Coming back..

After being in Lucknow for a while now I’ve begun to see certain patterns within the place. The people here pick up whims and the whole crowd gets engrossed following the trend. The latest here is networking, everybody wants to know everyone, they talk about whose party each had gone to, discussing whose more popular.. At times it feels there’s some race happening and each wants to outdo the other but whom do they want to know, I mean who would the most popular ones want to know or do they find contentment in the fact that everybody knows them??

Perhaps it’s the festive season that’s brought out this trait amongst people or it’s the insecurity within them, the fear of being left alone?? Like wouldn’t someone want to hang out with like minded people, be around friends than just be with anyone for the heck of it??

Probably what I am seeing around me is new to me, I am unable to grasp how this place has grown like any big city where networking is a big deal, maybe being absent during this transformation has left me a little lost and I still associate myself with the city where small groups existed, where I had a tiny circle and that’s the only thing that mattered, where fun was being with them, being myself..

It’ll take me a while to grasp it all, to understand the dynamics of it, to grab the big picture but I doubt I’ll be up for it myself ever but then as I’ve always believed, it would all saturate to a single line: “ to each his own”!!

P.S: This post is not intended to offend anyone at all, its merely a something I've observed which is taking some time to sink in.

Laughter and smiles..

God, prayers, wishes, good fortune, all these words make two people pop into my head: my parents. So like always, during some pooja ceremony while thinking of them, I thought about when had I last seen my Dad laughing, laughing as in gurgling with joy, as in the eyes going small and that happy crazy sound being emitted by the vocal cords, and sadly I couldn’t remember that last time.. I remember him being happy, happiness that beings tears to the eyes, relieved happy but not “laughing”..

I then thought about me, when had I last laughed so hard that my eyes would begin to water? I sure did during school and then in college, even sometime while I was working but that seems like a distant memory now. I do remember the soundless laughter of mine but the people, the situation has faded so apparently it must have been eons ago. And then I realized that as I had begun to grow older, probably wiser, getting to know more about the world, understand the people around me better, I’d laughed lesser.

Now I crave for those unreasonable reasons that gave me such happiness, that made people around me look at me and get confused between the state of happiness and madness, when a typical look or expression from a friend resulted in fits of euphoria.. I’ve begun to long for for those moments yet again.