Greek God and the Beach !!

Summer is synonymous to heat, sweat, thirst and sun-burns. This is when the friendly winter sunshine transforms into the cruel hot sun rays.

I’ve always wondered why people go for summer holidays, isn’t it best to stay inside our air conditioned homes and escape the torturous sun altogether? That sounds logical to me, not to my long time roommate, Kyra.

She loves summers.

Her favourite month is May. Her favourite colour is Yellow. Her favourite drink is Vodka with Mango juice. Her favourite fruit is Watermelon. I wonder if she had been a Marmot (large squirrel) in an earlier existence where she hibernated all her life and now seeks revenge!

So here was the cause of my irritation. Kyra had planned a beach holiday for the two of us in mid-May this year. I thought she was plain stupid until I saw her happy as a kid jumping on our couch with the tickets in her hand and changed my perception. Nah, she wasn’t stupid, she was simply out of her mind and needed a shrink! I headed straight to my bedroom.

Shortly after our arrival at the resort that afternoon, we were served our welcome drink - fresh Mango juice in a tall slender glass. Needless to say, the Marmot was ecstatic!

The resort was spread across a large area of land, housing two swimming pools, three multi-cuisine restaurants, two spa centres and a recreation club. It had several small cottages surrounded with well-maintained flower beds.

 

To Kyra’s greatest pleasure and my greatest displeasure, the lunch was to be served under a yellow canopy close to the resort’s private beach. I had begun to feel the undercurrent of a plausible pact between the resort guys and Kyra by now.

They wanted me exposed.

I decided to combat the enemy. So I geared up with a full sleeved cotton kurta teamed with full length slacks, a scarf to cover my hair and a pair of funky sunglasses. I am done, I thought.

From the canopy, I could see the enormous blue sea spread like a sparkling magical carpet across endless land, concealing the infinite depths beneath. I could feel the moist breeze across my face. The sound of the waves rising high and then hitting the shore before gushing and retracting was as soothing to my ears as a chant is to a pious man. In a bid to freeze these eternal memories, I closed my eyes and saw the sea again.

Suddenly, I felt someone’s hand grasp mine and pull it with great force. I was annoyed with the abrupt intrusion into my sweet trance. It had to be Kyra.


Next I was standing before this handsome tall man dressed in a colourful Hawaiian shirt and knee length cotton shorts, smiling at me. My brain did a quick face recognition exercise and suddenly I found myself fumbling for words. I looked at Kyra with absolute bewilderment.

After a brief stint of turning deaf and dumb, I could hear Kyra introduce me to Adityaa, the new brand ambassador for her company. I was utterly shocked to say the least.

This guy was a renowned celebrity, a heart-throb for all young girls across the country and here he stood before me at a lunch party in a beach resort, ready for a conversation. Collecting my thoughts and myself, I greeted him and expressed my pleasure of meeting him in person.  

Kyra was super excited about her new assignment with Adityaa. She spoke about the new product – Lakme Sun Expert at length. Adityaa had few questions:

Adityaa: Why did the company choose a man to advertise what is known to be a woman’s preferred product?

Kyra: The campaign would bring about awareness amongst people that sunscreen is more than a cosmetic product and is a requirement for everyone, not just women. Plus it would make us stand out amongst our competitors, who usually have women endorsing their products.

Adityaa: What is different in your product range?

Kyra: The new Lakme sunscreen range offers broad spectrum sunscreen that gives up to 97% protection from harmful sun rays and deep skin damage. The sunscreen ranging from SPF 24 to 50, includes sunscreens for dry, oily and normal skin.

Adityaa looked satisfied. I was happy to learn about this new sunscreen too and couldn’t wait to try it. Using Lakme sun expert translated to freedom from scarves and full sleeves for me. I would be free as a bird this summer I thought!

After an interesting conversation, we parted and I made my way to the ice cream counter close to the swimming pool. With my Rum-Raisin ice cream in one hand, I was hastily typing a message to my friend describing my encounter with a celebrity.


Suddenly my step felt incomplete, I could sense no ground. Next I found myself plummeting deep into water. I couldn’t configure what had happened and felt badly panicked. Engrossed with messaging, I had misjudged my step and fell straight into the swimming pool.

Unable to shout, I moved my hands and legs frantically in a bid to escape drowning. I didn’t know how to swim and thought I would die. There was movement in the water and I could sense someone swimming towards me with great strides, after which there was a complete blackout.

When I regained consciousness, I found myself in my hotel room surrounded with a lot of people.

My head was reeling and I could hardly open my eyes. Right then I heard a familiar voice. It was Kyra thanking Adityaa profusely for saving my life! I opened my eyes and found Adityaa standing next to Kyra, drenched from head to toe, smiling down at me. He saved my life; Goodness me, the Greek God himself! I felt a spell of unconsciousness engulf me again and I could not resist.

