Manas Garg Speaks

This one is about my reading table.

My dad actually got it made for me when I was around 6/7 years old. It was proper wooden, and when it was time to choose the top, my dad took me with him to the workshop where it was being built. I chose a light brown top, which I thought looked very impressive. This was in Lucknow, and I still remember that the place we went to was called Aliganj. There were chilly pakodas (bhajji) offered to us at the workshop, but I was not allowed to eat them because they were chilly pakodas, and I was just a little boy :)

When we got back home, my mom asked me how the table was shaping up. I told her that it was huge - it was enough for 5 people to study together, and the top looked like the foam on top of coffee. I was right about the top part - but no - no about the size. The table was meant for one person, the tiny me had imagined it to be very big :)

Interestingly, that reading table is still good, and is still the reading table of our house :). I never really studied on it, I have never studied on a table-chair, always on  the bed. When I was small, I used to use the space under it to set up my tent - indoor camping :P, or for setting up a small shop where I’d sell stuff stolen from the kitchen to my only customer - my mom :). When I was in class X/XI, I wrote all the physics formulas on the top with a permanent marker so that I could revise them just by glancing at my table :). Then when I had my first crush, I replaced the formulas with her name.

That reading table still sits proudly in my room at home (real home), and I long to see it again.

Here is a picture of it, taken when I used to stay at home (6 years back).

Don’t worry, I love you guys too!

Thanks to Alagu for tagging me. I was planning to sleep, then I discovered that I’ve been tagged - and so here I am.. writing this post :)

Last movie seen in a theatre:
Iron Man - Found it childish. Stupid Sci Fi has never excited me.

What book are you reading?
Theoritically - Freakonomics, The Namesake, Oracle E-Business Suite Administration
Practically - None.

Favourite board game:
Monopoly

Favourite magazine:
Reader’s Digest

Favourite smells:
Smell of rain, Green Apples, pretty wet hair

Favourite sound:
The sound doorbell makes when I reach home after months.

Worst feeling in the world:
Being stuck - and hopelessly.

What is the first thing you think of when you wake up?
I’m late.

Favourite fast food place:
Mc Donald’s

Future child’s name:
Khushi

Finish this statement, “If I had a lot of money I’d…”
Become a professional backpacker.

Do you drive fast?
Rarely.

Do you sleep with a stuffed animal?
No. I’m one.

Storms - Cool or Scary?
Cool

Do you eat the stems on broccoli?
Don’t know.

If you could dye your hair any colour, what would be your choice?
Electric Blue. 

Name all the different cities/towns you have lived in:
Lucknow, Aligarh, Shahjahanpur, Ghaziabad, Tiruchirapalli, Hyderabad 

Favourite sports to watch:
None.

One nice thing about the person who sent this to you:
I find him respectable and cool.

What’s under your bed?
Nothing.

Would you like to be born as yourself again?
Yes, Yes!

Morning person or night owl?
Both - I work late nights and mornings and afternoons and evenings and … ;)

Over easy or sunny side up?
???

Favourite place to relax:
A lap.

Favourite ice cream flavour:
Vanilla

You pass this tag to –
Hari, Geetanjali, Kshitija, Tushar(Ma), Hepsiba

Of all the people you tagged this to, who’s most likely to respond first?
Dunno.

Sharing a childhood memory after a long time — to show how sensitive a child’s mind is.

–

When I was small, we, like most middle class families at that time did not have a phone. (Cell phones were yet to be invented). Thus, the telephone instrument used to fascinate me a lot.

So this one time, me and my mom were at my aunt’s place (who had a phone!). My dad was at my grandparents’ place, and my mom was speaking with my dad over the phone. I was jumping around my phone, obviously curious. I was touching and playing with the green phone, even while my mom was using it.

Then suddenly the phone got cut.

My mom told my aunt that the phone had gotten disconnected. My aunt told my mom - ‘Manas was doing something with the phone dial- that’s why it must have got cut’.

Wham! I got a tight slap on my cheek from my mom.

The next moment, my dad called back to tell that my little naughty cousin had disconnected the phone on his side. 

No one said sorry to me.

–

I still remember this incident - even after so many years. And I’ve never really liked that aunt of mine after that incident. A child’s mind is very sensitive - small things affect it a lot. Don’t be unfair to a child - you might create a childhood memory by doing that.

Don’t you feel proud when you do something, make something? I know you do, so do I. Am sure everyone does.

A weird thought passed my mind today. We moved into a new office building recently - one of the most amazing buildings I’ve even seen or imagined. However that is not the point. This building must have been constructed by hundreds of labourers - hard working men and women who must have sculpted every bit and piece of it - with their own hands. They must be proud.

However, it is such an irony that now that the building is complete, it is out of bounds for those same men and women. They are now a ’security threat’ to the building that requires smart card access. They built it, but they can’t enter.

Something is wrong somewhere with the world, don’t you think?

All the ten years this soap ran for, the friends always remained together. From the first episode, till the last one. Lucky them.

I’m missing my friends very badly today. To be precise, I’m missing Satyam a lot today. We became friends on the first day of college, and remained best friends all four years. No day passed (except vacations of course) when we did not meet, or had some chit chat. We always studied together for exams and cycle tests (or did we :P). And we were always there when one of us had to crib about something to the other one :)

Our trips to the city were so amazing - we’re so similar in many respects - both of us love to have good food - however expensive (by college standards :) ). Our Saturday dinners were always at the gate - not at Bamboos but at Rajni anna’s. Gobi manchurian, veg manchurian and parottas :).

We did so many things together - spent some of the best and the toughest times together. Shared the Reliance unlimited STD phone :) So many small things.. which are now so far away. If there was anything nice about me except Spider and my pointers college it has to be Satyam - he’s like my big brother. The four years would have been so much tougher without him.

It is a pity that it is now exactly a year since we last met - in Trichy itself :(. Time passes quickly, and we get busy in our lives. But then..

आते जाते खूबसूरत आवारा सडको पे
कभी कभी इत्फाक से,
कितने अनजान लोग मिल जाते हैं,
उनमे से कुछ लोग भूल जाते हैं,
कुछ याद रह जाते हैं 

I hope we meet again - soon. I’m not so weak to let distance or time weaken a friendship. Satyam? Listening?