The Real Love

It has been more than heaven of a week since he started behaving quite oddly with me. It was not the real him. I was worried, not about falling out of love with him, but worried if someone has found out. But still I was possessed by this dirty thought, is he trying to leave me for good?

We only meet on weekends. Both of us live a hectic life and quite well away from each other. We manage to find a day or two to cuddle up together somewhere in a hotel, but that happens rarely; two times in a month I guess. It has been long nine months since we started out. I quite well remember the day we met. I was sneaking up in the bathroom of a shopping mall trying to vomit out the vodka that was swirling and causing a wave of tornado in my stomach, when I saw him. Well, I fell in love instantaneously. Nine seconds they say, yes just nine seconds!

I was getting frustrated by his frequent hanging up, being busy line that he always thwarts out from his mouth. Frankly speaking, I was getting desperate now and quite curious and cynical. Well, shit happens, and if it happens to him, what will I do?

I decided to leave immediately. It was 10:45 PM on my watch. I thought for a while…shall I go? It can be a surprise though, he loves surprises…Yes… he does love surprises..

So I rolled out with my car. It was raining, and I dropped by a shop to buy some flowers. I smiled,  I can’t wait to meet him…a hour and a half to his doorway.

It was 12:15 AM by my watch when I arrived at his doorstep. I knocked. No one answered. I knocked again. After a minute or so, the door happened and yes, just as I guessed....Shit happens….

 And indeed, shit happened…..

I didn’t say anything, and I barged into the house. The girl followed me behind.

‘hey, well, can I help you,’ she said and I ignored.

‘well, wait up, what do you need? Whom do you want?’ she held my hand.

I stared at her, took a deep breath and said, ‘Where is he?’

‘He is in the bathroom,’

‘Call him,’

She looked at me for a while, and then went inside. My heart was thumping as though I just survived a freakishly closed accident. How did this happen?

After a minute or so, he came. He saw me. He gaped. He stared.

‘What’s this?’ I asked, furious, pointing at her.

 The girl was startled, amazed and was totally blank.

‘I can explain,’ he came up with.

‘So that’s why you were not receiving my calls so that you can fuck her right here, and kick me out of your life, huh?’ I yelled.

‘Excuse me, what’s going on here?’ she poked him.

‘You stay out of this bitch,’ I yelled at her, ‘tell me? We are together…. you love me okay…this was the same bed where we once slept together, you forgot all that?tell me,’

There was a moment of silence.

‘Okay, I mean,’ she fumbled, ‘you two are… well, gay?’

We both stared at her.

‘HOLY SHIT,’ she gaped at us, fear and shock was visible in her eyes.

‘You bastard,’ she yelled at him, took her bag and stormed outside.

The door banged and she was out of sight.

-The Viento

One Battle at a Time

I'm ready to fight,
in the war of life.
To find freedom and glory,
through struggle and strife.

I'm ready to sacrifice,
everything for that dream.
To churn my fate,
till I make butter out of cream.

But to give my all,
to that one fight,
all I ask from this world,
in the form of this rhyme-
Allow me to fight,
one battle at a time,
only one battle at a time.

-TheDreamer

NO CHOICE BUT TO DO GOOD

Saw The Amazing Spiderman today. I had loved the 3 old Spidey movies and yet, I feel that this reboot of the franchise is a league apart from the older version and lives up to its title by truly being amazing. Beautiful cinematography and a realistic story-line take away the show, not to mention, a bolder, younger and more energetic Peter Parker who has the guts to tell his girlfriend how he spends his free time. Not like the old Spidey who took 2 complete movies to do that. The experience of the movie was only enhanced by the fact that I had for company, my class 10th buddys from Bangalore - Akash Pise and Shweta Kumari. I also got a chance to make two new friends in Manwinder Singh and Abhishek Saini. Thanks guys (and gal), for an enjoyable evening!

The movie is definitely worth a watch and all the more so if you watch it in 3D in a theatre. The film's storyline does depart from the older versions of the Spidey chronicles at many places. What interested me most was the key teaching of the movie. In the old movie, Ben Parker say to his nephew - "With great power, comes great responsibility." This statement very much defines Spiderman and his work as a superhero in the rest of the series. In The Amazing Spiderman, the teaching is similar in spirit but is worded differently. Uncle Ben says - "If you can do someone some good, you should do it. Because if you can, then it is no more a choice. It becomes a responsibility." It is not worded as poetically as the older version and yet, this wording hit me with a greater impact. I liked it a lot. What a nice thought, I said to myself. How simple a formula for being a good person! Yet in no way an easy task. It basically tells you to do all the good you can to this world.

I was also struck by the similarity of this thought with Asimov's First Law of Robotics: "A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm." Asimov himself suggested that these laws of robotics are in fact the laws of ideal human behavior. An ideal human would follow this law. He will never let any harm come to another human being, even through inaction. The inaction part is crucial. That is where most of us decent folks fail. As my Dad says, most people pass by a road-side aciident in their cars without stopping and only after going a distance, think back - maybe I should have stopped, maybe I could have helped the poor man. But by then its too late and they just whizz past in thier automobile. But the ones which stop, and that too in time, reflect a hope for our society, and show their realization of their responsibilities and are the men and women who make the difference.

-TheDreamer

THE ARCHIE DILEMMA

I saw Cocktail today with my family. First things first, to quench your curiosity, let me tell you that it is an entertaining movie made for college crowds and not bad for a one-time watch. The problem is its plot is way too familiar for regular Hindi movie and television serial watchers. It presents the same old Archie's Dilemma- a guy confused between the 'rich bitch' and the sweet girl, leading to a predictable love triangle with no new solution presented in the movie. This same predicament is represented in many other popular stories in different forms, be it Archie Andrews or Elena Gilbert. It is a classic dilemma- the dilemma between listening to what you desire and what is best for you. Do you choose the girl who is a better girlfriend or the one who will be a better wife? Do you listen to your heart or your mind? Do you go after what you like or after what is best for you? To you take up a profession which you are passionate about or a profession which will pay better?

The solution to this dilemma isn't very simple (that's why its called a dilemma) and is very much situation and person dependent. A pragmatist would preach that what is required is a balance between the two- between the Veronicas and Bettys of this world. Marry a girl that is rich and intelligent as well as beautiful and caring. Get a job that is your passion as well as high-paying. Interestingly, a Zen master would give you a different solution. He would ask you to remove the root cause of the dilemma. He'll tell you that your desires and your interests should not conflict at all to begin with. He'll say, remove thy conflict and thy dilemma shall vanish.

What do you usually do? Do you listen to your heart or my mind? Which is the fun thing to do? Which is the right thing to follow? Archie Dilemmas are common, we experience them everywhere. Our everyday problems are Archie Dilemmas in disguise and we need to solve them. So, do we listen to the pragmatist or the Zen master? Settle for a compromise between the two extremes or remove the conflict which made you like two extremes in the first place? That, my friends, is a question that  only you can answer for yourselves because, as always, we have landed ourselves into an Archie Dilemma.

-TheDreamer

(A small request: I would be much obliged to whoever posts a comment on this blog to plz copy the same comment in my personal blog too - http://vaibhavkarve.blogspot.in/ . Hope it won't deter anyone from commenting!)