The Limitless Child...!

Place: Somewhere between reality and fantasy

So, the whole world has entered a new year. The hangover is now over and the feeling of your regular job, apathetic colleagues and EMIs sink in. The terrorists are here to attack our country’s integrity. The calendars roll every day. A moment of positivity as the year changes is just a pretext to make you feel good. This makes you gather your energies once again and try fighting the odds that surround you. So, is there a permanent solution that can unleash the lost positivity, you may require a week later? There is a timeless solution to this and it lies within you.

Remember, yourself as a child. You were limitless, fearless and beaming with energy every time you fell. The moment you heard the sound of an airplane you searched it all in the skies. And each time you traced the airplane you dreamt of being a pilot. You were an astronaut the other day, a writer during the weekends, a cricketer in the evening and much more. A child believes in whatever he/she is doing and is careless of the effects of his/her actions. We often grow up and know more that makes us think of limitations that impede us.

Here are six short stories (Source: Self-Written, Quora and Internet) that will make you think how wonderful it would be to tackle your problems as a child and be limitless for the rest of your limited time on earth:

1.       The Self-Belief:

My little cousin was travelling with his grandfather on a scooter one day.

My great uncle told my cousin, "Please hold me tightly."

My cousin replied, "Why Dadu, will you fall down?"

No matter how miniscule you are, never lose your confidence.

                 2. The Selfless Care for loved ones:

A lovely little girl was holding two apples with both hands.

Her mother came in and softly asked her little daughter with a smile: my sweetie, could you give your mom one of your two apples?

The girl looked up at her mom for some seconds, then she suddenly took a quick bite on one apple, and then quickly on the other.

The mom felt the smile on her face freeze. She tried hard not to reveal her disappointment.

Then the little girl handed one of her bitten apples to her mom, and said: “Mummy, here you are. This is the sweeter one…!

 No matter who you are, how experienced you are, and how knowledgeable you think you are, always delay judgement. Give others the privilege to explain themselves. What you see may not be the reality. Never conclude for others.

  

3. The Effortless Enthusiasm:

               

We hate each Monday after a long weekend and crave for an extra day between Saturday and Sunday. I am no different and was brooding over going to office on a Monday morning. As I was walking, a little girl ran past me with her mother. She was oozing with energy to go to school. Her school bag was heavier than her. She wasn’t paid to go to school. She had homework to finish over weekend and a scolding teacher is a regular scene in every school. Despite all odds, she could not wait to board her school bus. On the other hand, I enjoyed my weekend watching my favourite movies, I was paid to go to office and I had a lighter laptop on my back.

                The only thing we lack in life to fight our troubles is a smile and an endless effortless enthusiasm, a little girl could easily carry these things on a regular basis.

4. The Fearless Fighting Spirit:

I was at Mumbai Airport and was annoyed by a 4 year old kid’s excitement as he was going to board airplane for the first time. He was running everywhere, touching all outlets that sell coffee and chocolates and almost fell seeing a plane through the glasses. We gathered ourselves and a blue coloured bus was ready to pick us up. The kid was startled and annoyed. He was not ready to board the bus. His father was embarrassed and convinced him to board the bus for a large pack of chocolates. The bus began turning its wheels and he shrieked: “Dad, the pilot has cheated us. Instead of airplane, we are now going Bangalore in a bus. But don’t worry. I am going to fight the pilot and take our money back as soon as I reach Bangalore.” Everyone in the bus started laughing.

It is not the size of the dog in the fight that counts; it is the size of the fight in the dog that matters. A lesson the child was oblivious of and yet practised.

5. The Carefree Thoughts:

Everyone dreads Mumbai rains. Some fear it so much that they carry an umbrella all the time during the year. It was July and was raining incessantly. I was running like a headless chicken to get my shoes, clothes and other belongings inside the house and then I see something magical. I see my 5 year old neighbour, a little girl, storming out of her house with her little umbrella, dancing in the rain. Her mother rushes out and picks her in. 5 minutes later… The little girl is again out in the rain and this time without an umbrella. Her mother picks her back and this merry go round race repeats once more.

Be Carefree. The storms can’t budge you.

  

6. Reality Distortion:

An excerpt from the movie: The Dark Knight Rises

Blind Prisoner: How can you move faster than possible, fight longer than possible without the most powerful impulse of the spirit: the fear of death?

Bruce Wayne: I do fear death. I fear dying in here, while my city burns, and there's no one there to save it.

Blind Prisoner: Then make the climb.

Bruce Wayne: How?

