The Two Men of the Family!!

Well well, I could have written something about Mickey again, but I am waiting for something interesting to happen to him. In fact, he went to a party last night; and the last SMS I received from him read, “This party has babes…” I am yet to hear from him after that. It’s a Sunday morning and he won’t wake up before 12, especially after the party last night. So keep waiting people.

Meanwhile….

Let me write about my Dad and my brother. I think a lot of guys would relate to it. Between these two it’s a perfect love and hate relation. They Love to Hate each other, and Hate to Love each other. Since the time he was a baby, my dad had understood that this guy is gonna show him stars during the day.

Every year, my brother would get 2 gifts. One on his birthday ofcourse, and one on my birthday as well. If Dushy wanted a video game, he would create such a ruckus that he would actually get it. Once he wanted a new bicycle, he stopped eating food. My dad had to go and get one the same day. “Taare Zameen Pe” had a completely different meaning for my dad.

Dushy is a very different kid. Very sharp, but yes, you have to get him interested. Maths for one, never interested him at all. My mother used to go crazy teaching him. The scene would be, my mom sitting on the study table writing in his notebook and my brother is jumping all over the place dictating steps of the problem to her. So, for his 7th standard Final Exams, my dad decided to teach him. Two nights before the paper, the two warriors were planning to complete the entire syllabus. Just the night before the exam, Dush was all drained out, Papa had a worn out expression. Finally, he told him, “OK just forget everything and go and write your exam, we’ll see what happens”. Next day early morning, my dad was sitting on the edge of the bed and sweating. My mother had a scare of her life, “Are you fine? What happened?”. He said, “I had a horrible dream, I saw that I have died and all my folks are coming howling and crying over my body.” My mother burst out laughing and said, “You just taught him one subject for one exam, I have been teaching him for all these years. Its ok relax, he’ll be fine. You go off to sleep.”

The day the exams got over, my dad fixed up tuitions for Dushy. His argument was, “Let somebody outside the family die, instead of my wife.”

Dushy did pass that exam. But yes my dad went to take his report card. There was a girl who came crying out of the class, she hadn’t passed the Maths exam. My dad was trembling. When he came to the class, the teacher said, “Dushyant, you have to collect the report from the Registrar’s office.” My father had almost fainted. Dush made him sit in the classroom and went ahead himself. Nothing, he was in NCC and there were formalities to be completed. He got the result, came whistling in the classroom, took Papa and brought him back home.

But then my dad got the better of him. He got him admitted in Sainik School. My baby brother went though a sea change! Firstly, he no more remained that sweet and cute little baby. He turned into a strapping lad. Tall, handsome, matured, controlled. But yes, that Tom & Jerry race never ended in our house!

He came home after his 10th boards and joined a junior college in Pune. Once again, the game began.

One fine day my dad decided to pay a surprise visit to Dushy’s college. Dush with his friends was perched on the compound wall right at the entrance when Papa walked in. He jumped down as soon as he saw Papa. His friend was asking, “what happened dude? Who is he?” Dush had flying saucers dashing in his brain! After that the entire day was quite eventful. Papa went around the college to meet each and every Professor of his and each one of them refused to even recognize my darling brother. I think all you guys can not even imagine what must be the atmosphere in our house for next one week. My dad had thought, this guy has gone out of hands. After about a week or so, my dad came to our room and said, “Bhai! if you pass this year you’ll get a 2 wheeler and if you flunk you’ll get a 3 wheeler, you decide what you want.”

My brother has managed to keep the 3 wheeler away so far. However, my dad did lose his 2 wheeler. Papa had this Lambaretta (I don’t even know if that’s the correct spelling) and he had won it in a lottery even before I was born. Both me and brother would hate it from the core of hearts to be caught sitting pillion on that damned thing. And more so in your teenage when your image is of utmost importance amongst your peers. Dush used to hide his face with something if Papa took him with him on that scooter. One day, on an unfortunate occasion his friend recognized him and called him out. Dush refused to look up. That was it. Dush had decided something had to be done. That week Mom had gone to her native. Our grandma wasn’t felling well. Dush picked up Papa’s scooter, sold it in Chor Bazaar, and got 1500 bucks that too for the weight of the iron. Coolly, came and gave the money to Papa. My father was exasperated. That evening he called up Mom and was talking for an hour about what Dush had done. My dad gets a little attached to all his machines. My mother was consoling him on one end and yelling at Bhai at the other end.

Dushy came to Bangalore for his graduation. Then too he didn’t let my father stand at ease. The first time he came home, we were so excited to see him. But went he went back and we got our Phone Bill… well what can I say! My dad called him, “Son, please inform in advance when you come for a vacation next time, I can have the phone-lines disconnected.”

