I was riding with a new confidence, I felt as though it was a new me and I was obviously faster. I finally understood the meaning of 'being one with the bike'. We rode towards Bababudangiri through some very scenic roads and reached a guest house which was just before the main village at the top of the hill. We had no expectations at all from the place, but it turned out to be something totally different and the guest house (GH) especially was a 'very' different place. The entire structure had been made of the concrete foundation and they had made the walls of metal sheets which gave it almost a toy house kind of look. Again the accommodation was very cheap at about 400 rupees for 2 rooms. The GH was also set in a very beautiful place and the entire scenery out of the windows took our breath away. We rode into Bababudangiri village only to find that the entire village ran out a few metres after it started!! There were a couple of shops selling outdated stuff and the main attraction was a temple which was said to be attended by both the surrounding Hindu and Muslim population. We had reached bababudangiri in the late evening and we decided that with the fading light, we could not see much of it and decided to retire for the night after having some food from a small eatery in the village. The rooms were extremely cold but we slept like logs.
The next day morning we woke up to bright sunshine and the amazing view again. We decided to bike to the Muthodi Wildlife range and we were told by the caretaker of the guesthouse that our bikes would be allowed only until a particular point after which the forest ranger would take us in further in his Jeep. He also pointed out the cutoff from the main road from which we could reach Muthodi. We set off all excited to go into a forest range.
The approach road to Muthodi was both a bikers dream and nightmare combined in one. The road was still being laid so there were many places where it was just a muddy trail with hairpin curves cut out into the hillside with a drop of a few hundred feet beyond them. We had to be extremely slow and very precise where we placed our bikes on this dirt trail and it took all our powers of concentration to make sure we did not put even a foot wrong. We eventually reached the outskirts of the reserve and here there was a decent road passing through a village where the local village shopping day/farmers market/sanday (Call it what you will) was on in full swing. Now we were all city boys born and bred in cities and we had never seen such a village market before and we were fascinated so see so much of colour and spirit. We decided to stop at the market on the way back from the reserve. On the way, we found a small trail in the muthodi forest range and we rode in it and got some fantastic photos that has sort of in later years stood to bring out the kind of adventure we had. We reached the forest rangers office and found, to our dismay, that the forest ranger was not in town and his assistant could not take us in because the jeep had broken down. So much so for this ride and we turned back slightly disappointed. On the way back, we stopped at the village market and had a whale of a time buying eatables for unheard of prices. The ride up to bababudangiri through the muddy path was relatively uneventful till I on a particularly steep muddy hair pin curve, managed to stall my bike midway through the curve. Danny was right behind me on the slope and he almost stalled his bike too because of me stopping. I somehow managed to get my bike going without sliding backwards and Danny too managed to get up the slope with no harm done.
We reached the GH in Bababudangiri and decided that we were running short on money and had to turn back towards home. We decided to ride till Hassan that night and stay in hassan and celebrate what had been a fantastic holiday and a great adventure. On the way to Hassan, we stopped at Belur to look at the ancient temples and the beautiful carvings. We reached Hassan at about 8 in the evening and found a small motel on the outskirts where we decided to stay for the night. Varun went out and bought some bottles of Beer and I had my first initiation into the world of alcohol. We sang songs and relived the past few days before falling to a deep sleep.
The next morning was cold and slightly foggy and we had to ride about 450 kms in that day, mainly on national highways to reach home. We started off at a brisk pace and soon reached Bangalore, crossing which, we stopped at a small roadside dhabba for lunch. After a good meal, none of us really wanted to ride under the hot afternoon sun but we decided to set off anyway and steadily made progress going back through the places that we had crossed on our forward trip. We crossed Chittoor, crossed the andhra border, went through Vellore and finally rejoined on the Golden quadrilateral, on that magnificent piece of Highway riding towards Chennai,Home.
The End.
Authors Note: I would like to thank danny and varun for their comments on this series and making it easier for me to remember certain events. These 6 parts have brought back fond memories for me and made me relive the period where I discovered the Biker within me. The 4 of us had an absolute ball of a time and I cant wait to go on the next Bike Trip with them. Ladakh, here we come!
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
A Slice Of Life - Part 5
And so we were stuck in the valley at Jog falls 250 meters below the closest civilization and hopelessly lost. We decided to take stock and noticed that we were out of all food and water and that finding a way in the dark was going to be difficult without us knowing which rocks led to what and where we exactly had to go. We were not too worried at this point as we were all confident of finding our way out. We were engineers, capable of rational thought. We headed back towards the waterfall base and tried to find the right way again. Anand with his sprained foot initially found the going a little difficult but his inimitable spirit carried him through. And this is where the true hero of the evening- danny came into an element of his own. He loved the situation and happily led the group around rocks jumping into total darkness before letting us cross after him. His energy kept us in good spirits throught our ordeal.
We reached the base of the falls again and filled up our bottles and set out again. This time too we lost our way and were climbing too many rocks. This was simply not the way we had come and we headed back towards the falls to regroup and catch some energy. By now the moon was out shining down on us and apart from my torchlight and varuns flickering torch, was our only source of light. We made totally 7 or 8 trips back and forth from the base of the falls to different trails and each time ended up cropper. This was taking a toll on all our strengths as all of were sweating profusely and the repeated failure to find the right trail was driving all of us crazy. In the middle of crossing one such particular path, there was a slight jump that we had to make to cross a small gap about 5-6 feet in depth. Here, my footing slipped and even though i did not go into the crack, i tumbled and landed badly on the opposite rock twisting my ankle. I was in tremendous pain and for a few minutes saw only stars. Varun, the guy closest behind me, immediately pulled out a little can of relispray that he had been carrying all through but quite forgotten about it, and immediately sat down next to my injured foot, removed my shoe and socks and sprayed the spray in a liberal quantity and massaged the ankle gently. My pain was unbearable for a while and I closed my eyes and waited for it to ease.
In the midst of this break caused by my tiredness (or clumsiness), we noticed that the intensity of the water falling through the falls had increased ever so slightly and suddenly we were struck by fear that if the intensity went up a few more notches, the place where we were standing would be submerged in no time. We decided not to panic and to calm down and find a way soon. The time by now was somewhere around midnight. We clutched together our last reserves of energy and started again from the base of the waterfalls. This time, Danny found another trail that had been submerged by a rivulet every time that we had passed it before. He waded out into the trail and let out a cry of pure joy as he had found the original trail. All of us sploshed through the trail and within the next 5 minutes made it to the base viewing point which we had been so adventurous to cross earlier in the evening. We had made it! We had pulled through! Our never say die attitude had won again and we hugged each other in pure joy slapped backs and sat down at the viewing point to let the adrenaline rush slow down a bit. We still had about 100 odd steps through the steep cliffs to make before we could reach our rooms. We huffed our way through these steps with both torch lights dead and our last reserves of strength really being tested to the hilt. We reached the top at around 2am and went to our room. Inside the room was the first time where it hit us how dangerous our situation had been. What if we had not decided to wade into the trail? what would we have done if we were still stuck down there even now? My internal sense of danger had been to its limit, been somemore and back.
Anand crashed on the bed ans was asleep in a few minutes. Danny was still looking as live as a lily and looked as though as this had been a walk in the park for him. Without him maintaining his composure, I am sure we would have found the trail much later and would have had to face even higher stress on out internal resources. I felt filthy and needed a shower before i could sleep. All of us were asleep by 3.30am and we had decided to sleep late the next day and start out for our next destination later in the day than usual.
I woke up the next day at 7am in the morning unable to sleep. I had been shaken and my view on how we consider life had changed forever. I have no belief in rebirth as it is an unproven concept and my belief from that day became that every human being should live the once when he knows he lives fully. When you reach a stage and look back at your life, you should feel responsible for all your decisions, there should not be anything that you regret. This was a new direction for me and i felt a new energy within me.
We packed, loaded our bikes and left Jog Falls to ride towards chikmagalur. We had heard that it was a great place and would be cool at this time of the year and we decided to spend our penultimate night on the trip in chickmagalur. We reached chikmagalur at around 4.30 pm and we found it hot, dusty and not in the least the hill station that we had expected it to be. We were dejected after riding so many kilometers to come to a place that just looked like any other town. We stopped to have tea at a shop and we asked the shopkeeper for some places close by with cool climes. He told us to head towards Bababudangiri which he told us was a very quiet place on the hills close by. He also told us that the Muthodi wild life forest range was on the way and it was a must see for us. Rejoiced by this piece of information, we gunned towards bababudangiri away from the bustle of Chikmagalur.
To Be Continued..
We reached the base of the falls again and filled up our bottles and set out again. This time too we lost our way and were climbing too many rocks. This was simply not the way we had come and we headed back towards the falls to regroup and catch some energy. By now the moon was out shining down on us and apart from my torchlight and varuns flickering torch, was our only source of light. We made totally 7 or 8 trips back and forth from the base of the falls to different trails and each time ended up cropper. This was taking a toll on all our strengths as all of were sweating profusely and the repeated failure to find the right trail was driving all of us crazy. In the middle of crossing one such particular path, there was a slight jump that we had to make to cross a small gap about 5-6 feet in depth. Here, my footing slipped and even though i did not go into the crack, i tumbled and landed badly on the opposite rock twisting my ankle. I was in tremendous pain and for a few minutes saw only stars. Varun, the guy closest behind me, immediately pulled out a little can of relispray that he had been carrying all through but quite forgotten about it, and immediately sat down next to my injured foot, removed my shoe and socks and sprayed the spray in a liberal quantity and massaged the ankle gently. My pain was unbearable for a while and I closed my eyes and waited for it to ease.
In the midst of this break caused by my tiredness (or clumsiness), we noticed that the intensity of the water falling through the falls had increased ever so slightly and suddenly we were struck by fear that if the intensity went up a few more notches, the place where we were standing would be submerged in no time. We decided not to panic and to calm down and find a way soon. The time by now was somewhere around midnight. We clutched together our last reserves of energy and started again from the base of the waterfalls. This time, Danny found another trail that had been submerged by a rivulet every time that we had passed it before. He waded out into the trail and let out a cry of pure joy as he had found the original trail. All of us sploshed through the trail and within the next 5 minutes made it to the base viewing point which we had been so adventurous to cross earlier in the evening. We had made it! We had pulled through! Our never say die attitude had won again and we hugged each other in pure joy slapped backs and sat down at the viewing point to let the adrenaline rush slow down a bit. We still had about 100 odd steps through the steep cliffs to make before we could reach our rooms. We huffed our way through these steps with both torch lights dead and our last reserves of strength really being tested to the hilt. We reached the top at around 2am and went to our room. Inside the room was the first time where it hit us how dangerous our situation had been. What if we had not decided to wade into the trail? what would we have done if we were still stuck down there even now? My internal sense of danger had been to its limit, been somemore and back.
