Count your blessings….

Nothing is permanent. And that is a reality that has been driven home and driven harshly in recent times.

Its scary the way a moment changes your lives. Its scary how extremism can rip apart everything you’ve lived for. Its scary how your life is no longer in your hands…I thought about it and realized that I take so much for granted in my day-to-day life. The presence of a loved one, kind words, a smile, a hug, a phone call…my job, the monthly credit into my account, freedom…food, shelter…my space. I never stop to think what I would do if I didn’t have all this or any of these tomorrow? What if I had ‘my space’ and noone to share it with?

What if I extend my hand and find no one to hold it? What if someone reaches for me and doesn’t find me there? The thought is so scary that I can feel my insides turn to ice and I actually start shedding tears. And all this is just because of the thought.

Then what about those whose world was rent apart when the twin towers went down? When the tube ripped apart miles below ground level? When the daily trip home turned into a bloodbath on a crowded local train? When the innocent-looking cycle blew to pieces anything and anyone around it? And many many more such incidents. What did they do wrong? And worse still…what about those they left behind? Those unfulfilled dreams now left behind like a painting half-done or a story half-told? Plans nearing completion or just at inception…what happened to them? Were those left behind able to move on? Can the void ever be filled? What about the regret for all the things that should have been said / should have happened, but couldn’t any longer? Who will be the deliverer for all these innocent lives, marred for as long as they live?

I can still feel the numbness at these thoughts. And all I know is…count your blessings…count what you have today…count ‘who’ matters today. Share life, time and whatever you have with those you want to share it with. Prioritize today. We never know what tomorrow brings.

My thoughts go out to those affected by 9/11...and all other innocent lives ever affected by an action the cause of which was far removed from their daily lives…

Some days are meant to be a comedy of errors…yet some others are meant to be “Oh God kill me please…please please please!”…yet some others are “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaa……..” days!

I recently had an “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA……” day…believe me!

So I woke up as usual…happy that I booked my cab the previous evening…breakfast good…maid on time…cabbie calls at 8:25 to confirm he has arrived and is waiting on the main road….yippeeJ
Happily fed n thankfully free of a cold, happy me walketh the walk to the main road…humming the “singh is king singh is king singh is king…toietoietoie (my rendition of the instrumental bit)” I progress to the point opp the ATM where my cabbie awaits…BOINNNNNNNNNG! No cab….now where the hell did he vanish…so I called him n he says “madam I am opposite the ATM madam”…fearing that my eyesight had finally broken all connection with my mental faculties (whatever teeny bit I have left….before my frns out thr can comment on that…) I looked all around…auto guy…mom dragging kid to school…nope…no cab. So I called again…tring tring tring…..no reply…call…tring tring tring…whatever happened to this guy?

As I was on my first “moooooommmmmmmy”...voila…he picked up! “1 min madam…I am coming”….ok…so the 1 min ticked from 8:34 to 8:45….my laptop’s getting heavier…I call again…”2 min madam”…and so the story continues…till 8:55…”where are you? Tell me the truth or I call ur cab company!” “madam actually…thoda confusion ho gaya...ek aur passenger liya humne”….lots of $@^$#&^%*%* later, I stooped levels and approached my best friend Mr. Auto-driverL ya I knw…me guilty as hell after having pledged off this mode of transportation….”madam pls come back madam….pls madam” says cabbie…but me ploughs on anyway…me reached a good half hour late to the client’s office n saw the bright rays as the day progressed…

3:00 PM…time to book evening’s cab…cab company 1: “Sorry madam…cabs on strike…we have no cabs”….cab company 2: “Sorry madam…no cabs…strike today”….cab company 3,4,5…”mommmmmmmmmyyyyyyy”….voila…company cab will pick us up at 6:00 PMJ “wah kya dimag paya maine…kya idea tha!”

6:00 PM…we sit in the cab n eeeeeeeeeeeshhhhhhhhhhh! What is that smell? We ask the cabbie n he starts rambling away on his phone in a language I cannot fathom! “8532756gwbanmbbfu98732y985y “smell” %$#@!&%(~^(& “battery”E$*@!^#$%*%^^&$$E%!$#@”….ok…so I gather something’s wrong with his battery…but its ok…the car is running…wheeeeeeeeee…….splutter splutter splutter…”madam cab wont start”…”mommmmmmmmmmmyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy”…so we ploughed on ahead on foot…the rain gods didn’t help…BBMP n the pathetic state of the footpaths (really?!) definitely didn’t help…slush…water…laptop…rain…cell phone…umbrella…pyjama getting dragged on the road…no auto stopped…if there were a transportation god, I’d say he was taking a break…why me? A/c Volvo to rescue…I get in to go home after a 500 m trek in “slushvilla”...n its home sweet home after 45 more painful n excruciating minutes…

Anyway, the result of the mayhem was a chemical reaction (wet hair + air conditioning = cold n cough)…or is that physics? I don’t knw!!!!