Allah(ke)abad!

Allahabad, a city that every country deserves, but not the one it may need right now. While Allahabad is an excellent city per se, but has been clouded by some very unfortunate mishappenings. The wrath of bhaiyas of Allahabad still enounces on my mind even when I am 356 kms away from it. How a city welcomes a guest greatly defines a city. Allahabad welcomed me with dahi-jalebi and introduced me to the ever-tasty bun-omelette, which even after four years of continuous eating remains a favourite day-starting breakfast.

WHAT I WOULD MISS!
The discussions over bun-omelette and tea in the morning as well as evening. The serenity of Saraswati ghat was one I would crave a lot. Some destinations leave an everlasting footprints in your minds; Saraswati ghat is one such place. The people of Allahabad are also very versatile in giving opinions(reminds me of Gorakhpur, but Allahabad is a tad violent :p). If you are even a little interested in politics, this is a place to be. You never know, you may get acquainted by a future minister of state. Giving opinion boldly, come what may, is in the blood of an east UP person and Allahabad kinds of leads in that trait.
Being in the center of independence fight, gave this city a gift of great historic significance. The Azad Park commemorates Chandrashekhar Azad's martyrdom. While the Sangam area and Naini bridge adds to the aesthetics of the place.

WHAT I WOULDN’T MISS!
Ofcourse the young successors of Indian politics, the student leaders...the most feared species in whole of Allahabad. Want people to concede to your demands, call the species; want to take revenge from someone who wasn’t giving you a pass on the road, call the species; don’t want to study today, call the species in havoc mode; want to get even with the professor for his tyrant ways, call them. From the innocuous thelawalas to the helpless VCs, they assert their authority everywhere.
Being crammed in the auto-rickshaws comes next in the list. You are living in the city, your girlfriend has called you to meet at this great restaurant, you did your hair, applied gel, worked on it for God knows how long, put on your best set of clothes and go to makeshift auto-stand feeling great about your life when suddenly an auto comes at the station, with the conductor yelling ‘tation-tation’ (in case you missed, its station with a silent ‘s’), you enter the auto and two sweat drenched aunties block the exit to the auto. You are thinking it’s just 10 minutes away, but the auto-wala will stop at the place where the scorching sun shines the most and make you pay for all the past life sins. He will wait for more unlucky souls, until his auto looks like a scene where we are attempting the Guinness Book of World Record for cramming the most persons in an auto.
Another interesting thing is that Allahabadis have adopted this system, they don’t mind sharing that seat with three more broad-assed individuals. Even if he gets one of his buttocks in place, he won’t complain.
But overall, Allahabad invites you and takes care of you if you adapt the city well, that's an assurity I can give, being a former resident of this city. But still, do take care :p

Discovered happiness!

“The moments of happiness we enjoy take us by surprise. It is not that we seize them, but they seize us.” –Ashley Montagu

Recently, I got an opportunity to experience this quote first-hand. Well yesterday, we went for ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ and what we thought would be the highlight of the day was totally eclipsed by what we discovered just before the movie began. We reached early to the mall and so we had solid one hour before the action began. We decided to go for KFC to have lunch. We were 14 in number and were deciding what to order and clearly taking a lot of space. A staff motioned us to get in line and then decide. He wasn’t saying anything, but just instructing us to get in line. I found it rude, but ignored it. Later on, I was told by my friend that he was deaf and mute. I realized it now that this KFC had a different aura altogether and it didn’t had the unnecessary chatter of the staffers that we usually experience in the franchisees. I observed that nearly every staff there was using sign language to communicate with other staffs or using gestures to communicate with the customers, and all that with a smile that will melt your heart. There was an air of confidence emanating from everyone working there, which was unaffected by the curious stares by the ongoing crowd. I was eagerly waiting for my turn to order, because I wanted to get the feel of communicating with the person and to see how they coped up with the standards set by KFC. And yes, as expected, the transaction was flawless. I pointed out my order and the person at the counter asked me the quantity and I gestured it too, then after confirming the order from the screen, he politely directed me out of the queue and proceeded to serve the next customer.

KFC’s initiative to employ deaf and mute persons in front-end jobs is surely commendable. Firstly, it gives them a respectable place in society earning their own bread and not depending on any relatives. And secondly, it gives them a lot of similar people in their company. This will ensure that they are in a community where everyone can readily communicate with them. The world certainly looks a nice place when you experience such nice chapters. We were so elated that we kept talking about them and agreed that this initiative should be carried on to every self-service franchises.

A little research reflected that this move was first initiated by Virag Joshi, CEO of Devyani International Limited, which runs Pizza Hut, KFC, Vaango and Costa Coffee chains in India. Really felt proud after getting acquainted with the fact that the move has been a great success so far, with the special KFCs at par with every other KFC in town. At Devyani International, they are given a training of 2 months to excel at communicating and handling customer requirements. Hats off to such an initiative by the man whose team was honoured for executing this successfully, which instils a ‘feel good’ factor in both customers and employees mind-set.

The world definitely requires such moves and positively enough there is no dearth of such leaders that can use such ideas and more to keep the spirit of humanity alive.

Intimacy… A need or just a hoax?

It’s a common conception that all human beings crave intimacy. It’s considered as one of the few important stuffs a human needs to experience… you know before they have their eulogies written. Everyone seeks this comfort, the comfort of human touch, the tingling pleasure of cuddling, the satiated state attained by holding hands, the mutual care for each other. I, being a human, also seek the aforementioned things as much, but I did something that always spoils these intimate emotions… I thought. I brought my brain into the arena that exclusively houses the delicate yet strong emotions. And the realities I discovered were so awesome that I thought everyone should atleast give this thought process some time. When I went into the depths as to why we seek intimacy that I got some answers. And it also got me asking these questions to myself: Should intimacy really be taking so much space in our minds? Does it really deserve the obsession and time we give to it? Isn’t intimacy over-rated? Isn’t there anything else that could fill up its place? Is intimacy irreplaceable?

In a perfect world; yes!

But, in the world we live in, a big NO. We have incorporated it so deep in our world that thinking of a life without it, is like a kid without a candy.

In my opinion, intimacy is just a part of life and shouldn’t be considered as something, which is as vital as breathing. If intimacy gets the place it deserves, the most apt analogy I can think of is of a very addictive parasite waiting for you to pass through it.

I believe that intimacy, like our other cravings is just an infatuation, which is fuelled up temporarily by our surroundings and should be given time to diagnose how much intensity is there. The most important element spreading such parasites are the movies that we watch, which are meant for entertainment, but are slowly becoming trendsetters. Everyone wants to incorporate the lives of our protagonists into our lives, the same melodrama, and the same level of connection.

It’s the movies that make every person crave for the physical as well as emotional intimacy. Not every person requires this stuff. According to my philosophy, every person has some tasks to accomplish, some goals to achieve and dreams to shatter. Some get intimacy in their lives, and some don’t. But what movies do is that they overrate these stuffs so much that getting a first-hand experience seems like a necessary thing to do.

For example, if a person craves, let’s say for something other than intimacy, then he doesn’t know how much that craving means to him because no movie has been produced that portrays/exemplify that particular trait. He would never know to how much extent he wants that unless he achieves it or ends up disgracing himself in the hunt. And if it’s just a slight appetence, he may lose sight of it in the wilderness of other desires.

My point is that some deserve it and some don’t. If one gets it, he should cherish it with all his might. For the “unlucky” ones, they shouldn’t forcibly try to explore that dimension, while they can actually be expending their time doing something that deserves their time. Going after something that is going to give them pain and hopelessness isn’t a great choice, especially when the world out there needs you and is calling YOU!