I don’t know how long I remained unconscious. My sleep was finally hindered by the relentless buzzing of my cell phone. With my eyes still closed, I thanked God for saving my phone in spite of dropping into the pool.

Reluctantly I picked up the phone; it was Kyra at the other end. She wanted to know if I was ready for the Goa trip and would reach the airport in time. I went cold and silent, my eyes wide open now. ‘And one other thing’, she said, ‘don’t forget to carry your Lakme Sunscreen!’

The trip is yet to happen. And I eagerly await the tryst with the Greek God ;)

***

This post is part of the Lakme Diva Blogger Contest http://www.indiblogger.in/ /topic.php?topic=55 Facebook link: https://www.facebook.com/ilovelakme

Picture credit: twoheartstogether.com; balistarisland.com; apartmentpoolparty.com; naturewallpaper.tk; 123rf.com; zdnet.com

The lessons I did not learn..

Monday afternoon at school, the bell rang and our Maths period came to an end. After a gruelling forty minutes of racking our brains with Binomial theorem, it was now time for some relief. In other words, time for our language class.

Our language teacher, Ms. Prateema, would usually take a good ten minutes to leisurely walk up from the staffroom located at the end of the 50 meter corridor. An epitome of lethargy, she seemed to hate the period bell as much as us, if not more. She looked quite hustled up and irritated almost always, as if someone had awakened her from a peaceful trance.   

That day she entered the classroom with a bundle of answer sheets and a victorious look on her face. Within minutes, she had called out 48 names (a feat in itself) and distributed the corrected papers. Mine was the 49^th and the penultimate name she uttered. I moved swiftly towards her desk, waiting impatiently to catch a glimpse of the magical number on the answer sheet.

Shock and disbelief were the least of all emotions that followed.

A reprehensible 19 out of 50 was what I had managed after writing all of six pages. The comment along the marks said that I had failed to follow instructions by the teacher...

All students had been asked to learn a composition, word by word, from the text book and reproduce the same in the paper. Own words or creative writing in the language paper were a big no-no.

  

Seconds later, I could hear my name again. The failed students were to stand up and get their due of embarrassment. I was one.

The next 30 minutes of speech by Ms. Prateema outlined her disgust for us, the creative writers, in the class. Also, she described how pain-stakingly difficult it had been for her to correct our papers (we, the failures), as we had attempted to write in our own language. She christened us as being extremely lazy and spiteful for not adhering to her instructions and threatened we would never be able to clear the council exams. Later, she emphasised the importance of learning from great authors by imbibing their writing (and not writing style, mind you!) completely. She thought it crucial to learn by heart every word (mug up) of what a famous essayist had written and replicate it in our answer sheets to make our language (appear) spot free. According to her, it was futile for us to try and improve our already atrocious language by writing using our own imaginations.

I stood there teary eyed, my head bent low, feeling like a total failure.

That day, I cried ceaselessly when I reached home. Later I had a chat with my mother (who was a teacher herself), which changed my perception and taught me few important lessons. I bet these were crucial, as I wouldn’t be writing this post today (instead would be copy/pasting from famous blogs!)

Lessons I learnt:

-          Being original is not a sin, but a blessing

-          Better to stay mediocre but original, than be best but a copy-cat

-          It is important to learn from others, but plagiarism is never a good option.. who knows you might end up in a copy-right feud ;)

Lessons I did not learn:

-          Short cuts can replace hard work (It never can!)

-          If you want to be a good writer, find one and copy his work i.e. ctrl+c, ctrl+v (ha ha!)

-          All being taught in school will help you become better (it might not.. sad but true)

Reminded of Mark Twains words 'I have never let me schooling interfere with my education', applicable quite literally here!

P.S. As fate would have, I ended up with a distinction for language in my council exams. Needless to say I was ecstatic, after all, my originality had been rewarded..

My New Neighbours...

I vividly remember that Sunday morning when I sleepily looked out of my window. What a surprise. We had new neighbours ! I could see a very handsome young couple moving around frantically to shift their belongings. Suddenly I was wide awake and tried to look harder. I could see only the two of them, no helpers around. To and fro they went, without exchanging a single word, as if they were on a strict mission and had their own individual targets to complete.. but at the same time looked quite in sync. They seemed to be in a mad rush to finish off before the wider world would awake; they probably thought people around could pose a hindrance in their sacred task. I smiled to myself. This would be the second time we’d be sharing our floor with a young pair as theirs. It was always nice to have them around.  

