The Banyan In The Backyard

          He woke up to the sound of the bloody vacuum cleaner. At first he thought it to be a part of his dream. But soon his sleep broke into reality. He picked his wrist watch from the side table to check the time. It was just 5 o’clock in the morning. Turn that damn thing off he yelled. What is the special occasion, anyway? Suddenly the sound stopped. He kept his wrist watch back on the side table and was about to lie down again to complete his sleep, is when Aruna marches in, speaking a little loud, "do you have a sense of responsibility or not? Or is it just me who is supposed to act all responsible around here". Please recall todays date. You tell me what is so special about it? I am waiting for an answer. She spoke without a pause causing her a little difficulty in breathing. His sleep vanished like a puff of smoke in the thin air. He made her sit next to him. Handing her a glass of water that he picked up from the side table. She looked at him with her sharp eyes before taking the glass. She took a few sips and said this is why I married you 37 years ago.

          The flight will land at 1300 hrs and it is a good 2 hour journey from the airport. You can relax and let Meena clean the house. I don’t want you exhausted by the time kids arrive. You don’t worry about me mister. You get out of the bed and get ready. And don’t forget to fold the blanket. He got out of the bed, folded the blanket to the best of his abilities and went to the terrace. He does his cardio up there. An extensive 20 minute brisk walking followed by a 10 minute session of yoga. He makes sure that they have their morning tea on the terrace. It is always quiet and peaceful up here he says mostly everyday, while sipping his ginger infused tea. There is a banyan tree in the verandah and goes all the way up supporting the walls of all the neighbouring houses. The tree has been there since ages. He has a fondness towards the tree.

          It was 1000 hrs and he was all ready and waiting for the breakfast to be laid. Usually people don’t have breakfast late in the mountains. But due to the sudden deep cleaning scheduled today, led a delay in the breakfast. He went onto check the stock of bubbly in the refrigerator as kids would love to drink them during their stay. Finally everything was spick and span. They were all set for their arrival a couple of hours before hand. He was a retired army officer and she was a retired school teacher. After their retirement the kids continued to stay in Gurgaon and they moved to their ancestral house in Kanatal, in Uttarakhand. They have transformed the house and now half the house is converted into a lodge and the rest is their home. It was Aruna’s idea not to depend only upon the pension for managing the expenses. They have hired helper who manages the operations at the lodge. While renovating the house the builder suggested to cut the banyan tree off, but he was adamant and asked the builder to work in a way that he gets the architecture around the tree.

          They were talking about the time passing by so soon like it was yesterday when their daughter was born and now they becoming grand parents to a mischievous child. The time glided by and they could here the car honking at their main gate. The parking was neat and clean and had enough space for them to park the car safely. The architecture for the parking space was a brain child of Aruna and had received a lot of accolades till now from various relatives. Their son in law didn’t miss to appreciate the architecture too. This brought a proud smile on Aruna’s face which didn’t go unnoticed. After a couple of bubblies they all went to freshen up while lunch was being laid. Ahaan came running out in the dining area. He started helping in laying the table and in no time they all were having lunch. Post lunch they all rested in their rooms for a while, as the journey was tiresome. They were laughing at the snores of their kids. He helped Aruna clean the kitchen and then they sat in the verandah and were recalling the time that had past and how far have they arrived in the journey. The lodge was also completely sold out and was bustling with families coming in and going out of the lodge. 

          He has been the provider of the family and during his struggle Aruna stood tall. She provided the support and push whenever it was required. She had managed the house with the whatever funds were given to her which never affected the studies of their child. And today they have enough that they are able to give it back to the society whenever necessary. The kids were up from their nap and tea was arranged on the roof. The weather was pleasant and the view was magnificent from there. He was standing on the other end of the roof and observing the tree. Ahaan came to him and asked him about the tree. He told Ahaan that listen carefully son, my grandfather and your great grandfather told me this story. Try to observe these leaves, on every branch of this tree. You will notice that on every branch there are a bunch of leaves. All these leaves are like a family. Each leave is bigger than the other, just like how it is in every family. All these branches are families and these leaves are the family members. The biggest one being the father, then the mother and then kids. This tree resembles to me as a society with in. If nourished and nurtured well enough this will flourish till the end of time and if not looked after, it will wither away. So always look after the society you live in because it will eventually affect your family.

