

He'd lost himself somewhere in the vagaries of life, he couldn't remember the last time he had given into one of his own fancies. Come to think of it he did not have any wishes anymore, it was for youngsters, not old men like himself he thought.

"Wishes ...."
A chuckle escaped his lips, as though taunting himself for even playing around with that thought.

"Dad, are you alright?"

He nodded and held his son's shoulder and they walked together towards the party.

It was his son's birthday after all ....

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The world is such a messed up place.... I was watching the news today and I should say I was surprised and intrigued. The channel in concern is the one and only the over hyped, the gruesome ... "AAJ TAK”.... true they show the news items as they are, true that they show even the most brutal and merciless and in somecases the most useless items without any sense of fear, according to them , but without any sense of ethics, according to me. I mean, what do I care if a father killed a daughter in some remote village in north India and the people there decided to retaliate and mobbed the police there? Why should I care about what’s happening to a jadugar baba or a tantri, again in some remote village somewhere, when there are so many other burning issues going on here? Why on purpose underplay the crucial things going on in this country and instead over hype the stupid 'masaledaar' news items? Just to sell their news channel? how do you justify a half an hour discussion on the pooja path being conducted for an out of form batsman in our team, when there are bomb blasts going on in the south and there are threats of communal violence breaking out ? Instead of trying to restore calm in such places by spreading some nice social message all they are bothered about is making they channel more saleable.
But in spite of the above shortcomings I must admit, I indeed was smiling to myself after the news clips today. First there was a report of some hotel owner being killed and the village people stoned the police vans that came there. What followed was absolutely unjustified display of arrogance and indiscipline. The police then in retaliation took to the streets and lathi charged the village people, old men, women, youngsters all of them were mercilessly pulled out of their houses and beaten up, and all of this was shown on TV to a nation of more than a billion people. But you can bet that after a week or some they will find some other such shocking incident and this will be forgotten. I just had one thought in mind then that such helpless people are being mercilessly beaten up, who gives these so called civic servants the right to do this? Before you begin to echo the same sentiments let me tell you about the second piece of news that was being broadcast. In Meerut, there was a strike going on in a college, and students were down on the college breaking the property and beating up the police who tried to interfere, the reason? Here comes, a second year student from the college while appearing for his exams had carried a revolver into the exam hall. The exam and the copying began and when the teacher tried to stop this particular pupil from cheating he was promptly threatened with the revolver. The teacher then complained about this issue to the principal and who in turn, it seems took action against the student. What happened ahead was no only shocking but was also a blatant example of the fact that the world is going to the dogs, forgive my use of words but how else do you explain the fact that after the student was reprimanded, he called up some of his other friends and most of the college students and not long after that the whole college was up in a strike. Window panes and doors and benches were smashed, police was brought to the scene. All this for what? For supposedly retaliating against a teacher who wanted the students to pass the exam on their own merit rather than cheat. The exam was forgotten. God knows whether it would be held again if at all?
After this I agreed, there are no good guys or bad guys, its all about power and arrogance. It’s not important whose is right or wrong, all that matters is who is more powerful? I couldn't help but smile at the diversity that you can find in this world, even in the forms of injustice being meted out.........