Little Words - Bigger Impact !! :)

My phone beeps for the nth time, while I was in no mood to have a look at those 11 pending messages sent by Appu. She is my best friend. Her name is Aparna, I call her appu.
She is a chirpy, lovely, expressive, caring and ofcourse my darling friend. I get up from my bed, walk into the kitchen, to eat something. Due to the on-going situations, I haven't eaten properly for the last two days. My hunger pangs were unbearable now.

Suddenly, I hear, "Pehla Nasha..", a default song set to my family members as ringtone on my phone.
I rush towards my bedroom, eager to know what's happening "there".
It is from my dad. He called me to check in whether I had my food, and following the study time table sticked to my bed-room door as I have my last exam tomorrow. I answered his questions and sat on my bed.

I could sense the tiredness in his voice, because from past two days, my dad has been staying in the hospital with the new born baby, who is about to get operated tomorrow. How could such a fragile baby be operated, I thought. My sister gave birth to this baby boy a week before completing 9 months. She dint even had a look at him. Due to complications, he had to be operated, so he was moved to a different hospital. My mom was staying with my sister at different hospital, my dad with the newborn baby and my brother taking care of their needs. Since I had my board of intermediate examinations, I was not allowed to the hospital and was staying with my neighbour aunty.

"It's a love story" by Taylor Swift, my phone rings, and I forcibly come back to the reality. It is appu. I answer her call hesitatingly. "Are you mad? Why are you not answering my calls and replying to my messages? Did you start preparing for your exam? Did you eat anything?". I could sense her anger. I said "Appu, I can't do it, please understand me, am not able to concentrate, am so concerned about everything that is going on and yes, I've decided not to attend the exam". Before I completed talking, I realized that appu hung up the phone on me.

Staring at the fan, on the roof, I sobbed slowly, thinking of how my sister and jiju dreamt of this baby, how we three of us, made a list of names starting with each alphabet, how me and my mother teased my sister on how fat she would get after delivery and how she would ignore everyone lost in her baby. By now, I was crying uncontrollably. I could hear some body at the door.

I went towards the door, wiping away my tears. It was appu with a cover in her hand. I could smell something spicy. "Pooh, listen to me, please have this, I know you're in no mood to eat this, or prepare for your exam, worst , you don't want to talk to me, but you have to, because you don't want to let your family down, not to make your sister feel guilty about it, and not to hurt your father, I know how much you love your father". Her words hit me hard like a punching bag. I hugged her and cried. She said everything would be fine and that I had to be practical. Some how, I felt little better, after flushing out my pain and that heaviness from me. I washed my face, ate what she bought and thanked her for coming home, while sipping the coffee she made. Appu stayed with me that night, made sure that I revised half of my syllabus.

I woke up the next morning with my father's call wishing me the best for my exam. I could sense something bad in his voice. When I told same thing to appu, she brushed it away by saying that he must have been too tired. Then, we quickly finished our bread, omlette and milk and headed to our common examination centre. Both of us were busy revising throughout our 30 minutes journey. Appu hugged and wished me for my exam.

I entered my room, sat on the bench on which my hall ticket number was written. I was never this nervous before. I used to be very confident like an experienced hunter. I prayed to god about my sister and the baby and lastly to get through this exam. Thanks to all those pre-final exams which I topped at my college. I completed the whole paper within two hours. I thanked appu for everything and hugged her tight after exam.
Then, on the way back to my home, appu and me stopped at a hotel to have meals.

I opened the gate and I could already see my dad crying inconsolably. Beads of sweat started to cover my forehead, my heart beating at its all time high, I rushed towards my dad. He hugged me and said that the baby was no more. I felt numb. I hated god for what he did. The baby died on the early morning itself when my dad called, but he dint tell me, keeping my exam in his mind. I couldn't think about my sister. She dint even had a glance at the baby, whom she carried carefully for eight long months. I questioned god "why my sister?" and cried like crazy. My brother calmed me down.

