The Treatment

Ringesh felt his head spinning. He was never ready for this shock. He felt that the entire world had come to a stop. The only movement he could see, was of his friend, who was handing over a piece of paper to him. It was no ordinary paper from a tree, it was the message from the Devil himself. Gathering a deep breath and hoping that what his friend had told him, was just a prank, he took the paper with the message and glanced at the contents in it. It was indeed true. It had happened.

What would he tell his mom , dad and his siblings? How would they react to this? Won't he be seen as an outcast by his girl friend? All these thoughts were driving him mad and in the process triggered a drop of tear to trickle down from the corner of his eyes. Just then, he felt someone patting on his shoulder and trying to cheer him up. He looked up and it was one of his friends telling "We tried our best Ringesh! But.." and he handed over another bit of paper to him. Ringesh recoiled and muttered to himself "Only 2 % discount!!Bloody hell! After all the hotel has done business for an entire week. "

He again checked the paper in his hand, carrying the statement of charges. The 5 figure total marked at the bottom of the statement aka bill, danced before him. The three zeroes at the end suddenly turned into the three famous nephews of Uncle Scrooge from 'The Ducktales'. Were he becoming a dyslexic like Darsheel Safary from Tare Zameen par? Or had his mind gone empty just like how his bank account balance would be, after paying the bill. The three cutely colored ducks suddenly turned into the dementors (from the Harry Potter books )and sucked all the happiness in him. He felt crestfallen. With an agitating mind, he paid the bill and checked the account balance. The money in his account won't be enough for the remaining days of the month. He ignored the plastic smile from the hotel security and exited the hotel. His friends were smiling from ear to ear and telling, "Thanks for the anniversary treat, Ringesh! It was simply superb. See ya in office tomorrow". "How could these people smile at all? Won't their stomachs ache? Or were they having a black hole in place of stomach?", he was talking all this to himself while looking at the dispersing crowd.

He started to walk along the pavement. He was returning to his home. How did it come to this. He tried to think hard on what caused this. He was just recollecting the seconds before the disaster. Yes, getting bankrupt is indeed a disaster. It had all started with the scene of his friend Nijay, wearing a dejected look at office in the morning. Ringesh had learnt that his friend had popped the question to a lady in the next project and she had rejected him. There were people trying to console Nijay. Ringesh, unable to control his mixed emotions informed Nijay and the group as "Even I asked the same girl, the same question the same day, last month. Didn't I simply move on? Cheer up man!" Ringesh could just remember completing this sentence which led to puzzled looks around him. After that somebody shouted like Ringesh-Failure-month anniversary-salary day -treat". The last word "TREAT" reverberated more. It was a chorus. He was baffled at this idea of giving a treat for the specified event.

Ringesh had to yield to his colleagues and they went to a nearby restaurant. He had thought that Nijay could atleast forget his misery in that get-together. Then started the action. From paneer to pork, he saw everything being served at his table. Ringesh was now at his bus stop remembering all these and also how his heart had skipped many a beats when the bill came . He looked at the Heavens and thought 'God! Please take an avatar and Slay this demon habit called "Treat" before it consumes every other innocent individual like me'. His biggest concern was how would he inform his girlfriend and parents that his entire salary was spent on treating his friends in remembrance of his former crush. 'Shoot!'. Just then he heard a screech near him.

It was a share auto and the driver asked 'Sir!Get in'. With emptiness all around him including his pockets, he nodded in negative to the autowalah and started walking with the famous Thalaivar dialogue "Naan nadakka pazhagikren(I will learn to walk)". His mobile vibrated then. It was a message in his group where the message read "Don't bring lunch, tomorrow! Nijay has agreed to give us a treat for his love failure. :) Get ready for the 'Treat'ment Spartans :D". Ringesh was feeling a different emotion in him after that. He didn't know whether it was sympathy on Nijay or happiness that someone else would incur a similar fate like him , but he knew one thing for sure. It was revenge time. Like the Panchali from Mahabharatha, he took an oath of revenge that till the mission of making Nijay to pay more than what he did that day, he would not stop ordering. He then looked up and told "God!Please delay your avatar at least till tomorrow evening. Let me check the capacity of the black hole in my belly :P". Ringesh started waling briskly to his home. He was getting ready for the 'Treat'ments in the forthcoming days. The conch had been blown and a new warrior was born.

