Friday, May 23, 2008

Meri Aawaz Suno !

As she breathes her last once the ventilator is taken off perhaps this is what she would have wanted to say. Inorder to protect her identity I cannot disclose her name , hence she will be Sanju for this post.
It is a very sad and depressing day at office. Sanju is battling for her life in the hospital. She will be taken off the ventilator after a few hours since the doctors have already shaken their head on her fate. Sanju is someone who I have never met. I only know her as an employee of my organisation. A mere name in my line of work. And tomorrow nobody will know who Sanju was, her memories will slowly diminish as her family learns to live without her. On a second thought they already have. She had not been in touch with them since 2005 so I guess it wouldnt be such a blow for them too.

I do not what she is like. I think i should say what she "is" like since she is still alive, though barely. Was she the fun loving happy go lucky girl that several people call me? or was she shy and an introvert, someone whom I have always looked up to as a museum specimen. Whoever she is , only people who had come in contact with her would know, her family, her friends, her husband?

I do not think her two timing, son of a bitch husband would have ever known or would ever know what she was. If he had he wouldnt have been the cause of her sorry state rigth now.

Ladies and Gentleman, Sanju is not on the ventilator because she is gravely ill. Sanju is there because she jumped off a moving train to end her life. Sanju is there because her husband drove her to take the extreme step. He is a cold blooded murderer.

Last night drama unfolded at the hospital where Sanju was brought in a very critical condition. She had an accident on the tracks and was rushed to the hospital by the good hearted station master ( may God bless such men). From what became apparent from the discussions. She fell of the train near the station on harbour line and when the station master reached the place they found her cellphone ringing and her "brother" asked the station master to take her to the hospital immediately. The so called brother turned out to be her husband who lives in a Tier II town in India. Since she was alone in the city, her parents who live elsewhere were also informed and once they rushed in things became more apparent.
She had abandoned her family in 2005 when they resisted her relationship with Vikrant, her colleague in the Tier 3 B School where she was a teacher. Vikrant married her and even her parents were not aware of the liason. To make relationships more strained she also filed a police complain again her father and live was good for her.

Little did she know that the person for whom she has abandoned her is infact cheating on her with another woman. Very conveniently he was on the verge of marrying another woman when he asked Sanju to settle down in Mumbai asap and he will join her soon. Blind in love she joined my organisation and came down to Mumbai. Vikrant married the other woman and Sanju's bubble burst yesterday.

I do not know what she and Vikrant spoke on the phone before she took the ultimate step but I dread to feel that helpless and lost that there was no other way other than taking the ultimate step. What a waste of a beautiful life.

And Vikrant goes scotfree. Her father is too simplistic to file a case against him ( understandable since he still have daughters to marry off and in a double standard country like India such a scandal will kill all their chances). Vikrant's new wife, very conveniently fooled by her innocent husband ( "darling, this girl was mad about me and was stalking me") is also a partner in his crime since she too was lying through her teeth at the hospital to protect him. Imagine he deleted all her cellphone records to wipe off all traces of his and her conversation.

He should be castrated! Made to pay for killing her, made to pay for destroying her life and her dreams. Men are such bastards and beleive me I have come across a few such specimen. Sometimes I wonder how can their conscience allow them to do this. Do they not fear God? Do they not have any compassion for others? They just take and leave and never turn back to see how many pieces has this person destroyed herself into.

Sanju was weak. It was her blind love and faith in such a bastard which made her so weak that she couldnt see herself getting out of it and took the cowards way out.

Or was this step the bravest thing that she has every done?

We would never know, because Sanju will not come out of that ICU and be around to tell us. We wish she would, there would be several of us standing behind her to get Vikrant behind the bars, even if her family abandons her this time like she did a few years back.

Wish there was something that we could do. Wish we could just lynch the guy and teach every other such male in the world a lesson on treating women like dirt, and also send out a message to every women who is in such a situation that please, please do not lose hope yet , reach out a hand and there are people who care...

Nobody will miss you Sanju , the world will go on. Had you lived and fought maybe a few more women like you would have been inspired to fight along with you. Who will know your story other than a few of us who caught the gossip in the office corridors. Who cares anyway what your trying to tell us in your silence.

I wonder how many of us will recollect you and your story after today ... you went silently and left a lot a questions unanswered ..

May you find peace after this... God Bless You.

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Dho Dala !

This aint an advertisement for a detergent commercial .. am sure we have had plenty of them scream out from the idiot box and asking us to buy falana falana powder for the safeedi ki jhaal and the no stains look :D

Last wednesday I was at doing something I always wanted to do ! well it is one of the many things that I wanted to do .. I went to watch a live IPL match at Wankade Stadium ( Chennai Super Kings Vs Mumbai Indian !! Let me just specifiy here that I am no bat kissing cricket junkie, infact I can barely stand the game. I would rather watch a football match and see those hunks sweat it out like real men ;)

Anyway I got free tickets and well free ke cheezo ko kabhi na nahin karna chahiye .. So went for the match with family and my my I did sweat it out like a horse there ! Temperatures were soaring in the sweltering Mumbai heat ..and it was 8 pm at night !!!!

The place was packed to capacity and we could rarely find a place to stand and cheer. Somehow managed to wriggle our ample butts into minscule benches and we were ready for the match .. since we went late we missed the initial 2 overs and the bhagam bhag for a place to seat made us miss another over. Once settled in we tried to find out known faces from the field..

Yaar TV par to saaf saaf dikhte hai par they look like ants on the field.Ko nahin we managed to locate a few of them through trail and error methods ( err.. Dhoni toh wicketkeeper hai so he is that short guy there, Sachin would be that short and fat person on the field). Chalo koi bhi ho .. par mast experience tha ..

Though i had rivulets running down my spine and hair I was least bothered.. I was enjoying the experince of watching a live match. And wow .. now I knw what they call crowd dynamics ! The entire stadium was in one unison.. cheering on Aaiya Le Mumbai Indians ! .. The festivity reminded one of the Brazilian carnivals, lots of drums, lots of sweat and lot of human beings singing in one voice " Ganpati Bappa Mooorya " " Sooorya Soorya ( for jayasurya)" "Dhoni Sucks!" and what not !...

Seriously Chennai Super Kings didnt stand a chance ! All through the time the crowd cheered on with gusto and whoa ! who wouldnt get swayed with so much energy .. am sure our morale was boasted 1000 folds and Mumbai Indian played .Though Chennai managed a very good score by cross 150+ runs but the moment stalwart Jayasurya showed his mettled and made puddle out of all the bowlers we couldnt hold back our joy .. I was a part of the innumerable mexican waves that started ebbing and flowing and boy o boy I couldnt stop screaming and jumping around as one ball after another hit the stands ! Sixes ! Fours! All your wishes granted without a trickle of sweat ! Surya proved despite everything he still is a force to reckon with on the field. Sachin was a poor shadow of his earlier self and disappointed everyone .. but then I never like him :P..after an intensive 3 hour game ..Finally Dhoni ke bacho ko Mumbai ke chokro nein Dho Dala !

My first experience, something which I wanted to do out of novelty but I think the only way am gonna love this game is watching it LIVE ! I simply hate it on the idiot box !

thank God I didnt get tickets for the "FIXED" match between Kolkata Knight Riders and Mumbai Indians.. though I caught it on TV I found it utterly yawnable !

Back to the mundane activities I do as an excuse for work !