Vishfull Says: December 2009

Yes I know this sounds like I am going to bore you with a string of economic jargon and definitions and strategies. But its something more monotonous than that. You know as persons many times we see so many things and just move on without empathizing about the same. For us our own problems and struggles are the biggest challenges god almighty can ever burden on anyone. We walk past beggars and shoo them thinking how they could actually be deceiving you. ( Read Mumbai Mirror beggar millionaires) or we might just rush into the crammed first class while small children wriggle inside scared of the squeeze and the twists. Literally. Twists are all we adults are made of. We say something, teach something, do something and appreciate something else completely.

Well I don’t want to sound like a management Guru and give a paragraphs of well learned wit and philosophical advice. Motivational words and lessons of life are not what words can convey completely. So instead of wording down what I have learnt I d rather incident-ise them. ( PS Authors and their rights to Flout )

I t was Another of those dry boring days at work where we were glued to those things considered as beauties after women( that’s what the Hundred Thousand Men around me say) Yes I am talking about the screens. We were glued to it while we wrenched our fists and broke our heads to understand why the bug was traveling and piggybacking on every other Program. The code kept getting deeper and more jargonish while I blinked my eyes and imagined my kohl clearing up , while my manager blinked his eyes and imagined me demoted( Sigh ). People have told me I think different distinct and I have a brain of a razor , only we don’t need to sharpen things here.( Gah! ).

I looked around myself to see a storm of tense faces waiting to deliver some Godforsaken Request on time and frantic calls on the VOIP and managers shuttling like they are suddenly aware about global warming. Sometimes I feel we as humans are tense about everything else than we should be. No one would pay them if they were working for Mother Earth . Now I know at least half of who read this will suddenly jump up with the familiarity of the word. Whatever!

Coming back to the point , our team finally decided to take break and hang out in CCD( Finally ) We moved on forward while a backup resource would glue himself to the computer hoping nothing too vital will pop up! And all this for some boring codes and nonsense designed to do simple things! Well anyway I breathed finally when we emerged from our basement while our team finally walked! And literally! We barely move our legs , except for the customary touch ups at the mirrors or some tea or lunch! And suddenly the sheer beauty of the sky and the green trees poked our eyesight while we tried to search for some kind of hierarchy or code swarming at the scene. And an idiot proved it by cracking a crappy technical joke about how the trees were actually like a cpu or something. While he gave parallel references to hundred thousand appliances which are supposed to be inside our computer I began wondering if he could draw something inside his empty head.

And finally the ordeal of walking with the oh I am not so friendly with anything non It ended at the café. Phew! I was already feeling out of place cause I wanted to climb one of the few trees there and shout hurrah! Don’t know what! It began raining suddenly! Hurray. The code frenzy geeks hushed in lest the dangerous drops of rain doest wipe pout the data in their pea brains. And I also heard an idiot say ‘acid rain’. Anyway my manager gave me a look of for once please behave like us while he signaled me enter and I coolly was clutching a tree. Maybe she was my sister. Who knows how the cycle of karma rotates. I am sure he must have been a spiny anteater. I hurled hundred thousand abuses remembering all that Captain Haddock swirled at the pirates. (Two faced slimy ant eater was like too perfect for him!).

Now while I was entering in I suddenly see this small kid in green shorts sitting outside the café. The fluttery butterfly mind that I have I flitted around till I circled around her. “Hi” I shrieked thinking shell smile and take a picture with me. She was green eyed and cute only she was underweight and brown haired and passed of as what every one call as a ragpicker. She smiled a toothless gracious smile. The lady that she was.

“ Kitna mangata hai Mem Saahab?” she questioned me in a tone that said-quick don’t waste time!

I was like “ what!”

She swiftly removed a cigarette and a cup of coffee and asked me “ Das de do “.

I was appalled to see this small seven year old selling ciggies and coffee outside CCD making a buck like that. A swarm of emotion past me and she could have been my niece or just any random kid. I signaled my annoyance and said” Itni Choti hun. Kisne bola cigarette bechne ko? “

“Madam yeh to dandha hai “ she said with an air of I-Know-my-work-don’t-disturb-me.

A swarm of bald and young men and women dropped in and got some cigarettes and coffee for a tenner! Appalling! A tenner could give mango juice! Gah! And how could they buy from a young one like that , have their puffs and coolly walk away like nothing happened. I mean what do people think? Would they let their children do that? Why then do they expect that some ones has the complete need to do it? Empathy Empty people I say! I burnt like a volcano suddenly! Nonsense I give a damn to the multinational I work in. I wont let this happen under my nose.

I looked at her and asked” Mummy kidhar hai tumhari?”

She skillfully replied” Ter ko kya karna ha? Mein school jati hun! Meri ma pe chillane ka nahi”

I was flabbergasted again. Look at the reply! Poor kid has grown ten more years while her childhood is the same. Suddenly her small brother came flitting from nowhere while he circled around her sister. She removed her cig and smoked while I coughed and choked. I ran to her and shouted that Id complain.

“Madam mein bees saal ki hun! Meer ko problem hain! Mein bachi dikhti hun“.

Again look at the precision driven already ready answer for every situation she has. I was as usual surprised. The kind of emotion I take with every incident and event that I see and express drains me totally that someday the very splurge of an idea shall kill me swiftly.

I looked at her helplessly and also complained to the people around. But gah!

Finally I settled down with a cig myself thinking she goes to school anyway! Wait a minute.

“ arey you said you were 20 and you going to school?”I blurted in English to see how she responded.

“ Arey madam I give chaai to schools . And waise to hum dus saal hai. “

And she had no regret that she lied to me a minute ago! I threw my cig away . I asked how many cigs she has and bought the whole damn bag. I was helpless. Didn’t know what to do! I knew if Id locate her parents nothing would ever come out! They would simply send her to another place. I knew that again tomorrow she would come and sell the same while her small bro would flit around like a butterfly and the cruel bad world would buy cigarettes from her.

The next day I went to the tapri Wallah close by and told him to put a small stall close to CCD so that the children don’t have to sell. Meanwhile I had planned to lure the kid to studying and teach her folks a lesson . I had already planned to collect some books and stuff for both of them.

The tapri Wallah blinks at me and says” Madam who mere bache hai! Haath lagaya to maar dalunga” and he came charging on me thinking I was taking them to some adoption agency!

I yelled at him in the broken hindi that I could and told him I d report to the Police! Crowd gathered like there was Arjun Rampal shooting for a movie or something. I was flabbergasted again. And from somewhere my manger appeared. “ Lady another testing needs to be done “ and he grabbed my hand while I ran with him into the welcome haze of my cubicle and code. The hazy bits and pieces of the nonsense on the screen seemed easier to tame and handle without being hurt. I love my work suddenly.

Vishfull Says

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Pieces of you and me…

The little "Gold flake " girl.

Alas

Monday, December 7, 2009

Morning Birds