The secondary tale

Once upon a time there lived a man. Lean, strong, good looking and brilliant. He studied in the country’s premier institute and then chose to follow his heart and start a newspaper. And what happens to him? He gets to become the ‘loser’ in India’s most loved corn-head’s new novel strangely named after the newspaper our ‘loser’ guy had started. Apparently, getting drunk and messing up the objective exams is way cooler than doing everything properly.

Indian’s have traditionally loved drama. Even senseless, soap opera like effluent they’ve been bringing out under the generic name “bollywood masala” has been received positively for years. When a rock-star seeking inspiration went to Prague and stole somebody else’s wife everyone sang about love and everything else wonderful in the world. But did anyone worry about the man who must’ve been really good to own a business in such a hostile environment like Prague?  A poor life had turned miserable over night and nobody cares. Instead the world only cares about the heroes.

Infact these ‘secondary’ roles are so insignificant that even the likes of Salman Khan could don such an avatar and be subjected to no sympathy. So convenient isn’t it, to end it all by saying “Kuch Kuch Hota Hei”? 

In the big scheme of things, these lives are so inconsequential, so secondary that nobody really cares about what happens to these men/women after those moments that changed their lives. After having been ditched, under-valued, and mentally tortured? Nobody really knows right? I suppose they move on. Lead a non sensational life filled with counseling, depression and more.

Human beings like it when underdogs or heroes win. Even more when it’s the former. It’s the sadistic brain we all have which has the ability to instill in its owner the ‘thing’ that drives people mad – hope. Why else do you think people watch Dhanush movies? Here’s a slim, dark guy who looks to be suffering from malnutrition winning pretty girls. If he can do it, we can too.

My story is about such a person. Who did nothing wrong and still had his life turned upside down. The only mistake he probably did was to become the part of somebody else’s fairytale story.  Our protagonist would’ve easily fitted into an average girl’s ‘dream boy’ criteria. A handsome guy who also happened to be a brilliant orator. He loved this girl with all his heart.  Spent hours at the bus stop to get a glimpse of her while she went for her coaching classes. Skipped meals to be with her. All was well until one fine morning he got a call from her saying she had fallen for someone else. The word spread. And suddenly people were all talking about the guy who was short and not nearly as handsome as our ‘secondary’. But it seemed his love for her was convincing enough. His love was termed genuine and real. The girl was called the ‘Goddess’ for realizing true love. She had opted ‘true love’ and turned a blind eye to his looks. And our Mr. Secondary? Who cares right? His love probably wasn’t good enough. The guy ruined his exams, got into some xyz business school and screwed up his life. And yeah, the couples lived happily ever after. End of story. And there are similar stories everywhere.

That’s life on planet Earth. It's confusing, sensational and most of the times unfair. And since it is so inter-twined with somebody else’s, you are bound to wear the ‘secondary’ shoes some day. You, me and everyone else. Be ready!

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The Insignificance of LIFE

Paramu , who spent his entire life milking cows passed away yesterday at an age well above 70. I personally know him as the man who used to come to my mother's place every single morning to collect the 'kadi vellam'. 365 days for some 40 years he did that. And he did it yesterday as well. But unlike the other days, he stopped near the gate , took two long breaths, told my cousin " pandathe polum onnum alla ippo" and then walked to his home some 300 yards away. He passed away some two hours after that. I must admit I wasn't shocked. People die. Thats the nature's law. But somewhere in the corner of my mind came the realization that I had lost a character from the 'book of life'. But then who was he in this big fat world? And thats when i started wondering bout

The Insignificance of Life

You wake up every Monday morning. Work your socks off for a week. You save the money. And then you DIE!Its scary isn't it ? You live some 50 years and then in one moment you are gone!All that you've spent your entire lifetime on, POINTLESS! I've always believed people worry about death due to two reasons :

1. They are afraid of what is beyond. Anxiety. OR/AND

2. The case of non existence. What will be the world without you for your significant ones? What have you done in your life?

Which leads us to the question what is significance? Or rather what was the purpose of your life? And why is 'significance' so important? The answer to these questions are way beyond the scope of the imagination of a 21 year old but sometimes I do wonder " what will ever be 'known' as ?" . In the materialistic world sadly,'Significance', has a lot to do with the achievements in one's life. Where you an incredibly good singer? A creative dancer? An outstanding athlete? But finally does it all matter? YES, to a certain degree. But to classify significance of a life via his/her achievements seem a little unfair. You could've been nothing to the world to some 2 billions people. But there might have been a kid and a lady who depended on you. A handful of people who genuinely cared for you. 'Significance' hence is purely a comparative term. In fact 'death' is often a measure of how important your life was to the world. The whole world mourns at the loss of someone significant. The same does not hold for Paramu . The truth is, most of us lead a very insignificant life on this planet. A life that makes no difference to the world. And there are few things one can do about it. Talent is most cases are in born . You can't be a great musician over night. Nor can you get the hand eye co-ordination required to flick a fast bowler for a six. The Verve did get it spot on when they tagged life as a 'bittersweet symphony'.A wave of ups and downs. And one that can terminate any moment. I just read in the newspaper as to how this girl had been talking via a cell phone in the balcony and fell down . She sometimes would've had the potential to script the world. But its all over before she could do anything about it. On the contrary, I still remember the night, after Dhwani 2010, when i literally slept off sitting on the stairs of the bogey, on my way back from tvm in the train . Had my pal been a second late in waking me up who knows what might have been.

