If its meant to be, it will

"Just being depressed and crying over split mil won't help you Swati, you need to get out and see the bright world out there and just face it, damn it! " were all spoken in one single sentence without taking a break to breath! Sighed Ritwika.

"I know, I am trying!"

"Well, guess what? Your trying is not enough!"

This was me, today! Trying to recover from a break up! Its really hard to say goodbye to a person who became your life's most important part at one point of time. I tried all the way out, eating 10 tubs of ice cream a day to going on a walk. Nothing really worked! But yes I am at a much better position now than I was 10 days ago. 

"I will pick you up at 7! Be ready, we cannot afford to be late, its Allu Arjun yaar, please late mat karna" said Ritwika and stepped out of Swati's room! Swati was again free to stare at the crack in the side wall which she has been starring since 10 days!

"Dude I can't wait to see Anushka Manchandan yaar!! Her voice is magical! Dance Basanti is so good you cant stop yourself from dancing even at the most boring parties." exclaimed Dev.

"Yeah yeah, I know! we will see her live tonite!! " replied Anuj.

"That's it? That's your excitement? Man I feel like my dream will come true when Anushka will pull me on stage to shake a leg on her song! ".

"Bas kar na bhaai, kitne baar bolega?"

"Leave it Anuj! You wont understand what I feel now! Okay I am going to class now lets leave by 7ish? "

"Done"

Even after recovering from a breakup Swati was excited about watching Allu Arjun LIVE!! She pretended to be not really interested and came to concert. Music has started junior artists were performing. Everything looked awesome, as this generation says! Ours was first row! Just in front of Arjun! It couldn't be more tempting. We were super excited and all the melodrama and pain was left behind for the moment.
Their was announcement of Anushka and Arjun taking the center stage soon, all the fans started making noise of joy! I just turned my head a bit after giving a good "Woooohooo" there was the eyes which left me in utter shock. Just like movies, everything in flashback!! It was Anuj, my first love. I was stunned it was the most unexpected place to meet him, he would never go on concerts, we were two absolute opposite person! 
He looked equally surprised, but made his way through the crowd and came to me.
"Hi"
"Hi, oh my god!!"
"Exactly! wooooh"
"What are .. how are you??"
"I am good, good, omg!! "
"So unexpected"
"Exactly"
Anushka was on stage with her killer voice! Noise went so high, we couldn't hear each other any more. We too joined the crowd to help to shout even louder.
Anushka started with her famous Dum Maaro Dum! Crowd went mad, it was the most happening day of my life. The disco lights kept flickering through the crowd and artists to keep everyone energized. 
Now came the most awaited song "Dance Basanti" and just before the music started Allu Arjun made an entry on bike hanging from other end of the stage! It was a grand entry, people couldn't stop making noise!
"oochi wali heel pehenke dance basanti" sang Anushka and the crowd went gaga. Allu moved everyone with his moves as soon as he jumped in the stage!
I felt adrenal rush throughout my body I was bit sure its the concert and nothing else which was giving me this rush, but my heart kept saying Anuj is the reason behind it.
Anushka was singing and Allu Arjun was stealing the crowd with his dance moves.. 
When see me you go wild aaw
You want my love you want it now nowYou see me dancing up.. 

I was also shaking my leg and enjoying it when suddenly Allu Arjun gave me a hand to move up to stage for a dance! I couldn't believe my luck, it was like a dream come true, and to my disbelief he have also invited Anuj among few other pairs to dance on stage. I had no option but to dance with Anuj. He took my hands and started dancing with me. I never knew he could dance this well.
After 15 minutes of on stage dhamaka, Anushka thanked us all and came near Anuj and said You guys were the best. We were totally flattered, crowd appreciated us too. Anushka asked me in front of everyone "So, how long you guys have been dating?"
My eyes popped out, I had nothing to answer! "Ah! We are just friends"
"Oh no! Don't friend zone such a cute guy!" crowd made huge noise and agreed to Allu and Anushka. I was really embarrassed by the whole situation, I had no idea what was going on in Anuj's mind.
We came down, I couldn't dare to meet his eyes. The concert was about to end. I was thinking, so this was it? Once again we go back to square one with no one telling their feelings?
"Can we meet tomorrow at CCD?"
"Huh! " I was still in shock
"Possible?"
"Yeah. Okay" 
"Morning 10?"
"Sounds good" I wanted this to go ahead.
"Okay, see you then"

