It was for an instant only that I accidentally left my cell phone in the hired Indica cab outside my Noida office in Sector 2. I had to deliver

By: Rimaa Taneja

I broke my toe exact one week before Diwali. The time which I look forward to all throughout the year.Time when the best of my kurtis with matching neck pieces carefully picked up are to be flaunted. A time to stand tall next to my husband(who shoots up to good 6 ft 1in like a well grown bamboo) and wear my stilettos but alas the Orthopedic advised 3weeks of complete rest with flat sandles.

Much before I came out of this ordeal of not only the pain(physical) but also social (here the social pain means wearing flat sandles with simple pair of clothes) all through Diwali. I was down with food poisoning, now what do you expect from a person confided to bed to do other than hog on the goodies. Also my dear friends took pity of me and treated me with all kind of packed food.

All this is and many more problems that keep resurfacing in my life like the wild mushrooms in the rainy season made me say WHY ME?? Of course why me??

I am a God fearing person who does all fasts n pujas as per rituals( ofcourse coke and ice creams are permitted) as I am not a saint sitting on Himalayas asking for Moksh, then why me??

It was only after my dear friend who came out of the blue to chit chat I realized why not me?? “Good only your thumb broke and you did not have to wear a full leg cast” (I screamed at the thought of wearing track pants during the diwali celeberations) Regarding food poisoning she was so excited, Wow so Annie(that’s what my husband is fondly called by my female friends) cooked and looked after you. How Shweet and romantic!! I tried flash back and think what was so romantic about my throwing up every meal, Ahh hah! Yes after each visit to the wash room I found him standing outside with yet another glass of Nimboo Pani indeed it was romantic!!

We are unlikely to note the positve incidents as they are taken for granted and when things go wrong we start watching out and form a pattern thus starts the blame game. Be it luck, self, god, world, destiny, time or fall into another whirlpool of superstitions. By blaming all we feel elated to have been chosen as Gods special one to take the pain of the entire world on our tiny shoulders – Saari duniya ke dukk hum uthate hai. What we need to understand is that chaos we visualize the world to be in is actually the reflection of chaos within us, once we become aware we can evolve to a higher plane of consciousness where we take ownership of our own actions and the change begins……

By:  Rimaa Taneja

Most of our days and of course in some cases nights are busy living our second lives….surfing the net, facebooking, chatting. We are all in the online world, where we log on and trace long lost ones, with just a click of a mouse. A site named Facebook comes as a revolution where we find, people we know but haven’t met for ages. My experience was wonderful when I found old pals and made new ones, but it was an eye opener for me too.

My cousin who felt I was living on Mars,(since I didn’t know what Facebook or Orkut was and had not logged on them ever)got me hooked on to this addiction. Must I admit ,it felt great to see so many friends, neighbours, cousins in the other part of the world too were there. From Chinni Masi to to Govind Uncle,.from Roshan Tayaji to Baby didi. Hey!! Was I really living On Mars till now. I would religiously now post my status/note (courtsey demanded) about my day to day schedule.Check out the latest in whoever’s life. Technology helps!

I added anybody and everybody who sent me an invite, my school pals, my college gang, my neighbours, cousins…masi, chachi…I know him…I remember seeing him way back in a wedding in year 1998…click…

My neighbour who had met with an accident posted her status of being extremely unwell, and bored. Showing my concern through this medium I would send her “Get Well Soon” messages, e-cards on her profile almost on daily basis. But guess what? My house is ten houses away from hers…was I so busy that I could not walk upto her, give her a warm hug and be there to say “I care”

Our lives are always so hectic with so little time to spare..but days do get brighter when we hear a doorbell,a friend there  just saying..”Hi , just wanted to ask how are you doing?

TRY…HUGS ARE FOR FREE

By: Rimaa Taneja

I Am Learning…!

Since Saturday last I have not been able to sleep….only because the quest for answers to simple questions in life has kept me wide awake….What is Courage??

Recently preparing my son for his midterm English examination, I asked him to make a sentence on courage; even after thinking for a while and testing my patience (which is on short fuse!!! during high stress times such as exams of a 12 year old!!! ) he looked confused. Phew!! You can’t make a simple sentence….What kind of preparation is this? What does your teach at school? God! Why am i cutting down on my expenses and sending you to such an expensive school? So many questions were bombarded on the little one!!! , he still wore a blank look – his questioning eyes were asking me, “Mom what is courage???”

