I want to break free...

Yes, that’s the song you’ll hear when you call me…

It’s a song by the British band- The Queens. Apparently, this was Freddy Mercury’s way of ‘coming-out’ to his mom. This song also became an anthem for the ANC in South Africa in the late-'80s when Nelson Mandela was still in jail and the white government's apartheid policies were still in place. But that’s just a little trivia, about the song… that’s not the point of the post…

I guess every piece of art becomes popular, when people start associating it with their personal experiences. And this one is no different… We all want to break free. We want to break free from sadness, melancholy, hatred, boredom, more work, less work, no work, hard work, smart work, appraisals, deadlines, assignments, plans and basically everything in life that binds and gags and makes you suffer.

But even that’s not the point of the post…

So, Dude, what are you getting to??

Pregnant silence

Pregnant silence

Pregnant silence

Pregnant silence

Drum rolls …drrrrrrrrrrrr……

I have resigned from my job!!!!! Yes dear folks… I have resigned

I HAVE BROKEN FREE!! (Umm…well, at least for the time being)

Memoirs of a sleepless city- 1

It was a winter night in Bombay. I lay in the bed, drifting in and out of a reverie. It was my third night in the city. The first two days had been really frenzied…running around with all my stuff, from one end of the city to the other. Finally I had ‘settled in’ at Kaustav’s place…for a week.

The orange neon light, from the street outside, streamed in through the blemished glass casement. The midnight radio hummed away softly, somewhere in the next room. Other sounds included the soft drone of Sandip’s snoozing, the street dog’s incessant howl, and the occasional cars whooshing past…..They say the city never sleeps…..Well at least I wasn’t….

The development of events, in the past two weeks had been really rapid. One leading to another, without giving much time to contemplate. I have been mulling up the idea to come to Bombay for a very long time…so, when I was asked to give my choice for the place of posting, I never thought twice while selecting Bombay. In another week, my training in Calcutta ended. Soon, I was, standing in the long queue, at the Sealdah station, to buy my ticket for Gwaneshwari Express to Bombay. And, in three days, I was standing in front of my house; my suitcase chock-a-block with my clothes, books, and shoes. My handbag crammed to limit, with packets of biscuits and wafers, and my wallet…..well, the status of that was quite unlike the other two. As I waited for the cab to arrive, I watched the Kadam tree, tall and upright, with its bare branches, drooping into our balcony, the long-standing rickety wooden trolley, right under the tree, where the Istiriwala used to press clothes day n night, I watched Ma’s cotton saree, fluttering in the wind, left for drying up in our balcony, and everything else, that had become so familiar, that I had never cared to take a second look at them. But at that moment, as the cab pulled up, my eyes drank up every sight and sound that was around me.

Yes, I was stepping out of home, stepping out for good. Going to a city that attracted me like a forbidden craving… to the city that never sleeps.

I'd rather..

1. Be at home, reading Doris Lessing, drinking Tia Maria, smoking a cigarette and enjoying the guilty pleasure of skipping office on a Monday afternoon

2. Be in Shantiniketan, getting lost while taking a wrong turn in some unknown village, and spend the night under the starry sky…

3. Make time stop, so that the weekend would never end, and the three of us would be together, at least for a little while longer…

4. Be with my friends, on a trip to a nearby hill station… may be Matheran

5. Be eating home cooked dal, rice and aloo fry rather than ordering Joey’s pizza, every other day

6. Stop working, quit smoking, and start exercising…

7. Become a Buddhist monk, and sell my revolution!

8. Be friends with you….

First

The first times are always special. Your first day in school, the first time you went for a movie all alone, the first time you flunked in a subject, your first drink, the first kiss, your first job, the first time… you know… I guess you have got the point.

Likewise, this post is special, because this is my first post. It was due for a very long time… but somehow my wise words didn’t get a chance to sail in the network of cyber channels. But now here they are, to enlighten you and more importantly to unburden me. I don’t promise to post on a regular interval (if you are reading this... then probably you are thinking … who the f*ck cares anyway!!). But I’ll try my level best… this is not a promise to the reader (because I don’t have any!) but a pledge that I’m saying to myself.

Well, there are many things that I want to say… but I’m going to take it slow…

Will sign off with these words by Lifehouse

I'm feeling alive all over again
As deep as the sky that's under my skin
Like being in love, she says, for the first time
Maybe I'm wrong, I'm feeling right
Where I belong with you tonight
Like being in love to feel for the first time