Escapades of the Mind

My morning today began with the usual chores and I packed off from home to park my bike at the parking lot from where I catch my bus to office. This is my daily routine and is a monotonous one. Pack my bag, park my bike, board the bus, take a nap and swipe in at office. But today morning was different. As I parked my bike and walked to the stop, I saw a beautiful girl standing by the shade of a tree. She looked pretty in a green top and blue jean, with a pair of matching dangling ear-rings. Her fair skin tone made her stand out of the crowd. On seeing her, my heart skipped a beat. Wow. It felt good. Wish I knew her name, where she was from and where her desk was. I have seen her before several times at the same place. I even know that she works in my office. But she was never this sparkling.

My gush of emotions was interrupted by the arrival of the bus and by this time she had noticed my glances. And she didn’t frown or turn away. Good. But the perennial pessimist in me was telling me that there were several people looking at her, and she probably didn’t turn away because people were ogling at her from all sides. Hmm. Somehow guys lose their mind when a girl is around. When the bus stopped, she walked in and sat in a 3-seater. I walked past her and sat in the row just behind her’s. After everyone boarded the bus, she suddenly got up and looked back for a moment and searched for someone. It was me. She looked at me in the eye. And for that brief moment our eyes met, and she sat down looking a little awkward after others in the bus started looking at her. Perhaps she wanted me to sit next to her. Damn. I didn’t realize it.

Nothing much happened over the next hour. I was not able to look at her for the entire journey and neither was she. As soon as the bus stopped inside office, she got down and walked away. I followed her quickly. But now we were inside office and she wasn’t as interested as before. When a man is nearby, women lose their mind if other women are nearby. Life!! She noticed me coming towards her and she walked briskly. Hmm. This was going down hill.

As we neared the cafeteria, she walked in to it. I had to go to my desk. She noticed me walking in a different direction and turned around, and glanced at me. Again for a few minutes our eyes met. Wow. Nothing happened beyond that, but it still felt good. I felt light when she walked past the door with a smile on her lips.

A great way to begin my morning, I thought; a pretty looking girl responding to my glances. That’s a great feeling for any guy. What a nice sun shine, I was thinking when I was walking down the pathway. As I turned around, I saw another girl dressed elegantly, smiling and waving her hands. Her slimy, long hands and the shape of her fingers in motion made her look very graceful and elegant. Under the bright sun her skin shone radiantly. My heart fluttered for a few seconds; she blew me away in an instant. I looked at her for a few seconds and then looked at the door where I last saw the girl from the bus, laughed at myself and walked away.

Name the Problem

Every time I go for grocery shopping, I can never leave by avoiding the following conversation. This happens with the guy at billing counter. "What's the name sir, Bias..?? Oh sorry, Riaz? Illanga, Vyas, V-Y-A-S. Ok va?

I was christened as M. Sree Seshadri Vyas. A really long name, 16 characters to be precise. Obviously, like most parents, mine had strong religious reasons behind the name. And it worked well for me till a certain age. But as I grew up, I faced a few issues.

The downside of having such a name is that it acts as a barrier in making new friends and meeting new people. People have to make the extra effort to remember my name. And, let's face it, no one has the time or patience for it. Also acting as a hindrance is the usual stereo-types that we associate with names. It somehow beats me, how we always think of Rahuls to be smart, Johns to be fun loving, Priyas and Divyas to be cute and how Senthamizh Selvis always walk around with a flower shop on their heads. So who's a Vyas, hmm well, he didn't look smart, wasn't funny and didn't talk much. Didn't make a good impression. I think this guy is weird ..!! And a Rahul walks away with a poor joke for which only he managed to laugh. Doesn't matter if he spilled some juice on the guy sitting next to him. He's a Rahul, must have been a genuine mistake. 

There were some times when people mis-spelled my name in utterly funny ways (unintentionally of-course) and I had lost all strength to correct them. There was a cricket coach of mine, who used to call me Sree Seshadri 'Iyer' for 2 years. Finally he corrected it by himself. I simply wasn't brave enough to walk to him, in front of all, and tell him that he was getting it wrong.

But here is the bottom line, I like my name a lot. It may not me a fancy sounding ultra-cool name, but is still good. I'm proud of the reasons behind me being named this way. People will just have to make the extra effort to remember it. Period. 

