AND THERE IS HOPE!

Setbacks are common in life. Neither you invite them nor it knocks

at your door. Its just the rule of the game called LIFE! Sometimes there would be a series of failure in whatever you do. Either you do a business or you do a job in a company, the story would be the same- FAILURE! Sometimes you may loose faith in GOD when such situation arises. But remember the old saying? " GOD often checks who all are still keeping faith in him when tides of difficulty rocking one's life".

I know one guy who had lot of setbacks in his life so far. In his early days he struggled with a skin disease. He looked really ugly with marks on his face and all over his body. Some of his friends used to make fun of him. But he withheld his faith in GOD and moved on. His faith paid off when he turned 15. No marks were found on him and his confidence boosted high. Another incident; He was an average student whose English language was the worst among the students across the globe. But he kept his faith in GOD and worked hard. Now he is handling the language in such a way that he is able to read any book in English and what amused me is that he is managing a blog of his own online!

When he became a teenager, no girls had chosen him for a relationship. He was upset. He used to imagine strolling with a girl locking hands. But his imagination never became reality. He believed in GOD. After 2 years he found it difficult managing his female friends! But everything mentioned so far was nothing when you compare what he faced after joining for a PG course.

He was all fun in winter and summer. But when Monsoon hit he fell depressed. It was something like a depression attached with a climatic shift. He stopped going college for months and used to sit in his room, watching gloomy movies of late 80's . But his faith in GOD was never decreased. After that he was all fun throughout the year. After his MBA he got campus placement and started working in a faraway city. He could not stand with managerial policies of the company and quit. But GOD never let him down. He got selected in another company and started working again. Again he quit his job Again GOD placed him somewhere. But when he quit that job he fell depressed and this time it was disturbing and lasted for good 3 months. But he never disbelieved his GOD. Finally he bounced back and started swimming against the tide.

After that he realized one of his passions and moved on with it. Now he is all fun. Now he is all energetic. 

One of his friends asked him ' Dude,imagine another setback in your life, what will you do?'

He answered back "AGAIN,THERE IS HOPE!"

HAD I MET YOU BEFORE!

Hi readers. Long time! I was busy behind another passion of mine;

Photography! Sorry for keeping you waited. It was not at all intentional. Heart felt sorry.


Our hero Sidharth had a break up. He was sick after the incident. Partially depressed and often moody. It was sad to see one of our close friends in such a mood. We tried our level best to cheer him up, traveled places and tried to create a vibrant circle around him. Yet we found him freeze. 

One fine evening I was about to logout from work and received this text message from Sidharth that he would like to meet me at 7.00 pm in the evening. That was the one and only positive sign we have gotten ever since the break up incident. I was in a rush to reach the place on time. I was afraid that Sidharth would sometimes go home if at all I failed to appear on time. " People who lost hopes would never compromise on time". I didn't want anything bad to happen. In Bangalore especially near MG Road Auto drivers would always boss you. And if you are not fluent in Kannada you are DEAD!

I hailed a Taxi and went straight to Forum mall. Sidharath asked me to meet him over a coffee at Cafe Coffee Day, where I met him for the first time! I sensed that he had something to tell. I saw him before I enter the outlet itself. He wore a round neck T shirt. On the chest it was printed  'Had I met you Before!'. I didn't think too much about the phrase.
We exchanged pleasantries and settled for a large cup of cappuccino. Sidharth opened up after good twenty minutes. "Sharath, You see what is printed on my T shirt, 'Had I met you before!'.

 Come on Sidharth I am neither blind nor illiterate to see or read what is printed on your T shirt. Well whats up dude? - I said.


Sidharth went on.


" See sharath My girl is gone now. But all female friends who have became my special friends have already told me that "Sidharth had I met you before I would have surely fallen for you. See now I have a boyfriend and we are kinda settled what to do boss, give me one fat hug we are special friends!". Sidharth went on, I have been thinking about the sentence for good seven days. My entrance in somebody's life (Especially in some of my female friend's life) had always been really late. As they say in cricket MISTIMING you no? Why the climax is always the same sharath?. Do you have any say?

Why Sidharth often fails to enter in any of his special friend's life a bit earlier? Why Sidharth is often cursed like hell? This time he was really loud that some of the coffee sippers stared at us! 

