Dindori ke din ..

Jabalpur airport reminds me of the imphal airport some 10 year ago, There is one flight that lands in the day and there are less taxis and more passengers there.

As the small aircraft landed, we collected our luggage near the aircraft itself, I came out and looked around for taxi. A taxi wala came to me and said taxi chahiye kya?.

My first shocker came when he did not where Dindori is, He said 250 Kms and he said 7 rs/km( Non AC)

Sounds more na, Anyways the negotiation done , rate agreed 6 rs/km. As I was about to leave the airport for Dindori, a co passenger approached me saying that is it a possibility that I drop them to Hotel Jackson in Jabalpur. As It turned out to be I was travelling with GM new project Mosaer beer who till now was in TATA power. After dropping them to Jackson hotel, me and the cab driver Kanojiya set out for Dindori.

The road to Dindori was brilliant and smooth. We reached in no time, thanks to the guidance of Pavitra, I was in the office of Pradan within 3 hours of leaving airport.

Pradan...

As I climb into the office of the NGO I don’t have any expectations, it is a decent place. A big room at the entrance with a round table, then a room inside with a few desktops and then a kitchen, and then a small room and then a big room, and another big room and another big room.

I know it sounds like lot of big rooms :P

So my first day in office starts, Pavitra briefs me about the project in about an hour or so,and then she briefs me about the people in office, it is going to be interesting. The challenge is not in work, the challenge is in the fact that there are multiple stakeholders including Pavitra, all of them have a different working style.

I chose to be like a sponge, usual about me in the starting of assignment. Don’t express your opinions, take everything as it comes. ABSORB like a sponge.

As the day 1 rounds up, I meet Amit, the chief accountant here. Later on I meet other people here. Jyothi, small thin frail girl, who is our to go to person in case of logistics. The day winds up with a bit of badminton. I have never played badminton in my life, and am looking forward to it now. After the badminton we want to have dinner, with Bhupesh.

Bhupesh, a character in the story who is as intriguing as the project itself, he reminds me a lot of Abhishek Taparia. 6 feet 2 inches probably, very thin and one standard dress code of a Kurta over a Tshirt, Bhupesh has got his own style of mixing or not mixing up, I kinda like his attitude though. He seems to be very dedicated and knowledgeable about what he is doing. Bhupesh seems to be initial touch point and source of knowledge for me and Pavitra.

We talk to Bhupesh about various thoughts which have crossed our minds, he is upto the task all the time. As we talk more, we make a plan for the field visit to Rampuri, the karmbhoomi.

Bhupesh agrees to take us to the village next morning at 8 am. We were suppose to get up and catch a bus to Mandla, get down at Sallaiya and then there is a 2km walk on the kuccha road to Rampuri. Bhupesh will come in a bike and meet us there at the kuccha road at 8:30 am.

Pavitra has the habit of getting up early or at least earlier than me, she is the one who woke me up in the morning. We quickly got up, and walked up towards the Mandla naka. We got an auto towards the bus stop. The bus which we got into was a little better than my expectations, a morning bus thus we got a seat and some company. Mr. Sampat Soni, sat next to me in the bus. He interviewed me quickly, I realize by the end of the project I would have been interviewed some 100 times, invariably the first question is always about my caste.

Sampat Soni started talking about how big a man he is in Dindori, He told name of Uma Khampariya who is a relative and owns land in Rampuri.

So we had our first name in village, Uma Khampariya.

We got down as sallaya, there was a 2Km kuccha road to the village. After we had walked a bit, we saw the first glimpses of the village. It was a pleasing site, I felt nice and good.

When we reached the village, we had no one to ask for or ask to. We had heard Gulzar ji talk about Parmu Kisan, so that was the first name we talked about in the village. It was the first house which we stopped at I guess.

Parmu was not at home, his wife was. There is something remarkable about the villagers, which strikes you within a flash. They are receptive to you, the most simplest of lot. They don’t come to you with a suspicion.

Nisha didi is the CO of the village, she was able to tell us a few more names, including the name of the village master.

We came back to village, to the house of Parmu Kisan, he was not still here. We decided to split, Pavitra was going to spend more time with the wife of Parmu Kisan as this house was going to be a base of our activities in the village.

I walked upto the school and then from there asking people I reached home of the school master. It was a start of an association,we gradually were to become good friends.

Master Pusham told me a lot about village, we even sat and made the map of village. The key challenge for him is to get children to school, he is also over worked. He has to fill all forms of everyone in village, one big work is the category certificate, which he keeps on roaming around for.

