Why / Why Not

Cell phone was ringing. He took the cell and saw the number. It was from India and it’s his close friend. He disconnected the call and called him back from his cell.

Friend: Hi da. How are you?

He: ya. I’m ok.

Friend: What man? Just ok?. You’re in USA. Enjoy, its your turn. Don’t waste your chance.

He: What ‘enjoy’?  I’m all alone here; no one is there even to talk to. I’m sitting alone in office all day. In room also same. Room is more boring than office. Especially weekends are like hell. If I close the door on Friday evening, I’ll open on Monday morning only.

Friend: What will you do on weekends? Just movies huh?

He: What else then? Drinks, sleep and movies. That’s it. I’m drinking half bottle alone.

Friend:  We all miss you mostly having drinks. No one to take leadership in teasing others. Either they go to sleep immediately or vomit after drinking. Missing all the fun and you, very badly.

He: I want to come to India asap. I don’t want to stay here for long.

Friend:  Everybody says this in the initial days. Then they will get green card, then citizenship and gets settled there itself.

He: No no. I guarantee you I won’t do that. Whatever happens I’ll come back after sometime for sure. But you’re right. Most people wants to settle here after staying here for couple of years. Main thing is they don’t to see pay slips in thousands after they saw it in lakhs. And life here is easy and sophisticated. Everything is automatic. I’m feeling too jealous that these people live a much sophisticated life compared to our people. Standard of living is thousand times good here. Our angry on corruption and politicians grows much more after seeing how government maintains everything here. You should see the traffic here, everybody follows rules and every vehicle goes smoothly. It’s like pre-programmed video game, no one makes mistakes. You know, one day I was asking lift to cars outside my office as I was getting late for my doctor’s appointment. I didn’t know that hitchhiking is not normal here. For 5 minutes no one stopped, and then I found some cab number and called them and was waiting for them.  All these things happen in 5 minutes. A police car came and the cop asked me for some identification and informed that hitchhiking is not usually followed here. Someone had called 911 and police came in 5 minutes to check. In our place even if an accident happens, ambulance itself comes to take only the dead bodies. And you should see the internet speed dude. A movie gets downloaded in 20 mins. Internet connection in my room is faster than our India’s office Internet.

Friend: So everything is so good there. Why do you want to come back then?

He: Yeah everything is good here. But still this is not my place dude. I don’t belong here. I miss many things. My mom’s cooking; fighting with my sister; college friend’s get-together; chatting in colleague’s cubicle; those long chats during lunch and snacks times; getting newspaper outside the door and turning it to sports section; fan sound over my head while sleeping; tea shop in the street corner; and more and more. And I miss speaking in our regional language. One second, bear with me. Close your ears if you want.

Friend: what? Why?

He: !@#$%!#%(@%$&@%$@%$@%$&@%$@%$@^$*^$&@%^$@^............................................................................................                                                                                                                                                   (badwords in his regional language)

Friend:  oh oh…stop it. What happen? Why are suddenly scolding me?

He: Nothing. Those words are the ones I miss speaking most. So just spoke once.

Friend: Hahahahaa…………………

He: Really dude, in few days I might forgot my language. And people who have kids here, their kids don’t know their regional languages. They speak English and Spanish fluently. But they don’t know their regional language. Even if you speak in regional language they reply in English only. That’s one thing why I don’t want to settle here. I don’t want to speak to my kids in English, I’m having hard time speaking English to clients itself.

Friend:  Ok ok. Just earn some money and get back here soon. I have to drop off.

He: Ok then, see you later.

Friend:  I had good time pass listening to your blabbering.

He: Yeah I listened to you some days back, it’s your turn now. Bye.

Friend: Bye. Take care.

He disconnected the call and keep staring the phone for few seconds.

“Oh God!! I want to go back to India soon…………….”.

Few minutes later:

Cell phone was ringing. He took the cell and saw the number. It was from India and it’s his India’s office number. He attended and said ‘Hello’.

