'Three'dom at midnight

Its 2.45 am in New Delhi and I have developed cold feet, literally (the temperature is barely 5 degree Celsius) and philosophically (cold feet considering how rare common sense has become) …
Right so this is an attempt at generalizing some universal gyaan from my week’s personal experience…

GYAAN 1: Never spend the day with teenagers!! Especially when u have turned 23 and have been working night shifts for the last year and a half…seems they assume a day has 48 hours and that running stamina increases with age. But they are fun to be with…They will treat you to ‘Thaggu ke laddu’ and relate the most interesting anecdotes, they will laugh out loud before cracking a ‘joke’ and most often than not when they complete, you will tell yourself ‘What’s funny?’, but to her/ him you’d say..’Great sense of humour’. But there is something more to it…these teenagers make u realize how perspective of life changes in a matter of a few years…how the idealism of the 16’s changes into the realism’s of the 20’s…how the vision of 17 (that puppy lovers will surely translate their bond into the nuptial one) changes into the crazy freakonomics of infidelity and how the emotions of the 19’s, when friendships were based on the Jai-Veeru ‘Sholay’ paradigm, turn into annual ‘catching up’ on birthdays and marriages (that is if you manage a break from office!!) . Glorious days of teenage…fall back on them, u’ll always end up learning (rather revising) a lesson or two about how life could and should be lived…

Gyaan 2: You may be the best of orators, the most gifted with the sense of wit and most impressive at managing conversations.. but there are some moments in life that choke you for words .. I too did recently…A dear friend said..’I hate you’ and I wondered why..I had so much to answer, so much to say and as I kept keying in sentences after sentences (on internet chat) probing her and citing explanations … suddenly I see the message box blink yellow…”My father passed away two weeks ago” …Now, the long sentences cease, you are searching for words, u can think of two instantly “I’m Sorry”…but what beyond..the keyboards stop feeding words for your feeling…what are you to tell her -- don’t cry.. this is life…I’m there for you , you have to move on for your mom, friends …and those never-ending phrases of support that strangely people can think of only when adversity strikes. Why did the orator in me fail when that person wanted me to speak the most, why did my sense of wit fold out when it was most needed to restore a smile on those tearful eyes, why did I – the great conversationist – fall short of ideas to get her to speak, cry and feel better. I realise now…the answer is we are all short of practice…no not the practice of seeing someone die but the practice of supporting those who live on, we are woefully short of time to drop in a word everyday saying “I’m there” and I wish I had done the same atleast once a week…My friend I guess would have hated me less…

Gyaan 3: Always be honest in love and never shy away from telling “I Like You”.. Funny how the best of romances are those that are sparked off by rumours, they hit a crescendo and then die down when misunderstandings are cleared. The rumours get over, but they leave a trail behind… They are baseless speculations but strangely enough they make you think and question and at times do things you wouldn’t normally do. At times I wonder, if it’s not a third person sparking off the affair with his/ her gosspis -- “he likes her and she likes him” -- how many relationships would have just never formed. I know of plenty and I am sure, you guys know of many more. So for all the rumour mongers, Thank You!! You guys are doing a fantastic job!!

That brings us to an end. Do let me know if I make sense to even one of you. Like politicians ask for votes, students ask for notes and Mumbaikars in monsoons ask for boats (cheeks that rhymes!!), I solicit your gyaan on A-vigyaan (non-scientific to mean not from the brain but from the heart)