She

The first Glimpse

The glimpse of that charismatic beauty-translucent ivory complexion, emerald eyes, the cloud of lustrous hair brought to one side  resting on her  left shoulder and holding the mobile to the right ear with a catchy smile on her face displaying the  pearly teeth while talking on the call, graceful walk wavering her hands elegantly with perfect synchronization -left me spellbound.

My heart imbued with her persona and my activities that time just smacked of being taken away by her  personable appearance, needless to say, I was smitten by her...  

The second Glimpse and probably the last one !!

Early morning, I ran to food court and  ordered one plate boiled egg at ‘Clay Oven’ and was waiting for my coupon number to be displayed and to my surprise, I could see her coming towards me-with my eyes wide open and stuck at her-along with her friend, offcourse  a girl(adding to my bliss). 

Oh No !! My eyes still stuck at her but I could listen to my coupon Number, the haunting number 78,getting announced. And It happens, when you are famished it takes ages for your order to come and when you want to wait, it comes -irrevocably and invariably- in no time.

But then, I waited for her order to come and yes it came. She took  the plate of Puri and left, with me following her to sit promptly  in the table next to where she sat. I couldn’t understand the reason of that  peculiar smile which her friend carried from the beginning, but I was not bothered about that.

She was putting  each and every morsel very delicately into her mouth - while playing with the pendant around her neck ,with the left hand-  to avoid  splattering   of the decent streak of pearly pink lipstick running  through her glossy lips. I tried hard but found myself helpless  to move my eyes off her. Our eyes met twice or thrice and while she left ,crossing my table, she gently looked at me - with her hairs as a bunch still on her left shoulders-and her look came to me as an arrow of flowers  piercing my heart, leaving me in a state of euphoria - I could feel what would have made Lord Shiva to open his third eye, breaking his Asana ,after being penetrated by Kamadev with his love arrow – and I reciprocated her with a gentle smile.

Truly said, Only he who is smitten with the arrows of love, knows its power.

I just followed her to the Soiled Plate disposal section .While washing our hands we looked at each other’s reflection in the mirrors, the opposite ones. She was smiling while whispering something to her friend  and they both looked at me with smiles on their faces-might be laughing on my stupidity.  I saw her leaving to some other building and was just on the verge of following her but I stopped. And with a smile on my face, I left for my building B6.

Oh God !! somebody tell her that the  idiosyncratic way of smiling and running her nimble fingers through her hair, and the calm and cheerful demeanor, icing on the cake,  makes me go gaga over  her !!

Probably this is gonna be the last glimpse of her visage as I am moving to other  Building B7, far away from my present building. Expecting everything to be pleasant there!!

Is It NumberPhobia?

Believe it or not, Its up to you. But if it ever  happened with you just drop me a mail so that I will be taking a sigh of relief that I am not the only person in this planet suffering from it!!

Disclaimer:  None of the happenings  mentioned below are imaginary and any resemblance with anyone living or dead is acceptable.

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Myself:  Did I hear it right? You said me psychotic!

Inner voice:  Yes I did.

Myself: And which of my statements made you to infer  that?

Inner voice:  A grown up man like you who considers himself to be rational and mature is haunted by a number. Wherever you go you find a particular number stalking you. Is this what you want me to believe and still consider you to be an intellectual?

Myself:  That’s what I am asking you. Why dont you answer my question if you are that much enlightened?  I book  a carpool, I surprisingly find the car number to end with that particular two digits. I find the food coupon number to be the same two digits most of the time. I find the enrollment number in my admit card to have that number. I check my mobile account balance only to be stunned by the same number. I watch a movie with my friends and see a vehicle crossing with the same number.

Inner voice:  What is the big deal in it?  Cant you see the coincidence happening with you? A car has to have a number with many digits. Permutation-combination allows any number to be in it.If you don’t get that coupon number, someone else will in that huge crowd.
And my dear friend! If you recharge your mobile with hundred rupee every time , all the two digit numbers are bound to come someday. The movie you watched was prepared when you were nowhere  in the vicinity of it and someday or later you have to see it.And your friends too were there while you were watching it! Its nothing but a series of coincidences owing to your bad luck, you can say it.

Myself:  Still you find it coincidence! Coincidence it is? Then here goes an incidence, rather  another coincidence, which will probably satiate your insatiable argumentative mood!  I got my cubicle changed in office. I was leading an idyllic life in my cubicle. It was a manger’s cubicle but we two teammates were sharing the same cube owing to lack of space and we shared the same extension too.  One early morning I was making an onsite call and to my surprise I noticed my extension number.  It was having the initials as that particular two digit number. Such a coincidence.. Isn’t it!!

Inner voice: Of course, It was. Your teammate too was  having the same extension number. And why didn’t you notice the other digits in the extension number. Ok, do what I say and you will be surprised. You get a hundred digit number and try finding that two digit number, you will surely find it. Trust me.

