A precious gift [Article]

A wise woman who was traveling in the mountains found a precious stone in a stream. The next day she met another traveler who was hungry, and the wise woman opened her bag to share her food. The hungry traveler saw the precious stone and asked the woman to give it to him.

She did so without hesitation. The traveler left rejoicing in his good fortune. He knew the stone was worth enough to give him security for a lifetime. But, a few days later, he came back to return the stone to the wise woman.

"I've been thinking," he said. "I know how valuable this stone is, but I give it back in the hope that you can give me something even more precious. Give me what you have within you that enabled you to give me this stone."

Sometimes it's not the wealth you have but what's inside you that others need.

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The day I recorded a song.....

A piece of paper fell from my copy.... a friend of mine picked it up and started reading it.... said that this can be a good song, if provided with good music and voice. I didn't cared and thought he was bluffing. He again said, he has some contacts with people of music industry. I became excited! "Why not give a try?" I thought to myself.

After some time we were in the home of one of the music director of the locality. My friend showed the poem cum song to the music director and introduced me to him. He looked me in disbelief, shrunk back his nose, narrowed his eyes, gazed at me from toe to hair..... And my condition was real bizarre.... I hate when people look at me like that! As if he was judging me for his daughter!

He read the song and thought for a while.... again looked at me and then the song... started mummbling in a low voice. After some time he smiled and sang the song completely in a nice tone. He then wrote the scales for the song and handed me the paper and said me to give a try. I sang in the same scale that he had sung. He made some calls... and gave me the address of the recording studio and told me to do some kinda voice test and send me a record. Everything was happening in a flash....

After a while we were in a recording studio. I was inside the recording room.... for the first time in life.... I saw the mic in front of me... got little nervous.... the song and scale paper in my hand was shaking.... A man came inside and said "Be calm! Take the oppurtunity" I took a deep breath and nodded my head.

I looked at the scale of the song and oops.... i forgot the scale.... I couldn't understand the signs.... The person fom outside the room signalled me to sing.... a big disc started revolving... they put their headphones in head! Thank god i was not giving an audition for the Indian Idol. But i had forgotten the scle of the song completely. I gave a last sincere look to the paper and started blushing.... Someone said... "Tato pani lyaidinuhos na..... kukhura ko masu ek plate!!" What?? what was that sound and where is it soming from?? I am inside a sound proof room.... But i didn't gave a second thought as i was so much nervous and i was doing a voice test recording....

Then i decided to sing it in my own music.... I tried to pull the mic towards me but couldn't.... Again i heard some voices... "oye pokhincha!! natana!" Who the hell is teasing me? I am gonna teach that bastar* a lesson after i finish those recording.. i assured myself. I started singing.... trying to sound as good as possible.... trying to sing from my heart! I could feel the words coming right from my heart.... so soothing voice.... I became fan of myself!

Gradually my fear dissapeared and the sentimental tone changed to rock beat..... then after sometime I thought about how i used to sing the black metal songs while taking a bath.... then i decided to sing in a black metal voice.... screaming... stressing in every word i could.... singing from throat... I gave a glance at the people outside the room and they seemed to be liking it because they were smiling honestly. As if they were ready to applause and were waiting for me to finish. I became so much happy and excited that I closed my eyes and started singing in the deepest and loudest voice possible as i was nearing the climax of the song....

But before i could finish and hear the applause.... someone started shaking me and said... "oye matis ki kya ho?" "what??" I said opening my eyes and saw i was not in recording room.... I was in mailey's bhatti... some friends around.... with kodo ko tongba in front of me... People staring at me in astonishment. "Gosh! haven't heard metal songs or what?" I thought to myself trying to act as cool as possible...."tato pani lyaidinuhos na..... kukhura ko masu ek plate!" someone said. I took a long sip from the tongba and got out of the bhatti... and realised that i had drunk enough.... and my recording day was over. I swear I have not been to that bhatti since then!!

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Biggest match....

