Resurgence

The sun was unusually harsh that day. I wiped a few pearls of water from my forehead and cursed my decision to venture out in this weather. It wouldn’t have been better at my room either, which stood at the top floor valiantly fighting the sun and the wind throughout the year, in the absence of an AC. I had almost completed my work. I consulted my watch to find the time to be quarter past two. I called Gulati – ‘Have you taken your lunch?’ I asked. ‘Nope. I was going to have it.’ ‘Good. I am coming to your place in next 15 minutes. We will eat at the Dhaba next to your house.’ ‘Okay.’ I thought of hiring a rickshaw and then decided against it – ‘I would rather walk’, I thought. Walking is my way of fooling my body that I am doing enough for it to regain its original ‘slim and trim’ form. The heat was becoming unbearable and I was regretting my decision to opt for a walk. Suddenly my mobile phone buzzed with a message – ‘Please call urgently. If you don’t, it will be bad....

I disconnected the call, switched off my phone and went to sleep. Lady Sleep, who usually is kind to me, was in off mood and served me quite late. I woke late. It was the weekend and hence there was no rush. I took my time to freshen up and switched on my phone – it showed 114 missed calls from unknown numbers.  I was numb. I called Gulati – ‘Dude, it is getting on my nerves.’ I filled him with details before deciding on what to do next. ‘I am going to Police. It is a case of harassment- why!! It is full-fledged stalking.’ ‘And what would you say to them? A girl is harassing you by calling you from more than 100 different numbers. And what is her interest in a not so attractive guy? – She likes his voice. Dude no one is going to believe you.’ ‘I need to do something.’ I was feeling the heat somehow. ‘Shall I ask Shekhar to help?’ ‘Dude!! Calm down. You are panicking for nothing.’ ‘But he is…’ ‘A famous crime investigator. But there is no crime here. And he is a...

‘What?’ there was disbelief in our voices. ‘You mean to say he made up all these. He did not receive those calls. But, I can vouch for him. I have seen some of the numbers…’ Gulati was the first to react. ‘I never said that he made up all of these. I just said that none of the numbers actually exists.’ ‘But how can both be possible at the same time?’ It was Mithilesh’s turn to intervene. I was too shocked to react. ‘After talking to him, I pulled out the data from the network operator – his story corroborated. Not that I had any doubts previously. But, when I enquired about the origin of the calls – everyone was in for a surprise. These numbers do not exist. This is some hi-tech stuff. What are you up to Rahul? Why would someone harass you with hi-tech stuff?’ ‘Sougata’ I muttered under my breath. ‘What?’ ‘Nothing.’ ‘Anyways, I have involved the cyber department into it. They have not been able to find any trace as of now. But we would nail this soon.’ ‘This is...

‘What has happened?’ asked the rider. ‘Don’t know. The car went dead abruptly.’ said Mithilesh. ‘How come you guys are on this road? This is generally not used during this hour.’ the pillion looked suspiciously at us. I noticed that both of them were carrying guns. ‘We were getting late for a party. This is the shortcut and so we took it. Who knew that we would be trapped in this way?’ Arvind explained. We were all in our dapper best- the reason could have looked genuine. ‘Let me have a look.’ said the rider after a moment. Probably he was evaluating us. He scrambled for a few minutes and then looked triumphantly at us – ‘Here’ he showed us a disconnected wire. Mithilesh and Arvind had done a good job. I admired their thinking and guts. He fixed it and the car came back to life. ‘The area is not safe. Go and I do not want to see you guys a mile within this area in future.’ the rider said showing the arm he was carrying on his shoulder. He appeared kind enough...

It was a bad day at office. I left early. As I dragged myself back from work I was taken over by frustration and started cursing myself and my job. It was that feeling of ‘being trapped’ which many of us have felt sometime or other in our career - you know how it makes us feel helpless and miserable. Once in my room, I tossed my things on bed and sat on chair staring blankly at the window. I was in emotional turmoil and not knowing exactly what to do next I switched on the TV – ‘perhaps it would distract me’, I thought. The idiot box obliged and actually went a step further to provide a healing touch - for that day an artist was at work and he was in his sublime best. As Sachin hooked, pulled and drove the ball to boundaries I felt a calm settling on me. He had done this before and he was there again to come to my rescue. That day, February 24 th 2010, is etched in the history as the day when One Day Cricket witnessed its first ever double century – that day is etched in my mind as...

I assume most of you would be well aware of the ‘Mass Bunk Syndrome’ and many of you would have been at least a part of it or something similar at least once in your life. To the uninitiated ‘Mass Bunk’ is a term used for collective action on the decision of not attending a particular session or a class generally by a group of students (but can be done by any group of people) . I am not sure if you would find this definition anywhere else as it is a result of yours truly’s firsthand experience. Obviously the term has its origin in ‘Bunk’ but has evolved to embody the spirit of collectivism. Those who have had a tryst with the syndrome would agree that the act could be used to group’s advantage in a lot many situations: in an ‘all important’ India Pakistan cricket match to the legendary telecast of ‘Disco Dancer’ on national television to playing a game of soccer (football) instead to escape from the threat of a sudden class test and what not. Despite its usefulness, most of us under...

In the last couple of years I could sense a lot of pessimism in the public perception regarding the state of India mostly fuelled by continuous media coverage on the frequently unearthed ‘scams’ / ‘misconduct of powerful’ and the widely aired belief of the paralysis of the Central government. A few days back a dejected colleague wondered ‘Will India come out of this pit?’ Frankly speaking, while I partially relate to the somber mood prevailing in the nation I do not concur completely with the pessimism persisting in the country. I would like to explain my stand: Let us start with the economy first. In the morning I was reading certain articles related to the economic crisis in Europe and things are seemingly much worse there. While a modest growth rate of 5.7% should certainly draw some creases on our forehead, I do not find the need of mourning on it. We have not performed to our potential and should work hard and smart to rectify it – the message, I think, should be as si...

The Dark Knight was the first movie to which I gave standing ovation in a theatre – the cinematic experience was so overwhelming that I could not stop myself from doing so. My friend was surprised at my reaction – ‘you generally do not react like this’, he said. Since then, I have given standing ovation to two other movies (‘Avatar’ for its sheer brilliance in conceptualizing an entirely new world and ‘Inception’ which was another masterstroke from Christopher Nolan). Naturally, I had humungous expectation from ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ especially as it promised to be an ‘epic conclusion’ to the Dark Knight Legend. It is almost a week since the ‘conclusion’ unfolded on the Silver Screen – there is no need to recommend or criticize the movie as almost all of you would have seen it by now. The reaction to the movie has been mixed – which comes as a surprise to me. Christopher Nolan had set the bar very high in The Dark Knight and it would have been a miracle if he would have ex...

No, no, no!! I am not going to give any technical ‘gyan’ on setting up a home theatre system. Most of you would know it much better than me. I am certainly not going to endorse a brand of home theatre system nor am I going to ‘crib’ on the fact that despite 3 years of working I failed to own a world class ‘personal movie theatre’ system dedicated for the sole purpose of screening movies and TV serial for me (though the idea is tempting… :P). What would you do if you are filled with an ‘emptiness of sort’ towards the end of a weekend? Well!! It doesn’t really matter (for this post at least) what you would do – what matters is what I did. I (as any well-educated guy would do) thought of intellectually analyzing the problem. To be honest I owe my bread & butter to the profession of ‘analyzing’ and hold my degrees (both graduate and post graduate) in areas which are deemed to be ‘closely related to Analysis’. Needless to say that I have claimed this personal trait as one of my ...