Donors on the rise??

       "Phew! Enna veyilra saami?". I thought as I stepped into my office, in fact I ran inside the office unable to bear the Chennai heat anymore on that Tuesday morning."Only two days to go for the monsoon.Yes!". With this hope which I knew was unrealistic, I entered my module . As I entered, I saw a small group of people gathered around the desk of a senior friend of mine in the module. Intrigued to know the reason behind the crowd, I decided to peep in, on the way to my desk.

       There he was, the one who I was looking for in the crowd. He beamed on seeing me and gestured to jump the queue and come to his desk. It was not exactly a queue and I somehow squeezed in. At his desk, I saw two open boxes of mysurpa. "Cracked the case, Sherlock Prasoon!Reason for crowd is the sweet packet", I told myself. My friend, as expected, asked me to have some sweets.Being someone, who always obeys senior's words without any hesitation or query, I took his word by heart and had a couple of pieces of the sweet without even an attempt to know the reason for the same. After all,were I Vedhaalam to ask questions just for the sake of asking. I was only concerned about the task in hand,mouth rather.

       As the sweet packets became empty, the crowd started to disperse. When I too was about to move to my desk, I heard a couple of people telling my friend ' Convey my congrats to your kid'. Unable to yell 'What?' thanks to the mysurpa in my mouth, I was thinking why were these people congratulating a kid who just turned 2 last month. Looking for reasons, my instant thought was that probably the kid might have participated in any of the umpteen kids talk shows(that is how it is called) in the TV channels. Convincing myself, I asked my friend " So, everyone is congratulating your kid. Did he come on TV?".

        My friend grinned and told "Not yet! But he would. He got LKG admission in Zyx school for next year after interview with 10% off on donations". " Donation la 10% off a? It is not even the festive season", I told myself."It is the best school in the city and they will surely make my son a topper in his board exams in 10 n 12 and talk about me in Tv. How beautiful it would be. I will only prepare the script for him to talk." Unable to sync myself with this day-dream , I waved him bye n moved. Since then, I have been pondering over this thought of best school and topper. Has Education nowadays become nothing but topping the boards, no matter how or what you learnt .

       Nowadays,parents have to shell out a greater share of their hard-earned money in the name of building welfare fund, chairman welfare fund, Aaya allowance, AI labs,state of the art parking donation and so on. But still, some are happy to become donors and pay all these VIBGYOR coloured bills hoping that the school would make their son/daughter score more in the exams than their colleague's friend's wife's in-law's cousin's grand-daughter . 

      The competition among schools is much more fiercer. Some of the schools which promise and boast of top ranks work similar to "Shawshank" where the students are bound by umpteen dos n don'ts .If the ancient Gurukula type of education was all about polishing our skills and understanding the society, most of the modern schools and exams look to hone only the memory capacity of the students making them mere machines who do a Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V from their cache memory in brain on to the answer sheets.

    One of the ancient Tamil classic Thirukkural tells about learning as "whatever you learn, learn it thoroughly. After you have learnt, learn to apply what you have learnt and live your life according to it". Courtesy . But going by the attitude of few mentioned above, this verse gets modified as below.

'Karka Maradhiyara Karka Katravai

Thervinpin marakka thagum'

(Whatever you learn, make sure you do not forget it till your exams, after which you need not remember the same)

         As long as we are ok with this transformation, we can see many donors queuing up at such institutions to get the machine out of their kids. After all, who doesn't want to be on TVs n papers telling how much their kid struggled to top the boards. 

