A moment to cherish

‘Rajesh, get up….its 6.20 already’, my mom yelled on yet another Thursday morning. ‘Yeah…I know…wait’ I retorted back. Minutes passed and she entered my room again. ‘Get up…its 6.30’ she shouted in anguish. ‘Ok…I’ll take care’ was my nonchalant reply. As I woke up after a minute, I was shocked to see my bedroom door locked. ‘Amma open the door….Amma open the door’, I screeched with the fear of missing the 7.05 train shuddering me. My brother was the savior and he opened the door. I got ready soon.

I ran down the staircase and bustled my way to the kitchen just to tell my mom ‘Amma, I’ll have coffee at college as it’s already 6.55 and I better leave now’. A nod of the head was her reply. As I was about to leave, a glimpse at The Hindu newspaper caught my attention. ‘Shall I just peep in to it ? Today’s Thursday !!’ I exclaimed to myself. Disbelief at something persuaded me from not having a look at it and I carried with me, The Times of India to accompany during the 1 hour train journey that was to follow. I boarded the train and after comforting myself near the window, I turned on the mp3 player and it, along with the ToI kept my ears and eyes busy. Diagonally opposite sat a middle-aged gentleman. After a while, I turned right to see him reading The Hindu newspaper. On his lap was rested the Hindu supplement Nxg. One look at it, I was tempted to borrow and have a look at something I had been eagerly awaiting for quite a while. Before I could just request, he folded the main paper and it swapped places with the Nxg. ‘Oh! My God’ I cried in disgust to myself. He read, read and read like he had never read that Nxg before. If I’m right, he was reading it for more than 20 minutes. When I first looked at that Nxg resting on his lap, it was Ajab Si (OSO) that was soothing my ears, and as time passed, Mein Agar Kahoon went by, followed by Dhoom Thaana and Deewangi. Even Teri Ore from Singh is Kinng passed and he was still hooked on to it. Having lost interest in my pursuit to have a glimpse at the tabloid newspaper, I got up from my seat and stood at the door to get down next. A minute was left for the next halt and that seemed the forlorn hope. I looked back to see him reading the last page. ‘Huh!!! Idiot!!! Why the F*** you taking so much time? Finish reading it fast’ I wanted to shout at him but couldn’t. My journey finally came to a halt and even after getting down, I felt like peeping in and when I did that, he was just placing the Nxg back on his laps. I wanted to re-enter the compartment, grab the newspaper, leave him desolated and run away. I failed in that too. 

With despair, I strolled towards the staircase, took the foot-over bridge and entered the lush-green campus of my college. I had coffee at the canteen, chat for a while and entered my class. Minutes passed, and my friend entered the class and said in an exuberant tone ‘Hey Rajesh…you had written a write-up in your blog about your morning train journey titled 7.05-8.05 am right ?’. I could sense something special at his exuberance and I knew, something really great that was bound to happen had happened. I replied ‘Yeah…I did…why ?. ‘Hey it has been published in today’s Hindu supplement Nxg da’ he informed me enthusiastically. 'Huh ??? Huh ??? Is it ?' my voice shrilled in a different tone. And I ran to his classroom only to find the article ‘FLEETING MEMORIES’ as one of the three published for that week in Nxg. The article was footed at the right bottom with the author’s name and designation

Rajesh.S

Mechanical Engineering

SRM University.

I was on cloud nine if I could say. Never have I experienced so much happiness and I take pride in the fact that my name took to the pages of a leading national daily. It has always been my desire, if not a dream to get my article published in a newspaper and it turned a reality that day. I had sent this article in June 2008 and it got published only now. A gift voucher worth 1000 bucks supplanted an icing on the cake. On my way back home, I purchased a fresh copy of The Hindu and placed it along with the school certificates in my folder. I wish to possess this edition all my life. The instant I had a look at my name published in the newspaper was indeed, a moment to cherish.

The incidents that happened at home and in the train that morning flashed across my mind. In the past, I used to peep in to the Nxg every Thursday morning and would be eager to know if my article has been published but all in vain. This morning, as I had stated, the disbelief evaded me from reading it. And destiny had other plans during my train journey. Looking at these two incidents, I re-affirmed my belief in two phrases, I had always believed in.

EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED IN LIFE

EVERYTHING IN LIFE HAPPENS FOR A REASON.

I’m glad my 25th post is written about something I can cherish all my life. It’s just a co-incidence and something DESTINED to happen. :)

I take this opportunity to thank you for reading my blogs all these days and keenly looking forward to your support in future as well. I thank blogger for uniting us. 

I’ve a request. Kindly let me know that 1 post out of the 25 which you liked the most. Please post the same in the comments section and mention that 1 write-up of mine. If you can, do let me know the reason for your liking.