          Little Ahaan learnt a very important lesson today. This will help him become a better individual and an integral part of the society. 

Mother : God In Flesh

It is a good news, the doctor said.

You are expecting, so you should rest instead

of long shifts.

Her eyes were smiling of her cheeks,

she had a happy feeling since weeks.

This was going to be her first child,

and without her noticing it,

the time glide.

The cries filled the room with joy,

when the doctor pulled out a boy.

He grew inch by inch, 

she was cautious and 

never did she flinch.

In no time she woke him up for school,

now when he was gone she missed the days

when he used to drool.

While she is thinking about him, it is just then

the doorbell rings and it is ben.

She asks him about his day.

while in the sofa he lay.

She tidies him up and serves him lunch.

He has to go to soccer practice and

there is a time crunch.

He is growing taller than her

and she notices it now.

But she feels proud and takes a bow,

for a man she has raised.

He has moved to the uni,

the days appear gloomy.

She misses her little ben,

who was always around her back then

When he was small.

Sooner he will have a job, 

Far away from home.

She started to sob

to the thought.

Just then the phone bell rang,

she wondered if everything was fine

it was ben on the line.

She forgot all her sorrow,

he said maa i need some of your time to borrow.

I will be delivering the felicitation speech on May 13th.

Can you make it to the uni? 

She burst into tears of joy,

while listening to her baby boy.

She drove all the way to college,

to see her son graduate.

She made sure she was not late.

She cheered him with all her might.

They went to his favourite joint and

She kept looking at him all night.

Next day when she got up she was surprised.

Her son was missing and she couldn’t believe on her eyes.

The breakfast was laid on the table.

and there was note

stating Happy mother’s Day! Maa

and continued 

I have found a job in town and the pay is stable.

She was relieved to hear the news.

In a minute she got rid of her blues.

She finished her scrumptious meal 

and waited for the future to unveil.

My Mona Lisa

While he was busy answering the call that abrupt our conversation about the results, my mind was running several calculations about the obvious possibilities. Out of which one being the planning for my parents anniversary. And the other being about the embarrassment that I might face. I wasn’t worried about the embarrassment the result might bring, as the other two didn’t make the cut. If your friend is also part of the competition and doesn’t get through, you don’t feel bad. The suspense was building about the result and I was starting to get annoyed with the phone call. Just when I was about to step out of the cabin with an excuse, he disconnected the call. Leaving me in an awkward position where I was leaning towards the door with my back towards him. I adjusted myself. He said you are through to the next round. You better be prepared for the next round as this happens tomorrow.

Just a couple of months before the competition there were new hirees that joined our department. Out of which one girl was my best friends junior from college. The moment I saw her, I fell in love with her. In these couple of months we had become good friends and I wanted to take this opportunity to really impress her. So I did the most obvious thing any boy would do in this situation. I asked her to be cheer me at the competition. She was there for the GD and the extempore and she said she will be there for the physical round too. One part of me was happy but the other half was scared about she watching me fail.

The third round was the physical round. Trust me my boss didn’t fancy my chances of even qualifying the round. So the drill was to climb 15 feet up the ladder. Cover the distance of 15 feet hanging to a rope, then steer our way across a plank that is narrower than the size of ones feet, while balancing a marble in a semi cylindrical object in one hand. Then take out a chit from a fish bowl full of rats and then dunking your had in a bucket full of cow shit to find a pen of the same colour that is mentioned on the chit and finally drinking 250 ml of healthy karela (bitter gourd) juice. The entire drill will be timed and four participants with the best time will make it to the next round . That was scheduled to take place on the annual day.

It looked easy and fun to me initially but was tougher than any army training, I thought at that time. The first person prepared himself and started the drill and Boy! He made the rope crossing look tougher than ever. I was cent percent sure about me that I will make a fool out of myself while performing the drill. The organisers asked me if I wanted to go next and all I could do was run towards my boss and yell no while running. People who saw me running, were laughing. 

While I was standing behind my boss, he leaned towards me and asked, Yeh karle ga bhecho (will you be able to pull this off fucker)? I could understand the sarcasm in his tone. But could not do anything about it as I was asking the same thing to my self over and over again. 

