Saturday, October 25, 2008

Gitanjali

The story is not about the famous poem of nobel laurate Rabindranath Tagore. It is about a cute girl with whom Sukanta wanted to develop friendship.

When Sukanta was 4th year student of Kanaka Manjari Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Rourkela, Orissa, he met a cute girl who joined in Kanaka Manjari Institute of Information Technology. Both the institues were in the same campus run by Kanak Manjari trust. The smile of "that girl" would embarrass Monalisa of Leonardo Da Vinci. When Sukanta was simple, "that girl" was stylish. Sukanta wanted to be stylish but could not be until he met "that girl". "That girl" inspired Sukanta to be stylish. There was a change in dressing sence, way of talking of Sukanta. Class mate of Sukanta doubted that Sukanta was in Love. But there was nothing like that. Sukanta wanted to be a friend of "that girl", just friend nothing else. Sukanta did not have enough courage to talk to any unknown girl. He could have expressed his interested if he would have got "that girl" in a lonely place. The only place where Sukanta was seeing "that girl" was college canteen. But it was always crowded. Luck did not favour Sukanta for another year.

In 2001 he passed B.Pharm and Left for Delhi where he got a job of Lecturer in a Paramedical college. Along with job he tried for different competitive exams to secure a place in any reputed national or international university. In the year 2002 he joined Al-Ameen college of pharmacy, Bangalore for 2 years master degree course. His specialization was Pharmacology, a science describing action and fate of a medicine in a living system (human body). After completing the course he joined Aurobindo Pharma, Hyderabad to work in the field of clinical research. Clinical research deals with testing effect of medicine in healthy/and diseased human volunteer before marketing it. After 4 year he joined Apotex Research Pvt Ltd, Bangalore as a team leader.

There had been a lot of change in Sukanta. In the mean while,he had accepted metro culture. On 6th July 2008, Sukanta called some colleague to Hyderabad House restaurant, Koramangala, Bangalore for celebrating his birthday. The party was scheduled at 1 pm, but by the time every body arrived the venue it was 2 pm. On sunday all the good resturants are crowded. All were on the queue to secure a place in the resturant. Then sukanta met a girl whom he thouht he knew earlier. After some time he realised that it was "that girl" of Kanak Manjari Institute of Information Technology. Sukanta went near to "that girl" with enough courage and introduced himself to "that girl". Sukanta could know that her name was Gitanjali. After completing a degree course in IT she was working in one of the IT firm in Bangalore. Even though Gitanjali gave enough information about her she could not recognize Sukanta. She came there with her friends. It was getting late for every body for lunch. Now a waiter called Gitanjali's name. She went inside the resturant with her friends. Next turn came to Sukanta's group. Sukanta was sitting next (table) to Gianjali.

It was late. Lunch started without starter. Dish was Hyderabadi chicken biryani, Kashmir palao, chilli ckicken, mushroom curry etc. While Sukanta was enjoying the tasty biryani, he was thinking about his college days, his feeling about Gitanjali. Gitanjali did not know that she had inspired some body, some body wanted to be her friend. Was that meeting with Gitanjali a mere luck or God had planned it? If colleague of Sukanta would not have came late he might not have met Gitanjali. Should he ask Gitanjali to be his friend? In the mean while every body completed lunch. Gitanjali left Restaurant 5 minutes earlier to Sukanta.

Sukanta did not have that urge to be friend of Gitanjali as it was in 2001. People and their thinking change with time. Any way Sukanta thanked god for giving him an oppertunity to be friend of Gitanjali again.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Bread, onion and ghost

Raju didi was teaching a group of students each evening comprising of class one - class four. We were going to her home taking each a lantern, mat and books. Our group comprised of Sambu, Raghu, Kalia, Nipili, Rulu bhai, Nandu bhai and guni didi. The difficult part of tuition was returning to home after completion of teaching. While other students home were near Raju didi's home, my home was far away.

I used to walk back home through a lonely road covered with trees. In those trees ghosts were living! On one of the tree Shyam uncle commited suicide by hanging himself on a banyan tree. After that his ghost was staying in that banyan tree. Any how he was very close to me so I was confident that he would not trouble me and protect me from other ghosts. Those days ghosts were very notorious, they would kill the person and drink their blood!

Guni didi used to tell us many ghosts stories and she would promise that those were true. She was generous in telling us stories even though we did not show interest to listen it because of fear. According to her ghost of the the persons whose desire were not fullfilled in their life time become very notorius and trouble people more. To save us from different ghosts (i.e. muslim ghost, unmarried person's ghost, women ghost) she used to tell us different mantras. We remebered those mantras by heart.

One day Guni didi told a truth which terrorized me! She told in Rourkela one new ghost is seen. So many people have died because of that ghost. The ghost would come to home in night, and would knock door and ask for bread and onion. The person who would give bread and onion would be killed by the ghost. If no body opened the door, the ghost would kill every body. I thought I would open the door of my house if ghost knock our door. I did not want to loose my family members who were very good to me. I did not tell the truth to my family members, I did not want any of my family members to sacrify their life to save me. For few days I did not sleep properly in the night. Some time I would wake up by hearing sound of knocked door. Later I would realised that my neighbour's door was knocked that time. As per Guni didi if any body can chant Gayathri Manta, ghost would not cause any harm to that person. But that mantra was very difficult to be remebered by me as I was in Class one. I heard that Rourkela is 400 km far from my home and it would take one month for a ghost to walk to our arae. I was relieved by that.

After few days Guni didi went to Rourkela to her uncle's house in summer vacation. I was worried about Guni didi. She returned back safely from Rourkela, I was relieved. I inquired about the ghost and wanted know ghost had killed how many people. She told with a smile that she killed the ghost. She told one night the ghost came to her uncle's house, she open the door while chanting Gayathri manta. By hearing the mantra, the ghost died! I was relieved. Now I could sleep properly in the night. I remembered her as a brave heroin for many years and remembered Gayatri mantra to save me from any ghost in the world
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Saturday, October 11, 2008

Winner

It was year 2002. I had joined Master of Pharmacy course in a college in Bangalore and was residing in JP Nagar. I used to go to my college by my new motorcycle - Hero Honda Splendor through Jaya nagar 4th block, Ashoka pillar and Lalbagh. I had just purchased my vehicle and was learning driving. I used to practice driving at 10 pm after returning from my college and when roads are relatively less crowd. I used to go to college in early hours of the day to avoid traffic.

That day I started at 7 am and reached Jaya nagar traffic signal within 3 minutes. While I was waiting for green light to glow, a beautiful, tall and fair girl in blue jeans and pink T-shirt arrived near me with scooty. I guess as if she is in a hurry. She used to see her watch frequently.

My bike was in start mode and once green light glow I started driving immediately. But the girl crossed me with a high speed. I felt bad a girl overtook me and the vehicle she was using was without gear. She was expert driver than me. Still than I tried my best to over take her. I was 200 meters behind Asoka pillar and she was 50 meters ahead of me. I increased my speed to 80 kpmh and I was about to overtake her near Ashoka pillar circle when she took a left turn and I went straight. I could not overtake her as she went in a different route. I felt bad as I could not win.

So many years are passed. Now it is 2008. When ever I pass through Ashoka pillar I remember the incident. Around year 2004 I read a article which stated that male drivers psychology compels them to drive faster than lady driver when they are driving together. Now I believe I am an expert driver. I never chase others and drives slow in traffic. I wish to own a racing bike one day and drive at 125 kmph.