A LOVE STORY

I had never realised that Vandana would leave me, high and dry with me at my lowest ever-lowest in the sense that I had just left my job at the National Rock Café for her sake and I had not much work to do at home and it frustrated me. She never liked me working at the café or for the matter ladies drooling at me and I quit my job so that it makes her happier. To be true, that’s what I had told her after being sacked from the pub thanks to a fight I picked up with one of its most valued customers. May be an apology could have saved my job but then I refused to apologize to the person and turned off and packed off my DJ instruments at the peak hour on a Friday night leaving the owners of the café red-faced and in shame. If that wasn’t bad enough I went as far as threatening the DJ’s with dire consequences, who came to apply for the job there.

I had applied for a job at various other pubs after that but having lost a job at the National Rock Café, the city’s biggest and most prestigious night club didn’t really help me bag another. Also my dwindling reputation thanks to the threats made by me made it that much more difficult for me to bag another job. The funny part was that even the places where I had given interviews after the incident were scared of telling me the truth regarding the exact reason for rejection, as they felt the truth may make me lose my temper and leave them with broken bones and black eyes. I never realised that the one incident at the pub had changed my image from a charming and energetic DJ to the bad guy who beat up people and spoke foul in public. With my current reputation, it was more than obvious that I would not be having a job anytime soon.

I know I am not a great guy; in fact I have far from being a great guy. I agree I am moody, sentimental and very short tempered. She often insisted that I should go with her to see a psychiatrist who she believed could help me in controlling my short temper. A lot of her most valuable things had fallen prey to my temper, including her Pierre Cardin pen that was gifted by her father after she had got admission to an IIM and her IPad, which her sister had brought for her from USA, amongst a lot of others. I just don’t seem to know what I do when I am angry. I can hardly remember the next day what I said to her the previous night when I was angry. I am sure I never mean a word of the abuse I hurl at her but can’t stop saying all those that I say at those times when I am angry. I knew it was not normal but still visiting a psychiatrist-am I mentally ill; like am I mad or something that I should visit a psychiatrist. I don’t need a psychiatrist.

I always felt that she was mine and she would forever be mine, when one day on returning home, I found her bags packed. She told me that she was tired of me and my temper every day and that she could not tolerate it anymore and that if it weren’t for Landon she would have left me a lot earlier. It tried to stop her but she refused. I was devastated and miserable till a couple of weeks later, I learnt from one of her friends that she had getting married to a Bryan something, an NRI born and brought up in the United States of America and who had once worked as an administrative head in the India division of one of the American banks and now started his own financial consultancy company. I learnt that she had been dating Bryan for over two years, when he was her boss at the Bank and that short trip to her home last summer was not because of her mother’s illness but because of her engagement. If the fact that she left me pained me, that she was cheating on me for over a year made me miserable and hurt the most. I never thought she would leave me in this way and especially at a time when I was at my lowest.

  Apart from me, there was also another one who was extremely pained at her decision, so much that he rejected to even have his meals or go out for the regular morning and evening walks with me. Landon, my pet dog had got particularly close to her after she came to live-in with me. I still remember the first time when she had come to my house, how he had initially barked at her and then how he had then stopped barking, went close to her, smelled her and then started to show his happy dance, running from one end to the house to another wagging his tail when I introduced her to him as my girlfriend. His happiness knew no bounds later when she shifted to my house and he understood that now he was going to have two people, instead of one to play with him every morning and night. Through the days, he became all the more close to her and even started refusing to take his meals if it was not served by her.

After she left me, whenever I sat down dejected on the sofa and cried a silent tear, he would come and sit down beside me and lick my face wiping my tears as if to say “Don’t cry and be brave. Why are you crying when I am with you?” He would never have his meals till I had brought mine. Whenever the phone rang, Landon would run and pull me to the phone thinking it might be a call from Vandana and then he would sit down with his head in between his paws, in a sad dejected manner finding that it is not.