A fine sunny day, we headed towards the place where the TT Board was constructed. A cemented TT board... almost two and a half KM away from home. All the matches were in my favor..... believe it or not. Except the last one which i lost knowingly because my brother Anup signalled me to do so as there was a preety girl of my bother's age in the spectator.

All the way I teased and irritated him. And then lightning started striking the sky and he started taking big breath...... SWA............ SWA.......... and he spoke "Lets have a Do or Die match this December..."

I was afraid at first...... but then how could I not accept the challenge?? I said "Ok bro.... you gonna see your bajey's marriage ceremony then!!" So, in this way a match is scheduled on this coming December when I will be back home..... Till then I wanna tell my bro to get prepared for the biggest defeat in TT match that I am going to give him.......

Match Details:
Champion: Dfina Amir
Challenger: An Merz
Venue: School Ground
Date: Not Fixed / December

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I miss her....

I remember the day....... my bags were all packed up and the next day I was leaving home for further studies...... "Amirrrr.... oye Amirrrr....." my grandma called me from her room in a low pitched voice. And I went to her room...... She was lying on her bed as she was ill from some days back.... took out one 500 rs note from below her pillow and handed me...... I was not in the mood to say "pardaina....." my eyes glowed up and I took the note from her hand and sat on the side of her bed.

"Dasain ma auchas??" she asked me.......
"Audina hola.... abo ekai choti December ma aunchu..... 6 mahina pichari....."
She again asked "Abo kati barsa parnu parcha??"
"Abo ajhai 3 barsa cha......"
"Ramro parnu hai... sathi haru cha hola ni?"
"Cha cha..... hami 5-6 jana chau...... huncha fupu-aama janchu la.... alik packing garnu cha!!"
As i was putting my slippers on..... she again said "ramro parnu hai!!" and I smiled and nodded...

I never knew that it was the last time I was with my fupu-aama..... And again I was busy packing my documents, chargers, clothes, some copies, etc etc..... Mother crying from kitchen "sab documents haru halis?? Anta luga kunai birsenas?? Sweator haru pani bok..... Delhi side ma ta pura jaro huncha harey!!"
"Bokey bokey.... sab bokey....... hola"
Brother coming now and then and trying to do chance mein dance...... "Am da....... yo headphone ta k lanchau hou??"
"Am da..... yo speaker chorideu la!!"
"Am da..... yo TShirt malai di hala hou!!"
"Am da..... laptop bholi parsi landa hundaina??"
"Am da..... yo deo ta chorideu?? timi siliguri ma kinana!!"
Next day I left for siliguri in the morning and as fupu-aama was sleeping thought not to disturb her.....

I came to Meerut.... joined college.... class started.... new faces.... new friends.... new rooms.... new environment.... time passed by!! One morning I received a call from a friend of mine who asked me whether I was coming home.... "Why? I will only come in December......"
"huh?? ghar ma k bhayo thaha cha??"
"k bhayo??" I was afraid.....
"Aamai khasnu bhayo!!"
"k........??"
My heart became so heavy and I disconnected my phone.... I cannot imagine my home without fupu-aama sitting near to fire..... this things started haunting me.....

I opened the laptop and opened the video clip I had taken in the dasain of the previous year..... fupu-aama making things ready for tika.... looking so happy maybe because all of her son and their family would gather together that day..... I cannot believe that "she is no more!!"

If only I knew that day was the last day I was sitting beside her and the word "ramro parnu hai!!" was the last word she said to me.......!!! I just pulled the blanket and lied on the bed thinking about the sweet memories I had in my home with my grandma.... teasing her and getting scolded..... Selecting her new sari and asking her to keep it for her grand-daughter-in-law..... Throwing crackers outside her room and asking "Fupu-aama! thikai hunu-huncha hola ni??" Asking her to help me frying meat in dasain..... stealing horlicks from her room every morning!!

I miss you so much grandma..... I was so much unlucky that I couldn't be there at those moments..... [though my presence would matter little] Now all I can do is just remember you wishing that your soul rest in peace.