       

       

Thoda Adjust Karo na -Season 2

Though I am not a great believer in sequels, I am hereby forced to call this new post of mine as 'Thoda Adjust Karo na-Part 2'.As in Part1, this again is related to a journey of mine or in fact the preparations for a journey.For someone like me who loves travelling, there are various hardships in store when the travel is not decided at least an year ago and the tickets not booked months back.

I decided to go to my home-town a couple of weeks back and since there were only two weeks from the journey date by the time I decided, tickets were not available in any classes in any of the trains. Moreover, it was a Friday night, which I chose to travel, which implied that I won't get tickets anyways unless I booked by 8:01 am IST on the day when the train reservation opens for that day. I, then browsed through a list of buses in one of the many bus ticket booking vendors and booked an A/C berth in one of the famous travels in South India. I thought I was lucky to have got ticket in this bus, which was always punctual, was rated 5 out of 5  by more than 100 users and more than all these, I could board the bus at a stone's throw from my home meaning that I won't have to travel light years that too at the speed of a snail in the never ending bottle-necked traffic signals of Chennai to get to the bus stand and then start my 12 hr long journey home.

       'Aasai yaarai vittadhu!!'- This is a famous verse in Tamil telling that no human in this world is devoid of desires. I was no exception .I was waiting for 'the day' and it came. I got ready early in the morning, had my breakfast by 9 itself, went to the temple near my home, offered archana to the presiding deity,checked the astrology section in my newspaper, and sat before my computer by 9:45 am in a bid to book Tatkal ticket for my journey, the next day.After some 30 minutes of slogging in the irctc website, I realized, lightweight or heavy weight or feather weight, this site would behave in the same way.After yet an another failed bid to book a tatkal ticket, I was not greatly disappointed as I already had a bus ticket with me for the journey.

         On the next day, I learnt from the bus operator, that I would be picked up from my boarding point in an A/c cab aka van and taken to the bus stand and I would board my bus from there only.'Hmmm! ok!' was my response to him over the phone. I was actually not amused by this proposal. Anyways,I had to agree.As suggested by the ratings, the cab arrived sharply on time and I got a seat near the door itself. When the cab started moving, I realized that something was wrong as I was able to see many glum faces. I then understood that the A/c was not functioning in the cab. Though I was getting sufficient oxygen through the open door, I tried opening the window near me and found that the windows were not openeable, since this cab was meant to be run only as an A/c cab and hence none of the windows were openeable in the 12 seater .By this time, some 4-5 exhausted fellow passengers had started a war of words with the driver arguing over this. There were small kids and people argued that they would get suffocated in this 1 hr journey as there were no windows or air circulation in the van . The driver, as expected didn't seem to listen to these arguments. It looked as if he should be listening to these stuffs day in and day out and was focused only on his work at hand to reach the bus stand asap.

        Irritated by his passive responses, the passengers demanded him to dial his manager and tell that the bus had been stopped in the middle by the travelers and they would continue travelling only if an alternative transport was arranged for them. We didn't know whether he actually dialed the manager, but he replied that he was not picking the call. Someone suddenly spotted a helpline number of the travels pasted at the corner of the van with the below words 'For any complaints/assistance, please reach out to the chairman at this number 24*7'. People then started blackmailing the driver that they would inform the chairman at that number if he didn't provide a responsible answer. He didn't seem interested in that. His response was like 'Fire me if you can!!'. When the helpline number was dialed, a cute lady told (the lady must be cute going by her voice.Intuition! :) ) that the number was non-functional. No wonder, the driver was unperturbed by our words.

        With no Plan B or C or X with us, everyone was angry and that meant no options came across our mind. Then, All of a sudden, the driver pulled up the vehicle as demanded by the passengers. He then gave his supervisor's number to the leader of the passengers.We, humans especially Indians can't live/argue/cry without having a leader for us .Understanding this, a T-shirt wala emerged as the leader of the pack and was commanding this quarrel.He was literally shivering with anger and his voice was so loud than others making him an unanimous leader choice :P. He was able to reach the supervisor and was very animated in his conversation. After hanging up the call, the leader informed us that the supervisor was very abusive, told that they could not provide alternative transport and also warned that the bus wouldn't wait for the passengers in the van and asked to reach the bus stand in our own means. That was a purely irresponsible statement from the travels management.

