On the cross-roads....

On occasions more than one, Neil and Gourab find themselves standing at crossroads. They have the minimum possible clue about how did they reach there. Probably, they made their way through the dark alleys in search of a shorter route to their destiny. Whatever the case may be, neither of them seem to be in charge of the situation at the point where lanes intersect leading to four different directions.

Gourab, by virtue of his nature, starts weighing the pros and cons of each of the path that stares into his face. As soon as a 60-40 scale outweighs one lane over the other, the third one seems to add on to the confusion and this time by a margin as close as 55-45. Not only this it appears that 4 ancillary lanes have cropped up amidst nowhere bisecting the four cardinal ones, justifying the Middle Path preached by the Buddha. Gourab once happened to have said to me that the noise is deafening at a crossroad, and this makes one’s task Herculean to choose the path one wants to tread. Parents and peers do little to solve the fix and the busy interjection doesn’t leave you much time to have a steady head over your shoulder and make a decision. Left with no other choice to himself, Gourab trudges down the lane where he feels a sense of security amidst the crowd.

Meanwhile, Neil has his own way of looking at things. He has an eerie philia towards walking lonely roads as if the loneliness doesn’t bother him at all. Unlike Gourab, where the four cardinal lanes begot four progenies, Neil fights hard to entwine the four ways into one. In simpler words, he doesn’t leave much space for confusion to bother him. He takes his time to choose his own lane, a lane which he would love walking, a lane which won’t force him to look back at the crossroad again. Eventually, he puts a firm foot forward assertively unlike Gourab who chooses his lane eliminating the others.

There happens to be a Gourab and Neil residing within every one of us. I am not credible enough to justify one over the other i.e. Gourab over Neil or vice versa. All I can say is that most Gourabs are seldom heard of once they leave the crossroad as they mingle with the crowd. One some occasions, they lament the path chosen and seek to get back to the crossroad again, but there are no retakes in real life unlike reel life. On the other hand, Neils too face the probability of being engulfed by the lonely roads, but then they stand the chance of being one of the most prominent figures to have ever walked that lane.

I leave it up to you to decide who is going to be the guiding torch of your life.

And by the way, on a very lighter note Neil really likes the new “Dairy milk Silk” while Gourab is still obsessed with “Bournville..”….

..Genesis...

Sometimes its not just easy to start off...i really wish the answer could be as easy as "Who am I? I am Spiderman" . Well there used to be a time when " I am so and so from so and so standard(or class as I used to call it back then) and I want to be a pilot/astronaut/scuba diver/bartender(at a later stage..the juggling was just too cool to be ignored)/documentary director etc..". Things just don't seem to be that easy now. What is it actually? Has the world as they say is getting complicated day by day..or is it just the fact that I am growing up and I just cant perceive things as simply as I used to.

If you really don't know me personally by now you might be wondering whether the writer would actually give a tiniest detail about himself or should you have to go all the way and check his profile detail. So before you actually do that let me just tell you something about myself. Well I answer by the name of Gourab and as I type in these words, I recall having seen 23 winters pass by(and I do not have the "Ghajini effect") . I am not perfect and neither do I strive to achieve perfection. I am not a guy whom you would want to take home to your parents or on getting an opportunity would live to introduce to your friends. I have done things that would typically not be accepted in this jungle where we live...something we call Society. I won't say I am proud of the fact that I did them..but yes I do not carry any baggage of regret with me for anything that I have ever done. May be if I live long enough..I might just tell these stories to my grandchildren someday.

I was born in Kolkata and as long as I can remember, my parents had given me more than what I needed( well they still do..its just that now I just happen to demand what exactly I need). I had seen my dad working real hard day and night and climb the ladder of success with an ease almost similar to breathing. My mom(Mumma as I lovingly still call her) was as perfect as a Bengali lady should be and can be. A perfect wife, a good daughter-in-law, a perfect home-maker and the best human being you could come across. She has always been a good mother and if there is one thing that I can say I have achieved in my life..I would say I have been a good son to her...It is not something that I boast about..but I have just felt from my very childhood that this was the least I could actually do for her.

I have never had any siblings and strangely enough unlike most of my childhood friends(who were the only child of their parents too)I have never wanted one. I have always been happy to be the only son of my parents. No, i was never a loner(anyone who knows me can actually vouch for that,I am sure)...the feeling that everything around is just mine and there isn't any compulsion that I have to share certain things with someone has always brought in me a sense of euphoria. A selfish streak, you may call it, but I still don't see anything wrong about it...neither did I see it then.

When school happened, it was a relief. Some hours of freedom in an otherwise routine like life. The initial days of school as far as I can remember was always fun .I was allowed scribble anything and everything I felt like in my "Good Boy' notebook and a "very good" remark from the teacher would follow almost everyday. The exams were not that tough either and even at certain times when i just didn't write anything on the paper just because I didn't feel like(something I see my nephew doing now) and even then i got promoted to the next class...It was such a bliss then that even now..20 years after those days..I would not mind re-living it again.