Anand crashed on the bed ans was asleep in a few minutes. Danny was still looking as live as a lily and looked as though as this had been a walk in the park for him. Without him maintaining his composure, I am sure we would have found the trail much later and would have had to face even higher stress on out internal resources. I felt filthy and needed a shower before i could sleep. All of us were asleep by 3.30am and we had decided to sleep late the next day and start out for our next destination later in the day than usual.
I woke up the next day at 7am in the morning unable to sleep. I had been shaken and my view on how we consider life had changed forever. I have no belief in rebirth as it is an unproven concept and my belief from that day became that every human being should live the once when he knows he lives fully. When you reach a stage and look back at your life, you should feel responsible for all your decisions, there should not be anything that you regret. This was a new direction for me and i felt a new energy within me.
We packed, loaded our bikes and left Jog Falls to ride towards chikmagalur. We had heard that it was a great place and would be cool at this time of the year and we decided to spend our penultimate night on the trip in chickmagalur. We reached chikmagalur at around 4.30 pm and we found it hot, dusty and not in the least the hill station that we had expected it to be. We were dejected after riding so many kilometers to come to a place that just looked like any other town. We stopped to have tea at a shop and we asked the shopkeeper for some places close by with cool climes. He told us to head towards Bababudangiri which he told us was a very quiet place on the hills close by. He also told us that the Muthodi wild life forest range was on the way and it was a must see for us. Rejoiced by this piece of information, we gunned towards bababudangiri away from the bustle of Chikmagalur.
To Be Continued..
Friday, December 5, 2008
A Slice Of Life - Part 4
We woke up the next day morning to bright sunshine filtering into our rooms through the dirty curtains. Beyond the curtains was the most amazing view of the sea that I had ever seen. The sea was a shade of turquoise and it stretched far into the horizon. The guesthouse was just about 100 meters from the cliff edge that looked out on to the sea. I, after a lil bit of fantasizing and some freshening up, got to work on my bike. I had to sort it out for gods sake! This time i taped all wires together more carefuly and taped the wires to the fuse carrier securely and taped the fuse carrier box itself. And then started my bike with a prayer inside. It roared to life on the first kick, the lights worked, the horn worked and it seemed to be perfectly normal. I went for a small ride and took it some bumps on the road just to confirm that no wire was gonna fall off. After the first mission of success that morning, we headed into the main Gokarna village which was a charming little hamlet teeming with foreigners. We had breakfast at this little eatery and were introduced to the local specialty - 'banns' it is something like puri but as thick as bread and it tasted like heaven. it was also quite filling and after breakfast we got some directions from the owner of the cafe about the local attractions and headed out towards the first one -'Om Beach'.
Om beach as in its name is a beach in the shape of the Hindu religious symbol in the devanagari script - OM. It was practically deserted and we spent some time there jumping from rock to rock and trying to get as far out as possible into the sea. We took a boat ride into the ocean to another secluded beach with some fishermen and the rest of guys had beer (I think danny gave me company this time too and abstained - not sure though- i ll leave it to danny to confirm in his comments). Well after a few hours of going around and having a good time looking at crabs and catching some of them, we decided to head into Gokarna town for lunch. We went to this restaurant by the seaside and had a good meal. We came back to our rooms and decided then that we would camp out on the guesthouse grounds that night. We also took a decision that Goa was going to be much of the same and the heat of the region was driving us crazy and we decided to head to the cooler climes of chikmaglur the next day.
But First the camping! Varun had brought along a tent and a sleeping bag which we help put up and collected some firewood and got a decent campfire going. I was sceptical about sleeping out in the tent and after a good night of pulling everyones leg and watching the camfire die down to its last embers, I decided to go sleep in the room and the rest slept in the tent. We woke up the next day to a pleasant morning and decided to head out towards chikmaglur and stop at Jog Falls on the way to see one of the highest waterfalls in the world. The others asked me to ride out before as I was riding slowly and they would catch up with me anyways. So I started out with a 15 minute lead feeling a little odd riding all on my own. It was ok to ride behind the others but it was very odd to ride into the inknown with such a lead. I reached Honawar for the turn off and waited there for the others to catch up and that we could ride together to Jog Falls. I enquired about the way to Jog falls by the time everyone else arrived (which was a few minutes later). We rode out together till the Jog Falls viewpoint and here all our enthusiasm came flooding back and we found that KSRTC had guesthouses built on the upper rim of the Falls and we could hike down to the very bottom of the falls.
We reached the mini settlement at the upper rim of the falls and stayed in beautiful rooms at a very low cost (it was the off season discount) and after a little freshening up decided to hike down to the base of the falls which was about a hike down of roughly 250 metres in altitude and through rough steps built in the woods. The locals told us that we could go down and come back up in about 2 hours and warned us to be back by 5.30 p.m after which it got really dark in the base of the falls. We started trekking down at about 4 p.m and we believed that we could really make it back by latest 6.30p.m. We bough some snacks for the way and took our torch lights and whistling a song merrily started climbing down.
We made it to the base of the falls in about 45 minutes and there was a a viewing point sort of place beyond which there was no particular trail. We could the see the falls trickling down(the dam had been closed as it was not the tourist season) in the near distance. We decided to be adventurous and go over the rocks to the real base of the falls. The ground here was either rocky or soggy or covered with dense foliage. We made a few marks to help us come back and reached the base of the falls and sat next to the river that flowed out from the falls. We finished all our snacks and after a few snaps, we decided to make our way back. Anand wanted to feel the force of the waterfall and went closer to the fall, nearly close enough to be almost under the falling water. The result of his trekking over the jagged rocks was that he sprained his foot pretty badly and we had to wait for him to feel better before heading out. It had become pitch dark within the valley by now. We could see the light at the top of the waterfall rim but down here we could not see our own hands. With the help of our torch lights, we headed back to the viewing deck. After what seemed like a longer walk than expected and unfamiliar surroundings around us, we came to a realisation - We were lost! In the middle of a valley, just the four of us. Not a soul in the near vicinity with our water supply out. And as we came to this realisation, Varuns Torchlight began to flicker.
To be Continued..
Om beach as in its name is a beach in the shape of the Hindu religious symbol in the devanagari script - OM. It was practically deserted and we spent some time there jumping from rock to rock and trying to get as far out as possible into the sea. We took a boat ride into the ocean to another secluded beach with some fishermen and the rest of guys had beer (I think danny gave me company this time too and abstained - not sure though- i ll leave it to danny to confirm in his comments). Well after a few hours of going around and having a good time looking at crabs and catching some of them, we decided to head into Gokarna town for lunch. We went to this restaurant by the seaside and had a good meal. We came back to our rooms and decided then that we would camp out on the guesthouse grounds that night. We also took a decision that Goa was going to be much of the same and the heat of the region was driving us crazy and we decided to head to the cooler climes of chikmaglur the next day.
But First the camping! Varun had brought along a tent and a sleeping bag which we help put up and collected some firewood and got a decent campfire going. I was sceptical about sleeping out in the tent and after a good night of pulling everyones leg and watching the camfire die down to its last embers, I decided to go sleep in the room and the rest slept in the tent. We woke up the next day to a pleasant morning and decided to head out towards chikmaglur and stop at Jog Falls on the way to see one of the highest waterfalls in the world. The others asked me to ride out before as I was riding slowly and they would catch up with me anyways. So I started out with a 15 minute lead feeling a little odd riding all on my own. It was ok to ride behind the others but it was very odd to ride into the inknown with such a lead. I reached Honawar for the turn off and waited there for the others to catch up and that we could ride together to Jog Falls. I enquired about the way to Jog falls by the time everyone else arrived (which was a few minutes later). We rode out together till the Jog Falls viewpoint and here all our enthusiasm came flooding back and we found that KSRTC had guesthouses built on the upper rim of the Falls and we could hike down to the very bottom of the falls.
We reached the mini settlement at the upper rim of the falls and stayed in beautiful rooms at a very low cost (it was the off season discount) and after a little freshening up decided to hike down to the base of the falls which was about a hike down of roughly 250 metres in altitude and through rough steps built in the woods. The locals told us that we could go down and come back up in about 2 hours and warned us to be back by 5.30 p.m after which it got really dark in the base of the falls. We started trekking down at about 4 p.m and we believed that we could really make it back by latest 6.30p.m. We bough some snacks for the way and took our torch lights and whistling a song merrily started climbing down.
We made it to the base of the falls in about 45 minutes and there was a a viewing point sort of place beyond which there was no particular trail. We could the see the falls trickling down(the dam had been closed as it was not the tourist season) in the near distance. We decided to be adventurous and go over the rocks to the real base of the falls. The ground here was either rocky or soggy or covered with dense foliage. We made a few marks to help us come back and reached the base of the falls and sat next to the river that flowed out from the falls. We finished all our snacks and after a few snaps, we decided to make our way back. Anand wanted to feel the force of the waterfall and went closer to the fall, nearly close enough to be almost under the falling water. The result of his trekking over the jagged rocks was that he sprained his foot pretty badly and we had to wait for him to feel better before heading out. It had become pitch dark within the valley by now. We could see the light at the top of the waterfall rim but down here we could not see our own hands. With the help of our torch lights, we headed back to the viewing deck. After what seemed like a longer walk than expected and unfamiliar surroundings around us, we came to a realisation - We were lost! In the middle of a valley, just the four of us. Not a soul in the near vicinity with our water supply out. And as we came to this realisation, Varuns Torchlight began to flicker.
To be Continued..