" Sidharth, my dear brother we all have excuses for our mistakes. Girls add bit chocolates and ice creams on some of the sentences and phrases to make them cuter and sweeter. Don't put too much of your brains on such craps. Come chill man. Didn't we study in our college days "Everything has a reason!" I said.

Somehow I consolidated him and we separated for the day. When I was returning home in an Auto I found myself chocking out the phrase " Had I met you before!"..

Rikshaw driver suddenly stopped the auto and said in broken English "Sir tell me you want some girls? What is your budget? I have contacts!". I was shell shocked for a second.

"At night traveling alone in an auto in Bangalore and whispering yourself any phrases like such in somewhat high volume, You may ended up listening such craps from Auto drivers"

Having said all these.....Had I Met You Before....


Thanks for your time!


Sharath Muthirakkal

Everything has a beginning...

‘Its over man, good bye... Take care’. This was the last text I received from her. Ever since the reception I had been trying her over phone. She never attended  them and finally switched it off. It was not the first time I was getting dumped by a girl. But this time I was totally broken. Because she was not just a girl to me. She was my life, my breath and my soul.  I didn’t want my parents to notice me crying. I chose to have a shower at midnight and when water started pouring in, I cried loud and my tears became one with the over flowing water.

To me she looked the most beautiful girl in the world. I know each and every lover would say the same thing about his partner. But I still like to believe that no girl in the entire universe is as cute as she is. Its not only her cuteness dragged me to her. She was a down to earth girl, intelligent, smart, out of box thinker (a rare quality you see in girls), sympathetic, simple and most importantly humble to everyone. Though she was twenty four she started behaving like a 5 year old to me. I started enjoying the moments with her. Her voice was such a treat to my ears and her smiles have made my many days. We were like enemies first. I thought she had lot of attitude and never missed a single chance to make fun on her. She might have thought the same and done the same to me too.

It all changed since she felt sorry for making fun on me in a public place. Some how she collected my number and called me up on a Saturday night. ‘Hey it’s me’! that was the first sentence she had spoken over phone. I was able to recognize her voice in a blink of an eye. Though I have planned to play around. I said; ‘ who?’.

She said; Areee idiot it’s me your enemy.

I said ; Ohhh yeah. How come you call me and from where you got my number (This time a very genuine question)

She said ; You are a player no? I collected it from a girl. By the way I am sorry if I hurt you in a public place.

I said ; Hey come on. Irrespective of the places I love to get poked by you. Don’t be sorry. What else?

She said; Fine. Man dad calling. Goodnight. See you.

Then by midnight I received a message from her. It read ; ‘Hey dear goodnight. Sleep well. Take care J.’

OMG she had called me ‘dear’ and her message concluded with a smiley’.

If  girls are using smilies to conclude their messages, boys must be extremely careful while interpreting the meaning of those. They would send a smiling face while crying at the other end. They would send a sad face while laughing at the other end. They would send an angry face while flying many kisses for you.

With few spoken and written words, she made my day and the idiot in me whispered to me that ‘ Dude she is the girl you have been searching you for a long time. Go get her’!

Sidharth's mail with an attachment- But who on earth invented this power cut yaar?

      Finally I had a mail from Sidharth with a word file attached. In no time I had downloaded the document and stored it in the folder named ‘Personal’, in which I keep images of closed ones, some of the word documents I have made by cut- copy- pasting while chatting with friends and closed ones just to relive in those memories and some very little porn. It is so amazing how a lazy Monday morning at office would bring some inexplicable energy in you from nowhere which you would wish last long forever. In one word I was ‘Thrilled’ after receiving that mail from Sidharth.

      Being Monday there was a lot of calls to manage. Some nice, rude, gentle and majority of them would fall under the category ‘SIT calls’ (Sadly I Took:(). If a guy or a girl had just finished a ‘SIT’ call he or she would literally SIT for awhile on his or hers chair or would go for a smoke or a Coffee break or in worst case damage the headset after smashing it on the table mistakenly assuming the table for the client’s head with whom he or she had just conversed. It was surprising for me that even though it was a Monday morning no calls are been put into SIT category from my side. It might be the impact of that mail from Sidharth with the word file attached, which I decided to open only when I am at home (Precisely in my room) I had never ever rushed home in that hurry!

