The H Bomb!

I love it when people are angry - they emote without deceit. Similar with dreams; they might be about the craziest of circumstances, but if people we know are a part of any of our dreams, they are dealt with in a raw way. To elaborate, if you were a straight guy and you dreamt about Katrina Kaif you would hardly take a second before smooching her, even in front of a huge audience; and similarly if you hate your boss, you'd probably behead him by the 'Kedavra' spell using your wand without wasting any time in your dream, coz thats how you actually feel about them; though you probably wouldn't behave similarly when you are fully conscious of how you 'should' act in accordance with the 'ubiquitous society'.

Of course I want 'order'. I obviously don't feel Kat should be with half of India, and also don't want more than half of the managers in MNCs to be killed. That would be unjust and stupid. But what I am implying is, at least for a split second, we would accept the importance of unadulterated emotions. Emotions you have, and pretend you don't and vice versa. Similarly, relationships you are actually a part of; and those you are not. And that brings me to 'Hypocrisy'.

Ask a 100 people whether they are hypocrites, and invariably 90 would shake their heads in utter disapproval. Out of them 10 wouldn't even be knowing what it means, so I will ignore them. Now out of the remaining 80 cartoons, lets take a random sample. Say X and Y.

X and I used to board the same cab back home from office till sometime back. Not once did X forget to bitch about a supposed colleague of his who had been taking the cab right into his apartment complex in a remote lane, way adrift the prescribed route (much to X's dismay) till he changed his residence and hence stopped boarding X's cab (much to X's respite). I was the 1st drop for a few days, and was careful enough to get off the cab right on the main road though it engendered a tiring walk of another 10 minutes before I reached my home. As ill-luck would have it, after a month or so, I had to change my residence by a fair distance along the same route, and consequently became the last drop. To my horror, I saw X doing exactly what he loathed; without even a trace of shame, he took the cab almost into the bedroom of his isolated house every single day. Aint this hypocrisy? Please check the dictionary.

Y is a traditional 'Bharatiya Nari', she doesn't take a morsel without seeing her husband's empty plate and spends whatever free time she has, praying. Since his childhood, Y has been preaching about the magical effects of devotion to her son. He blindly accepted everything and earnestly humored her whims. Yesterday he came up to her and announced that he wanted to become a priest; and all hell broke loose in the household. His mother stopped eating, she's been crying uncontrollably for the past 2 days. Tomorrow what would she say to her neighbors? That her son is a mere priest? Yuk! that sucked for her. Now guys, don't tell me this is not the 'H' word.

The fact is, my dear people, you are being a perfect Hypocrite if you say you are not one. And there are no exceptions, not even one. I wholeheartedly accept I am one. Take, for example, the fact that I have hardly spoken more than a few words to some of my 'close friends' here in quite a few days as of now but hardly feel even a tiny amount of difference (and I know they don't as well), but still they are a part of my 'friend list' on Facebook, and will always be. I know I'll forget them when I leave this place as fast as I forgot most of my college buddies who I had swore not to lose touch with once, and still I have no qualms, coz I know its natural, though accepting it is 'mean'.

If we can accept that even an emotion as pure as love is selfish (come on! don't tell me that you would have loved your parents as much you do now had they made you work in a tea shop when you were eight because they were that poor; and that your parents would have loved you as much as they do now coz their child works in a MNC had you been a porn star by choice), then why not accept hypocrisy as much a part of us as the reactions to various external stimuli.

Ouch! that hurt right? Well I am glad I was damn angry when I wrote this, and so these are true, raw words.

Simplicity!

The doorbell rang for the second time. Robert was awake, well awake; but didn't get up to answer it. Of course he was not lazy enough not to budge, but plain didn't want to. Marta, the maid finally got up, and went to attend the call of her mistress, uttering a few curses obvious to come out when you are expected to welcome people home right out of your dreams.

Naina hurried herself into the hall, giving the usual cold stare at the late responder which the latter shrugged off with a 'like-I-care' attitude. She enquired if her 2 year old daughter had taken dinner and been put to bed, and verified the same by paying a visit to the toddler's room. Robert was 'asleep' upstairs but could feel his beloved's activities as clear as crystal, and awaited the right moment to shut his eyes back again. Couple of minutes later, he could hear a faint 'goodnight', which he knew signaled the end of the day for Marta and ten footsteps later, his eyelids had reinstated themselves in their most peaceful state.