Thursday, December 4, 2008
A Slice Of Life - Part 3
After a decent breakfast at the truckers stop, I went to my bike to check why the horn was not working. I removed the fuse carrier box, cleaned it and put it back but still to no avail. Worst of all, the bike was refusing to start. I was flummoxed by this and was at my wits end. Varun tried his hand at making my bike start and he came up with the idea that my battery was probably dead and we d have to change it once we got to mangalore. He again cleaned everything and put it back together and both of us tried starting it. Before this, my bike had never refused to start at the first kick and this was an entirely new thing for me. We pushed the bike and jump started it and got it going and all of us were on the way. The rest of the journey till Mangalore was uneventful and we made it there at around mid day. We found a battery shop and stopped there only to find that the owner had gone for lunch. We decided to take an early lunch and wait for them. We had some food at a restaurant nearby which was one of the dirtiest eateries i have ever seen and the food was all varying degrees of non veg (yes, at this point in time i was a pure vegetarian too :) ) and i was worried about the bike and hoping that the problem was nothing more than the battery. We returned to the shop and the owner was back and I bought a new battery and fixed it. My bike still refused to start.
The electricals around the fuse box and the battery was lying out and we were trying to sort it all out. The obvious problem now seemed to be with the fuse box. Now the Fiero has 3 fuses, 1 for the ignition system, one for the lights and one more for the display lights, indicator and the horn. All the fuses were fine but we got them changed anyway. Still No life. As a desperate measure, I taped all the wires around the fuse box and taped the fusebox tightly shut. The bike roared to life on the first lick after this. (Accounts vary - Danny still feels that the bike started cos he twisted one of the rear view mirrors!! :) ). Anyway we got started on our trip again and our target was to reach the outskirts of Goa and travel as far into Goa as possible. We were behind schedule by about 1.5 hours and we took the western coast highway to Goa. This is a beautiful stretch of road and there is a stretch after you cross udupi and all on the left where the road runs right through a beach with the sea barely a few metres away. The sun was setting on the west coast when we were at this point and we stopped to take in the panoramic and beautiful view. We started off again feeling light and happy at having seen such a sight.
Trouble struck again a few kms after the beach road. My lights, Horn and display lights refused to work and it was getting dark. I was very disappointed at this turn of events and varun and anand stopped with me to look into the problem. Danny was ahead and did not see us stopping and went off ahead. We tried stopping him by calling on his phone but to no avail. We decided that he d eventually stop when he noticed that we were not with him and come back. We took out all the wiring again and this time very carefully tried taping it all back together. The bike was starting but the lights did not work. Finally after a lot of trial and error, we managed to get the headlights working and decided that I would have to ride without my horn and indicators as it was dark by now and we d have a look at it when we stopped for the night. We started off again and got a call from Danny who was worried sick by us not being with him. Danny had travelled 30 kms before stopping and he waited for us there until we met up again and decided that our target of reaching Goa was impossible without riding well into the night. So we decided to ride till Karwar and stop there for the night.
We had dinner at this place called Honawar from where if you went north it was Goa and if you turned east, you could go to Jog falls and Shimoga. A few kms out of Honavar at about 8 in the evening, my lights stopped working. I had no inkling of where i was going but i was fed up and did not want to stop again. Anand sensed my mind and moved up ahead of me and rode about a meter ahead so that i could follow his taillights till our stop. Danny also moved in we rode in this triangle pattern with danny to my front and left and anand to my front and right. Varun moved in and out and when we came across traffic would move in behind me to shield others from my non working tail lamp. If there was a better display of biker spirit and team work, I d not seen it till then and I m still in awe as to how they all cut down on their instinctive riding and helped me nurse my baby home. We had been riding like this for about an hour and we came across a cut on the road leading to a town called Gokarna. We had read that this was bit of a tourist spot and decided to stop there as we still did not have any hotel reservations and it was getting late.
And so the Band of riders after a long and tiring day of riding, rode into gokarna and asked for directions to the KSRTC guesthouse there. (We were on a budget and figured that the KSRTC would be the best place to camp at a cheap price.) One guy pointed to a road up a slope. There were no lights on this road and there was infact no road after a while. We were wondering if we had been sent on a wild goose ride when we made out a building in the distance with no lights, no board, nothing to tell us what it was. Varun stopped in front of the building and knocked on the door. An old man opened the door and it was obvious that he had been asleep. We apologised and asked him about the guesthouse and to our wonder, he told us we were standing right in front of it. We asked to check in and he took us to two big rooms that had not seen a shade of paint or a vacuum cleaner in years. He gave us both rooms for Rs. 400 (!!!) and we were too tired to look any place else and decided to sleep there. The guesthouse was on a huge piece of land that had not been maintained and the building stood right in the center of it. We could not make out any thing else in the dark and fell to a dreamless sleep.
To be Continued..
The electricals around the fuse box and the battery was lying out and we were trying to sort it all out. The obvious problem now seemed to be with the fuse box. Now the Fiero has 3 fuses, 1 for the ignition system, one for the lights and one more for the display lights, indicator and the horn. All the fuses were fine but we got them changed anyway. Still No life. As a desperate measure, I taped all the wires around the fuse box and taped the fusebox tightly shut. The bike roared to life on the first lick after this. (Accounts vary - Danny still feels that the bike started cos he twisted one of the rear view mirrors!! :) ). Anyway we got started on our trip again and our target was to reach the outskirts of Goa and travel as far into Goa as possible. We were behind schedule by about 1.5 hours and we took the western coast highway to Goa. This is a beautiful stretch of road and there is a stretch after you cross udupi and all on the left where the road runs right through a beach with the sea barely a few metres away. The sun was setting on the west coast when we were at this point and we stopped to take in the panoramic and beautiful view. We started off again feeling light and happy at having seen such a sight.
Trouble struck again a few kms after the beach road. My lights, Horn and display lights refused to work and it was getting dark. I was very disappointed at this turn of events and varun and anand stopped with me to look into the problem. Danny was ahead and did not see us stopping and went off ahead. We tried stopping him by calling on his phone but to no avail. We decided that he d eventually stop when he noticed that we were not with him and come back. We took out all the wiring again and this time very carefully tried taping it all back together. The bike was starting but the lights did not work. Finally after a lot of trial and error, we managed to get the headlights working and decided that I would have to ride without my horn and indicators as it was dark by now and we d have a look at it when we stopped for the night. We started off again and got a call from Danny who was worried sick by us not being with him. Danny had travelled 30 kms before stopping and he waited for us there until we met up again and decided that our target of reaching Goa was impossible without riding well into the night. So we decided to ride till Karwar and stop there for the night.
We had dinner at this place called Honawar from where if you went north it was Goa and if you turned east, you could go to Jog falls and Shimoga. A few kms out of Honavar at about 8 in the evening, my lights stopped working. I had no inkling of where i was going but i was fed up and did not want to stop again. Anand sensed my mind and moved up ahead of me and rode about a meter ahead so that i could follow his taillights till our stop. Danny also moved in we rode in this triangle pattern with danny to my front and left and anand to my front and right. Varun moved in and out and when we came across traffic would move in behind me to shield others from my non working tail lamp. If there was a better display of biker spirit and team work, I d not seen it till then and I m still in awe as to how they all cut down on their instinctive riding and helped me nurse my baby home. We had been riding like this for about an hour and we came across a cut on the road leading to a town called Gokarna. We had read that this was bit of a tourist spot and decided to stop there as we still did not have any hotel reservations and it was getting late.
And so the Band of riders after a long and tiring day of riding, rode into gokarna and asked for directions to the KSRTC guesthouse there. (We were on a budget and figured that the KSRTC would be the best place to camp at a cheap price.) One guy pointed to a road up a slope. There were no lights on this road and there was infact no road after a while. We were wondering if we had been sent on a wild goose ride when we made out a building in the distance with no lights, no board, nothing to tell us what it was. Varun stopped in front of the building and knocked on the door. An old man opened the door and it was obvious that he had been asleep. We apologised and asked him about the guesthouse and to our wonder, he told us we were standing right in front of it. We asked to check in and he took us to two big rooms that had not seen a shade of paint or a vacuum cleaner in years. He gave us both rooms for Rs. 400 (!!!) and we were too tired to look any place else and decided to sleep there. The guesthouse was on a huge piece of land that had not been maintained and the building stood right in the center of it. We could not make out any thing else in the dark and fell to a dreamless sleep.
To be Continued..
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
A Slice Of Life - Part 2
And we set off from the wastelands around Chittoor and rode on uneventfully till before Bangalore. I felt that for the amount of riding to be done that day, i had to fill my fuel tank again just to be sure. Danny saw me going into the Fuel Station and stopped on the side (yes i was leading the pack at this time!!!) to wait for me. Varun and Anand passed by without looking at Danny and went towards Bangalore. I filled up unaware that the pack had separated and joined Danny to get on towards Bangalore. We reached the outer ring road and there me and danny noticed that Varun and anand were missing and we stopped to wait for them. Danny had not seen them pass by and we were just waiting there for 10 mins before I got a call on my phone from Anand asking us where we were. Luckily those guys also has noticed we were not coming along and had stopped after the outer ring road bridge near a fuel station there. After a few frantic calls to trace them we met them again and this time the rest of them filled their tanks and we went off into the outer ring road.
We crossed bangalore and stopped at around 3.30 pm to have some lunch in a small restaurant by the side of the Ring road. We set off again at about 4.30 and were heading towards Hassan. The road was towards the west and the setting sun was coming straight into our eyes. After a few Kms of squinting, we decided to stop till it was a little better and found this place by the side of the road where a few boulders were strewn around and we sat on them joking and pulling each others leg till it was almost 5.30. We started off again and were making good progress before it became dark. The Bangalore-Hassan road has no lighting on it at all and for about an hour we were just guessing where the road was based on the beam from our headlights. All of us found progress extremely slow and difficult and we reached Chennareddypatna where we decided that enough was enough and found a Hotel to halt for that night. Hassan was still 60 kms away but we decided against riding as it was plain weird to not know where the road was going in the dark.
The hotel (Hotel Mahalakshmi) that we stayed in had been opened just that day and we were the 2nd group of people to check in. They charged us something like 450rs for one night and we just threw our bags in the room and waited in turn for each person to wash up. Anand had a fearsome headache and promptly slept off. Varun elected to stay in the room and me and Danny went to get some dinner for all of us. All of us were hungry and we ended up buying quite a large quantity of food and paid a ridiculously low amount of 72rs for all of it. How it came only to that much, I still have no idea. We ate with relish while making sure that Anand also ate and took some medicines so that he could rest. We had ridden a hard ride and all of us fell into a dreamless sleep that night.
