Banta Goes to America

So this is a joke about Santa and Banta as everyone reading this can make out with the name “Banta”. I recently heard this joke from a colleague while taking dinner last night and believe me, all the while I was listening to this joke, I could not figure out where is it going to and when it is going to end.

So Banta comes to India after being in America for 5 years. When Banta comes to India to visit his family and friends (his only friend, since the time we are listening to Santa Banta jokes, is Santa), he drives home in a Limousine with security cars surrounding him. Santa is amazed to see Banta’s lavish lifestyle and obviously he is happy to see Banta.

Santa: How come you have earned so much money after being in US for 5 years?Well anyone can make money with business of some sort in US and convert the currency to Indian rupees and can drive such cars here.

Banta: This is nothing, everybody knows me all over the world.

Santa: I don’t believe you. (No one would believe if Banta said that)

Banta: If you don’t believe me, come to US.

Santa: It will be hard for me to get the visa.

Banta: Don’t worry I will get you the visa within no time.

So they go to US embassy where there is a long queue of people waiting to get in and our Banta walks straight into the door. To Santa’s surprise the guards salute Banta and the officials request him that if he wants they can process Santa’s Green Card right there. So he says “No, just give Santa 10 year visa”.

Santa is very happy to get US visa. They both fly to US and as soon as they reach the port of entry, everyone is all gaga about Banta’s arrival. Obviously Santa is shocked to see the treatment by US authorities. It’s like a once in a lifetime achievement.

Santa: I have seen how people treat you here but I want to visit Hollywood.

Banta: Sure let’s go there.

As soon as they reach there, the film stars treat both of them royally and are obliged to see Banta and his friend. Santa is wondering now what is happening. What did actually Banta do? But still he is not convinced of the fact that everybody in this world knows Banta. So Santa expresses his wish to go to White House. The plot is of the time when Bill Clinton was in house.

Bill comes running in his night pants to pick up the luggage that Banta and his friend were carrying and Monica, the then intern, comes behind him. She is so nice that she even does the guest laundry.

I know no one can imagine this happening with Banta. Yes, of all the people BANTA!!!

Santa is out of his mind and his last way to confirm is this.

Santa: I have seen how people treat you in US but I am still not convinced.

Banta: What more do you want to know? Who is bigger than US who can make you believe what I say?

Santa: Only one person is bigger than the president of US, The Pope.

Banta is caught by surprise.

Banta: You want me to take you there? Alright, we will go to Vatican.

They both fly to Vatican.

Banta: You stop here while I go and talk to Pope and see if he is ready to meet you.

Santa: Ok

Banta is in with Pope and they both finally come out in the gallery to wave hand to the crowd. So that proves that Pope is also influenced by Banta.

Banta comes down and finds out that Santa is lying on the ground unconscious.

Banta: What happened to you?

Santa: Everything was ok till now until the guy standing next to me asked “Who is the person standing next to Banta?”

I could not stop laughing at this point. The laughter was coz of the end and the fact that it took so long for the joke to come to an end. The common understanding of a ‘joke’ is to give a quick humor. Nevertheless, it was a good story wrapped inside a joke. Please don’t ask me to explain this joke “A joke explained is a joke WASTED”.

The Past and the Future: Life Hanging in there

It is when you start realizing the facts of the life, you start noticing the change in yourself. There are a lot of things that you didn’t know about yourself and about others that you find now. There are a lot of hidden secrets about the close ones that were never revealed to you. There are reasons behind every second of the time in your life and millions of other lives. Every time you do something, you turn it into a memory of some kind, either good or bad.

If you see through the open doors and windows of your mind, everything will start making sense after appearing meaningless for some extended period of time. This period can be short for some people or some situations or can be invariably long for others. All that matters is how well you can deal with them or adapt to the new truths of life. For a long time now my life has revolved around one incidence that changed me and the meaning of life. It brought with it some good things and some bad ones. The good ones included my improved reading and writing skills, my concentration towards myself, my life and my health, my closeness to spiritualism and psychology of life and human mind, study of human behavior; my work and more importantly a good bond between my close and dear ones. The bad one includes just few things: my inability to stop thinking about it and my question that why things like this happen.