      Usually I catch a bus which would take 30 minutes to my area. But it was unbelievable for me to pay the Autowala Rs150 without stepping into any bargaining drama so that I can be home very soon. (These autowalas in town are the experts in skipping traffic) I had my shower in 5 minutes and asked mom not to disturb me even for dinner before bolting the room from the inside. No Indian mom would think too much about it unless and until her son had been caught watching porn by her red handed! Luckily I had never been caught by her! (Yes it does mean that we (I and my friend) were caught by someone else while watching a b-grade movie in our boyhood days. But I don’t think that it should be narrated here) Hence I was pretty sure that I would get a serene atmosphere to go through the file sent by Sidharth.

           I thought about Mom and my younger sister Keerthana as potential disturbance sources. Mom would never take her eyes off from the serials, which seems to have been invented exclusively for Indian homemakers. I had no worries about Keerthana. She became very quiet ever since she had joined for her CAT entrance coaching classes. I wonder what techniques these professors in TIMEs and other well rated competitive entrance coaching centers are successfully implementing to make these girls to shut their mouth. It was strange for me to watch Keerthana without scribbling ferociously on the keyboard of her Blackberry. She seemed to forget her BB pet forever!

         I was all set and switched on my laptop. There are two things about my laptop that should be noted here;

One:  it would take 5-6 minutes to get booted.

Two:  if it is unplugged from the power socket, my system would get shut downed in a flash of a second. Finally after full five minutes desktop appeared!

         It was the third longest five minutes I have ever experienced in my life so far. First was when we were caught by my ex- girlfriend’s uncle in the early hours of the day while we were ‘trying to make’ some love at her place and the second was when we were exhausted after a love making session at my place by my mom, years back. Both red handed!

          Now all I had to do was that to open the folder named ‘Personal’ and double click on the word file sent by Sidharth. The moment I double clicked on the word file the power went off!

          I could only curse my laptop for not having enough back up and the State Electricity Board for not letting the moment to come that I have been waiting for a long time.

Guys probably we would get something interesting to read after the power cut.

Sharath Muthirakkal

Mail without an attachment- A disappointing mail from Sidharth...

I was desperate to contact Sidharth. All my efforts to find him on any of the social networking sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and even on orkut failed miserably. He might have deleted his accounts temporarily, I thought. I was that fool to leave my contact details to a person like Sidharth, hoping that he would get back to me with his full story ASAP. Soon Sidharth and Rwitika faded away from my memory. Hardly have we memorized dancers and supporting casts of a movie which we had seen months ago. One fine morning during my office hours I got a mail alert on my cell phone. And as always I dropped the plan of checking the sender. Everyday hundreds of such mail alerts would come if you have registered your profile on any of the online job search engines, matrimonial sites or in worst case online dating sites!

After lunch I thought of signing in on to g-mail and chat with some friends who would always be seen online! But that afternoon I could not even look at the left side of my screen for those blinking green bulbs. My eyes were glued onto an eight letter name ‘Sidharth’. Finally he has mailed me I thought. But my happiness was short lived. It was just another mail without an attachment.

His mail read; “Kishore, hope you are doing good. I am sorry that I could not attach the word document that I have been writing since the day we met for the last time at Café Coffee Day. It goes like this; Everyday, I would finish writing before I go to bed thinking that the document is well set to be sent. But the next morning when I reread what I had written till last night, I always feel like “what all crap have I written”! This is what is really going on. To be very frank I don’t know how to put black on white about what and who is Rwitika to me? How close we were (At least I thought so) till she said…and How much I miss and love her still. Dude, I don’t think words would ever replace those feelings. You always feel to edit the stuff you have written about your love and that process would never come to an end till you are satisfied. But at the end of the day guys like me would always remained as unsatisfied while explaining those feelings in words. I am sorry.”

His mail ended with the word which I often find girls using more than thousand times a day; SORRY!  I was sad that Sidharth didn’t mail me with anything substantial but I was happy that at last I had his email Id! After reading his mail I threw both my hands in the air disgusted but pretended before my colleagues that I had an angry customer mail just popped in my mailbox!