We woke up the next morning at 4.30 in the morning all of us fresh and ready to roar on towards Goa. We stopped at a small tea shop in chennareddypatna for our morning teas and started off towards mangalore which was about 220 kms from chennareddypatna. Uneventful you might say but we had to ride 140 of those Kms on ghat roads through the Kadamane estate. As usual, the three roared off and i was bringing up the rear when i had my first ever tense event on the bike. The ghat roads were quite steep in some places and on one of these curves going towards the right and going down was a lorry coming from the opposite side. This I saw and stuckto the extreme left of the road, maintaining my speed to take the curve. What i had failed to see was that there was a KSRTC bus in my lane coming towards me, shielded by the lorry, and I saw it when i was a few feet away and head on. By some fate of god or supreme reflexes or what i dont know, i managed to swerve my bike into a ditch on the side of the road but the bus still glanced the entire right side of the bike. My crash guard was bent, my foot peg bent, my shoe torn and i was shaken silly. I stopped the bike and took a few deep breaths before looking at the damage and decided that i could still ride on. I would have to mend the Fooot peg and the crash guard when i caught up with the guys. The guys!! they must be kms ahead by now while i was having this lil adventure of mine. I rode fast and came upon this stretch of road where the asphlt had washed off in the recent rains and levelling of the road with red sand was going on. The highways department very thoughfully had just sprinkled water on top of it and it was a thick gooey mess. Here i saw Dannys pulsar lying on its side, danny lying on the road giving a silly grin and Varun and anand stopped and helping him get up. I stopped behing them and helped to pickup dannys bike and park it by the side of the road. We had barely done this when another bike coming from the opposite side skidded and fell sending the riders flying. Chuckling amongst ourselves at the sight, we helped them up and on their way and surveyed the damage on dannys bike. At this point, anand noticed that my crash guard was bent and asked what happened. varun noticed my torn shoe and suddenly all of them were concerned about what happened, forgetting danny in the middle. I narrated my account and everyone was stunned into silence. only for a minute.
We got Varuns tools out and found a piece of rock by the side of the road and started hammering my foot peg, crash guard and dannys bent brake lever into shape. It took us the best part of half an hour but it gave me the time to shake off my jangled nerves and calm down again. We were all hungry and stopped at a truckers eatery join in the ghat roads for breakfast. I noticed here that my horn was not working and thought i d look at it after breakfast.
to be continued..
We crossed bangalore and stopped at around 3.30 pm to have some lunch in a small restaurant by the side of the Ring road. We set off again at about 4.30 and were heading towards Hassan. The road was towards the west and the setting sun was coming straight into our eyes. After a few Kms of squinting, we decided to stop till it was a little better and found this place by the side of the road where a few boulders were strewn around and we sat on them joking and pulling each others leg till it was almost 5.30. We started off again and were making good progress before it became dark. The Bangalore-Hassan road has no lighting on it at all and for about an hour we were just guessing where the road was based on the beam from our headlights. All of us found progress extremely slow and difficult and we reached Chennareddypatna where we decided that enough was enough and found a Hotel to halt for that night. Hassan was still 60 kms away but we decided against riding as it was plain weird to not know where the road was going in the dark.
The hotel (Hotel Mahalakshmi) that we stayed in had been opened just that day and we were the 2nd group of people to check in. They charged us something like 450rs for one night and we just threw our bags in the room and waited in turn for each person to wash up. Anand had a fearsome headache and promptly slept off. Varun elected to stay in the room and me and Danny went to get some dinner for all of us. All of us were hungry and we ended up buying quite a large quantity of food and paid a ridiculously low amount of 72rs for all of it. How it came only to that much, I still have no idea. We ate with relish while making sure that Anand also ate and took some medicines so that he could rest. We had ridden a hard ride and all of us fell into a dreamless sleep that night.
We woke up the next morning at 4.30 in the morning all of us fresh and ready to roar on towards Goa. We stopped at a small tea shop in chennareddypatna for our morning teas and started off towards mangalore which was about 220 kms from chennareddypatna. Uneventful you might say but we had to ride 140 of those Kms on ghat roads through the Kadamane estate. As usual, the three roared off and i was bringing up the rear when i had my first ever tense event on the bike. The ghat roads were quite steep in some places and on one of these curves going towards the right and going down was a lorry coming from the opposite side. This I saw and stuckto the extreme left of the road, maintaining my speed to take the curve. What i had failed to see was that there was a KSRTC bus in my lane coming towards me, shielded by the lorry, and I saw it when i was a few feet away and head on. By some fate of god or supreme reflexes or what i dont know, i managed to swerve my bike into a ditch on the side of the road but the bus still glanced the entire right side of the bike. My crash guard was bent, my foot peg bent, my shoe torn and i was shaken silly. I stopped the bike and took a few deep breaths before looking at the damage and decided that i could still ride on. I would have to mend the Fooot peg and the crash guard when i caught up with the guys. The guys!! they must be kms ahead by now while i was having this lil adventure of mine. I rode fast and came upon this stretch of road where the asphlt had washed off in the recent rains and levelling of the road with red sand was going on. The highways department very thoughfully had just sprinkled water on top of it and it was a thick gooey mess. Here i saw Dannys pulsar lying on its side, danny lying on the road giving a silly grin and Varun and anand stopped and helping him get up. I stopped behing them and helped to pickup dannys bike and park it by the side of the road. We had barely done this when another bike coming from the opposite side skidded and fell sending the riders flying. Chuckling amongst ourselves at the sight, we helped them up and on their way and surveyed the damage on dannys bike. At this point, anand noticed that my crash guard was bent and asked what happened. varun noticed my torn shoe and suddenly all of them were concerned about what happened, forgetting danny in the middle. I narrated my account and everyone was stunned into silence. only for a minute.
We got Varuns tools out and found a piece of rock by the side of the road and started hammering my foot peg, crash guard and dannys bent brake lever into shape. It took us the best part of half an hour but it gave me the time to shake off my jangled nerves and calm down again. We were all hungry and stopped at a truckers eatery join in the ghat roads for breakfast. I noticed here that my horn was not working and thought i d look at it after breakfast.
to be continued..
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
A Slice Of Life - Part 1
I was listening to this old Kishore Kumar Song 'Musafir Hoon Yaaron' from the movie Parichay and it just took my thoughts to the various experiences I have had in life. Some alone and some in the company of friends. One of these experiences involves a bike trip that changed my life in many ways. Four of us on a bout of impulse rather than planning took out our bikes and just headed towards Goa from Chennai. Varun was on his RE Thunderbird, Anand on his Bajaj Pulsar 150, Danny on his Bajaj Pulsar 150 and me on my beloved Suzuki Fiero. We started out from Chennai after meeting up at the Bharat Petroleum Bunk near MEPZ at 5.30 in the morning. We took the NH 45 and crossed Tambaram soon. The weather was chilly this being february and early morning in chennai. We had out Jackets on and were heading at a steady pace. All our fuel tanks showed full and 4 friends set out with the world at our feet, and the wind on our flanks.
We passed Walajabad and Kancheepuram soon and joined the Golden Quadrilateral towards Bangalore. We were making good time and were scheduled to stop at Varuns house in Vellore for breakfast. The GQ is a fantastic piece of road and the rest roared away while I took in the morning and in my own careful way of riding brought up the rear. Just on the tollbooth after ranipet, Anand had a flat on his bike. The luck was that the bike stopped right in front of a tyre repair shop and while the puncture was being fixed, we had a cup of tea while ripping anand aprt for maintaining his bike like a dustbin. At this point I think it is necessary that you should have an idea about the riders so here goes:
Varun: Enormously charming guy and very good with machines. A big brother to most people in our class. Very dominating and will back you to the hilt even if it means jumping out with you from a plane. Loves his bikes and if he keeps his future wife as happy as his bikes, she would be one pampered woman indeed. Rides fast and keeps riding till someone physically stops him.
Anand: Nicknamed 'Basin' for his way of talking. If varun would jump out of a plane with you, anand is probably jumping out next carrying 2 sets of parachute. Known for enforcing his way or the highway kind of speech, Anand is an extremely fast rider on the brink of being dangerous. Has the reflexes of a cat and can stop a bike from very high speed at a rate that would definitely stun you. Maintains his bike like a dustbin and has parts falling off it at every rough patch of road.
Danny: The Midget in our group with the heart of a Lion. Truly fearless with a well placed streak of adventure. Used to maintain his bike like a dustbin but has improved tremendously after constant ribbing from varun. A confident and extremely fast rider and you would definitely need him if you ever decide to go into a forest and get stuck. Would fall over backwards to help you and a true charmer.
Me: Well, If any of the guys above comment on this blog i guess they ll have something to say about me anyway so i ll leave it to them. I ll just say that I am an extremely cautious rider with an inbuilt sense of danger reflex. Love my Biking and take care of my bikes well. Not as well as varun but close enough.
And so, We got Anands tyre fixed and off we went again towards Vellore where a Hot breakfast waited for us in Varuns house. After eating really well and being wished godspeed by Varuns parents, Off we went our target being to reach Hassan by 6 in the evening and halt for the day.
A few Kms before Chittoor, Anands Bike picked up a puncture again. This time in the middle of nowhere. I unstrapped the bag off my bike Anand went along with danny on my bike to get the tyre repaired. I stayed with varun trying to get some muck off Anands bike and trying to put things in a condition that would probably make his bike last. Soon they were back and off we went again. The time at this juncture was getting close to Mid day and the barren piece of land around chitoor and the Andhra Sun were showing no mercy on the Band of riders. Varun decided enough was enough and stopped under a tree and declared that he wanted a beer which Anand took off to buy from a nearby bar in chitoor. At this point of time in my life which was 4 years ago, i would not even touch alcohol with my lil finger so as i watched and danny abstained, varun and anand cooled themselves with KF strong. A light breeze started up and the 4 of us sat there under a tree in the middle of nowhere planning the number of kilometers to be ridden for the remainder of the day.
To be Continued..