         There were voices murmuring 'Enna Anyayam idhu??(Height of injustice)'. The driver then got a call and he gave his phone to the 'leader' telling that the manager was in the line. This time, the T-shirt wala started very animatedly and by the time he ended the call, he looked convinced. 'Phew!Looks like we have won!' , one passenger told in the dark.The leader came and told that the manager had apologized for this inconvenience and requested us all to 'adjust' with the van and reach the bus stand.

        What looked like a '9 pm argument in our news channels where everyone were showing off the strength of the vocal chords and never using their ears' suddenly looked like an ipl auction table, with everyone whispering and muttering. The leader then broke the ice telling that we would have to adjust and it would not be tough as we just had to travel 7 more kms. Sincerely obeying him, everyone got into the bus . I stayed back and he told me that after talking to the manager, he learnt that he too was helpless and he requested us to adjust. "We can think the next 7 kms as a journey in a crowded Chennai MTC bus and adjust. There is no other transport which can take us to the bus stand to reach in time for the bus. Its not time to argue. We can talk to them at their office in bus stand.Lets get in!" was what he told and pushed me in.

        Though not convinced by those words, I got in and sat at my seat near the door and the driver started the van. By the time, the van reached the travels' office, the T-shirt wala got down at the gate itself stating he had to get his dinner and he disappeared. I immediately recognized that was an excuse to not talk/argue after reaching the office. 'Barking ... seldom bite', I thought. As soon as we reached the office, people started getting down and I found everyone walking in the direction opposite to the office. With a smirk on my face, thinking about others, I walked in to the manager's room and he, after listening to me told that they were sorry and helpless as the van had developed a fault with the a/c after it left for the pickup and there were no alternative vehicles. I expressed my disappointment and when I was about to leave, the manager had got a call. He was seen telling, "Sorry Ma'm! The A/c was working when the van left our garage and it looks like it developed a snag somewhere in the middle. Maaf kejiye. Thod adjust karo aur aap yaha aa pahunchiye!(Sorry. Please adjust and reach the bus stand for now)". I quickly understood that the call was about the same van which left for its next pickup and it was the same 'Adjust karo' dialogue and walked towards my bus thinking 'Now, that is a 5/5' . Isn't it?

Are you a four-point someone??

We are again in that period of one to one and half months, where we have people going mad around us , talking about their successes, throwing unimaginable promises about their vision and mission, issuing apologies (though they don't sound apologetic actually). Different may be the ways, but the aim is common .

No, this post has nothing to do with the forthcoming General elections. It is only about the Annual Employee appraisal 'Mela' in our firms.Each individual has his/her own strategies/tactics to become at least a four-pointer on a scale of 5 in their appraisals.

The beginning of this festival can be determined by a sudden change in the peak hours. The T51s and 19Bs (Local Buses)by 7-7:30 am in the mornings,which had been nearly empty the previous days, suddenly won't have even space to have their automatic doors closed. Yes, people, all of a sudden start adhering to the office timelines(start time only) by waking up before the alarm clock rings and reaching office even before the cleaning staff and security start to the office. Though they start early to office, they make sure that they leave only after the last light in their cabin goes off.

Though we all believe in humility and have been asked to be so by our parents, when it comes to the appraisal season,people start believing in the opposite i.e.show-offs as the only way to catch 'the eye' . People start preparing self-assessment statistical reports of what milestones they had achieved, their contributions and bla bla . If someone asks his colleague as to why he leaves late everyday from office(yes, it indeed should not be asked), then a beeper goes ringing in their mind like 'Kanna Laddu thinna aasaiya?'. Having got the opportunity they had been looking for, they then start boasting about how difficult the work is assigned to them and how they are extending their work hours and all to save the supervisor and the project and the company and in turn our Indian economy. Phew! Some even go to the extent of taking credit of what someone else did and at the worst case raising accusations .

