Thursday, August 29, 2013

The Question

Shortly after I reached office one morning, I messaged my wife asking if she had her breakfast. I wanted to ensure that she does not delay it like she often does. I had to resort to a quick message since I was getting into a meeting which went on for more than an hour. By the time I came out of the meeting and could call her it was almost 11:00 AM. 
 
She picked up the call and knew that I was going to ask the same question that I do every other morning. Even before I could put the question forward she promptly came up with a statement that she fed our little one and was about to have her breakfast. I tried a different strategy today and so instead of asking her to be regular with breakfast and all sorts of advice, I thought about a simile and started off like this…
“Sweetheart, do you remember the road rollers we had back in our home town? Not the recent ones but the really old ones which were quite tall and gigantic in stature.”
“Yes, of course!” she said.
I continued, “These huge machines have wheels made of rock which is used to crush the metal pieces along with asphalt laid on the roads. You may have noticed that these large sized wheels get quite dry after a while. To ensure that the flattening of roads happen in a smooth manner,there will be one person, a man or a woman applying water on these rock wheels from time to time.
They risk getting their hands in between the wheel and its rim but this is critical for the operation. Else this humongous vehicle will come to a halt leaving the work unfinished. You see how important is water for the continuous operation of a road roller? It is absolutely necessary to feed it with water so that it can continue to work in full capacity. I want you to understand that breakfast is one such vital thing and it is very important that you have it on time. Ensure that you feed yourself and not just our little one so that your health does not get affected.”
I could imagine her nodding her head and smiling at the other end of the phone. But after a couple of moments of silence, I was totally speechless when she asked me a question, “So you think I’m like a road roller?!”
Dedicated to all good-hearted husbands! :)

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Journey of a Coke can

Do you remember the case of the missing Coke Can in MyCoke My Pain? That little kid who lost his first ever Coke can before he could even take a second sip had always wondered where that can went. What would’ve happened to that little red aluminium wonder on that fateful day of his life?He left the can in the briefing room of a ship as it was too cold and on return found out to his dismay that the wonderful gift he received only a few minutes back was no longer to be seen!

If you are also wondering what happened to the Coke can that day and the emotions it went through from that moment onwards let me invite you to embark on the journey of the Coke can…
The Coke can sat there on the table with a heavy heart trying to understand what just happened. He was quite happy a moment ago with the kid who was all excited to see a can for the first time in his life. The next moment the can was left in company of lots of unanswered questions. The can was totally annoyed with the sailor who took him noticing the open lid. It was decided that the can is no longer required and was given an unceremonious adieu to the military trash container present on the ship. After a few hours he found himself being hoisted from his temporary graveyard and presented to a larger set of orphans. These included half bitten apples, left over juices, tissue papers that were once clean and filled with fragrance which now lie among these unwanted elements which the humans call, trash.
He reflected upon his life while being there in the unpleasant environment awaiting his destiny. A few moments back, he was perched high on a pile of similar beings inside a four walled building which was quite cold. The cold penetrated through his aluminium body and made his blood inside chill. He had heard several times,human beings say, the likes of him tasted better when their blood is chilled and that’s the reason why they’re kept inside this high-walled jail for which they’ve a funny name too, refrigerator.
The jail was a happening place. All the while he could see one by one his friends and relatives saying good-bye and new ones joining the army. They say you are destined for delivering your life blood to the humans. They need a daily quota for survival and you are fulfilling a major void for them. How much moregratifying can your life be? Before even he knew, the day came when it was time for him to deliver.
He was presented in his entire royal splendor with red velvet coat and regal white stripes to a little boy who was looking at him with eyes filled with wonder. He was quite amused to see the emotions of surprise, curiosity and happiness in the boy’s eyes and realized that he was being presented to a virgin! What a destiny! He was dreaming of satisfying the young palette of the little boy and of course he did as soon as the tap of joy was opened. A small portion of his life blood which was chilled to perfection slid down the winding paths of the young adult mouth floor.The dark brown colored liquid found its way through layers of taste buds, tickling the sensations of taste and bringing the little one almost to the verge of an ecstasy! He felt he has begun to fulfill his destiny.
A few moments after this glorious achievement he was placed back on the table and the boy was accompanied out of the room along with the family. He could not understand why. He could see the longing eyes of the boy trailing back at him, though his screams pleading to be taken along with seems to have been unheard. He then felt the hands of the sailor around him. For a moment he thought he’ll be rejoined with the little kid but the trip was to end in the trash container along with his dreams of fulfilling the needs of a young human being and thereby achieving his destiny.
He was shaken up from his thoughts when the larger waste container was moved to some other place. After a few hours of being transported to some location he saw the light coming back with the container’s lid opened again. His roommates were separated and he was taken to an awful looking machine with large teeth and claws which seems to be filled with malice. He was soon put on a conveyer belt and was traversing down a lane which he thought was quite cool. Little did he realize that at the end of the belt there awaited him the deadly jaws of the crushing machine for which the conveyer belt was the arm that led the captives, in the disguise of a trip to paradise.
All his fears came true with death staring right at him through the gleaming teeth of the crusher which seem to be waiting to devour him alive! He could not even cry and before even he said Our Father one last time the hands of death squeezed the last drop of the life blood he had and pushed him to the other side of the world, or so he felt.
Surprise! He was not dead! Alive he was, though something seemed to be different. He had lost his red velvet gown and the white stripes. He now had a silvery sheen with a mat finish and people started calling him a new name, an aluminium sheet. He was taken to a larger storage area minus the cold seeping in and he could make out that it is not a refrigerator. He learned from his fellow beings that they were in a storage space for aluminium sheets which is used to manufacture cans. He was assured that he’ll soon regain his red velvet gown and the white stripes and will have his life again which he thought he lost. This was good news for him and he longed to see the little kid again as well.
Years went by; he changed his shape multiple times over and again. He fulfilled the lives of many a human beings but was never happy since he was still in search for the pair of eyes that looked at him with so much of awe and happiness years back. He was getting weary every time he saw new digits replacing the years in a calendar.
He was presently relaxing in the chilled mode with his red robe and white stripes inside a refrigerator on a large oil tanker. It has been two decades since he met that kid and the memories of that incident in a ship was promptly brought back to him the moment he got to know that his latest assignment will be on a tanker. He was deep in his thoughts when he could hear some faint voices reaching the room where he was placed. This being the captain’s room it is quite normal for visitors to join and he had seen his friends and relatives being carried away for fulfilling their duties.
There were three men. They all seem to be tired after a tour of the ship in the hot weather of the Middle Eastern country they were in. He heard a voice suddenly saying, “Hey bro, do you remember the Coke story that happened long back?” The captain seemed to have taken a couple of moments to respond. But when he did, he sounded quite excited and said, “Of course, feel free to have one now”.
What happened next was too good to be true that he felt the doors of heaven being opened when the owner of the first voice opened the refrigerator. The man picked up his friend first but later decided to pick him instead and looked at him with such wonderful eyes with the same intensity of happiness and love that he had seen twenty years back.
It was him!
Tail end: He discovered later that the captain of this ship was the little kid’s cousin who was there along with him when they first met.

Seeing the beyond!

We were in Bangalore at the beginning of second decade of the millennium. The city was probably breathing its last few days as one of the co...