The idea of JALSA

If you have read my last post on 'The Walk' , then you might have chanced upon the word 'Jalsa' in the last few lines. So then let me get going about Jalsa

WTF is JALSA all about ? 

Jalsa is an acronym for Just Another Love Story Attempt. I believe Love stories ( stories rather) are getting too cliched and routine.  Also, there are more love story attempts than the actual love stories ( again I would call them stories ). 

So then I thought it might be interesting to write about them and thus Jalsa.

Why the name 'Jalsa'?

Verve! Passion! Enthusiasm! All these are words that I love but then all these are cliched.

Jalsa In Telugu stands for enjoyment, merriment and pleasure. All these are things that a guy or gal in a love story attempt would look for.

Since I was able to come up with  a cool acronym for it, I decided on Jalsa.

Aren't Love story attempts more cliched than Love stories?

There are definitely many more Love story attempts  than love stories but they are not cliched. A Jalsa story will not have a start or an end. The story will be about the just the interesting/memorable/ touching moments that usually don't get too much of attention in a regular love story.( story). 

The focus unlike in movies or books is not on whether 'he or she finally agreed'  nor is it  'they lived happily ever after'  lines. It's just about those few moments in a love story attempt.

Aren't love stories a better option?

Let me tell you that there no love stories, there are only love story attempts.  The Love story attempt is either one-sided or mutual. That's it.

WTF?  So you think there are no love stories at all ?

Nope. There are no love stories. 

Initially, the boy likes a girl, the girl doesn't - One sided love story attempt. 

Then after a while, the boy still likes the girl and the girl starts liking  the boy - Mutual love story attempt. 

Then they fall in love. And then they get married. Yeah this is the love phase.

Now there are other things like career, children, family responsibilities etc etc that take a priority. Love disappears and the only the  story remains.

Wait! Didn't you say -A Love phase? Isn't that a love story?

Hahaha. The phase is too short and temporary to be called story. So no love stories. 

Also if this is called a love story, what do you call the story that might happen with other man/woman post this story. Another love story? You may or may not. But then there are interesting moments in the next story  as well ;)

Too many stories will be boring. So I think it is a better idea to talk about those wonderful moments in between, no matter when they happen. 

Is JALSA all about unrequited love?

Jalsa stories don't have an end. So you can never say whether it was unrequited love or mutual one.  It's about those moments with a lot of emotions. It is likely that the emotionally charged moments happen in a one sided love story attempt more often than in other stories,

Are the JALSA stories about you?

I wish I had so many stories to talk about. But unfortunately I don't have them .  There is a bit of real life inspiration in these  stories. But yeah a JALSA  story as a whole is fictitious. 

I won't be able to convey these feelings effectively when I write in third person narrating a story about a Rahul or a Rohan . I believe I am good when I write in first person and the whole thing feels so real when I do that . So all Jalsa stories will be first person.

What genre do Jalsa stories belong to?
I didn't know that there was genre for these kinds of writings. These are perhaps the male equivalent of chick-lit stories. Thanks to one of my friends , I came to know that this kind of writing is called Lad lit. That's the closest genre that Jalsa stories might fall into-  Indian Lad lit :)

What's the next thing on Jalsa after 'The walk'?

If I don't get another idea or inspiration, that might be the last one too :)

I don't have a huge list of ideas ready so I'll be taking it one by one.

But I have always been fascinated by these JALSA moments . Not everyone will be writing about them. But may be there will be many who would like to see  it as a part of a story.

So then probably down the lane, when I run out of ideas/content, I would love to get in touch with these people.

If you are one  and would like to share your JALSA moment with me and then the world , you can buzz me on kidoredo@gmail.com.

The JALSA list so far

• The walk
• The birthday gift

The walk

Why do we need to get married? Can't we be 22/23/24 year olds all through our life? Oh yeah.. the human race might cease to exist.

But then she would be there always and forever for me- anytime. These were the thoughts that crossed my mind as the sweetest 25 year old on earth - Deepthi was all set to tie the knot.

