Found, Lost & Found Again..... The Perfect Brother!!!

While I was typing this, I saw a message on my phone which read, “This year I have only your Rakhi on my wrist, I am so happy. Lots of love to you.” He was happy and so was I. 

How do I describe him??? Hmmm.... Let me try. He is tall, has a lean frame and is pretty handsome. He has brightly twinkling eyes, a smile that spreads across his serene face, an attitude that’s contagiously positive and a heart that only loves. He can instantly make you fall in love with him with his witty answers and a heartfelt grin. I have known him for 20 years now or even more. But then there is something about him that makes me love him more and more.

When we first met he was about twelve and I was about 2. He often tells me that as kids we have lovely memories something that only siblings can boast of. He still recalls that he was very fond of me and enjoyed pulling my cheeks. I remember roaming around the colony while he would happily carry me in his arms. He wished he had a sister like me and I wished for an elder brother, just like him. Time passed by and we were growing up together. But then something happened and we suddenly lost contact with each other.I remember the last time that I saw him was when I was about 8 years old. And then after a decade I heard about him.

I was doing my graduation and was completely lost in my own world. He had built a promising career for himself, had a very lovely wife and a son. He somehow managed to get our contact number through a dad’s friend and called up my mother. He instantly expressed his desire to meet us. I had almost forgotten his face except for his big bright eyes. When we met it was a very emotional moment. There was so much to discuss and share. There were times when we laughed insanely and times when we would try to hide a tear. We picked up the pieces right from the place we had left them.

Yogesh bhaiya as I call him is more than just a brother to me. He is a friend, guide and a father figure. I can open my heart to him, share the deepest darkest secrets with him, seek his advice when I am lost, sulk and crib when I am stuck and share my smiles when I am jumping of joy. No we are not relatives, not family friends either. Then???? Strange as it may sound, Bhaiya’s family was just a neighbor to one of my dad’s close relative. Whenever we visited our relative, we would meet up with bhaiya and his family too. We would play together, make noise around do a lot of mischief. Slowly and steadily our families became fond of each other and we became family. But then things went sour with our relatives and we stopped visiting them. Obviously we also lost contact with bhaiya and his family. Those were the days when telephone was an object of luxury. So no contact at all except for the fact that we existed in each other’s prayers.

There is something about bhaiya. Right from my childhood, I was always drawn to him, his thoughts and ideals. Bhaiya and I share more than just love. It is beyond that. I am not sure if we think alike. May be we do or may be we don’t. I am really not sure. He has always been a source of inspiration to me. The way he forgives people is beyond the reach of a common man. He is downright honest and a man of his words. I have never seen him judge people or their lives. Every one is here for a purpose, he says gently. His modesty and selfless nature makes him beloved to many. The grin on his face is independent of what life has offered him. He is happy, always. Probably that’s the reason why he has been instrumental in changing so many lives around him. Every time I went to him with a problem he smiled and said, "now think about the solution too."

Bhaiya has filled our life with his abundant unconditional love. People who see us often think that we come from the same genome. But as bhaiya always says, “Some things are thicker than blood, our relationship is one of them”.

My favoritest picture of Bhaiya

Bhaiya, as you turn a year older and handsomer and wittier, I pray that you be blessed with all the joy and wealth of the world. While Rakesh and I will always love you, we also want you to know that you mean so much to us!! This year you made my Rakshabandhan so so special. You know what I am talking about. :)

Happy Birthday and lots of love to you!!

Hugs,

Rakesh and Khushi!! 

And.... Its all about our "Choice"!!

“Life is all about our choices, its up to you, what you choose to choose”. These words by a friend are resonating in my ears from the time I have heard them. And every time I think about it, it sounds so damn true. Yes, We all have a choice and we all choose. Sometimes its a conscious decision to choose while sometimes it’s just unconscious. But there exists a choice at every step of our life. 

When life throws you down, you have a choice. You can either continue to lie down or pick yourself up and move on. You can either crib and moan about it or you can learn and move on from there. See, there is a choice. When life presents a hurdle, you have a choice. You can either look at it as an  obstacle or you can look at it as an opportunity to show what you are made of. When you meet a failure on your journey, you have a choice. You can either choose to quit or you can shrug your shoulders and continue walking.