My eyes were searching for the sight of my love. But she was no where to be found. She was definitely working that afternoon shift. Moreover she promised me that she will be present today at the event. Soon, I was the last one left to complete the drill. The boy who went before me was of the same weight as me. I saw him completing the drill which made me more nervous. As I started approached the ladder my heart rate started climbing with every step up the ladder. I saw her coming towards the activity area.There she was! The most beautiful girl I have ever known, looking for me. I loved the colour of her red lipstick. Her red lipstick was always different from the other girls in the department. It was neither too dark or too light. It was just the right amount of red. I wanted to shout and tell her where I was. But my throat had already dried as usual. 

Getting up the ladder was easy. But crossing towards the other end was the toughest part. You see the more heavier you are the gravity helps to you fall faster as per Sir Newton’s law. So here I was midway, trying to pull my overweight body towards the finishing end of the rope. The task that was looking impossible then. I could feel my hands losing the grip. My left hand slipped and I saw aluminium ladder was right under my head. I could hear the bystanders shouting a terrified oooooh fffuu… I told myself that if I lose the grip I may end up in the hospital with an open skull. Somehow I managed to pull my self up and cross the first obstacle. In the next task on the drill I was to balance the marble which fell twice before I could cross the finish line. Finally in my third attempt I finished the second obstacle and in no time I was dunking my hand in a bowl full of rats followed by a bucket full of shit. It was the time to drink the health potion the karela juice. I did it in no time. I couldn’t wait to see the look on everyones face who doubted me. I was jumping with joy in the inside and calm as a Mahendra Singh Dhoni on the outside. 

I was not aware of my time and as per my superstitious ritual, I left the sight and went back to my work station after washing my stinking hands. Everyone in the department avoided shaking hands with me because of obvious reasons. I got a call from the human resources guy asking me to come at the competition site as I am through to the next round. I couldn't believe it. It was surreal. I was so happy that I could not stop smiling in the pictures that were taken by the HR. I was on cloud nine. But the journey to the clouds was cut short when I was told that I have to perform on the stage and showcase a talent in the final and decisive round. I have no talents, except for the fact that I can be really sarcastic and insult you without you noticing it at that very moment. That was the only thing that helped me save my ass so many times. This was the reason I didn’t want to participate in the first go. But now I was standing here trying to figure out how can I make a fool out of myself in front of everyone.

I sat in my room and started thinking about the talents I posses. The more I thought the more I wanted to murder my boss. He was the reason I was in this spot. That is when my roommate walked in and calmed me down. He went back and forth with all the options that I had. I was tired and started watching random videos on youtube. I came across a video of a speed painter. It is a new form of painting where the painter paints the picture upside down in a 90 seconds. The audience has no clue about the actual painting. It is no less than an illusion. My drawing classes came in handy and I decided to go with this option. But the trouble here is that I could barely draw something straight after so many years, forget about drawing something capsized.

So we came up with the plan that I will draw Gandhiji’s profile with the National flag on the side. I bought a couple of chart papers, paint brushes and colour. The back side of the main door was my easel. I had 2 weeks to perfect the craft. I was finally getting a hang of it. Five days prior to the final showdown I get to know that a fifth participant has been added and he will also be drawing. I was puzzled and scared. I spoke to the HR and was assured that he is not doing something similar to my craft. I wasn’t convinced tough. In the mean while I was focusing completing the art work in 90 seconds as per the guidelines of the competition. I made a sound track for 90 seconds to run behind while I will be drawing.

The D - Day arrived and I was all set to rock. I had informed the organisers to tell me 10 minutes before hand when I am supposed to go on the stage as I had to carry all my tools along. It takes a minute or half to setup the easel and brushes and the paint on the stand. But to my surprise my name was announced and I was puzzled. Somehow I managed to land up on the stage all haphazard. I asked them to rewind the music and play it all over again. I started painting. Soon I could hear the crowd yelling, “yeh kya kr ha hai tu” (what are you doing)? That is not the colour of the national flag. I was smiling when I heard them. I knew I have almost won. The moment the song stopped I dropped my brushes. I turned the easel and I could see their jaws drop. That was the loudest applause that night. 

This is a photo of my parents from the Goa trip I won as a prize.