Kissi se Kehna Mat

I was in a family get-together when I received a call from Accenture. Accenture is a Multinational Software Company, which means it has offices in various countries of the world.

The girl from the other side of the phone probably rolled her tongue to create an alien accent.
She said " Hi, This is Sujata calling from Accenture Corporate Office Mumbai. It is to inform you that you have been selected as a Senior Software Engineer. Rest of the details will be emailed to you shortly. Thanks. Have a nice day."

Though it was hard to understand her language in "pretended to be like an American accent", I managed to grab the abstract of it.
I got a job in Accenture. I couldn't resist my exhilaration that I informed my father.

I said with excitement " Papa, I got the job in Accenture. Just now, they called me."
Papa with equal intensity reverted " Oh that's good news. Isn't Accenture a bigger company? Will you get more package here?"
I joyfully answered his queries" Yes, its one of the biggest in its working domain and my package will also be 7.5 lakhs/annum. But don't disclose this news to anyone, Papa because I want to be sure of my offer letter, joining location and other important details. This may take few days. I am anyway going to Bangalore and return directly to Sunny's marriage after 5 days. We will then inform everyone. What do you say?"
He said with agreement" No, we will even inform after you join the company. All the best."

As I left, a lot of  bilateral consensus happened between people, which are as follows.

Consensus 1:- My father said to my mother" Ravi got a new job in Mumbai. The company has offices abroad as well. Please don't disclose it to anyone now."
For my mother, the job location matters more than the company and its offered salary. She has an impression that every software engineer goes abroad and settles down there, which is true to some extent. 

Consensus 2:- My mother shared her mixed feeling with my Mausi(her sister) " Ravi got senior position in Mumbai and after few months, he will also go abroad like everyone. Don't reveal it now to anyone."
For my Mausi, senior position only means more money. 

Consensus 3:- My Mausi discussed it with his son (my II cousin) " Ravi became senior and soon going to abroad."
My cousin made some calculations in his mind and clarified my Mausi's doubts " Accenture sends his people to Europe. For a Senior Software Engineer, they offer around 5000 Euros per month. That means 4 lakhs per month."
My Mausi almost fainted after hearing that.      

Consensus 4:-  My cousin continued to disclose to my I cousin " Did you get to know about Ravi? He is going to Europe and will be earning 4 lakhs per month. Fod diya bande ne (He progressed incredibly). 
My I cousin replied " No I wasn't aware of this. But sounds great."
My II cousin " In that case, please don't say that I told you. "

My II cousin extended this to his father.

Consensus 5:- His father (my uncle) told his wife (my aunt) " Ravi is going abroad. He will settle down there after his marriage. MK (my father) has one daughter and one son. The daughter will go her home after marriage and the son will settle down abroad. Why to have kids then if they don't live with you? Anyway, they have not informed us so you also don't share it with anyone."

Actually, the marriage of neither my sister nor mine were fixed at that point of time. 

Cycling Chain:- The message was spread in the entire family, friends, neighbors and their friends in just 5 days.

I attended my cousin's marriage after my return from Bangalore. I was unaware of what happened when I was not around.

I was looking for my friend then suddenly Mr. Gupta (our neighbor) patted my shoulder very hardly " Oh congratulations Ravi ! Naam roshan kar diya bhai ( You made everyone proud)"
Soon Mr. Saini (my father's colleague) also joined us.
"Did you hear that Saini ji? Ravi is going abroad. You know, the money we earn in a year, he will earn in a month there." Mr Gupta continued with laughter.

Was it funny that Mr. Gupta and Mr. Saini couldn't resist their laughter? Oh, my poor sense of humor that I could not sense the joke. But I didn't understand where his story came from till I realized that it was not only his contribution, but the entire family and friends to create a marvelous fictional story about my job.