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Last Day of Attendance......

As I entered the Computer Lab 2 as usual, unaware of the fact that today was the last time i was entering the lab with the same people.... Our BIC announced that today was the last day of attendance and started calling our names...
"Aditya..." "Present Sir...."
"Amir..." "Present Sir..."
"Avinash..." "present Sir..."
.......
.......
"Sudeep..." "Absent..."

The attendance too went normal... Prabeshna Didi as usual started collecting the activity chart as soon as it got over... she knew she was doing it for the last time!!! I always felt lazy about the activity chart but today I wasn't... I wrote it in the best possible way... honestly [maybe for the first time in CCCT] The activity charts were there in front of our BIC and he was busy correcting those...

A thought ran to my mind..."A last lab talk session...??" I looked around and saw friends in their own busy life... chatting and discussing over topics like interview,[which was the most hot topic today] someone talking about clearance... some not at all bothered and someone longing to be on Facebook again...

I recalled back... some days back... BIC taking attendance...
"Amir.... Amir.... Amirrrr...." "oh... Present Sir..."
"Sleeping again?? no attendance for you today..."
This scene will never ever occur with me again in CCCT... Noone will be bothered... Who will make me stand the next day of the bunking and ask "Where were you yesterday?" and the funny answer from me... "Sir... diarrhoea..."

BIC gave us some lecture and the last sentence... "Ok... you can leave now... Best of Luck for your life..." I felt so insecure... i dont know why... i was never a too moody guy but i never had this kinds of feeling before...ummm actually i never had this kinds of friends...

Very soon we were out from the Computer Lab... I was thinking, will I ever enter this lab again...? Even if I do, it will never be the same... never...
We will never see our C.R. Aditya running around making funny faces....
We will never tease Bimal with all those strange names...
I will never ask Rejina to look happy as she was always tensed and sad...
We will never see Prabeshna Didi collecting our activity chart....
I will never ask for thought for the day again...
Pravesh will never ask me about Facebook activity...

There were many things I will never do again and will never ever occur.... Though this things were not so big and not too important when it was there but i learnt that those were the small things simply adding sweetness to our lives and making it so lively and cheerful... I will always miss those moments... those labtalks, activity charts, thought for the day, those halla and discussions going on in labs, those tensions and fear and everything that is attached to it....

and I learnt that life goes on like this... and we should move on..... and who wants to reinvent the wheel twice?? I dont...

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Longest 5 minutes of my life........ arrrrggghhhhhh!!!!

I pulled the medicine bottle and read the label…. “Hydrogen Peroxide Solution” Opened the cap and poured some on the cap of the bottle. This was not some kinda syrup but a solution medicine that I had to put in my ear. I have got infection in my ear and I am having really hard time.

I lied on one side and tried to put that solution in my ear…….. tears rolled down my chick before I could put the first drop [probable due to fear]. Then I said “mard ko kabhi dard nahi hota……” and poured the solution…… and then I felt the solution directly reached my brain….. my eyes….. and everywhere….. I felt as if the solution was running in my blood…… the stopwatch had begun……. The longest 5 minutes of my life had started……

The pain was so intense that tears rolled down to my pillow….. I had to keep that solution for 5 minutes inside my ear……. I looked at the watch and I am damn sure that the hands of the watch was moving the slowest ever….. I was so angry at the watch that I wanted to break it but nope…… due to pain, I couldn’t move my hand and leg….. I closed my eyes with tears still flowing from it….. I had never experienced such type of pain and I could not make out which part was paining…. But I could not move a part of my body.

Then this bad thought started coming in my mind…… Is this the last 5 minutes of my life? Oho…. I have so much more to do….. so much more to live…… am I dying without a girlfriend?? So sad of me…. I thought about my last wish….. bike?? No… Super Computer?? No….. Farari?? No…. GF?? ummmm…… No….. Shaadi?? Ummmm……. No…. I could not make out what was my final wish. Maybe that was because of the unbearable pain.

