True Love..

Liking leads to affection
affection leads to feelings
feelings lead to love
love leads to emotions
emotions lead to attachment
attachment leads to sensitiveness
sensitivity leads to expectations
expectations lead to over reaction
over reaction leads to arguments
arguments lead to bad mood
bad mood leads to distance
distance leads to rethinking
rethinking leads to realization
realization leads to talking
talking leads to understanding
understanding leads to love, back again

If you are in true love, you will never get out of it

Once upon a time..

Once upon a time in Korea, I had a chance to have Korean style food. It was my colleague who had taken me to a Korean restaurant for dinner. After much discussion about our individual non-vegetarian interests, we decided on a seafood restaurant. It was a typical korean restaurant where we need to sit on the floor. There were hardly few people in the restaurant. It was first time for me in such a restaurant and we decided to go for a fish dish,

It was a special fish which she had ordered. She said that people die to eat this fish. The waitress came with a pile of vegetable salad and mushroom on which the pieces of fish were spread out. There was a stove at the middle of the table on which we kept all the ingredients and started heating it. While she was heating the fish mixed with vegetables, she again mentioned that the fish is a special one and the cook who cleans it is very skilled and very few of them are found in Korea. With all my concentration on the fish getting cooked, I didn’t worry much to ask what is so special about the fish. Twenty minutes of cooking, the food was now ready to be served. Since I wasn’t too keen on the vegetables, I took more of the fish and less of the greener stuff. When I put the fish in my mouth, the first thing that came to my mind was “Wowww”. It was very tasty and nothing like I had tasted before. I told her the same and she was happy that I liked the food and in return she told me yet again that it was a special kind of fish!!! . Now that she had mentioned it thrice, I thought that it would not be sensible if I do not ask about it. So I asked her what was so special with this fish?. While I asked her this question, I was munching another delicious piece of the fish.

Then came the answer which blew my mind and made me go blank for a moment. She said, “It is a poisonous fish” and gave a broad smile!. It was a situation where I was having a piece of poison in my mouth and was appreciating the same without even knowing if I will be alive to complete it. She saw the deserted look on my face and said laughingly, “Don’t worry. The cook is an expert and he would have removed the poison. So, it should be safe”. “Phewwwww”, I got back my breath hearing that the poison is removed when she dropped another bomb by telling, “But, there have been cases where people have died after eating the fish. People still take the risk because they like it a lot”. This sentence shook me to the core and I was wondering if I had done something which would have made this girl take such a revenge on me. For the first time in my life, I started to think about death. All my near and dear ones came to my mind while I thought of the numerous pieces of fish that I had just eaten.

Looking at my condition, she tried to calm me down, telling that the particular cook in the restaurant was very good at cleaning this kind of fish and there was no harm till date in that restaurant. She also said that very few people have died in some rare circumstances. That calmed me a bit though I was still worried deep inside. Also, there was that interesting taste in the fish which attracted me towards it even after knowing its dark stories. I did not want to spoil the dinner also by leaving the food half eaten. So, with a strong heart, I gulped the last few pieces of fish thinking, “Who knows, this might be my last dinner. Let me eat properly so that I don’t die empty stomach”.

Once the dinner was over, It was time for her to leave. It was a weekend on the next day and she asked me to give a call as soon as I wake up. I din’t understand why she said that and asked her the reason. After hearing what she said, I realized that I shouldn’t have made the mistake of asking it!!!. She replied, “Sometimes the poison shows late reaction. People generally eat this fish in the afternoon so that they can rush to the hospital if there is any problem. If we eat in night and something happens during sleep, we might not be in a position to rush to the hospital. Since I was busy during the day, dinner was the only option. Bye”. She smiled and left, but left me without smiles.

I reached my room and saw the watch ticking at 10 pm. There was no way I could get sleep. Every time I tried to sleep, I was thinking, “what if I don’t wake up tomorrow”. One of the statements that she made, “people die to eat this fish”, recurred in my mind constantly. Now I started realizing the actual meaning of that word “die” in her statement. This was the first time I also thought that, “Maybe Maneka Gandhi was right!!”. By the time death started dancing in my mind, the clock had already ticked 12. Now I started feeling uneasy in my stomach. Though this used to happen earlier also, today was a special one. Everything seemed to be like an indication from death, be it tired legs or the stomach ache or the aching eyes. With so many things going on in my mind, I never realized when I went down to sleep.

