Vintage Point

                                                Pani Puri  On a Wednesday evening i went with my husband to have pani puri, i wasn't much in the mood to have it but the husband wanted to and as he says i am the sarthi to him. We drove off in our WagonR and reached about 5 km away from our place near Birhana Road to have pani puri...oh so delicious pani puri, as my husband would call it. Now as I told you already I was in no mood to have it but I accompanied my husband so as I was standing near the thela of the gorgeous looking Pani Puri instantly my eyes went onto the gigantic hoarding of the marvellous Sonam Kapoor hoarding a necklace worth of crores and beneath that was a women standing in shattered clothes holding her frail daughter. There were at least 10 people gathered near the thela and eating the oh-so-lip-smacking puris but no one cared about that poor mo...

 Raju, a boy of 4 th standard used to love eating halwa and would request her mother to make some of it everyday. Sadly, she would forget to make it everyday too! Likewise, Raju would skip studying for his upcoming exams and would wait for the fortnight of the exam to study. Irritated by this behaviour of his, his parents would ask him to study bit by bit everyday but all their suggestions would go in vein. Raju would always respond with a sense of pride that he would complete the entire syllabus in just one night before the exam. Seeing this pattern of behaviour which Raju exhibited, his mother came up with a solution. She made a huge amount of “ gajar ka halwa ” and gave it to Raju to eat, she even warned him about the quantities of it.  Belittled by the fact, he ignored what his mother saying and he started eating the desert. Midway, his health started to deteriorate but baffled by the smell and taste of the desert, he continued to eat it but by the end of it he starte...

  Knowing of a person living nearby, who had just cracked being an actual Chartered Accountant made me proud as I saw her with a beam of pinaka smile on her face. Her parents had all the right reasons to cheer for her victories.   Among many other stories of all previously failed attempts stood out this one where to she actually cracked the exam with flying colours! There were also other stories being told by her parents while of the time she was going through this tough phase of her life. The one which caught most of my attention happened 2 years back.. At the age of 25, marriage proposals started coming for her and she started putting all of them down with utmost poise and grace giving the reason of becoming the C.A. she wanted to be first! Soon after her parents started doing the same thing, they turned down alliances stating the most obvious physical fact that their daughter dreamt of achieving more than being just a house wife. I liked this story in particular among...

Today as i was waiting for my vaccination turn to arrive outside the centre, seeing numerous vehicles passing by on the road. Mischarged by the heat and sleep deprived me was sitting in my car like a potato bag and cursing each and everything that had happend odd in my life since morning. only then i saw an old man trying to pull his cart full of tomatoes in the same scorching heat as me. Funnily enough, he was much more patient and calm than i was in my air conditioned car,  Though he looked so fragile to me and my mental reflex action was to help him push the cart. while i was jugling with the thought i saw him suddenly stop, turn towards his right and fold his hands in a namastey fashion. just then my eyes caught attention of the temple right infront of me which i had happen to miss out on because of my beautiful air conditioned miseries! At first i felt ashamed and then like a student, the student whose lesson was given to her by the tomato man. Just like me, there were several...

As much crazy and stupid you are, My love for you grows by each passing minute and the process of it varies from extremities. Sometimes it’s your words that make me love you more, sometimes it’s your laugh that swipe away my carpet of senses below from the feet and makes me go gala over you. Sometimes it’s also my anger towards you which makes me realise how important you are for the life to be happily lived. An amalgamation of all my emotions are the witness of what you are to me! I don’t know yet why I am writing this to you, for you, maybe because I don’t have much to do right now or maybe because I am missing you right now. So much kilometres apart from you I can still smell the fragrance you have, the smell of you when your eyes shine, when your hands work or when your lips touch a cigarette. As much as I hate you when you smoke a cigarette it does turn me on when you do so.  Amongst the hate, love, urge to meet you, the respect, appreciation, understanding, tryin...

Father loved me a lot, he is crying, there is blank spaces in his life now. All he wanted was me and I am not there. Mother is lifeless, she doesn’t know what to do next. She is blaming everyone that I died but not me, she loves me. She loves me dearly. All I could think was of my Family. The person I claimed to love didn’t cross my thoughts. Why? I am dead! And I don’t think about him. I didn’t wanted to be with him when I knew it was my last breath. All I could remember was, the family, their grief and how they would survive without me. Relatives would think I was a nice person, they cry too. I am lying just there, lifeless and I am no more. All the thoughts, pain and emptiness has come to an end. The body I have been fighting for since a child is gone. Nobody is there to listen, nobody is there to see. I am alone and of no existence to people; to the ones who gave me birth, to the ones who gave me Love. All these years the people I have been thinking about, they didn’t cross my m...

