The Public Diary

“I want to go for this one, can’t miss it any cost,” is the thought after hearing about ALL the trip plans. Every time you feel like this is the place which was calling you for years. But one thing I must say is that it is not about the place you are going to only; in fact it is more about the journey. (I’m feeling like I’m a travel blogger) Barring a few, for most of the people the first trip is to a ‘zoo’ when they used to be a kid; the excitement of meeting (or rather) watching the creatures about which the kids read in their storybooks - The king of the jungle, the clever fox, the huge Elephant. I distinctly remember that in my school days there was this announcement of the trip to science city. I was among the few kids who deposited the fee on the very next day. The trip was after two weeks. Just two days before the trip, I fell ill. So my parents asked me to not to go and take back the fee amount. After I did the same, in the next class our subject teacher, who just ca...

*Ting Tong* With this sound of the ringing bell, all of the family members get up to give the already messed-up home a little nice look (read ‘putting things in order to make some sitting space for on-the-door guests’). “Dad, wait for a while don’t open the door; the table is still Lionel Messi messy.” *Ting Tong, Ting Tong* The door is finally opened, “Oh Welcome, Welcome” says the person with an exaggerated smile on the face. They, the guests, explode into the house and reciprocate by flashing over-smiling faces. “Beta, Go and make some tea,” orders the mom. You are just turning towards the kitchen that you hear the other party saying, “No, No, What is the need to make tea?” “Why there is no need? Beta, go and make five cups of tea,” mom tells you again. “No, we’ve just come from home after taking the tea. You are troubling yourself for no reason.” “What is the trouble in this? Okay, you can take the tea in fewer amounts.” I don’t understand why this ha...

Kids - this word invites many reactions like “Awww! So cute,” “Ewww! They are a trouble,” “They are a blessing” and many more. I heard this dialogue on a show “I like kids…. but from a distance,” which is true to some extent. Whenever we see a kid, how much do we adore their smile, their chubby cheeks, their naughtiness and what not? But wait, what if you are asked to be with the same kid for the whole day or two. You get to see the negative sides. Huge responsibilities which come with it and I don’t think so that I need to enlist these responsibilities here. First of all, here is an alert : Never get too driven by their cuteness to get a picture clicked with them. Because if you do so, then the chances are fairly high that you’ll end up looking ugly in front of them, unless you are super beautiful/handsome. Their cuteness just overshadows, no matter how much you try. Then they are treated like stars, not the ones you see in the sky but like celebrities. Once the todd...

Women tend to sense ‘such’ things on an instinct. She knows when the guy bumps into her accidentally and when ‘intentionally’. She knows when the guy is following her and when not. Repetitive news of women being abused in the country continues to terrify her; fear has occupied a permanent corner in her heart. She had witnessed the Eve teasing events from childhood. She remembers when once she went to a fair in a group consisting female members only. She had pointed out towards a group of boys as one of them was wearing the same shirt as she possessed.  But one thing which she did not know at that time was that the same group of boys was going to stalk them on their way back to home.  She was getting panicked, as she was nothing but only a 7-year-old girl.   As it happens, in the most of the cases, the girls hid their residence by entering the wrong street. They managed to hoodwink the ‘goons’ somehow. But it left an imprint on her mind, instilled a fear in ...

Wheels - Helping humans to travel faster, from one place to another. First introduction with vehicles for, almost, every human being is in the form of the Bicycle.  Actually, a correction, first you face is a tricycle. Riding a tricycle is the easiest of all; you don’t need to balance, no brakes, no gears. But still it makes for a complex learning process cycle. Thanks to your short height, undeveloped brain to control the handle. Once you overcome these, you are on a mini-racer - Formula one tricycle. Then comes the second phase - Bicycle. I didn’t know how to ride a bicycle. But my friend knew. Once I casually mentioned that how in my school there are wonderful slides. She said “I want to see them. Let’s go.” We went to my school with her riding the cycle and I sitting at the back. It was for the first time that she drove through the main road traffic. Later on, when my parents were finding us out as we went without telling them, they got to know about it and I was r...