Blind Prisoner: As the child did. Without the rope. Then fear will find you again.

 The realism warranted every prisoner to climb out with a rope. The child did not know it and made it. Steve Jobs did distort reality to see futuristic products. The kids do it on a regular basis.

It is easier said than done. The world expects us to be mature and not childish. These words can be an easy rebuttal to this story. Remember, growing up is a myth. The day you stop thinking like a child, you stop living…!

Amit Leela Purohit
The Lone Soldier
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Who are We? Where are we going?

P.S. - I don’t know philosophy.

I shall be turning 25 and the world still amazes me. Well, the amazement lies neither in the underwater fauna nor some outer-world asteroids. It rests in basic things that human beings do. The way people decide, prioritize and act. The reader here might be a 17 year old high school graduate waiting for his results or a 31 year old boy/girl waiting to get married. The sample may also include a 48 year old cashier sitting in his office or a 24 year old girl who recently married somebody she never knew.

If we could know who are we?

Who are we?

I still look avenues beyond truth and capability in finding myself. I failed. The question haunts me like a somnambulist who haunts his own peaceful nights in oblivion. Most of us don’t know what we were meant to be in this world. We were born and that followed a list of random tasks that dented us into what others wanted us to be. Hard Fact. So, who are we? Are we the ones who run after money and keep wasting our best years of time? Or, the ones who are ready to die to go viral on the social network? Or, the ones who carry their family bastion and roll the family silver in grass and hash? Or, the regular managers who give their subordinates their peace of mind? Or, the naive job-seeker who did everything that the world spelt correct to get employed? Or, an individual caged in an iconic buildings waiting for attention? Or, an upcoming artist (photographer, writer, band-member etc) waiting for the big break? AND, the ones who are still in the journey to know who are we?

It may be a boring set of questions and there may be a striking chance that it would not have covered all samples of personalities or would have matched the reader’s current situation. But the answer to all the questions is same and unknown. 

The tryst between existence and purpose remains unattended unsolved and gets complicated as times pass, days go and years change.

Are we heading anywhere?

Where are we going?

Today, we live in a world of jobless growth and unprecedented polarity. The 80-20 rule is now no more applicable when I talk about the financial polarity. By now we don’t know our identity so it is difficult to say where we would be heading to. But as human beings we are well known among ourselves to figure out the solutions to problems of unimaginable complexity. The television sets keep on flashing so called ‘News’ depicting money laundering, corruption, rapes, success stories (rarely), murder stories and so on. For regular people like most of us, it gives a view to the daily course of events happening around or with us. So are we going in the direction of a humane less future? This isn't being negative in any aspects, rather it is being practical in all aspects. And lets not forget the vices that the media misses to report. The daily pressures that we meet in our lives related to success, work, marriage, money and sustenance. This makes me feel like a blind traveler hoping to feel the breeze that blows around the Seven Wonders of the World.

So, Who are we AND Where are we going?

Are we The Angry Birds?

They say there is a thin line between existence and living. We might not be knowing our identity and our reason to exist but we know one thing in our lives better than what others tell us. We very well know that what we are doing! And if most of the things we do doesn't make us happy. It gets us money though that helps us doing some of the stuff that creates an illusionary happiness. 

The ways to be successful and the ways to be satisfied never meet and everyday we tend to drift from the latter.

What are we doing?

We are all searching things that make us happy. We try to make ourselves available around people and places that we think can make us happier - knowingly or unknowingly. And in this quest, we tend to lose the major chunk of time that result in unhappiness. Strange and True. We tend to keep items of materialistic values like gadgets, cosmetic items, and travel badges and so on around us to keep that illusionary happiness alive. I often see people doing secretive stuff that may range from keeping hobbies to scoring flings. Secrets keep us grounded. But still the question stands tall. We actually don’t know what are we doing and tend to do stuff that majority of human looking creatures around us do. Some tend to go a step further when they lose their integrity and intellect while coping with ‘people’ around them. 

Most of the times we keep ourselves busy in filling the gaps of the past. The gaps may be enlisted as a failed relationship, a broken dream or a mounting loan (for car, degrees etc.) 

We all are now turning into instruments of searching things that make us stand out from the others. In due course of events, we are losing wisdom to the search engines available and tend to believe them as messengers of God (whose existence is still doubted).

I read a book titled ‘Into the Wild’ by Jon Krakauer. It is a story about a boy who tries to know the reason behind his existence and dies in the end. Many of you might have read the book or would have watched the movie. Try and get connected with your own selves instead of getting connected with the whole world on the go...!

