“Only the calm can sail the storm!”
Trivandrum
If you look at my
blog, the 47 entries in Writer’s World including this one, I guess the one
theme that has centered in most number of articles will relate to the most
beautiful days of my life; and quite certainly for most of my readers too –
GMCS. To those non-CA readers of mine, GMCS stands for General Management and
Communication Skills; a 15 day compulsory soft skill development programme that
every CA student has to undergo in his 2nd and 4th year.
Some of you may understand my emotion and some may be aghast at this statement,
but I can say it over a million times - those two tranches of 15 days each are
simply the most magnificent things that have happened to me. Biggest chunk of
credit goes to my dear friend and teacher – Mr. Suncy Varghese.
Living up to the
hype, every memory connected with my GMCS is wonderful and holds a truly
special place in my heart (and also my blog. I have so far dedicated 5 posts to
GMCS). One of those sweet memories is about our GMCS II reunion which happened
10 days back. Yes, it was Awesome! There were friends, there was food and there
were Chalus… Tooooo Manyyyy Intoxicating Chalus… so many that my fingers slip
as I think of those horrendous jokes which can rip the brains out of any decent
listener. And mind you, I am a Dementor of chalus. My friends could vouch for
the fact that my Chalu… Is worse than a Dementor’s kiss. Beware!
Yes, it was
Awesome! In spite of the fact that somebody could not turn up because he had to
clean his Grandmother’s house, or somebody else couldn’t turn up because he had
to work on a Sunday. As I saw my Chalu cracking, chicken eating, counter
striking, football crazy, business heading, political stalwart, movie fanatic
bunch of friends, I thought to myself, “Nothing can get me upset now!”
But one phone
call did. My best friend said, “We got robbed!”
Kanyakumari
Travelling to
Southern Tamilnadu for audits is always awesome. Not just that the audits are a
wonderful learning experience, but it gives us girls the opportunity to venture
out of the comfort zone of our home town, it gives us the exposure to really
big manufacturing units, the people are really nice down here and most
importantly, there are so many nice places to visit during the weekends. Our
destination this Sunday was Kanyakumari.
The highlight of
the trip was of course the sunrise, so we set out on our two and a half hour
journey at 3.30 in the morning. The wind was waking up the ocean, its roar was
soft yet powerful and the view of its massive expanse was breathtaking. Ocean
on all three sides, infinity of water which gently danced to the winds,
changing colours from black to dark blue under the canvas of a golden sky to
sky blue. From the depths of the Indian Ocean, the sun rose up to the sky,
putting every metaphor in the world of a rising sun to shame! I stood there
with my three colleagues, listening to the sweet wind and the glorious ocean,
whisper in my ear like my mother and father, taking in the view in a way no
camera can ever capture. It upset me that my mind could do so little to hold
this memory. No, my mind couldn’t. These moments had to be relished right then,
right there! Moments passed on as I bathed in the beauty of that view and
finally the sun was up in the blue sky.
My friends went
forward to have a dip in the sea, but I chose to stay back and watch the fun.
There were many families around and little children spilling across the beach was
a joy to watch. We spend more than an hour over there before we decided to head
back our cab and continue our journey. There were a couple of beautiful temples
in Kanyakumari and a waterfall the name of which I keep forgetting which we had
planned to visit. So we walked back to the cab to find that the windows had
been smashed. We got robbed!
Trivandrum
I almost dropped
my bottle of Coke as I heard her voice. “Shreya are you alright? Where are you?
What happened? Did you lose anything valuable? Where are-“ I launched a tirade
of questions at her which was swiftly cut short by, “Pranav, I am alright!
Can’t talk now, will text you the stories in detail!”
Suddenly
everything around me seemed to lose colour. The people looked dull, the food
was tastless and the jokes were ridiculous and annoying. Yes, I was worried
sick about my best friend, but that’s how we are – Shreya catches a cold and
Pranav starts sneezing.
Although an year
older, Shreya was a younger sister to me. It was my sole responsibility to make
sure nothing upset her. The slightest distaste in her voice and I would find
out, and no effort from her part could hide it from me. I knew her so well that
from the tone of her, “Hello”, I could find out where she was and what she was
doing – Literally! And she reciprocated with so much more love and care. Well,
that’s how siblings are, aren’t they?
And now I was
worried sick to the pit of my stomach, so badly that the slightest whisper
could put me on fire. I stuck my nose into the phone, oblivious to the jibes of
others around me, waiting for stories from the other end.
Kanyakumari
We were two girls
and two boys. Both of us girls lost our handbags, which contained our purse, an
extra set of clothes, a credit card, my PAN card and my friend, a cell phone. “We
have to inform the police right away”, the driver, a local, much older than us
and someone who really understood the gravity of the situation told us. We
followed his word at headed to the police station. What awaited me over there
was a storm…
The younger boy
had to sit back in the car and the three of us along with driver walked inside
to file the complaint. We entered the Sub-Inspector’s office. It was a pretty
wide room with the SI’s chair in the middle and a Police constable sitting by a
table on one side. The SI was a huge man with a handsomely large belly and
belligerent moustache, and he was accompanied by a typist who scrutinised us
carefully. Needless to say, the room was silent and tense and did little to
ease our fear. I, being the oldest of the three explained the situation. After
I finished my story, the SI shot off his first question, the worst question
that could be asked, “What are you two girls doing with two boys in Kanyakumari
on a Sunday?”
The boy standing
next to me clenched his fists and the girls who was already sobbing started
crying harder. “Sir we have come from Chennai for an audit. We wanted to visit
Kanyakumari for the weekend”.
“How old are
you?”, “23”.
“Married”, “No”.
“And you two?”,
“No sir, none of us is married.”
“Why have you two
girls come all the way from Chennai with these two boys? Unmarried girls of
your age… It is not as if there are no other audit firms from this city is it?”
My friend was biting his teeth now.
“Sir, the client
has its corporate office in Chennai and we handle the audit over there. Thus,
we landed up doing the work over here also.” I said with a straight head and
unblinking eyes.
“But why two
girls and two boys?”
“One girl to
accompany the other and a boy to accompany the other.” Also adding the name of
the firm I work in the contact details of the manager who sent us.
The cop pulled
aside the driver to ask him a few questions. I interceded and said, “Sir, he
was with us all the time.” He then turned his attention to me and asked,
“Alright then, give us a complaint in writing.” I obliged.
“We will let you
know if you find something”, he said. I don’t know if I believed him, but in
order to apply for a duplicate PAN Card, I needed a copy of the FIR and I had
received it. The three of us headed back to the car, the boy still grumbling
and the girl still sobbing. As we entered the car, the driver turned around and
said, “I would have been in deep trouble if it were not for you!” His eyes
seemed wet.
“Let’s go back to
the guest house?” The other boy suggested.
“And what? Sit in
the room and fuss about the drama? Let’s go ahead as planned, we will visit the
temple and then go back.”
Trivandrum
Piece by piece
she sent me the story by texts. Our get-together was over by 5.30 in the
evening and I reached home after 15 minutes. Shreya called me up at around 6,
“Is everyone alright now?” I asked.
“Yeah, everybody
is fine. We are a little short of cash, so I have asked my father to send some.
No problems!”
I asked her how
she enjoyed the sunrise and other stuff and she asked me how the party went. I
was tensed and almost spoiled the celebration. She was calm and made a party
out of the whole incident.
“But still, how
did you manage to remain calm through all this?” I asked her. She didn’t know
the answer. “The driver later told me that he was stunned at the way I handled
the SI… being a girl and all”, she told me. Quite honestly, I don’t think I,
would have survived that episode.
Love
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