You can either choose to be happy or continue being miserable. That’s a choice again. You can choose to love or continue to hate. You can choose to smile or just be grumpy. You can choose to help or just be a snob. You can choose to care or just be indifferent. You can choose to bring a change in your life and around or just be a moaner and accommodate the problem. You can choose to be successful or just be another face in the crowd. You can choose to be generous or be greedy. You can choose to be tears in someone’s eye or a grin on someone’s face. We have a choice to be scared and worried or just be fearless and strong. You can choose to be a loser or fight till the last breath. You can choose to be the hand that heals or the one that kills.

Life does come with a choice always and for everyone. It is not biased or unfair. As rightly said, “What we are today is result of our own past actions; Whatever we wish to be in future depends on our present actions”. Our actions are again a consequence of our choices. This is so strange, yet so true. We are what we chose, we will be what we choose. We are responsible for our choices and their consequences too. We grow with our choice or we stagnate with them.

I believe the only difference between successful people and others is again the choices that they make. In fact as funny as it may sound, Adam and Eve also chose to eat the apple. Isn't it? We are the result of our choice that we made yesterday.

I read this quote yesterday and loved it, "When something bad happens, you have three choices. You can either let it define you, destroy you, or you can let it strengthen you".

So I choose to be happy, to love, to care, to live, to laugh, to help, to be at peace and above all, I choose to be ME!!

Love,

Khushi!!

A Beautiful Answer - Thank you Mr.God!!

“You are surrounded by so many awesome people” said an FB comment by a dear friend below the post. “I am”, I thought to myself. I was so touched by everything around me. I immediately looked above to thank the one who has been so generous to me.

Last week my mind was rambling with a thought, a not so positive one. A painful memory caused by few people resurfaced. And as it is with every memory it refused to vacate my mind for some time. I was lost between questions of why and what? I felt like choked between pain and disappointment. I never did anything wrong to them, then why was it that I was ill treated? May be they didn't like me then why weren’t they honest about it? Why did they have to stab me on my back so hard? And the final question was posed to God himself, “why is it so difficult for people to love and care”? The answer was never clear in the past and it wasn’t clear now either. That frustrated me further. But the trust that God will answer my question did make a part of my heart peaceful.

All this bothered me for a day. I wasted 24 hours of my precious life on such negative emotions. And while I was trying to pull myself up and out of this crater, there was something so beautiful that God and a very lovable person was planning for me.

I was working on something and beep came an sms from Giri (you can read about Giri in my post “MAD ME”). The message mentioned that Giri had updated her blog with a new post. I am absolutely in love with Giri and her works. Be it quilling or cooking, writing or stitching, I am a complete fan. So I logged in immediately to read her new brain child. I felt so upset when I realized that I couldn't see her new post at all. I informed Giri and her reply was a “:( ”.

Later, I logged in again just to see if the new post was visible now. And to my surprise the post was about Giri’s very close friend. It was about someone who is very close to her heart. Tears rolled down my cheeks. The post was about her mad friend, “Khushi”. I read through it and realized that a friend of mine has so much of love for me. I was so touched by her gesture that I couldn’t speak some time (it is very rare that a chatting machine like me feels speechless). I just messaged her letting her know that her post came like an answer to a question that had been bothering me for a long time now.

The answer was simple. It is very easy to love and care. There is something more that I have learnt from this episode. We always cry over things that we don’t have. But we fail to appreciate and thank for all the wonderful gifts that are bestowed upon us. I was raving because some people broke my trust and treated me wrong. However I failed to look around. There were so so many wonderful people who have been filling my life with their abundant unconditional love and care. They have always been in my thick and thin. They have been reasons for the joy in my life. Probably these beautiful people are the reason why the world still has faith in love and goodness.

I looked up and thanked HIM for all that he has given me. He has blessed me with such loving parents, a very affectionate and caring husband, crazy yet lovable siblings, my extended family and some dear friends and well wishers who have been my family while I am away from home. I must have done something really good in my past lives, because I haven’t done anything now to deserve all this.