“If we admit that human life can be ruled by reason, then all possibility of life is destroyed"

- Into the Wild, Jon Krakaeur.

 Amit Purohit
 The Lone Soldier
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The Haddi Mode

2013 : Let me Lead...!

Many of us believed and thought that 2012 was one of the longest and toughest years in their lives. Some of us even took life changing decisions in the year and realized the ways to the real journey beyond the meadows and against the tides. Some of my friends were shattered in the first 10 days of the New Year and thought the 2012 cataclysm hasn’t deserted their lives.

Let’s stop winding the clocks back and ring in the New Year with some fresh pieces of music and few liters of wine.

So, the next question gets fired: ‘Huh! What is it that you got new?’

I don’t have anything new but I would like to share with you an inside story about people management in the leading institutions and industries in my country and abroad.

It is going the ‘Haddi’ (Read: Bone) way.  

The Haddi Fight

Recently, one of my close friends and advisor to life decisions was boarding an overseas flight to his work place. Every Business Unit Leader wants him to be the lead in his team. In interesting course of events, he coined this term when I asked so what does the Big Boss (Business Head) wants you to do?

And he said nobody knows what is to be done. But everyone wants the Haddi. And I was startled and said him to repeat the lexicon. Then he said in some clearer diction. HADDI He said everyone wants him in their team but no one bothers what and where the ‘Haddi’ wishes to go. We shared a good laugh and then the flight untwined its wings and kissed the clouds to the deserts of dates where oil is cheaper than milk…!

The Haddi and the Boss

Every working guy is like a Haddi today. The top administrators wish to have a multi-toothed gear with them who can shift numbers as the terrain changes. It is same as now an engineer (or an accountant) and then a logistics guy; Now a researcher and then a procurement guy. Every second organization including the art Industry is hunting Haddi. He sings well may even act, so take him on board. Here is a B.Tech with an MBA, take him board; may solve some shop floor problems.

So, when people come to me with their logic saying Multi-tasking is the new thing on the dash board, I smirk and say, “Do hell with the domain expertise and let the fire clouds from the oil tankers of some oil company shake hands with the clouds in the skies!!!”

Let’s come out of our offices and observe the Haddi thing in some personal arena. Your own sibling or you would be the haddi of the family if you or he/she is successful and single. Every aunt, neighbor or some distant relative would come to you with marriage, business or even career proposals and would like to get the haddi on their platter and precisely in the same order…

If you are not contended with whatever state of affairs you are onto and someone is coming for you and trying to pull you in his/her business, just smile and activate the Haddi Mode in your life…!

Sing aloud and join me:

Ek rang guniyo ka nirala,

Ek rang agyani...

Rang Rang me Hod Lagi hai,

Rang Rangi Manmani…

(Song : Des Mera Rangreziya Babu, Peepli Live, Composer : Indian Ocean)

Amit Purohit

The Lone Soldier

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Meri Skirt se Unchi Meri Awaaz hai – Letter to Mr. President

Disclaimer: The writer is not a believer of religion, economy and politics (in the same order).

Dear Mr. President,

No animals were killed while I was writing this. But a girl somewhere in my country might be facing molestation, rape or some eve teaser as I write or finish this piece of writing.

I am not going to reiterate the incident that happened in a city where you live and at the time when you were having your dinner. We all were out of our minds and sight by the incident and I along with some of my friends came to meet you today morning. As expected we were not allowed to meet you. We don't wish to hear condolence messages from you; rather we claim serious belief of reinforcement of my security on the very roads where the Army, the Navy and the Air force showcase their pride every year on the Republic Day.

Sir, I have not read the Constitution of India, but I am told that if you wish, with your interference you have all the powers to call the people who can amend the Constitution of India. I request you to amend and ensure stricter enforcement of laws pertaining to attacks on the dignity of women of this country.

I wish you to act before my sister admitted to Delhi Hospital walks out and breathe the air that led her succumb.

I am not writing this letter for apathy, sympathy or empathy, favor or soothing words of praise in my honor to strive pain. I am writing this to claim what is mine.

I don’t hope for a positive response. But yes, I am expecting a prompt action.

With Best Possible Regards,

The Women of India

P.S.

I need not to teach you about the importance of women saying that they are the ones who brought Olympic Medals to the country.

Try sending water through the pipelines that your officials have laid through the city instead of smashing it in my face when I stand for my rights.

And finally, don’t let Google say ‘Do you mean rape?’ When I type India.