It was 7 am when my alarm clock shouted and woke me up. My ears went straight hearing that sound. I opened my eyes to see the light and jumped on the bed saying, “Escape… grrrrrrreatttt escape”

....And then came the waves

....And then came the waves, erasing the letters which the boy had written with all the love treasured deep inside his heart. All of "Priya" was erased with just a half of P left out to stare at the boy and add to his frustration against the ocean, which was making fun of his love for Priya. He thought that it was unfair for a mighty ocean to taken on a 11 year old boy. When mother earth herself was giving him support to write his love on the shore, he could not understand why the ocean was not understanding his love. He loved priya from 2 years. She was the first girl who spoke to him in class and he had her name written inside his pencil box. When he grows bigger like his dad, he wanted to walk on the same shores with priya and also to catch few babies in the ocean, like mom had told him how dad found him in the ocean when he went for fishing. He was so attracted to her that he din't want to go home after school. He wanted to spend more time playing with her in school. With all these sweet thoughts in his mind, we forgave the ocean for its unforgivable mistake and began writing her name on the shore again. He was in no mood to accept defeat and started writing her name as big as his dad's car. He had to struggle to write each letter, but he enjoyed it as all the special moments spent with her passed though his mind while writing her name on the sand. His cheeks were blushing red and eyes were sparkling thinking about her. Every letter he wrote, made his love for her, more stronger. This time he was confident that no force could break his love. The moment he finished writing A, he turned back, put his hands on his waist and stared at the ocean. There was a sense on confidence in his face and his fist indicated that he could take on any force that could come between him and his love. He was a man on mission, to prove the world that his love for priya was stronger than anything in the world and nobody could mess with it. The smile of success started taking a dent when he observed a huge wave coming towards him. He stood there steady and unmoved, trying to send away the waves just by his anger filled eyes. But, it was not long before he realized that the wave was big enough to erase him alive, along with her name. And then came the waves......

Tears came trickling down his eyes. He was fighting against the nature. He broke down and came to his knees. He could not think what to do and started crying. He then remembered what his mother had once told him once while walking down the shores. She told him that ocean is a form of God and always does good things for us and he should respect it. He wiped his tears and started pondering if God was trying to give him an indication. “Yessssss”, there was a brightness on his face. God is really giving him an indication. Something flashed in his kiddish brain and he seemed to have got the answer. He jumped up with a beaming smile, realized the message from God and started walking towards his home murmuring to himself, “I think God is right. My love for Priya is not true love….hmmmn…. maybe, I should try Shriya’s name tomorrow”…..

Poland Travelogue - 1

After a long hiatus, i finally decided to write my travelogue. Thistime, instead of highlighting the specialities of poland , I thought iwill write down all the interestinge xperiences I go through and allthe random thoughts that cross my mind while i go thru theseexperiences.

As told by my colleagues, Poland dint have much for a tourist and thework at office was too much. This was enough for me to lose interestin this travel. But I thought, irrespective of all these reasons,there is nothing wrong in me blessing Poland with my presence and wentto bangalore airport to catch my first Lufthansa flight.. This is alsothe first time, I will be travelling with 2 passports... yessssss...the first one is full :) :)....At the checkin queue, one lufthansaemployee looked at my passport and approached me asking, "Do u havemiles and more a/c?". I replied "no". With a raised eyebrow, sheamiled and said,"oh, u have wasted one passport without miles", forwhich i replied "I just wasted my miles.. passport was usefulthough..".. she smiled again and filled a miles&more form for me andmade sure that i make use of my miles from now on. When I moved to thecounter, I was told that my seat number from franfurt to warsaw isconfirmed, but my seat number from bangalore is not, and would begiven at the time of boarding. This sounded strange. I thought, I willhave to wait till all others sit down in the flight and then go aroundlooking for an empty space :) :) ...

As always, I dint carry a pen this time also. So, I looked around forsomeone who could give me a pen without a wierd look. Saw a 50+ unclechatting with his wife and based on my experience, I decided that hewould be the one who wud let me go thru the immigration :) ... Iapproached him and asked, "Can you pls give me the pen?". He firstgave me a wierd look for coming to airport without a pen and then gavethe pen staring at me... hmmmn.... my choice was wrong and I realizedagain that experience doesnt matter when time is bad :) :) ... While Ifilled the form sitting next to him, I could hear the uncle speakingto aunty in kannada...wondering how their girl will manage alone in US.. Once I was done, I made it a point to thank them in kannada...Bingo...experience does help.. Uncle smiled and said happy journey...Aunty asked where I was going.. I told her "poland" ... She askedwhere it was and then the conversation continued with loads ofquestions shot at me like which company... how many countries... whichplace i was from... parents...studies.... :) :) ....Aunty said herdaughter was going to US for work thru INFY for an year. SHe hadgraduated from RV college in 2007 and was in INFY fom 3 yrs... It wasall dejavu types for me....had such conversations beforemarriage....but, no point having such conversations now...It was timeto say TATA byebye to uncle/aunty and move ahead for immigration......

