Viji unplugged

It's one of those casual days, when I flipped through my FB feeds and found a relative of mine posting just the no 24 and gave us a free rein to guess... His passion is running marathons and quite intense when it comes to running. I frequently see those staggering numbers of kilometres he runs, nothing less than 35 or 40 kms decorating his FB walls through some app calculator.  Just to see those status make me pants, especially for someone who boasts about walking 2 or 3 Kms in a day and feel so proud about it.  This walk most of the times termed by me as photo walks and I stand more at one place and shoot pictures than walking.

My cousin's husband today put a status "24", as usual there were guessing games and he ruled out it is not marathon as he ran 41 kms today and I warned him that I will write a blog post about 24 and it can be anything about 24.  Instead of replying he simply liked my comment and now, I take that as a challenge and as usual try to make it one more blog post. I am, happy that I got some weird topic to rant about.

What can 24 mean? since Wiki at times is too factual and too practical, so not planning to quote many from there.

• If you keenly look at 2 and 4, you will find 'n' number of things to think of.  Doesn't that look like a Swan with its wings spread high? Doesn't that look like a Snail carrying it's house everywhere?
• Just to look at that curve 2 and angled 4.  2 looks so girly and curvey and 4 so crisp and manly, when they join together the chemistry hits rock high and Chromium results.
• Though the numerals are infinite, a day cannot stretch beyond 24 hours, it is too finite isn't it?
• 24 reminds me of Gold, in the purest form
• 24 TV series, comprises of 8 seasons, 24 episodes for each season and the 24 episodes comprises of 24 hours in the life of the lead actor
• Every dimension has kissing numbers and 4th dimension's kissing number is 24; Err! not elaborating, only science can make a word as sensuous as kissing in to something so complicated and technical.  I don't even want to research about it.

Curiosity kills the cat they say, till I die I probably might poke my nose where it is not welcome and do I bother about it? Not at all!  :O Yawn! 

A dream where your man is stolen right before your eyes and you aren't blind folded or your hands and legs not bound, mouth not gagged, yet you watch helpless wanting to scream, but choked and stunned.

He was standing with you 60 seconds back and now the place where he stood is vacant, you look stupefied and wait for something to happen. 

I am sure that was the middle of the dream. Something happened before that, some happy moments, that I don't remember clearly.  From what I remember now, we were walking on a bridge, looking down at the water that was still and I hear him laugh, that teasing laugh of his and I was as usual enjoying every minute glancing sideways and even before his laugh faded to a smile, there was a screeching halt of that old fashioned Jeep and 4 to 5 masked men, raced towards us, bound his hands and dragged him away.  I remember the way he looked at me, with love, fear and there was something else in those eyes, that warned me not to follow, before he allowed himself to be dragged.  

Maybe too many films. But, I raced, till the Jeep became a distant speck carrying my life, away... far away from me. Too may questions in my mind.  Why? What did he do? It should be a mistake. They mistook him for someone else.  Forcing to think one step at a time, I turned and looked around me, Where am I?  The place was dry with an occasional tree, the Sun fierce.  

I walked back slowly, I should go to Police. I retraced my steps to that bridge and there were people gathered, where we stood and chatted sometime back. They were pointing down at the river and I walked towards it in a daze and looked down and found the Jeep.  Men dragging him, punching him. I always thought he was invincible, nothing can hurt him. He usually took control of everything, I can safely close my eyes and put my head on his shoulders and trust him to take care of us.  But, he was bleeding, suffering, yet refused to cry out, bearing every blow, but he looked angry to me. I was watching, not doing anything.  I kept watching. 5 of them against my one.  I started to walk down the bridge looking for a way through the bushes and thorn trees and I kept walking down, not a clue on how I would manage the situation, one thing very clear, I don't want to see a dawn or a dusk without him.  I wanted to die with him if there is no chance to live.  We promised to be there for each other and I walked down to be with him.

When I woke up, I didn't wake from this dream.  Probably I had few other dreams before this and few after this.  But, the only thing I remember is his smile and my love for him and the fact that however illogical the dream was, my love for him has become stronger and understood that without him I don't exist.

No more stopping by Napier's Bridge even for a photograph at least not when I am with him! What a nightmare!

Hope this letter finds you in good place, shape and mind.

I also hope that you haven't met my son so far.  In case you haven't met him yet, then I want to assure you that he is in good place, ?shape and ?mind too.

