Deshadanapakshi Karayarilla!!

He stood tall and still in the balcony as if his eyes were fixed upon an invisible star. The cold Californian November breeze kept howling all around him but he hardly seemed to notice that. It was dusk and the lights were fading gradually but Vivek remained unmoved with his cup of tea steadily losing its warmth by the second.

Ashok could not stand this melancholic avatar of Vivek and had to pull him inside.

“What is the matter with you dude” asked Ashok. He had never seen Vivek in a somber mood until that day.

“As you know my current stint here in America is over and I am going back to India this weekend. It is just that the future seems so uncertain. I really don’t know if I can keep up. I have so many responsibilities as the eldest in my family. I just hope that I get my next contract as soon as possible”.

Ashok had to raise this poor guy’s hopes.

“You will get one soon dude. Don’t worry. Take a small break and start looking for the next contract here in America. Consider this to be a small vacation. How does that sound?”

“Break???? I have not known what a break is since I started working when I was in school. I started work in a Manufacturing company from my tenth and right through my engineering and since then, I have been in this software field for about seven years now”.

“What!!!!!!!!!!! Why did you shift to this cursed domain from manufacturing dude????” Ashok exclaimed. As a mechanical engineer himself, he had a soft corner for it.

“Well, that was because of my first girlfriend. At that time, she was in Bangalore. I just had to join her. I got a job in a great company, made a good name for myself until I threw everything away for an H1b visa to come to the US”.

“And why did you do that?” Ashok had to ask.

“Well, that was because my second girlfriend was in New Jersey at that time. I threw everything away for her and came over to the US. Work has taken me to all parts of this country as a contractor but I miss having some stability in my life”.

“But where is that girl now?” Ashok could not contain himself.

With a sheepish grin Vivek said, “She is in India now; happily married”.

And he continued, “I really don’t know what I am going to do man. I am turning 30 soon but I feel so insignificant. I am actually envious of you Ashok. You are young and you walk, talk and act like you do not have a care in the world”.

Ashok cleared his throat. He did not normally believe in peppering other people with an exegesis of his ideology but this one time, he had to say something:

“Deshadanapakshi Karayarilla”.

“What the hell does that mean???” asked an intrigued Vivek.

With a smile, Ashok replied, “The migratory bird never cries!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”