I was there at 9.30, I entered the coffee shop and to my surprise he was also early and already seated. Yellow striped white shirt, I remember I used to tell him yellow suits him. 
"Hi"
"Hey"
"So, both of us are early" laughs
"Yeah"
"Coffee? "
"Yes, sure."
He bought us two hot cappuccino. 
Silence. Awkward.
"So you are single?"
I told him about my recent break up, my recovery plans, job issues, latest movies, why Amitabh sir is evergreen and will Big Boss 9 be watchable without Salman.
"Can I ask you something?"
"Yes"
"It took me rehearsal in front of mirror for the whole night, to ask you this"
I nodded. I knew what he will ask. I have recited it myself a million times.
"Why didn't you say it?"
"I want to ask you the same question"
"You always came with your friend,Nisha and kept talking about her! Like you want me to like her and date her!"
"What? It was you who would talk to her only"
"Because you wont even look at me"
"What did you expect? To stare at you while you talk to Nisha?"
"I tried so many times to talk to you, but you were always involved in your thoughts!"
"My thoughts! My thoughts were all about you, damn it!"
"Then why didn't said it? Why do you have to think about me when I am in front of you"
"Because you were too busy in Nisha"
"Do you know why I used to call Nisha to meet up? So I could see you, not her!"
"Then why don't invite me straight?"
"Because you looked absolutely not interested. I didn't wanted to lose the little friendship I had with you"
"Oh my god! So much of confusion"
"You have no idea how difficult it was for me to forget you, you were my first love"
"So was you yaar!"
"If it wasn't Anushka and Arjun we could have never met again and never confess our feelings to each other.
"I am sorry"
"No, I am."
Lets go and celebrate life, their are no good byes in true love. God will find its way to make two lovebirds meet somehow. This time this concert was god sent for us! 



                “I am blogging for #MaxFreshMove activity at BlogAdda.com. Are you?

A Family Dinner

It was our family dinner day.

We ordered 2 onion dosas and 2 idlys and one uttapam. We changed our plans with the ordered and called the waiter again and said cancel the uttapam and bring 3 dosas. I repeated him the same thing twice so he doesn't do a mistake.
While we were having a good time discussing last nights  tv show our food arrived. To our shock even after repeating him two times he did the mistake and brought the uttapam. 
"But we have changed the order, don't you remember?"
He didn't say anything at first, "it's what you ordered" he said.
"First of all you dont follow orders then you are lying too!" I was furious. He looked a little guilty but wasn't accepting his mistake.
I and my brother started scholded him. Finally he said ok leave it I will get your order.
While I and my brother were still furious about it mom said " You don't know what he have gone through! maybe his day started of n the wrong foot, maybe he has a big fight at home, maybe he is too tired of trying, maybe he is trying ends meet but it just doesn't work, how could you be so inhuman to schold like that? you don't know his story! I know he has done a mistake but did you try to even think about reasons why he might have forgotten a simple change and then not reacting well to his mistake? "
These questions still rings in my head all the time before I get angry on any staff for any mistake. Mom was right. She always is.

This post is dedicated to Godrej's #MyFirstExpert contest

Find Happiness In Other's Smile

They say parenting is no easy job! Try to teach him/her all the good habits and fill them with all the sanskaar possible is a common advice all the mothers get. Being a new mom I know that feeling myself. But my mother's approach was always different, its still is. She says a child learns more from what he/she watches than whats taught to them and here is a clear example of that.

It was a sunny day of 2003, we had to go shopping for my birthday dress. We were hopping stores, buying stuff it was just a perfect day. After 60% of our shopping done, we were thirsty so decided to got to a nearby shop. Mom drank Coke while I drank Frooti and we were about to pay the shopkeeper and leave when mom said 5 more Frooties, I thought we are taking it home for brothers, we stepped out of the shop.

"Let's cross the road", said mom.

"But we still have shopping to do" I queried 

"I know" I followed her.

There was about 5 Rickshawalas standing in a row waiting for passengers. Mom handed one Frooti each to all 5 of them, she said " It's too hot, it will help" and left. 