Someone entered my room…. “Amir??” Thank god, my mother……. If my brother would see me in tears then I can’t imagine how much he will tease me….. “k bhayo?” I hardly lifted my hand and pointed at the bottle….. “ho….. headphone lagayera hineko niskeko pata……. Khub bass, treble ko kura garthis ni…… ae chora….. testo geet nasun….. baira hunchas bhaneko bujhenas? Abo bhayo hoina ta bijok?” What? What is the connection between Bullet For My Valentine’s song and my ear infection? I wanted to tell my mother but could not speak……. “Abo talai siliguri nalagi bhayena…….” Atleast that sentence was soothing and I gave an internal smile [inside my heart]…..

Mom left the room….. I looked at the watch….. it was already 5 minutes but the pain was still the same…… I looked at the bottle and remembered the day I had gone to see the doctor…… after the check up, I went to the medicine shop with the prescription list…. The shop-keeper looked at me and without looking at the list took out a huge bottle of Vitamin. I smiled….. then he started giving the medicine from the list.

After some busy moments… he pushed a heap of medicine and the list towards me….. [I wished he would forget the bill….. hahahaha] I looked at the prescription list as if I m gonna understand that. Luckily I understood the first letter of the medicine written at number 3. It read “hydrogen mmmmmm mmmmm” acting smart I asked the shopkeeper about it…. He said “oh!” and gave me this bottle…… I was proud that I witted the shop-keeper….unaware that I had added 85 Rs more to my bill….and on top of that this medicine gonna give me the longest 5 minutes of my life and also it would make a place in my FB note!!!! hahahaha. I cursed the day and the time when I asked for the medicine which is causing me so much pain.

Now its almost 10 minutes and the pain has reduced…. The only thing that’s going in my mind is to throw that bottle as far away as possible. I went out with the bottle and went to the huge rock behind our house….. I took the risk of getting scolded from my grand ma for breaking the bottle as she was watching me doing so….

I hit the bottle as hard as I could but to my astonishment it bounced…… WTF?? The bottle went inside the bush….. but I wasn't gonna spare this bottle….. I searched for about 10 minutes and finally found the bottle….. then I went straight to the toilet and flushed the medicine in the toilet. Then I said to myself….”wow! what an achievement!!” Then I came to my room…. Holding my ear with one hand….. as if it will fall any time!!! I lied in my bed and smiled at the thoughts that came to my mind in that 5 minutes …… This 5 minutes was the longest minutes of my life.....

And I wish this never comes again………….

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Three years in CCCT.....

Donno how the 3 years have passed out here. Remember the day when I came here for the first time with my father for filling up the admission form. Some seniors[maybe the 3rd year students] were standing outside with loads of books, the size of which I had never seen before.... now I can guess those books were VB.Net Books or ASP books and I am sure they had a good time getting scolded from John sir while issuing those... haha... I felt: 'NO WAY! I'm not gonna study here...' kinda afraid... of the infrastructure.

Came here, remeber the first day at mess... afraid to go inside... everyone looking puzzled. The rope-in program and the introduction.... haha.... a feeling of fear everyday.... those treasure hunts and talent hunts, everything's captured in my mind. Slowly days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months... seniors became friends and then the real CCCT life began..

Files... sessionals... labtalk... everything was new... though copped up with time... Fears injected in our mind in the name of Anup Sir, Bijoy Sir and Subodh Sir.... I was afraid to go near them... Then came the main villian like it comes always at the end of the movie.... semester exam.... oops those one night study... sometimes I wonder how I did it.... those 14 subjects... anyway now its gone....

We were 45 students in DCST at the time of admission but at last, mere 26 were remaining.... many fiends got year backed... included all my best friends of that time... Those crying and tears in DE lab... those little words of sympathy still lingers around my mind... People say "failure is the pillar of success..." or "to fail is an oppurtunity to begin again..." all this sentence seems to be quite strong and nice but when the time comes to accept it into life, it never seems true... failure was failure.... that I came to know those days.... :(

But all those bitter moments made us strong and we accepted them. I wonder if friends like them will ever come to my life again....... I cherish being in their company forever...