The link to Giri’s article is here. You can read it too. I am completely humbled by her words.

http://petite-merveille.blogspot.in/2012/06/mad-me.html

P.S.: I am so glad Giri and I are MAD. Only two mad people can have seamless love for each other in the world of today.

It's all about MMS and Madness!!

He was sitting right behind me in the cab. I looked at him and smiled. He responded with a larger smile. I can never forget his first look. I can only describe him as a lanky chap with a smile that’s so infectious. He wore lavender (purple according to him) colored T-shirt that had some weird thing scribbled on it, and spectacles that covered his beautiful eyes, completely. He looked like a typical progeny of some engineering college of India. The ones who study all night so that they can fill up the answer sheet with their formulas and derivations the next morning. Yes, he looked like a complete “intellectual nerd”. The only thing that held my attention was a huge violin that covered his frame. “So you play Violin?” I enquired. “Yes, I do” he replied politely. “Great, from when?” I was eager to know. “It’s been some time and I love it”. He finally ended the conversation. We reached our destination and he was soon a face I had once seen.

A few days after our first meeting I met him in the cafeteria. “Hey, how are you?” I was so glad to see him again. His face broke in to his infectious smile. “I am good”, he replied softly. We chatted for some time and moved on with work and this somehow became the trend. Of course the length of the discussions would increase with every meeting and the topics too varied. We became friends, then good friends and finally very good friends.

How does one describe this special friend? I am either falling short of words or maybe, just maybe I am unable to explain his simplicity in the complexity of words. MMS speaks more than required, often. And everything he blabbers makes for a perfect “nonsense”. He can drive you crazy with his “cheeky dialogues”, freshly picked from some flop bollywood movie. Yes, you are so right, he is mad, totally mad. Then why is that I have grown so fond of him?

MMS is not the regular guy you come across. He is different. He is simple in his thoughts and humble in his actions. And he is certainly not the one who would be a forgotten memory ever. He stays in your mind long enough for you to fall in love with him. He has this innate ability of liking everything that life has to offer. He has no pre-requisites for happiness. He is happy. He loves everything around him (including all the lovely girls too). MMS is so funny that he can make can make a dead man laugh and giggle (his smile is seriously infectious). He has a zest for life and that’s pretty infectious too. “I just want all of you to be happy”, this is what MMS told me during one of our never ending non sense conversations. I was so moved with his words. And that was the first and last time this nerd spoke sense.

MMS plays violin so well that each string wrings the strings of your heart. His love for music is visible everytime he holds the violin in his hand. I remember his message on FB after our annual family event. The message said, “Thank you for giving me this opportunity. Violin means the world to me”. Silly sentimentalist, I thought to myself.

Insane, crazy, mad, lovable, adorable, unconventional etc, you can call him anything. He still continues to be the nerd I once met, the nerd I liked and the nerd who has become my closest friend. It is so strange that some people just walk in to your life, ignite a small lamp of joy in your heart and bring with them warmth that stays with you forever. MMS has just done that.

MMS in one of his performances

The Joy Of Our Friendship!!

We have laughed several smiles,

And shared many tears,

We have walked several miles,

Like friends of years.

To each other we taught,

Those lessons of life,

Some that love had brought,

And some of bitter strife.

From the first few silent glances,

We have come a long way,

On the tidal waves of togetherness,

To the love of this day.

There is so much more to give,

There is so much more to share,

There is so much more to live,

And there is so much more to care.

Written for 2 mad friends.... Girija Shetty Deshpande and Khushboo Singh Rana!!

The Wonderful Woman!!

“Happy Woman’s Day” he wished me and gave a tight hug. I thanked him and got back to my morning chores. Tea was ready and as every morning we were having our tea together. “Thank you for being such a wonderful woman”, he complimented me with a sweet smile. I thanked him again; however, the flattering “wonderful woman” part didn’t go quite well with me. I did not want to hurt him yet I couldn’t stop myself from asking, “What is so wonderful about me? I am an ordinary woman who does ordinary things”. He took a deep breath and answered, “You do wonderful things everyday and don’t even realize it”. The conversation was interesting but it was time to leave for office, so the conversation ended with

a last sip of our masala chai.

