Unmarried trying to understand “Marriage”

Marriage is a part of every one’s life. Especially in young India, it seems everyone is getting married or they are planning to get married, those who are already married are left with only one job and that is, attending other’s wedding. If somehow, some people are left, then they become the ones who arrange weddings! The underlining thought is that, these days not even a single person exists who have time to write about this genetically transferred disease from our ancestors to us and commonly called “Marriage” to guide singles. So I’ll, myself take this pain to write something about it.

It is said, marriages are made in heaven. And, we all know, in heaven everything is good and perfect! If this is true, then why we have things like divorce? Don’t you think existence of something called ‘divorce’ proves that even God in the heaven makes mistake. Now, how can God make a mistake? I think, with increasing population, workload involving tying of knots in the heaven has also increased many fold. Imagine, millions of people are waiting in heaven with their application in their hands (before coming to this earth) for whom God has yet to decide a perfect match, balancing their likes and dislikes, so that they won’t quarrel on small things like where they should go for honeymoon, when they should have a baby, what should be the name of that baby and things alike. Finding a perfect combination in millions of humans, each having wide and distinct range of characteristics, forming millions of couples among them, is a gigantic task. As God do not use super-computers for the processing of their applications, anarchy like situation is created in heaven and in such anarchic situations even God makes wrong decisions and tie your knot with a wrong person. But, being a firm believer in God and in his supernatural abilities, I will see, even divorce in a positive manner. Actually, divorce gives two incongruent people one more chance to find a congruent partner for them and also helps two lawyers to earn their bread, clothing, shelter and a 4-wheel drive suv!

You may think, why I am writing soo much about divorces, even when I am unmarried and still I have to go through a marriage to even thing about a divorce. Well, the reason is…

Contrary to a general belief, day by day increasing number of divorces and stories of failed marriages creates stress and anxiety more among singles then married couples. I am saying this because all such stories creates huge pressure on singles to be extremely cautious in searching the person with whom his or her knot was actually tied by God in heaven, as a wrong decision in this matter will make them loose a major part of their youthful life in fighting a lost battle in court.

As if, all this was not enough, one more thing which keeps bugging singles is when to get married? The question may sound simple, but it’s really difficult to decide exactly when one should get married. Keeping things simple, I think, correct time to get married in this highly inflationary economy is when your best friend is also getting married.

Now, please don’t give wings to your imagination, I am not saying this because it will save you money but because of some other reason. Read further to know my reasoning… 

From the day your best friend finds his soul mate, he changes completely! Now, if you call him and ask him to accompany you for a movie, he will add to your knowledge that the movie is not worth watching and he knows this because he has already seen that movie, first day first show with the so called species “soul mate”. Listening this, you say,

“ok, then let’s go for a drive”. To which your friend agrees.

The worst part is, now he will come with his “soul mate”, sitting on the front seat with him. You have no option left, other than taking a back seat. This “soul mate” of your best friend from the first day itself starts making effort to strike you off from the life of her “soul mate”. She actually declares a cold war against you, about which your best friend is not even aware. Moreover, if she loves watching television serials directed by Ekta Kapoor then even God can’t save you, as these serials will give her enough training in planning and plotting against you. You will be left with only one option and that is to stop expecting the quantity and the quality time your best friend used to spend with you.

Sudden exit of your best friend from your life creates a vacuum. Now this will be the best time to start looking for your own soul mate and take a decision to get married. The only problem in this scheme is that if your best friend has also read this, then both of you will keep waiting for the other person to change completely. And both of you may end up living a life on the lines of India’s ex-Prime Minister Mr. Atal Bihari Vajpayee and the President during his time Mr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam (to remind you, both are still single!).

The word marriage seems to be a synonym for complexity. Every single step towards getting married is full of life threatening situations. But, seeing in reference with the Darwin’s principle “the fittest survive”, the institution called marriage has survived since human being started living and organizing large human societies. No doubt, the road leading to marriage takes you through a bumpy ride, but don’t you think that’s what makes it interesting?

How Delhi Metro Rail Changed The Way People Live In Delhi And Not Just Travel

Around seven years before, going to Delhi with your friends was a heinous crime against your own body. During those days, every time i visited Delhi, headache in the evening while returning to home, was a kind of return gift, from the city. This used to happen because of the high level of air pollution, which was beyond the filtering capabilities of my lungs! But, these days, the use of CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) as a fuel to fuel public transport and more importantly year on year increasing network of Delhi Metro Rail has changed everything. Other than helping people to "migrate locally" (and on daily basis) our Delhi Metro Rail or simply 'METRO' (as any dilliwala calls it) has become an integral and indispensable part of life. In this post, i will try to find out, how metro has changed the way people live and not just travel in India's capital called Dilli.

