Is this the 'Yahi' in 'Yahi toh maar kha gaya India' ?

Courtesy: MT

India is progressing and progressing. There's no reason for anyone to doubt what Indians are capable of and no, this is not be being all romantic about my country. This is just me talking about a group of people with a common history and the situations it has dealt with. However, there are some problems, peculiar to India. Problems so small and so funny, nobody has been able to figure out a solution. Here's one little problem which could be the "Yahi" in "Yahi to maar kha gaya India".

So, I was never a morning person, I used to be up till late night for exams, for movies, for parties and I have never complained. However, I have started to realise that the situation is different when you're expected to be up all night. Here's a peep into a day of my working life.

I come home at 4am, it's still day time for my body so I hang around the house, eat something, check out all the viral videos I had missed during the day and go to sleep in an hour or two.

It's 9, my maid talks for 15 minutes non stop on an extremely high pitch and I wake up, sit on a chair and wait for everyone to leave the house. 

Maid leaves, I go to sleep and fifteen minutes later my mom calls, "Don't forget to leave my medical slip and card at home before you go.."

Whatever.

I go back to sleep. My brother, excited because it's the second day of his college wakes me up again (I stop keeping a track of time by now) and asks me how he LOOKS. I beg him to let me sleep, he says okay, he leaves my room, comes back to my room, all set for college, fresh and shiz, asks me to lock the door. I get up, finally thanking the lord that I'd finally get to sleep, he stops at the doorstep and asks me which lock would I use to lock the door when I leave. 

It's 10 and I give up by this time. I tell him politely that it's his choice. He picks up the keys and leave. 

I crawl back to my bed, hoping to get an hour or so of good sleep, half n hour goes by and I'm deep asleep. 

And then, two door bells within a gap of 20 minutes. 20 minutes, too long to not sleep, too short even for a nap. 

The inquiry guy and the flipkart guy. 

Okay, whatever. I take the parcel, everything's sorted. I can go back to sleep and still get an hour of good sleep before the day starts. 

And then, my sister calls. Thrice. On landline. 

Call 1. Please receive my flipkart package. Oh it has come! Wow, send me a picture whenever you can. 

I come back to bed. 

Call 2. Did you find the black stockings? 

I come back to bed. 

Call 3. Reminder, send me the picture. 

I come back to bed. 

Mom calls, on mobile. 

Mom: Did the cook come? Okay, if she does ask her to... 

And before I know it. It's 4. And I have to catch a bus at 4:30. 

I havent slept properly, the cook hasnt come so I'll have to pack whatever's there, and I have to give the flipkart package to someone because no one's gonna  be home when the driver comes to pick it up.

The Truth of Our Times

We're 20 something and we have a lot to accomplish. Point taken. Marked, highlighted and double underlined. We want to exhaust ourselves but we don't want to miss out on anything, and with this juggling comes a bucket full of worries.

Every friend I have come across in the past few weeks either needs a date, a car, a job, a vacation or a truck full of alcohol.

Last week, a cousin of mine who's also my age came home. She was looking a little worn off so my brother asked her if it was the summer that had gotten to her nerves or was she just randomly tired, she said she was none but the moment she looked at him I knew what it was. It was her desire to leave the car keys on the table, change into something comfortable and just walk away, far away from these questions and others.

 Reading the expressions on her face, I answered for her and told my brother that we're at this stage of our life where smiling takes effort so he should just let things be. We all laughed a little but we all knew that it was the truth. The truth of our times.

Soon enough, we found ourselves sitting in the car waiting for my brother to get snacks for the evening and talking endlessly about this point in our lives where change seemed like a distant reality. She told me about the chair she sits on, the table she puts her books on and about the walls she stares at. On other occasions, I would have tried to help her but at this point, I knew I couldn't be of any help because the chair she sits on, the table she keeps her books on, the wall she stares at, seemed more familiar to me.

We were at different dimensions but we were living the same life, and it wasn't until recently when I realised that it might take more than courage to take control of your life but it doesn't take much to step aside from the rat race and do things for ourselves.

It was yet another summer night where I was watching movies back to back and I hadn't eaten much, everything was exactly like the night before and the one before it. But what happened next, gave me a little peep into a disastrous future, I could have.

I was stiff knees down, I couldn't feel my feet and I just couldn't stand up, my knees just wouldn't lock. All I could do was to call out my mom and try not to fall and all I could think was about my life minus the legs.

It was the most horrifying moments of my life. It altered me, this little moment.

I thought there was so much I could have done and now I am just going to regret wasting my life. I thought if we're not doing anything for the people around us, if we are not making a difference in the world, what are we even doing with ourselves?

 One day, we'd just get old and our legs won't work for real, our hands will shiver and our brain will give up. What then. Wouldn't we end up questioning our existence, wouldn't we curse ourselves for not finding the reasons and would the reasons even be enough?

And I thought, shouldn't we, already be pacing down, then?



                                                             

The uncivil society.

"I'll talk to her,

About that concert, 

She wanted to attend, 

About that job, 

she was planning to take, 

About her husband & about her children. 

Been a while, since she scolded me, 

Since she teased me, 

About my girlfriend, 

Been a while, 

Since she asked me, 

To cut, 

My hair."

Must be thinking, he, while he crossed the deadly road, to meet his sister.  

The deadly road, 

Of the evil city, 

Which engulfed him, in a fraction of a second. 

"I'll escape this,

this will be just another story, 

I'll tell her I had an accident, almost. 

I'll tell her I died, almost

She'd laugh and waive her hand off, 

I'll escape this,"

He must have thought. 

Death's lust for him, 

Claimed his life, 

Never ever back to his sister

he could return, Sidhdharth Sharma.

The victim of the hit and run case in Delhi's posh, Civil Lines.