The entire day went in running around at work, celebrating Woman’s day, felicitating women folks etc etc. While I had completely forgotten about the “wonderful woman tag talk”, this thought ran through his mind all day. After dinner he put forward a question to me. “Do you really think that you are not wonderful? The blank look on his face was amusing. What’s wrong with my husband? I thought to myself.  So I replied with a, “hmmm”. I believe he was prepared for this answer. He promptly said, “I can list at least 100 things that you do so wonderfully”. I laughed at his confidence and said, “Alright, let me hear at least one of them”.

He smiled and walked towards me. He looked in to my eyes and very softly said, “You are a lovely wife, daughter, sister, and a friend. At each of these roles you put your heart and soul. Isn't this selfless love wonderful? Even after a tired hectic day, every evening you welcome me with a smile on your face, isn't this wonderful? You understand every bit of my silence, isn't this wonderful? In the most troubled times you have brought cheer with your giggles and that I say is so wonderful”, he announced with a pride in his voice.

I had no answer to any of this. I just wondered if this tall handsome man holding me was from this world. I am not sure if all that he said was really magical or wonderful. Sometimes it’s the love between two people which makes life magical. May be just may be. But all said and done, for a day at least I want to believe that I am a wonderful woman. And the most wonderful thing about me is this wonderful man who loves me unconditionally.

Sometimes the most ordinary things in life are the most wonderful things in the world.

The "Mom" Phenomena!!

Last night I was chatting with a dear friend. The usual conversation became so special and beautiful that both of us were touched. I wouldn't say more… I have copied the chat for you to read. I am sure you will also find it as beautiful, as we did. So, happy reading!!!

She: hey hi
Me: Hi, Lovely lady…where have you been?
She: I have been to London to see the Queen…hahahaha…
Me: shocked…..
She: Chill… My sense of humor still sucks…
Me: I can see that :P
She: frown frown
Me: Ok you rock; I love your jokes… Happy?
She: very happy.
Me: so when are we meeting?
She: Diwali… I am coming on Diwali.
Me: Super… let’s gang up this time.
She: we will.
Me: When’s diwali, by the way?
She: I don’t know. Let me call up Mom and check.
Me: Ok, let me check with mine too.

Pause for 20 minutes.

Me: are you back?
She: Yes… was talking to Mom.
Me: I understand. Me too
She: Can’t do without her. Man, I need to call her up for everything.
Me: I talk to her twice a day, sometimes thrice too ;)
She: hee hehehe … me too….Damn, she knows everything.
Me: Yeah… That’s why she is “MOM”.
She: who said Google was the only search engine…. Ask Mom anything and she has an answer.
Me: Lolzzzzzz…. I so agree. Sometimes more than that ya.
She: You are so right…. If I need an advice I call up mom.
Me: If I feel down I call her.
She: If I am very happy I call her.
Me: If I make a mistake, I call her.
She: If I need ideas, I call her.
Me: If I am bored I call her.
She: When I am cooking a new recipe I call her.
Me: When I am draping a saree, I call her… Sigh!! (The woes of an Indian woman ;))
She: When I have to bitch, I call her… hahahaha!!
Me: hahahaha… when I receive an appreciation, I call her.
She: When I miss her, I call her.

Pause for 10 seconds.

Me: all ok?
She: Missing her… it’s been so long I have hugged her. Marriages make you do so much.

Pause for 10 seconds

She: all ok?
Me: me too missing her… she is coming in May… Hurray!!
She: lovely… make the most out of it.
Me: I will… I have told her I want to have kheer that she makes… she makes it awesomely awesome.
She: you will seriously make the most out of it.
Me: of course… I love her ya… she is so wonderful.
She: all Mom’s are…right?
Me: So true… all moms are wonderful.
She: Now you know why we are aren’t mothers, yet? Hyuk hyuk
Me: hmmm…. True and I “will never be”. Winks winks!!!
She: Me too me too. Same pinch!!
She: What would the world be without Moms?
Me: Dead …. Moms add life to life.

“I am sure that if the mothers of various nations could meet, there would be no more wars” - E.M. Forster