World over, rail is used as a mass transit system, especially in big, densely populated and concrete jungles. In London, it is called ‘tube’; in New York it is called ‘subway’; in Delhi, keeping things simple it is called ‘metro’. One thing which you will easily notice about metro, in contrast to any public place in India is that it’s very clean and well maintained. I believe, this makes us realize that, we Indians, also have the desire and ability to have hygienic surroundings, neither, we are born polluters nor we have lower hygienic standards, when compared to the natives of developed nations.

Moreover, while exploring metro, you will find that all the stations have some degree of both common and unique architectural design. Common, because on a particular line, all the stations have similar architectural design and unique because different lines have different architecturally designed stations. Certain important stations (important in respect of the number of people they are serving and their geographical location in the city) are actually museums in themselves. For example, Barakhamba station shows “men at work” with the help of ceramic tiles on its more than three stories high walls, INA station shows various textural designs, making you feel as if you are witnessing creations by M. F. Husain. This was a glimpse of internal beauty of stations, externally also, numerous stations provide phenomenal natural view. For example, in the evening, at Mayur Vihar Phase-I metro station, facing towards bank of Yammuna, you can mesmerise yourself with the exceptionally beautiful falling sun behind the farming lands. The sweet warmness of this falling sun, takes away all the tiredness, stress, and worries. Going home and taking a deep sleep seems like a waste of time, as you feel re-energized and fresh. Similarly, when you are not at peace with yourself and need some moments of aloofness, standing at Pragati Maidan metro station, and quietly watching Indian Railways running around 2 kms. away from you, makes you feel that you are out of the sucking life of the city, which is also about running in hurry. Watching those Indian Railway trains running in hurry from a distance makes you feel happy because at least for the time being you are not a part of that hurries and just a quiet observer, observing from a distance.

Metro, is not only meant for observers or loners. Observer and loner are connected in the sense that most of the time observers are also loners, as they are travelling alone they have nothing to do, except making observations! In fact, if you are a lone traveller in metro, there is high degree of chances that you will find a companion. One of my very close friend narrated me his love story, in which metro was the linchpin. The story goes like this… 

Khan saab ki chaaye

In Delhi, whether it’s a chilly morning of January or a hot and humid afternoon of May, there are certain things which become an indispensable part of your life. Other than Delhi Metro Rail, Khan saab ki chaaye is one such indispensable thing at Mandi House, New Delhi. In the freezing winters of Delhi, holding a cup of the chaaye (tea) in your glove-less hands, not only warms up the palm of your hands, but also, with every small sip of it, your whole body, slowly and slowly, becomes warmer. Few minutes before, what was an extreme weather condition becomes a pleasant experience. Instead of shivering in the cold air wave, coming from few hundred kilometers away, lower hills of Himalayas, you start enjoying the kiss of the same cold wave on your cheeks. As one can cut diamond only with another diamond, the same warm cup of chaaye also energizes you to face the extremely warm weather of Delhi. Hot and humid wave fronts of air, locally called ‘Loo’, can do no harm to you, if you are sipping the same, “Khan saab ki chaaye”.

Certain multinational companies run their businesses on the tall claims of delivering customized products and services. For this, they use high end technology, and hire, highly skilled technocrats and management graduates from premier institutes of the world. On the other hand, in the name of technology, our khan saab uses just a stove running on kerosene oil and in the name of human resource, his only teenage son, Shameem, helps him. Unlike employees of multinational companies, Shameem never went to school; therefore, he is not even a school dropout. But, even in such an unpromising condition, Khan saab ki chaaye is one the highly customized product. You ask and he will deliver. Proportion of milk and water, quantity of sugar, quantity of ginger, duration for which the chaaye was boiled are some of the things which can bring great variation to its flavor. I, and my friends prefer “kadak chaaye”. Now, what constitutes it and how it is prepared, only Khan saab has the copyright! Moreover, if you are his regular customer, you are not even required to make an order every time you visit him, he will notice you coming from the distance itself and by the time you reach him, your customized “kadak chaaye” gets ready with the same and the well-known aroma coming from it.