Thanks for your time

Sharath Muthirakkal

Coffee at Cafe Coffee Day- Sidharth telling his story- Part II

As agreed we three met in the same place, Café Coffee Day at Forum mall in Bangalore. Sidharth was before time! Neither I nor my author friend had expected him to be on time, let alone before time. Like the last evening we met, we settled ourselves in a corner from where our eyes would be restricted from watching gorgeous girls. Cappuccino, Samoosa and sandwich were our picks for the evening. I have seen girls wearing bikinis in beach and enjoying their sunbath. But I still wonder why they wear ‘almost bikinis’ inside an air conditioned shopping mall! My inner being warned me that I was neither there to judge people’s dress code nor to comment on them. All I wanted was to hear from Sidharth about his relationship with Rwitika and the ultimate interference of the destiny that Sidharth mentioned before we bid goodbye when we sat there for the last time!

Sidharth looked more relaxed than the other evening. He went on explaining from where he stopped,

“I became attached to Rwitika in a fraction of a second. As days went along as I mentioned the other evening, our morning jogging became casual walks and soon it became casual- chat walks and that too hand in hand or sometimes hands wrapping the waist of the other. Initially I found difficult to adjust with her childish behavior. But my inner mind always chanted me that I should make her mine. Each seconds spent with her taught me new lessons.  It took us only a week to go for our first date. Coincidentally our first date happened in this same Forum mall and we kissed for the first time in the PVR multiplex while watching a movie that I understood nothing though it was a movie even a kindergarten kid would have easily digested!  We were making frantic love inside the theatre. I had to watch out if some guys were interested in making a short film out of our public lovemaking stunt. When she got aroused she started moaning in pleasure and it attracted a group of college students’ attention and they gave us ‘WTF is going on here look’. It was just enough to shrink my erection and Rwitika almost shouted that she wanted more, as if she was asking for more popcorn. What she was actually asking was just porn and more porn. I had to take her out of the theatre.

“Sidharth you donkey, how dare you neglect a girls’ plea to have a wonderful make out?” She shouted. People on the third floor looked at afore mentioned ‘donkey’ as if I had rejected something like country’s presidential ship.  Amidst of all the mess she was creating I could sense that I was not hating her. My attachment towards Rwitika only increased. All of a sudden everything looked funny for me. Somewhere inside me I was enjoying the childishness, frankness, innocence, cuteness and everything she possessed for that matter. She was a complete package and handling her would be the funniest task in the world, I thought. Though her ‘donkey addressing’ in a public place pissed me off a bit, I had not shown any sign of it to her. Had I shown, I am not sure; she would have minded! She was that careless. But I still love that carelessness she possessed and displayed irrespective of the place, time and people. Sidharth concluded as he gazed at the infinity.

Sidharth told that he had to consult his psychiatrist on that very evening at sharp 7.30pm. I told him that I would be leaving Bangalore on the next day. Suddenly nervousness which we earlier thought had gone forever came back on his face and he said sorry and looked really helpless. He was indeed helpless. It would be far better for him consulting with his doctor than narrating his sob story to us; we thought. Before leaving Sidharth whispered to me, Kishore ‘I am sorry that I could not even complete telling you about my first date with Rwitika. Get me your email id. I will surely mail you up the rest. What all things happened in our first date after I literally dragged her out from Forum mall, our first fight, our first patch up, wild lovemaking which followed the first patch up and many other after such fights and finally when Rwitika revealed that…”Sidharth paused as he let the sentence incomplete and his gaze fixed onto infinity again. 

I gave my card to him and stood up. He hugged me and I could sense tears wetting the back of my left shoulder. I hugged him back while fighting back my tears. Those were the tears of trust, I understood. But when Sidharth was out I had to excuse my author friend and rush to the restroom. I let the tears pour in while splashing the water against my eyes. I wanted not even a stranger to spot me crying.

When we were about to leave, my author friend’s parting words were these, “ Kishore the guy who has come up with the slogan, ‘a lot can happen over coffee would have never dreamt in his wildest of dreams that, these much of things would ever happen over coffee”. Hearing him, I felt a drop of tears set to roll over my cheeks. Management is management; be it the spontaneous movement of my fingers that wiped it off.