Back in the days what ten year olds used to do was eat, play, climb the trees, run while having no sense of what to wear and how. What then was appreciable was a smile decorated on their souls. The simpler times, the “us” times.. not just “me or you” times. Why am I saying like that? A few days ago I was alone and bored at the Airport and desired to jog around the gate numbers solely for the entertainment purpose. I witnessed many brands side lined that costs you a bomb. While crossing a jewel shop I saw a bunch of small girls standing near the newspaper stand and whispering something to each other. I gave a quick smile to them, thought to myself “ kids, what an amazing life they have!..” and moved forward . Or should I say tried to move on because I was keen to know what childish talks they were clinging onto. And luck supported me as whole heartedly as the tassel of my stole got stuck among the jarring lines of the same stand. 5 Minutes or Close Later… I am moving ...

As a doctor, she had to deal with a varied variety of homo sapiens. Some ill, some terminally ill and rest of them who treated it as a reward of their daily morning walks from their house to the clinic. In the practice of 8 years, Dr. Sonal Jha had seen impeccable people around her and was very much ‘not too shocked ‘ with any kind of adversities her patients exhibit now. Until one day, she sees a man, a big man with a height of 6’2, well built broad structure and biceps nearly equivalent to the doctors meek thighs. He had an old and frail-looking lady in his arms and was very hastily walking towards Jha. Her heart skipped a beat for a second. Na..na..not love, just horror. She was overwhelmed by his speed. The next moment, he entered the clinic said a hie and asked for permission if he should lay her ailing mother to the bed behind the doctor’s chair. To which Jha shyly nodded. She checked on the old woman, was back to her seat and signalled the boys associated for the work t...

She is a facsimile of me, The black woman in the rain.              I see her struggling through the way, but all go by in vain. The lump in her leg makes it tough to move, Like the wound I have which shoves me in a cocoon. The shadow of the woman is so formidable and dark, The dogs around her greet her with the barks . she sees the on goers with an umbrella, raincoat or Car, and wonders to herself if she is left out because of a scar. Deciding for herself which way to go, she laid out a step, Looking at me she smiled as if to sympathize with what all I had wept. She is a facsimile of me… Of all the things she had about herself which cornered me into murk, She did give me the pleasure of guilt that too with a jerk. What was so certain about my resemblance to hers? The tenebrosity which she had in equal amounts as me,   or the grapple she had with the water while everyone...

Struggling with her long hair, stuck in the hairbrush she managed to pull out close to 20 hair strands each time she swirled her brush on her hair with pure irritation. Seeing herself with bald patches on her hair line her tears knew no boundaries, she cried till the sunset. That’s when her 4 year old woke up, seeing her mother weeping she was utterly confused. With the brains of a 4 year old she could only see the hair strands loitering near the dressing table and wonder why is her mother crying? In a matter of 30 seconds, she ran like the “flash” to the table where her school bag was kept neatly on the side with the frozen princess’s print embarked on it. She unzipped one of the pockets, took out something, quenched it in her hands and then the bag saw her running towards her mother as she even forgot to zip up its chain. She looked at her mother with sympathetic eyes and held her left hand into her right one. She put a tiny tube of fevicol into her hand and the little angel s...

“Paneer tikka!” she said in pure excitement. Nivedita was a foodie and loved our great Indian cuisine,she was asked by her husband about what she would want to eat on a Sunday. 20 mintues later she came up with this reply.Her husband asked her to order the same from the app present in her mobile phone. After a disappointed look and a brush through her hair,she picked up the phone and opened a online food app. The order was placed for two. The couple was hungry at first,but became “Hangry“ which is apparently a new slag for Angry plus Hungry,when they were handed the package by the delivery boy. Nivedita went furious and shouted on the delivery boy quite brutally. Though she was not a person who would do that but seeing her Paneer tikka’s in this condition made her fuming in anger for the same. The parcel was not in a good condition,she picked up the phone and dialled the number of the restaurant. She told them she wanted the refund,they asked her if she would accep...

Shishir always had a liking towards Bharatnatyam and had left his CA studies for the same.He came from a very orthodox family and decision was not much appreciated in his family.Apart from all the odds,he thought to himself he would not give up upon the artform. He wanted to move out from Gwalior,a much smaller city in comparison with the metropolitan city. He decided to open a dance academy of his own,short on investment he found a place that was originality the old garage of his house which was of no use since ages.People,friends,neighbours and family everybody would mock at his idea of belief.However,Shishir was very adamant in what he wanted from life. He sold of his scooty in order to have a fund for his classes and pamphlets of the same. On the days that followed,he would stand outside schools and distribute the pamphlets to them,some would take them others would not even look at him. Sometimes he did it outside parks,the mall and gardens too. One day,he was called...

At the times of Mahabharata Shikandi was given prime importance in the battlefield of Kurukshetra. Being a eunuch,she was chosen for the important task of turning fate of events.She was the one and only who was responsible for the Bhishma pitamah Devrath to succumb to death that to on a bed of arrows.Shikandi was respected by everyone and was the choice of Lord Krishna himself for this tedious task. We as humans have crossed Era’s since that time and have evolved from bow and arrow to pistols and guns but what we are misleading at is the respect Shikandi was given at the battlefield. As times have changed,we see ourselves being distant from what our ancestors had taught us. Today,the tansgenders in our country are fighting for a basic right to live and survive in their own motherland. They need to prove themselves at every counter that offer them any support in return. How are they so different from what we are? I know what you must be thinking but that’s not being a m...