There is one more master in the village and a madam from village only.

Rampuri seems to be a good break from life .

~Ak

Is Diwali a license to pollute ..

I am quite sad, I have been around Mumbai in Diwali.

All I saw were marvelous crackers and beautiful glittering lights.

I was walking across Marine drive a few hours ago with Richa, and we barely could walk.

There were these kids, their parents, everyone bursting all sorts of crackers on the cemented road.

And then we came to a spot where there was so much smoke that I could not breathe. The sight but was a uncle, aunt and kid coming out of a Skoda and throwing noise bombs on road. It was a sight which I felt like going and slamming them from. They appear to be from educated families, have a good understanding of environment and things like green house effect etc.

I looked at sky, its full of smoke.

I wish I could do something, there is not much to do for me is it, I already dont burst crackers.

But anyways, if anyone does read this . Please go through following links

http://pranavshah.info/2006/10/21/diwali-festival-of-child-labour-pollution-and-insensitivity-towards-animals/

http://fusions.wordpress.com/2007/11/11/tragedy-buried-in-happiness-child-labour-in-sivakasi/

~Ak

boy in shop !

In my engineering 1st year my father was posted in Manipur. I had gone there to spend my vacations.
Manipur is a small place, and there is not much to see in the city. The market reminds one of Guwhati... there are lot of vehicles parked here and there... hustle bustle in the morning and fairly quite in evenings.

Suddenly I heard a screeching sound, a jeep ran over a woman ... oh !!
and also her small girl. People rushed to the spot, the jeep guy left his vehicle and ran away. He would have been beaten to death otherwise.

people rushed to the spot...I also ...

It was bad, it looked like they are dead or will be in a few hours, ambulance... poilce .. came in about 15 mins.

I walked away towards my house, though I was a lil disturbed I quickly forgot it and got engrossed in the cricket match on TV.

2 days later ..

I was in a shop in the same market....
I was walking around , when I saw the shopkeeper give some money back to a lil boy

The boy couldn't have been more than 9 years old.
The shopkeeper said, 'I'm sorry, but you don't have enough money to buy this doll.
The little boy was still holding the doll in his hand.Finally, I walked toward him and I asked him who he wished to give this doll to.'It's the doll that my sister loved most and wanted so much for christmas.
She was sure that Santa Claus would bring it to her.'
I replied to him th at maybe Santa Claus would bring it to her after all,and not to worry.
But he replied to me sadly. ' I have to give the doll to my mommy so that she can give it to my sister when she goes there.'
His eyes were so sad while saying this. 'My Sister has gone to be with God.
Daddy says that Mommy is going to see God very soon too, so I thought that she could take the doll with her to give it to my sister.''


My heart nearly stopped.

The little boy looked up at me and said: 'I told daddy to tell mommy not to go yet. I need her to wait until I come back from the market'.
Then he showed me a very nice photo of him where he was laughing. He then told me 'I want mommy to take my picture with her so she won't forget me.'
'I love my mommy and I wish she doesn't have to leave me, but daddy says that she has to go to be with my little sister.' Then he looked again at the doll with sad eyes, very quietly.

I was reminded of the accident.

I quickly reached for my wallet and said to the boy. 'Suppose we check again, just in case you do have enough money for the doll?'' 'OK' he said, 'I hope I do have enough.' I added some of my money to his with out him seeing and we started to count it. There was enough for the doll and even some spare money.

The little boy said: 'Thank you God for giving me enough money!'
Then he looked at me and added, 'I asked last night before I went to sleep for God to make sure I had enough money to buy this doll, so that mommy could give It to my sister. He heard me!''
'I also wanted to have enough money to buy a chocolate for my mommy,
but I didn't God for too much. But He gave me enough to buy the doll and a chocolate. My mommy loves chocolates.'

next day I read in the newspaper, in that accident in the market the little gal had died and the woman was in coma, the family decided to remove her from the life support system as doctor s had given up on her recovery.


~Ak

Robbed in train !

So this is about the trip to the Modern engineering works, Mallapuram in Kerela.
One of the trips to god's own country ... the first one for work.

The day was .... someday...

Let me introduce the Mr. Anand Kankaria.
Mr.kankaria has been a part of my project as a unit leader.... unit ... hmmmm .. Karnataka...

So he was before this a unit leader for Kerela, he is a pretty good guy, cool, nice and easy. His presence often has a calming effect and he is awesome with excel.

He had to ramp up Kerela and being the good guy he is, he asked permission for me also from the Boss.