It wasn't as if Deepthi (or Dee as I called her ) did not know of my feelings for her. With me being the open book that I was, there was no way that a girl like her wouldn't know about it. She knew it. I knew that she knew it.

But I was so damn sure that she would give me the  ' But then.. you are my best friend!' answer.

 With all the preparations done, Dee had quit the job. She would be here for one day. Just one more day. And then she would be off to her native place Alleppey to get married and then off to Singapore with that geeky to be husband. 

Why are the competitors of guys like me always the Geeky/NRI types? 

Dee calls him perfect husband material. Grr.. whatever that means. I really don't care. These kinds seem to be  well-settled right from the time they go to school.

Worse still, they only seem to study 24*7 and make no attempt to woo girls. And take away the blue eyed angels from guys who were born to love like yours truly. Life is unfair. 

I hated him. Added to that this guy belonged to MBA. And I absolutely detest MBA. No! Not Master of Business Administration. I am talking about Mallu Brother Association. I hated Mallu guys because Dee always believed that Mallu guys were special creatures on earth. So much that she even liked Sreesanth and thought he was a cool rock star!

My phone rang at around 9 pm that day.  It was her.

Me - ' Hello'

Dee- 'Hey.. wassup? What are you doing?'

Me- Nothing much. I am about to start from office.

Dee- I am at Ash's  place. Listen let's go for a walk tomorrow. You, me and Ash.

Me- Hmmmm

Dee - Ok. I will wake you tomorrow at 5:45 am. Bubye.

Me-Hmm..ok.

Did I just say ok? How could I? Walk with Dee was what I wanted to do . I wanted to spend some  quality time with her. But why Ass err Ash? Kebab mein haddi!

No! He was not an MBA.  He was a Tam Bram but his genuine admiration for the MBA group, and all the things that Dee liked including herself made me hate him.

Ash aka Ashwin was Dee's good friend. Not good? She keeps telling me that he is one of her  best friends. But I wonder how she has manages to have a long list of  best friends. I had lots of friends but only one  best friend ever since I joined work and it was Dee. 

I messaged her around 11:30 pm that night and told her that I was too tired to wake up in the morning. 

She messaged me back saying - 'Nothing doing. Sleep now! I will wake you up in the morning for one long  walk and breakfast with my best friends'. 

Best friends? Why plural? Best friend was good enough. 'I will not go,' I told myself. I always believed the love between Ash and me was mutual. We hated each other He was probably praying that I fell ill the next day morning. Damn! Let him and Dee go. 

Three is a crowd. Especially if the girl is Dee and the haddi is  Ash.

 It was 12:00 am then. I was very tired. But then I couldn't sleep. 

Suddenly all mosquitoes in my room seem to have come alive.

All-out was on. But then every now and then I opened my eyes feeling a mosquito. I never found any mosquito. But then why I was so  damn restless?

No! There was no exam the next day!

No! I was not going out on a date !

It was just one stupid walk with Dee. And I had made up my mind not to go. But then my heart was not allowing me to sleep.

I finally slept at around 3 am.

My cell did not have enough charge and it got switched off at 5:25 am.

And amazingly I  got up at this time and saw all this happening.

But then I did not bother to do anything. I let my phone die.

 I got up at 7 am. I switched on my cell and started charging it.

Dee had messaged me. It read ' What's this??? :(' . 

The :(  in the message told the  whole story. 

But then I would have had :(((((( expression on face had I gone for the walk. 

It wasn't as if I had a million dollar smile on my face either.  

Later in the day, she called me.

I was feeling guilty. 

But then I managed to ask her about the walk in the morning. 

"The walk never happened. Both of you are hopeless. Ash got stuck with his project till 3 am  in the office. And you? You are such an a*#@$@#. How could you switch off your phone in the morning??? '

'Ah!! I messed it up again', I said to myself. 

P.S - This is a part of my new crush project- The  JALSA series. Keep watching this space to know about JALSA!