As time passed sensing me still miserable, he would run to me to play with me as if to cheer me up. He would press the TV remote with his paw till some cartoon or comedy movie comes up so that I smile at the silly things shown there and laugh or smile at little. However, it made me more miserable when he did that as it only reminded me as to how Vandana taught him to watch the TV and use the TV remote to watch his favourite cartoon shows and how they would be sitting in front of the TV all through the morning hours watching Tom and Jerry and laughing uncontrollably till she had to go for her shower before leaving for office. I understood that he was doing all this to make me happy and acknowledged it and so I continued to watch it with him and laughing half-heartedly at the silly jokes so that it makes him happy. However one day, I guess he sensed my fake laughter during one of the movies and from that day on, he would not put on the TV anymore and sit near me licking my face to express his love and to assure that he be my companion for life.

As days passed, I tried to forget her and as a first step towards it, I removed the large wall-size picture of Vandana and me along with Landon that was there on one of the walls at the drawing room. I was about to throw it when Landon came from behind, headed straight towards me and bit my leg real hard, causing me to bleed. He would not stop biting me till I put the picture back in its place. Landon had always been a very stable and well-mannered dog and had never ever bitten me in his entire life till that day, so when it bit me that day, it really surprised me and I scolded him and even used the cane on him. He took every beating of mine and never once barked till I stopped. That night I could hardly sleep, not because of pain from the bite of Landon but because of the fact that I had hit Landon for the first time in my life and even more because he never retaliated when I beat him. The next day when I tried to remove the picture a second time, he repeated the same exercise and again bit my leg. Once I left the picture, he brought me the cane in his mouth, with which I hit him the previous day and laid down in front of me as if ready to get caned. It just moved me to tears. I now understood what he wanted to say. He didn’t want the picture to be removed from where it was even if it meant getting caned by me. For him, the picture was the last memory of his small little family-me, Landon and Vandana.

As the days passed, I moved on with life. I started my own music store from the money that Vandana had left me with. I cannot say the business really flourished and to be honest, it never really sold much, though it was a good distraction and kept me occupied through the day. Once it was during one of the regular days at the shop that I met Jennifer, a young British girl who had come to India to explore and learn Indian classical music. I shared whatever little I knew of Indian music with her. I arranged for her meeting with some of the stalwarts of Indian classical music and she learnt from them. It was during one of the trips with her that she kissed me on my lips and professed her love for me. I accepted her proposal straight away. We dated for a few days and one night, I brought her home. When I brought her home, Landon would not let her in. He barked uncontrollably threatening to bite her if she dared stepping inside the house. Unable to allow her in, I left her at her service apartment where she was staying. On the way, she told me that she was upset with the way Landon behaved with her and warned me that I shall train him to love her or let her go away from my life. I told her and assured her that I would train Landon to learn to love her.

On returning home, I scolded Landon for his behaviour. He looked at me, made a sad face and pulled at my pant and brought me to the drawing room and made me stand in front of the picture of his family. I shouted at him “Wow! You can’t be doing this again. Look Vandana is gone. She won’t come back. She is a bitch. She left me and she left you. She never thought once before leaving us. She won’t return ever. You get it. This is not your family. It’s me and Jennifer who are your family from now on.” Saying this I tried to pull down the picture from the wall and once again he jumped on my leg and bit me, thus giving me a negative answer to all I told him a little while earlier. I couldn’t even hit him this time. I closed my eyes and sat down at the sofa as I didn’t know what to do- on one side there was Jennifer, someone who loved me and wanted to be with me and on the other hand, there was Landon who had none but me in his life and who had stayed with me through all my good and bad times. I opened my eyes to find Landon still licking at the wound that was drawing blood thanks to his bite. I just wiped my teary eyes, held him close to my chest, hugged him and went to sleep there itself on the carpet.

The next morning I woke up to the tring-tring sound of the phone. I picked up.

 “ Hey, good morning.”. It was Jennifer on the other end of the line.

“Good morning. How are you?”

“I am okay. Thank you. Have you thought about what I said yesterday?”

“I can’t get you. What are you talking about?”

“Do you want to live with me or do you want to live with that stupid dog of yours?”

“Don’t dare call him stupid. Landon has been with me when you had not even come to my life. He had stayed with me through my tough times, when I was at my lowest, when I contemplated committing suicide. It is for him that I am still alive. Else I would have been long dead after all that had happened in my life.” I shouted at her. I just couldn’t control my emotions when she called Landon stupid.

“I got my answer.” She shouted back and hung up.