We in morning had packed our luggage and were mapping converters in kalashipalya, from there we went to Yeshwantpur rly station.
as we reached the station we still had some time with us so we went to ISKON temple, the temple is quite a marvel, thoughI feel that it no longer gives the feelingof peace.

So we packed our dinner and went ahead in the train. We were in AC 3 tier.
We were in berths closest to the door, at times that really gets irritating.

We parked our luggage, and then went ahead and sat on the side berths next to our seats.
We had upper seats, I was on the side of door and and Anand on the other side.

Me and Anand started talking about life and incidents, Anand has travelled a lot in recent years, Chennai- Bangalore must be like office to home for him.

He started telling tales of these travels...

the relevant one goes like this..

" anand was coming to bangalore from chennai, he was carrying a nice fancy looking suitcase and a company provided laptop.

He boarded a bus from nearby his house to chennai bus stop for the bus to Bangalore.
At the intercity bus stop, he put his luggage in the bus and came out of it. We all do it ..

Not when carrying laptop, hmmm ...

So Anand was having a cold drink looking at the door of the bus,... suddenly someone asked him about where he is going etc... that person was 25 26 years old guy, he kept on talking for 2 3 mins.. and then suddenly disappeared.. Anand thought it was fishy ..He went into the bus and the luggage was not there.!!"

later on he told me, how Mr. Amit dey helped him get the laptop waived off ..

Aftet this story we shifted to our respective berths.. I kept on thinking about it...
My bag had a company laptop, a digicamera, a seagate, and a couple of handsets among other things ... scary it was ...

My bag was kept below my berth, if some person comes from the other end of the compartment, my bag would be first in the line of sight and being a strolley it would be very easy to take it and walk out of the door. Anand s bag was kept next to it and then a co passengers big bag.
I normally would keep my laptop below my head.. today I dint...

I started discussing with Anand and said then got down to take my laptop out.

When I was doing so a thought struck me, I took my bag and placed it between the two bags of a family traveling with us...I told so to Anand ..


In the morning, Anand wakes me up...
" aapne mera bag bhi hataya hai kya ?"
" no .. "

I quickly came down ... and his bag was not there .....

we were almost at thirur ... 2 mins thirur ...

I was glad .. I had removed my bag .. even Anand was glad that I had removed my bag ...

we filed at complaint with the police station...irony was one of his sandals was stolen too ...

for the rest of way, we were sorry and glad that the bag and only the bag was stolen ..


~AK

My 1050 steps to Jog falls !!

Hi,
I had gone to Shimoga for the retail run ( though after the terrible stomach infection now I feel I should not have). We have a converter in Sagar some 80 odd kms from Shimoga city.

I visited Sagar, seems to be a nice small town. Everyone knows everyone, one lane roads and nothing noticeable about it.
After about spending a few hours with Irshad bhai, as I was about to leave he said that If I have come till here I might as well go to Joga( that is the way they pronounce it their)
Joga is 15 kms from Sagar and here we were on our way, me and my driver Prasad.

On the way to Joga there is not a single place where you can see the falls, which is a little different from other falls i have been to. Kempty falls can be seen almost all the time across the hill and so do Rajdari.

However when I reached Jog, It was quite a sight. The view point is directly opposite the point from where the fall starts falling down ie there is a valley between in which the fall is there.

I took some photos, some nice ones. Wish could upload them.

So while i was standing the child in me got a lil curious, Nowadays I have become old. I tend to behave as some corp psuedo guy very often.

But i decided to descend down, I asked people .

1050 stairs.
1050 was do able i thought and hey !!
lets go !

I asked Prasad, He was not all interested in coming.

I said fine, I had not had breakfast and lunch . It was 130 pm and I am not sure I should go .
I looked at the falls and I knew I wanted to look at it from bottom, from more close.

when I had taken about 250 odd stairs, I felt like stopping.
Should I go ahead ??

They had marked the stairs with numbers ! thank god !

I kept on going.. very fast ... there were people on their way up, a few of them looked fatigued.
They were sitting on stairs and were sweating so much . I was all in formals, was looking odd !!

I felt so stupid for people, if they cant why do they try.

Anyways, I am a hero...a nature tourist... I have this habit, when I am doing things alone. I imagine situations and live them.

So i came close to 900 stairs and it still looked far, actually pretty far.
Its surely not 1050 steps, anyways ..." ab tho jana hai yaar"...

I went till the last step .. they were about 1600 stairs ..
Now water...

