A New Inning!

Whoa! It’s ironical to think that in spite of 2017 being one of the busiest years for me both personally and professionally, it seemed to be the longest ever. In the short few months I was away from the blogosphere since my last article, I had to plan a visit home for Durga Pooja and more importantly, for going shopping on account of my marriage. Returning to my workplace shortly thereafter, I was nominated for a 10-day in-house training followed by an official half month tour to Chennai, all this right before my huge wedding plans for December.

The bachelor party organized by my office colleagues a few days before I left was a roar! Other than the nuptials, the very prospect of being able to get away from all those daily chores, that too for a complete month seemed enticing... The last time I was away from work for this long was probably on one of my school summer vacations! LOL... Nonetheless, the long-awaited moment, that would mark the beginning of a new inning in my life, had finally arrived...

Travelling to Delhi, then Lucknow, finally arriving at Gorakhpur, my family received the best welcome possible, being showered with roses, and every moment from then on was a memoir for the ages. Every day before the final wedding night was marked by some rite or the other including Ai Buro Bhaat, Nani Mukh, Holud Bor, Holud May Pokho & Mehendi. Yeah! The first time I heard all those names, I was wide-eyed too... Hehe... But the one ritual I was completely unaware of was that on D-day the groom actually had to be carried all the way from the car to the podium without letting his feet touch the ground! Hmmmmm... What can I say other than that it was completely hilarious for me and an eon’s workout for those unfortunate shoulders who had so eagerly volunteered to carry me! Hahaha...

With all the bells, whistles & smoke, the wedlock was surreal to say the least! Swearing our final vows in clear view of the full moon, my fiancée & I were finally united... All within the span of an hour or two! With our next day early morning visit to the Gorakhnath Temple as is customary, it was already time to pack our bags, and before we knew it we were headed back to Pune for our reception. Another week or so of parties and rituals, topped off by a fabulous evening at Radisson Blu, and hats off to the extraordinary amount of effort put in by both our families for bringing this entire event to a successful conclusion.

Next up was our honeymoon! And while there are those who would simply lock themselves up at a posh hotel for a couple of nights, and others who would rather pick an international destination with a fancy name as today's trending social media hashtags demand, over the experience it might actually offer, we just wanted to get away from the routine rumpus... And as it turns out, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, an archipelago in the Bay of Bengal, pretty much isolated from the rest of the world, was an ideal fit! It grew from a microscopic blip in the boundless oceanic expanse to a sizeable landmass as we descended from the skies to embark on our raunchy schemes :P

Spending some time at Port Blair, the Cellular Jail, Kalapani Museum, Chidiya Tapu and Corbyn Cove’s Beach were all good, but the even more remote Havelock and Neil Islands were simply magical! Untouched by commercialization, the Radhanagar Beach at Havelock, touted as Asia’s best beach was an immense stretch of serene seas as far as the eye could gaze, with white sands and coconut trees forming the backdrop. Its rocky brother, The Kalapatthar Beach wasn’t far behind either. And the Natural Beach at Neil was special as during low tide, it showcased an exposed coral reef with octopi, starfish, crabs and whatnot crawling on the moist rocks! Spending the dusk hours at the Sunset Point only added charm to an already otherworldly experience... Travelling from island to island in a luxurious ferry completed the topping on our already spicy vacation! Just wished my wifey's fear for skin tanning hadn't kept us from scuba diving... LOL! Girls...

One hell of a month!! Wasn’t it...? Phewww...

Home Redecor

The end of July'17 was a time I had especially looked forward to for many reasons... It would probably be one of the last times I'd be able to meet my fiancée before our wedding... Other than that, setting up our home here in Panipat also held my interest in high anticipation. Although back then on the work front, I was part of a major ongoing shutdown at my refinery, I managed to get the night shift so as to have sufficient time during the day to go shopping together and with our families.

Although it was a matter of just a few days, those were some of the best days I've ever had. The first time I took my would-be wifey's parents to our home, we weren't accompanied by her and it was surely a hilarious introduction with the landlady. Not having ever met my fiancée, she momentarily mistook my mother-in-law for her and stared shocked! It was only after I explained, that her bamboozled expression faded.

Other than buying everything from kitchen appliances to classic wooden & leatherette furniture, my betrothed & I got to spend some dreamy time together dating at a place near our house called Café Grill, and visiting several other places in a city to which she was totally new. Finally when time was up, our house had been converted from the appearance of a college hostel room to a classic urban home. And now, all that remains perhaps is for us to officially move in to our new dwelling...



Immortality

Ever since humans first walked the face of the planet, the question of immortality has always riveted our thoughts. Back when I was a child, I used to think in all innocence that everyone & everything around me would continue just as they were forever. But not long after, the grim reality of the matter was revealed to me... It turned out that almost everything and everyone had a finite life span and would eventually perish some day. Although this saddened me I began to think... What is immortality exactly???

I guess, to most people it simply means living on forever. But is this really possible? Our body is an amazing biotic machine whose cells are constantly dying and multiplying at the rate of billions every day, but the process falters as we age until a certain point is reached where the new cells produced aren’t able to adequately replenish the old ones being lost and our slow descent into the grave begins.

With the advent of medical science, better standards of living and healthier nutrition, biological aging can be postponed. New calorie restriction mimetic drugs have been proven to increase life of rodents by 50%, a result which has been replicated in apes. New technologies like 3D printing and advances made in stem cell research are gradually making it possible to replace almost any organ in the body! But all said and done, our hopes are still hovering in the range of about 200 years, which is not even remotely close to immortality, is it?

It is time we changed our perspective to look for another definition of immortality... Our conscience & self-awareness are seated in our brains; so what if we could at least preserve our minds instead of our entire body? Sort of like transferring data to a new hard drive every time the old one starts malfunctioning... Albeit an insanely large hard drive as the storage capacity of the human brain is estimated by neuroscientists to be anywhere in the range starting from a few terabytes to about 2.5 petabytes! Even if the technology for making such a transfer existed, its cost would probably be such as could not be afforded by the average joe...

So, as things stand, the only other way I can think of someone becoming immortal is by the virtue of the work someone does and the legacy he or she leaves behind. Just like E=mc2 will always be synonymous with Einstein, we should all try to live our lives in a way that will leave a permanent constructive mark in this existential web which we all are a part of. So, until we can become truly immortal someday like certain species of jellyfish or hydra, I’d like to conclude with a famous quote from Eleanor Roosevelt: “When you seize to make a contribution, you begin to die.”