There are other sets of people who adopt a different harmless strategy. They can be seen mostly at the rear end of the long serpentine queues to get their skill certified for the big occasion. It is the time when tatkal counters are free, online tatkal bookings are hassle-free, mobile operators get a beating , because, all people aim for, is a PC in the test centre and once they get that, they know, 'Ella pughazum Dumps ke'!! Some others differ slightly by organizing trainings on how to reboot a windows PC, attending conferences on Win 95 and showing how indispensable they are.

When we were in school, we were told not to compare ourselves with our friends, be in the luxuries, they have or the marks they get. I still remember an occurrence in my 7th standard where I got 63 in my English II paper, but was the class 2nd due to some technical reasons :). When I reached home that evening,my parents scolded me for the low marks and when I told them I was the class 2nd, I was told not to feel proud for that and never ever judge my results based on comparison. In complete contrary to what we were taught,when everything is done and dusted after the appraisal results are out, everyone judges where they stand, by comparing others and feels either gutted or happy.

Thus, people could be seen doing many similar things intentionally in this season of competition just to achieve their intentions. Thinking about all this, makes me remember a verse quoted by the 'Appraiser of Appraisers' , Lord Krishna,

"Karmanye Vadhikaraste Ma Phaleshu Kadachana,

Ma Karma Phala Hetur Bhurma Tey Sangostva Akarmani"

Meaning: Do your duty and be detached from its outcome, do not be driven by the end product, enjoy the process of getting there.

So, I have done the duty of writing this blog and I am not bothered about its outcome. Am I? Er, no! I am planning to send this article to the concerned and show how good I am at observing people and my study on appraisals. After all, I too want to be a four point someone.:P Don't you?

Thoda adjust karo na..

The only exciting thing for me about the journey apart from going home was that my ticket status was in RAC. My aimless walks in the busy Chennai Central platform was full of the thoughts about sitting opposite to a young lady of 20(Courtesy the reservation chart) in the side lower RAC berth. I had indeed rehearsed the answers for her queries like I don't have any specific hobby but I like creating 3D animations, writing blogs, short stories and bla bla :P The train had left Central but still no signs of her. Convincing myself that 'she' would get in at Perambur, I dozed off for a while in my sitting posture, after a long day in the office. Then I felt someone tapping on the back and as I woke up , the train had already left Perambur, but no signs of her. Irritated,I turned to the direction of the wake-up call. It was the Ticket Examiner telling me that my RAC has got confirmed and I can take the side lower berth.

With serious disappointment(it indeed was serious;seriously), I started to flip through my twitter and FB profiles to find something interesting to immerse myself into after this bulb. When I tried to update some profile details in FB, I saw my profile status as single. Dragging as deep a breath I could, I turned when a man out of nowhere came and asked me "Are you Single?".

"Shoot! How the hell did he know?". "Take my upper berth and I will take your side lower", he continued. "Phew! Idhu vera single!". Without waiting for even a millisecond for me to think on this proposal, he started again. "My Grandma has got a upper berth in S6. Since you are single, adjust na". He told. It was not a request for sure, but was it an order?. Seeing his grandma already with her luggage in my berth, I nodded.I indeed had to. I then went to S6 with my baggage and I could say I was never ready for the surprise in store over there.

As I went to the designated transfer location(S6-14), I saw two 'Pairs'(Searched the dictionary, could not find any other better/decent term) in the bay and one more in the Side berths. I was already half-sleep and apart from this berth transfer, this sight increased my agony :(.  As I was climbing up to my berth, I noticed, for the six berths, only five are there, including me. We Indians are always happy when someone shares the same misery as you. You then feel happy rather than sad. I too got happy similarly thinking that someone else in the bay also would be single like me and he too would be sad at seeing others in the bay.

