She lived in my neighbourhood. She was also my classmate. A short stature, thin girl, second among four sisters from a typical middle class family, she was like any other girl of our age except for one difference – she had a polio stricken leg. She walked with a prominent limp.. pulling up her dead leg with her hand. I still remember how she used to put her right hand under the knee, lift the leg up like a dead log and put forward.

We were sharp contrast to each other except Read the rest of this entry »

16th April.
Last year on this day I had wished someone for the exams. Promptly a reply had come saying “Kya ladki hai ! Thanks, I’ll put in my best today but ab wish mat karna, nahi to saare papers mein padhna padega !”. (Don’t wish anymore else I’ll have to study for all the exams) . 
And that turned out to be the stepping stone of our friendship.

Not that we had not spoken earlier but after this day our friendship took a different high.
Somewhere amidst a mixed bag of contrasts, Read the rest of this entry »

Do you remember my friend who had inspired me enough to start blogging ? The friend with whom I share a very warm bond ? Well, the friend is getting married this month end and I am extremely happy about the whole thing.

Today if I am blogging, it is because of my friend. Today if I have my own site, it is because of my friend who secretly wanted to gift me one domain. It is another thing that I came to know of it on time and it could not materialize. But then the bug of having my own site had already bitten me hard.

Our friendship is of a different Read the rest of this entry »

LIAR. The word has been haunting me since I received that sms of yours. I am utterly shaken.. beyond words.
Must have read it zillion times. Every single word is etched in my heart. You called me; we were extremely happy speaking to each other after many days and suddenly within a few hours you labeled me a liar.

WHY ??

I am at a loss.
You owe me an explanation. Are you Read the rest of this entry »

Who was he to me ? Nobody. I had never seen him, never heard him or never really had chatted with him in true sense.
He doesn’t know how I look like or how I sound or for that matter any personal detail of me. He knew my birthday was round the corner, kept asking for it. It came & went but I never told him. I knew he could get all the info from somebody else but he did not.

First time when he came to my blog, he wrote a lengthy comment on one of my posts. To be honest, I could not fully understand the link between his comment and the post; wondered what he was trying to convey, never paid any heed to him.
Then our first meeting happened on Read the rest of this entry »

Let me share a beautiful story with you. I call it ‘Cracked Friendship‘ story. I’ll come back shortly. Till then Tchao, Bye bye, Au revoir. Have a blasting happy weekend !

A water bearer had two large pots, each hung on the ends of a pole, which he carried across his neck. One of the pots had a crack in it, while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water. At the end of the long walk from the stream to the House, the cracked pot arrived only half full.

For two full years Read the rest of this entry »

Few more moments for the day to get over. It is 11:45 at night. Today was Holi. The festival of colours, sweets and legends. No, this post is not about Holi in particular but something I remember of last year. Inadvertently it’ll be connected to the topic of my previous post.

Though I have not been playing Holi for last 4 years, it happens to be one of my favourite festivals. I particularly enjoy the colours. The excitement, the hubbub is unmatched when everybody loves playing it as much as you do. I also love special delicacies that come with it like Gujhiyas (I think the local name is something like Karanji), Maal puas, Alu ka achaar, Dahi vadas, Mutter ki burfi and some non-veg items. No, no Bhaang sherbet for me.

I am not going to talk about the legends like ‘Holika Dahan’ and ‘Radha /Krishna’ attached to it but another significance of Holi which has more (instead I should use ‘only’) meaning to me.

The tradition of the Holi is that even the enemies turn friends on Holi and forget any feeling of hardship that may be present. They celebrate with a spirit of bonhomie and brotherhood.
In the evening people visit friends and relatives and greet them with Abeer/Gulal. This helps in revitalizing relationships and strengthening emotional bonds between people.

Last year this time I was in Brussels. The flight from Mumbai was on Sunday night 12^th March (My memory chip is excellent; I don’t forget things which have impacted me in someway). As there was sometime left to leave for airport, I was on messenger saying last minute bye to everybody.

Topic shifted slightly among three of us (A, S and me) and then suddenly without my fault one of them hurt me by saying something very rude (I still remember the exact words used). I was terribly shocked by that unexpected turn and immediately switched off everything. I was completely shattered and thought that the friendship was now beyond repairs.. not because of that one incident but a series of incidents in the last 10-12 days, all with the same person.

Anyways, the person instantly realized the mistake and wanted to say sorry to me. But how ? Crying, I had left for the airport. Before leaving I had posted a mail to that person telling how hurt I was. I generally scribble my feelings when I am extremely uneasy.

Though I had gone to Brussels for just a week, this one week was very heavy on both of us. That person felt miserably bad and there was no way to contact me (most of our clients don’t allow any private mails etc).

On Thursday, I saw something on that person’s blog. Those lines were written for me. I was touched at the bottom of my heart by the gesture of that person. That was the most genuine, simplest and cutest way of asking for forgiveness I had ever come across. I forgave :))

In the last post I have written that it is difficult to forget. Yes, it is. Till date I have not forgotten the incident and the words used for me (those things are kept locked in a back chamber of my heart to be visited only on some ‘special’ days).

But I HAVE FORGIVEN THAT PERSON COMPLETELY.

That is the meaning of Holi for me.

Current song- Tere Bina Zindagi Se Koi Shikwa To Nahi – Kishore & Lata

Today on January 1^st 2007, I am going to tell you about some of my dear friends who have given me immense love and confidence and have made me feel blessed. I have shared some of my thoughts with them. I find it pretty amazing. I don’t know much about them but feel very much connected with them. I don’t know these people by their faces but I know these people. I may never meet them in my life but somehow I have met them all.

They are from all over the world. They all are my blogger friends. Yes, I mean YOU !!! You all !!

Before I tell you something more, let me begin with the beginning. As you all might know, I started blogging in July this year. Why ?? Don’t ask me now.

And it was in August when I was blogrolled for the first time. Fleiger, was the first person to blogroll me (I still wonder Read the rest of this entry »

Don’t be so happy. It is not a sequel to Tears of Joy but only a post script.

First, I must thank all of you for your valuable opinions on the post. Many commenters praised my writing skills, it looked very real to them as if it was my own story. I am delighted about that. That day, as my thoughts and emotions flowed, I wrote the post without changing anything, not even the sequence and to tell you a little secret.. I was crying at the time of writing it. So, full of emotions I was and so close it is to my heart.

Some of the commenters have started liking the girl “Tum” and want her to Read the rest of this entry »

She hurriedly entered the ladies first-class compartment. It was a slow train from Churchgate, would take around an hour’s time to reach her place but today she did not bother. On other days she would have worried and grumbled a bit for getting a slow train. But today was different, today was special. She was smiling all the time. She sat near the window in front of a middle aged lady and made herself comfortable. Inside the compartment there were hardly any ladies at that hour. It was almost empty.

She seemed in a hurry today. She was visibly happy and smiling. There was something Read the rest of this entry »