I was a bit calm now and started “Beta courage is hmmmmm…. Courage is the power…..!! No, No, Jesus! What is courage? Is it the deed that shows your courage? Is courage only when we talk of battlefields, soldiers, policeman who fight for the country or upload the law? Or is it being brave to face the devastation – people affected by floods or drought?”

Courage does not suddenly come in moment of plight or emergency, nobody can teach you how to be courageous! After all, in bad situations what can you do except cope with it with the strength and resource you have!! In doing so we ignore the everyday routine where we all show courage.

A toddler shows courage when he holds on to the table to stand upright the first time.

A student who is bent on improving grades shows courage. A man who works 24/7 to give best to his family, courageously driving through the potholed roads in the never ending jams.

A woman who keeps the house in face of rising prices with nobody feeling the effect of it.

Courage to me is discovery that it’s not a must win battle but still trying - knowing that you may lose.

The real courage is in daily lives. The courage to speak the truth at all times because LIES are biggest act of cowardice that one can try to hide behind.

Courage is To Stand Up For What You Believe In…

By: Rimaa Taneja

Last time I wrote a little about our young generation who is badly misunderstood.
To my surprise I got more calls and messages from elder generation who agreed
with my views.

Thanks reader,
such a positive response has encouraged me to write an extension;

Does lighting a candle at India gate as a protest against the prolonged cases waiting for justice ? Does
not throwing our disposable coke glass from Mcdonalds on the road help us to
keep our city clean? Does one polite word to the widow aunty staying the next
door make her feel secure?

Yes ! All these little gestures make a huge difference to the world we live in.

Are we aware the number of spastic institutes, blind school and old age home we have in our
city? There is an effort involved in such things which we have to initiate.
Until the desire from with in rise, no one can do anything.

In today fast moving times we can not take out much time for such things, but
those who have the time also step back, thinking what difference will we make?

Let’s not make excuses. Our baby steps of today would build a better tomorrow.
Let’s peep out inside ourselves and see what we can do.

Clean cites a safer environment and a friendly look to start with and you will
see for yourself how good you feel. Come on boys and girls you are the ‘Aaj kal
ki generation’ we are proud of.

By: Rimaa Taneja

A car drove past me at a speed that made me skip my heart beat. Didn’t know who it was, but I surely gave him a bad look, somehow remembered the make and number of the car.

Few days later I saw the same car parked at the market place and lo!! was I shocked? It was driven by a man close to his 50s and suddenly as a flashback in movies I remembered my neighbour Aunty’s comment, “Zaroor koi bigda hua ladka hoga, college pahunch jaatein hain, seekhte kuch nahin.”

I decided that day to watch everyone for next 15 days and bring to light this ‘Aaj kal ki Generation’

The next evening I was all set to look for a prey, my eyes followed all young boys and girls. A few even felt embarrassed with my eyes constantly following them. My first was a young man entering the park. Aha! There it is, but suddenly he stopped, gave way to a young mother, picked up the pram for her, crossed the small “nalah” and left with a smile. Uff ! I thought…but may be this was just an exception.

I left the park and  instead went around the sector where a  young man was holding a 80 odd year old man’s hand and giving him an evening walk- Again!! No he must be doing it due to compulsion and looked the other side.

Two young girls walking ahead  I was sure to get some hot gossip from them. I tried listening to their conversation and comment on how these kids only talk about fashion and boys about these days. What I heard instead put one to shame. They discussed medicine as future and how little time and effort each one puts in a day.

God! don’t do this, give me one young man/ women to criticize ‘Aaj kal ki generation’. I looked up the almighty and without realizing stood in the middle of the street when a car screech halted behind me but still managing to give me a push and I fell flat on ground. It was an answer to my prayer,I thought. I turned around to give the driver a piece of my mind but before that he was beside me, apologizing as he had committed a murder and with in a second took out the first-aid from the car and took me back home.

I had nothing to say. Just got down and walk inside. Do we really need to say Uff ! ye ‘Aaj kal ki Generation.

I said ‘NO’ to crackers five years back after a unanimous decision taken by my whole family, a day before Diwali. The most vociferous out of us was Shadow, my then 7 year old Lhasa apso, who’d had enough of the never ending ‘noise attack’ and was sick of hiding under the bed.

