Shit Happens !

Mysore, July 2nd, 2011
Venue : Hostel No 85
Saturday , One of the holidays the Company celebrates every week. I woke up late in the morning by a phone call threat,from one of my mate,the movie maniac.
“Wake up ! We have to go for movie tickets. Get ready  soon,otherwise I will miss the movie, I don’t care about you missing it. Hurry up !”
‘Sleeping’,the most pleasant activity because it has dreams in it ; dreams, where I find myself not less than Rajnikant ! Somehow I paused my dream ,got ready ,and marched on for Mission ‘Movie’. Till we reached the multiplex, the queue for tickets had been one and half kilometer long .  My friend frowned at me , why not ? He missed the first show of Aamir Khan’s production “Delhi Belly” just because of me. Frustrated ,depressed he went near the poster ,looked at each characters thoroughly, read the tag line of the movie “Shit Happens” ,came back to me with frowny face , as the first Shit had happened to him. All I could do was to assure him that we would be the first one in the queue for the next show.
But someone had planned differently for us. I went to the clinic for the check up and ,the nurse there ,examined for 2-3 minutes and finally announced :
“Oh ! We have one more case of Chicken Pox.”
Looking at me she said again “ You have to get admitted in hospital as you are not allowed to stay here, in the campus ,any more.” Another Shit of the day,that had happened to me.
Venue : Apollo,Mysore
I, along with two other friends was waiting for check-in at accommodation desk.
“Sir ! We have three types of  wards available, named as, Silver ,Gold and Platinum. Silver is with single bed ,a chair but no a/c. Gold is with extra facility, a/c and a normal TV in it. Likewise Platinum consist of microwave oven, freeze and LCD TV in it. Which kind of room you want to book ?” She said in one breath and an artificial smile on her face.
“OK. Book the room with lowest price.”I replied in a low tone, checking the sign board again ,wondering, was it a hospital or a three star hotel. 
“Sorry Sir ! As this is a patient season we don’t have rooms available in Silver ward for next 7 days and there would be room available in Gold ward by tomorrow. Should I book a room in Platinum ward ? Rooms in this ward are very comfortable with….”
“Do I have any other choice ?” I interrupted her in between.
“No Sir !”
“OK book it for tonight, but I will get it changed to Gold ward by tomorrow.” I said and counted how much money would I have to put for getting cured. I got a wicked smile as I remembered the conversation with my brother on the day I got my first salary , 30th of June, two days ago. He had asked how would I spend my first salary !
A nurse entered my room with a letter pad, without any delay started interrogating :
“What happened! Do you smoke? Alcoholic ?What are the belongings with you ? Laptop ? Mobile ? Any jewellery ? Married ? Children ?”
All I could do was to nod yes or no with making a face at her.
“The doctor would be visiting you ,soon.” She left after noting all the information.
As she had said , an overweight person came within  half an hour, along with four beautiful nurses , in between the ages of 20 to 25. Looking at them and the doctor I sighed, cursed myself  “Why hadn’t I opted for medical science , six years ago!” 
The next morning I got my room changed to another ward , the quality of facilities changed ,and likewise the ages of nurses ,in between 30 and 35!
Days passed , nights elapsed, shits were over, I came back to campus repenting over missing a movie full of shits !

What’s not in a Surname

 

“Tell me your name Boy”

the person sitting in front of me asked, while he was writing something on the letter pad.

“Its Sudhansu, S,u,d………”. I replied humbly, while he continued writing in a non-readable format. I was wondering, why all doctors have such a good hand-writing , that can only be understood by the doctor himself or the person sitting in the medical shop !

“What’s the problem with people,today ?Why don’t they tell their surnames? ” he asked as if I knew the answers.

“What’s in a surname ,Sir !” the only words I could think of as a reply.

“Oh  ! What’s not in a surname ! How can I know , which caste do you belong ?”

“Sir ! Do you prescribe medicines based on caste ?” I asked with amusement.

“No! Surnames are the criterion ,Indian people consider , when they need to know which caste other Indian people belong . See , our corrupted politicians ! They are very much good at it. How do they grab public attention when they visit some unfamiliar region of different caste and creed, for their rally ? All it matters is our surnames” he said, like he was the most hurt by corruption in our nation. “Now if you are in no mood of telling your surname , Should I write your name as ‘Sudhansu  I’ ? Do you know what ‘I’ symbolizes ? ”

I nodded a negative reply.

“Oh ! ‘I’ is for Indian. Think ,….how  good it would be when we all Indians ,have the same surname ,‘I’. There would be no distinction based on name, in a country.Likewise we should have ‘P’ for all people from Pakistan, ‘B’ for Bangla Desh and so on…..” he explained and slid the prescription paper towards me. “We will meet together ten days later.”

"That would be a great idea. At least our political problem would be solved .But it is worth saying.We could do nothing in it!” Later I bid him good bye with a thank you and a smile. I am waiting for next appointment with him where I  will tell my name ,adding ‘I’ as surname !

