A Walk in the Rains

How happy I am..
To see you again,
In front of me.
To see that beautiful smile,
To see that twinkle in your hazel eyes.
To listen to you speak slowly in your sing-song voice!

As we walked together,
In the gentle drizzle,
Me holding an umbrella for you;
And listening attentively;
To every word that you spoke;
It was a walk in the rains.

A walk to remember,
Or rather a walk that-
I will never forget!
You looked troubled,
And as you spoke;
I noticed the sadness in your eyes and voice.

You know that I am there,
Just a phone-call away!
I am no Superman to work miracles;
But I can listen to you with care.
And try my best to help you;
In anyway to make you feel happy and see you smile.

Let your worries,
Vanish away in the dust,
That the rains wash away,
Let there be just happiness,
That we can share with each other.
A walk in the rains!

Journeys Never End - A Love Story - The Story Idea

The week leading up to August 15 was exciting because Indiblogger and Harper Collins had promised to provide a platform to bloggers to get published.

Please visit - http://www.indiblogger.in/getpublished/ and participate!

My effort to 'get published' - my story idea presented below:

It was 9:35 PM and my train to Rameshwaram was scheduled to leave Egmore station at 9:40 PM. The Tambaram-Chennai Beach local train reached Egmore just in time for me to run like Usain Bolt and get into the Rameshwaram Express.

I tried to catch my breath as I settled into my seat L-21. I looked at my fellow-passengers; a middle-aged couple eating their dinner, two nuns praying and a man in his thirties; with a copper urn in his hands.

Train to Rameshwaram and a copper urn - probably his parents' ashes I surmised. How wrong I was? I would learn what true love meant in the next fourteen hours of my journey to Rameshwaram - a story of love that overcame all odds!

Crunch, Munch, Lunch with a Lovely Bunch

So the big day was here - the day of the Mid-Year Blogger Meet. After so much planning by the organisers and so many questions, answers and counter questions, threats of only 15 seats available, etc., the day - Sunday, August 19 was here.

As I live in the 'back of beyond' - Tiruvallur 42 kilometres away from Chennai Central it was again a long train-ride. The days leading up to Sunday was suspenseful in a way - who all would be coming - Gitanjali, Dr. Ganesh, Susan, Sowmya, Bhushavalli, Chris Robin, Ashwini, these were the few bloggers with whom I interacted. Plus I would be meeting my former colleague Karen Xavier after a long time.

First I came to know that Karen had a family emergency and could not make it :( that was sad as was really keen to meet her. Then there was a long Q at Beach Station and I had to stand in silence staring at the back of a bald-headed Gujarati guy talking about dhanda kaharab hai on his mobile non-stop.

Got the ticket and boarded the MRTS train and revisited the Vivekananda College route; went into nostalgia as I looked at the beloved Beach - the renovated Chepauk stadium through the train-windows.

Life has changed or has it really? I am still single, still carry a back-pack with a water-bottle and a book to read and wear a cap and sun-glasses. Perhaps this is what LIFE has in store for me.

Got down at the Lighthouse station and walked to Al-Arab where my dear team-mate the good Dr. Ganesh was in deep conversation with a lovely lady (Sinduja) and a gent (Anand) who suspiciously looked like a Telugu movie-star.

Slowly other bloggers came -in Ashwini, Karpagam, Sandhya who had to be given directions to reach Al-Arab from Citi-Centre - practically bang opposite :)! A mild confusion about a young girl who was looking lost and we thought she was a blogger as well. Followed By Gitanjali, Kalyan the photographer and then finally Nirmal Anand who came in after the lunch started.

Food was decent but over-priced! Lunch dragged for about two hours and 15 minutes and then Karpagam and Gitanjali decided to go to their respective homes - at this juncture DRUPAL expert Jothivel Murthy came in and the rest of us proceeded to the beach.

There was an aha-galatta moment as Dr Ganesh changed from Clark Kent to Superman at the traffic signal and Sandhya had the shock of her life when she stared at our car from Anand's and the whole group cracked up at the traffic-signal with raucous laughter and the other bikers got scared :).

At the beach we sat in a huge circle and there was conversation about what we do what we blog and other random stuff and pulling of legs and healthy jibber-jabber.

Then the highlight of the evening Quizzing with the Dr on his love-stories with celebrities!

It was real fun! The Doctor was the real life and soul of the whole group providing us with entertainment both intentional and unintentional.

Sinduja left as she wanted to catch a movie - How was the movie? Review please!

As the sun-light dimmed and the evening set in we decided to call it a day and left with the hope of a bigger bash next time and having made new friends.

Let this beautiful little group grow, let there be no ego-clashes or tantrums or misunderstandings within this group. Let the Chennai Bloggers Club become something more than a bunch of motley friends - let there be concrete steps to do something for a social cause - it could be as simple as providing your old clothes to an old-age home, sponsoring a child's education, adopting a stray pup or kitten, planting a tree, etc..

With the seeds of the genesis of a collaborative project sown-in - I can foresee exciting times ahead!

The woods are lovely dark and deep, we as bloggers have many promises to keep :)


Keep blogging, keep smiling - God bless!

Meri Teri - Teri Meri - Prem Kahani Hai Mushkil

This is a piece of fiction written for the (Sony Entertainment Television’s the “Love Marriage ya Arranged Marriage” IndiBlogger contest- Check out - https://www.facebook.com/LoveYaArrange

The vaadhiyar was chanting the mantras at a ferocious pace looking at his watch, probably he had to head to another hall, another muhurtam and another marriage. Meenakshi was dressed in the traditional red silk saree, Anand was looking dapper in his pattu-veshti and angavastram. The parents of the bride and the groom looked happy and there was a glow of happiness and contentment all around. The usual galatta of a Tam-Brahm kalyanam, the kids running about, the mamis decked in their finery trading tips on losing weight, the hunt for a prospective U.S.-return mapillai everything was synchronised to perfection.

