My Trysts With Life

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

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

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