100% Love on the Single Screen

'No 100% Love this weekend' I thought as the tickets for the movie were over in all the multiplexes. Life bhi saala gaandu hain. 

For once, you feel like wanting/doing something and circumstances will conspire to make sure that you don't get it easily. (Opposite of what was said in Alchemist).  

'Forget it', I  said to myself as an irritating Friday ended on an even more disappointing note.

Working on a Saturday isn't easy. Half of the day is lost in cribbing that you are unfortunate to work on a Saturday. The mind is looking for the slightest opportunity to do something that I normally used to do on a 5 day week Saturday. 

My phone buzzed and I got a message. Who could it be? May be another stupid TD-something message asking me to download some silly song. Nope , it was something better. 

It was my friend Kishore and it read ' Booked tickets for 100% Love at Sri Sai Ranga cinema hall for the second show.'  Haa.. Paulo Coelho wasn't kidding in Alchemist for sure :)

We reached the cinema hall at 8:55 pm. There was a long queue about  10m long that reminded me of the serpentine queue  to Lord Balaji in Chilkur temple.  The devotees in this case were so damn determined to meet their God ( the guy at the counter)  and get the Prasad ( tickets for the next day's show) . 

Over the last few years,  using this site called bookmyshow.com meant that I never encountered these queues. I was reminded of the days when getting movie tickets on the first day standing in the queue or through some contact in the movie hall was something that you could be proud of.

We entered the hall and sat in our seats. It was as if we sat in an APSRTC regular- no -frills bus. My bum had become so accustomed to the layers of cushion in the Rs 150 Multiplex tickets. Rs 40 meant that we got only this much. But somehow I felt good. It was like the spicy mom cooked home food that one gets to savor after a long onsite assignment where bland food is the only option.

It was my nose's turn to get nostalgic. This was this whiff of air that I was so familiar with watching a Chiranjeevi movie in college bunking some class. 

The whiff of air that I last smelt when I saw the movie 'Kick' a few years back in the Odeon movie hall on the RTC X Roads. I heard somewhere that  all those movie halls will be converted to multiplexes soon. Am I missing on something because of the modernization?

It was a hot day and we felt good today sitting inside the movie hall. It was a different kind of AC to the one that we find in multiplexes today. This was like the wind that blows across your face  when you stand in front of an air cooler. 

In the last movie that I saw at the Big Cinemas Multiplex, I wasn't sure if the AC was switched on. I felt much better in the hall today.

I accidentally hit the glass cold drink (yeah NOT soft drinks, I first knew them as cold drinks) bottle with my leg.  As it rolled on the ground, it made a sound that was so used to as a kid. It was the sound the hawker made striking the bottle opener against the glass cold drink bottles. It was at a time when drinking cold drinks in the interval was something as eagerly awaited as the hero's entry in the movie. 

The movie started and the hero made his entry. There was a huge uproar in the hall accompanied by whistles. There were whistles , cat calls  and huge roars of laughter  for every interesting scene in the movie.  

Multiplexes over the years seemed to have turned movie watching into an art appreciation class rather than the mass entertainment it used to be. After a long 6 day week, I needed some entertainment  and I was loving it here.

During the interval, I was tempted by the sight of the onion samosas.

" I want to taste it. Give me a bit of nostalgia too !!",  my tongue exclaimed. 

" I am full after that heavy dinner.  Please don't stuff that into me ", my tummy seemed to say.

" You are no longer in your teens, you moron. You are almost 30 and you need some discretion especially when it comes to eating ",  my mind screamed at me.

I listened to it and proceeded to have coffee for Rs 10 . There was no Popcorn+  Soft drink+ Nachos Salsa  hole in my pocket . Ah.. It felt so good.

After an hour, the movie ended. 100% Love was ok. But the experience was more than 100% fulfilling. I have just realized the joy that an nostalgic experience  can give us. And I am loving it :)

Nenu Na Rakshasi