Once vacation he came with long locks and a goatie. My Father was livid. I made him promise that he will never do that again. He did, but next vacation he shaved his head off. All my father could say was, “Son! I am still alive.”

We still haven’t reached the time of his marriage, the time he’ll buy a house, a car. I keep wondering about what will happen on all these occasions. But yes, in the heart of hearts I know my dad loves him more and my brother is concerned about his father. Of course, Dush thinks his dad is too out dated for this world and that’s where his concern stems from. :-)

A Fair Chance to Life...

I used to wonder about people who find their houses and properties devastated in a hurricane. About one hour ago everything is fine and life is normal. Then a Hurricane strikes. Doesn’t even give you time to think, to take some action, to save something…anything. People watch helplessly as their lives are being brought down to nothing and they are not even given an opportunity to save it.

I used to wonder, what would be the feeling to see a leveled land or a heap of nothing, in place of what you called a ‘Home’. A place where you ate, slept, loved, fought… your very existence.

Well! I didn’t wonder for very long. I figured it out sometime later when life did that to me.

But, this one is not about that. Its about… “what happens after that?"

There have been many roller-coasters I’ve been through, and some real unbearable phases in life, but still I can’t call God ‘unfair’. For every tough phase he sent someone who held me and saw me through. And this one person was indeed god-sent.

There are times, when at the back of your mind you know you are headed towards doom. You know you are gonna be hurt badly. But somehow you don’t see it objectively. It’s like ‘its gonna happen’ but when and how, is something you will not want to think about. I was living in a fool’s paradise waiting for the tide to come and sweep me away. My feet were stuck and I wasn’t doing anything to get out of the way. And he was the last person I would have expected to come and pull me away from there.

I was dragging a dead relationship on my back and he came along, he helped me start anew. And very frankly he didn’t have to, I wasn’t his responsibility. But I will never forget those endless discussions, those endless ‘gyaan-sessions’, and the amount of patience and effort he put to help me find myself back. This new found Deepa is indeed his child, if I may say so. :-)

One evening we were having a conversation over a cup of coffee. And Mr. Mickey was in full form giving away words of wisdom to his little one. And I like a good kid was listening.

“Utilize your time well. What do you keep doing in office for so long? You have to balance your personal and professional life. If you keep sitting in the office and staring in your machine, where will you find someone else?” “You have to find someone, and find someone yourself. You know what’s best for you.” I was nodding my head. Not that I wasn’t connecting, but I was wondering who would I find in this dry desert called Bangalore? But he wasn’t wrong either. He went on, “Alright, if you don’t find anyone there then come back. Don’t tell me there aren’t jobs in this side of the world. Come back to your own place and look out, even Mom and Dad can look for something. I want you to put a time-line to this and work on it. We should find you in Pune or Mumbai in next 2 months.” Mickey had said it and sealed it. And from next day onwards I was working on my mission.

Two months later, we are again sitting and having coffee, this time at my place in Mumbai. :-) “Alright, one hurdle is over. Now we look for someone. And I want you to give a fair chance to anyone you come across.” I can’t help smiling at him, when he comes up with these lines like putting a spoon of medicine in my mouth.

“By the way Mickey, how is Saloni?” I asked him half smiling. Our Mr. Mickey is not less than a killer himself. :-) And not to mention, he does have some sizeable fan following. Saloni is someone who works in his office. Nice girl. And our lady had something for him, but Mickey being Mickey finds it too unprofessional to date a colleague from his own team.

“Why, what happened suddenly? Where did you remember Saloni from? She is fine.”

“Ok! No I just thought I’ll ask.” I was trying hard to suppress my smile. Anyways I left it that.

For next two months every weekend we would discuss all the prospective grooms my mom would hunt. By the way, he is a hit with my mom. She can’t thank him enough to tame me into going through this distasteful process of arranged marriage set-ups. Finally, I did find someone.

Life had taken a 360 degrees turn. Six months ago I was standing all alone infront of my palace of dreams all lost in a heap of earth. And he helped me build the whole structure again. May not be like my old one; maybe not as grand; but it was beautiful, cosy and most importantly, liveable.

He came to see me off at the airport when I was leaving to meet my guy. And I gave him a warm hug, coz sometimes you can find words completely inadequate, infact inappropriate. I could see he was genuinely happy for me. But there was more.

Saloni was waiting for him with me. :-) “Hi Mickey. I chucked that job. I am no more your colleague or your ‘team-member’. Do I have any chance now?”

I said to him, “C’mon Mickey, we both know each other’s pasts. And you only taught me, that we have to give a fair chance to anyone who comes in our lives now…” I left for the security check as my flight was announced. From the security gate I couldn’t see much of both of them, but I hope he did give her a ‘fair chance’.