I turned back to them while we were heading back to shopping. Each one of them were wearing a broad smile and a face full of gratitude.I smiled back at them.

"It was a nice gesture, mom"

"Look beta, we spend Rs.50 all the time, we are least bothered about Rs.50 being used in what way in a day! But this 50 rupees clenched the thirst of 5 very tired humans. They are not just happy as they got a cold drink in a hot day, they are now equally happy that humanity is still alive. And beta I bet on this, at least one among the 5 will have so much impact about this that he will help a poorer person in need when the time comes."

"The more you help people, the more people want to help other people, its viral! ".

That day I learnt true meaning of "Sharing is caring" If you share a little of whatever god has blessed you with, you are caring for humanity! Always help others, you will feel content. "

That's the best advice #MyFirstExpert my mom gave to me, and I am proud of her. 

This post is dedicated to Godrej's #MyFirstExpert Contest

Some frozen corn, a pack of bread and an aunty who steals!

On a usual Sunday morning, I had to go to our favorite local shop Matri Varities, not only ours, the shop is favorite of the entire locality and the reason behind this is the half bald uncle who runs the shop is so decent, and makes his staff work in flow (i guess no other local shops do that) people love to go to buy things from uncle and of course the shop is very well stocked with most of the stuff a person need for daily life.

So, this morning, I crossed the deserted road (as its Sunday) and reach Matri Shop which was already over flooded by customers. But, I am a very determined person as you know. I made my way through the crowd and touched the front row and felt like a victory. I told him " Uncle ek packet bread aur ek frozen corn ka chota packet bhi". As I already said this guy knows how to handle crowd and fulfill everyone wishes without making them angry for waiting, I got my stuff in next 4 minutes. In those 4 minutes he also served an old aged man who came for a pack of Soupy noodles, a middle aged women who came for 4 packets of milk and 2 packets of bread and also dealt with a guy who forgot why he came to the shop!

After getting the bread I stepped out of the shop then I see a women, (around 55 years) took a packet of milk (which is usually kept in front of the shop due to heavy rush on Sundays) and hidden it under her pallu and mixed in the crowd like she came there to buy something and I was standing there too shocked to understand whats going on!

This never happened with me before, it is not very unusual to see a poor kid or some guy doing this but a Lady, wearing such decent clothes and looked so well mannered from a reputed household! After harldy 30 seconds she came out of the shop and very calmly left the shop with the milk packet still hiding in her hands inside the pallu. I was just standing there, watching her go home without any guilt or fear. A thought came in my mind, I should inform uncle about this, right now! But i don't know what stopped me!

She just flew away so easily and I still don't understand why would she do that? Is her family in in poor financial conditions? Well, didn't looked like that, and even if it is, you don't steal stuff. How many times has she done that before? Come on! money is not that easy to earn, uncle opens his shop early morning at 6:30 , don't you think he also needs some extra sleep on a Sunday. Have she ever thought about his kids who would be wanting to spend the Sunday with their father. He sacrifice everything so he could earn some extra bucks and fulfill needs of his family, he is doing this because he knows that no other shop opens at this time, at least not on Sunday, he care for people. And you do this to him? You steal his property, how difficult is it pay Rs. 14 ? I was so angry on her that I wanted to scream out "Hey you, stop right there, I seen you stealing". I have no idea why I did not stop her or at least tell uncle that look she is stealing.

But then my mind raced the other side of the coin. Is there child in her home who needs milk and may be she don't have enough money or her husband/son don't give him the amount to feed the little boy. Is she doing this so she can get money from her son/ husband for milk and keep the money with herself because she needs it and his son don't give her any money. Did she do it just out of habit which she picked up when she was actually in a very bad financial health! Whatever is the reason, stealing is not the answer, Aunty!

I kept watching her as she faded into the road far away. My mind was too occupied to say anything. I still don't have answers. Humanity is going down each day, and may it was a no big deal for many people out there, I know things like this happens.. everyday. It was.. to me!