Otherside: Hello.  Are you busy? I want to discuss something Important.

When ‘Hello’ not followed by ‘How are you?’ itself, he realized it’s his Manager.

He: No. Tell me. I’m free only.

Manager:  You filled your attendance?

He: Hmmmmmmmmmmm……..no not yet.

Manager: Does every time someone needs to remind you? You’re getting mails right?

He: Yeah…I saw the mail. I’ll fill now.

Manager: Why didn’t you attend the meeting we had before one hour?

He: Meeting?????.......which one?

Manager: Which one? You’re checking your calendar or not? What will you do when you get a meeting request?

He: I’ll check it and hmm…….

Manager:  You don’t accept the request?

He: hmmmmmmmmmm………………not much

Manager: you should accept right? How others will know that you’ll attend or not?

He: Yeahhhhhhhhhh..i’ll accept hereafter

Manager: And join the meetings 5 mins before.

He: yeah sure

Manager: You’re experienced now. You should follow these professional ethics.

He: Yeah yeah sure sure I’ll

Manager: I hate to say this again and again.

He: I won’t repeat these mistakes. I’m sure

Manager: Ok. Be careful with clients, don’t let any escalation happen

He: Yeah..

Manager: Ok. Bye.

He: Bye

He disconnected the call and keep staring the phone for few minutes.

“Oh God!! I don’t want to go back to India ever again………..Never”.

hIgh school hIstory

Sentenced for two years:

Before Independence, British used to send the India’s freedom fighter’s to the cruel Cellular jail of Andaman and Nicobar islands. During Civil war, America used to send the civil war prisoners to Military prison in Alcatraz Island. During our higher secondary education, our parents sent us to XXXX Higher Secondary school.

First day:

Outside the Office room, in notice board it was mentioned that our classes have been formed based on our tenth marks sorted in the descending order. For my marks I’ve been put on A2. Classes range from A1 to A17-Biology, B1 to B6-CS and C1 to C3-Commerce. 50 students per class, calculate the total number of students in 11^th standard.  Approximately same amount in 12^th and there was Improvement and Pure Entrance also. Totally around 5000 patients, sorry! Sorry! Students. Me and my Dad looked up the building from the ground in awe; my Dad in proud that his son is going to study in such a big school and me in fear that how I’m going to comp(l)ete two years here. My Dad gave me the last words of advice and left, me on the entrance of the building and the pressure (of becoming a doctor) on top of my head.

I entered my class. One Gents teacher was sitting in the chair in the front. Some students (only boys) were sitting in the last 3 benches on both right and left sides. First three benches in both sides were empty. I wondered why no one was sitting in the front benches as all the students in this class had got around 85 % marks in 10^th standard and no one interested to sit before. And there was a huge space between 3^rd and 4^th benches, so much that one more table and bench can fit in. Then I registered the name to that teacher and went to the 4^th bench and sat. One by one students came to the class and all were boys and were sitting in the last 3 benches. I was getting disappointed as there was no girl still in the class. Then I eavesdropped from the students sitting behind me and found out that the first three benches on each side were allotted to girls and that’s why there was a huge space between 3^rd and 4^th benches. So, technically I was sitting in front bench as usual, at least among the boys. Teacher, after confirming that all the boys in the register entered the class, went outside and signaled a bunch of girls who were standing outside in the portico. All those girls entered the class and filled the front benches and some gap in our hearts.

You could wonder what all the girls were doing outside in portico. That’s the rule there. Girls cannot be present inside the class unless a teacher is present inside the class. So they will come and wait outside in portico and when the teacher comes he will signal them to come to the class. Once the class gets over, girls will leave the class 1^st, then the teacher and at last only boys should leave. And obviously boys and girls are not allowed to talk to each other ever . Once I heard this rule from the teacher , the 3^rd bench looked far far away from me and it remained far for the rest of the two years. We didn’t get a chance to look at any girl face to face for two years though they were there always before us. In some ways that helped, we saw some girl’s face in only some particular angle and imagined that she’ll be beautiful.