Just like any other day, I was sitting on the sofa at in my living room and watching a video on Youtube, then another and another in a row until a point when I found a video that was related to finance. My first thought was "why am I watching this?" And the second thought was " what's the harm ?" Maybe I get to learn something. After about 3.56 seconds, I heard a line of the speaker and it fascinated me to the point that I want to write it in my diary. The video was in our national language, so I began to write it in Hindi. And I soon realized that I don't know how to write "financial" in Hindi. I was confused about the spelling. I wrote it on  a piece of paper that was kept simultaneous to my diary on the blue table. But I was still not sure. I paused the video and tried to right Hindi 'varnamaala' just to test my vocab in the language I fumbled after the third 'vyanjan'. I got a bit skeptical if it was "gha" or ...

Maybe she was missing the caressing of people in the city or maybe she was the only one who had the time to think about the loneliness too much. Some of the colleagues also tried to take her to café’s,pubs and human libraries.She enjoyed initially but wasn’t able to find the connect she had lost in the train to Mumbai in the long run. This very thought came to her mind and she determined herself to finally take a leave from work and visit the holy place..her home. Sitting in the train of Banaras she felt more and further more relaxed. It was midnight when an old lady entered her coach and settled on the berth opposite of hers.She had a Murakami book in her hand which got our girl interested in exchanging words with her. She-hie,you read Murakami? Her-yes,very much.The odds in his books make me intrigued to read them. She-I used to love reading murakami back in the days,now I don’t get enough time from work. Her-o!where do you work?you hail from Mumbai itself? She...

The fact that she could not get out of the cab and dance in the rains made her miss her home in Banaras. A small city full of holy river and unholy people but sweet people. The place Pandit and Murari took birth and continue to live till eternity,where the pujari of the temples were itself considered god and their ashirwaad was equal to of the ones residing inside the mandir. Choti was very much happy in her small world in banaras but destiny took her away from the place and placed her in a agony of Mumbai,where she happened to be an intern in a magazine publishing company. Her original plan was to get her Msc done and get setteled soon but her love for photography took her someone else. Everybody in the dismay city of lights have a journey of their own.Some have it quick some have it late but there is a sure fruit of struggle on everyone’s lap the day you take a chance to stand up on the platform of Churchgate. Back in banaras,she had the privilege of cleaning up the...

Long gone are the days when marriages used to come with a range of certain terms and conditions. Recently,someone in my building got married and the bride was welcomed very warmly into her new house. Day before yesterday everybody from our building was present in the wedding.She was the kind of bride who danced the most on her wedding and probably ate the most too! She was a very happy chirpy bride,just like every other bride in todays age should be! And today morning,I saw her going to the office in a beautiful white and red saree with her husband casually dressed in black and green checked shirt,she was handed over the tiffins by her Mom-in-law just like her mother would used to do a decade ago. She very cordially hugged her new mom and then touched her feet.The mom kissed her left cheek and bid bye to her. The husband was now jealous about the love being shared. With long springy feet she moved towards the bike,hopped on it and went to work with dear hubby. W...

You know you need a change in things,people,perspectives,situations,solutions..when the end result is not happiness,when it comes with an insight of questions that you develop after a particular thing is done. I remember when I was in 10 th and had my   board exams ahead of me,in the month of January I attended a wedding party and met couple of people. Some of them being uncles of different shapes and sizes.I happened to sit in the room they were settled in for a bit and after a casual conversation they began talking about boards.One of them said he was passed by giving black money to the institution the other one said he was caught cheating,was taken to another room and despite he was the culprit and should have been punished he was allowed to openly cheat in that room. Some were boasting about their high marks and the quotes responsible. And soon there was a huge ruckus about the whole situation of board exams and its results.Also putting a light onto the authencity o...

She was 15 minutes late for the audition,she thought to herself as she looked at the door.She had to”push”in order to get in.There were 16 girls sitting in a row straight,some of them were very dressy,the other ones were trying to be one.Nidhi went ahead and sat next to one of the girls who was eating a chip chocolate biscuit and her lipstick was embarked on the half of it.Casual hi,hello’s took place between them and Nidhi was back to looking into the compact mirror she had in her left hand.This was the nth number of times when she was asked “you are a lefty?”.She wanted to give a sarcastic reply but she smiled instead. Soon,a tall guy with multiple wire like things around his neck came upto them and started distributing a series of pages to all of the 16 girls. Those were the lines they had to act upon. Nidhi was given the lines of a murderer in the scene,yes the murderer..a pity soul who kills people. She was practicing her lines while brushing her hairs and she got so ang...