The realisation of my hidden powers

Have you ever felt like so proud of yourself, like "I am important" . In my case i never give my self so much importance that.. you know that 'my existance' is so important kind of attitude. But something happened last week made me feel so so important, valuable and worthy. Though this thing had happened before, i mean , from our childhood days, during rakhsha bandhan i tie "resham knots" in brothers wrist and he would bend and touch feets and take ashirwad. So it was no new thing.. until last week. A normal day it was, and i was busy in the kitchen doing my daily chores when my devar Mohit Lunia came in the kitchen and touched my mother in laws feet and she blessed her all the very best for the exam he was going for that day. And then he proceeded to touch my feet, as usual i said "lets just shake hands bhaiya, and best of luck bhaiya" but he didn't listen and touched my feet (this had happened before , whenever he goes for exam he does that, but today was different).
Every other days he would do 'pranam' and i would just say 'khush rahiye bhaiya, and best of luck', and even that day after his pranam i said "khush rahiye and best of luck" but the only difference was i when he bent, i hold my hands on his back and said these words, while saying it, i actually felt, how it feels to bless some one. I meant each and every word i uttered. I felt like god, like i am blessing him" khush rahiye" and so he ll be happy forever. I felt like by holding my hands on his back i am passing "happiness and blessings" through the veins of my palms into him , i felt proud , not because he did 'pranam' to me but because my blessings matters.
All the times we just say "best of luck" but this day i really really wanted luck favours him the bestest possible. I always had this thing about doing pranams, i love to gain ashirwad from elders but that day i received a new feeling, new gift , "the joy of giving"-happiness, the joy of blessing someone to stay happy in there life no matter what. Have you ever did it? Please do it, bless someone from bottom of your heart nothing will give you more pleasure . You must have blessed your younger sister or brother or cousin but this time while doing it, hold your hands on thier back and bless from bottom of heart, feel the importance of yourself in thier lives and also how much there happiness means to you. I heard this sentence many times" KHUSI BAATNE SE BADHTI HAI", but this made sense to me that day.Thank you so much Mohit bhaiya for making me realise the hidden power i had of "blessing". I don't know my blessings works or not but from that day it has been always so pure and from bottom of my heart.

MY ENCOUNTERS WITH SOCIAL NETWORK

I became a techno freak soon after the day in early summer of 2007 when bsnl sent me a message "enjoy 200 mb free gprs" to activate sms  GPRS250 to 52525".  I was so excited and happy to know that free internet gprs for month. So i sent the sms and after checking my balance i came to know that GPRS250 means you are damn paying 250 from your balance to acitivate the pack of 200 mb?? i was shocked, i mean 250 rupees does mean a lot of balance and hello i am talking about some 7 years back, jab half of the nation doesnt even knew what is GPRS! it was really a big hole in my pocket, and chalo jab activate ho hi gaya hai, then we have to use it. To explore the fantacy world of GPRS the first thing you could do with a gprs enabled mobile phone in 2007 is go to "ORKUT".

