If only we could have bypassed FATE - A short story

“Himanshu wake up, its time for your morning breakfast”, said a compassionate female voice. There was a tinge of sorrow in it. It was more out of instinct than anything else that he opened his eyes. The curtains of the windows were drawn in. It was a pleasant morning outside, but even then the light which filtered in was too much for his eyes. He shielded his eyes against the sting of the light and looked up in the direction of the voice. He did see the face. He tried to smile but it took a lot of effort and he left it there. He tried to recollect where he had seen that face before but his mind returned nothing. It was as if he was staring at a bottomless pit trying hard to find its bottom.

“Doctor, is he improving?”, it was the same female voice. Something told Himanshu that they were talking about him. Words did form in his mind, but when he tried to speak, it was impossible. Somehow his tongue was rock solid. His vocal chords were in total disagreement with his brain. “That must be a bug” he thought. “Bug, now where did that word come from?” he patted himself on the back for that discovery. The answer to the question never got to Himanshu as he got into one of his now common fits. He would blank out for the remainder of the day and just lie there in his bed with the equipment next to his bed registering his heartbeat giving out a receipt of his been alive every few minutes with a loud beep.

The female voice belonged to Chitra. She was Himanshu’s wife – newly wedded wife would be apt. It had only been 3 months since they had exchanged their vows or more correctly signed on the contract of marriage in front of a registrar. The entire event was witnessed by 4 mutual friends whose signatures were also firmly embossed on the contract. It was not one of those lovely arranged marriages where the guy and the gal meet, fall in love and then tell their respective parents who are cool with it and then arrange all the rituals to show the world that it was an arranged marriage in the first place. It was a love marriage per se, with the filmi twist of a registered marriage and the parents from both sides cutting off contact with their respective kids and just going on with their lifes as if nothing happened.

Himanshu and Chitra worked for the same IT firm and their courtship had lasted for almost 2 years when they decided to break the news to their parents. They had never expected that they would be turned down with such venom from both their families.

He was the only son of a High Court Judge who despite his high education was after all very narrow-minded; at least that was what Himanshu had concluded on seeing his father react when he had told him about his love for Chitra. If only mom would have been alive today, she would have helped him sort the matter was what Himanshu had thought when he had walked out of his father’s home with a resolve to never return again.

Her father was the high priest of a temple in the city of Chennai and was highly respected in his community for his mastery over the Vedas. “Don’t any of your Vedas talk about love?” was what Chitra had retorted when she was reluctantly thrown out of her own house by Subbu, the helper. Subbu after all was just a domestic help, what could he do when even her mother was a mute spectator to all this. The only resistance her mother had to offer was in terms of the silent tears which were trickling down her now wizened cheeks. Even she did not want Chitra to be a bad influence on her 2 younger sisters who were now nearing marriageable age.

They rented a 1BHK in Aundh and decided to fight. None had the intention to talk it out with their parents and try and change their point of view. After all even they were like their parents, stubborn and determined. Everything was going great and cozy and as per planned. “Doesn’t this seem like a program I have written, Chitra, fulfilling all the requirements and more importantly bug free!!!” Himanshu had joked. “Not at all. Remember you injected 2 defects in your latest release” replied Chitra imitating Mr. Ghosh, their project manager. “Yeah OK!!! The bypass logic I had put in didn’t work as expected.” said Himanshu making a sorry face making Chitra laugh.

4th November, Chitra was watching TV having just returned from office when her mobile rang. It was an unknown number. The conversation which followed after she said “Hello” was like a blur or static on a local radio station for Chitra.

The events of the evening of 4th November replayed in her mind as she walked out of the room where Himanshu was now lying. She had called it sleep; it helped to ease her pain. She had abruptly cut the call not waiting for the person at the other end to even complete. She just picked the keywords - accident, BPO cab, no helmet, Aditya Birla hospital. She rushed out of the house, and hailed a rickshaw to take her to the Aditya Birla Hospital. She did not even wait to take the change from the rickshaw driver and ran to the hospital’s OPD room.