Amit Purohit

The Lone Soldier

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'Calls' To The Dark Knight

I watched ‘The Dark Knight’ last year and waited for ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ as I heard of some news about Mr. Nolan creating the end of the trilogy. Trailing by Trailers, I waited with abated breath for ‘The Rise’. The only reason was: ‘In Nolan I believed’. Moreover, I was captivated with the soundtrack by Hans Zimmer and almost listened to it more than five times a day to get the feel of the end of the legend.

But as it goes with my life, something circus like thing happened on the day when the film rose to the theatres and I made a nasty run just to be in time. Story Time:

19^th July 2012 (The Day before ‘The Rise’)

I wanted to make sure that I watch the movie in English as soon as I let myself out of my office. I thronged almost 4 multiplexes near to my office with one of my friends Nitin but in vain. Everywhere the movie was to be released in Hindi and I never wished to see the legend speaking some vernacular. I asked Nitin to book tickets online. We succeeded and got the best seats – third from the last row to watch the spectacle. Time: 6:20 pm.

20^th July 2012 (The Day of ‘The Rise’)

5:15 pm.

I called Nitin and he said that he was stuck somewhere and I needed to go alone. I didn’t know the ways to the multiplex and I knew I needed someone as crazy as me for ‘The Rise’. There were gangs of friends around me not getting the tickets while I had one extra ticket with me – The Golden Ticket.

5 Minutes later…

I started making random calls to lots of people around in panic just to accompany me to the end of the trilogy and read along what happened:

Call 1: My Colleague – I approached my colleague and begged her to watch the movie with me. I failed. She had her own reasons and couldn’t be ignored though.

Suddenly, I started figuring out people in my phone book and their degrees of availability at the time.

Call2: My Ex-Room mate:  He had been living in his home since 9 months by now and had been ready for every party or gathering we planned for, even at the shortest notice. But the little mouse already had his cheese booked this time and that too late in the night.

Call3: My Old School friend: I knew she was engaged. But let me try and call her and ask whether she would be company. These were my thoughts when I banged her number. I knew she was all oblivious about the trilogy but she was a good friend though. She too had her own reasons of office and life.

My hairs were on fire now. I just started making some random calls again.

Call4: My Random Friend: We had just met out of coincidence. She wanted some ideas over some event and we had a discussion. I dialed her. She was in a hospital. Her father was going to be under the knife for some treatment. I was sorry. She was sorry. And then my patience spilled up.

25 Minutes Later…

5:45 pm.

I was now running nuts. I didn’t know the place and I was made to watch the movie alone. Holy Shit. My colleague shouted at me and asked me to start my ride to 15 km across the city to reach the theatre in time. It was excruciating to know that nobody wanted the golden ticket.

Call5: My Junior: I called one of my juniors and as the phone rang I made my mind to hit him hard in the face if he denied. No prizes for guessing here. He said he was stuck with his bike somewhere in the middle of the city and I am going to hit him in the face when I meet him.

Call6: My Facebook Friend: I called one of my ‘facebook’ friends. I met her online. She was far away from my age group but still managed to say ‘No’. I thought I could convince her but they say family and children make you more responsible than an empty bag with some books and dreams in it.

Call7: My Recent Friend: Now, this was the weirdest call of my life. I had never called her. We met recently.  And to the top of it, she lived around 30 km away from the theatre and it was exactly 30 minutes before ‘The Rise’. And to the least of my surprises in my life, she denied.

Call8: I now called to one of my best friends. I was positive. The other minute shattered my hopes. I heard a ‘beep’. She ‘rejected’ my call.

5:55 pm

It was now my colleague’s turn to go nuts when she saw me behaving like an answering machine and requesting others for the golden ticket. She just banged the head guard onto my hands and asked me to leave. Now, I never had the Batman bike that can cross the Gotham city in minutes. Still I rode at a speed of around 70 kmph and guess what. I crossed two more bridges i.e. around 3 more kms in extra to the place where I was supposed to reach.

6:15 pm

5 more minutes…

I was standing at the traffic signal and asked some one where the theatre was. He explained me and I rode the horse like my bum on fire. I reached the theatre at 6:25 pm. I hated it to start late. And to my surprise the show was 20 minutes late. I made my way to the screen and saw a great looking girl with one of her friends. I hoped she was sitting right to me. And every time you hope that you find a pop corn monger kid or a coke sipping aunt piercing your ears…! I bought some popcorn and made myself comfortable on the couch. I heard a voice hitting the left of my ear. She was around 43 requesting me to shift a row behind for her son to accommodate. I was happy to do that as that brought me to the second last row of the theatre.