Orkut was the most happening thing that time, people used to go internet cafes to check out orkut and you had some 400 friends and you barely knew 50 of them! The fight was who had more scraps in their scrapbooks! If you had more then 1000 scraps then you are considered "something". Meanwhile many social sites such as BIGADDA, IBIBO, MYSPACE did called my attention but not for long. Orkut became the coolest thing, when you have to show off, the statement "ARE YOU IN ORKUT?" was enough, and then all you have to say is "oh gosh! don tell me you don't know about orkut!", "are you serious? you never heard orkut?" and like viruses the orkut profiles started dividing itself and soon the whole world was in orkut,  Then we started reading articles about FACEBOOK VS MYSPACE. It was all over the gizmo world, Facebook or Myspace was the future. And i thought o really? I typed WWW.FACEBOOK.COM in the internet explorer "about:blank" place( these days people forgotten that there was something called internet explorer, everyone loves google chrome) and there was this page asking me to sign in if i am and existing user or to create an account because its FREE. I filled all the requirements they asked me to but with a wrong date of birth (ofcourse). They asked me if i am sure that my age is above 18 i said yes and enter, they say welcome to facebook , edit you profile, about me: now this is really irritating, about me?? come on every person on earth thinks he/she is right and good and intelligent and smart, and you are asking me to write about me?? and then i did what 99.99 % people do while creating or filling their "about me" section .GOOGLE. Yes.. and after surfing through few interesting  “about meeess” though cool but i chose to leave the ‘about me’ section blank.This time i was serious about adding friends, i did added but only people i knew, i had a profile picture of a celebrity like everyone used to, because people thought if you put your original pic some con may download your pic and use somewhere. Very soon people started adding original pics in their profile pictures and that gave me courage to add mines to.. Now the search starts for your best picture to date. See, you have to be very concious about profile pic, because only your friends can see your ‘albums’ but everyone can see the profile pic, and after some good scan of all your pics you definatly find that ‘one’ pic perfect to become the’ facebook profile picture’ . And the best part , after uploading your pic for the first time you start checking your facebook profile 6 to 10 times a day to see any new comment or like to your pic! And things like poking, farmville, tagging, keeps you entertained in this facinating world of facebook, one day you find that one friend you lost in touch.. years back.. i was shocked that this social networking thing can literally make you cry out of joy, it has the capability to keep you in touch with people you almost forgot they existed and who were most important people of your life at some point of time. Janani, my best friend from school days.. we used to barely talk on phones, infact only on our birthdays!! Facebook gave me not only janani but many other friends whom i just forgotten! Today FB has become part of our lives, don’t you think so? I mean you share your happiest and saddest moment with FB, now we express ourselves so much than we ever did! From chatting to online friends, to poking your friend , or checking out pictures of your school friends and thinking "gosh, they have changed so much", or tagging all your friends to a stupid picture and ofcourse updating your status!! I reall really am very thankful to FACEBOOK. THANKS.

SPREAD THE SMILE :)

               Sometimes small things in life teach you big lessons!! Let me tell you a small incident which happened 4 months back. Our landlords's mother, we call her "paatti"( that's grand ma in tamil ), is 94 years old and very sweet! She passes most of her time by sitting in the balcony and watching people moving ahead in everyday life. So..Papa, while coming back from morning walks,  used to stop by and have chit - chat with her like 'how are you", " finshed break fast?"," what did the doctor said"  to chats about neighbours, his sons, health, weather and she tells how much she misses her great grand childrens, and papa used to listen all that patiently, after some 5 to 7 minutes chat he used to come back. Recently, she was not in very pink of health. She has been admitted to hospital for several reasons, she couldn't see properly, her kidneys weren't functioning well, blood pressure was an issue and many other things. She was hospitalized for a week and then came back home. I went to see her, she was lying there, so fragile, thin, bottle of glucose hanging above her head, two syringes pierced on her hands, eyes closed, hairs undone, cheeks (literally no cheeks at all) have all vanished, she looked like just a skeleton wrapped up by piece of skin! She was sleeping, so i didn't wanted to disturb her. Her grand daughter said its because of the medicines she is taking and i can wake her up. I didn't dared to wake her. But her grand daughter did.
" See amma who has come to see you"
"Amma"
Very slowly she opened her eyes, i was not expecting her to recognize me, because after marriage i haven't seen her for almost a year and now at this condition it was least expected that she will recognize me.
"See, Pritika is here"
"Who" she mummbled.
"Pritika, Binod Anna's daughter"
"Oh" she tried to open her eyes wider,but failed.
"How are you, paatti?"
"Fine" she was not in a very concious state of mind, her eyelids were dropping down again and again.
"Your father is a great man, he is very good"
"Yeah" i didn't knew what to answer, why is she suddenly talking about papa?
Her eyes closed again, and opened after few seconds, she kept repeating the sentence
"Your father is very good, he is very good man" and repeated again and then again.
"Lets go, she needs rest"
"Yeah sure, akka"
I touched her feet and came out of the dark room. This wasn't the paatti i saw last time, she was so active at this age, always smiling and spreading the smile, but now she was so ill. One thing which made me write this post is, even at such a stage of her life, she remembers papa, in fact not only remember, she kept repeating. Papa havn't paid her money to do that, neither he had asked her to d it, it was natural. All papa gave her is some "time" and "smile", which no money could buy! I was bound to think, how an act of goodness, an act of showing that "YOU CARE" could matter so much in some one's life! After four months, she is much better now, papa still stand by to have a small chat with paatti , everyday he successfully brings smile on her face and she gracefully accepts and bless my father as her own son :)