Life , as Forrest Gump's mom used to put it, is like a box of chocolates. You never know what flavour you are gonna get. And the surprising thing about these chocolates are it melts like ice cream. SO you've got to enjoy it before it melts.Coming back to Paramu's case there isn't much he could've done in his life. He could have quit his passion for 'bidi's. His parents probably were peasants themselves. He continued what they had started. A typical life. His children did go to schools but eventually they quit owing to lack of money/interest. His son drives an auto and two daughters are house wives. What if one rich person in the neighbourhood had taken a small interest in Paramu? Offered him small amounts of money. Instilled in him the need for education. Given the belief that 'richness' in nothing beyond him. Showed no caste/religion distinction. ALL small things. And it might not have made a difference in Paramu's life. But it would've, if only slightly, bettered the lives of his children and the chain gets replenished slowly and who knows, in 3 generations time the conditions of that family would've been drastically different. Its like an avalanche. A small stone is good enough to start sequence. Only this time its for the good.

One often always tends to forget these small deeds. Look at the big picture they say! But for a picture to be perfect the pixels should be! And more the pixels the better. The truth is we've got such a short life and a lot depends on Fate. We might not become an Ambani or a John lennon . And to the world you might be an insignificant being. but one smile earned, one meal served can all be lead to 'many lives made better'. I wonder if thats what these scientists call ' Butterfly effect'. I never was good with science anyway. All i know is its Vishu and theres no better time to start off! Do something good perhaps. something 'seemingly' insignificant...

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the desperate diaries 1: that thing called love

One, the best athlete in schoo,and the chocolate boy.The other, an audacious speaker,class topper and 'elf'ishly gorgeous.Together even the grumpy teachers loved them!NOT that any among us did!But we really dint stand a chance.[And just like every other narrator. in the customary 'desperate' stories, i had a crush on 'her']
So what could've led to the break up of this seemingly 'spotless' pair.Their different passions? It doesn't really sound a convincing reason,especially to someone who has seen them together!They were the prom king queen stuff as you have in those English horror[they tend to call it thrillers, but i've never been thrilled to c masked men stab cute couples on certain fridays] movies with disappointing sequels.
She took up 'law' at Delhi and he joined an Engineering college in Madras. But according to the classical definition, love blossomed with distance right? so then ,what else? Lack of commitment ?I really cant answer that with a yes or no, but i've seen them scraping probable names for their children on the beach and fighting over it, so i kinda concluded they were serious. And I'm pretty sure everyone in my class thought the same.
And at last via a mutual friend, I came to know the reason!They were BORED. A very flimsy reason to let a pretty girl go, it would seem!But I wasn't all that surprised! after all he used to spend his entire life revolving around Ms Sunshine, doing what she wants! Its only human to desire a change, and sometimes the parattas can yield more taste than the 'real Arabia'[mind u, that doesnt happen all the time]. He would even skip the football matches to go talk to her. I have no clue as to how he cud tolerate the left and right 'cancellations' associated with a pretty girl![for those who arent familiar with the golden rule, a pretty girl is discrete maths! She always has some nagging,very 'UNpretty','friends'{or fans} beside her!unless you learn to do the left and right cancelling , it is impossible to get a pretty girl]
The bitter truth is, when u develop an infatuation for someone u always find a reason to believe this is exactly the person for u. It doesn need to be a good reason. Taking photographs of the nyt sky, for example. Now in the long run,that's just the kind of dumb,irritating habit that would cause u to split up. But in the haze of infatuation,its just what u've been searching for all these years.
Each realized what they were missing out on,discovered something new,and they broke up! end of story.
Initially i was very angry!I cursed the society for what it had become and wondered 'what true love meant'?maybe its like 'Halo'.some lucky guy gets to sleep-act with Beyonce! And so i pondered!
Why do people,old ,immature or young,break up?and then Mr Tiger Woods came rushing in!ehemmm.and then John Terry![clear throat. atleast Toni can tend to forgive]. Regardless of how naive the word BORED might seem, it has roots in almost every 'emotional mishap'.
Most of the time, we call it 'losing trust'! but that is losing faith in your partner,which is a direct implication that you arent fully into the relationship!and why arent u? maybe u need a change?maybe u've had 'enough' with the current state of affairs!
Anyway i leave it for u to decide! and while you are at it,you could probably find a cute name to match our male and female protagonists as well!I wanted Jack and Jill, but my girlfriend likes aditya and aisha more! AS always ,she previals!

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