Nee Naan Sivam...

Over the last 5 days, I had two experiences both of which made me feel hugely good about life.

Sunday, November 27, 2011:

After my Sunday morning session with my Tabla guru (what a genius that man is, he deserves a special post someday!), I was on my way out driving down that slope, when I passed a little boy clutching his eyebrows, with a couple of boys gathering around him. As i continued gingerly down the slope, a lady ran past my car up the slope, with a cry that overtly showed anger, but actually was loaded with love. I tried to look through my rear-view mirror, at what the fuss was all about. The boy had his entire right half of his face soaked in blood that was oozing out of a deep cut just above his eyebrows. The disappointing part of this was that I actually gave it a thought, before I acted on it. But after a quick 2 seconds, I put my car on reverse gear and went up all the way on the slope. "Hospital jaana hai kya?", I said. Within a minute, I had the bleeding, crying son and the wailing worried mom on my backseat, guiding me to the nearest clinic. That minute after dropping them off at the doctor's clinic, where I took leave, and the mother was visibly thankful, but too worried to leave her son's side, felt meaningful. Like Phoebe says, I guess there is no unselfish good deed. Getting back into my car, I quickly flipped radio channels, looking for "Rangrezaa... Rangrezaa", but had to settle for

"Kyu sach ka sabak sikhaaye

Jab sach sunn bhi naa paaye

Sach koi bole tto niyam kanoon bataye

Tera darr, Tera pyaar, teri wah

Tu hi rakh .. rakh saala".

Dont know what the words mean, but they felt bloody damn good.

Thursday, December 1, 2011:

I had a chance to visit a school in a place called Mandideep in Madhya Pradesh, where P&G has one of its manufacturing facilities. This school is completely sponsored by my company, which has helped build the rooms, get the books, pay the teachers, get mid-day meals and what not. Me along with other folks from the Mumbai and Singapore offices were received with a round of ROUSING applause, and as we walked to the stage through the crowd of students, we felt like we had just won the oscars, with the number of kids who wanted to shake our hands! When it started about 10 years ago, there were 7 students and 1 teacher, and today this school has 26 teachers and 962 students, of which more than 500 are girls. We sat on stage, even as the kids performed the local dances on stage, followed by another dance swaying to "Maa Tujhe Salaam". Awesome, awesome experience. I've done NOTHING at all to deserve that affection from those kids, but am terribly happy to be working for a company that cared to do its bit.

Feeling very, very good about life.

I cannot not say it.

Nee.... Naan.... Sivam.