Re-instated…

It was a dull, cloudy day, on 24^th of April, when I forced myself to wake up. It was a Friday morning, and I got up unusually early. I was all tensed, because I had to go and meet my International Student Advisor. The reason was very simple. I had successfully managed to fail 2 subjects in my previous semester, and I had to go and explain it to him, why I had failed those subjects. I was still in my blanket and thinking to myself, what exactly am I going to tell him? Should I tell him that I was too lazy to study those subjects and was too lazy to go and appear for the exam? I actually didn’t appear for one of the exams and beat the fact, I brought myself to the class room, where the exam was going on and I didn’t go inside to give the exam. It was the simplest exam ever possible! I don’t know why I didn’t go inside. Should I tell him the truth, that the other subject, in which I failed, I had already studied that at my bachelor’s level and I had scored 80/100 for that subject and I gracefully managed to fail it? What reasons could I have given him for failing the subject, so that he does not report my failure to the Department of Immigration?

I settled for something really misleading. I decided to tell him that I was under a state of massive depression and so I didn’t clear these subjects. I thought I will tell him that I didn’t have a job and I had to rely on my parents for my daily expenditure and this guilt, was driving me nuts plus my health had gone bad. Which by the way, is 30% true, but not totally true, of course. But, I decided, that is exactly what I m going to say and will use all kind of exaggerations I know, and will use the immortal power, the hydraulic power, of tears.

Deciding that, I got up, had my shower, ate some breakfast and then packed my bag and left for the train station. I reached the university, half an hour before the appointment time. Nervously, I took out my cigarette box and lit up one cigarette. 10 minutes passed, and I realized, there’s still more time to go. I lit up another cigarette. Another 10 minutes passed and I decided, that is it. I’m now going inside. I went inside and the secretary asked me to go inside and wait. The office was very congested. This made me all the more nervous. After a whole long 15 minute wait, I was called inside.

Upon going inside, I saw this very bright face and I started to relax. He asked me to sit and said “Hi, I m Peter”. I explained to him why I was visiting him and meanwhile, he was trying to retrieve my academic information from the uni database. He said “I can’t find your information, because you have been un-enrolled from your subjects for not paying fees which is $548 and your admission has been cancelled”. I was so shocked. The news hit me like a punch on the face and I just couldn’t digest what he was saying. The irony was, I actually started shedding tears. He started saying “I know this is very upsetting for you, but you can appeal against this to the registrar and here are the details, how you should go about doing that and your entire fee money, which comes to $10,400 has been directly transferred to your account”, handing me some papers. The rest fell onto deaf ears and I thanked him and went out.

I called up my friend YP who runs a relocating-students business and started crying. He kept asking me why I was crying and I couldn’t say anything at all. Then I somehow managed to explain him bits and pieces of what happened. Poor thing, I was throwing this on him. He asked me to come down to his office and that he would deal with it. I agreed and caught a bus to go his office. On the way, I was speaking to my boyfriend over the phone, half crying, half listening and half talking.

Then things started taking a different turn. From sad and scared, I became angry. I wanted to shout out aloud and tell these idiots from the uni, that I had paid almost entire amount i.e. $10,400 and now they are worried about just $548? How can they be so stupid? How can they possibly harass students like that? I actually thought of suing them. Why couldn’t they ever send me a post or ring me to inform me about this? Yes, I was that angry. Then I started thinking, damn, I have $10,400 in my account. Let me go shopping, buy some stuff and then buy a single ticket to India, and go back home permanently. I actually thought of buying India return tickets for my friends as well, so that we can go and enjoy together over there. My boyfriend has not gone to India in the past four years!!! Random and stupid thoughts started coming to me. They all stopped the minute I reached my friend’s office.

I sat in the chair, opposite to him, in his glass cabin, and found myself smiling stupidly. He read the papers which Peter gave me and started laughing. I was shocked again. I thought it was my admission that was cancelled, it was me whose life had been screwed, it was me who was going back to India because my visa would eventually be cancelled, and I had every right to act like I have lost it and in indeed I was acting that way. But why is YP behaving like that? He then said, “Its nothing moron, they are just trying to scare you. Just go and pay off $548 and they’ll be more than happy to have u back. They will welcome you with open arms”.

I did exactly what YP asked me to, and exactly that’s what happened. I was welcomed with open arms. I just got a mail today saying that they have received my fees and I have been re-instated…

NB: The irony is, I thought about using hydraulic power to mislead him and the beauty is, they misled me!

The sister’s dilemma!

One afternoon, they were alone in the entire house. It was just a regular two storeyed house, with noisy neighbours, dogs barking, same old titter-tatter of the neighbouring ladies etc. etc. They had just closed the room door and weren’t doing anything great, just watching a soft romantic movie. She was sleepy and so was he. It was quite dark inside the room and all of a sudden it starts raining. The hullabaloo outside, starts diminishing and the thunder noise takes its place. Still, they are watching the movie. Suddenly, he gets up from the bean bag, on which he was lying and comes and sits beside the bean bag where she was half lying and half sitting. She didn’t react at all. He started stroking her hand, which he always did. That was again very normal. The next thing that came is nothing rare, but we consider very emotional or animal-like instincts. He slowly started stroking her belly and then, what followed is, very simple to guess.

When I was told this, it sounded like a day-to-day affair and I told her, that’s an ordinary story. I asked her about the reason she was telling me all this. To my surprise, she started howling. Tears rolled down her cheeks and she became uncontrollable. I tried my best to help her out. Eventually, her crying died out and she gathered all the courage to spit out the truth.

“He was a brother to me”, she said. I gasped, as I was trying the right words to say. Finally, I asked her if it was her cousin brother with whom this happened, knowing that she was the only child of her parents. “I tied raakhi to him every year since I was seven and we have been together in the school, since god knows, ages”. What came later, was a shock to me. I couldn’t make out what she was saying, because my mind started thinking about the relevant and irrelevant things that could happen and that had happened. The rest, fell onto deaf ears, and my response became very feeble. I was just thinking.

She actually considered him a brother and how could she? O my god !

Making love is normal, but with her brother?

But he was not a real brother, so is it ok?

Love knows no barrier, is it true?

They say love is blind, is it the reason this happened?

Their story started from being “brother-sister to making-love to an honest full-grown relationship”. Is it something that can be approved off?

Certain things, they maybe right, but beyond explanations!

NB: Raakhi is a holy thread which sisters tie to their brother, according to many Hindu traditions for their safety and in return, it’s the brother’s duty to protect his sister.

The Walking Irony

” When the sun sets over a vast field and just before dying, gives out one last flash of brilliance, hope is restored amongst the mass of humanity, who believe, that in that one instance of brilliance, their shoddy lives have been restored, that some semblance of normalcy has been returned. When the sun finally coughs and dies, they are thrown back in the darkness from whence they came…”

We are all walking ironies in ourselves. No one’s different and yet no one’s the same! Simple logic, isn’t it?

My first attempt!

Hey everyone!

This is my first attempt at blogging. One of my friends forced me to start a blog. He feels that I write well. He’s obviously mistaken. I’m going to humor him and start blogging and see where the journey takes me. I’ve been writing random stuff all my life, and this is probably a better outlet to express myself without having to face rebuke from lesser intellects!

There are a lot of things that interest me, and I think I’m not going to waste my time and your time by blogging about the same old things. Instead, I’m going to use this portal to express my innermost feelings. I’ve been bottling them up for quite some time now, and I need to let it all out.

Thanks for your patience! Welcome to my BrainStem!