I'm late. This post was scheduled to be posted on last Saturday. But was caught up in ..... well, you'll get to know as you read on. It's been some time that I was trying for it, but finally, it happened. No, I was not trying to woo any guy or preparing hard for an interview/test. Okay! Enough of suspense as if I continued this for more, you'll get disappointed with what I got to say. Here it is: http://dailypost.in/your-story/45361-the-name-game I wanted to get an anecdote by me to get published in some newspaper. I was hoping (or say expecting) my name written over on the middle page of the newspaper - the opinion one. You know, there is some joy in seeing your name below something meaningful. I got a mail one day regarding my post getting a place in their newspaper. I visited the link and it was only then that I got to know that they published my story on their online portal, leaving my dream, of seeing my name in the (hard copy) of the newspaper, shattere...

One walks into the class late. The teacher asks, “Why are you late?” “Ma’am, actually, I missed my bus,” with this,  scolding of the teacher  is  conveniently escaped whereas the actual reason for being late was the dilemma of "Should I go to the class or not?" which one faces in morning. And if later on someone asks “Why did you miss the bus?” “It came before its usual time.” Excuses form the major part of one’s life; mostly used for defending oneself. Like many of us, when I got less marks in a school test I blamed the teacher for being partial, straightforward. See, if a teacher awards different marks for same answer, then it is partiality. What about justifying your low score in exams? Say “The exam was out of the syllabus,” “Perhaps the examiner couldn’t understand my handwriting” or “The difficulty level was too high this time.” This was a study-talk. Let’s move on to: How can one overcome inferiority complex? If I see anyone doing well wit...

Disclaimer: I don’t intend to offend anyone and become a controversial blogger. I woke up to a terrible dream and told this to a friend, who said “It might happen in reality as well. After all, morning dreams are likely to come true”. There are things which are beyond my comprehension. This is one of them. One day I was at  my college and a group of people (from a reputed organisation) approached us. A foreigner came along with them as well. (Eh, Unnecessary detail. Hold on!) They were convincing us to join their organisation. One of the statements made by them to convince us was: “They think that (pointing towards the foreigner) India is a place where there are cows and buffaloes all around. Join us and show that we are not that backward.” ( Pardon me if I am making an issue out of nothing) But don’t they have animals in their country? Their presence makes a country backward. Like really? They failed to convince me then and there only. That was something eve...

Holidays have arrived. Yes, the ones which you were waiting for months. But just like oth er times, this time too you are purely clueless about how to spend your holidays. What to do on free days? People who have fantastic plans on their minds, Go ahead! For those who have nothing to do, you don’t need to freak out. Here I am to provide you with an action course of plan (something which I myself don’t believe in). I have a gut feeling that it won’t be useful to any of you. But still…..   It is the same twenty-four hours of a day, complaining which people say that we don’t have any time but in holidays these 24 hours seem to be killing. To cut down time, one must not  wake up   before 9 or 10 in the morning . This would help in three ways: one you will be able to feel the joy of sleeping till late in the morning and two you’ll have less time at hand to spend (or I should say kill) and three you’ll get the habit of your mom chiding you for sleeping for so long (Al...

A guy approaches an unknown man to assure manipulate his fiancée. As soon as he is successful in his mission, that unknown person mis-recognises him as someone whom he knows. I can recall this scene from the movie ‘ Nautanki Saala . ’ Eh! Let’s not get into the details; I’m not here to tell the story of that movie. O nce we were coming back from somewhere and got out of our vehicle. I walked out of the vehicle, crying (I can’t remember the reason for crying, right now) and held hand of my father. Suddenly, my ears heard something and I stopped crying in order to see clearly. I realized that I wasn’t holding the hand of my father, but of some unknown uncle who I mis-took as my father. All thanks to the blurry view due to the moist eyes. Another day, when I was going to my school, I saw one familiar face few meters away. To greet her, I waved my hand high up in the air. As I reached closer to her, the so-called familiar face began becoming unfamiliar. To confirm this ...