I kissed Landon’s forehead, “I won’t leave you. I won’t ever leave you.” He licked my face all over acknowledging my love for him and reassuring his love for me.

            Days passed and slowly I became accustomed to my daily life. Each day was pretty much the same. I wake up in the morning, take Landon for his morning walk; come back, take my bath and have my breakfast while Landon eats his morning bowl of milk along with pedigree. I would put his lunch bowl at his eating place and cover it. I will then go to the store and sell music CDs and return home late at night to be welcomed by Landon, wagging his tail and hugging me as soon as I keep my bag down. Then I would play with him for some time; cook dinner for me as well as for him and take it together, before retiring to the bed with him in my arms.

            A few years later, Landon became ill. I took him to a vet who said that it was due to his old age and could not be cured. It dejected me. I was going to lose the sole companion of my life. Landon would no more go out for his morning walks; he would not play any longer. He could not do all, that he once used to do. I put on the TV for him and put on the cartoon shows that he once loved but he won’t even look at them now. He would not even have the meals regularly. I would often find the lunch box still uneaten when I returned home. He would sit at the drawing room and stare at the picture of his family.

            One day when I reached the store, I found a letter with my name at the top. The handwriting seemed familiar. I opened the letter and found that it was from Vandana. She wrote that she had separated from Bryan. She had an unsuccessful marriage. He did not want her to work and made her leave her job. After a few years of marriage, he started dating other girls and came back home drunk and would often hit her. Unable to tolerate his torture, she divorced him and came back to India. She asked for forgiveness and asked me to call her if I didn’t mind. I called her and talked to her for the first time since she left me. She asked me if I had married and I told her that I had not. I told her about all what Landon had done after she had left us. I asked for the address where she was staying after she agreed to meet me. I picked her up that evening from the address and took her along with me to my home. On the way, she bought Landon’s favourite ‘Kaju Barfi’ which he would earlier demand from her every day.

            As we entered the house, we saw Landon sleeping in front of the picture. As he heard my voice, he opened his eyes and on seeing her, he lifted his body a little and tried to walk towards us. He could hardly move and fell down after two steps. She ran to him and patted his head and he kept on looking at her as if to ask, “Where did you go away? I had missed you so much.” I also came towards him and patted him. Tears ran down her eyes and my eyes. I held her hand tight. Landon got up a little, put his head on our hands, looked at us and closed his eyes forever.

            There have been a great number of love classics that I have heard about and read about. But this unusual love story of Landon and his love for his family will remain the most amazing love story I have ever heard about. He could not speak, could not do all that we as humans can do but there is no doubt, there can be no love greater than the love that Landon had for his family-Rakesh and Vandana.. 

THE COMMON MAN

I am a proud Indian,

I am a responsible citizen,

I pay all the taxes,

I follow all the rules.

I pay for the up keeping of the criminals in jail,

Who have killed me mercilessly in bus and in rail!

I pay for the security of the VIPs and VVIPs,

As I die in ambulances to let pass their convoys.

I am murdered in roads,

I am raped in buses,

I am robbed in trains,

I am burnt at my homes.

Still I pay for their food,

I pay for their travel,

I pay for their weddings,

I pay for their children.

One day my condition surely would change,

As I shall come out to break all chains.

I will walk that extra mile to set me free,

‘Coz till then they wont stop exploiting me.

I have “miles to go before I sleep”,

I have “miles to go before I sleep”,

Till then they would laugh at me,

While I silently weep.

A poem by Aisharyya Arindam

THE RIGHT WAY-THE CORRUPT WAY

I guess the title of this new article of mine will startle you. To write something justifying and supporting corruption, especially at this point of time when the nation is going gaga about a bill that would potentially stop corruption, looks odd and out of place. However the purpose of article is not what you may be guessing that I am being sarcastic about corruption. I am indeed justifying and supporting corruption. I really feel that the right way is the corrupt way.