We passed Walajabad and Kancheepuram soon and joined the Golden Quadrilateral towards Bangalore. We were making good time and were scheduled to stop at Varuns house in Vellore for breakfast. The GQ is a fantastic piece of road and the rest roared away while I took in the morning and in my own careful way of riding brought up the rear. Just on the tollbooth after ranipet, Anand had a flat on his bike. The luck was that the bike stopped right in front of a tyre repair shop and while the puncture was being fixed, we had a cup of tea while ripping anand aprt for maintaining his bike like a dustbin. At this point I think it is necessary that you should have an idea about the riders so here goes:
Varun: Enormously charming guy and very good with machines. A big brother to most people in our class. Very dominating and will back you to the hilt even if it means jumping out with you from a plane. Loves his bikes and if he keeps his future wife as happy as his bikes, she would be one pampered woman indeed. Rides fast and keeps riding till someone physically stops him.
Anand: Nicknamed 'Basin' for his way of talking. If varun would jump out of a plane with you, anand is probably jumping out next carrying 2 sets of parachute. Known for enforcing his way or the highway kind of speech, Anand is an extremely fast rider on the brink of being dangerous. Has the reflexes of a cat and can stop a bike from very high speed at a rate that would definitely stun you. Maintains his bike like a dustbin and has parts falling off it at every rough patch of road.
Danny: The Midget in our group with the heart of a Lion. Truly fearless with a well placed streak of adventure. Used to maintain his bike like a dustbin but has improved tremendously after constant ribbing from varun. A confident and extremely fast rider and you would definitely need him if you ever decide to go into a forest and get stuck. Would fall over backwards to help you and a true charmer.
Me: Well, If any of the guys above comment on this blog i guess they ll have something to say about me anyway so i ll leave it to them. I ll just say that I am an extremely cautious rider with an inbuilt sense of danger reflex. Love my Biking and take care of my bikes well. Not as well as varun but close enough.
And so, We got Anands tyre fixed and off we went again towards Vellore where a Hot breakfast waited for us in Varuns house. After eating really well and being wished godspeed by Varuns parents, Off we went our target being to reach Hassan by 6 in the evening and halt for the day.
A few Kms before Chittoor, Anands Bike picked up a puncture again. This time in the middle of nowhere. I unstrapped the bag off my bike Anand went along with danny on my bike to get the tyre repaired. I stayed with varun trying to get some muck off Anands bike and trying to put things in a condition that would probably make his bike last. Soon they were back and off we went again. The time at this juncture was getting close to Mid day and the barren piece of land around chitoor and the Andhra Sun were showing no mercy on the Band of riders. Varun decided enough was enough and stopped under a tree and declared that he wanted a beer which Anand took off to buy from a nearby bar in chitoor. At this point of time in my life which was 4 years ago, i would not even touch alcohol with my lil finger so as i watched and danny abstained, varun and anand cooled themselves with KF strong. A light breeze started up and the 4 of us sat there under a tree in the middle of nowhere planning the number of kilometers to be ridden for the remainder of the day.
To be Continued..
Sunday, November 9, 2008
The point(lessness?) of it all
The other day I went to a disco with some of my friends. we were a little late going in there after getting a round of drinks we were just on the edge of the dance floor looking for the moves and grooves. And ofcourse the unsaid but perfectly understood roving eye looking out for the good looking girls. Now there are 2 categories that we can talk about when we are looking for good looking girls. It could be that you are sizing up the girl and just probably imagining different stuff about her. Or, you really are looking for a girl that may turn out to be potential life partner.
This brings us to our current state. Would you seriously ever even consider making life partner out of a girl who is dancing sans inhibition on a dance to music that just seems like a lot of bass and boom at 1 o clock in the night? Call this hypocrisy but seriously its the same both ways around. Girls really don want guys who party all night and guys really don want their girls to be seen partying with other guys in the middle of the night especially in the middle of a crowded dance floor.
So, why do we go to discos? why do we pay entrance fees and then another fortune on drinks and worse (for some guys atleast) drinks for the girls dancing on the floor? The best parties dont seem to happen in a disco. The best parties seem to be when your entire group is around and you enjoy a couple of drinks and talk about your old days and movies and dialogues et al. You can rule out talking in a disco to your friend as you d have to shout yourself hoarse to be heard over the music. But still we go. Everytime someone comes up with an idea of some guys going to a disco, you still feel excited and still want to go. why?
I think its just a hope that you ll meet someone cool and maybe this is whom you ve been waiting for all this while. But to actually do that you d have a better chance if you were going to a coffee shop (which no guy will ever accept that he wants to go to). Or to a friends house for a party. Goin to a disco may ensure that you get some cheap thrills (which again is for a guy desperate for action) but it sure aint gonna get you what you were/are looking out for.
This brings us to our current state. Would you seriously ever even consider making life partner out of a girl who is dancing sans inhibition on a dance to music that just seems like a lot of bass and boom at 1 o clock in the night? Call this hypocrisy but seriously its the same both ways around. Girls really don want guys who party all night and guys really don want their girls to be seen partying with other guys in the middle of the night especially in the middle of a crowded dance floor.
So, why do we go to discos? why do we pay entrance fees and then another fortune on drinks and worse (for some guys atleast) drinks for the girls dancing on the floor? The best parties dont seem to happen in a disco. The best parties seem to be when your entire group is around and you enjoy a couple of drinks and talk about your old days and movies and dialogues et al. You can rule out talking in a disco to your friend as you d have to shout yourself hoarse to be heard over the music. But still we go. Everytime someone comes up with an idea of some guys going to a disco, you still feel excited and still want to go. why?
I think its just a hope that you ll meet someone cool and maybe this is whom you ve been waiting for all this while. But to actually do that you d have a better chance if you were going to a coffee shop (which no guy will ever accept that he wants to go to). Or to a friends house for a party. Goin to a disco may ensure that you get some cheap thrills (which again is for a guy desperate for action) but it sure aint gonna get you what you were/are looking out for.
Friday, October 24, 2008
Ramblings of a Bored Individual.
Warning: Dont read the below topic and come up all cylinders firing for an argument on what you think about it. It is exactly what the title states it is.
If a person was ever asked as to why he takes a particular decision, sometimes, that person would come up with a well reasoned answer. But what if for every time that a decision is taken and the person has no idea as to why he took it. Or rather let me put it this way- if the person feels that the decision he is taking is right but has no explanation for it, then is his decision making process flawed? I would tend to think so but we see so many things in everyday life where things just go see saw on their own basis (if you notice closely, the see sawing happens due to the decisions that you take but you are not even aware of it). So are we all living a life of farce? what makes us decide that we ll eat the cheeseburger rather than the chicken tikka where the indicated level of fat on both is the same and we like the taste of both? there seems to be no good reason available and yet when you feel queasy in the evening, you ve probably forgotten the reason for having the cheeseburger and are only deciding if to take eno or hajmola. another decison that has no reason attached to it. So, if we are able to take decisions about our own existence in a fraction of a second and giving the reason that 'it felt right', why do we all waste so much time in worrying about the other decisions of life? why is it that we break our head trying to figure out if the computer science course at harvard or stanford is better cos honestly it makes no difference? Why cant just apply our daily logic to it and say 'right, eeny meeny miny mo' and thats the way to go?
I have been thinking about this and I have a reason now. We sit and reason out decisions that we perceive are close to us or important to us because they have a calculated number of outcomes(in theory atleast! don blame me if you did comp sci at harvard and still don have a job paying twice your worth). If we tried to calculate the same kind of logic to the cheeseburger or chicken tikka issue, we d probably be stuck all day at the food counter and still worrying about it. Everytime you decided on what colour shirt you wanted to wear and tried to reason it, chances are that you ll get dressed in 2 hours instead of 10 mins and still be in no better position to explain why. Another reason for this is also that the deadlines for the stuff we reason for is far more relaxed than our daily logic. If you did not decide on the cheeseburger, your hunger would get hold of you and you d still be stuck in the evening with the decision on saridon or metacine for your headache. So i guess life is lived by people taking complex decisions for simpler outcomes and waving off the decision making process on something that makes you survive. Funny aint it?
If a person was ever asked as to why he takes a particular decision, sometimes, that person would come up with a well reasoned answer. But what if for every time that a decision is taken and the person has no idea as to why he took it. Or rather let me put it this way- if the person feels that the decision he is taking is right but has no explanation for it, then is his decision making process flawed? I would tend to think so but we see so many things in everyday life where things just go see saw on their own basis (if you notice closely, the see sawing happens due to the decisions that you take but you are not even aware of it). So are we all living a life of farce? what makes us decide that we ll eat the cheeseburger rather than the chicken tikka where the indicated level of fat on both is the same and we like the taste of both? there seems to be no good reason available and yet when you feel queasy in the evening, you ve probably forgotten the reason for having the cheeseburger and are only deciding if to take eno or hajmola. another decison that has no reason attached to it. So, if we are able to take decisions about our own existence in a fraction of a second and giving the reason that 'it felt right', why do we all waste so much time in worrying about the other decisions of life? why is it that we break our head trying to figure out if the computer science course at harvard or stanford is better cos honestly it makes no difference? Why cant just apply our daily logic to it and say 'right, eeny meeny miny mo' and thats the way to go?
I have been thinking about this and I have a reason now. We sit and reason out decisions that we perceive are close to us or important to us because they have a calculated number of outcomes(in theory atleast! don blame me if you did comp sci at harvard and still don have a job paying twice your worth). If we tried to calculate the same kind of logic to the cheeseburger or chicken tikka issue, we d probably be stuck all day at the food counter and still worrying about it. Everytime you decided on what colour shirt you wanted to wear and tried to reason it, chances are that you ll get dressed in 2 hours instead of 10 mins and still be in no better position to explain why. Another reason for this is also that the deadlines for the stuff we reason for is far more relaxed than our daily logic. If you did not decide on the cheeseburger, your hunger would get hold of you and you d still be stuck in the evening with the decision on saridon or metacine for your headache. So i guess life is lived by people taking complex decisions for simpler outcomes and waving off the decision making process on something that makes you survive. Funny aint it?