"MISS U ALL"

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we do....

- U greet ur frens sayin... 'Yess bro!!' even though there seems to be no logical or grammatical justification to the phrase.

- U literally ask wether sumone would like to 'EAT WATER'!! (eg. Paani Khane??)..or Booze!!! (Raksi khane??)...or even a KICK..(Laat khanu manparyo??) inspite of the fact that we drink water and not eat.... and who eats kick???

- U know wat 'ALOO DUM' is, and u hav definitely tasted it!! And u wud rather stand outside in the cold and relish Aloo dum (which u think is the best potato delicacy in the whole universe)... instead of going to an air conditioned MacD's rite across d street and hav burger n fries.

- U try to look elsewhere wen u c a pretty girl heading ur way...

- 99% of ur frens have one of the followin hair styles: spikes, long hair or middle parting. The remainin 1% are bald. but you would rather prefer bald then having middle parting hair because you think that "Tere Naam" is outdated!!

- U tend to take a bow whenever u shake hands with sumone new.

- U will laugh wen u spot any spelling mistake in the advertisement around the corner of the street.....

- 3 out of ur 5 frens can play guitar... the remaining two[along with you] have also given it a try at sum point or the other.

- The words 'Maradona' and 'Pele' were one of the first words u uttered since u learnt how to speak. All ur frens hav an opinion on football.

- Your best game is football when FIFA world cup is going on..

- The moment you're on a floor above the Ground Floor preferably a balcony.. you tend to look down and SPIT ...

- You look up when you hear an airplane.

- Whenever you meet someone in canteen you ask, 'Have you come for breakfast?' (khaja khanu aako?) You meet someone in a movie hall and ask, ' Have you come to watch a movie?' (movie hernu ayeko?) you know that noone comes to movie hall to eat breakfast or to a canteen to watch movie... do they??

- You think all festivals mean relatives playing cards and getting drunk...

- Your friends birthday is so dry without chicken chilly and momos... and BEER....

- You are crossing a one way street and you have to check both sides...( debre ani daine )

- Your relatives give you money whenever you visit them... (dont expect when you are already 40)

- When you see a pair of slippers upside down (ulta chappal) you have to turn it around.

- You don't trim your nails at night. (alas the devil might take You and your family)

- You feel you haven't eaten if you haven't had Bhath (rice).

- You laugh at everything on Nepali TV but you still watch it...

- You have been dragged to a mandir on saraswati puja so that you will get good grades.

- You are not allowed to hum or sing while eating.

- Your grand mum doesn't let you whistle at night.

- You cant date someone if you are not in love.

- You Know who Humjayega is. You have never met him.

- You watch Korean movie and try to act like one.

- You miss those mountains you used to see the moment you opened your eyes in the morning...

- You go out for lunch/ dinner/ whatever in a group and look at the menu for half an hour and order just momo and chowmein....

- You think of titaura and your saliva glands go wild!!

- You think Toyota Corrolla is the no..1 car in the world!

- You miss wai wai ,churpi and tituara almost any given day.

- You are good at drunk driving, especially on motorcycles...

- your conversation with anyone you just met, always ends up being an interview to unearth the degree of association with this person. (eh...Ghar ka hare?? gangtok? Tyeso bhaye timile xyz lai chinchhau??) 90% of the time you end up knowing someone who knows someone who knows the person. The remaining 10% of the time the person is your relative.

- you think cats are evil.

- your American friends ask you if you have climbed mount Everest.you probably haven't even seen mount Everest.

- you love the pungent, fermented smell of pickled bamboo shoots (tama) and dried
and aged vegetable leaves (gundruk)


& you are drooling at the thought right now....

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....and my life goes on!!!