Days ago, I met an old school friend of mine whose name I would rather hide in due respect to his privacy. He used be very hard-working since his childhood and was decent in his studies. His dad was a farmer and his mom worked as a maid before she died days before his tenth examination. He did reasonably well in his tenth, got admitted in a govt. college, passed his twelfth and got admitted into a college to do his B.Sc. Meanwhile his dad passed away as well leaving him nothing but a house with a broken roof and a number of loans. It helped him that he got a scholarship from the government. He taught a few school students after his regular classes to feed and fund for the education of his younger brother who was in the fifth standard. But life took an ugly turn for him as the entire India joined the fight to make the nation corruption free. The government officials who earlier worked once on being offered bribes decided to lie low till the corruption-free craze went out of the heads of the common man. The third installment of the scholarship was due in a few months when all this started. He had to get signatures of approval from government officials so that he could get his renewal. What used to take him two days and a hundred fifty rupees to get a signature now became impossible to obtain even when he agreed to double the amount. At the end he couldn’t get the signatures necessary to get his renewal and he couldn’t get readmitted for his final year of study. More agony came his way when the parents of the students he taught relieved him of his duties and he couldn’t get new students as it lowered their self-esteem to have for their children a tutor who was a twelfth pass and would never be a graduate. His brother too dropped out of school and both now work as daily labourers. A boy who could have one day become a bright scholar thus lost his bread and studies thanks to the anti-corruption fight.

This is unfortunately the fact of India which many of us tend to ignore. Not just this but I can give you a number of examples which will give you an idea of what many a common man of India experience every day of his life, who are not well-to-do unlike many of us who are ready to get into a crusade against corruption. A corruption free India would sure be good to have if and only if a number of things change before it.

On any random day, ask a little 4 or 5-yr old child what he would become in life. He would reply he would become a doctor or an engineer and now that the National Law schools and good management schools have come out, some would say that want to be advocates or managers. Why doesn’t anyone want to be a policeman, why not a sweeper, why not a clerk, why not a peon, why not a vendor? He has no idea what these people do but he knows his aim in life because these are taught by their parents that they are important powerful and wealthy people and that they would be loved if they could become one of this. This is where our problem starts. Look into your families, the visit of wealthy relative calls for a big party and special attendance while the visit of a poor relative would call for your family members to gather around him and express their sympathies. This is what the little child sees around him and soon he begins to dream of being like the rich relative and earn respect. These creation of classes in the societies or in our families need to stop.

Once you grow a little old, slowly reality dawns on you and you start realizing that being rich is not so easy. All cannot become doctors or engineers or lawyers or managers. And while some resign to their fate, some decided to fight it out and earn a place in the society. Some decide to go for business. They pay bribes in a dozen offices, get a thousand clearances and permits, take loans and start their respective businesses. Some flourish and get them the status they always dreamt of. Some pay a suitable bribe in some office and become teachers in schools and likewise. No doubt if corruption stops the people would be able to get their work done without paying those bribes, thus saving them some money. But also it would be impossible to get their work done. The anti-corruption law doesn’t also bring about an efficiency law that this work has to be completed within a specific number of days. I asked a relative of mine why she was paying a bribe of ten thousand rupees just to get the pension bills passed? She replied “I go to the capital city, stay in a hotel and then the officer would make me run from office to office, then a number of days he would say he is busy with something else and call me the next day and after a month I would finally get the bills passed. I would spend around fifteen thousand in the hotel, seven to ten thousand on the food, and another two thousand on the travel from one part of the city to another and then after all the hard work, I would one day get it. Why not pay it once and he does everything for me. He saves me both money and hard-work.” What she said were her fears to get the bills passed for which she readily paid the bribes will be the scenario tomorrow when corruption stops. People from an important or so called higher class or rich families always get a preference in whatever they do. Like it to me fourteen days and twenty visits and I still failed to obtain my Permanent Residence Certificate (PRC) and it took my dad an hour to go to the office and get it. My dad didn’t pay any bribe but because he has a bigger name than me and is known to the people, it was easily done. All people doesn’t have a dad who is known to the people in the government offices and for them corruption is necessary and the only path.

Today to have a business, we need a number of permits, a number of government clearances and lots more apart from the loans. These things were brought into the system by the British so that the Indians could not do big businesses without their knowledge and was rather a measure of suppressing the Indian men from becoming powerful. But the sad fact is that even after 60 years of freedom, these rules exist. When a person is doing a rightful business, why does he need these thousand permissions and permits? Why can’t he just open shop and do his business. If there are irregularities, shouldn’t he be punished anyway no matter he has his licenses, permits and clearances or not. When some industrialists from a not so rich or high-class background opened their businesses, they had to face a number of struggles and bribe higher authorities, government officials, etc to ensure that they get the permits, while the other sons of rich already established businessman got them easily without much difficulty. Had he not bribed them we probably would have never had many a industry which India boasts of today.