To reach the base of the falls one has to walk in the water, dirty water full of germs and insects :p
I was in formals, had to meet a few people on my way back as well.

I decide against it..

Yeah !!
I DECIDE NOT TO DO IT !!

So i retrace my steps back... climbing stairs can be a tough job ...
I realized...
very quickly I must add.

200 steps up and I had to feel it.

I could not climb further, I realise my stamina has gone down
I actually cant remember ever climbing so many stairs in my life.

It read 1300 steps ( The steps are numbered from top to down)
I was exhausted, I looked up.
sat on the stairs for some time, was hungry, thirsty and exhausted.

I stopped at the first shop on the way up, sat there.
I asked for a lime glucose soda.

These shops are quite interesting, there are 2 or 3 of them on the way up. Standing on a few broad curves you get absolutely everything from a frooti to a jeans and and a mobile charger.

as the shop guy opened the soda bottle, it burst. There were glasses all over the place. His hands were torn, some pieces came and hit me as well, luckily one hit on my forehead just above the eye.
So here was a tragedy and I was still thirsty. So I ate some glucose, took a water bottle and paid him 20 bucks and started again. This was about 1100th stair.

I think I managed 50 stairs before I felt I cant go on, I halted ...

After a while I took 10 more steps..
I think I reached 800 like this only, carrying a bottle was also feeling heavy.

at about stair no 800, there was one more stopover shop. But oh! It was closed. I sat there for some 20 mins. Just sat.

After I started walking again, I was sweating alot. I usually sweat more than others.

I reached another shop at about stair no 500. Infact exactly 502 nd stair.

I took a frooti, drank it. I took a lime glucose soda... and another one..

I would have walked just 15 more stairs that I realized I simply cant. I checked my phone, no network . I was thinking of calling my driver.

It seems only BSNL works there.

Finally I decided lets break it.
50 steps at a time, It was still alot. So 15 steps at a time.

I managed to go uptil 150 odd like that, stopping walking ... Then at 150 there was a stall of cucumbers...

Pheww!!
Never have i cherished a cucumber so much, for 40 bucks I ate 2.

Now I could see the top, I managed to catch some momentum and finished the stairs. When I reached the top, I was wet with sweat. But suddenly I was not tired, I was walking happily chirping and saying it was fun.

I met Prasad, I said "who told you it was 1050 stairs ?"


~Ak
~But It was fun, If I happen to be on a good broadband connection I ll upload the pics.

Most happening day of my life!

The date is 7th august ...

The day started as any other calm day, I somehow managed to pull myself up from the bed in morning. Did not shave, was simply too tired for it.



Called for breakfast, my experience with Pooja International hotel has been good till now, the food they serve in the restaurant is quite good. I ordered an omelet and a coffee. To my shock the food was not even worth a bite and the coffee was served in a shady container. I had a bite of the omelet and left it.

The sales guy was ready in his room, He is one person I really found very annoying. Anyways it was already 9, we had to leave and reach Jagulur taluk and start work. I was hoping to cover two taluks and then go to chennagiri to meet the people in society .


The moment we reached the Gandhi circle, this salesman asked the car to stop and said " Sir, I will have breakfast" . I was like all hell s gonna break on him. Here is me, empty stomach on road since last 4 days and have to reach Mangalore by night and our dear friend wants to have breakfast.
But I have somehow become very patience allowed him to do so, and he took half an hour more.

we left the city around 11 and finding our ways through the villages reach jagulur. It was a small village, I dont think even more than 10 T sells their on average.

I had checked out in morning itself, cause I dint want to waste time to go to hotel though Mr. Salesman was insisting I dont. I realize it was a great decision.

Lo but the salesman wants a drop back to Davangere, I said fair enough. I was suppose to meet the president of this tomcos society in Chennagiri( 50 kms from Davangere) at about 330 pm and it was 130 already..

No .. no .. my friends it takes more than an hour to travel 50 kms.

So we drop him there and head towards the destination. Its 215 pm in Davangere and the sales man says " Boss you are late, ask him to drive fast"w

My driver Kempegowda jee is a gentleman, so gentle that speed is a new concept to him.
But I have due respect from him, very very experienced. Not a word ever from his mouth, No suggestions no arguments. ONLY DRIVING.

We lost our way once ... but we reached the destiantion somehow at about 445 pm . 1 hour 15 mins late.