That day, I found myself peaking outside several times. Perhaps I wanted to check if all was going well with my neighbours, in their new home. My window gave me the best view of their house. Guilty I was of my secret intrusion, but could hardly help.

I tried reaching out to them but they seemed a bit recluse and preferred staying on their own. I understood and kept my distance.

Days passed by. We were now accustomed to our next door neighbours, though had never spoken to each other. Then one fine day, I was taken aback when I saw new members in the family. Through the window, I could see two pretty little babies in their beautiful abode. When had that happenned ! I hadn’t figure out that she was expecting, always thought the lady was a little fat, that’s all..

However, the sight of the babies was truly magnificent. I guessed they were identical twins but could hardly muster the courage to find out more. By now I had realised that the couple would not welcome any intrusion into their own private world.

All four looked like a bunch of beatiful flowers, always together and close. It was moving to witness so much love. The tenderness I saw in the mother’s eyes was overwhelming. I closed my eyes and sent up a silent prayer to the almighty..to ward off all evil and keep them happy and safe.

Everything seemed to be perfectly fine, when one day hell broke lose. A terrible thunderstorm struck the town, something even the MET experts could not predict. The Gods were angry and it showed. I was on my way back home from office, struggling to drive in the heavy rain, when I remembered my neighbours. All of a sudden, I felt my breath growing shorter. With no proper windows or doors, our neighbour’s house laid exposed to the unforgiving storm.

I parked my car hastily and moved towards my apartment as fast as I could. My forehead was wet with sweat and rain drops. The harried expression on my face could not escape the watchman’s scrutiny. He knew something was terribly wrong and came forward mumbling something. The pattering of heavy rain on the ground made it impossible for any sound to reach my eardrums. I had no time to explain my worried state to him, at least not now, and rushed towards the staircase. All I wanted to do was reach my window.

Having no patience for the elevator, I made an instant decision to take the staircase to the 4^th floor. Panting heavily, I reached for the keys in my bag and pushed open the front door of my house. I ran towards the window and moved the curtains. My heart jumped a beat and then I felt the rush of blood pumping back into it again. They were safe. I gave out a sigh of relief !

The sight before me was relieving and touching. The mother held her two babies as close to her body as she possibly could. Her eyes were tightly shut, as if not wanting to look around and see the massive destruction caused by the angry storm. That day, I saw before me the unending love of a mother for her children. She would not allow a spec of the unruly storm harm her new borns. Her readiness to fight the evil wind and the willingness to sacrifice, even her own self, to save the little ones was so evident. She seemed so strong, so determined and yet so vulnerable holding her babies that moment.

My mind wandered..is it not the same with all parents. Their love for their children knows no bounds. Ready to give away all they have, take any risk they can, to ensure the well being of their offspring. Parents take great pains to raise their children, knowing all the while that there would come a day when these very own would leave them behind and move ahead in life. An unsaid rule of life..

Coming back from my momentary trance, I looked again. Strong wind blew across their windows and house shamelessly, blowing away anything that came its way. I wanted to help..to ask them to come inside and be warm at my place..but knew my limitations and sadly decided to stay away. I closed my eyes and sent up a silent prayer again.

After an hour the storm faded, as if giving up in its battle against the family. I came back to the window, the mother and the babies seemed alright. Just then my eyes drifted to the diagnol window sill. There stood a pigeon steady and proud. After all, his family had just survived the storm.

Key to Success

There lived a colony of frogs in a distant land. Close to their colony, there stood a sky scraper of gigantic height. The frogs often spoke of how beautiful the city would look from the top of this tower. As time passed, their wish became a sigh and a lifetime longing. One fine day, a group of very young frogs decided to do what appeared ‘impossible’ to the aging frogs. They decided to climb the tall tower.

The group set on the grand expedition early next day, while the elders coaxed them to abandon their dangerous journey. Some of them conceded and stayed back. As time passed, several in the group gave up. However there was this little frog that kept moving on without any care. He was relentless in his efforts and would not give up. Finally, he arrived at the top. Phew! What a beautiful sight awaited him. It was a magical moment for him. He enjoyed for a while and then began his descent.

When he reached the tower base, the other frogs looked at him in surprise and awe. They applauded him and shouted slogans in his praise. However, he appeared unfazed. Then some of the frogs came closer to him and asked him the key to his motivation that ultimately led to success. The frog left without answering.

Later, it turned out that the frog was deaf. So, the young frog had not heard any of the cajoling by elders. He remained blissfully unaware of the risks and dangers involved in climbing the tower top. While the other frogs, perhaps were convinced of the life threatening feat and abandoned their journey.

This is a beautiful short story which illustrates how important it is to Listen to the right things in life.

How essential it is at times to not listen to discouraging words. Words that tell you how small you are before a BIG problem. The word is ignore! :)