(75) FIRST TIME EXPERIENCES...!!

First hand experience of anything good or bad is mostly unforgettable.
It has been killing hot this summer in almost every corner of the country. And same of the north is nothing less known for its nuisance. For me it was the first time exposure to such an extreme live through. Last few days had been unbearable even with the aid of AC and coolers. Water dashed in people’s sweat, hurried through labor’s tears, rushed in children’s cry, melted from freezed bottles, dropped from soar of my burnt hand, but did not fall from the sky. Every day people prayed to the gods of rain to be kind and to the lord of sun to be less merciless. But nothing really changed except for the fake rains it showed last evening and a hope giving shower this morning. Though they were the breather in the gallows, but the after effect left us all with more suffocating climate.

Dheeraj had to leave for Udaipur this evening and hence he asked me to drop him to the station. My mother in law and my daughter accompanied us. It did not take long for us to reach the station. Dheeraj had already warned me that it might take me long while returning due to the peak hour and the nesting traffic jam midway which occurs due to the ongoing flyover construction. As soon as we dropped him and took a U-turn to start for home, it turned stormy all around. Winds blew crazily throwing dust and dirt in the way. As I have not driven much in this new place, I got a jerk seeing the dusty cloud in front of the car and thought “will I reach home safely?”. But then, this was the test of my driving skills and opportunity for my adventure desire. With windows glasses up and AC on, I drove at the balanced speed keeping pace with the adjacent vehicles and chatting with my mom-in-law. After around 8 kilometers of drive, we met the traffic jam..the huge one. And that was the real test, which I cleared very nicely(boasting about myself na..!!, I know.i know.)

Real fun began just after that. It started pouring in with medium fall and then rose to the higher and higher scale. Oh..!!.it was majestic.!! Just very tempting. I don’t know how people manage to drive while its alluringly raining outside. How can they just sit back and keep accelerating? For me, it was just like getting pulled between strings. On one hand, I had to reach home early –safely and on the other, I just wanted to jump down from the car and get drenched in the downpour. Till now, I always enjoyed traveling rains as a passenger and not the driver. So , this was my first ever experience of driving amidst drizzle while controlling my persuasion to get wet. Years back, I had the fun of playing with falling waters while riding my scooty. Though that experience was also not any less enthralling, but this one was completely different altogether. You know, its like choosing between your two best passions and giving up to the one which falls in priority. In fact same thing happens in other facets of life sometimes when you have to choose between two best people, two best friends, two best jobs, two close decisions, two dearest emotions….eetc.Oh..oh…am going on the other track.. For keeps, for keeps..!!

So..i was talking about the rains and the drive..it was real fun.Infact, I offered my mom-in-law in midway to take the steering and let me get down to get mad with the waters. She gave me a caustic look and asked me to concentrate on driving. Though I could not bathe in rains, but I decided not to give amiss to my other persuasion of eating pani-puri which was budding all the more in such proximities with bucket- down fall. I drove straight to the Pani-puri wala shop and waited there for almost 20 minutes because
they had encountered good amount of destruction due to winds and hence were resetting things in place. Thankfully, ..the wait paid off and we savored the pani-puri, alloo tikki and moved out with mango dry-fruit shake which was real yummy.Came home and I went straight to the balcony .Thanks to the rains, it made me feel good about, at least the physical beauty of that city, which I utterly don’t like. Long wet roads, wet cars, bright lights, muddy smell…and everything so soothing around…it appeared very beautiful. Such milieu can make even the stone-hearted person feel romantic, feel nostalgic, and can give a craving to be with the loved-ones..

I hope this spell of water doesn’t stop like yesterday. It should now keep falling and spreading the drops of relief, happiness and love all around.

(74) NEW PLACE

Quite a long break, isn’t it! Yeah, I know. To be honest, time passed by like a skit on my plans after leaving Hyderabad. Not all so unfulfilling, but less things came as desired, leaving aside few beautiful events.
Not later than I had disclosed the news of leaving Hyderabad and shifting to Noida, calls started pouring in with more of concerning tone about our movement(to noida) rather than congratulating us for the new development(dheeraj’s carrier growth).Every caller raised the trepidation involving the weather, social life in north, and most importantly our security. And this was more prominent because of all the media reports which were telecasted in the recent past about different crime stories which took place in Noida, Delhi and surrounding areas.People’s worry added as a strong supporting to my hundreds of excuses for not shifting to Noida. Reason unknown or rather curtailed, I basically never liked north part of India for living. And no one knows better than me how difficult it has been for me to set myself and my house over here.
After shedding buckets of tears in vain, at last I had to move in here and so I did.Initial 20 days we were put up in a hotel during which we searched for the accommodation to shift in. Every visit to a new place brought me across varying views by the residents, nearby vendors, realty agents about the security concern. Some advised it was bad to stay in Delhi, some said not good to stay in Indirapuram and many said it was worse to live in Noida. We had a tough time to decide and finalise the house.During all these days, I picked up every possible bad news from the newspaper and highlighted it to Dheeraj trying to make him realize that he has done a mistake by choosing the career option here. But this exercise would have hardly helped me because ultimately I had to live back here.
After shifting our households, I went to Udaipur for 10 days while Dheeraj was in London.Came back, settled the things and then I went to Gujarat for almost a month and have come back last week. Moving around like this was perhaps the act of hiding myself from the reality that has actually fallen upon me and that is that I have to live here.
I have been thinking over it all this time, is it really such a bad place to live because the evidences says so And/Or it has been hyped to me by my self hatred plus spreaded fear about the crime by the people.
If I go by the number then, during last three months, I have come across the news of not less than 10 rape cases,3 murder cases and around 15 theft cases in and around this place, though I stay in so called Posh and safe locality wherein NH is just 5 minutes from my building, infact visible from my balcony, to the adjacent is a big shopping mall and in the complex itself the security system is of high tightened up level. People are of the opinion that whatever level of personal security you beef up for yourself, be assured about your insecurity if you fall in jurisdiction of Uttar Pradesh and Delhi police or for that matter police in entire North. But isn’t it what they say for the Police all over India, leaving of course some officials for exceptions? God..am so so confused and baffled with all such talks that I have stopped reminding myself that am living in this part of the country. I don’t know, how much is the truth and what level is of fib, because there are lakhs of people who are already living here since ages and that too happily. Friend of mine says that fear is in my mind and not in the society, so trusting those words, and on the note of hopes, I herewith start the new chapter of my being and look forward to have a safe and happy living in the place of my bad-choice list. Will catch u soon..