The President, the director and all of his staff was waiting for me, They had plans to belt me up.
The reason - they thought that I was some salesman from the distributor, ( history : till 4 years back they would take our products until once they apparently in their words got cheated by the him. They hate the distributor). I had a gut feeling of this, so I was at my pseudy best. I was in a banker collar, dark big googles, an imported motorola which I never use and my sexy shoes.

The moment they saw me , I had an air about me. I was posing so atleast. I went ahead to president, told him am not from steel but am a TAS guy.

I talked to explain him what is TAS etc and what role do we have in country s future.

I actually used a pen and paper for it .

Soon I was in a conference hall, talking to the whole purchasing committee of the society.

I called for my laptop showed them the photos of JSR CSR activities of steel, told about khopoli etc. I convinced them we want to do good of poor. Then I took their brochure, It was in Kannada. But asked for their annual report, here they were telling me all about them.

I said I would forward the case of doing some CSR here in the company( which I will for sure).
After all this It was almost 6 pm, I told them I would leave now.

Their purchase director asked me " Sir what about the wire?"

I told" oh Ya! you dont purchase TATA na anymore, what was the issue"
He says" Sir we want to buy TATA only, but we dont want that distributor entering our society
" I said sure I ll ask someone to get in touch with you.

He - " Sir we have a purchase committee meeting now only we have to decide, we would like to buy 50 Ton"

I said .. fine .. cool .. we will get back :)


and then the car again ....

At about 630 om we left for Mangalore.
I asked Kempegowda jee , " sure .. we will make it "

He said " parwah nahin sir"

And then the journey started..

I called up the distributor updated him of my situation and the day so far. He said "good, you ll enjoy the drive. It s very green , but it ll be night or else you would have really had fun on the ghats looking around"

hmmm
I said nice... it was actually very green..

wait he said .. ghats !!!
OMG ...

It was raining by now also a bit..
We were passing through Tipti ( or soemthing like this forest), It was very green and beautiful. This is the reserve forest area famous for certain animals which I think are not there really
Anyways I shot some amazing videos while on move, It is a very green stretch and I was enjoying it.


At about 7 , kempegowda jee started having trouble with his stomach. He stopped, vomiting, and nausea. Looked like a case of food poisoning. We stopped at a small place, He had some tea, I was getting worried. I realised it will be late by the time I reach Mangalore. I need to look for a place to stay beforehand.
No network in phone... I have 4 sims ... Airtel, BSNL, Vodafone and Indicom ( data card).
No network ...

I was driving now... I was tensed also cause I knew If i even hit someone here I ll be killed. The incident of wednesday was not out of my mind.

Anyways as the climb toward Augumbe started I started loving it .. it was some 9 pm I guess.

I love driving on hills, infact I think I am quite an expert. Here the boards etc were in Kannada though.

Augumbe is a hill top, My driver said it is 21000 feet high, I am yet to verify that, and the sunrise and sunset are famous here.

Suddenly as we turned around the hill I could see nothing.. fog ... fog...
visibility as poor as I have ever seen in my life, I have been in delhi, Dehradun so you can trust me it was bad. I felt I cant drive anymore... just simply cant.. Then Kempegowda jee took the seat and my god. he drove brilliantly, very cautiously, beautifully and convincingly.

It took us some 1 and a half hour to pass through the dissent of the hill.

When we hit the normal visibility again I asked him should I drive, he said he was fine and we went ahead. Still no network ...

Luckily I had asked a friend to call up Ginger in Mangalore in afternoon itself and requested a room. They needed my employee ID which Saurish send me in no time .

But ... Will we reach Mangalore...

Its about 1145 pm now and we are mighty hungry, I dint have any lunch also . The driver thankfully( or unfortunately If it was the reason of poisoning) had some food in Chennagiri...

Tyre puncture !!..

well I must tell you I was expecting it.. and wow!! network in phone too ...

I called up Vishal and Rahul, I needed phone number and address of some hotels in Mangalore.

Killer as usual never responds when you are in some urgency.
anyways Vishal did so I now had address of Ginger and also a couple of hotels If i need in Karkala.

After the change of tyre,

we set on the road again, we were moving nicely. Till...

we lost the way, its all forest area and suddenly we came across a tri junction.

And now ... My driver just told me he cant really read kannada.

It was all over for a moment ... bu then we decide we will try something. No network again !!

we had to go via karkala, and my driver was sure one of these ways go to Karkala and one to Udupi.
we chose left...
we were looking hard at every milestone to see if we get to see Mangalore, the numbers were written in english and the name of the city in Kannada. it started from 32 and was going down.

Finally we saw a lorry on road ahead of us, as we were approaching it it slowed down. Very suspicious indeed. It just stopped dead in front of us when we tried going by its right.

