मेह

नीर पिपासु धमनियों में
विद्युत का संचार हुआ,
धरती के वक्ष में जब
बारिश का प्रहार हुआ।

घटाओं के शोर में
हर्ष का प्रचार हुआ,
बूंदों के होड़ में
रंज का संहार हुआ।

सृष्टि जैसे धुल गयी
रंग नए भर गए,
प्रीत की ओट में
उष्ण भी लाचार हुआ।

मेह के बहाव में
दृश्य भी निखर गयी,
सुशुप्त चेतना हुई बेचैन
समग्र सीमाओं का विस्तार हुआ;
नीर रंजित बाण से
आर्द्र का प्रवाह हुआ॥

Love story and other conversations - 2

ACT -2: (Please refer last post for a short introduction of the characters and ignore Sr Engineer's grammar)

Sr Er: You studying in Bangalore?
Er: No I am working.
Sr Er: Which company?
Er: Oracle.
Sr Er: Oh! I am working in i-Trust technologies. So how long you been staying there at Bangalore?
Er: Close to 8 years now. I had done my engineering from Bangalore Institute of Technology and then got placed at Infosys.
Sr Er: But you said Oracle?
Er: Last September I left Infy and joined Oracle.
Sr Er: Hmmm...You know with time these things becomes pretty boring. Doing the same job again and again. I have people in my team who has been doing this for 7-8 years now. They remember most of the stuff and now we solve bugs in a matter of minutes. By the way, I am Parimal Dham.
Er: I am Vinayak Shukla. You are in a maintenance project?
Sr Er: Not exactly. We have development as well. We do it in Java which is like working with needle and haystack.
Er: Finding needle in haystack!!
Sr Er: Yeah!! Exactly. Working with Java is more finding the correct API which someone must has already written. Just google it and if you doesn't get it you are doomed.
Oracle has taken over Sun right?
Er: Yes for some 8 billion dollars I think.
Sr Er: What are they going to do with it?
Er: He he...nothing they can not anyway touch Java because it has become such a huge name now, needles and haystack notwithstanding.
Sr Er: He he!!
After a pause,
There is one department in IT industry which is redundant.
Er: HR??
Sr Er: Perfect guess!! See anyway they don't have any control over the annual assessment of employees since it is the engineer's boss who can override any comment which the HR provide. However there are people in my team who are trying maskofying these HR people. Strange!!
Er: And does it help?
Sr Er: Don't know. Because the people I am talking about have their own groups.
Er: You mean regional grouping?
Sr Er: Yes. They work together, as in I have seen they doing each other's work. Once we were talking about a design of a certain function. I ask one guy about it. He is clueless. Then I give him a hint, start with the number and type of input parameters. He is looking at me as I am talking French and the next day he gave me the complete code. I was appreciative initially but then when I try digging into it I see that he seem to have just copied it from somewhere or someone else have done it for him.
Er: Strange. How do such people survive in the industry?
Sr Er: Only such people survive and become your boss. Such boss has no idea how things are to be done. What they are concerned about is deadlines and meetings with clients.
Er: I had seen such species when I was working at Infosys.
Sr Er: There are hordes in such big companies. And what do these people talk in meetings?
Prasoon, you have not shaved. What is that you are wearing, Sheela? I want people to come in formals. What you guys wear is not formals but business casuals.
I had this business head who joined us from some manufacturing company. He used to talk such stuff since he has no idea about the software industry.
Er: He he...I know of this manager who talks to engineers about how girls are there just for encouragement and keep the guys in the team happy. Ridiculous!!
Sr Er: Ha ha...And I bet he did not know a thing about how exactly the work needs to be done.
Er: Yes. He used to call his sub-ordinates to the meetings with clients to give updates regarding the project.
Sr Er: There are such people in Oracle as well!!
Er: No I was talking about my experience at Infosys.
Sr Er: Which project you were working on?
Er: I was in the telecom project and was working for Nortel.
Sr Er: And this manager you are talking about. What was his name?
Er: Shyamal Dham!!
Silence,
I mean the guy was good.........
End of conversation.

Love story and other conversations-1

Let me first attract every one's attention. There is a universal law, which any bachelor who has travelled on a train, or any public mode of transport for that matter, would vouch for. The law has been termed by yours truly as "Universal law of Beauty and the Berth", which states that:
"Probability of a girl occupying a berth next to you on a train is inversely proportional to her beauty".

Now that I have your attention let me tell the reader that this blog is a frail attempt at writing a play (not the Shakespearean style, laden with various figures of speech but pretty normal without anything about the characters mindset).

The characters:
Engineer(Er): A traveller and a SW engineer.

High School Teacher (HST): Teacher and the lover.

Sr Engineer(SEr): Another senior SW engineer who has seen all and still clinging on.
Housewives(Hw): There are at least three, with at least one being a Bengali.
An would-be engineer(Wb): All passionate about the big bad world and may be a little about engineering as well.

This is going to be just a series of dialogues hence the ambience and the costume is left to the imagination of the reader. Though the setting is essentially a typical Indian Rail compartment.

ACT 1:

HST: You must be my junior...let me tell you that the world is really tough. By the way which year did you do your 10th?
Er: 1997
HST: Oh that makes you my senior by an year. May be I have seen world better than you.
Er: How old are you?
HST: I am 26 and work as a High School Teacher. I had gone on an election duty to a place called Akhripur.
Er: Where is the place?
HST: 25 kms before Jasidih. The place was amazing, surrounded by hills and hardly any living being around.
Er: Naxal belt?
HST: Yes. Thankfully I experienced all this before my marriage.
Er: Yes it would have been tough for your wife to stay at such a place.
HST: No the government doesn't provide accomodation for spouse. Besides it was just a 2-day duty.
Er: So your folks are thinking of your engagement now?
HST: God knows what they are thinking. They are seeing a few girls but not exactly keen on one which I like.
After a pause,
The thing is I like the girl and whoever has seen her photo has told me she is the best one for me. She is very beautiful but my parents are asking for a dowry of 4 lacs. Her folks have very limted means and I don't think they can arrange for it.
Er: Oh!!
HST: Anyway I talk to her on phone and try consoling her.
Er: What is your name?
HST: I am Rajeev Kumar Bhardwaj.
Er: I am Vinayak Shukla.
HST: Brahmin?
Er: Yes.
HST: Have you ever heard a story which starts as "Once upon a time lived a poor Rajput", it is always "Once upon a time lived a poor Brahmin".
Er: Hehe...True.
HST: Once she had called me to Deoghar and asked me to meet her near that Naulakha Mandir. Since she has not seen me she has that urge. You know what, in cases of marriage only if the girl's side has money you can make demands that you want to see the guy before proceeding with other formalities.
Er: So did you go?
HST: No I didn't. You see it could have been bad for both her and me. If someone from her end had seen me it would have created some problem for my family and if her friends or relatives had come to know about it her character would have been maligned. There is another family who is ready to give me 5 lacs and a bike but am not interested in that girl. But my family seems to be more than interested.
Er: So what are you thinking now?
HST: I seldom call her now thinking that we might end up getting a bad name for our respective families.
After a long pause,
However in my last call I have told her to be ready. I would take her away to some place and we will marry.
Er: Gandharva vivah!!