After she identified herself, she was informed that Himanshu was taken to the operating room and that he had suffered a skull fracture. A MRI scan had revealed that there were pieces of bone scattered which would need immediate removal. There was also a fracture to the right hand and multiple fractures to the hip bone. Chitra instinctively dialed her mother’s number but the call was cut. There was no use dialing her father’s number. She called up Himanshu’s dad but he cut the call the moment she said she was Chitra. A few of Himanshu’s colleagues were there to comfort her. She wanted to be strong. She did not want to cry but the tears were not stopping.

Chitra cleared her mind of the images and walked back inside the room. She looked at the face of the man whom she had married defying everybody in her life. The stitches on his head were still raw. The equipment monitoring his heartbeat beeped and brought her back to the moment. “If only we could have bypassed FATE, Himanshu” she whispered in his ear. His eyelids opened just for a second and closed again as if he had heard what she said.

Nai..nai...ek minute!!!! (Farewell Gundya)

"Me kon ahe na....tula....atta nahi sangnar...me kay koni bhai nahi ahe...pan me kon ahe na....tula ....", I will always remember this exchange which took place when me and you (Gundya) were having anda bhurji at the Shivajinagar Bus Stand. It was not Shabbir but Jai Maharashtra at which we were standing and the exchange was between, a drunkard and the helper who worked at the bhurji gada!!!




Like this one there are some many things to talk about, so many kisse to discuss. As you fly, I want to say THANK YOU for everything. I never thanked you enough because you I never felt the need off. You were always there, read to help, always there available, ready to be taken for granted!!! But now as you move on and more importantly move away I am compelled to make a mention of a lot of thank yous!!!!




Thank You Gundya for


The anda bhurji at Shabbir, followed by falooda!!!

Making me a part of ur close college group and including me in the late nite Roopali coffee session


Always been available whenever I needed to know any route in Pune

And for always knowng all the routes


For trying and making me remember the routes (The ride to the courier service will be memorable)


For always been eager to make it to Aana for tea and bidi


For the booze we had at Sudama when the engg exams were going on


For unfailing repeating the story of how you and Pankaj started talking again ;)


For the cry or the song "Nachu kiti...nachu kiti..kambar lachakli" and "Mai...Mai......"


For threatening me with "BRAKE NAI DABNAR....bh******od" and then actually doing it, till I gave way


For accompanying me to ABC to get the UPSC prep books..(nothing came out of it as of now)


For accompanying me to movies and not paying the bill and then proving how ethically I was to
show you the movie anyways (eg: CHAK DE INDIA)


For being a CHELSEA supporter and more over a MAN UTD hater


For asking directions whenever it came to English (that made me feel important)

For the great time we all had at Junnar....both the marraige, Shivneri and how can I forget the Mutton at Mama's (thank you to him too for tht)

And finally for being the brother from another mother!!!!! (remember the joke of my dad saying "ka re tumhi bhau ahat ka??" hehehe)

There are many more things to talk about. Many more thank yous to be given but I stop here, sitting back and reliving the good and the bad times we shared!!!

Farewell Gundya and all the very best in whatever you do!!!


P.S: Hope you will be regular in updating your blogs!!!!

One Step Closer

(Infosys Pune Toastmasters Club (IPTMC) wll be celebrating its 100th meeting on the 12th August 2009. As a part of this occasion, an Inter Club Speech Contest is organised for which speakers will be invited from the different TM clubs across Pune district. To represent IPTMC in this competition a prelim was organised where the top two speakers selected to carry the banner of IPTMC. I was one of the selected two. Below is my speech. The theme for the 100th meeting is "One Step Closer". )

On 28th August 1963 one black man, not very imposing but resolute, stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and thundered:

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

That man was none other than Martin Luther King Jr. The “I have a dream speech” delivered that day brought not only the American-African community but all the other colored races “One Step Closer” to the hope of equality and redemption.