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Dilips Dollop of thought
I have been looking around for the past 2 days to see that the world has not changed one bit. Its true that there are many changes happening elsewhere but my world still remains the same. I still get up everyday and go to office and start waiting for 6.00 pm to get out. Now don run to conclusions that I have a life after I get out. I just trundle along with monotony and wonder what it would take to make life a little more spiced up. I have tried stalking beautiful looking girls and going to a psychitrist( a mad one but nonetheless) and it has just got to a point where my own sense of inactivity has begun to wear me away. I mean it cant be just me with a free evening can it? maybe it can. I attribute all of this to one instance that happened long long ago. It for sure made me a recluse and i still suffer the destiny that fate prescribed for me in that formative year.
In life sometimes you come across instances where you feel you could have acted differently. Where you suppose that maybe a different reaction, an extra effort or a bit more luck would have helped you along. It was way back in 9th standard that this instance happened. Now I know that we do not expext a 9th standard kid to do something like this but only when you are in that age group do you know. I was a part of the gang in my class that had a say in almost everything. We did the dance drama, monitering, studying and playing better than any other group. A whole synergy was in place where the guys and girls in our group were the best of friends and we looked out for each other. Picture perfect aint it? Or something like that?
In this very group was this girl,and lets call her shakti for the want of a better name. This girl was extremely friendly and very outgoing. Every guy in the group liked her but as you d have guessed by now, I more than liked her. I would not call it love but a special feeling that is undescribeable. I loved talking to her and giving gyann or various issues. And she'd also laugh for all my jokes and go on talking to me.
It was so unlike my monotony today and those days I used to feel at the top of the world. It was an impressionable age and things that happened then were mostly inspired by some other source. In this case it was the movies and I did the most stupid thing you d imagine. Yes I proposed to her all right but I did it through one of my friends being chicken to tell it to her myself. Now what I did not know was the way it was gonna spread among our friends. Sudddenly people started giving me frosty stares and 'polite' conversations. I become a vast outsider to the group and ended up making friends among the rest who to say the least are probably penning a blog like this in some place in the world. I suddenly found out that how an act of miscalculated impulse could throw you off the ladder and make it difficult to climb back. As a result of my loss of attention span, I started doing badly wherever I had excelled before. I just wanted get out of that school and run to some far corner where i would not have to get in touch with those 'friends' of mine.
And oh by the way, she thought for a day and turned down my proposal. As if you d expect anything different from me!!
In life sometimes you come across instances where you feel you could have acted differently. Where you suppose that maybe a different reaction, an extra effort or a bit more luck would have helped you along. It was way back in 9th standard that this instance happened. Now I know that we do not expext a 9th standard kid to do something like this but only when you are in that age group do you know. I was a part of the gang in my class that had a say in almost everything. We did the dance drama, monitering, studying and playing better than any other group. A whole synergy was in place where the guys and girls in our group were the best of friends and we looked out for each other. Picture perfect aint it? Or something like that?
In this very group was this girl,and lets call her shakti for the want of a better name. This girl was extremely friendly and very outgoing. Every guy in the group liked her but as you d have guessed by now, I more than liked her. I would not call it love but a special feeling that is undescribeable. I loved talking to her and giving gyann or various issues. And she'd also laugh for all my jokes and go on talking to me.
It was so unlike my monotony today and those days I used to feel at the top of the world. It was an impressionable age and things that happened then were mostly inspired by some other source. In this case it was the movies and I did the most stupid thing you d imagine. Yes I proposed to her all right but I did it through one of my friends being chicken to tell it to her myself. Now what I did not know was the way it was gonna spread among our friends. Sudddenly people started giving me frosty stares and 'polite' conversations. I become a vast outsider to the group and ended up making friends among the rest who to say the least are probably penning a blog like this in some place in the world. I suddenly found out that how an act of miscalculated impulse could throw you off the ladder and make it difficult to climb back. As a result of my loss of attention span, I started doing badly wherever I had excelled before. I just wanted get out of that school and run to some far corner where i would not have to get in touch with those 'friends' of mine.
And oh by the way, she thought for a day and turned down my proposal. As if you d expect anything different from me!!
Friday, June 6, 2008
Dilip goes to a psychiatrist
This time we find our hero in the Doctors clinic. Doctor Milo or ‘Mystery Milo’ as he is better known, called in Dilip and welcomed him with a yawn and his usual dialogue -
“So what’s bothering you?”
"They're trying to kill me," Dilip told him calmly.
"No one's trying to kill you,"
"Then why are they rejecting me?" Dilip asked.
"They're rejecting everyone,"
"And what difference does that make?"
"Dilip,"
"What would they do to me" he asked in confidential tones to Doc Milo, "if I refused to look at them from now on?"
"We'd probably shoot you," Doc Milo replied.
"We?" Dilip cried in surprise. "What do you mean, we? Since when are you on their side?"
"If you're going to be shot, whose side do you expect me to be on?” Doc
"...Let somebody else get killed for my actions."
"But suppose everybody on our side felt that way."
"Then I'd certainly be a damned fool to feel any other way. Wouldn't I?"
If dropping love bombs on the opposite sex so that it consumes them is not a special service, Dilip reflected aloud frequently with the martyred smile of sweet reasonableness that was his loyal confederate in every dispute, then he could not help wondering what in the world was. "Frankly, I'd like to see all men not inflict this war of love on them and get out of it altogether and leave the whole field to private marriage fixing industry." In short for your benefit, Dilip was a Passionate young man in love who had never been able to find himself since leaving college. But our observation is broken by this dialogue:
"...So your treatment is going to make sure that I don’t send myself, a crazy man, out to be killed, am I?"
"But who else will go?"
Catch-22 did not exist but in Doc Milo’s mind, Dilip was positive of that, but it made no difference. What did matter was that everyone else thought it existed everywhere, and that was much worse, for there was no object or text to ridicule or refute, to accuse, criticize, attack, amend, hate, revile, spit at, rip to shreads, trample upon or burn up.
After this session with the Psychiatrist our hero is probably more confused with himself than before.
Monday, June 2, 2008
The Adventures of Dilip
Part 2
And so we find our hero standing again in the hot sun waiting for ‘The Bus’ to come. He has already let go of 3 buses that were not special enough to him. One more bus is arriving towards the stop. The route is the one that Dilip wants and I hope along with him that he ll get in. It’s too bloody hot just standing here.
Surprise, surprise!! She is not there inside this bus too. I have a fleeting moment of horror where I think that he is going to let this bus go and wait for the next one. Common sense prevails and our hero boards the bus. He gets a seat and looks with heavy disappointment at the seat where the queen of his dreams was sitting. The seat is now empty. Dilip is just not the cheerful soul that he was yesterday. And all that because of a girl and that too for no fault of hers! I sometimes wonder what makes guys go gaga over certain girls. I mean how do guys take it for granted that a certain girl whom they like should like them back in return too? But its been happening for centuries, wars have been fought over the issue and we are no better enlightened. The only silver lining if any is maybe that this feeling is mutual to all classes be it a prince or a pauper.
Coming back to our hero, he looks out of the bus when her bus stop arrives. It looks like as though she is not standing there and we move on. And then our bus stop arrives. I get down and turn towards Dilips house only to find that Dilip is missing again. Now that pipsqueak has this uncanny ability to vanish into thin air but I guess this time I have a pretty good idea where to find him. I walk towards the apartment with the inescapable security guard and presto!! I find him sitting on the opposite side on a parked scooter. I take up my position on a concrete slab under a nice shady tree and wait for miracle to happen.
We have now been waiting for 3 hours. Its been long, hot, unforgiving and I m beginning to slowly develop an admiration for Dilips ability to not move an inch. We can see a bike coming towards the flat. And stopping in front of it. And the guy riding makes a call on his mobile phone. Out comes our hero’s queen bounding towards the bike, gets on it and out they go riding into the sunset
Dilip still has not moved an inch. Well maybe his eyes do look wider but he has not moved at all. After what seems like an hour, he finally picks up his so far neglected bag and walks with a smile on his face and a confidence in his step against the sun set.
And Cut.
I ll meet you on the next adventure of Dilip.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
The Adventures of Dilip
The sun was shining hot and hard on the residents of Chennai. Our hero is no exception to this. He has a job that requires going out in the sun. By the time he returns home in the evening, he is quite beat up and can think about nothing other than sitting idly at home. Today also, its quite hot and our hero is standing waiting for the bus. He is sweating and wonders if his life will ever change for the better. He looks at the passing air conditioned car with longing and heaves a huge sigh of despair. The bus that he is waiting for arrives and Dilip gets onto the bus and to his relief it is almost empty and he easily finds a place to sit. The bus starts out towards Dilips stop. Just looking around, Dilip finds his roving eye stop quite suddenly at a point within the bus. Sitting close to the exit is a girl who seems to be engrossed in the music produced by her I Pod. Dilip has not seen such a girl in so far that he is able to remember. His stuck roving eye refuses to resume its journey. He lets out another sigh of despair. Now Dilip thinks he is best sales man in the entire world but has a complex about marketing himself to the faire sex. The product is way to complex to explain and the potential match probably has no reason to be convinced.
Dilip inspite of his reservations about his own ability continues to look at the girl. He notices her every action and it is like a goddess herself in his presence. Just a casual flick of a strand of hair stands magnified for Dilip in slow moving frames. Suddenly the heat of Chennai is lost on him. He hopes that the girl would get down before he does. And as if listening to his thoughts, the girl get up from her seat and in a moment of coincidence,(Dilip calls it destiny) looks at him. Now Dilip is probably finding his heart hissing within him and we shall just leave him savour a few seconds of his joy/misery in complete privacy.
Dilips stop arrives. But Dilip is not to be seen. In my moment of being gentlemanly, I ve let Dilip go out of my sight. He is nowhere within the bus. A harried enquiry with the conductor reveals that our man alighted at the previous stop presumably in tow with that girl. Making a beeline towards the previous stop, I find Dilip following the girl at a safe distance. The world is a complicated place but somehow Dilip seems to be oblivious to the fact. He is quite the clown. Darting in and out and keeping pace with her but not quite catching up with her. He wants her to look at him again and you can quite clearly see the anguish the poor soul is going through. The girl disappears into a flat with the inescapable security guard outside. Dilip follows only to be stopped by the security guy.
Where are you going? Sales people not allowed.
No sir that girl…. I m not here for sales… I just want to..
What nonsense…!! Get out of here before I have to do it the hard way..
I ll go sir.. Just tell me her name..
Get out right now..!!!
