Happy Days

It's a Friday again. In Sweden, the Friday night norm would be to catch the last bus to the disco, have a jig and comeback home. Saturday night, go to the adjacent disco. To go to any disco or pub over there, the mission would be to make it before 11pm, coz it's free. So we know the bartenders, the jacket collectors, the security staff and even the cleaning staff by face. No chance of that sort here. To get into the disco here, you need to be a couple (ofcourse of different sexes ). My friends used to ask me, why do you go to disco all alone? What's the point in going there alone? What is the fun in losing a night's sleep? I always said, I like the music. I like to dance. It's better than sitting and watching a movie all night and so I am going there. Next weekend, different person - different questions, but same answer.

During my Diwali break I had seen a movie in telugu, titled, Happy Days. So that is the title of this post. If you have a corner for a feeling like friendship, which is supposed to be the truest form of relationship but often underrated, then there is a fantastic real life like scene that most of them might have experienced or heard of it in their lifetime atleast once. The scene is described at the end.

To talk about the movie, it's a pleasant one. It is a movie about eight engineering graduates (4 boys and 4 girls), about their daily chores, their habits, their life in campus, their results in the examinations, their tryst with their partners and finally the split. It's a college life story, so most of us do find our resemblances in those scenes. I had been to this movie with my elder brother. It was really a good thing and I think it's the first time we've been together for a movie. And what better movie than this one. We both studied in the same engineering college and his friends know that I am their classmates brother. So couple of times I avoided ragging you can say. Being a junior and talking to seniors first up when you enter the college and escaping from college in the evenings to home on my brother's bike, when everyone else was pissing in their pants coz of ragging, yeah, those were happy days.

When it comes to the real Happy days, they are always your past. One would always crib in the present. The same cribbing they do it now, five years after and even 50 years after, just before their last breath due to ill health. We all love to think of past and relish it than enjoy the present and cherish it.

Happy days now were those in your childhood when you don't to have worry about money and earnings. You don't have to plan your future. Happy days now were your college days when you were busy with college life, writing records, preparing for examinations, and preparing again for those two nightmare subjects second time. You cribbed that you cannot take examinations and were fed up with them. You felt that you wanted a job and money that time. Now we have it. And what are we doing? Pondering the past real fast. If you are a bachelor, you crib that you don't have a girl friend. And if you have a girl friend, you find your friend's girl friend more attractive and seductive than yours. Five years hence, you would crib again, My bachelor days were real days. Being single is sort of blessing in disguise. You absolutely have all the time in the world to pursue any freaking hobby of yours, if only you are ready to move your ass. Happy days were those when you were newly married. Five years hence, you would crib, My honeymoon days were my real days. Your kid's grown up and he is 20 now. He is not listening to your words. You crib again, When he was kid, and when I used to come from my office, his mere sight and the innocence with which he held my hand relieved me of all my tiredness and office pressure. There is no end to this.

We more often than not waste time thinking of the past and wishing, had it been like that - I would have been somewhere else. It won't be like that because it's not bound to be that way. It won't be always the way you wanted it to be. I better stop cribbing and lecturing. I think I am hearing a crushing noise, may be you are grinding your teeth. I don't want to be A Swami Blogananda in the making. Happy days and happy moments are always the present.You are blessed to be living with all working organs doing their job more or less. If you can try and make your present that little interesting - by pursuing those little hobbies and interests of yours, you probably would be less cribbing.
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The Happy Days movie scene: Two blokes one jealous and the other being the super good, kind hearted, intelligent, decent looking are both studying in the same class. So this jealous bloke is ranked second after his final semester in the first year of engineering and this genuinely good bloke tops the class. So his jealous friend asks him, how come you topped the class by a meagre 0.5% over me? Wanting to help his friend in his acads, this good bloke helps his friend in the examinations and he intentionally drops on his overall percentage in the coming years to see his friend securing the top rank in the class.

One day this jealous bloke's girl friend is enjoying with an other male and is accidentally seen by his good friend. This good friend, blurts the affair to his jealous friend. Jealous friend doesn't listen to it and supports her. He is madly in love with her. But this good friend doesn't want him to sustain the relationship. Even his other friends advice the same. This jealous friend has wax in his ears and doesn't listen to anyone. Good friend loses his cool and accuses her a 'bitch'. The inevitable follows. An ugly fight over a girl. Friendship has taken a backseat. Jealous friend knocks the good friend down. Jealous friend's temper is raging and is in a mood to crush everyone who is coming in between them. But their common friends separate them. They already knew that the girl in the subject is a flirtatious one, but they kept quiet thinking time would settle the things. But good friend cannot keep it to himself. So he blurted out. Just when everyone thinks friendship is undervalued, their common friends ask him, why the heck do you have to blurt the truth out when we all are silent ?? This good friend replies, " I like him. I wanted to be his friend. I even gave up my dream of pursuing computer science only to be in his class. I don't want him to be cheated by his girl friend. Afterall, he is also one of our friends ya..."
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Diwali - The festival of smiles

I could finally celebrate Diwali with my parents after four years gap. That was really a good feeling. Those little things which we often receive - by default - would not be knowing the value of it unless we miss it for sometime. That duration of sometime can range from seconds to light years.

Diwali which is the festival of lights, is the most sought after occasion by every person ( in India atleast ), more so by bachelors. Bachelors because you have all the 'enthu' (-siasm-) in the world and would be willing to try different fantasies only before marriage. We guys use short cuts coz, we might probably be addressed as 'hey, he is cool' by some wannabe cool. I might be doing an essay writing over Diwali here. In my school days, the most common question in my English examination would be, write an essay over the recently celebrated festival in your village or write a leave letter to the Prinicpal requesting for a week's leave. I always preferred the latter because it's short, less room for mistakes and I perfected the art of writing a leave letter in my school days with the copied stand out line being 'please condone my absence'.

So we burnt crackers, flower pots (couple of flowers pots exploded as well adding themselves to the crackers list), sent rockets (not into space but into trees) and a 2000 wala being the highlight. Want to try 10,000 wala sometime. Some might feel burning crackers is just as burning money. Correct. But very few know that burning crackers is driving out evil spirits from their cities and ugly thoughts from their systems. History says, it's the fall of the Satan or daemon called 'Narakasur' on his D day and for us the Diwali day. So is the reason why crackers are burnt on this day. Some will even jokingly say, the smoke and noise that is generated out of the crackers will kill the mosquitoes in your house. Even toothless grannies are not laughing for this joke. And yeah if you are wondering if we need a license, we do not need a license to burn these crackers. I am just wondering as much as you did, license to burn crackers eh ? They wont kill you mate. Don't talk about your freaking safety norms now, not on this day atleast.

Diwali is one those of colorful festivals celebrated and enjoyed by everyone. A bright festival that can bring religions and relationships together. We all love seeing the sky litted with colourful explosions. A little cracker burnt on the street brings out a genuine smile. Diwali is one day to lit up the sky and your souls. It's more than a festival of lights. It's a carnival of smiles. That's pretty much with my modern day essay writing a.k.a blogging.