My Life...My stories

It was midnight 12:15 and I had just entered the jungle stretch on the way from Bangalore to Kannur. Although I have driven on this stretch multiple times in the past, this was the first time I was driving alone. The radio signal had become very weak and I could hear more noise and less of the music. After all animals don’t listen to radio, I thought. Last time I passed this stretch I had spotted a wild elephant, although the experience was exciting I did not want it to repeat this time. It was my friend’s wedding and he wanted me to get whisky from Bangalore. I knew it was illegal to cross the state border with alcohol and had told my friend I wouldn't carry any. But due to his persistence, I was travelling alone, crossing the jungle with two bottles of whiskey worth Rs. 5000 in my car. I hoped and prayed that the cops would not stop me at the check post.  The jungle stretch was getting darker, the moon hid itself among the clouds and there were no lights on the road. I wish I ...

Seeing my baby Darsh for the first time was the best thing so far in my life. When the nurse brought him from maternity ward wrapped in a white towel, he had his eyes wide open and was staring at everyone. I just looked at him equally amused and even forgot to check with her if it was a boy or girl.   The next six months went in a flash and so did my wife’s maternity leave. She had to join her office and the question was who will take care of the kid.   “I am ready to leave my job. I will take care of the kid and household stuff”, I told my wife. After all for centuries women have sacrificed their personal life for taking care of the household and I was ready to take turns. My wife did not take it seriously, she felt I was kidding. “Yup, I haven’t seen a lazy person like you and the last thing I will do is to leave my kid with you. Gosh, how did I end up with you of all the men in the world?   You should see how other husbands help their wife by taking care of th...

Disclaimer: This is a true work of fiction and any resemblance to anyone living or dead is just purely coincidental. I mean it this time ! 3 hours in bus, 1 AM at night and not once have I dozed off. Not because I didn’t try, but because even sleep has decided to leave me alone today.  Her shortest smile used to make me forget the worst dreams, but today her smiling face has dragged me to the graveyard. How ironic, it is the best memories that can hurt the most. Only if I had a delete button that could remove all memories of her.  ZZZZzzzzzzZzzzzzZZZZZZzzz   … What is that? I looked at the adjacent seat from where the sound came.  It sounded like a lion’s roar, but the snoring man in the next seat didn’t look like one. He continued to snore like an old rusty diesel generator and others in the bus turned towards me as if I was responsible for disturbing their sleep. Hello…., I don’t know him! I wanted to tell them. They continued to stare and I was left with no...

--> Short Note: Life in Second Gear is about my first job which never got a place in any of my CV’s. But yet, it was beautiful and taught me some great lessons in work life. Hope you will enjoy. This was sometime in the mid of 2004, when I was spending my last days at college. Everyone in my batch including me was anxious about our future. Our whole intent of joining NTTF, was its high reputation pertaining to job placements. The talk of the town was – “anyone graduating from NTTF, will definitely get a job in Singapore or Australia”. But then, reality bites! We soon realized the naked truth that this 50 year old institute does not carry its ancient glory anymore. Except for one interview call from “iSeva”, a call center, no other companies came by. One day, our in-charge Murukesh sir told us about some openings for computer hardware technicians, in Benz Computers. My interest was always into programming and had never thought of starting a career in computer hardware. But...