And on the lighter side, the fun part of  having a unique name is that you can google your name and have fun reading what comes up about you. Now can a Rahul ever dream of such a thing. There will be a thousand different people with the same name. Hahaa.. One up mate.

No More - "No More Girls Gang"

There are very few incidents in a man's life that change life upside down. One such incident happened to me last week.

For the better part of college life I was a member of the "No More Girls Gang" (henceforth "NMGG"). As the name suggests, we swore against the very act of a boy falling in love with a girl. We had some very strong ground rules; never look at the same girl for more than 10 minutes, never stay in the same place if the girl looks at you for more than 10 minutes, are some I can remember now. And I liked life that way. But a bus ride last week, shook the very foundations of that life. A simple, almost nothing of a ride made me question myself in a way like never before. Consequently, there are two guys inside me now. They are quite literally tearing me apart, fighting on every issue. First is the old guy, speaking of what I believed were eternal truths. And the other is this new guy, looking at life differently (with a little bit more sense, I hope).

The incident happened to me when I was riding to work. This girl who commutes with me on the same bus, made me question the very existence of the NMGG fraternity. To cut a long story short, her mystic gazes simply put an end to the NMGG. So, when I decided to shut down the operations of the gang, the two guys in me demanded space on this blog.

Here goes...

(The words in italics and in brackets are from the old guy. The others, from the new one)  

Last week, with heavy heart I decided to stop the NMGG's activities. The reason; its last loyal member (yours truly) recently had an unexpected change of heart. (This guy is crazy, don't believe him)

A little bit of history here. The "No-More Girls Gang" was formed by a group of disillusioned bachelors in my college (True Revolutionists). The gang boasted of heavy following in the testosterone charged and estrogen starved college of mine. Of course, that's a little bit over the top (No way!). But for its followers these words were gospel truth. But as college life progressed, one by one, the members started leaving (Those b*st*rds). And by the end, the once sought after gang was reduced to a single man force. Its operations and weekly meetings were held and attended, at the same time, by me (Bravo..!). There have been occasions when I had to introduce myself as the keynote speaker, deliver a breathtaking speech and clap in the end too. My commitment to the cause was beyond nature's compulsions. Or so I thought.

Last week when I was riding a bus to office, I met this girl who quite literally blew me off. (What???!!! An innocuous bus ride brought to end a major social movement? Someone better alert the police. This is sabotage). I don't know her name, don't know where she lives, worse still, I haven't heard her voice, but still I'm willing to abandon a cause so close to my heart? I know I am crazy (Yeah, you are). But this is something I like and I can't restrict myself by being tied to the past. Yes, the NMGG was truly revolutionary (Now, we are talking dude...). It brought about irreversible changes in the lives of many people, for which I am proud off. But the time has come now. One last hurrah for the "No More Girls Gang" (What the F***). This is it guys. See you on the other side (To hell with you, any volunteers..??? Come on guys... Oh, God No...).

Teaching Thiago-Roger (Thiagarajar) Songs!

Yesterday, I was toying with the idea of starting a music school. And phew. What an exhausive routine it was, just working out the details. A lot of demographic and logistical issues peculiar to the current state of music in India, (Tamil Nadu) make this worthy of writing.

My exposure to music comes from lsitening to carnatic music. As a kid, I ran away at the first possible opportunity to escape from sitting through a kutcheri. But as I grew up, the hallowed principles of carnatic music struck me. So my first preference was to start a carnatic music school. But let’s face it - carnatic music and anything associated with it is terribly under-valued. People don't mind paying Rs 200 per class for learning Guitar, but hesitate to pay the same for learning Veena.

So I decided that in order to be commercially successful, I had to start a session for Western Music also. But the logistics for such a venture would puzzle most. People coming to learning carnatic expect to see photos of the Trinity hanging over their heads. It makes no improvement to their singing, but still they want it. But teaching Western in such an ambience would be like asking the Queen of England to have Idly for breakfast. It's like mixing chalk and cheese.

But it is this ambitious venture that I have decided to embark upon. No, I don't have any clue as to how to make it work. But may be if I think it through, I will get an idea. Maybe. (Am I just pleasing the optimist in me?)

A final word, before I sign off: Music has become so common today and it is totally unstructured. Ad-hoc center's are mushrooming all over town and reality singing shows are driving parents to force children to attend such classes. Combine this with the fact that carnatic music is woefully anachronistic and you have the perfect recipe for commotion. And that's the state of music.