I pissed off in the beginning but then couldn't resist laughing after tracing the whole chain of consensus back. It was fun. Indeed, our social networking is better than Facebook :)

The Desires of a "Small Town Boy"

I was born and brought up in a very small city of Rajasthan, India. I had a strict mother, a busy father and 4 years elder sister. My mother never allowed us to play more than 1 hour and watch TV except on Sundays. My father, on the other hand, never cared that much. The drawing room of the government allotted house had fulfilled the purpose of our sleeping-cum-studying room. But in case of visitors staying overnight, it quite often sacrificed as a guest room. The room showed the ever adjusting nature of an Indian middle class.

My mother used to watch daily soaps as much as she could do. The sudden ups and downs of the magnitude of the voice, referring to the crucial moments of the TV serials, made us to draw our own stories. If the dinner coincided with those TV programs, we could cross-verify our innovative stories with the actual ones. It's hard to imagine now that TV was hardly switched off the whole day.

The years had passed in a similar way. Over the years, my mother limited her responsibilities up to asking the same question after every exam; "How was the exam?" My father was only aware of which class I was studying. They, undoubtedly, became active at the results. My sister was always appreciated by them, but I was quite a disappointment for them.
I loved to play cricket but never allowed to play after class IX. They said " There exists a lot of competition and playing in Indian Cricket is an impossible task so why to waste time playing it. Just concentrate on your studies." I never understood why playing cricket was all about getting selected in the Indian Cricket Team.

Anyway life moved on, I reached the class X. The year when all your family members, friends of your parents and neighbours become super-active as if this is as important as selecting the Prime Ministerial candidate for the country. All vague ideas of studying more than 15 hours, A BIG NO to play, movies and social gatherings. They offered the logic of focusing those crucial years (X-XI-XII class) to have a great life ahead full of luxuries. I wondered why, then, not a single person around me had all the luxuries even after they would have sacrificed their crucial years.

I was in a good school but supplementing your school education with famous private tutors in the city was a trend you could not ignore. Science, Maths and English were more privileged subjects for getting extra classes. Life was limited to school, extra classes, tuitions and self-studies in the drawing room, next to my mother's theater.

One fine day after my X class exams, I spent the whole day playing cricket. My busy-turned-into-super-active father was waiting at the door.
He asked in an angry tone "Desire fulfilled ?" He continued " Guptaji's son has already gone to Kota. He is doing IIT there. "
My mother interrupted " What is IIT ? Never heard this term before !" I didn't know about it either." My father ignored her question" Arey, our prince doesn't even know about it and others have started doing it. I have decided that you will start your tuitions from tomorrow on. No more playing."

The best thing about government houses that your neighbours keep on changing. I was leaving my home at 5:00 AM when I first saw her playing badminton with her brother. Our eyes met but I had to leave. So the whole day, I ignored unimplementable mathematical equations, never seeable atomic level chemical equations and  unachievable speed of light, and thought of coming back to home and see her again.  Back home, she was already there with her mother.  I was anxious. My mother introduced me with them.
She said " This is Mrs. Sharma, our new neighbour, and her daughter Smriti. Smriti didi will be didi's college." Oh crap !! I was collapsed to the core.  Nothing was worse than calling your first crush "Didi (Sister)" 

I studied in a boy's (UniSex) school. The private tutors made two separate batches for boys & girls. The timings of the batches were also separated by 12 hours. Though it was very unlikely in a small town that a girl gets into the Science-Maths stream. Most families of the girls were obsessed for Arts. They could limit their girls to go out to the maximum. Arts students had the privilege not to attend regular classes. Tuitions were not needed either or unavailable too.
In this era, after a long time, I saw a beautiful girl. She was like an alien flower in the drought. I was not sure of whether my mother did it intentionally or she didn't care of my teenage fantasies.

I was supposed to drop my 4 years elder sister to evening classes and get her back safely. I couldn' t understand why I got that task from my parents. Was I considered to be strong enough to fight rapists, eve-teasers or bad boys or was my sister frail to defend her? I was always talked about my future education despite my love for cricket. My sister, on other hand, was talked about her marriage, ignoring her interest for higher education.

I wanted to get along with my first crush. I wanted to drop out after school. I wanted to play cricket all my life. I wanted my sister to live freely without restrictions. I never dared to question my parents and the society by whom I was driven. I was never answered.