Thanks for your time and patience

Waiting for updates from Kishore...

Sharath Muthirakkal

A lot can happen over coffee...

    That evening, people around me might have found me excited. In fact I truly was. You know why?

     My author friend has agreed that he would introduce me to his mysterious friend on that evening. I was like a small kid who had allowed by his mom to buy and eat any number of chocolates from the costliest and obviously exclusive chocolate outlet. One thing I knew was that the evening would be different. Hearing a lot from my friend, I had a fair idea about the character of the guy I would be interacting very soon. My friend had told me that Sidharath had agreed to come on one condition that he would unfold one mystery about him a day and I should not question him (Losers and half nuts like Sidharth makes people agree on certain wild, unreasonable conditions before meeting a complete stranger, I thought). That Condition was double okay with me since meeting a character like Sidharath and listening to him seemed most important.

      Both of us, me and my author friend was waiting for Sidharth to join us at the Café Coffee Day in Forum mall Bangalore at around 5.30 in the evening. As always Forum was full of young couples, college students, window shoppers and many such categories of the society. Had we not ordered our mini Cappuccinos and settled ourselves on the empty couches of CCD, the floor manager would have asked us to leave long back seeing us scanning each and every hot chick checking inside CCD as if we were expecting someone to show up. We only knew we were.

       Finally against the odds my eyes were glued onto a guy. Not that I am a gay or something. He looked misplaced in that crowd. He wore a loose full sleeve faded green shirt and faded blue denim. His slippers only widened my already opened mouth. He must have sleep deprived for months I thought. In fact he was heading where we both were sitting. Seeing him coming, my author friend stood up and shouted and gave him a half hug, ‘Sidharth we have been waiting for you since 5.30 and you are almost 20 minutes late, whats up mate?, Meet my friend Kishore and he looked at me and continued as if we were the only customers at CCD Forum outlet in that peak hour, Kishore, Sidharth!

       I was taken aback with that sort of introduction. Sidharth’s facial expression told he too was. My author friend was in a hurry as if his girlfriend was roaming in the mall without knowing the whereabouts of her better half. It was so quick that, none of us could even blink an eye. I shook hands with Sidharth and that handshake was the weakest one I had ever got from a guy in my whole life. His hand was dead cold. At least I felt so. Sidharth’s gazed down. I and my author friend has looked at each other; confused!

       I was confused how to initiate a conversation. My author friend started his casual conversation with Sidharth. I knew I should be framing the conversation in such a way that Sidharth could open up and chat casually. I had to excuse both of them and went to the counter to order 3 large cappuccinos.  None of us preferred an unpleasant atmosphere. I noted the huge grin on the face of the floor manager this time. He might have seen me checking the price of the sandwiches as well, I thought. When I reached at the table Sidharth looked at me and asked ‘How much interested are you in hearing about my life?’ I told him passing his cup of cappuccino that my interest towards his life is actually from the bottom of my heart and is not just like listening to other’s misery and laughing at it. Sidharth seemed a little nervous and said firmly, ‘I don’t need anybody’s sympathy’. I choked hearing the same but luckily managed to keep my cappuccino inside that gigantic cup, on which it was written ‘Café Coffee Day- A lot can happen over Coffee’

       Sidharath exhaled a deep breath and looked convinced at my sincerity in hearing his passage of life.

       He continued: It all went wrong since we started meeting in the early hours of the dawn just 8 months ago.

      Sidharth’s mentioning of early hours of dawn and yet to disclose female character made me pull my couch towards him.

     He continued:

     I met Rwitika eight months ago near Christ College at about 6 in the morning. She was on her jogging dress. It was quit intentional from my part that, I chose the footpath near Christ College Bangalore for jogging. It served me two ways. I would not miss any hot-beauty conscious girl who comes out early in the morning for jogging and after finishing mine I always preferred a strong tea served from a nearby bakery. I had seen her running at my direction from a good 30 meters away. Though I was gasping, I tried my level best to hold my breath when we crossed. Automatically a smile came on my face. I could not resist smiling at her. She was that gorgeous. I was sure she had seen me smiling at her. Her face expressionless! She would have seen enough stupid guys smiling at her like that, I thought.

