Perceptions

Perceptions part -I


I knew something was wrong as soon as I entered our team’s workplace. I found Rajeev staring very seriously at the monitor . Rajeev !! , in office so early in the morning??? It took me a couple of minutes to ascertain that I was not dreaming. I went near to his cubicle and peeped over to have a glimpse of what he was watching.I was sure its going to be one of those latest forwards.”All Roads lead to Rome”,is an old proverb.I have grown to realize that all the best forwards originate from Rajeev!!!!

I know peeking into someone’s monitor is not the most decent thing to do but our friendship has broken the barriers of such false decencies long back. He was the only guy in the world who knows all my secrets and vice versa.

Imagine my horror when I saw lines of crazy green on a black window.

I was no Einstein , but I figured quite easily that it cant be a forward!!! It’s the interface of our client’s mainframe!!!! Rajeev is working!!!!!!!!!! I felt as if iam going to faint.

“Good Morning Rajeev”, I wished him with a smile.

“I shall definitely deliver this before EOD”,he retorted back.



I was bamboozled!!!! What is wrong with him??

“Hey Its me CVR,wake up!!!,I just said Good morning”

“Oh yeah!! Thanks!! “



Thanks!!!!!????? For a Good morning!!! ??

Hmmm,perhaps space aliens have kidnapped the real Rajeev and have replaced him with some dumbo, or there is some problem in his home. Either way I knew its my call to step in.

“Ok chal,lets have tea”,I patted on his shoulder.

I had just had tea from my office coffee machine. The extra sweetness was still in my tongue . But I can endure this for Rajeev.

“Now??!!! Hmmm….I have got some work man!!”

I can see he was very upset so wanted to lock himself in work.

I stared at him real hard.



He pressed ctrl+alt+del and then a space in a single action and followed me like a lamb.

We took our cups of coffee and sat on the stairs in the fire exit.



“So whats the problem???”, I asked.

“Nothing man!! Just a little work pressure!!!”,he replied.



I almost spat the tea as I controlled my laughter.

“Tell this to your wife,may be she will believe it. Not to me man!!! I know you all too well to see through silly jokes like this”



He sipped his tea , thought for a second and replied.

“Hmmm .. there is nothing wrong in telling you I guess , after all you are my closest friend.Actually its about sumathi only da”

He sipped his tea again.



I knew it. Thats the reason I put the word wife in my question in the first place!!!







Perceptions part II



Sumathi is Rajeev’s wife . He had told me about his love even before he proposed to her . J

I always thought they were made for each other . I was there supervising all the arrangements when they got married. Sumathi was never too friendly towards me. I could never figure out why. I felt Rajeev was spending very very little time with me after he got married. I had no complaints. I was smart enough to know that a spouse is the best friend you can get. Every other friend come next .



“Hmm why what happened??”



“I don’t know da. I mean…..” , he paused,not knowing what to say.



“You know ours is a love marriage and I proposed to her . I loved her so so much , I still do. But in the recent past I feel she has changed !! I mean she is not the same as she used to be when I loved her. She gets angry at me all the time. She complains about silly things and nags me over and over for everything . She is always tired whenever I plan to go out with her and she wants me to take her out suddenly when I settle down for some relaxing time. She does not take any effort to understand me.”



He was shaking his head and was staring at the door . I was quiet .Then he continued



“ I had thought I knew everything about her and I had thought that I had completely understood her but nowadays she is so unpredictable. She makes so much of fuss about doing simple things that my mom used to do every single day for years !! We quarrel over something or the other everyday. Today we had a big fight.I yelled at her real bad.”



So this is the cause of the extra enthu towards work!! I thought to myself.



“This is nothing like what I had imagined. This is .. this is .. “

It looked he was gonna break down.



“Hey its ok”, I put my hands on his shoulder and massaged like a boxing instructor.

I could feel he was feeling better.

“I can fully understand your problem –da”.

He looked at me.I could see he was skeptical as to what an unmarried person like me would me know about the problems of a marriage.



“You know what’s one of the biggest problem with a man/woman relationship???”,I questioned him.

“what??”, he replied

“We don’t think women are women”



There was a brief smile in his face and he was curious to hear my explanation. I knew I had got his attention.

“The problem is that either women are considered as slaves and not given their due rights and credits or we think they are angels!

Perfect creations who can do no wrong,who will always smile,who will never get angry , who will listen to whatever you say,who will do everything right everytime.

We imagine they will always look like the cutest film star all through the day. We imagine they will never complain about anything”.



Rajeev was looking into the empty cup.

“You said she was always tired whenever you wanted to go out. Did you ask her why she was so tired?? Did you ask her whether there was any problem with anybody or was there a problem in office ??

May be she wanted you to ask her why she was tired and that’s why she said she was tired!!!!

But you didn’t ask her anything,did you??”



He looked at me surprised and said,” Ï thought she was genuinely tired“.

“She was tired boss , but not physically”, I smiled.



“You said she nags you all the while. Does it happen when you happen to watch your favourite program on TV on a Sunday and she complains about you not helping her out with dusting the cobwebs? ? “ . He nodded at me with amazement.



“Well.what can I say? You know iam your closest friend but if called for a mediation in this issue,I shall definitely support her”.



”You see we tend to notice the best side of our partner when we are in love, that’s natural.

But you should be ready for a few surprises when you marry that person. Falling in love is a lot easier than being in love. But its worth all the effort.



Life can be a perfect paradise if you can learn to understand your wife, but it can be worser than hell if you fail to do so. Sadly there are no grey areas in this!!



And remember one thing,Your wife is not your mom.dont make the mistake of trying to fit your wife in the place of your mom”



I was waiting for him to reply.

“Hmm guess you are right”,he said.

He was silent ,thinking hard about something

“I get the feeling your wife will be the luckiest girl in the world”, he was smiling widely.

There was just a small chuckle from my side.

He understood.Like I told before ,he knows all my secrets.

”Sorry da”,he said.

“Forget about me,I think you might want to ask sorry to somebody else “,The smile as I winked at him.



“ Of ,course da”,he replied. He straight away started dialing in his mobile.



I went back to my place. After a while I saw him getting back to his seat looking very emotional and with a big smile.



My MSN flashed.



Rajeev says:

Machan,you are great da,I just talked to her!! And …



He was typing again

CVR says:

Say no more,I can guess!!!! Enjoy madi!!!! J *

Rajeev says:

Thank you so much da

CVR says:

Anytime!!!



The forwards continued to fill my mailbox.



* enjoy madi – means enjoy in kannada