And so our dejected hero is seen walking back to the bus stop. Clearly he looks like as through he swallowed a big marble. Maybe its his pride. Looking downward and being listless. He reaches the bus stop to catch the bus to his real destination heart totally not in it. He has suddenly brightened up. Maybe the girl comes everyday in the bus at that time. This means that he could meet her tomorrow.
Oh brother.
to be continued..Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Just another boy meets girl story - Part 4
Life can either be seen as being dificult or easy compared to what your mindset is. When you have one focal point of attention, I guess life neither easy nor difficult. As in my case, my ony focus in life after shakti came home, was skahti. I saw shakti in every beautiful girl. I would have these imaginary conversations with shakti. Life was bliss. Conversations with her were good. What more could a guy want? Me, I wanted to know shakti more. I wanted to know that I was the only guy in her life. That I was the only one who could give her this much love. For me, Love ceased to be a feeling, it became my existence.
A month has passed since she came home. I was now getting desperate to know her feelings about me. We had been speaking for six months now and it was obvious that she liked me and I loved her. But did she love me? that was the question!! One fine day, This being a wednesday, I messaged her as usual in the evening after coming home. In the midst of our conversation via message, i slipped in the question and proposed. Silence. I am Nervously waiting, fingers crossed for the message to come back saying 'yes'. 2 minutes later, I got a call from her,
Hello
Hey Shakti,
Do you really mean what you ve said in that message?
Yes I do.(Heart beating hard, almost in my mouth)
Well, Its quite nice but........
................................................
................................................
I think she spoke about four lines after that but, but I was suddenly deaf as if my ears were recoiling in horror and not letting my body know what was happening. I just muttered
Ok so I ll catch up with you later and let the phone slip. To say that I was devasted would be an understatement. Tears were welling up in my eyes. If there was greater disappointment, I had not yet seen it. That night I lay down to sleep. With my eyes wide open.
It took me 2 days to get over my disappointment and I owe it to Divakar & Mike that I am still sane today. I had not spoken to her in those two days nor had she made any attempt to call. was this the end to a glorious six months? finally about a week after black wednesday, I called her.
Hi,
oh hi Dilip.
So how are you doing?
I m fine. how are you doing? I mean are you ok?
yeah i m fine(No i am not. why did you have to say that? why oh why?)
So you are not depressed or anything right?
I am depressed. But It becomes a little lighter everyday(just the opposite)
Oh thats nice to hear. I thought you would never call back and would be hating me now.
No way shakti, how could I hate you?(true, very true)
No you proposed and i rejected...
Please let us not talk about that. please..!!
ok. So when are your exams starting?
next week.
and hows cat prep?
going ok.
Do that well. forget all this ever happened.
yeah right. I ll call you later.(what I wanted to say was ' I ll forget that you rejected me. the rest I ll remember' but guts desert you when you need them the most)
All exams got over, weeks passed by. I was in a state where I had turned off my emotions and was just going through with my work. I still had the hope that this is just an initial rejection. maybe she was scared to say yes. I know she likes me. I should continue talking to her. But what if she really meant it? If she had seen me only as a friend. If the sparkle in my eye while speaking to her had eluded her? I rode my bike home on the last day of the exam.
I freshened up and was ready to eat lunch when I got a call from her.
Hey Dilip(all charged up and full of excitement)
Yeah shakti(wary, or tired maybe)
You know this guy anand i told you about a long time back.
yeah(who????)
Yeah, he proposed to me today.
oh........ I mean and.....
I accepted.
what????
yeah i told you I had a crush on him remember?
but, how, i mean why, i mean.. all the best..
what?
I mean i wish you guys a happy life and I am truly happy for you(tears flowing down, profusely)
I was scared i would burst out crying on the phone so i told her that i ll talk to her later and kept the phone down.My entire body was trembling. Lunch became irrelevant.
That day evening, i went to the besant nagar beach. I slipped off my sandals and walked barefoot along the shoreline. My mind was blank. I could not think of what to say or do. After nearly an hour of walking the coastline, i went home,mind a little more calm. It became easier for me to accept that she had been in love with him all this while. What was not easy was how did i not spot it? How could i be so Foolish and how could i let down myself. Love is not something that can be thrown out overnight and I still loved her,maybe still do. She was after all unique, My shakti. I slowly came out what I would call a fit. Took me close to a month where I became morose, untrusting and seldom smiling. A month passed by in the new year but I hardly noticed it. In this time, I did speak to her on a few occasions but these were immaterial. These did not hold on to me like before and I even stopped checking messages. That year, I joined work, moved to mumbai and she moved to bangalore. All with the promise to keep in to keep in touch.
Just another boy met girl story.
The End.
A month has passed since she came home. I was now getting desperate to know her feelings about me. We had been speaking for six months now and it was obvious that she liked me and I loved her. But did she love me? that was the question!! One fine day, This being a wednesday, I messaged her as usual in the evening after coming home. In the midst of our conversation via message, i slipped in the question and proposed. Silence. I am Nervously waiting, fingers crossed for the message to come back saying 'yes'. 2 minutes later, I got a call from her,
Hello
Hey Shakti,
Do you really mean what you ve said in that message?
Yes I do.(Heart beating hard, almost in my mouth)
Well, Its quite nice but........
................................................
................................................
I think she spoke about four lines after that but, but I was suddenly deaf as if my ears were recoiling in horror and not letting my body know what was happening. I just muttered
Ok so I ll catch up with you later and let the phone slip. To say that I was devasted would be an understatement. Tears were welling up in my eyes. If there was greater disappointment, I had not yet seen it. That night I lay down to sleep. With my eyes wide open.
It took me 2 days to get over my disappointment and I owe it to Divakar & Mike that I am still sane today. I had not spoken to her in those two days nor had she made any attempt to call. was this the end to a glorious six months? finally about a week after black wednesday, I called her.
Hi,
oh hi Dilip.
So how are you doing?
I m fine. how are you doing? I mean are you ok?
yeah i m fine(No i am not. why did you have to say that? why oh why?)
So you are not depressed or anything right?
I am depressed. But It becomes a little lighter everyday(just the opposite)
Oh thats nice to hear. I thought you would never call back and would be hating me now.
No way shakti, how could I hate you?(true, very true)
No you proposed and i rejected...
Please let us not talk about that. please..!!
ok. So when are your exams starting?
next week.
and hows cat prep?
going ok.
Do that well. forget all this ever happened.
yeah right. I ll call you later.(what I wanted to say was ' I ll forget that you rejected me. the rest I ll remember' but guts desert you when you need them the most)
All exams got over, weeks passed by. I was in a state where I had turned off my emotions and was just going through with my work. I still had the hope that this is just an initial rejection. maybe she was scared to say yes. I know she likes me. I should continue talking to her. But what if she really meant it? If she had seen me only as a friend. If the sparkle in my eye while speaking to her had eluded her? I rode my bike home on the last day of the exam.
I freshened up and was ready to eat lunch when I got a call from her.
Hey Dilip(all charged up and full of excitement)
Yeah shakti(wary, or tired maybe)
You know this guy anand i told you about a long time back.
yeah(who????)
Yeah, he proposed to me today.
oh........ I mean and.....
I accepted.
what????
yeah i told you I had a crush on him remember?
but, how, i mean why, i mean.. all the best..
what?
I mean i wish you guys a happy life and I am truly happy for you(tears flowing down, profusely)
I was scared i would burst out crying on the phone so i told her that i ll talk to her later and kept the phone down.My entire body was trembling. Lunch became irrelevant.
That day evening, i went to the besant nagar beach. I slipped off my sandals and walked barefoot along the shoreline. My mind was blank. I could not think of what to say or do. After nearly an hour of walking the coastline, i went home,mind a little more calm. It became easier for me to accept that she had been in love with him all this while. What was not easy was how did i not spot it? How could i be so Foolish and how could i let down myself. Love is not something that can be thrown out overnight and I still loved her,maybe still do. She was after all unique, My shakti. I slowly came out what I would call a fit. Took me close to a month where I became morose, untrusting and seldom smiling. A month passed by in the new year but I hardly noticed it. In this time, I did speak to her on a few occasions but these were immaterial. These did not hold on to me like before and I even stopped checking messages. That year, I joined work, moved to mumbai and she moved to bangalore. All with the promise to keep in to keep in touch.
Just another boy met girl story.
The End.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Just another boy meets girl story - Part 3
Its been going good. I like her better every day. I cant just stop talking about her to my friends. I cant help but reread the messages she sent and chuckle at them.BUT, the relationship is going nowhere. I really want to confirm that she likes me. That i am infact the special one for her. But how do i do it? Divakar, my friend, tells me to take it easy and look for the hints. Mike on the other hand tells me to go for it and break the silence on the issue. I am really really confused.
With these thoughts, I returned home that day and immediately checked for messages(becoming a habit you know!!). I was really in an advanced state of restlessness. There had been hints all along(or so i think). But do I take them to mean what i want them to mean? I decided that to pass time, i had to get her a gift. Now i know this sounds silly but by the time i could take to buy the gift, i could possibly reach a decision. I called my cousin sister bobo to ask for advice as to what to buy. My cousin was as usual more interested in whom i was buying it for rather than on what to buy. So i told her about part 1 & part 2 and asked for her advice too. After all she was a girl. Some guy must have fallen for her at some point of time!!
In retrospect, i got many opinions. But i finally decided to wait. And no I did not buy anything for her!
My birthday was fast coming up and so was the navaratri season. I finally thought of another way where i could meet her. I called up and invited her with family(my guts still make me shiver!!) to see the navratri kolu at my house. And to my joy, she agreed. And she said that she ll come on the day of my birthday which was also the last day of the navratri festival. Angelina Jolie coming to my house would not have made me more excited. I cleaned the house, dusted all stools, sofas, tables, cleaned all glasses and finally even gave my bike a special wash. And then waited.