A man came out, a young boy. He asked " Ikdiya karkala idiya?" I was like .. OH !!

anyways we continued, kempegowda jee using his six sense concluded we are on the right way.
Once we reached Karkala, Kempegowda jee found a dhaba kind of thing, He packed himself a parcel saying that if he eats now he ll feel sleepy.

From there it was a straight road only couple of choices to make which Kempegowda jee did well...
we reached Mangalore in an hour, Ginger is pretty famous, as we entered the city we asked one of the auto guys and he guided me.

I got a double room because of being a TAS guy ... that is their version of a employee discount.

Its about 4am .. in Ginger Mangalore ...
I am tired ... will leave the hotel at 7 am to go to Bunder market and a few more taluks near Udupi.


Its been a day I wont forget in my life !!

~Ak

My experiences with K'nataka - 1

wednesday, 5th of August.

I left Blore early morning 6am, in enthusiasm I rarely exhibit now.
The first dampener came when I got to know Davengere is 275 Kms away, reached the place around 12. I met the converter and we decided to explore the market.

first shop on the left, Harsha h/w.
While I was talking to retailer, a man started shouting at me in Kannada. He was shouting some abuses and saying " why do you talk hindi, go back to your country if you don know Kannada"

I said " namge kannada gotthila" . He had a bundle of wire in his hand, he banged it on me and pushed me. He was shouting some anti Hindi thing and then the retailer came in between. This time the man pushed the retailer behind started shouting " Jai Kannada" and within a moment or two they were 12 15 men there in the shop.

I was scared to death, the retailer was lying on floor, these men had encircled me. All of them were waiting for one of them to hit/push me first. The sales man with me, unfortunately for me and fortunately for him was in some other lane.

I had no clue what their intention was, to burn me, to hit me, to snatch my stuff or two simply hang me to the wire. Here I was a symbol of the protest of Kannada against people of different country.

I shouted back at that man " Yen kashta" " namge karanataka moor divas idiya, salpa kannada gotha "

This convinced few of em to retreat leaving 2 or 3 men. The first guy still there. This time he pushed me, I dint move an inch also , I took out the leather belt from my trouser and folded it in my hand. I looked at him in chiranjeevi style and shouted get out at 3 of them ( I had seen a couple of policemen coming in the shop).

This was the first incident of the day, for the rest of whole day. I was in a shell, not talking properly to dealers , converters etc till the time I was in that area.

Today evening there was one more unpleasant incident, which I am too tired to type right now .


But to be honest, I was scared, very scared today. I think I was more scared than this only once when in Kamakhya devi temple I saw some devotee monk running towards me with iron rods aiming at my eyes, that day my dad was around. This the learning from life was around.

~Ak

Mere TATA dost !!

I am now almost 50 days old in the group.

Normally for me 50 odd days are alot... I can turn tables in it .. get to know people .. do all networking .. impress gals .. make frens with guys ...

but here I am, all lost .. 24 days over .. nothing achieved .... Absolutely nothing in the project ...
50 days on the group ... nothing notable done too ...

As you would read it .. you would say what the hell dude !!
Why you think as if you are the only sensible person on earth and rest all are idiots ... The question is just too bright ...The metaphor is not " mere" it is rather " TATA dost".

When I was young, I always wanted me as the only guy in army ( read company). I would do all, put the tent, make the weapons, kill the enemies and marry the princess too.

When I grew older, I wanted a team ... a few friends cum colleagues ... trust not skill was the selection criteria .. I assumed I had all the skills in world.

Further up the mountain, I realise it takes an army to win battles, but I wanted to be a part of the small elite group in the army, the skilled and privileged ones.

a Little ahead .. I realise am not alone ... there are quite more like me and hence a bigger elite group.

But we are left alone ... as my first dream was .. to be on different missions..



~Ak

I stand for you !!

There have been various occasions in my life when I have thought of life like this....

I feel like telling you, just look around . I am sitting here only, why are you unaware of me, I am not that bad.
There might be various thoughts in your mind, what world will say to you will be so many things .
Ask yourself, I am yours or not .. thousands of friends you have , in that mob I stand behind you .
ceremonies, parties, school, college .. people came and went ...
But since you have come... nothing went ..

Dont look around, maybe next time when we meet..
I was not that bad !!

the whole world wants to see you smile, I also stand ... in the queue ... in the end of it ...


standing ... waiting .. in the end ...

~wish could ever tell her ...

~Ak