Just for you to have an idea about his great mind, he is a great thinker for his age.  He was right next to me, when I titled this post and asked me innocently in Hamam style, "Daughter in law na yaaru ma?" (who is daughter-in-law?)  I replied, "un varungala pondatti" (your future wife). "Oh! You mean my "sister in law"?. I blinked.  "If she is your "daughter"-in-law, then she should be my "sister"-in-law". Ayyo ayyo ayyo.. mudila pa...

Wherever you are, please come soon. Not that I am trying to get rid of my son. He is nice, good looking, tall, fair, handsome and he is in his first year of college and spends 4 hours in travelling to college  and 6 hours in college and 6 hours sleeping.. The rest 8 hours he eats, watches TV, play games in laptop, mobile and eats some more and stay angry.

He got his own weird, twisted sense of humour, most of the times you don't get them and when you get them, you wish you didn't.

He has close to 2000 friends in his FB account and out of the 250 odd indian names, all other names sounds like korean/japanese/chinese. Whatever status he puts in FB, these Korean/Japanese/Chinese promptly likes them and they call themselves as Ma(a)nga something.

He calls everyone Machaan, I am losing count of the machaans and am worried if he means them literally.

I'd rather warn you beforehand to learn and play games, that way you can login from your laptop and he from his laptop and be part of the same multi player games and earn lots of lives and live happily for multiple lifetimes.

If you are a cleanliness freak, then maybe you should learn to ignore little things like the dry food plates collecting fungus lying next to him, a dozen pillows strewn around the room, and his go green, "let us not waste water" during weekends, by taking bath.

Well! all said and done, the bonus is you will get a husband, who will take you to movies everyday and watch English serials with you the rest. If you want to get his attention, try to get an audition with the BBT team and act in Big Bang Theory and I assure you, he will watch the episodes 3 or 4 times a day and you will be duly attended to.

He will not fight with you or hear you screaming as long as your voice crosses the alarming decibel limits. Most of the time, he has his ears plugged to some English music and hums loud.  Not to worry, I will ask him to buy you an earphone too, and you can plug it on as well.

If you are a health freak, then probably you should be less fussy again, as all his favourites consists of either cheese, butter or ghee and one word, no make it two words not in his dictionary are fat-free and sugar- free.

He enjoys his life the way he wants and if you mold your style to match his, welcome aboard.  I have an apartment ready for you guys and it's all yours with my blessings. What!?! No, No I won't move with you guys. What do you take me for? I am not that dumb to come between a young couple.  He is all yours!

Dying to meet you soon.

Regards,
Your Husband's Mom

PS: Unlike other friends of yours, you won't have anything to complain against your mother-in-law.

When things turned a mean bitch...

You were there behind to hold,

I snuggled and settled to unfold...

We smiled a few tears,

We cried a few smiles,

We held the fights away,

We made up with peace, forcing its stay...

All those years, hours and minutes,

When I look back flew infinite,

We never felt the pressure,

We never felt the strain...

With lots of expectations and some fear,

We tied the knot that late summer,

You helped me, wipe them away without a trace,

When I looked back today, I lost my way.

I had to say this to us,

Years doesn't matter anymore,

I may leave this world one day,

But my dear Sure, I expect a Ji Mahal without delay. :)

Happy Anniversary to Us!

But, this 300th post was stopping me from writing further.

And, PSY came to my rescue.  Took few screenshots of my posts and added.  It was like revising my old posts and like a proud mother added them one by one in the movie maker and here's the movie for you all to watch.

As always, you are the force behind me to write and with out you guys, I doubt I would ever write anything at all...

Now that I migrated from viji-poetrymypassion.blogspot.in to viji-unplugged.com, it's time for more posts, more variety and more fun.  Hoping to target to write minimum 2 posts a week.  Stay tuned!

Now within your reach,

Few hurdles waiting for your leap,

Soar high your head so straight...

Past doesn't matter,

Present times take you to future....

Good that you had a history,

Its makes your life laced with mystery...

Wait and watch as the game unfurl,

Practice patience, stay away from curse,

You float, keeping emotions on toll,

At the wave of flag, unleash your control...

Swoop down, hunt your prey

Quite merciless, whatever comes your way

Eyes trained to the goal post,

Penalties not required for you to score...

Had a life to live,

Took the path easier to walk,

Keeping the promise, breaking a heart...

The path where I loved to walk,

The path that led to my past,

My thought racing ahead

I hastened to deliver my cause...

Stared by eyes cold like ice,

Lips stretched, ugly and vice,

I lowered down on my knees,

Held my promise out to see.

