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Happy Tired, Sad Tired

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Lucknow, 7am, 17th Nov 2024: groggy, I looked at my wife, still tired from last night's late night get together with family. We were in my hometown, to attend the wedding of my cousin brother, travelling back to Lucknow after around an year. Day wise agenda was set, which was soon to be disrupted by the phone call received by my wife.  It was one of my sister in laws (last I counted, we have 9). Her father in law (CAT question- my father's elder brother is my?), who was hospitalized. Platelets count had gone down to well below 15k and since I was in town (his son, was in Faridabad), I was called in for the leg work by my aunt. So me and dad hurriedly got dressed and left, grabbing fruits and sandwiches on the way.  We reached the hospital- the imagery changing to a morose one. Gloomy faces, hurried steps, sleepy faces crowded the reception area. We made a beeline for the ICU, only to be stopped by a surly looking guard, who permitted only one person to advance. Obviously, Dad ...
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Uncle

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October 17th, 2004: We were on the ground, 13 kids, ages 9 to 14, split into two well-balanced teams, with one kid playing the “common player” role (shoutout to all the 90s kids, or as some UP folks like to call it: "beech ka kauwa"). The toss was settled by flipping the nearest Rajshri gutka packet (and the captains had to predict the packet would fall on which side, Hindi or English, or in some cases, Urdu), of which there were usually many decorating our playground. The game was intense. Team 1, batting first, had set a daunting target of 66 runs in 8 overs. Their opening pair smashed the first 40 runs in just 4 overs. But then, a mini-comeback from the bowling team managed to scrape the remaining wickets, including the “common player,” leaving a challenging yet achievable total on the board. Cue the innings break, followed by water.  It came from the house of that unlucky kid who lived closest to the ground, officially appointed as our water supplier. Of course, his mom w...
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Black Cat

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Gurgaon, Jan 2023: I slammed the brakes, bringing the car to an abrupt halt. Heart pounding, I looked at my wife, who looked shaken and a bit weird (the mascara she was applying spread unevenly on her eyelids!). An SUV in front of us had suddenly braked in the middle of the road, causing me to take take evasive action. We narrowly avoided colliding with the SUV, with only the seat belts preventing any kind of harm to us.  Fuming, I stepped out of my car and went to see what had happened. The driver, a man probably in late twenties, looked at me apologetically. He was accompanied by an older lady (I am guessing his mother), and said, "Sorry bhaiya, Kali billi rasta kaat gyi. Mummy ne chilla k bola car roko!" (Translated: Sorry bro, a black cat crossed our path, so my mother panicked and asked me to stop!).  Welcome to the world of superstitions, which rank from some genuinenly scary ones (keeping knives under your pillow while sleeping drives evil away), to funny (you will hav...
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Lieutenant Colonel Shome

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Lucknow, 1999: "I ran over landmines, with my platoon following suit. We reached the vantage point after 27 minutes and shot down the remaining enemy forces. We then stood here, unaffected by the -4 degree cold, looking at the now flying tricolor." It was the last week of July 1999, with the Kargil war coming to an end. As a kid, this was probably the first time I was willingly watching the news channels, awed by the amazing stories of courage, valor, determination, and above all, pride. Stories of Captain Manoj Pandey, who had given his life for the nation were been spoken about in every nook and corner of the city. The ten-year-old me was detached from the pathos of the war but got very interested in the lives of our brave army men. So as usually happens for any kid, I started hounding my father with questions about army men, army life, and so on.   "Go speak to Shome Uncle. He is a war veteran, from the 1971 Indo-Pak war. I am sure he will share many stories from his ...
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A Bitter Cake

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1st Jan 2023: The smell of cooking chicken greeted us (wifey already started retching, while I fondly recalled my before leaving non-veg days). We then entered the  home  of Ashtami (name changed), our domestic help. I had absolutely no idea that I was stepping into the best party of my life.    30th Dec 2022: We got a call at 9pm in the night, "Ashtami"  calling"- at 9pm today. Irritated, we both looked at phone, sure that she will be calling for a leave for tomorrow. My wife gave me the phone (my HR background is used very opportunistically in such cases)- to talk to her and give her a telling off and she has taken 6 leave already this month. "Uncle, I am Ashtami’s daughter. Will you come to my b ’day on 1st January?" said a sweet voice on the other side. My tonality suddenly changed from forced anger to forced sweetness, "Sure beta, we will come." Then began a half hour discussion, with we moving from not going, to maybe, to going for 5 mins and ...
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That Damn Spotlight!

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Mumbai, 30th March 2022 Phone in hand, I froze. Suddenly, every face in the audience became clearly visible to me, all looking at me. Talking to people was my profession, but today, I was talking about myself, my creation, my poem, the hook line was coming up, and I had stumbled on the previous line. This needed to go well, otherwise, the entire fun of the poem would have gotten lost.  Hands shaking, I took a deep breath and continued.  -- Glossophobia- the fear of public speaking, affects about 75% of the population. Some individuals feel slight nervousness, while some experience outright fear. Those staring eyes, those mocking faces, those uninterested looks, and those dreaded yawns!  I was a glossophob too.  Image Courtesy: https://images.app.goo.gl/CrPL8r2TCYf74K126 Let alone public speaking, I was uncomfortable talking in family gatherings! My modus operandi was to sit in the farthermost, discreet corner of the room, and gaze at a corner, cooking up stories (som...
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Proper Samosa!

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23rd Oct 2021, Ghaziabad: I had gone out to purchase a few samosas (deep-fried, high on calories, potato-filled white flour snack)- a must for my wife when we are visiting her home. So after the typical wait time and surreptitiously placing my order before others, I waited as the white flour gradually turned brown, mouth salivating with the masala flavored smell.  Let me explain a typical "halwai (sweets, savories, etc.)" shop in this part of the country. You have one guy rolling the dough and handling the fillings, another guy manning the wok, and a third guy (usually a kid), bagging them as per customers' orders. In this shop, the kid looked around 14-15, expertly handling the cash and change. I was next in line when the lady tripped over and sent her purse flying towards the kid. He promptly picked it up, helped the lady up, and gave it back to her. In the whole commotion, I picked up my package, waited as the lady finished her transaction, and paid for my four samosas...
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