3 Minutes Later…

The movie started and I heard a girl screaming. She was the one whom I saw in the room outside the screen, sitting next to me. I screamed too…! She asked me whether I was alone and I replied, “It’s a funny story and maybe I would weave a blog out of it…!”

P.S. Something about ‘The Rise’:

The story is about fear and hope, rise and revolt. The best scene in the movie was the one when the protagonist climbed out of the mercenary without the rope.

Joker, we shall all keep missing you all the time…!

Amit Purohit

The Lone Soldier

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The Parallel Lines

Recently I had a chance to spend most of my day’s time with some of the most energetic minds and souls of the country at some engineering college. My life was uncertain like a ship without the rudder left alone amidst sea storms in the middle of an ocean at the whim of the waves. But the energy showed by the people around me kept me driving.

After re-orienting my life to some other goal, I came across lots of people of my age making money, travelling around the world and getting everything I deemed of.  I at my own switched off the supply of money to my life and halved it with lots of uncertainty as an additive interest. There were moments which pierced me deep and hard; made me think to push the reverse button of my life. I revolted. It had been a couple of times I had been treading the same path and watching the power struggle between satisfaction and delight.

I think I have blown enough of my trumpet and thrown some personal metaphors around. Story Time…

The Parallel Lines: : Satisfaction and Delight:

I was passing through a road that was under construction. There was a group of workers pushing hard for their daily wages. They were in an abject state of poverty and working in a highly unsafe environment. I ordered tea and sat on the ‘tapri table’ near to them. Suddenly I heard a child’s cry, who was sleeping in a ‘make-shift’ arranged swing near the road roller. His mother threw the basket containing aggregates and cuddled him, but in vain.

10 Minutes later…

I saw one of the male workers rushing to the nearest ice-cream parlor and buying a chocolate bar worth Rs.10/- The child was over the moon. It was ‘Delight’ for him and his parents saw the scene dipped in ‘Satisfaction’. A ten rupee note bought delight and satisfaction and made the parallel lines intersect.

However these things are least evident or applicable in so called ‘corporate’ life we live in. Most of my friends working in some of the leading MNCs crib about money, job location, job profile, job culture and even loneliness.  I used to crib about my job profile and now I crib over money and uncertainty. Parallel Lines.

 But there are some moments when and where these parallel lines intersect. Rare though. Some of them are: a boy reciting his deceased father’s poetry, an old priest offering his first prayers, a young girl making some street child write ABC, a young boy giving his first salary to his mother and lots more around you, with you…!

Lastly, one of my life’s moments when the parallel lines meet is the time when I write something, share and ‘You’ smile at the end after reading it. We live in a weird and wonderful world. Isn’t it?

It’s about to rain. Now listening to a track from 21^st Century Breakdown by GreenDay:

Hey Gloria, are you standing close to the edge?

Look out to the setting sun, the brink of your vision...

Eternal youth is a landscape of a lie

The cracks of my skin can prove, as the years will testify...

Amit Purohit 

The Lone Soldier

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The Lost Child

I always feel I am doing nothing on this planet except growing old whenever my birthday is around the corner. Every birthday I promise myself that I shall find the reason to live or the reason to write a book. The former never gets formulated and the latter keeps on dealing with the subject matter.

Carefree Childhood days

So I decided to travel to places to remember what I was made of and visited the people who crafted a man out of a toddler. This led me to Udaipur, my birth place. The city of lakes that taught me change is inevitable and it kills if you don’t accept it in life. The second stop was my kindergarten that taught me the faller is destined to succeed. The third was my college which once taught me love and success can go in hand.  And out of everything I grounded one fact: Needless to say, the fact bearer told me all life what I have spent was in vain as I had been running after things that my parents, teachers and some of my friends asked me to chase for.

I still remember the days of my childhood when jalebi was sweeter and reminded me of the advertisement wherein a boy is convinced to return to his home when he was promised ‘jalebi’. I was so care free and ready to tell people what I knew forgetting the fact how much they know or what they wished to know.

My favorite color was the one that my English teacher wore and it changed around four times in a week.

There were no paychecks but the two rupee note and a ‘Poppins’ in my hand made me felt like a king.

The time when Batman and Spiderman looked great on paper rather than making me wait for the sequels that come every season to bore.

There were no mobile phones and my parents knew wherever I would be in this world I would return in a ‘single piece’ with my bicycle by 7 pm in the evening.

There was no Google still I knew what to search for and where the answers were hidden.