Lately I got free from chains; I mean my exams got over . And the feeling was just awesome. Repeated attacks of excitement were visiting me. My sister was like “What is wrong with you? why are you smiling time and again?” Not that I have given exams for the first time, but I don’t know why excitement level this time was this high. It may be because I’ve made so many plans, blogging being one of them (preventive orders against which were given to me by my mom) or because I was extremely fed up of studying, for such long period (including those pre-exam holidays in which you are supposed to prepare for exams, in short, the little cousin of exams). Trying to understand such boring books in itself is a very complicated task. Add to it, people around you who are chilling. Your temptation to join them just goes up.  And if your luck is so bad, then the chances of some guests arriving at your home, along with their children (who would completely mess the house) will worsen th...

I am back! (Background score: Tini ti tini) There used to be this classmate of mine who was a close friend too. Her name was identical with a lead character of popular-movie-of-those-days. So I started calling her out (my friend) by that lead character’s last name. Then one day, my other friend casually asked why you call her by this surname, when her actual surname is not this. I (falsely) justified myself saying, " Her real surname is this only (which actually was that lead character’s surname in that particular movie) and the surname which she uses is actually the surname of some celebrity of whom she is a fan." And she believed me despite my hard-to-suppress-a-smile face. Another ritual of mine was to buy pens of only green colour. All this started because when once I was carrying a green pen, I casually said that as I am carrying a green pen therefore I am a Pakistani.  Then I thought to carry this statement forward, so whenever I was asked “Where do you ...

We entered our home. Mom asks us “How was the movie?” We say “It was super boring; we could not even watch it full and thus left it mid-way” She says “…but you came after three-plus hours which indicates you saw it till the end”. “C’mon mom we then strolled around to normalize our mood,” we said with seriousness. Third one joins the conversation with that 'Really?' expression on her face, revealing the whole truth. My mom often asks that what do you get by lying. There is some unsaid joy in lying. Re-thinking what you just did invokes laughter. Perhaps, it is a kind of boost to your acting ego that I fooled him/her so well (or may be not). You can twist your each and every sentence into a lie. It happens that nobody is willing to believe you as you fool around so much. (This reminds me of a story heard in childhood where a person every morning would lie that a lion has come and everybody would run around and then he would laugh at all of them. But when one day, th...

The little kid is jumping around in excitement of the up and coming birthday; though it is still one month far. Butterflies have started flying in the stomach. But as one grows up, excitement level dips down year by year. ( At least in my case) Soon the fact starts bothering you that ‘The Number’ called AGE is increasing. In the initial years, birthdays are more about the excited parents than the birthday kid itself. Lately, it was my nephew’s birthday. His mom was so excited and handed over the decorating material to me.  When we were finished with the decorating part, my nephew, who is just one year old, came and attacked the frills and ended up tearing them (Our efforts and hearts tore apart as well). It was just a regular day for him where he was just toying with the regular stuff and on seeing colours he tried to grab them all.   Aforementioned, when I was a kid even I used to say, excitedly, every-person-possible that it is my birthday today and in return, th...

I am going to be little philosophical in this post and all this post contains is - my convictions. One fine day, I was sitting in my classroom with my friend and the lecture was free. Both of us had nothing to do. After getting bored for minutes, she asked me “What are you thinking?” I suggested her to just observe the people around. We witnessed this: two guys were running where one was chasing the other one. Suddenly the guy, who was getting chased, came across the group of girls (Note: He topped the list of shy guys). In order to avoid that group of girls, he stopped midway which resulted in him being caught up by the chaser. And we burst into laughter. Had we been ignorant about the surroundings, we would have missed this chance of laughing. Whenever any creative person is interviewed and is asked about the reason behind the success story, the reply will be in terms of art of observing. “I observe people around me and substitute my observations into my work. Hence p...