Naina entered the room, checked on her husband, and went to the washroom to get into her night robes. A minute later she came out, messaged someone and got a reply back. Robert knew it was her colleague at work, the divorced guy who dropped her at the turn on their lane whenever she was late and needless to say, the guy he despised more than anyone else; at least for now. Not that Naina had kept it as a secret or something; in fact it was Robert who had advised her to ensure that she had company on her way back whenever she was late, and she always let him know beforehand that she'd return with the 'interloper'. As for the messages, he had checked them umpteen times earlier - harmless 'thank you' messages that he himself had taught his daughter to tell, to express gratitude. Also not that Robert came home in time every night, he was a Vice President in a renowned firm, and always gave the credit for his professional achievements to his understanding wife; but then why this feeling of mistrust? Surely its just a pathetic way of wanting to bring in complications into a seemingly idyllic life. Or was it?

Naina had been working as a marketing executive for quite some time now. Of course they'd had their share of ups and downs, but never before because of a third person. She was pretty, she had always been and he was proud of that.

It was just a couple of months back when this guy had joined as her manager that things changed, at least in Robert's mind. The first few days had Naina singing praises about her new manager's 'marketing skills', the next few blabbering about his stupid adventures in his heydays and the last few sympathizing about how hard marriage had been for him. She even had caught a tiny bit of resentment on her husband's face a couple of times during her stories, though then she had acted innocent enough to convince him of her ignorance about how Robert felt. "Why not ask her directly?" Robert had considered a couple of times, and one day had almost decided to do so, when his daughter fell ill and the couple took a day off to tend to her - Naina's profound concern for their symbol of love overwhelming him with warmth for her and guilt for his misgivings. But then again, few days later, she left no stones unturned in planning a 'stupendous' (as she had said) birthday surprise for the 'Other Man', gifting him a quality toxedo he had liked during one of their official visits to a store in the city. She was also foolish enough to gush about how he liked it and how he likened her to one of his early girlfriends who apparently gave him surprises every birthday.

"Are women stupid?", Robert's eyebrows almost touched each other in a frown. "I mean I know she can never ever think of hurting me and I am an idiot who had come up with the ridiculous idea of never hiding anything from each other and all that mushiness the first night together, but still she could at least hide her escapades". "Escapades? What is that supposed to mean now". Enough. Robert's eyelids gave way to the feisty glare from what lay within them. He could no longer pretend to be asleep. He had to get some fresh air. He silently lifted Naina's hand from over his chest, and fully convinced she was fast asleep, went downstairs to the hall and had a smoke. That relaxed him a bit, and he switched on the television, barely interested in the movie which was being telecast. But then there was this scene which had Diane Lane completely naked and thoroughly 'enjoying' her day out with a complete stranger that brought his interest back to what he was watching. "Isn't this movie "Unfaithful" or something ?" he murmured to himself. Yep it was the same and all of a sudden all of the stories of 'coincidences' and 'signs from above' that he had heard from when he was his daughter's age seemed unnervingly true. His heart was actually pounding now and he just lay back on the couch after having a glass of water. He knew he had to ask something very important to someone right the following morning, in a few hours from now, rather.

"Robert, you okay?". Naina's big beautiful eyes almost startled Robert. He looked around, the big hall clock told him that it was already 7 in the morning. "Yeah, I am fine, just wanted to watch the soccer match late at night, and slept off here". "No problem honey", she smiled. "Please wake up now and get ready, I have something exciting to tell you"."Oh is it?", replied Robert."Well, I have to tell you something as well". "Cool! go on! ", she gushed. "Naina, something is really bothering me".

"Mummyyyy", blurted out a sweet little girl from the room right next to the hall, and she came out rushing into her mom's arms, tugging along a cute pink dress with her."Can I wear this dress for tonight?", she rambled on. "Yes beta", Naina replied."Now go and get ready for school. Papa and I have to discuss something".The kid ran back to her room, leaving her parents alone."Is Soniya going somewhere tonight?", enquired Robert. "Yes, that was what I wanted to talk to you about. Manas is going to get engaged to his new girlfriend tonight. He told me only yesterday about it, and he wants us all to join him for the ceremony. He has invited very few people, because of the bad talk and all regarding his divorce, and we have to make it, Robert. Oh! I am so happy for him, you know; finally things are looking good for him on the personal front. Oh god! I forgot! you were saying something. Please go on Robert". Robert looked stumped. No, he was stumped. He stared blankly at Naina, pretty much open-mouthed. "Robert! honey tell me, everything ok?". "Uh-Oh! no Naina, I have cancer!" said Robert."What? Now why would you say that...", shouted Naina and Robert got a hard smack to his right shoulder."That is so not funny Rob, you almost gave me an attack; that is NOT FUNNY!" yelled Naina, and the two shared a tight hug, almost squeezing the air out of each other."Love you honey. Please stop scaring me like that. Someday I might kill you", Naina said. "You almost did honey, and I hate Star Movies",smiled Robert, looking up and thanking the heavens. It was nice to have simplicity back. Really nice.