Myself:  You find it a joke!  I still remember the dinner in that Dhaba while returning from Madurai, where I went along with my friend to have a visit to the famous Meenakshi temple. We had to catch buses to different destinations and  it was already 10 o’clock. So we decided to eat quickly in the dhaba. We placed our separate orders, talked about our wonderful trip  while eating and then came the waiter with our bills. Un-*******-believable !! Yes, you guessed it right. And this time it happened with me only and there were only two digits.
Does that help you now? You incorrigible Argumentative soul!

Inner voice: Okay! Incorrigible  Argumentative? After all whose Inner voice I am?

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Yes, one way or other we all are fanatical of some particular number reminiscent of our memories. Somebody is delighted by a birthday date, some by their wedding date, some by height and some by coveting size or weight.  And some are scared of the limiting boundary of passing and failing marks, the childhood panic=to most of us. These numbers play even a more crucial role in our lives when it is related to someone very special to us. Be it the first date, or the day somebody enters into our lives and the dates contrary to the mentioned too.

I also have such a number associated with Myself and it is nothing but the roll number of ……….leave it.

Nevertheless, each time I encounter the number it only brings a smile on my face with my eyebrows raised which culminates into an amazement for it intensifies my skepticism -whether I am obsessed with the number or this number is haunting me.

The Burning Cigarette-a mentor to Mokshya , Karma and Dharma

Statutory Warning:  Smoking cigarette is injurious to health.

Disclaimer:  Written below is purely wordplay of my conviction and imagination. Reader has full rights to find my arguments cogent or trivial.

Prelude:  Unexpressed thoughts and feelings reverberate in my mind choking me sometimes ,at times making me blank  and the only thing my baffled mind can imagine is the metaphorical resemblance of my situation with a burning cigarette-the smoke goes higher and higher at the cost of its originator ,which burns itself completely;  the better I work to achieve my incomplete dreams the more I burn deep inside with my pent-up  emotions scorching my soul and thus forcing me to dream and long for heights of achievement- heights commensurate  with the depth and intensity of my emotions.

Since long, whenever I see anybody smoking, inchoate ideas splash into my mind but I fail to shape them.  It is only after I became a victim to this habit, it endowed me with a better art of expression.

It was a rainy day and it had stopped raining after almost 2 hours of continuous shower, although it was still drizzling-making the air damp- with calm and chilled breeze blowing, and amidst all these distractions and disturbances the cigarette which I lighted up-which in turn ignited my feelings- was persevering to keep itself burning, the very reason of its creation, exemplifying the substance of Karma-

Be intent on actions,

Not on the fruits of action;

Avoid attraction to the fruits

And attachment to inaction.

~Bhagavad Gita

It was a Sunday morning. I woke up, refreshed myself, took my chair along with some commodities and marched to my comforting and peaceful balcony. With lighted up ‘Classic Mild’ in left hand and ‘The Difficulty of being good’, book which I was going through, in the right hand I placed myself on the chair.

I took a long, deep puff inhaling it to the core, made my lungs to feel it, waited for some time and exhaled it till the very last molecule of smoke came out-with my eyes focused on the burning end of Classic Mild. Sparked by a deep thought,  I realized that it is the heat of the front end which induces its thermal energy to the adjacent layer, whose molecules work collaboratively ,thus  carrying the spirit- of burning- to the rear end throughout the length of the cigarette.

Likewise, what we feed to our mind is reflected by our deeds and it is the after-effect of one action which provides an impetus to another of same nature, origin or kind, and impinges on our further activities, endeavor throughout our lifetime.

I inhaled it for the last time as the flame touched the filter zone and I was just on the verge of throwing it but I could clearly  see  the filter part  flaming at a rate slower than with which it was burning initially. I started blowing air –giving a driving force- to it and it took the pace as before.

Likewise, there comes , invariably, a situation in each individual’s life where in he/she finds himself/herself completely dispirited with their mind losing grip over wisdom, prudence and ability to act accordingly; and one needs a driving force, be it mental, spiritual or external, to come out of the ordeal. And it is the strength of one’s spirit which decides whether he/she is going to come out of the torment or be absorbed by it to be termed as a man of mettle, achiever, winner or an ordinary individual respectively.

Last but not the least, as a burning cigarette leaves behind its ashes and smoke, so do each and every act, Karma, of we mortals leaves an imprint of our character and personality on the society. And as the fate of a cigarette is predetermined-it has to burn and vanish in the hands of its recipient- similarly we humans are born only to die someday. 

Truly, the only thing certain, the Mahabharata tells us, is that Kala (time or death) is ‘always cooking us’.

 In the cauldron fashioned from delusion, with the sun as fire and day and night as kindling wood, the months and seasons as the ladle for stirring, Time ( or Death) cooks all beings: this is the simple truth.              

~ Mahabharatha

P.S.   I doubt whether I have done justice in rendering my thoughts and imagination into words. I cannot claim to have sufficient understanding of the concepts of Mokshya, Karma and Dharma and after giving much thinking to it and gathering a lot of valor I dared to relate it with the shallow concept of smoking  but I tried my best to compare this concept  with general philosophes of life.

Your criticism is highly coveted to boost up the novice writing instinct in me.