Love at First Touch

As I laid my eyes on her from across the room, there was a tingling down my spine & I knew I had to touch her. The room was crowded & there was a group of people surrounding her, but I kept my patience. I waited until they left her & then I made my move. As I held her in my hands, it just felt right. She brought a smile to my face & I knew this was true love. There in the crowded showroom I was in love with Apple’s iPad 2.

I’m a geek at heart & have always wanted to own all the gadgets in the world. Absurd though it may sound, that is how much I like gadgets. I can spend an entire day locked in a room without food if you give me a stack of gadget magazines to drool at. Though I like all the gadgets, I have only ever fallen in love with a couple of gadgets in my life. My first love was the Pentium-1 PC dad bought home and the second was my Playstation 2 gifted by my uncle.  But in that showroom as I held the iPad 2, I knew this time it was different.

The iPad was like a dream girl come to life. Her screen was bright and colourful with each pixel glowing like the radiant sun. Her touch-response was unearthly with even my slightest touch ensuring a response. Every page or App opened almost at the speed of thought. It was as if she could read my mind. Though I was standing in a busy showroom at a Mall, I was transported into a world where it was just the both of us. I could for a second imagine us both running behind trees in slow motion & singing songs like in the old Bollywood films.  

I couldn’t help but think that it was as if Apple had kept me in mind when designing this gadget. Apple has been credited with ushering in this current trend of Tablet PCs in the market following which other companies too have followed. But experts have always considered iPads to be way ahead of others. I had never believed them until that moment.

Though I already own gadgets which fulfil most of my needs, I need to have this one. If not for the high price Apple have put on her, I wouldn’t have left her lying in the crowded showroom. I’ll do whatever needs to be done to get her. If no one takes the cue & gifts me one, I know where my first salary is going..

My heart's locked inside her as an app

The End of an Era

A typical study time.

As I sat in the loo answering nature’s call and relieving the pressures of life and my stomach, I felt a tug in my navel and my immediate first thought was that I was being teleported. What actually happened was that I had  somehow travelled back in time. A montage of pictures danced in front of my eyes. Not till I really concentrated did I realise what the pictures were all about.

I saw pictures of me sitting on a bed or at my study table through different times struggling to concentrate on my textbooks. These pictures were reliving the story of my life or rather the story of my struggle against education.

 I was never a good student, still am not I think. All my life my tutors said that I was a student who was bright but also who never worked hard enough. In truth I never felt like studying and I always saw studies as nothing less than torture. I always dreamed of education becoming a real-life dictator so I could lead a revolution to topple his tyrannical regime. (A result of all those Hollywood films I might add!!)

My parents much like the loyal officers of the dictator, screamed, cajoled and used every possible trick in the book to make me submit to his powers. I continued studying just to keep their hearts.  As I grew older, my love for studies kept decreasing. I passed my first hurdle, i.e., my 10^th standard under a strict measure of control. Imagine my life when I had no access to a TV, computer or comic books for a year. I still pride myself on my sheer mental strength to survive that phase.

Post-Grad times...

The next few years were rocky to say the least. I didn’t do well in my studies, failed in my academics and my parents and not until a couple of years back did things stabilise. Until then I had never looked at studies as a goal that I needed to achieve. But things changed, new people came into my life and they had a huge contribution in changing my perception towards life.

I did well in my graduation, much better actually than I or anyone would ever expect. To some extent I surpassed my parent’s expectations. I got into one of the best universities in the UK and now as I have finished my course, I finally realise the magnanimity of what I have achieved. I’ve done what every child (including me) dreams of every second he or she ‘has’ to study. I have completed my education. Yes you heard me, complete. Finito.

If you would have asked me during my school days, I would have never in my wildest dreams imagined that one day I would  complete my education and that too so well. I would have probably told you that I would be expelled from my college at some point of time or maybe sit at the till of a shop as my parents had threatened to do. (I had actually also thought of a name for the shop when they had threatened me!!)

The feeling of completing my education though is completely opposite of what I had expected. Instead of being on cloud 9, it is a very bitter-sweet feeling. Yes I know I will never have to sit through nights learning and mugging up pages and pages of text. But I may never get to enjoy life as I have in my college times. Once in a job I may not be able to go anywhere and anytime I want to, let alone get enough time to meet my friends. There would be no more bunking classes and the excitement and the sense of adventure that comes with it. I think it’s too big a thing to sacrifice in order to give up studying. But that is what life is and as I was reeling on my last thought, I was wrenched back into the real world. I realised it was time to flush. Phew! What a moment in the loo!

A Superhero Fantasy

I hear her scream from a mile away. It is a scream for help and the pitch of her voice tells me how urgent the situation is. I jump off the ledge and in a matter of seconds I’m by her side. I punch the thug square on his face and save the day. The lady is grateful and comes forward to give me a kiss. But at that precise moment I wake up with a start.

Have you noticed this is how superhero dreams always tend to end? You never get the reward for your heroics. Maybe this is how superheroes are supposed to be. Always selfless and never expecting a reward. Frustrating though it may seem, a person never really stops dreaming of becoming a superhero.  Be it a child or a 70 year old, we always want to become a superhero and do something heroic.

But what’s with this childlike fantasy? Well there’s no denying the coolness factor that goes with being a superhero. Different age-groups perceive it in different ways. Children grow up reading comic books and want to become like those heroes. They always dream of flying to school or being super-powerful so they can pick up their school bus or uproot buildings and trees. A child also bonds with his father by imagining him as a superhero. I used to think my father could tackle a gang of thugs single-handedly until the day he burst my bubble.

Adults on the other hand cannot resist the sense of power, the ability to do things that no one else can do and the feeling of being special because God made you so. Add to that how superheroes are being glorified and given a sense of realism in today’s Hollywood films and everyone wants to become like them.

 I too have always wanted to become a superhero. There have been times when I have actually prayed to God asking him to grant me super powers. My power-wish-list has always changed according to the situation I was in at that time. I want to fly, teleport, travel back in time, etc. etc. I have even analysed why I haven’t been granted these powers, but never got a logical answer. Maybe it's because I have always wanted these powers for selfish reasons.

But I feel the real reason behind this fantasy is for a person to be able to do something which he or she isn’t capable of. Dreaming of being a superhero brings in a sense of escapism. A person always feels that by being a superhero he or she won’t ever have to work again and just fly away from the hustle-bustle of life. They also feel they can do something of which they have always dreamed of but have not been able to. In other words they just want to be kids again!

This post is dedicated to Suraj Shetty, who has always dreamed of being Goku! He is 24 today and he still dreams! This is your birthday gift mate!