Diwali changed the mutt in him.

From being a perpetually happy-go-lucky, sometimes lazy fellow, he’d turn into a nervous wreck, with his tail between his legs and a not so sunny disposition.

The rest of us hated the noise and pollution and what post Diwali usually brought. My mother would rue what rockets and other crackers did to her garden, my father would look at the cracker bill suspiciously, wondering if somebody had added an extra zero and my sister and I always grumbled about the clean up duty assigned to us.

So we all took an oath and vowed to stay away from crackers… but not Diwali!

We bought bucketfuls of Diyas in all shapes and sizes and some candles too – floating and otherwise – and only after Shadow’s sniff of approval did we go ahead and decorate the house with them.

We also exchanged gifts with our friends and family, gorged on mithai and clicked lots of memorable photographs.

Post Diwali, we considered ourselves to be one of the few happy families who woke up to a clean house with a clean yard, a happy dog and no clean up duty!

This Diwali will be no different. Even though all of us are in different cities, we will stick to our pact. No crackers.

Maasoom D.

While searching online for a list of cafés in Noida, my friend came across a ‘Gossip café’ in sector 51. It sounded interesting so we thought we’d check it out. We first went to sector 37 by auto where we had some work and from there we proceeded to sector 51.

Hopes high, we asked for directions to Gossip once we reached the market, but no one had heard of it. Finally one man, after scratching his head for a whole minute, told us that it had closed down and had shifted to sector 29. Strike 1

Not giving up so easily, we instructed the auto guy to take us to the sector 29 market. Incidentally, the same auto guy was ferrying us around the whole way. He looked like he wanted to help us in our quest for ‘gossip’ . When he asked for almost 200 bucks for the fare we realized, he didn’t. Strike 2

We were dropped off at the Gangaswami market of sector 29 which was the spookiest market ever! The looming building looked grim and even though many shops were open it gave the appearance of being deserted. On the first floor, we saw peeling walls, dingy unoccupied rooms and nearly tripped over a bunch of seedy looking men playing cards on the floor. No gossip café in sight. Strike 3

Finally good sense prevailed and we left for home with our wallets considerably lighter. Now we know that Gossip Café is in sector 50 (a fact, my friend got wrong in the first place) and might just go there …as soon as we get over the last experience.

After staying in Noida for a whole month, I vowed never to come back again. At that time, I was interning with a TV channel in sector 63 and stayed close by in a flat with friends and fellow colleagues to make commuting easy. Compared to the hustle bustle of Delhi, Noida seemed like an unorganized, impersonal city with long lonely stretches of road and poor connectivity.

The actual nightmare was the every day commute to work. Though it took only 20 minutes to reach (a marvel by anyone’s standards), those 20 minutes were the worst. From cat calling, haggling with callous auto-wallas to almost being run down by lawless drivers (while crossing roads); it truly was a teeth gritting experience, more so for my Manipuri friend who was constantly bothered with calls like ‘chinese’ and ‘chowmein’.

To go out anywhere on our off days, we walked, changed buses, vikrams, rickshaws and walked again. Moreover, we envied anyone and everyone who owned a set of wheels. In short commuting was a pain.

Four months later, I’m back in Noida, in a different sector with a different firm but the same problem. What’s worse is that this time I have to commute from Delhi and the best and the most economic way to do so is by bus. In these 3 days I have learnt a lot.

There are a lot of blueline buses that go to Noida from ISBT provided you’re ok with literally hanging out of the bus or being cramped in with people who desperately need a shower.

The few Noida Authority buses that run are the most sought after as they take the shortest route possible. However traveling in these is far from comfortable. If you’re lucky enough to get a seat and a partner who ignores you, the one and a half hour ride can even be called pleasant. If not, stand close to a window for fresh air and start elbowing your way to the bus doors a stop early. Ignore offers for modeling, voice modulation etc. In any case, how fantastic can the offer be if it’s coming from someone who travels in a bus?

After all’s said and done, the fact remains that Delhi-Noida and inter Noida connectivity is dreadful. I, for one, am looking forward to the metro which will run from June 2009. Till then, I’ll just have to pluck my courage and carry on or work really hard at my job, get a raise and hopefully, cab service all the way to the office and back!