My Trysts With Life

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 ...

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...