Know thy self

Destiny is the child of competency and capacity...

The better your competency and capacity complement each other, the more beautiful the child !

-- Sodium

CATastrophic moments

"Abe tu ullu ka patthha hai kya ?" prom pinged me on Gtalk.
"Kyun maine kya kiya jo gaali de raha hai?" I replied wryly.
"abe gali nahi yaar...puch raha hun" He immediately went into damage control mode.
"hahaha...kya tarika hai poochne ka !" I didn't make his life easy.
"yaar confusion mein hun isliye…" replied an embarrassed Prom.

Prom and I had known each other for just 3 days now and here he was, asking me such a question matter of factly.

I had logged onto the T.I.M.E. chat forum for CAT 2007 with a different name this time. 'Ullu ka Patthha' instead of my usual name 'Sodium'. And he had realized it within minutes, by seeing my scores and by the secrets of him that I had started spilling there. He was goaded into catching me privately on gtalk when I innocently asked him what had happened to 'crab' (F) he was talking to, the previous day, just when he started taking chances on Neha.
Poor Prom !

That was three days after CAT happened. We settled scores on gtalk and went back to the T.I.M.E. chat forum. Prez was telling Neha that with her scores she could safely expect 2-3 IIM calls and that she should start preparing for GD/PI. Man! I was awestruck by his amazing cognitive abilities because just about 10 minutes back he was asking Prom and me in desperation about his chances of getting a call. And guess what! The difference between his and Neha's scores was just 1 mark. So here he was, now prophesizing to the girls about their chances of making it. This world is a big chess board I tell you and every pawn is trying to con the other to its ends.

By the way, Prom's full name was Prometheus Unbound. We 'lovingly' called him Prom. And soon we had shared secrets, pertaining to our girlfriends you see. So what if I don't really have a girlfriend. How would he know online if I tell him I am a hunk, always surrounded by cool chicks!

I went for a tea and when I returned, Prom had gone. It would be known later that his boss had been standing behind him for about one and a half minutes while he had zeroed in on catty who had just logged in and wanted to know if it would be a sin to expect a NITIE call without a work-ex. Yeah, it was noon time and we were all in office making the most of our employment benefits. Poor Prom! I thought again.

Anyways, I resumed my chat with Ruthless. He was another geek scoring 136 and worrying if he would be able to secure an IIM A call. Gee, everybody has his own worries. Here we were, willing to flirt even a black hole to secure a single IIM call and there he was, worrying over IIM Ahamedabad. Ruthless assured me that at my scores, I could keep my fingers crossed for a couple of calls from the 'lower' IIMs.
A truck ran over my feelings trampling my most cherished dreams. Immediately afterwards, Ruthless logged out. It was a clear cut case of hit and run. Somebody forward him that mail which taught the reader never to scoff at other's possessions, for that could be all they had.

Prometheus Rebound logged in.

"Hey! Prometheus REBOUND!" I exclaimed. "Is that you my dear Prom"

"Haan sodium, main hi hoon" reminded me of that dialogue Amir Khan speaks to Kajol in Fanna, "haan Ruhana, main hi hoon"

"Hey, how do I believe you?" I started using logic.
"Remember Priya, Sodium? Yesterday?"
"Eh…!" And all my logical abilities were put to rest. The chat room was full of current opportunities and too much was at stake to show over smartness at this moment.

"My dear Prom, I love you!" and the matter was put to rest.

He would sometimes log in as Prometheus Unbound and sometimes as Prometheus Rebound. I tried to spot a pattern but was promptly reminded of my handicap when Catty asked me on the forum regarding my percentile last year in Logical Reasoning. I gave up. He still comes sometimes as Unbound and sometimes as Rebound.

"Prom, you read the previous few lines. Ruthless told me I stand a chance in the 'lower' IIMs"

Prom burst out laughing. My feelings were mercilessly trampled again. This is a mean world. My IIM was a lower IIM !

"Hey all! Can anyone tell me what are my chances of getting a call with QA 38, DI 52, VA 34" someone had logged on by the name of Anjali.

"Hey hiiiii Anjali!!! Congrats, you are getting 7 calls. Start preparing for GD/PI" the message took some time to display as Prom and I had hit the jackpot at the same time.

The enlightened soul..

Oh I love this lil brother of mine! In fact even more than love, it's the respect and admiration for a few of his qualities that now serve as an inspiration for me.

I first visited him the day he was born, a tiny baby. Unfortunately, he was mentally retarded by birth. But I realize now, after my first hand experience with this little enlightened creature, that mentally retarded are often gifted with other virtues and insights into the philosophy of life.

Years passed and the next time I saw him was when he visited our home with his parents, when he was about 7 years old. The first time I experienced his philosophy in that young age was when his mummy interrupted our game to put on the shoes on his feet because it was getting cold in the evening. The game was interrupted and his mummy was also talking to my mummy while putting his shoes on. In her conversation, she took a bit more time than usual to put the shoes on and pat came the scolding from this little busy bee to his mummy...

'Aloo Patthhi !'

'What was it ?' we asked his mummy as she immediately halted her conversation and put shoes on his feet first so that he could go back to his game.

'He just called me pupil of an owl. He can't pronounce it well. This is what he says. I don't know who taught it to him but I am unable to stop him from saying that whenever he is dissatisfied with something.' She told us.

'Wow !!' I exclaimed to my lil sister. Now that's what you call attitude. She agreed.
After all it had been our long time desire to be able to accomplish something like that, but you see...out of 'respect' we could never. That that respect was wrenched from us by brandishing the sticks is a different matter.

Years passed again and we kept in touch with them through letters and lately through phone. The incidents continued pouring in and my respect for him grew. Sometimes these were at school, sometimes at home and sometimes in other situations.

And what impelled me to write this on my blog was something that he finished just a week ago. He is now about 15 years old.

His mummy arranged a home tutor for him as he was not performing well at school. One day, the teacher asked him to prepare for a test the next day. His mummy told us that he worked hard that day. He prepared that day for the test. And wrote the test the next day. When he had finished, the teacher checked it. Chhotu had performed about average and the teacher gave him 9 out of 20. Chhotu then asked the teacher to give him a 'Good'. The teacher refused. Teacher said that the performance was not up to the mark. Chhotu requested again. The teacher told him that he didn't deserve a 'Good' in this test. Now this was enough for this lil enlightened soul. He worked hard the whole day and here the teacher told him that his hard work didn't deserve a 'Good'!

Chataaaaaaak ! Chhotu immediately dispatched a right hander to the teacher's left cheek. Now that's what such insensitive teachers really deserve.

If any of you has experienced a mentally retarded kid then you know when they do such things, they do them with full force and surprisingly, their full force is more than that of their normal counterparts. I could imagine the impact of that slap. The teacher left the job.

How many of us go to the school, tuitions and college and keep our day to day grudges with our teachers and professors deep within our heart and later pass out with a heavy heart. Remember how we feel then when later in our life we meet one such professor who didn't spare a single ordeal to us and we could do nothing about that. This...precisely this...is what I respect the most about chhotu. He doesn't carry load with his heart. He balances score when the game is on and at night sleeps with a clear conscience.

Last night, after hearing this, when I went to bed, my conscience was even heavier than usual, for not just the load of unfinished businesses but the load of a flawed philosophy and cowardice bugged me. Never change my dear chhotu. Perhaps you don't know what kind of life you are inspiring us all for!