TechECE

In the recent past, life wasn't all that interesting. I felt very boring to come to office at 10 AM, attend some meetings, do some work in-between those meetings, get back home at 7 PM to watch Animal Planet/ Ten Sports for 2 hours and finally go to bed around 1 AM. This has been my routine for last few months. I was thinking how to make my life more interesting!!

Crikey!! How about this... interacting with different set of people in their own bandwidth/mindset. This is really very interesting and challenging than it actually sounds. Here is my first attempt...

Two weeks before, I was travelling back to my home town by train. Since, I was travelling alone, I carried a small story book- "Malgudi Days", written by R.K.Narayanan. As you all know, the stories in the book centre around the life of an ordinary Indian living in a semi-urban Indian city (people say it is Old Bangalore - Malleswaram to Basavangudi => Malgudi). After reading couple of stories, I turned around to look who were around me.

Only now, I realized I was sharing my compartment with couple of married woman - Hema and Geetha. They were mordern house wifes and their age may be somewhere between 28 and 32. Each had a child around 5 years. Geetha started the conversation.

Geeta (caressing her son's hair): "Rajesh is very brilliant at studies. Last evening I went to his school. His teacher told me that he is very smart in studies."

Hema: "Even my daughter is very smart. She ranks Top-10 in studies in her class. She is very good at gymnastics too. Rakesh (I guess her husband) wanted to enroll her in dance class as well. You know he loves her very much."

Geetha. "Even Anil (Geetha's husband) loves Rajesh very much. Even he wanted Rajesh to attend yoga classes. But....I said, 'No'. You know, already he plays lot of games and so I don't want him to get tired physically."

Hema: "Oh. But, Anuritha (guess...it's her daughter's name) doesn't get tired at all. Daily, she wakes up at 6 AM, goes along with Rakesh for a walk, plays shuttle in school, performs gymnastics at National Games village, finishes her homework, plays with Rakesh for sometime and finally goes to bed at 10 PM."

Geetha: "Even Rajesh doesn't get tired that often. Last week we went to Thirupathi for 3 days and came back to Bangalore on Sunday. Next day, Rajesh got up 6 AM and went to school by 8 AM. Even Anil woke up only at 10 AM. That day... inspite of travelling for 8 hours the previous night, Rajesh took part in his school annual day games and stood first in Bun eating competition."

As and when Geetha was saying that "Rajesh stood first in Bun eating competition", there came running a small boy with a slightly big pot belly. I started laughing... only word that I could think of now was... "Sothu Dadia!!"

Now, I wanted to enter into their conversation. I don't want to appear as a stranger to them coz I wanted to maintain the rythm and tone of the conversation.

Kart: "Hi. Neenga Tamizha?"

Geetha: "Yes." (I was actually expecting a reply in Tamil.)

Kart: "Which place are you from?"

Geetha: "Bangalore" (Hmmm...expecting a place in Tamil Nadu.)

Kart: "How long are you in Bangalore?"

Geetha: (After a long Pause) "5 years" (No more 1 word answers plz...)

Not knowing what to speak next. I shut my mouth. Then they both started discussing about their children's annual day competition, husband's birthday party, Kids Kemp, PVR, dresses, etc., etc. I was still preparing for my re-entry into the conversation. This time I chose a different strategy.

Kart: "Hi.. what is your name"

Anuritha (Hema's daughter): "I am Anuritha."

Kart: "Where do you study?"

Anuritha: "Saint Mark's School"

Kart: "Which subject do you like the most?"

Anuritha: "English"

(Shifting my attention to Hema...)

Kart: "Cute girl. She is very smart."

Hema: "Yeah. She is very smart. She already started playing with his dad's computer."

Kart: "Oh. That's cool. Even I work on computers. You have lot of kid's educational CDs. You could buy some for her."

Geetha: "Yeah. Even Anil bought few CDs for Rajesh."

Kart: "That's really a very good idea. Children can learn a lot by actually playing with the computer. They will love it."
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It was very thrilling for me coz I spent 2 hours chating with couple of strangers and that too discussing on topics that I knew very little.