Then why the bloody hell was I feeling like Simbhu in the introductory sequence of 'Vinnaithandi Varuvaaya' or Prateik Babbar in 'Ek Deewana Tha'.

Childhood and College:
Anand was my best friend right since class five when he had moved to our apartment complex in Mylapore. We studied at P.S. Senior Higher Secondary School and college was at Vivekananda; life seemed complete with the blessings of Kapaleeshwarar and we thought Madras or Chennai was the whole world for us!

Hired on Campus:
It was a remarkable quirk of fate or the strength of our friendship that the two of us got placed on-campus in a K.P.O. - one of the largest in the world head-quartered out of Seattle with branches in places ranging from Colombo to Manila and Sydney to Nairobi.

Pehli Nazar main Pyar ho Gaya:
It was the first day of work and there she stood right in front of me breaking my twenty-year old heart into smithereens - Meenakshi - another fresher and campus recruit - she was from Ethiraj College and had studied Literature! As all of us freshers went through the rituals of induction, corporate etiquette and a hundred other training things compacted into a three-week program.

The training went well and the three of us Anand, Meenakshi, and I bonded well. At the end of the training program the three of us were assigned to a team. Each team within the firm worked using code-names we were never supposed to reveal the actual name of the client for whom you worked. Everything was coded - so you had teams named - FAST, Skywalkers, Big Fish...
The three of us were put into Team FAST and ended up working for one of the largest accounting and auditing firms in the world.

On the floor:
Work started in full earnest, there was no day, no night, working for American clients meant you slept in the mornings and afternoons and slaved through the nights, but no complaints great food, good pay and a great atmosphere! Three years went by in a flash.

Three years:
All through these years the three of us stuck together through thick and thin, even when others from our batch quit, we stuck to our company the company that chose us! I never realized that Anand had a soft corner for Meenakshi as well; it came out during Anand's birthday bash. Meenakshi had gone to Trivandrum to attend a wedding in her family, and it was just me and Anand.

Bottled up emotions:
Between the two of us we had managed to finish a Seagrams 100-pipers and 2 Fosters' each. And then Anand said - 'Matchan - do you know something, promise - don't tell this to anyone!' And then the birthday boy puked on me ruining my denim! It was crazy the two of us on the beach with Anand puking away to glory and me not knowing whether to cry or laugh!

Anand or Meena:
It was weird, because before Meenakshi had left for the wedding I had penned all my emotions in one long letter and given it to her asking her to read and revert. When Meena returned to work she went up to Anand and said - 'Anand why did you have to tell this through him (pointing at me). You could have told me directly?'

And then it struck me - I had not signed the letter with my name!!!!! Blistering barnacles and thundering typhoons - three years to pen a love-letter and this idiot does not have the guts or memory to sign his name. As usual she had believed that it was Anand who wanted to convey his feelings through me. Their love story started on the premise of a lie and a poem - a beautiful lie written by me.

Things moved at a feverish pace and the marriage got fixed and now I stand before them in the kalyana mandapam. The Kashi yatra is over and the groom has been welcomed in - Meenu stands staring at me in a weird way! I look at her and smile as well.

I notice a tug on my veshti and look down to see a small girl about seven years old with a note in her hand, she gives it to me. I open the note - in it written in Meenakshi's clear and crisp writing was a single query - 'Did you write the bloody letter you fool? Anand said this to me just before heading out for the kashi-yatra!"

I did not know what to say as - Anand suddenly came up to me took my hand and led me up to the homa-kundam and gave my hand to Meenakshi - "Matchan - sorry da - I realized that Meenakshi loves you - the poet not me!"

There was utter chaos in the hall as someone shouted 'Abacharam yenna nadakaruudhu inge?' - "What the hell is happening here!"

Friendship reigns and Love prevails:
In that one instant friendship redeemed itself and true love prevailed as Meenakshi's Appa looked at Meenakshi and she said with tears in her eyes sorry Appa - I am in love with him and planted a kiss on my lips in the hall!

The mama who shouted 'Abacharam' earlier said 'Nassama pochu - Ivalke kalyanatha paniveyungo!' - "Blazes - get these two married!"

Getimellam:
In all this confusion Anand pushed the thali - mangalsutra in my hands and I tied it around Meenakshi's neck!

Thus goes the story of my arranged-love marriage!

Lines for You - Will You Give me a Chance?

The shortest of SMSes from you,
Makes me smile;
Even if it's just a simple -'Yup',
Or a single smiley that you,
Send in reply;
It still makes my heart fill up with joy!

It's well more than a month,
Since I saw you last;
When do I meet you again?
I never know.
Will you ever-ever understand;
That you are someone special for me.

If I lack something,
Let me know,
I will refine myself to suit your tastes.
Once earlier when I spoke to you about this;
You just moved away from me.
Those few days I kept kicking myself;
You never will know how much pain I went through!

The joy that I got,
When I got you to smile again;
Well it is unexplainable.
I write pages and pages of poems,
All dedicated to you.
Not a single moment passes by,
Without me thinking of you.

Will you my dearest,
Say 'Yes' when I ask you the 'question'?
Or will you just smile cryptically,
Get up, walk away and make me cry again!
I know it will be a tough decision,
For you to go against the wishes of your loved ones.

But give me a chance, that's all I ask of you!
A chance to prove that I can indeed be the man for you!
Will you give me the chance?
If only I could fly?
I would spread my wings and fly up to you,
And caress you with my wings and stand by you!

If only my dearest, you would give me a chance?
Is it too much to ask?