After a minute or so, while I was searching for my bed sheet, I saw a beauty coming and placing her backpack in my opposite berth. Seeing the backpack, I confirmed she is also one of my breed, an IT professional :). Shockingly, she turned towards me in the upper berth, gave a smile and came towards me. She started talking to me. Being someone, who is always proud of knowing 5 languages, I, to my surprise found that I was not understanding what she was telling. Probably, it was 'Angel English' I thought. After she finished, I switched off my I-pod and told "Sorry! What was that?". She told "My Boyfriend-Berth-38-Please adjust.You-Single". Everything else was Greek and Latin. With the surrounding I was in, I understood that I had to move to 38. I thought of yelling "EVERYBODY!!" like Mudhalvan Arjun.

With no energy for any more ADJUSTMENTS, I dragged myself to 38, where as I entered and kept my bag on the upper berth, one guy came and told that he would like to have the upper berth and I could take the lower berth. At last, 'I have found a gentleman',I thought.Proud of him as I sat , I saw a family sitting and chatting in the lower berth talking about everything under sky from RAGA to Ragamalika. When I told them that I wanted to sleep in my lower berth, they told that they were yet to have their dinner and asked me to wait and adjust for some time."Thirumbavuma(Again)???" I thought. I thought that the guy who gave me this berth was not a GentleMan, but a Brutus :'(.. "Cha!! RAC was better than this".

When I reached my home after this horrible journey, I decided two things. First, never travel single. Second, never heed to these ad-hoc adjustment requests unless it is absolutely necessary. Because after all it is "EN BERTH!! EN URIMAI!!".

If you find this post not that good, then I have four words for you, "Thoda ADJUST karo na!!".

In the wild

 I have posted below an extempore essay which I had written around 6 years back in my college.I have titled it "In the Wild".

Yes! I was in the wild both physically and mentally.It had been the worst day in my life .Being in the limelight for all the years with my very own charisma , I was down and out due to some unfortunate turn of events. I did't want to be among people anymore. I did't want to be a subject of debates for all the wrong reasons and I didn't want to be the symbol of shame for my family. Hence, after thinking hard, I had decided to take up 'Vanaprastha' , given up all my material desires and started travelling in search of inner peace through the woods.

I was not sure as to how how long I had been walking through the wild bushes, but I knew one thing for sure, that I had traveled far from my home and its own relational entanglements. I had walked through the entire length of the forest accompanied by the continuous buzz of insects revamped by the incessant rains.  I was starting to feel light, probably thanks to the heavy downpour which I believed to have washed off some of my sins apart from hiding my tears. The rain had receded then into a slight drizzle.The moon was playing hide and seek with the dark clouds.

Feeling cold, I removed my red shirt, which was completely wet . With a numb mind and an equally numb body, I struggled to drag myself to a small cliff which was near a railway track. While moving, I heard the sound of water flowing furiously . On adjusting my eye to the distance, there was a huge railway bridge with old-fashioned girders standing atop a ferocious river nearly full due to the rains. Then I saw right in front of  my eyes, one of the pillars of the bridge collapsing and few girders tumbling into the river like a pack of cards. Is the nature too trying to show her fury ? With this shocking scene flashing before my eyes, I sat on the cliff.

"Oh, Almighty! Your ardent devotee has nowhere to go but you. Show me the path to you. Make me listen to the devotional music, one last time. Show me the light so I could run towards it and reach you", I cried loud at the Heavens with my eyes closed. Just then, I listened to his sound, my Lord's sound, but, it was intermittent. I strained my ears towards the direction of the sound. It was increasing with time and then I saw 'The Light' zooming towards me . I jumped on to the railway track with my shirt and waited to catch of a glimpse of the God in his chariot. In the place of horses' neighing, it was the noise of metal on metal. It was the 'Garib rath '  the chariot on wheels from Indian Railways, a train, flashing its head light towards me and beyond .