First day there was no class, so the supervising teacher asked us to read some books. And oh boy!, you’ll never see anywhere students studying so sincerely in the 1^st day itself. Everyone started studying some subjects (mostly biology) like tomorrow is our public exam. Some students directly went to second chapter. I got freaked out and scolding myself for not listening to my father’s advice (to study 1^st chapter in all subjects in holiday itself).

Lunch time came and we all went to Mess in line. And FYI, the line contains all 11^th standard boys. There was two Mess, you could call it as twin mess. Both looked exactly same. If you’re wondering they built two buildings in exactly the same shape and structure, then stop it. There was nothing to build there; it was two big rooms of same size, with four walls and a sheet on top. We have to sit in the floor only. Foods were served in some cart with four small wheels, which workers used to push it in the floor and serve us. 1^st cart came with rice, and the person served it with a plate to our plate. Next came the sambhar cart, which is served in a mug, the exact same mug we used in our bathroom for taking bath in our village. Then rasam, then butter milk. For first day the food didn’t taste bad at all.  

Then again class and continued the study till evening. Then comes the hostel, which is just beside our classroom building. Every class is offered one room which is 20-25 members in one room. The room size is as same as our classroom. Each student is offered two shelves to keep our luggage and a place enough to sleep. We got introduced ourselves between the boys (Which is in the order: Name, place coming from, 10^th marks, Favourite medical college to join). Discussed about medical colleges in first day of high school!! Isn’t that too much?? Well not for us then. Really, some students were saying they didn’t want to join any college in Chennai as ragging will be more there. Even if someone had discussed about which hospital to join after finishing MBBS degree, that wouldn’t have been too surprising.

The student next to me said that we were lucky. I asked why. He said, pointing towards a building few blocks away “you see that building there? The one without any windows? That is girls hostel. There is not a single window in that whole building. We at least got a window, isn’t it?”.

I replied, “oh no window in the girls hostel building? I think that’s bad news for us too”.

He laughed and we were talking for some time and decided to go to snack bar. Yeah we had a snack bar inside which contains only 3 items most of the time. They are Parle-G, Sweet bun and samosa, three rupees each. Shaktimaan might not have saved people in real life, but the three rupees Parle-G saved ours for two years. Then we again had study hours in hostel and dinner , then went to bed at 10 PM. New place, so didn’t get sleep soon. I kept talking with that friend and we kept alarm at 6 am and promised each other that whoever wakes up first will wake up the other. Then slowly I slept, lot of thoughts running in my mind, dreams about getting a medical seat, state 1^st etc etc. 

After few hours I woke up before the alarm rings. I saw my wristwatch and it is 6 am, I thought my alarm was not working properly. My friend also woke up and asked me the time. I said 6 AM and we decided to go to bathroom. We took our buckets, mug, soap etc and started walking towards bathroom. After seeing us others in the room also started getting up. And if I hadn’t said earlier, there are no separate bathrooms there, we need to take bath in the open bathroom among others like buffalos.  Only we two were there in the bathroom and we were kind of proud that we woke up early before others. But to our disappointment water didn’t come in any tap there. We didn’t know what to do. He said there is one more bathroom nearby and water might come there. So we started walking towards there. A worker came before us and asked us where we’re headed to. We said that water didn’t come in the bathroom. He looked at us from top to bottom and said “Are you guys crazy? Its 12:45 AM, go to sleep for god’s sake”. I must have looked at my watch upside down. We got embarrassed and slowly walked towards our room. All our roommates were waiting for us and once we entered, all started laughing and teasing us.

--This is just the 1^st day. Lot of interesting characters and incidents are on the way.


Links to all hIgh school hIstory blogs:
Episode 7
Episode 6
Episode 5
Episode 4
Episode 3
Episode 2
Episode 1