Days passed by, my sister was discharged. I was battling with myself, how to face her, as this was the first major shock that I have ever had in my life and I did not know how to cope up with it. To my surprise, I was blown away when the first question she asked me was "How did you write your exams? First rank right ?". There she is, world's best and bravest sister, I thought.

A month later, it was my results day, I dialled the number scrolling on the tv screen, my heart beating fastly, I entered my hall ticket number after the beep. I take a pen in my hand and wait to hear the marks from the other end, so that I could write them down!

English - 94/100
Sanskrit - 97/100
Chemistry - 58/60
Physics - 55/60
Zoology - 58/60

My heart was beating a hundred times per minute by now to hear the marks in botany, the exam before which I went through the trauma, which I wanted to give up, which Appu, my darling had forced me to write...

Botany - 60/60 !!!!!!!!!!

I couldn't believe ! I called thrice to that number to confirm it.
Now I was on cloud nine, felt like a feather in air. I felt as if I won over some evil force. I was never this content before. The first thing in my mind was APPU. Before I could realize what was happening, appu came to my home. It was one of those best days in my life, where I don't mind getting killed by a psycho or in an accident. How stupid thought haha !!

Its wonderful, how small push from a friend through her words and actions, can take you to the top!!
The next year, my father recieved a prize "best student" on behalf of me, as I had my graduation exams.
My dad was more than happy that day. I couldn't help but thank my dad and appu again and again in my head even today.

No Dog - No Trauma Rule !!!! :(

From childhood, I was very fond of dogs. When I was 4, my grandma and grandpa used to feed street dogs. I used to go along with my grandma to feed dogs in our street.

Along with this, we also had habit of praying to god with handful of rice, chapati or whatever we had in our plate. After finishing our prayer, we used to keep it aside for birds in our balcony. Since, there was a big neem tree in front of our house, there were many birds chirping all through the day. We used to keep food and water for birds in our balcony.

Because of this habit, my fondness towards dogs and birds had grown up along with me. Even though my grandparents expired, we changed our house, we still follow this practice.

As they say, where there is a will, there is a way, we used to find birds and dogs near our new houses.
 
We moved to new house near my dad's office. These quarters unlike many other places used to have more trees than houses. Plus, every house used to have open space in the front and backyards for growing plants. We used to have variety of plants - rose, jasmine, lily, papaya, mango, drumstick, tomato, green vegetables, guards and my favourite tamarind tree.

I had many friends near our old house. I'd come home only to eat. So, when we moved to new house which was in a colony, it was more like a forest and my situation was like a bird in a cage. I used to cry hours together requesting my mom to go back to our old house.
My mom was very brave in this aspect, because she used to stay alone at home when we went to school.

My dad is one such wonderful person who used to give "extra wonderful" ideas to kill the time, which used to pass very slowly like a snail. We used to play shuttle, carroms, ludo, chinese checkers, snake n ladder, word games and indulge ourselves in gardening.
Since there were lots of trees, there was no scarcity for birds. But there was only one dog near our house, which was white in color, very thin. It had beautiful eyes. We used to feed this dog, which used to sleep near our front door, accompany us in our daily walks.
I still remember how I cried my heart out days together, when 8 puppies of this dog died one after the other, day after day, in winter season. I used to stop praying to god for a week or so and then start it again when I forget the incidence.. :P

Months passed by, our white dog also died due to some health problems in its old age. We buried it in our garden at the back of our house.

After this incident, to pump up my affection or love towards dogs, another incident happened.
We had to take care of my uncle's pet "brownie" as they had to leave to their native for a period of 10 days. Brownie was brown in color, with brown eyes and was only 2 months old. We used to take care of it like a new born baby. 10 days passed by like a speeding rocket and then it was the same old story.