A straight slit and slowly it bled,

I watched without any feel,

No questions and no answers,

Thought about that forgotten track...

Dragged down the path to my life,

Loving and bowing, held me tight

The stitches though rough and crude,

Zig zag scars is life in truth.

Google doodles Amelia Earhart on her 115th Birthday, that's today.  Now did I hear this name quite recently somewhere?  I tried to recollect and Oh! Yeah! the Maruti Suzuki sequel "kitna deti hai".  Quickly checked wiki and realised that it was Amelia Johnson, yet another aviatrix.

Leaned back on my chair,  with my morning cup of coffee slowly thoughts drifted to the day when I flew for the first time.  It was from Mumbai to Chennai and I was 38 years old then.  My brother booked the flight tickets and I was thrilled as well as slightly afraid.  Along with my mom, husband, and son entered the airport.  It was flying for first time for all of us except for my husband.

I checked in at the airport and waited for the security check. My wish to fly was so intense, I would have dreamt about flying at least 10 or 15 times.  For a person who had never seen the insides of an airplane, in my dreams I saw it as a bus.  There were times when I stood, holding the iron rails on the roof of the plane, probably to balance when the flight turned right or left.  There were times when, I stood on a long queue to buy tickets for my flight to the US, and my mom would precisely aim that moment to wake from me my dreams.  And once in my dream, when I was about to enter the airplane, I heard two men talking in whispers about their plans to hijack the plane and I call the watchman/police aside and tell them what I overheard and they stop the flight.  But, never once the flight took off and I travelled on air.

It was a low fare flight and with so many what-ifs running in mind, climbed the air plane, to be greeted by the air hostess and a dashing steward.  I gave my usual broad smile, wondering why others just nodded off those greetings.  I got into the flight but forgot to bring the cotton to plug in to my ears.  Anyways, I remembered my brother showing me a pouch with earphones, toffees etc and was waiting for them to deliver my kit.  After a while, I realized they don't provide such kits in low fare flights.  Those flights were meant for everyone to fly and the flight charges affordable to everyone.  I saw an old man carrying an old polythene bag and thrust the bag inside the cupboard on top of his seat.  He carried on with the flight rituals as if he travelled everyday from Mumbai to Chennai. I kicked myself for visiting the prominent shop which sells high class leather bags and paid a fortune to buy one, just because I was flying the next week. 

A pretty girl who sat on the row before me, pressed the switch and called for the flight attendant.  The handsome guy who greeted me walked through the aisle and asked her how he could help her.  She asked for some cotton and he provided her some.

I coughed and asked him little hesitant if he can provide me some cotton too.  He apologized and told me that they don't have the cotton and if he could help with anything else.  Felt embarassed and decided not to ask him anything until of course he comes back to me with an apology.

I was thrilled when the plane slowly crept to the run way and like a thunder zoomed past the runway and lifted its wing.  Finally my dream came true and I started to hum, "I believe I can fly; I believe I can touch the sky", though on a different context, I did fly and tried touching the sky and with due thanks to my brother.

All the jubilation, remained only for 3 or 4 minutes, all of a sudden the air plane slowly tilted to its left and then to right and went down few feet low, my stomach lurched and I knew for sure something was wrong and waited for the crew to announce we are living the final few minutes of our life. No announcement came and after few minutes the airplane righted itself. I was aware of every move of the plane.  Most of the time the plane was tilted and I decided to reduce some weight before I flew the next time.

There was a small commotion, when the air-hostesses dragged a small pantry on wheels and took the orders, collected the money and delivered the goodies .  I didn’t bat an eyelid when my son wanted a cold drink and heard the price was thrice the original cost, but bought it with a flourish.  

My hands held tight and lips chanting "Ram", the 1 hour and 45 minutes stretched like one day for me and held my breath tight till the final announcement came that we are landing the Meenambakkam airport, Chennai.  I was still holding my breath, till the third wheel was lowered with a thud on the ground.  I had heard that accidents happen, when the third small wheel attached to the nozzle of the flight refuse to lower. It was only when the air plane stopped at the runway and I stood to get down, I realized that I had been a fool not to enjoy the trip but spent it worrying hard.  Not that I wanted to smile, but wouldn’t it be considered rude if I didn’t return the smile of the handsome steward as I was leaving.

Did I tell you that I am now 41 and travelled 7 times after my first experience and still get little queasy when the wings slightly lower and balances after the take off and I had gained 8 kgs since then. And, did I tell you that I am scared of heights?