Smelly Cat,Smellllly Cat

“Smelly Cat,smelly cat what are they feeding you?..Smelly cat,smelly cat its not your fault.”

Its been 12 years since Friends’ last episode came out and yet this song gives me the chills.

How many of us have wanted a group of friends just like Ross,Rachel,Phoebe,Chandler,Monica and Joey? All of us.We all have envied their friendship at one point or the another wishing how good it would be, if we could all have a group of people who would stick with us through thick and thin. How wonderful it would be to live such a life as them (the show)

However, life does offer us such opportunities. We do come across people who can be our potential friends/lovers/soulmate but more often than not we end up screwing our chances of such a friendship for the most trivial reasons.

I admit being the culprit of such misfortunes. Perhaps,I started of with wrong foot with most of them. Perhaps, if I hadn’t said what I had said. If only I could take back what hurt I slung at them. If only things could be undone, what have been done. I know, things had been horrible with us and I’ve distanced you from myself but I wish it could have been different. I wish we hadn’t ended up as smelly cats to each, where we aren’t each others favorite anymore.

Hope-is what keeps me going when I look back at old pictures of us. Hope-that one day I shall meet you again, hold your gaze,smile at you and I would have known that we had made it happen..once again.

The Silent One

How important is it to talk to people? How important is the sense,the power of speech to us? Did we ever pay heed to what extent our life depends on the way we communicate with others? The way we put down our thoughts and shape them into words with the help of our voices? The gift of speech..the art of communication..All through of our lives we have said thousands of words and sentences  but have we really said anything that had ever mattered?

Mr Ghosh was a neighbor of mine.Yes, I use ‘was’ for him. He is no longer with us now in body but he has never parted ways with us in spirit. He was the favorite of everyone, the apple of everyone’s eye. He was there for the joys and sorrows  of the whole neighborhood, be it the marriage of Abhishek da (elder brother)  , the birth of li’l Manu, my successfully clearing the entrance exams of college or the death of my grandfather. He was there for everyone. He was the favourite uncle for kids, Ghosh da for my parents and for me he meant more of a patronizing figure than anything else.

The only thing that I haven’t said yet about him was that he was mute. Yes, hearing and verbally challenged from his birth. Yet I or anyone else who knew him could communicate with him without any difficulty.It wasn’t like we all knew sign language to talk with him.He just had this incredulous ability to read the faces of anyone around. A cheerful person by heart, he never had anyone for a partner. He  was unmarried. One should try to step in his shoes just for once and see how it would be to live a life like him

I remember,once when I was in my 9th grade ,I had met with a terrible accident.The doctors said I had lost a lot of blood and there was no one nearby willing to donate their blood. There were no blood banks during that time..It was this Ghosh Da who came to my rescue..

An episode from my late teenage, I had this terrible argument with my parents about this whole new cell phone that came into the market.My father wouldn't buy it for me, saying it would destroy my career, my whole agenda, would take a toll on my studies. But my rebellious mindset of adolescence turned a deaf ear to their advises. Mother came up to me lovingly with food (I was in a sort of protest) .I, in a fit of rage, threw it all away and stormed out of the room. Only once did I turn back to see tears in my mum’s eyes…She was visibly hurt…

That night  I decided to stay at Ghosh uncle’s apartment upstairs. I knocked on the door three times. A silent yet firm reassuring figure answered my call. It didn’t even take him a minute to understand the whole situation. He motioned me to sit in a chair, made me some coffee, and looked at me as if to tell me that I had done a big mistake by behaving in such a manner with my parents. Though he made my bed and put me off to sleep, I knew he was touched by all of this. That night it rained…

The following morning I woke up and found a note next to me “Dev, you don't realize the depth of injuries your words may have caused your mum and your father. They love you irrevocably..Its a sin to break the bond of such  a love..” .This was enough to burst me up to tears.I ran up to my room. My mom was seated there.From one look I could say that she had cried the whole night. I went up to her and hugged her and cried for a long time…I was forgiven….

This winter the sad news of his demise came to me. I was in my college…At once did I feel the call of the Silent One..I had to meet him  before he set of for his final journey.. Yes the Silent One was the person who taught me to speak…

The last Train to home

  I am standing on a railway station, waiting for the last train to my home. It has been a long tiring day and now its dusk. Home is all that is in my mind right now.
          An announcement at the platform. Train is running an hour late. My legs are getting weary, mind restless already, I decide to sit down somewhere.
            A glance at the platform and I see a lot of faces.Faces of different kinds. Faces having their own stories to tell.
       A child wearing nothing but rags for clothes comes infront of me, sweeps the floor, begs people for money. His face, I notice, is one that tells a story of extreme hunger. His cheeks weathered, his hair turning brown,teeth broken.. None notice. I reach for a penny in my pocket and hand it over to him. He moves on..
          Another glance at the platform and now I see the faces of a newly wed couple. The wife fair and pretty,holding hands of her husband, resting her head on his shoulders, and trying to sleep. The husband bends his head and whispers something into her ears. She wakes up startled,looks at him wide eyed. The husband smiles naughtily and she gives him a nudge and again sleeps on his shoulder.
I smile and turn my glance in other direction…

      The sight of an elderly couple catches my attention. They are seated in silence,perhaps waiting for their child to come. I feel a fleeting sensation thinking I would also be meeting my parents after a lomg time. I wonder if they too are waiting for me in anticipation.
         Now, I see a lot of people swarming tne platform all of a sudden. There is an announcement that the train is about of to reach the platform in no time.
          I get up,lift my bags and luggage and reach for a spot to board my train. The train is now approaching and my heart beats faster…I am coming back home.