I had smiling faces around me not a book of faces saying where they are spending their honeymoons or which college they are studying in…!!!

I had a pencil and a rubber that lasted for a week and now I never see my pencil’s final notch sharpened up or changing my roller pen’s refill.

There were sparrows and squirrels I used to run after and spent my time watching clouds changing their shapes from elephants to horses.

The crayons that colored my life and made it look vibrant not the blunt bank’s SMS in my smart phone saying about my purchases and meager bank balance.

 I had love and the only thing that broke my heart was the moment when she said to me that her frock is brighter than my pants.

I never had the feeling of losing somebody or something except my new compass that I got free with ‘Bournvita’.

The months when I waited for the school to reopen and wished to see her with a new water bottle rather than the appraisals that I now carve and crib for.

Let me tell you a true story. When I was in 4^th grade we had a surprise drawing exam. And it really ‘surprised’ me. The teacher told us to draw a free hand sketch and the white sheets that looked like dinner table napkins came to my bench. I read the words ‘free’ and ‘hand’ and traced my hand on the sheet, colored it with the color of the skin and wrote in the centre ‘Free Hand’ and left the class room within 15 minutes. The teacher laughed and I got a ‘D’. But the lesson learnt was my shelling out what I knew.

I failed the Ph.D interview at some IIT last fortnight. After passing 3 rounds, I feared to express what I knew in the interview. And once again life placed me on the crossroads that say where to go with a lot of sign boards luring me to them.

Closing my eyes, remembering what ‘Into the Wild’ meant and now finding a reason to live because this life can’t be a reason to die.

Now Listening:

Wo Kagaaz Ki Kashti;  Wo Baarish Ka Paani…

The reason why my calendar days pass is a mystery and I am on the way to my answers…!!!

Amit Purohit

The Lone Soldier

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The Cuckoo Behind The Kolaveri...

12^th Apr, 2012

3:35 pm, Somewhere On Earth.

Very few of my friends have heard the song ‘Guncha’ by Mohit Chauhan. Guncha means a young flower. The most fascinating lines of the song go like this:

“Subh ko teri Zulf ne sham kar dia,

Guncha koi mere naam kar dia…!’’

                And I dipped into my favorite arena where my pen did the talking. Pondering over the thought of writing a book woven with words around women, I felt I had now walked the talk with enough women in my life and their depiction of emotions. I was wrong, point blank.

                Allow me to tell you an open ended story of a girl I met and was startled.

                She was 26, MBA. She had a CAT percentile I could dream of and a persona I was jealous of. She landed and ditched one of the finest corporate jobs which people like me deem of. But things weren’t rosy as I thought of.

                She was working for nuts but for a cause by means of which she drove her life. And when inquired about why the ‘fish’ she worked for nuts; she smiled with an uncertainty at the back drop of her cerebellum. Being the ‘local’ Sherlock by nature, I was curious with some questions and the day occurred when the sun rose and her answers came searching my questions.

                And like any other Cindrella, the story stalked and sauntered around marriage – the lexis behind her uncertain smile she showcased, sitting near to the beautiful coffee cups she was fond of. Scores of questions rambled her mind about ‘the one’ and started driving her life. And I was surprised again…

                This time, I was surprised by the feminine psychology of considering ‘the one’ as the center of her earth. I watched her about and by now almost a 24-hour office day stamping documents with a smile incomplete in its own sense. The smile that carried pain of a broken song or the panicky of her parent’s toil of finding ‘the one’. For ‘the one’ and with the uncertainties tied to him she worked for nuts instead of diamonds.

                What was more! Adding more struggle to the smile was the debris of a musical dream that never shaped out of her parental pressure. As this ink flows on this paper and turns into blatant hieroglyphics; a day passes in the life of an individual getting the pangs of being alone and clearing the misty air of not so certain things tied with and for a stranger.

                A dream stifled like a soda bottle welded with the cork. Blueprints of a business, a career remains on paper in her minds; somewhere buried. I had never thought of weaving my life and its winged dreams for anyone. And she was living it, staking and sauntering her gold clad MBA for the unknown waiting, hoping to meet the next door.

When I see her I think of a flower vase with dried roses yet fresh leaves…!

When I see her I think of someone breathing for clouds that change shapes daily…!

I hear a sunken song that was never written; but a singer composed it for life…!

“Aankho ke jazeero ko tere naam kar dia,

Guncha koi mere naam kar dia…!’’

