I was sitting on the beach last night(my favorite passtime now) just looking back at my life and thinking about all that I have seen, experienced, achieved and learnt. And I realized Lucky, that the moments I remember the most in life are not the big things I set out to achieve in the first place- its not even things that you account for when preparing your resume, neither is it things you can explain to others, these moments are just there- there to be experienced, to be felt and to be remembered. You remember these moments whenever you feel low, feel depressed, feel that you are completely useless, a waste of 80 kilos of mass- and then- you all of a sudden feel- that you aint that useless afterall.
The first moment that came to my mind was the first time I stole mangoes at the age of 10. There was this deserted school close to where I lived and 4 of us decided that we are going to slip across the guard to climb the mango tree and get hold of a few mangoes. We did successfully manage to escape the eye of the guard- but then when we got to the Mango tree- my conscience started telling me- "NO STEALING-REMEMBER WHAT MUMMY SAID ABOUT THIEFS AND HONESTY???". Another guy did run away - probably his conscience got the better of him. But I dont know what happened to me- I for the first time in my life(the life I remember that is)I did something that my parents warned me against doing. But I went ahead with it climbed the Mango tree and after about 10 minutes of effort , we got the mangoes. I bit into one of the mangoes - it was bitter- really bitter and I nearly spit it out-when- the taste all of a sudden turned into sweetness-the sweetness of achievement- sweetness that overcame the bitterness, and it was ecstatic- my god Lucky- never has any mango ever tasted so sweet ever again. I'd never forget that moment.
The second was another moment of triumph in my life- although nothing worth mentioning in my resume- but I'd never forget that as well. This was when I was in Class 5. We were each supposed to prepare a story to tell to the class-and we had a weeks' time to do so- this was less of an assignment and more of a test of "How many students are obedient enough to listen to me" on the english teachers' part(I dont remember her name now). I obviously screwed up- dint prepare anything and went to school(Actually entirely forgot about the whole thing). And then everybody in class seemed to have prepared something or the other- and I was thinking- 'I'm screwed man'- even bloody Mohan Shankar(Rank 36 out of 36 students in the class) had prepared a story and flashed his piece of paper to me. And then it started- one by one each of the kids started telling stories- everyone reading out from a piece of paper- most of the stories were lame- even by 5th class standards- even Sandhya- the topper told a really lame story about her going to the market with her grandmother- to which the teacher was like- 'Thats lovely Sandhya'- and I was like- 'Come one guys- grow up- you are no longer in 2nd standard'. Then came my turn(Roll number 32- my name being with S- just four guys after me). I had no clue- about what I had to do or say- I was petrified- terrified- I was nearly about to pee in my pants(actually I later on thought I could have just pee-ed in my pants and escaped- it would have been less embarassing). But then from somewhere an idea struck me-I dont know if I can call it divine intervention or something- I thought- why not just repeat one of the stories my Grandmom(my mom's mom) told me?? Add masala to it- twists and turns- and make it a bit more interesting- see what happens. I went up to the teachers desk and I said-"I remember the story so I dont need to refer to my paper"- to which the teacher said- "Fine!! Go Ahead". And then I narrated this story about how a thief broke into my grandmoms' house a few decades back( i dont know when it was or it if it even actually hapened). I added a few twists- typical bollywood stlye and for a change the sleepy class was now turning into a curious one wanting to know what happened- I was stopped about 5 times in between to clarify doubts- about what the thief looked like and how exactly he broke the door.At the end of the story- there was silence for a few seconds- and then our beloved english teacher stood up and started clapping, everyone else followed suite and for the first time in my life Lucky- I felt special, different- and I was beaming with a big smile on my face. The teacher then took me to other sections and also the staff room to narrate the story again. I realized two things that day Lucky- one- that everyone has something special about him/her- you just have to realize what it is and the second- that I'm a bloody good story teller!!!! Although I never tried telling stories after that in my life- but I might again!!!!
The third moment Lucky is the one where I got to see Aishwarya Rai-Yess!! I did manage to get a glimpse of her. There was this movie of hers' that was being shot in Bangalore and I came to know of it through a friend of mine and I decided that this was it- I had to see her. I slipped out of home on a Sunday morning lying that I was going to a friends place at 6 in the morning. And Vishal and me reached the site. It was bloody crowded- it seemed like the entire city had landed up there to get a glimpse of Aishwarya Rai. There were not less than ten thousand people and we were two 11 year old kids who were barely even visible in the crowd- it seemed more like two dwarfs in a crowd of giants. But then it kind of worked to our advantage where we managed to sneak through the crowd to the front where there was a rope tied to prevent people from getting in. Our eyes were searching for an angelic beauty- there were lots of good looking girls(the dancers!!) but no sight of Aishwarya. We waited and waited all day- we kept checking with people around us- and everyone was like 'Arre- abhi aati hi hogi!!!'.It had been 10 hours nearly- we were standing in the heat and sweating like crazy-no food- a lot of people had given up and left- and I was even worried about what I'd tell my parents about where I had been all day. But then at half past 5, she came- Aishwarya Rai came out of her trailer-cum-van in a white dress- she was a real person afterall. All the heat, frustration seemed to have just disappeared and I was staring at her like a kid at chocolates. Till then I wasnt convinced that a real person called Aishwarya Rai existed- or could probably exist- it seemed more like the figment of somebody's imaginaion- how could somebody so beautiful exist in the first place?? All posters were photoshopeed probably and all movies- an advanced form of 3d effect. But then all doubts were put to rest. She did some dance steps under the supervision of some female(the choreographer obviously)- her hands and body ware obviously real I thought. It felt really great Lucky- for some reason- it was another moment of achievement for me- nothing I can write in my resume again- but I felt really great and I still cherish that I did something this crazy at such a young age.
The reason I'm telling you all this crap Lucky, is that I have decided something- something really big- that I'm going to pursue for such special moments in my remaining lifetime- I feel I'd be more successful having 10 such moments in my lifetime than having all the money in the world!!!!
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