Tuesday, November 28, 2006

from bangalore

From Bangalore:

Last days at a place involve you before releasing you altogether, for better or for worse. There’s the meeting up and final words with friends and then coming back to your solitary thoughts. Within the last minute chaos is a new direction. Everyone else knows about it but only you are entitled to feel it.

I’ve 2 more days in Bangalore. I had arrived here quite inauspiciously, having forgotten my 10th marks card that had, to cut a long story very close to its denouement, resulted in 4 weeks in a pigeonhole with a dastardly patron to survive. I survived, if this post isn’t proof enough.

Back then, I had a better plan for the future; right now there’s a much stronger conviction.

Yesterday I went to 3 shops to sell off old furniture, understood soon that their keepers didn’t think much of my belongings and ended up making the deal with a very good friend. It’s uncomfortable to do business with a friend; you are wary about hurting his sensitivities by quoting a high price, and too low a price only ends up making you rue the transaction. And with a close friend you’re afraid something untoward may creep into, and then disturb, the mutual equation and with barely a friend, the deal shall set the tone for future affairs.

Non-sequitur: my mother is unconvinced about my skill at packing. She pesters me with questions that concern vexing details. I’m not as concerned. Is this skill gender specific or am I just too bad to notice my level of inaptitude? My checquered career has had a few blemishes (refer to the story of the missing 10th marks and the sneaking patron) which, my mother feels, don’t give me the liberty, or audacity, to pacify her worries.

Going off a philosophical tangent, most choices you make aren’t that momentous. They only set the tone. It’s what you do afterwards that bake or burn. Such a vantage point can work both ways: it can keep you more focused on action and keep your mind off unnecessary regret or elation, or it can take the sheen off the finality of any occasion and make your approach towards any decision lackadaisical.

I wonder about friends though. Will it be the same ever again? Something very sublime inside of me asks, ‘Why can’t it be better?’ I’m bad at keeping in touch. But I hope the sublime outlasts this something so commonplace.

The next 2 days will pass off and arrange themselves in a week, which will tuck itself in a month that will fit in a year. Just a number: 2006. As I’ll remember that figure with events—personal and national—I’ll probably never pause to ask: what did I learn from it? Did living become just a force of habit? Or did it actually matter?

The nub is to travel the journey and not to canter to any destination.

10 comments:

Manoo Kapoor said...

"I’m bad at keeping in touch" Sale matlab kya hai iska.

I am with your Mom.You are horrible in packing ur stuff.I still remember the drama in the CET cell because of ur 10th mark sheet

Pritesh Jain said...

dude...

satyajit said...

manoo: have mercy on me..i'm glad u posted a comment rather than staying just a ghost reader :)

prits: wat dude?

Pritesh Jain said...

nothing... no words...

Anonymous said...

udaas nahin hona...
kyunki mai saath hoon,
saamne naa sahi par aas paas hoon,
palkon ko band kar dil se yaad karna ...
mai tumhare liye ehsaas hoon.
maine bhi kaid kar liya hai tumhe apni yaadon main,
humesha yaad rahega tumhara saath, uska ehasaas.
'sookhe hue yeh phool jo khil kar bikhar gaye, Zindagi ke safar main hans kar guzar gaye.......'

satyajit said...

anonymous: I'll take your lines to be the kindness of a stranger.

Suhas said...

Baba .. how's the workplace and all ??
My cell is out of order as usual ,mail me your new number as soon as you get one ..

satyajit said...

bloggerer: thanks..

Nishant Ratnakar said...

"...most choices you make aren’t that momentous. They only set the tone. It’s what you do afterwards that bake or burn..." so true..
I personally have found this question annoying but can I aks what exactly are you doing now, Rout?

satyajit said...

Oh hey Nishant, I dont when you posted this comment but, in all likelihood, this reply is past its use-by date.. still I venture an answer: I work as an editor