Antardwand

Akash hurriedly pulled up his old ragged jeans. It was already 8:40 and the exam was due to start at 9:00 A.M. Reaching the college on his bicycle would take another 10 minutes at least. Today was the last paper before he could call himself an engineer ("the last one provided I clear all of them" he mused and shuddered at such a weird thought!!). Hurriedly grabbing a pen and a ruler he climbed down the hostel stairs. The exam hall was as usual full when he reached. The invigilator shot him a disdainful look while handing over the answer sheet and he sheepishly went to his seat which was the second last desk in the first column. Catching some breath he cast a cursory glance (or so it seemed!!) at Vasudha's desk which was almost diagonal to his (seat) in the adjacent row. She was wearing a maroon and white starched suit today and the contrast made her skin glow a little more. Her hair was tied in a careless pony tail. He could easily make out a sketch pen set, pens(black ...

"Babu gir na padna!!!".. but then babu is totally oblivious of the fact that her mother has her heart in the mouth everytime the babu jumps with joy in her walker. Babu in this case is my (soon to be an year old) niece. She is literally a hurricane on knees (becoz still trying to learn the ropes of walking). Put her in a walker and she starts jumping with joy, literally!! So much so that one poor walker was unable to survive her absolutely innocent expression of happiness. I don't understand where do the children get this desire to start walking when they can very comfortably remain ensconced in their mom or dad's lap? Was an absolute treat to watch her swimming(A word that can best describe her earnest endeavors to walk ) on the bare floor. The distance from swimming to traversing distances on knees was covered in flat 3 days time and then hardly anything seemed out of her reach. It is amazing how much affection she can spread with just that dazzling smile of her...

I have really made a mess of searching for a home in Hyderabad. I always knew that it would be a difficult task going by my prior experiences in Pune, but never imagined something of the kind I am facing here.It has been exactly 17 days now since the time I landed here but an accomodation remains as elusive as one "Mr. Osama". Things don't really seem to be falling in place. Have contacted close to 30 brokers(some even charged me a fee for showing a flat), seen close to 15 houses but the respite seems no where in sight!!First of all there seems to be so few furnished places; assuming just in case you are lucky enough to come across one - the owner(in some cases even the broker) would straight away brand you as an outlaw uttering "Hum bachelors ko rent pe nahin dete". Then there have been so many instances of waiting for a particular broker to turn up and the only thing that he does in the end is call you up and say "Sir, Its raining here, I will show u t...