Before the people join in these revolutions against corruption and others, I would like to remind you certain facts from history. Mahatma Gandhi became the father of the nation and got recognized for his part in the freedom struggle, so did Mr. Nehru and some others but along with them, many more Indians participated in the freedom struggle and gave sacrifices whose names we don’t even know. How many of you outside of Bengal heard of Surya Sen before the movie ‘Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Se’ released, how many of you know Kanaklata and Mukunda Kakati from Assam and how many of you know Parbati Giri from Orissa? They were also brave freedom fighters and had contributed to the Indian freedom. There are still some more freedom fighters whose names even I don’t know, never heard or forgot even if I heard. Yes that they didn’t become famous has nothing to do with my article, but I am pointing this out to highlight the fact we Indians are emotion driven rather than logic driven. We blindly follow whatever we hear and see. All it takes to bring an Indian revolution is a dynamic speaker and some wonder words. Most of the people who start a revolution are people who have something to sustain themselves even if their revolutions fail and they don’t become heroes. The people who lose are the common man who follow them blindly and give the revolution their all and when it fails so do they and if it succeeds, they still have the same life they had before the revolution. Apart from a freedom fighter quota for their children and grandchildren and a small pension and a felicitation on every Independence Day, the freedom fighters didn’t get much after Indian independence nor did those thousands of crusaders in various parts of India for various issues get much after their demands were fulfilled. The power has always been with the rich and the powerful and the common man has been the silent sufferer whether he supports the revolution or not. Life remains same for him.

A corruption-free India is a distant dream we would all like to have but before it the mentality of the Indian man needs to change, the existence of class needs to be done away with, efficiency of the employees at the work place needs to be ensured and freedom to do business and other work without the government interference need to be ensured. Corruption-free India without these changes will only make the common man suffer more. If these changes cannot be brought, I would rather say that THE RIGHT WAY IS THE CORRUPT WAY. 

PRAYER IN PAIN

I know how it feels to have a broken heart,
Not once, not twice,
Felt it many a time.

In the long journey that we were supposed to travel,
Was left by them after a mile we traveled,

Wandering all alone in an unknown road.
You came to me and showed me the light,
Held my hand and became my guide.

After many a mile we together traveled,
I feel the grip of your hand now slowly loosen.
The light getting dimmer,
The road seeming longer,
And all around me a world full of strangers.

Am losing my way dear,
Please hold me tighter,
Am losing my strength,
Am about to faint.

Please hold me dear,
Don't let me fall,
Don't leave me alone,
In an unknown world.

I know with me,
You may not gain.
But please do listen to my prayer in pain.
Hold me dear and show me the way,
Don't leave me please today in this way

WAS IT A PARANORMAL ACTIVITY?

Well this story that am going to share with you is something that actually happened to me. Some may find it too difficult to believe; even I would have found it difficult to believe until this Monday, 16 August 2010, when this happened to me.

          All my life, I mean the 21 years that I have lived in this planet, I have never ever believed in anything paranormal. Although I had watched the movie ‘Paranormal Activity’ on Saturday, I was only scared about the scenes in the movie, not at all, did I ever question my belief about the existence of ghosts. On Sunday, it was all but fun; my friends and I watched YouTube videos of Ouija board real life incidents. While my friends were scared to death by some of the videos, I had a good time laughing at them. Even the remotest of sound of the wind, or the door banging the wall were interpreted as paranormal activities. One of my friends even heard some sounds from the wall, which none of the rest could hear. In short, I had a great time laughing at all the false paranormal activities that was the result of the movie and the YouTube videos.