Amit Purohit

The Lone Soldier

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Clearance Ki Kahaani...Balls to 'Sayonara'

Characters:

GET : X (Graduate Engineering Trainee Resigning as Senior Project Executive)

Manager Y (Eating, Doing Nothing and managing GET X)

HR Z (Helpless Rascal @ the Human Resource)

Note: Trying to avoid being harsh

Warning: No resemblance with real world. If you find any, have beer and chill because none gets to bother.

16 Jan 2012

It was the 89^th day of the three month notice period at a company called Lallu & Tappu Ltd (La&Ta). My brain was bleeding as I was the only one around going home instead of going to some MNCs who pay like pigs. And adding pressure to the pumping blood was the Manager Y who was not clearing off my handover dues. Actually speaking, he didn’t know what I was handing over as he never worked till it came to brim.

The HR Z was any other person who was least bothered who was leaving; knowing the reasons might be his dream job that he used to actually do while snoring at 2 pm after the hefty lunch.

I was to leave at 17^th Jan and it was already 4:30 pm. It was getting tougher to nail Manager Y.

He only had to tick on a clearance form in his mail and like any day he wasn’t bothered when it came to work.

10 minutes of Creative Planning by GET X passed by.

To Retaliate Is Human Nature...

Manager Y: So why are you exactly leaving?

GET X: Does it make sense on the 89^th day of my 3 month notice period?

Manager Y (Stunned): What does it mean when you question a query?

GET X: It means I am not interested to entertain the query and the beholder.

Manager Y: Tell me which company are you joining?

GET X: I am getting out of this company business. It adds no value to my thoughts.

Manager Y: The world is small. We will be informed where you are heading.

GET X: Please clear off my dues, just by clicking a simple icon in your mail box.

Manager Y: No, I won’t till you let me know.

Nonsense heated argument follows.

GET X watches the clock. It was 4:50 pm. He knew Manager Y will run to the punching machine at 5:15 pm and drive home. At 5 pm all he wanted the subsidized tea offered at the labor canteen.

He wanted the tick as it was HR Z’s turn tomorrow.

Manager Y (provoking): He will be a Master (professor in derogatory sense) one day and then he thinks he can add value to his thoughts.

GET X (keeping his cool): Sir G, its 4:55 pm. (Actually the clock showed 5 pm). I am going for tea.

Manager Y: Oh! Where I have to tick for clearing your dues?

GET X (thinking prey had come to daddy): Here, over here sir…

Manager Y: Is there any provision for partial clearance?

Manager Y actually didn’t know what he was handling and still he wanted GET X to be trapped.

GET X: Sir G, its 5 pm (Clock actually showing 5:15 pm) we will miss the tea.

Manager Y: Here is the password of my mail box. Get it done.

GET X: (enters the password like a ninja): Click..! Bang you go…!!

Manager Y: Let’s go to tea.

GET X: Its 5:18pm.

Manager Y (Astonished): What?

GET X: So you finally come to know that is the way you get to work…! Good Bye.

Manager Y:  (Now knew the trick) If you wish you can share your personal contact details.

GET X: Good Bye.

17 Jan 2012.

HR Z: Have you ticked all departments in the form?

HR Z never knew what kind of intellectual capital the company had and the least he knew about the loss to company when most of them were leaving the company.

GET X: Yes

HR Z: Get your dues cleared by the Finance department know.

The official time to leave was 5 pm. But as I had received clearance from all departments I could have been relieved earlier. Every one applied Murphy’s Law.

I requested HR Z to relieve me by 3 pm. I asked him to at least hand over my documents against the I-card I had submitted. He said a cold NO.

He did every procedural works at 5 pm. I kicked the door.

17 Feb 2012

I am still waiting for my salary. Manager Y wants me back.

I got my clearance done over a Rs.3/- tea.

I left love and opened the doors of uncertainty in my life…!!!

 Amit Purohit The Lone Soldier

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Don't Let My Love Die...

My skies; my seas

                Where the sun settled over her eyes

Holding her arms with fingers twined

                Those beautiful eyes setting in mine…

The lonely river and a long bridge

                That bridged the souls living apart

Looking at what she stared

            Blinking eyes when the rain dripped to fall…

The silence that sounded again

            Deafening the ears; melting the heart’s gain

O’ little girl,

            My feelings may fail…

Or my souls may feign…

            To rewind the times of love and pain

 Love shall neither fail nor feign

             I fear, the world and times might drain…!!!

Often I write something that inspired what made me write these verses. But I can’t figure what to write for this one. It is just the love making me unable of deem what I am made of and what will be left in me when you will not be there…!!!

