Expressions

Getting a BE seat was like a cake walk for Somu. Though not a hard worker, luck has always been in his side. His parents managed to buy a piece of land when he was young. Blessing from the rain god and Lakshmi has always helped them to give a decent education to their only son, who always took advantage of his caste to get into reputed institutions and now has been selected for Scientist B position in BARC, Mumbai. The humble parents were so happy that their only son has become a scientist. Somu, who wanted to profit his parents ignorance to the fullest, demanded things to done ordering them to bring and do various things. His parents’ extra attention to him made him think that he has achieved the unachievable and became more arrogant and demanding. He started showing his arrogance to the poor and uneducated villagers and the villagers as a sign of respect fulfilled all his wishes and demands. Soon the time had come for Somu to join BARC. A grand farewell was given, with hired musicians, hired elephants to garland Somu, and with great pride Somu left his village. As soon as he reached BARC, Somu could not loose his demanding nature. He started ordering things to every person he met in the guest house and in the canteen. Initially the people just because of respect for another fellow human being, listened and carried out all his demands. He failed to realize that BARC is filled with high quality scientists and being an entry level scientist meant nothing to them. Soon his demands grew more and more and the people around him to whom he ordered became irritant and impatient. One day they decided to pull him out of the bed in the night and throw him in the mud water. So when Somu was fast asleep, the manager of the guest house, who was one of the victims, provided the key to his room to help others accomplish the mission. They silently carried him out of his room and swayed him and dropped him in a puddle filled with muddy water. The shock woke Somu from his sleep and he stayed still, trying to understand the situation. I, who had been a witness to all the happenings, could not stop laughing seeing the mud filled confused Somu. But as my laughter saturated, I heard a distant laughter from somewhere. I tried to look around and I felt like coming out a whirlpool. As I opened my eyes I saw my friend laughing overcoming her early morning drowsiness; she said “yeh, sapnon mein koi comedy film dek rahi thi kya??? (Translation: Hey were you watching a comedy film in your dreams??)”

Ananthi Sankaran

I read this article today. No wonder my friend who I know and talk like best friends for the past two months asked me yesterday if I own a microwave, while I was constantly telling her for the past two months that my main equipment for cooking is my micro-wave :)

Next time I must insert the things I wish to be heard in a gossip!!!!

Men, it is not only you who is struggling to understand women; women themselves cannot understand other women :)

Ananthi Sankaran

Last time during my visit to India, I had a terrible flight journey. I badly wanted to take Srilankan airlines, but when I took it, I seriously regretted it. The overly sumptuous Indian food provided in the airplane made my stomach upset and I had to do frequent visits to the toilet interrupting the wonderful ramarajan movie that I was watching. But it did not matter to me because the idea of seeing my parents and friends gave me extra enthusiasm. My friends had decided to make a get-together on the very day I land as another of my friend was leaving to Mexico the very next day. So, with all these plans and dreams, frequenting the toilet was quite easy. As soon as I landed Chennai, to my surprise, the plane landed 1hr before and there was no ‘Q’ in the immigration line. So I came out of the airport earlier than anticipated. So I thought of cancelling my late flight to Coimbatore and decided to take an early one. After doing the check-in, I finally came to the boarding area an hour early. There was a group of foreigners with an Indian friend who probably have seen one of the mariamman festivals in the south and was making fun of different people’s reactions and beliefs. I thought I’ll give a call to one of my friend to find out the venue of the get-together so I went to the telephone booth. After trying for nearly 15 mins to all my friends I called my parents to ask if any of them called. My parents said none of them called, I did not tell my parents about my early arrival as I did not want to trouble them. (To receive me for this flight they should have started earlier from my house and they‘ll reach only after my flight lands.) So with the blood boiling that none of them cared to call to tell me about the meeting I sat there furious looking around and thinking to myself the efforts that I took to meet my friends. Suddenly I saw an old couple may be 85+ marching towards the seating area with an airhostess dressed in red color. The lady was in a wheel chair. The airhostess stopped the chair next to me and said to the old man that when they announce the flight you please board, I’ll take you wife to the airplane in the end. So until they announce the flight please wait.

Taken from (http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/photo1041010.htm)

By this time my flight was announced and the passengers formed a ‘Q’. Since there was a blast recently somewhere, there were extra check points before boarding the bus. I saw the old lady whispering to her husband something and he was desperately looking around for the red dress airhostess. When he could not find he slowly started pushing the wheel chair away. Seeing this, I felt sorry for him and approached the man and asked if he needs any help. He said, please my wife has to go to the toilet and I don’t think they’ll allow me in the ladies room and I do not know what to do. Overconfident about the Indian work ethics, I decided to take her to the toilet. So I asked the lady if I could push her to the toilet while her husband sat there. She said ok and I took her to the toilet. The cleaning lady who was frowning earlier, when she saw me with the old lady immediately came to my help as she knew it was not a one person’s job. So after cleaning her hands and legs when I came out to the boarding area, I saw the ‘Q’ had vanished. I quickly wanted to rush to the airline to say that I was left out, but the grandfather held my hand and tears fell from his eyes and blessed that you will be fine wherever you are. Though, happy that I could help someone, my head was telling me to rush to catch the flight. After taking leave from the couple I rushed to the counter to say that I was left out from the boarding. The guy in the check counter said that one of the passenger had informed that someone who was standing in the line and gone to help someone and had requested to stop the bus. I was not even checked but everyone in the counter said bye and when I entered the bus, I felt all the people were smiling at me. A sense of deep satisfaction sunk in me, a kind of happiness I have never felt before. The anger that I had for my friends flew away, my overly big teeth shined bright as I could not stop smiling. We help a number of people in numerous occasions, but when you help someone who is in real need of that help, the satisfaction that you get is priceless.

(This story is dedicated to one of my good friend with whom I had an argument few days ago about why someone should explicitly show some of their emotions at places where it is needed)

Ananthi Sankaran