Ghar ki daal...Murgi Barabar

U step down the train, n hear that "local khailo tiranga" song running like background score in a movie...
That same peculiar smell in the air fills u up with nostalgia...
Suddenly, the language dat u would so, proudly use amongst ur friends, sounds like some alien accented hindi... which u would never want to associate urself with...but u so very much do...
Ur Mom goes... "Yeh kya haal banaya hua hai...u look like a chor without ur hair, n in that french... "... U can do nothing but listen
Ur mom enquires n makes a mental note of what all u would like to eat...(rajma bhigone hai, kadi ke liye dahi la dena, ek din sabudane ka upma... The likes)
U don't have to ask for another chapatti, u just know that before this one is over the next one would be waiting for u in the plate, laden with shudh desi ghee...
Every female in ur mom's peers go " Joshiji, ab toh Vicky bada ho gaya hai..." followed by "hi hi he he etc..."
U can spend hrs without getting bored, in the house that u did not like stepping back into, after tuitions...
U announce that u don't feel like taking a bath today... Ur mom goes, chal koi baat nahi... U start doubting whether these parents r the same people u left back here, a few years back...
U enjoy taking that old Bajaj chetak out to the nearby market, that even ur dad doesn't use anymore...
Ur dad gives u his bit on life, on being aspirational, on friends, as usual...but unlike the earlier lectures this time u chose to take his advice.
U r also asked to take the car out for servicing... N u don't mind taking a day out to happily oblige
U can get into ur old bed from the 90s, without setting an alarm for the next morning... It’s amazing... Also, no other bed in the world seems a better fit...
Ur folks wake u up at 5...imagine 5...u don't mind that either...
U also have all the time in the world to write all of this n post it online...
There's nothing quite like being back at home on a 5 day break... The biggest stress reliever ever...Ur license to forget all worldly tensions...

Chali Gayi hai Saari Khushi

26 (twenty-six) is the natural number following 25 and preceding 27.....
26 is the only single number between a square (25 = 5 square) and a cube (27 = 3 cube).
It is the number of letters in the English and Interlingua alphabets
When a 3x3x3 cube is made of twenty-seven unit cubes, 26 of them are visible parts of the exterior layer of cubes.
26 is a 2003 novel by Leo McKay, Jr..
It is the number of miles in a marathon rounded down (26 miles and 385 yards).
26 is the atomic number of iron
It is also the alias of punk rock singer Doc Corbin Dart
It is the number of spacetime dimensions in bosonic string theory.
For me 26 is the total no of years I would have lived on this earth come July 29th...
The age at which males can no longer be drafted in the United States...not that it is of any relevance here but I just thought that sharing one more fact would not be of any harm.

Anyways...moving back to the point I want to make....i.e. LIFE GOES ON....

One keeps getting these strange feelings every now and then at times while pondering over the glimpses of last night's dreams during a lonesome morning leak or at the end of one's day at office right after starting from office for a lonesome ride back home...
At times it is difficult to even guess what these feelings are or indicate, more than often one would just think about the nothingness in one's life...even with all the friend's around you(touchwood)...even with a happy and healthy family back at home(touchwood) and even with a decent job with good growth prospects in one's kitty(touchwood), these "I don't know what I want from Life" or the " Am I doing justice to my life" thoughts come back to haunt you every now and then...
Not that these thoughts help you perform any worse/better than you are already doing but the thoughts come without you having any hand in their coming or going. They just come and go like a 30 second commercial teaching you about the advantages of using a skin whitening cream for men. They just COME and they just GO... just like that.
And if there's one thing that I look to extract as a learning from these thoughts then it is the fact that Life goes On... No matter what you do no matter how you chose to do it...Life goes on... It has been going on all these years then why should it suddenly chose to not go on any longer...
At this suddenly arrived-doesn't count at all of a milestone i.e. 26 counts a lot for somebody like me. At 26, I become for the first time, a count worthy earning hand in my family. At 26, as per my mom, I become an eligible bachelor with her peers accompanying her in quizzing me “ Beta koi ladki wadki hai toh pehle se bata dena hume” (Do keep us informed in advance if you have already chosen your bride to be). vAt 26, I feel like the DJ at a traditional north Indian wedding catering to requests from different kinds of people dancing on the floor.
At 26, It feels like I have come a long way and at 26 it feels like I have a million miles to go…