I am sending all my love to you with the air I breathe in and with the clouds I see in the skies.

I am sending all my love to you with the stars I see and wish I could be one to be with you.

I am sending all my love to you with the flowers that never trailed our ways to soothe you.

I am sending all my love to you being in love with you.

I am sending all my love to love you…! ! !

Amit Purohit (The Lone Soldier's Sleepless Nights)

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Smeared By Swamp...

I was standing under the night lamp,     

                With quiet stars staring at me,

Almost failing to time…

                Were the huts and hearts to the swamp?

Blessed were the clouds

                That peeped when we kissed around

And the rest was all clutter…

                Feelings over the pan; all fetters

The smoke went above the airplane

                Yet smelt the same; insane

Dew drops and some molten chocolate,

                Over the grass; inside the oven

Rest what left failed to ruin

                The castles of love; the tears of rain

I was still standing under the night lamp               

         With the hearts and huts smeared by the swamp

नादान परिंदे, घर आजा...

Imaginations are weird. They come to you, rove into your brain and leave you with a thought. It was 4 in the morning with the zephyr about to unfold and the ‘Nothing Else Matters’ track echoing in my room I grew. There is a light post in front of my house. It was time, when I thought of myself standing by it and rewinding life by a frame or more. And then I thought of the poem I just wrote and you just read.

I always felt scores of surges and swamps in life. Joy and Sorrow. Love and Pangs. I was almost to the place that I left. The lights made me blind and the smoke made me restless.

With all sorts of uncertainties now open, the journey to finding the metal of what made me begins and you know what…

Nothing Else Mattered…! ! !

Amit Purohit (The Lone Soldier)

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Love, Honor And Killing.

Love; Honor And Killing


12th July, 2010


A famous newspaper quoted: “If you find something wrong with a newly married couple don’t go for the police go for the Khaps…!”

The TV screens flashed killings of some young couple in the northern parts of my wonderful country, India. I very well know the name of the place; the lobby of people and the date, time and reason when the killings happened. But I don’t wish to mention all here. This is because the sentiments I wish to talk upon I guess is paramount. The media did it the most idiotic way they could with the word honor in bold and red. I turned off the tube. Two of my female friends were confused over honor and mercy killing. I smiled out of a stifle. We need to react and generate awareness on such burning societal issues and the so called young feminine India boasting of ruling corporate and begging all the way for reservation in every nook and cranny of the system was confused. Mercy and Honor. My heart pumped lava instead of blood thinking of the visuals related to the incident. People were doing what human kind and its creator can’t deem of.


Two souls fall in love. They are not of the same caste. Some people in white turbans behave like courts and issue life sentence for the love birds. The so called youth of India executes it. The brutal the execution the more is the pride carried off. The news keeps coming in newspapers. They talk of the northern part of this country. I feel safer in Gujarat. Love is merrier here. And the day I think of this the page 5 of a leading newspaper tells me of a case of honor killing in Surat – where I earn money. Sometimes I think the proactive media has made us notice vices like honor killing these days. Love is ancient and so honor killing would be! Honor, I seem to be in such cases of killing is a mental block. The word mirage would rather suit such notion rather than a mind’s block. The situation goes pathetic when the couple marries against family’s will and remains alive. You read it correct. The situation gets worse as they tackle the tide their home all alone just because they decided to live life at their own terms. Their parents feel like they had been murdered. Casteism was an old man’s thought and now the same is killing his successors.


The Sunset Time


With all these emotions roving and raving in my mind, I thought of taking a break and watching some music videos. And some anchor was interviewing the local police commissioner over the couple’s murder who sought police protection a week ago in the same news room. I thought education has cleansed the minds of my country’s people. I am wrong. Religion and Honor are Everest sized mental blocks of people and people can’t see the sunshine beyond it. It reminded me of the ‘Sania-Shoaib’ marriage episode which followed nasty SMSes, Facebook status and tangy tweets. People just can’t accept the fact and carry life on.


Love is godly. They say it is beyond boundaries and borders. It is because of love we breathe and feel our existence. Killing love and its beholders in the name of honor is itself questioning love’s existence on this planet. This ultimately makes me think of our existence and extinction. We are against the emotion which binds us all. And the worst part is we count on it as our token to unravel our geographic and economic problems.

Sad is the story that all is happening in a country where romantic films run for 25 years at a stretch and the countrymen there kill those who are the real inspiration behind such immortal stories…!

Let me love without the honor part of it; I will be breathing in the end…!
Give me freedom!

Amit Purohit The Lone Soldier.
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