My mom never used to allow us to keep a dog because she had a flashback story as that hero had in a telugu movie who comes to city from a village :P. The story goes like this....
Long long ago, my maternal grandma had a dog and my mom was very fond of her. It used to come along with my mom and leave her in her in-laws home, since both houses were some what closer. One fine day, after leaving my mom at her in-law's house, on the way back, it was hit by a car and died on the spot. This was the flashback and my doesn't want her kids(us) to go through the trauma which she went through, hence the "NO DOG - NO TRAUMA" rule..!!  :( :( :(

So we never pressurized her about this. However, few days back, one of my friend posted a picture of a cute dog(you can see the picture in the end) on her Facebook wall, which was gifted by her brother. How sweet! :(
After showing the picture to my mom, I again expressed my same old wish to have a pet and asusual my mom was extra quick to reject my idea. I shared my grief with my friend a day after. To my surprise, she told me that the particular dog was being sold. I felt like a person who finds his lost child. I contacted her immediately, and she was ready to sell it to me. But somehow my mom flopped this plan too at last moment. And my wish to have a pet remain unfulfilled till now.

No matter how many useful advantages (of having a dog) I share with my mom, she never allows me to keep a dog :(

I wish to have a pet some day and show it to my mom.. :))
Hope that day comes soon.. Wish me for that :P :P

It takes a little sacrifice to make someone happy !!

Yes! It takes a little sacrifice to make someone happy. But that little happiness gives brings loads of positivity into your life..

Last year, my grandma's sister expired on an "auspicious day". That is what my aunt told me. She also told me that who ever dies accidentally on such days go to heaven. I've no idea what was so "auspicious" about that day, but when a person
dies it is a heart drenching experience whether, its a good day or a bad day.

I went to the funerals and was surprised when everybody present there were discussing about this so called "auspicious" day rather than the person who died. It reminded me of that picture where people prefer to take a snap of a fellow citizen drowning in a pool of mud rather than rescuing him !! :(

The next day after the funerals were finished, it was the time to distribute the gold of the grandma who expired. Her last wish was to equally distribute her gold to her granddaughters. Being one of her granddaughters, I was eligible to receive my share of 500 grams of gold. Plus, everybody were supposed to make it into a long chain ("Mango Chain", that is what we call it as :P, you can find the picture at the end ).

I never liked the way that design looks. Even my cousins had same opinion. So everybody decided to make their self designed jewellery. I was no different. :/

And we were supposed to wear this on her death anniversary function.

My mom refused to make it into a new design, rather she preferred to stick with the old one itself. I argued a lot with her, already knowing that I would win anyways. Thats what always happens to me whenever I fight or argue with anybody at home. Being the youngest one in the family, I strongly believed that pampering was one of our rights ( the younger ones right :D ).

Seasons changed, days passed, it was exactly a week before the death anniversary of my grandma. One of my cousins called me up curiously to know about my chain, with other cousins around her like a group of ants on a lump of sweet with lots of ghee in it.

I told her that, me and my mom would go and exchange the gold with a new chain in the evening. Little disappointed, she whatsapped her newly designed chain picture along with other cousin's chains.
They were beautiful!!

After I Ended the conversation with my cousin, I asked my mom that when we would be going to purchase the chain. She dint say anything. I repeated once again. She was expressionless and continued doing her work. I forcefully stopped her. She said she already bought the chain. I was angry at first, but later my laziness won over my greed.

I saw it, the same old one !!!!!!
We both argued. I Said I wasn't going to wear it anyways. I forgot that even my mom was the younger one among her siblings and stubborn like me.. :( :|

Two days later one of my bestfriends expired. He was very close to me. My guide, listener, adviser and my brother. I was in deep shock with his sudden demise.
Then came the day of my grandma's death anniversary. I dint argue with my mom about the chain. I wore it for my mom.

I was the only one who wore the chain with same design my grandma wanted. Everybody were praising me comparing with my cousins. My mom was very happy. After seeing happiness in her eyes, I realized our little sacrifices would bring lots of happiness in others... Also, my outlook towards life has changed a lot after this incident.

I didn't know whom to thank, but I was very thankful that I had to face this situation.

Yes, your own experiences make you learn a lot of things compared to any other book that you've read in your life. :)