Alarm rings...... I hate it... open my eyes unwillingly..... i see the watch and time is 8:00.... extend it to 10 more minutes and again sleep.... feels so good when you know you can sleep for some couple of minutes right?? My room partner shaking me reminding me of the time.... i dont bother to even open my eyes coz i have full faith in ma alarm.... coz that is waking me up everyday form the last so many years though i never wake up to it.....

Hesitatingly i wake up at 8:15 and move to the bathroom with towel and brush just to know that there's no water. A chill runs through my spine.... i am afraid if i have to go to college without brushing?? Then i run to the bathroom at the other corridor but no, same condition there too..... I have to look in the bucket of my friends if they have kept some water for emergency...ha..ha.. coz i know they will never give me if i ask them.... noone will.....

After managing somehow with a jug of water I come to ma room and see my room partner has bought some tea for me.... not that he is so kind and understanding but because we have turn for bringing tea.... Since I am always late in the morning and never manage to go for breakfast so he brings tea everyday in the morning and i have to do the same in the evening.

After taking some sip of the hot tea [feels like you are drinking some kinda cough syrup... just sugar,nothing else] in a hurry i reach assembly.... bells already gone and everyone is assembled...i sit in the last row .... assembly starts and finishes.... i am lucky that noone asks me what was the thought for the day or the news coz i never hear that....

Class starts.... again the tension.... the torture.... prabeshna didi.... yelling over nothing..... Rajani didi.... like a dynamite.... gets angry so often.... Kalpana didi.... smiling at everything..... Sokpa.... nowadays so serious... Bimala.... one of the most humerous guy ever born..... Pravesh.... FB guru... somehow time passes... yawning.. doing quarrels.... doing photosessions... making jokes of each other... laughing and enjoying.....

5 pm... and the bell tolls... automatic smile comes to my face.... run to hostel... tired and exhausted but i have to get tea for my roompartner.... i goto terrace to see the shading sun.... feels so good.... i like to sit there looking at those blissful moments forever.... i come back to my room somewhat refreshed as if my loads went away with that orange sun....

I come back to my room... open my door.... loud music going on... from some heavy/black metal bands.... Bullet for my valentine or Cradle of Flith... screaming.... feel like running away... at first i used to reduce the sound but now i am used to it.... i smile and start changing dress in rhythm.... tears dont fall.... they crash around me.... [songs going on] :)

By now... its already 6:15 pm... getting refreshed takes another 30 minutes and then talking[we guys dont do gossiping.... its for girls....] with friends about various issues....[as if it were so important and we are gonna change it..]. Its dinner time.... we go for haunting of butter, chilli, pickles..... after dinner our CCCT hostel life begins....

When people goto bed, we are not even sure whether we will sleep or not..... good/brilliant guys will start writing files or studying.... game freak[have never seen one like my room partner...] busy with some games.... RAW, Prince of Persia teasing me for playing something like stick cricket and fruitsmash... coz i never play what he plays and the reason i say is "i dont have interest"....[the true reason is i can never beat him in computer games and i dont wanna show that...ha..ha..]

There are also some people who are a complete movie freak.... the ones like Bimala.... coming asking for a pen drive or a movie.... how i came to know that he is a movie freak?? thats a long long story... someday i am gonna say it but not now. He has seen all the series of horrors, korean, comedy[American Pie specially]... and what all i can name... evrything but still he searches for the movie every night...

Oops i lost the track... what i was saying?? ummmm..... yes i am always busy on the internet downloading all that i think is useful.... Many times i am on some programming sites though i cant stay there for a quite too long haha.... Amit Kumar by my side always on youtube.... though we know we have to submit file the other day... we are so brave to face it..... :)

Its 1 am... time for us to sleep..... then we switch off the light though amit is still talking to someone on the phone... i slip under the blanket and dont know when and how i feel asleep....

Just seems that an hour has passed and the alarm rings again..... time is already 8:00am ...again the cycle continues..... and my life goes on!!!!

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