Mr Contest Chair, fellow toastmasters and guests a very Good Evening. I stand before you to take you One Step Closer to “One Step Closer”.

I must admit that the theme “One Step Closer” appeared to be vague to me at the outset, but then as I gave it a thought it became clear that it was anything but vague. In fact, I would go on to say that “One Step Closer” is not only a mere expression but it is so powerful an arrangement of words that I am forced to call it a concept, an idea, An idea that can very well change your life”. …

“One Step Closer” is more psychological than anything else. Imagine a rabbit chasing a carrot dangling at the end of the treadmill. The rabbit is running with all its might; all it can see and smell is only the carrot which is dangling in front of him. It is running but somehow it cannot get closer to the carrot. The rabbit is hungry; and it is not intelligent enough to understand that it will never get to the carrot until the treadmill stops. But then, why does the rabbit continue to run? If you ask me it is not just its hunger but its feeling that “with each leap I am getting
One Step Closer to my goal” that makes it continue to run until it faints out of sheer exhaustion.

When you realize that whatever efforts you are putting in are taking you closer to what you want to achieve, you don’t mind putting in extra efforts to get there. Remember when you were in school, how a mere pat on the back from your school teacher or even words of praise from your mother made you stay up all night and complete that math exercise which normally you would have ignored. Well that pat on the back, those mere words of praise were nothing else but an indication that “Son, carry on you are One Step Closer to completing that exercise”.

14th February is a very important day at least in my calendar. It was my first Valentine’s Day in college when I saw her some 6 years ago. She was not exactly a show stopper, or somebody for whom heads would turn but she was what I had always dreamt off. I still remember the last time I looked at her that day; she had smiled a smile which was careless yet measured. Her smile told me that I was “One Step Closer” to falling in love. I need not ask you whether you have had such an experience or not. Am I correct?

Failures can also take you One Step Closer to Success. You just have to take a peek at the lifes of great inventors and scientists to understand that each failure made them learn how not to approach the problem at hand and thus brought them One Step Closer to their invention or discovery. Thomas Edison brightened our paths not only with the bulb he invented but also with his famous quote, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” Each failure which Edison encountered showed him how his approach was wrong. Each failure which Edison encountered, took him “One Step Closer” to the light.

It is rightly said that everything in this world is relative. A glass of water can either be half full or half empty, similarly one can either be “One Step Closer” to glory or “One Step Closer” to annihilation. And it is the latter which the cynics amongst us would root for.

Maybe this is the reason why I have always been in a dilemma whether or not to celebrate my birthdays. Doesn’t each of my birthdays take me “One Step Closer” to the inevitable ?

The concept of “One Step Closer” has so many implications, so many different aspects to it, right from your life’s dream to your life’s love. It is both surreal and simple at the same time. Surreal because it makes sense to both an optimist and a pessimist and Simple because it makes me realize that even as I speak I am getting One Step Closer not only to the end of my speech but to the fulfillment of a dream.

Yes, even “I have a dream” and that is to don a best fit blazer and represent my Club in the Inter-Club Speech Contest.

This speech is nothing but a humble effort to get “One Step Closer” to realizing that dream.

The First Job

I was busy congratulating others when they uttered my name,
“Was it really me?” I asked, but it didn’t matter, others had also heard the same.
Thus I got my First job,
And so for a living, a bank I didn’t have to rob.

An electrical engineer in the software field,
Said my father, “Your fate is sealed;
Waste will be your knowledge;
Entrapped you will remain in this cage.”

“No, no I have ambitions” said I,
“We will see about that.” said he with a sigh.
To prove him wrong I decided, I planned,
But soon my dreams were canned.

Now the ambitions are no more,
And even my dreams have become sore.
Thus I am still in my First Job;
And now I wonder, why didn’t I find a bank to rob??!!!

(I met an acquaintance some days back on the bus stop and while talking he said, “Its very difficult to leave your first job”. That line just remained with me and now this poem is what comes out).