      When sipping the morning tea from the bakery, I tried scanning the images of each and every girl I might have met ever since I started jogging on the same footpath. None came out and the CPU inside me had to register her as a new entry. But somewhere inside me someone told that the girl I met a while ago was special and I had to make an effort to make her mine. I was at my 2 BHK flat near Madiwala by 7 and started my routine meditation. But unlike everyday my mind was still on that footpath following a pair of Nike shoe she wore. Then only I have noticed that my subconscious mind had even spotted the shoes she wore. Her round face, dark black eyes, Shoulder length brownish hair, lovely lips and even the smell of her perfume, which I felt when she crossed me, thrilled my nostrils. One by one, her features started disturbing my mind. Her structure picture perfect!

          I could no longer concentrate and stopped meditating for that day and prepared to leave to office before the company bus showing up at the gate. Though I was not done any meditation my mind was cherishing on an unknown pleasure and unlike every day I was at the gate before the bus reached. My colleagues surprised and driver Ramayya who always gave me a dirty look amused. Inside the bus after settling down I prayed to god for the first time in my career to give maximum traffic jams for Ramayya to negotiate with before reaching the Infosis campus so that I could listen to my favorite melodies, thinking about the unknown girl I had met a couple of hours before. When you are in love, you pray for something and get exact opposite of what you prayed for. That particular morning Ramayya was happy that he could make us reach in the campus before time!

         When it was night before I set alarm to wake up at 5.00 in the morning I gave my second application to God. It was just to shrink the night. I turned many turns on my bed and might have slept between 2 and 3 in the morning. Image of the girl which has got registered hours back seemed working!

        She was breathtakingly gorgeous and I should speak to her when I meet her next time, a quick resolution passed without having a second thought.

        Next day I was very early at the same spot where I met her yesterday. I kept waiting. It was unusual for me to not look at the girls jogging on that footpath. On that day I had just come to see her and to talk to her. Nothing else and no one else mattered. I kept waiting. My eyes had identified that pair of Nike shoe from a good distance and she was such a treat for my eyes. Everything blurred for a second when both of my eyes got wet. I quickly wiped them off and remained clueless when I thought the reason behind the moisture. She might have wondered at my posture, looking at her like a statue, mouth wide open. Had she noticed me last day she would be thinking Oh, the same mad guy, I thought. She came running and the same automatic smile came on my face. She looked puzzled; her expression told.

       Excuse me, I said. She stopped and gave me a look. I was really pissed off by that time. Yeah, May I know you? She said.

      Err…Umm...well no. I am Sidharth I said after clearing my throat. It was hard to pretend that my lips were not shivering. I went on, It would be really great if we could sit over tea at the bakery out there, pointing the bakery. She looked confused. Her black eyeballs asked million questions and pierced my heart so deep that I almost felt taking her in my arms telling the whole world that, ‘Finally Sidharth has decided to fall in love with this cute little angel’. Her childish-innocent face was such a cute thing to watch. Please… I almost begged.

     Well… Okay she said but clearly nervous

When she came to know that I was working with Infosis she let pass a relieving sigh (I don’t know why) and seemed comfortable. She said she was Rwitika and she is doing her MBA from Christ College. She was actually from Hyderabad. We finished our tea and strolled on that footpath. From that day till we got separated we didn’t jog. We just walked. As time went along we just walked hand in hand. I never thought destiny had a cruel face as such. It was just fate which separated us. She still lives in my heart.

I guess CCD is about to close. Guys we should be going now, Sidharth Said. Then only I realized where I was. I was with Sidharth and his cute girlfriend. He brought me back to reality and I was curious to know what happened to them.

My author friend stood up and said ‘Chalo guys we should be moving now’. Sidharth you take care buddy, see you.

       Sidharth said the same to him and turned to me. Nice meeting you Kishore.

 I was dumb for awhile. He pointed to me the sign board where it was written ‘a lot can happen over coffee’ and said, in my case it happened over tea!

    He left us in a hurry. I stood up, agape!

But I was pretty sure that a lot more will happen over coffee at Café Coffee Day before I leave the garden city. I had to blame myself for taking Sidharth as a loser and an insane person. If it was all about destiny as Sidharth had said what a guy like him would do, I wondered. 

Thanks for your time

Sharath Muthirakkal