While standing at the immigration queue, I could see that auntyhugging a girl and almost crying...uncle was busy blessing hisdaughter... i cud understand what the parents were thinking .. but iwonder if their daughter also thought the same... there cud be 3cases..either she is thinking similar to her parents... OR she iseagerly waiting for a brush with freedom from everything in life forthe first time OR some other thought which me and u don't know....Strange that even though many people are involved in the samesituation, each think differently based on which side of the situationthey are in !!!! ... My turn came and moved to the immigrationofficer.. He asked me why I was going to poland... and I told him thatI will test one of our products in poland. He asked me where I wouldsell that product later.. I said the client was in Sweden... Hisimmediate question was,"If you want to sell your product in Sweden,then why are you testing in Poland?" ...interesting question...i likedhis intelligence..I smiled at him... he gave a sarcastic smile at meand stamped on the passport....:) :)

Finally boarding was announced for my flight. Soon, I could see peoplestanding in long queues waiting for their turn to get in. I dontunderstand y people stand in queues when they have their seats booksand the flight wont take off till they get inside !!! Once I got mychance, I was in for a surprise.. My tickets were upgraded to Businessclass... wow... finally i got my chance to start and end my trip withchampagne :) :) ...everything is different in business class..seating.. choice of food... quality of food... choice of movies...hospitality...not that they do it for free... but, still i got theseextra things for free....for the first time in 5 yrs, I had a verygood sleep in flight....The seat had a massager inbuilt... what moredo u need for a sound sleep? :) :)....I watched UP IN THE AIR duringmy flight... one of the very good movies i have seen till date...interesting storyline...i suggest u all to watch it....There is onescene in the movie which which reiterates a commonly seen point...smart guys like witty / agressive girls.... smart girls like guys whoact dumb :) .. its debatable, not generalized , but easily observedaround us :) :) ... Next to me in the flight was an uncle who workedas an airline consultant for Lufthansa.. His only job during thisflight was to observe everything on the flight and give a feedbackonce he gets down at frankfurt ... it was obvious that the entire crewwas at his service during the flight...Since i was sitting next tohim, I took the oppurtunity to make sure that I was also taken careproperly.... All thru the flight, he was keen to know abt myexperience of the flight, comparison to other flights i have been in,my suggestions, etc etc... During the dinner, i loved on of the sweetsthey served as a part fo the meal.... i wanted it again...which doesnthappen in flights... but, i had a chance today... i just startedconversing with him and told, " In other flights, if I ask for asecond serving of a specific item, the response would not be good. Iknow they have limited meals and might not be able to do it, but theway they respond shud also be taken care..maybe I can check thathere..." ...It was just a minute before I got the second serving ofthe sweet which I wanted.. :) :) .. there is a saying that,"when inrome, be a roman".. I think we shud change it to, "When in rome, grabeverything possible in rome" :) :)

Frankfurt is supposed to be one of the busiest airport in the world...its huge.. but it's shopping facility is very ordinary compared toother airports...its no way near the singapore airport, which is thebest i have seen so far. WiFi is not free...coffee is damn costly ....very boring airport if u r wandering alone...and nothing great in theinteriors either.. All in all, it was a disappointment to me.. maybe iexpected too much out of it as the busiest airport... strangely, notmany Indians or chinese were seen in the airport, which is a very rarescene in an European airport these days :) :) .... Need to get insideGermany some day to see how it is....

Nothing much to write about my next flight from Germany to Poland....ordinary flight.. shorter journey....only thing was that I was sittingnext to the emergency exit, which means that in case something happensto the flight, I would be given the first chance to escape :) :)...Though unintentional, I liked the extra care which Lufthansa wastaking on me.... I have decided to choose lufthansa whenever possiblein future :) ......All thru my flight, I was eagerly looking outsidethe window to see if there is any volcanic ash approaching so that Ican jump off before it brings down the flight.... luckily, there wasno need for me to do it ...:)

Finally... poland was blessed with the touch of my feet on itsground.... Clouds showered on my arrival and it was pretty cold....Nothing much to write abt warsaw... its just another city in Europefilled with grass and trees where ever there is no building ...peopledont know english much.... I arrived to my apartment which was on the8th floor of an age old building...and there was no internet in theapartment.... This was a very very strange situation for me.. I am ina foreign land sitting alone in my apartment and am not able toconnect with anyone as i neither had a polish sim, nor internet... Ifelt like I was tied down.... felt suffocated....We are soooo addictedto staying connected with people that we somehow dont understand thewhat we can do without connectvity....And, thats how I ended upwriting such a long mail.. Staying isolated helps you think away fromthe routine and put down your thoughts on paper. I did it and sharedit with u. Though it's long, I hope u enjoyed it.... will keep uupdated on more about poland soon :) ...