Rakshabandhan & Love Stories…

On my recent visit to home, I was having a conversation with my younger sister.
“A guy has given me a proposal” She Said.
“What are you talking about?” I was shocked to hear that; first reason - I am her brother and the second, she is in Sixth Grade!
“Don’t worry bhai, he has asked me to tie him Rakhi on the Rakshabandhan day” She cleared my doubts.
“Okay. Why is it so, he doesn’t have a sister?” I inquired.
“No, he has 2 sisters. It is because people tease us in class, everyone in class says we are a pair and we want to stop that” She replied.
I laughed in reply.
Though this is not the first time I have encountered this. I have many such memories from school days wherein girls would tie Rakhi to guys they were paired with!
I would like to share the most memorable incident.
I don’t remember which grade it was, we were in all 44 pupils in the class and out of which there only 14 girls (Serious Sex Ratio Problem!). It was big tussle; there was always a quest on who would claim the best of the few. As in claim, we were still adolescent to get seriously involved into relationship.
Prameet had a crush on Dimple. Class had already started their job of teasing and I can assure you that even the dumbest student excelled in this subject. Being a vernacular school, we used to celebrate most of the festivals. As the Rakhi Poornima was coming closer, pressure was building on Prameet. It was sure that Dimple was going to try tying Rakhi on his wrist. Bunking school was the best option he had, but being a coward was not his choice and he did come to school on the D-Day.
It was the first session of the day and ceremony had started. Dimple steered like a rocket and parked herself near his bench with a Rakhi in her hand. He move backwards and shouted “No, please don’t”. Unfortunately our teacher heard him and reported to the scene which already had the whole class as an audience. She asked him, “What is the problem?”
Poor chap couldn’t find an appropriate answer and blurted out “I don’t like decorated Rakhi!!” Whole class started laughing and our teacher joined too! (Few notorious characters of our class had made it sure that even teacher knew everything.) After little hesitation he had to lower his hand to honour the Rakhi. Satisfaction of winning the war was seen on Dimple’s face all day long.
I am sure that death certificate of many one sided love stories has the date same as of the Rakhi Poornima.
My point is, aren’t we dishonouring our religious customs? We are using it as a tool to help us out of some trouble. Today, older generation complains that the younger generation is ruining their culture. This is not the case; the younger generation is asked to follow traditions without actually understanding them. A proper understanding and reasoning will help them evolve. This would give more meaning to our rituals and customs and hence they will be respected by generations that will follow.
Till this transformation happens, ladies if you feel that I am trying to hit on you; please note, I don’t like decorated Rakhi!
-inanimate

…and she smiled.

I love walking; it feels like I am having conversation with mother earth- Gaia. The Huge amount of positive energy that flows through my body makes me want to walk more and more. After dinner, I prefer to take a stroll in my hostel lane. After few days of regular walks, I noticed I wasn’t the only one, there were others too.

Out of those few regulars, a lady quite puzzled me. She used to walk in a straight line without changing her course, to and fro. She never made eye contact nor was she accompanied by anyone. There is something unique about her, I felt.

Few days later, I found her in trouble. Unknowingly walked over dog’s tail, she was cornered by few ruff dogs. They were barking and all she was able to do is get scared. I helped her out of it, while she was returning after a formal thank you I said,

“Mam, you shouldn’t get scared by dogs, it makes them bark more”

I could see a big question mark on her face,

“We, humans give out a specific odour when we get scared which is easily noticed by dogs and hence they bark more” I clarified.

“But I am scared of dogs” She replied.

“Try not to be” I said with a smile and walked away.

Few days later, while I was returning from work, I saw her. She looked at me and I smiled, but she didn’t. I was baffled.
The very next day, we met again. She gave me a broad charming smile, and this time I didn’t reply. I continued my stroll and when we crossed for second time, she didn’t raise her head to establish eye contact.

Few days later at night, I and few hostel mates were enjoying leisure time and during this I described my encounters. The very first and prompt reaction was as expected, they said I was trying to woo her they cracked few below the belt jokes. I explained them that I don’t have a hint of lust for her, for me she is just another person that loves walking and we use the same lane that’s all. They didn’t stop.

I analyzed the situation and the generic human mentality. The answer came that an old women and young guy cannot be just acquaintances. This made me understand that why she didn’t reply to my smile on the other day. She knew the way human brain works and hence didn’t reply as she was accompanied by someone.

I was quite bamboozled by all this.

I couldn’t get the answer to the question, why can’t and elderly lady and young guy just be acquaintances. After a thorough analysis of Indian mentality, the answer came knocking. India is the land of relations. Here we take less than 10 seconds to create a relation. So for Indian people it is difficult to digest these kinds of unnamed relationships. If it had been given the tag of some relation it wouldn’t have been difficult for her.

Few days later, I saw her. She was bit ahead of me. Her dupatta was getting soiled as it was touching ground. I pointed it out to her and left.

We crossed again and she smiled.

-inanimate