It is not just me. Everybody goes through something in their life. You feel you are the only one and you get frustrated then you find peace in doing something and all of a sudden you are fine. These problems resurface from time to time and every time it appears you find it difficult to deal with them. In this process you find out several ways in which you can find peace and positivity, even though it is just for time being. You end up trying all sorts of things and you will eventually make opinions about what you like and what you don’t. On such occasions, the likes and dislikes become stronger. You begin to find the path that you want to follow but then you end up questioning yourself why are you even doing this. You are scared of the results. You want to stop where you are because you don’t know where it will lead to and the consequences can be anything.

The frustration looms you and the darkness of negativity surrounds you and clouds your eyes. The wait flows down through your cheeks like the water through the fresh petals of a flower. After this flow the flower spreads its freshness all around itself and the smell to far distance. Yes, you do the same thing. Once you come out of that cloud of tears, you are more positive and fresh and full of ideas, the ideas that you want to share with others, that can give them an insight into their lives.

The constant battle between the past and the future often makes your present like a carom. Your past keeps rebounding and distracts your decision making in present and hence the future gets affected, to what extent, no one knows. You find out only when you go to that future as a present situation. At times you feel you are stuck with some situation and there is absolutely no way out. You will talk to friends and try to figure a way out but even that doesn’t help only if you end up talking to some stranger and telling your story to a stranger will help you get the insight of what you cannot see and what that stranger can see, you will also get over the fear that you will be judged. You end up listening to what you could not have thought had happened.

Isn’t this the beauty of life what it makes you go through and makes you turn and spin in the roller coasters every now and then? Isn’t this the harshness of life that it makes you learn the lessons the hard way? This is life. DEAL WITH IT or let’s say EITHER PUT UP OR SHUT UP. And we all do either or both.

A Generous Act in NOT SO Generous Place

This world is not a generous place to live and the reason for this is ‘us’. We, as the responsible citizens of this planet are given immense powers to make or break our lives but we choose to shatter it with all the self-centered dreams, desires and developments. In the process of ruining the present and future, few people have managed to keep the respect for the elders ‘intact’. A very small but thoughtful incidence happened at the Boston International Airport in the afternoon of Sunday, the August 30, 2009. For sure this went unnoticed by the insolent crowd surrounding an old couple, in their 70s, on their respective wheelchairs.

The husband and wife were waiting to board on their flight to Atlanta. That day, due to inclement weather conditions in Atlanta, all the flights coming in and going out of the Atlanta airport were cancelled. The passengers including the couple on the wheelchair were eager to reach their destinations but the long wait due to the delay in the flights added to the misery of the passengers. Nobody could do anything but wait. Somehow, but with a lot of struggle the husband managed to get up to go to the restroom, while the wife waited for him like the sunflower waiting for the sun to rise and looking around to see him coming. Their wheelchairs were parked diagonally to my seat however still far enough from my attention as I was busy in my thoughts which were eating my mind like the termite eating a log of wood. Hence the difficult attempt of the husband to come back and sit on his wheelchair missed my attention. The husband’s two unsuccessful tries to hold the wheelchair and wife’s efforts to hold it still for her husband crossed my eyes but not my senses to get up and help them.

Suddenly a man seated next to the old lady who occupied the adjacent seat beside me, stood up and helped the old man get on the seat and not only that, the generous man also bent down to straighten the leg rest for him so he doesn’t have to do it. Later on I noticed that the old lady sitting next to this gentleman was his mother who herself was on a wheelchair. Who could better understand the pain of the old couple basking their old age with the only support of each other. No one in the crowd standing in the line in front of them had the generosity to help them settle down. This included me, since I was sitting right behind, looking at them and still did not notice. As soon as the generous man got up to help them, it caught my eyes and my mind and I realized, even I was ignorant and selfish to not do anything. The croissant with butter melted in my mouth and so did my heart to see how dependent they were on others for their own existence.

History will repeat itself and we all do and will go through these situations, the point is how far you go to make an everlasting impression on a stranger like this generous man did.

I would like to conclude by thanking the man who opened my senses and helped me open other's senses (if at all they read it and liked it). Next time if a needy person needs help, I would get up and be the first person to offer. And I really mean it.