Then I realized the inevitable. I ran in the middle of the track towards the speeding train . The sleepers and gravel soaked in the monsoon caused me to trip and slip. Still, holding my breath, I continued running and waved my red shirt hoping that the charioteer aka driver would be able to stop the train. Gathering all the might from my lungs, I shouted to catch his attention. The driver saw my signal and brought the train to a screeching halt, just in time before it could have plunged into the river from the bridge and also before crushing me over. Buoyed by happiness to have averted danger for many and lack of food for almost a day, I slipped into a state of unconsciousness.

I woke up the next morning in a hospital bed with a bottle of glucose injected into my vein in the left hand. I tried to sit straight, just then one of my relative gave the newspaper with a wry smile. Puzzled by his expression, I took the newspaper stretching my left hand.

 The newspaper headline read "Former minister ousted by corruption charges saves thousands of people from a near accident. Is this a political drama?" with an inset of photo of me. I thought, "Oh God! What I did for dharma is interpreted as drama. Are you practicing dharma or drama?" and tried to close my mind as I was back to where I used to be, web of entanglements.

SlamFest

"Prasoon!Switch off that laptop and check whether you need these books or not. If not, I will give it to someone. I have never seen you reading any of these.Someone else will at-least use them." Telling this, my mom placed a cardboard of old records, books and rough sheets near me. Having no other go, I started checking the contents .I found my first article on 'Winners are not born but made' in between some old grammar books.I read through it and realized that my English was better than how it is now. I was sure that I would not find anything that I would like to keep with me or something I would like to cherish. But still, I was checking each book just to pass time. Just then, I saw a notebook carrying cute designs and the letters 'SLAMBOOK' on its cover.

Slambook , a book meant to get your dear ones write down their memories about you, which both love to cherish for the rest of their lives.It was my slambook which I had passed over to my classmates during the last days of my college. I had always believed that my college life had almost all the ingredients to make a tamil commercial masala entertainer. The only things missing were the emotional quotient and a fitting finale(Note: Don't ask about heroine, since heroines are only meant for songs in such masala entertainers, I completely ignored that part.:) Really :P). But the last few days in my college gave me these too. I still couldn't forget those days for many a reasons, one of them being 'slambook'.

During the last 30-40 days of our college, every stationery shop around college were having bundles of notes/books for sale and they were christened slambooks. They were found in every design and size,some of them looked like telephone directories, others like bounded maths notes.Whatever may be the size, however the paper quality may be, I feel no one would have agreed with even half the price at which those books were sold. But during those days, people were running from one shop to another to get the slambook of their dream(some had dreamed about the designs too). Some of my friends had brought sketches,glitter pens, stickers blah,blah to make it look special. Since I had no other important work, I had also run with them for these :)

Slamooks though meant to relive memories were creating fresh incidents/impacts which people wanted to cherish. People whom I had never seen awake after 10 pm even for exams, were awake till 3 am to get the perfect colour combination to pen down the introductory words in their slambook before giving it. I saw people spending their leisure times in writing one slam after another and reading what one had written about someone else.It was like a festival and we could have called it 'The SLAMFEST'. And like in every festival, this one too had generated its own chaos,jealousy,excitement with me being a witness to people not writing in certain slambooks, some were there who had torn off what they themselves wrote from their heart and there was one who was pretty different from all others, he had stapled the 4 and odd pages which I had written about him before he gave to others.

With my increased curiosity,I decided to be a part of the fest by getting a slambook, wrote some two lines and handed it over it to my classmates of the opposite gender.When I got it back, it indeed was a 'slam' book. Though each one had written their individual views and memories, the one thing which I found in common in all the entries in my slam book was "Do invite me for your marriage" :P. Apart from these, there were many advice, many thank yous,many definitions for Prasoon .I still could not stop laughing, when I read through the memories that my classmates wanted me to cherish.

"Amma! You can give away all the books and notes except this one 'My Slambook'. I will take it with me.". I will need it to get rid of my worries time and again as there could be no other article/magazine that could make me happy like this. Like everyone, I think myself high, but this small book reminds me how Prasoon was, at-least in others' eyes.