Kulting my sister's cycle

Today is special, I had my first brush with kulting(stealing) stuff, that too my sister's cycle! Want to know what really happened?

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Daily I check whether my sister has come back or not. On seeing her reply to my mails, yesterday morning, I thought that she has come back. Later in the evening, I saw her cycle near the department, which convinced me that my thought was right. On seeing the cycle, I found that its front tire is punctured and the cycle is in very bad state. I have used her cycle many times and I thought that it was time for me to repay back. But if I ask her politely for the key, she would never give me. She told that she cares about me. So she would not allow me to get pained. Therefore I tried to open the lock with my own cycle key :). And to my surprise, it worked as if it is the right key. But again there was another problem. There won't be any cycle shops open in the evening and I could not take it the next morning because she might be searching for it. "My bad luck", I thought, and I locked her cycle and left.

Later in the night, I met Prateek from TCS lab and inquired him if she is really back or not. And he told that she has not come back. "So I still have a chance to get her cycle repaired", I thought. Unlike helping other friends, it is tough to get a chance to help my sister. She does everything on her own, a very big independent :P. So I decided not to lose this chance.

After waking up in the morning, today, I unlocked the cycle with my key and dragged it to my hostel (I usually sleep in the lab). After going to my room, I felt lazy and wasted lot of time browsing stupid stuff. And by the time I got ready, it became noon. Then I came out thinking that I would give the cycle to the repair shop. But to my astonishment, I could not find it. "Oh God! where is the cycle? If I lose it, she will kill me!", I said to myself. Then I asked the security guard. Pointing to her cycle, he asked "Is this the cycle you are searching for?". "Yes, yes!", I said. "Tell me your room number and name. Somebody filed a complaint against you. You stole his/her cycle", he said. At first I got scared, I thought "Who might have noticed me bringing her cycle? I was very careful while unlocking it, nobody was around". But again I convinced myself that it is my sister's cycle and I brought it this far to repair it and there is nothing wrong in that. I daringly told him "Yes! I brought the cycle. It is my sister's. And I brought it to get it serviced". I was thinking of who that person who complained might be. Many questions popped out of my mind - "Did Shiny sell the cycle to somebody? or did Shiny herself has come and complained against me?". So I asked him, "Who is that person who complained? What is her name?". He told that a house keeping servant (woman) came and complained. "Ah! now I understand", I murmured. Shiny knows few cleaning servants in the department. So she might have given her cycle to one of them temporarily or may be permanently.

Then I ran to the department, to find that person. I went there and searched near all the bogs. I never got a chance to know where these serving people stay. Finally I met a woman and when I said two magical words - "Shiny", "cycle"; her faced glowed like thousand volt bulb. She started talking in Tamil and I don't know Tamil. She put all kinds of expressions on her face (tensed, weeping, etc.) and I understood that she got properly pained. "How much trouble I caused her", I thought. For us, losing a friend's cycle is merely an issue of money. We can buy a new cycle for him/her. But for them, it is different. Rarely do people give them things they can't afford and losing those things is awful and sad for them. In this case, she has to return back the cycle to my sister and if she loses it, it will be a big problem.

So I had created hell lot of trouble for her. "Now it is the time to set things right", I thought. I brought a Tamil speaking friend from RISE lab and with his help, she and I had come to a decision that we would go back to the hostel and get the cycle. And after that I could give it to the repair shop. While going back to the hostel, again by walk, I bought her some biscuits to calm her down. She looked more tensed than me.

There is one last twist left in this story. When we reached the hostel, the dumb security guy :P had sent the cycle to CCW office. "Now the cycle is gone.", I thought, "Impossible to get from CCW, they would have chained it and thrown somewhere". And when we went there we found the poor cycle chained and put along with the other lost ones. "Time to beg and fall on their feet, we can't lose the cycle at any cost", I said. We did not have any documents of the cycle. But we would not give up. So we went in and started requesting. In my most respectable tone, I started asking for cycle - "Sir Sir, my sister's cycle sir :P. Please give it back". And I told the whole story and she too told the same in Tamil. He got very confused and asked "I still don't understand you both". Luckily there was clever guy beside him who understood and explained him. I guess he was in good mood and he allowed us to take the cycle back. "Huh! at last! we got the cycle. Thank god", I said and we took the cycle back. I told her to go back on her own and I went to the repair shop and finally gave the cycle for servicing.

Let me not share this story with my sister :). I will tease her by telling it later and she'll get real angry for doing all this :D. Ha ha ha...

Partly Cloudy

"Partly Cloudy" is an amazing short film by Pixar Animations. When I watched it for the first time, I could not stop watching it again. Even after that, I watched it many times. If you have not watched it, you can watch it here.

What strikes me the most is the theme of friendship, the film portrays. It reminds me of my own friends. That is why I like to watch it again and again.

It starts with an innocent dark cloud who is lonely and doesn't have good creative skills compared to other white clouds. With some effort, he creates a small alligator. The important thing to note is that he likes the things he creates. To him, all his creations are good. According to that world, birds carry these creations and drop them at right places. And for the birds, his creations are not so liking.

After he is done with his creation, he waits for some bird to come and carry it. But being at a lower level than other clouds, and being a dark cloud may be, none of the birds come to him. This situation reminds me of my old days in my school. I joined a new school in my 4th class and continued till 10th. I used to be the most silent person. And for one or two years, I never had good friends. Also I was not a clever guy and being very silent, nobody used to talk to me. I used to be fat too. I guess, these traits scared people off. And may be because of that I still crave for friends and people to talk.

Going back to the film, a weak bird finally approaches him. Though it is weak, it decides to work for him. He was very happy that finally a bird came to him. He makes friendship with the bird and the bird too makes him a friend. The bird bears all the pain of his creations and cheerfully works for him. The bird is the ultimate symbol of this film. I can compare it with all my good friends who stay with me in spite of my painful bugging and caring. I still remember my sister Shiny telling me that she introduced me to her old friend as the "new bugging IIT friend!". I was so happy for that. It never mattered to me that I am so bugging and caring. She was the first to understand me and I was perfectly fine with her introduction.

Back to the film again, the bird becomes too tired and seeing that the other birds are having good time, it decides to leave. This scene is very common to me. It reminds me of all those friends who "used" me and left. I too cried like the cloud many times. Back to the school days again, few years after joining, people found that I am good at maths and started making friendship. They are all false friends who befriend me because they want something from you. And when their need is over, they will leave. I had to learn this lesson the hard way. I used to feel very bad when a friend leaves. Now I understand how foolish it is to feel like that. Still I allow people to "use" me. But when they leave, I pity them. Thanks to Granny for teaching me this lesson. I hope one day she'll understand what friendship is.

Once again going back to the film, the twist in the story is that the bird doesn't really leave. It goes to another cloud for help. And our black cloud doesn't know that and starts crying. This teaches two lessons, the first is that true friends never leave you and the second is that true friendship is valued by everybody. The second lesson can be inferred from the fact that the other cloud tries to help the bird bear its friend's pain. I never had any friend who left me and came back. I hope I will never bring such situation, like that of the bird, to any of my friends.

Finally I want to say that friendship, like any good relation, needs understanding and bearing of pain. Friendship doesn't mean that the friend will bring heavens down to you. Neither does love. Friendship is also a form of love. And hence you can bear the pain happily, unlike an unwanted relation.