Phew….what a relief ! It’s final. Thanks to the global financial meltdown, my first job will not be in the land of shifting sands, moustache and relics of royalty….It will rather be in the city I love so much and have grown to call my home. All this boils down to more savings, lesser responsibility, mum’s gastronomic delights and a new set of old friends.
My bustling city is a place over-populated by 13 million fascinating individuals with utter disdain for traffic rules, united by ubiquitous Bong-pride and a ‘genuine’ appreciation for Tagore, Teresa and Tangra (not the place offering cheap alcohol, but the fish). But lately, it seemed that the city had been magically transformed for two people. Hour long conversations flew by in a space of minutes and few days apart seemed like weeks. Both decided it was time to play Einstein and rewrite the laws of relativity…. include the particularly heady and peculiar affects of infatuation.
But they were the guys…. the lady however,was in no hurry.
She measured her distance in light years and intended to take her own sweet time. Or did she?
Trivia apart…..
Off late I have joined this odd bunch of motley crew for a weekly trip to the watering hole. There, over alcohol, nicotine and spring chicken we try to ‘chill.’ All of us are compulsive about labeling. Be it clothes, sexuality, relationships, even terrorism… we love our labels. It adds order to the chaos. So much so that our actions are often confined by the labels themselves. So clothes can become downmarket, sexuality- confused, relationships- serious, and terrorism- cross-border. It is at this juncture that the intoxicants come handy and help us think out of the box. We gain a perspective of the fly on the wall. We are able to Extrospect- or introspect oneself from outside!
Last Saturday, after two pegs of Vodka and ample samples of salty chicken, I realized that I had committed the cardinal sin. I had forsaken my dreams and morphed them to accommodate the blinding euphoria. A Sobering experience like the hangover headache. And all this, while Darfur starved, Iraq fought, Afghanistan bled, Congo died and a couple mourned with the nation over the loss of their only son in the 26/11 tragedy while our politicians continued the omnipresent mudslinging. That was the day my aspirations resurfaced after I had dropped off the edge of the earth.
Back in my college days when my management prof. harped on the importance of conflict in group dynamics, I would roll my eyes and say - Ya, right… WATEVA ! Turns out the bloke was actually right ! Imagine a piece of CU syllabus actually standing its ground in real world! UNBELIEVABLE!
As I watched the interplay of group dynamics unfold with undercurrents of hope, aspiration, anguish, jealousy and despair- the fly on the wall finally got it.
The equation to the triangle is easy. Its intimacy that’s the bitch!
Photograph Courtesy: James Nachtway
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