When a Stranger Calls

• Venue – Boy’s Hostel(3rd year) ,No. –12
• Timing – around 11 pm ,December ,2009

KC , my 1st year roommate , comes to my room .He is a movie maniac. Whenever he entered my room  late at night , it was sure I had to watch a movie with him. That day he came with a pen drive and a movie in it. Without any discussion about which movie to watch , he plugged in the pen drive . It was horror movie name     “One Missed Call ”.
Movie was decided , so it was time to make room environment unfriendly for a horror movie. Lights were switched off , woofers were connected, door was shut and windows were opened as of making a bypass for spirits. Movie was started around 12 am .
Story was about a chain of people who received terrifying phone calls from themselves in the future in form of  voice mails that include the date and  exact time of their deaths. The death chain continues as the victim receives a call from the last victim. Some scenes were quite scary to have goose bumps. Well , the massage of movie was  “ Should you ever receive a phone call from yourself dated in the future , do not answer ! ”
The show  ended around 1:30 am ,and as usual it was time to have a brief discussion on it , the missing manual : what , why and how the  story proceeded in movie. The discussion went about one and a half hour, firing philosophy of ghosts by two of us .In the end I requested him to sleep on the bed next to me ,as ghosts of different shapes were performing ‘Tandava’ in my mind.
It was around 3 am ,when the silence in the room was pierced by nokia tune. My heart rose to my throat.It was an unknown call.  I looked at KC , he was also looking at me with his mouth open. He was in no mood of receiving the call , so I had to grasp it, answered “Hello” in a breathless voice.
“Is Sanjay there ? I want to talk with him”
came a girl’s voice from the other side. I took a sigh of relief, recalled, Is there any one named ‘Sanjay’ in my corridor : ‘No’ , Is there any one named ‘Sanjay’ in my branch of strength 30 boys : ‘No’.  I handed the phone to KC , thought, she might be looking for him. He stammered as he said “Hello” in a low tone.
“I want to talk with Sanjay , hand over the phone to him”
“Are Bengali phone rakhega, Sale ! sone do .”
 his irritation rasped in his voice as he hanged up the phone.
“He is ‘Bengali’ ,on the other side. He’s using some mobile app that is used to translate a male voice in a female one.I’ve seen it on TV”
 He explained to me that the person on the other side might be one of our batch mate “a bengali guy”. I thought he should be correct otherwise  my time was up as received a unknown call like seen in the movie. Meanwhile ,the phone ranged the second time, displaying same unknown number. I picked up again ,the same voice came
“Why don’t you let me talk with Sanjay ? Its urgent”
“There is nobody called ‘Sanjay’ here. Now, would you please stop ringing me at this time”  I replied.
“No, its urgent. I have some problems” she said again.
“Sanjay is nowhere present here, how can I hand over phone to him”
“OK, then you must help me . I am a 12th class student and I have some problem in solving H.C. Verma’s Physics book questions” she said like she had called in a Physics helpline center .
“Is this the time to ask  questions related to Physics , now , just get lost and let me sleep” I  replied in a harsh tone.
“you just get lost….” I could hear before hanging up for the second time.
 I looked at KC , who was about to leave my room because of disturbance. I pulled him back to bed ,as the phoned ranged for third time.
“Just help me to solve one question -   A man throws a ball with velocity 'u' and angle Θ,from a lift  which is moving upward with velocity ‘v’ .With what velocity does the ball touch the ground ?” she asked as I picked up the phone.
“OK its ‘v+u’ multiplied by cosΘ divided by under root sin2Θ plus 'u' by tanΘ” I replied in a random guess as KC was chuckling beside me.
“No, its not the answer , tell me the correct one.” she said after waiting for few seconds , might be checking the answer.
“Then I don’t know how to solve it . Now please hang the phone up and let me sleep , I have to attend morning sessions at College. If you have any more questions, call me in the morning.. no in the afternoon, I’ve classes in the morning.” I slammed down the phone without waiting for a response. Put the phone is silence and went bed thinking of that person who was more than just a scary ghost from the movie.

• Timing : around 8:30 am

I woke up , grasped the phone, looked at its screen. It displayed….
“+9197…….. 
39 missed calls” .
           

The White Tiger Review

      I was travelling from Kolkata to Mysore in 2nd class compartment .People say
do not buy pirated books , because that hurts the Author as well as the publication.
But I bought 3 pirated copies of  different novels that day . The reason is not about
saving money, its about typical Indian mindset of mine ..Why should I invest in buy-ing original copies , if I am getting the same material in low price, who care the low quality pages ? I just have to read it, I don't want to put it in a safe !
     I had heard a lot about this book,so I was much excited when I started reading it.
The story is about a Murderer who turns out to be an Entrepreneur,meet Balram Halwai,Villain for his own family/master but also a Hero for himself. Born to a Rickshaw-puller  ,worked at tea-shop ,crushed coals for livelihood  but has a dream to become rich. Somehow escapes from his family and village, gets a job as a Chauffeur to a rich Landlord.He finds the difference in thinking of two of the landlord's son, one of  them  is educated in US and other ,in India. He learns that there is no other way to win a competition rather than killing the competitor. He reaches Delhi ,the soul of the country driving the Honda along with his master and mistress. He finds that even the landlords who behaves like a King Lion to the villagers, has to be like a Dog  to the corrupted leaders of the nation. In the soul of the country, in between the Traffic jams,the shopping malls,the culture and customs of high-profile he discovers the White Tiger within himself. He can not live like a servant through out his life. He  sacrifices his beloved one,his family . He murders his own master, collects his money and flies to Banglore to start a new life.
     The Authors asks a question in his story : Did he take the right decision by sacrificing his own family , to live  a luxurious life ?  The Authors also answers the question by calling Balram , a White Tiger- one who is born  in a Century .If he had not sacrificed his family , his upcoming generation might live same miserable   life like his own or his father's or brothers'. The Author shares the idea :- There is no gain without  pain .The story will bind you from start till the end, you can not leave it in middle. :)