          Now on Monday, after a long and tiring day’s class at around 8:30 p.m., I decided to go out for a walk in the Dhakuria Lake and pursue my passion for photography. I was just clicking some random pictures of the trees in the dark surrounding the lake, the moon in the midst of trees, the dirty water, etc. On the other side of the Lake, there is the Rowing  Club, which surrounded by some buildings far away along with their reflections on the lake waters posed a beautiful picture for anyone who passed by that side of the lake. Now I took a photo of this beautiful landscape, but being not too satisfied with the effort, I decided to re-click the picture. Now after taking the second picture when I was looking at that on the LCD of my camera, I saw a strange sight. Some smoke appeared on the right hand side of the picture. I was awe-struck. I looked around myself and there was simply no sign of smoke anywhere. There were only some water bodies to my right and green grass to my left, which showed no signs of it being burnt even hours before. As I was trying to find out the possible signs of the smoke, I saw something, which further horrified me. Just a few feet away, I saw a steel bowl and a plate fly one after the other, in front of me. Suddenly, I heard some footsteps. I shouted who was it and there was no reply. There was no shadow, nothing only the footsteps could be heard. Slowly the sound of the footsteps came closer and closer and surely, this was too much for me to stand there and watch the rest of the drama. I started tracing my footsteps behind to go back to my Paying Guest. The faster I walked, the faster I could hear the footsteps following me. Still there was no one to be seen. Finally, I started running until I reached a street lamp that lighted the lake at night. I stood there trying to get my breath back when the light suddenly glowed off. I again heard the footsteps approaching me. Being almost scared to death, I started sprinting for life. I guess the speed with which I ran that half a kilometer would have been enough to break any world-record that ever existed for a similar distance. I ran until I reached close to the railway line, where I brought some water from the nearby shops and walked back home.

          After reaching my Paying Guest, I told my friends and my proprietor about the incidents that had happened in the Lake. None of them believed till I showed them the two photos that I had taken just seconds apart.

Photo 1

The first photo of the lake surrounded by the Rowing Club and some buildings.

Photo 2

This photo taken just a few seconds after the 1^st photo. Here you can see the smoke appearing from the right hand side of the photo.  

WAS IT A PARANORMAL ACTIVITY?

THE GREATEST

Born in colonies where you feared to tread,

You destroyed them too when new houses you made,

I slept on the streets when nice beds you had,

Tea-stands filled my hands when to school you went.

I learnt not the ABCs,

I learnt not the Sciences,

I read not the poems you loved,

From life, I had learnt.

You laughed, you ridiculed, you always louted me,

You shooed me from your homes when my hands I had spread,

The festivals you enjoyed were just a torture to me,

Coz the streets you roamed was my home.

I suffered, I cried at the justice God has made,

When I suddenly found the gift that I had,

When schools, colleges and parents made your future,

I started to write my destiny that I would one day make.

I fought; I battled my way to the top,

I proved myself a survivor when faced with odds,

As today before me, you spread your hands,

I smile within and offer you a job.

I was once badly treated,

I was once exploited,

But today I am acknowledged,

That I am the survivor,

I am the fighter,

I am the challenger,

I am the victor,

I AM THE GREATEST.

(written on 07/08/2010)

THAT FEELING CALLED LOVE

With a smile of a child,


And a heart made of gold,

She walked into my heart,

Like an angel of my world.



So often we dreamed,

Of a small house on a beach,

Made not of bricks but made of love,

Where one day we shall together live.



Our colours didn’t matter,

Not did our castes,

All that did matter,

Was our love and our dreams.



One day suddenly the world around me changed,

She parted with me saying her marriage has got arranged,

She behaved with me as though we had never before met,

And all the promises were never ever made.



I toiled, I tried, I fought to get her back,

I failed each time for her support I never had,

Thinking that one day better sense would prevail,

I continued to work hard to make our dreams real.



Years later, one day we met,

Thinking she has returned,

My face had glittered.

She hadn’t still married,

But had so much changed.



I was called a liar,

When I said I still loved her,

I was called retarded,

When I said for her I always had waited.



May be she is right,

I indeed had been mad,

For I so long mistook,

A demon to be an angel,

A fiend to be a child.



I understand today I had been greatly wronged,

But it doesn’t matter to me as I am now not alone,

It doesn’t really matter what she has done,

For in the past we had so much fun.





As memories of the past take over once again,

In the arms of my angel, some love I feel once again.

What if she is not with me for real,

Can she ever go away from my heart,

Where she always had stayed and forever will.

 
(This poem is a sequel to the poem 'THE GREATEST BEAUTY ON EARTH' and composed on 28/07/2010)