The day arrived. She had told me that she'd come at 4.30 in the evening. I was ready at 3.45. At 4.30 i got a message saying that she was stuck in her relatives message and would come home at 6. No problem. Gives me more time to check if everything is ok. At 6, I got anoher message saying that she was stuck in traffic and would be home by 6.45. Now I was getting restless. I was sitting on my bike outside and looking at every passing car. And finally at 6.45, she said, Hey i m close to your house; Probably two minutes. Now my gaze was rivetted on the road. Slowly a green coloured car made its way to my house and finally stopped outside mine. I very nearly shouted out to everyone at home to get their act together. And out of the car came my princess. Those eyes again held me speechless. Flanked by her parents, she came inside and i introduced her to everyone at home. I was now for the first time at ease and feeling really good. But I guess i was sweating cos shakti asked, Isnt it really hot and humid today? I was as you d have guessed, mostly tonguetied to all these genralised make conversation questions. I mean how do i react?
well yeah.. but i guess chennai is like that only..
so here i am as promised.
cool. but looks like i m the only one keeping the time(with a sly smile)(idiot!!!)
I told you we got stuck, not really my fault.
I was just pulling your leg. relax.(i think that was more to myself).
So nice house you have.
Yeah its very comfortable and ideal.
And then the conversation mostly between the elders. My mom had made some sweets which i served. They all finished eating and shakti collected all the plates and took them to the sink inspite of me blocking her way imploring to give me the plates. I still remember what she was wearing that day. I m not gonna describe it but believe me when i say she looked super. And then came the dreaded words,
ok so we ll make a move,
and slowly(not enough) they trooped out of house, got into their car and drove away.
Physically i was left standing there smelling the exhaust but my heart was in the car. going away from me.
to be continued...
With these thoughts, I returned home that day and immediately checked for messages(becoming a habit you know!!). I was really in an advanced state of restlessness. There had been hints all along(or so i think). But do I take them to mean what i want them to mean? I decided that to pass time, i had to get her a gift. Now i know this sounds silly but by the time i could take to buy the gift, i could possibly reach a decision. I called my cousin sister bobo to ask for advice as to what to buy. My cousin was as usual more interested in whom i was buying it for rather than on what to buy. So i told her about part 1 & part 2 and asked for her advice too. After all she was a girl. Some guy must have fallen for her at some point of time!!
In retrospect, i got many opinions. But i finally decided to wait. And no I did not buy anything for her!
My birthday was fast coming up and so was the navaratri season. I finally thought of another way where i could meet her. I called up and invited her with family(my guts still make me shiver!!) to see the navratri kolu at my house. And to my joy, she agreed. And she said that she ll come on the day of my birthday which was also the last day of the navratri festival. Angelina Jolie coming to my house would not have made me more excited. I cleaned the house, dusted all stools, sofas, tables, cleaned all glasses and finally even gave my bike a special wash. And then waited.
The day arrived. She had told me that she'd come at 4.30 in the evening. I was ready at 3.45. At 4.30 i got a message saying that she was stuck in her relatives message and would come home at 6. No problem. Gives me more time to check if everything is ok. At 6, I got anoher message saying that she was stuck in traffic and would be home by 6.45. Now I was getting restless. I was sitting on my bike outside and looking at every passing car. And finally at 6.45, she said, Hey i m close to your house; Probably two minutes. Now my gaze was rivetted on the road. Slowly a green coloured car made its way to my house and finally stopped outside mine. I very nearly shouted out to everyone at home to get their act together. And out of the car came my princess. Those eyes again held me speechless. Flanked by her parents, she came inside and i introduced her to everyone at home. I was now for the first time at ease and feeling really good. But I guess i was sweating cos shakti asked, Isnt it really hot and humid today? I was as you d have guessed, mostly tonguetied to all these genralised make conversation questions. I mean how do i react?
well yeah.. but i guess chennai is like that only..
so here i am as promised.
cool. but looks like i m the only one keeping the time(with a sly smile)(idiot!!!)
I told you we got stuck, not really my fault.
I was just pulling your leg. relax.(i think that was more to myself).
So nice house you have.
Yeah its very comfortable and ideal.
And then the conversation mostly between the elders. My mom had made some sweets which i served. They all finished eating and shakti collected all the plates and took them to the sink inspite of me blocking her way imploring to give me the plates. I still remember what she was wearing that day. I m not gonna describe it but believe me when i say she looked super. And then came the dreaded words,
ok so we ll make a move,
and slowly(not enough) they trooped out of house, got into their car and drove away.
Physically i was left standing there smelling the exhaust but my heart was in the car. going away from me.
to be continued...
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Just another boy meets girl story - part 2
And so the contact was made. I was in seventh heaven and suddenly everything around me seemed to be happy and all flowers were blooming.
Its one month since i last saw shakti. I ve messaged her and called and shes reciprocated, but there is something in seeing a girl you like face to face that just does not match up to talking to her on the phone. I yearned to see her. I thought of many ideas by which i could make her come out and see me. Finally, one day, maybe a week after her birthday, she told me to come home and that she d come out with me for ice cream. Now you are probably guessing what effect this had on me. I ll just let you guess.
Its showtime!
I took a bath (that was the second one in 2 hours). I pulled out my best sports shirt and pulled out a fresh pair of jeans(I still thank god that none of my friends saw me that day. They d have rolled laughing all the way in to the sea seeing me so neat and presentable!). I think the maximum time I ve ever spent before the mirror in my life was on that day. All varieties of irregularities that I d never noticed before, showed up that day. I was whistling a song more out of nervousness than anything when i wheeled out my bike out of the garage. On the way to her place, I bought a potted flowering plant (my idea of something different). When i reached her flat, just before I rang the bell, panic took hold of me. What if either of her parents opened up? What do I introduce myself as? What if they ask uncomfortable questions? What do you intend to do with my daughter? How would I ever explain that all I wanted to do was to have a cup of ice cream with her? Swallowing my nervousness, i rang the bell. I could hear my heart beating rapidly as footsteps neared the door. I almost shouted out in joy when shakti opened the door. I still remember her, serene in pink, a whiff of fresh air on a hot day when she held the door open.
Hi.
............
hello.
...........
hey dilip!!
wha...? oh hi.. (you get the scene)
come on in.
oh sure. nice day isnt it?
yes it is. And boy are you a stickler for time!! I said 2 and you arrive 2 on dot!
well yeah(again would someone tell me what to say here?)
so n problems in finding the house?
oh no(as if any self respecting guy would ever accept that)
meet my dad- dad this is dilip, my friend from cat coaching
hello uncle.
hello my boy. whats that that you are carrying in your arm?
Oh this is for shakti-belated happy birthday shakti, hope you like it.
Oh i love it. Ok dad, we are goin out.
Take care dear.(what a cool dad!)(on the hindsight, i think maybe he though i din look like i d do anything to her). and be back in an hour.
(an hour - 60 mins, what a cool dad)
So where do you wanna go?
she thought for a while and said- why not we just walk to this icecream parlor nearby?
NO WAY. I d cleaned my bike for this and i had to take her on my bike. think think think.
I dont like the icecream served there. Lets go to Baskin and robbins on Cathedral road.
Ok boss, your choice.
So off we went. This must be the stairway to heaven. I could not decide between looking at the road ahead and checking the rear view mirror. The stop came soon enough. We got down and walked into the parlor. We ordered our stuff and sat down.
I really do not remember what we talked that day. All i can remember is, her eyes. Man what an angel. Man Oh man. Dilip you sure are lucky. Soon enough, One hour got over. (How is it that in movies alone one hour seems like a lifetime and they talk so much?? I smell a scam!!) I dropped her home. Every minute on the way seemed to pass like a second and in maybe 10 seconds, we were there outside her flat. She got down from my bike. I had to make the parting comment- thanks for the great evening.
oh yeah thanks. see you. bye. and she turned and walked inside
Blow me down.
To be continued...
Its one month since i last saw shakti. I ve messaged her and called and shes reciprocated, but there is something in seeing a girl you like face to face that just does not match up to talking to her on the phone. I yearned to see her. I thought of many ideas by which i could make her come out and see me. Finally, one day, maybe a week after her birthday, she told me to come home and that she d come out with me for ice cream. Now you are probably guessing what effect this had on me. I ll just let you guess.
Its showtime!
I took a bath (that was the second one in 2 hours). I pulled out my best sports shirt and pulled out a fresh pair of jeans(I still thank god that none of my friends saw me that day. They d have rolled laughing all the way in to the sea seeing me so neat and presentable!). I think the maximum time I ve ever spent before the mirror in my life was on that day. All varieties of irregularities that I d never noticed before, showed up that day. I was whistling a song more out of nervousness than anything when i wheeled out my bike out of the garage. On the way to her place, I bought a potted flowering plant (my idea of something different). When i reached her flat, just before I rang the bell, panic took hold of me. What if either of her parents opened up? What do I introduce myself as? What if they ask uncomfortable questions? What do you intend to do with my daughter? How would I ever explain that all I wanted to do was to have a cup of ice cream with her? Swallowing my nervousness, i rang the bell. I could hear my heart beating rapidly as footsteps neared the door. I almost shouted out in joy when shakti opened the door. I still remember her, serene in pink, a whiff of fresh air on a hot day when she held the door open.
Hi.
............
hello.
...........
hey dilip!!
wha...? oh hi.. (you get the scene)
come on in.
oh sure. nice day isnt it?
yes it is. And boy are you a stickler for time!! I said 2 and you arrive 2 on dot!
well yeah(again would someone tell me what to say here?)
so n problems in finding the house?
oh no(as if any self respecting guy would ever accept that)
meet my dad- dad this is dilip, my friend from cat coaching
hello uncle.
hello my boy. whats that that you are carrying in your arm?
Oh this is for shakti-belated happy birthday shakti, hope you like it.
Oh i love it. Ok dad, we are goin out.
Take care dear.(what a cool dad!)(on the hindsight, i think maybe he though i din look like i d do anything to her). and be back in an hour.
(an hour - 60 mins, what a cool dad)
So where do you wanna go?
she thought for a while and said- why not we just walk to this icecream parlor nearby?
NO WAY. I d cleaned my bike for this and i had to take her on my bike. think think think.
I dont like the icecream served there. Lets go to Baskin and robbins on Cathedral road.
Ok boss, your choice.
So off we went. This must be the stairway to heaven. I could not decide between looking at the road ahead and checking the rear view mirror. The stop came soon enough. We got down and walked into the parlor. We ordered our stuff and sat down.
I really do not remember what we talked that day. All i can remember is, her eyes. Man what an angel. Man Oh man. Dilip you sure are lucky. Soon enough, One hour got over. (How is it that in movies alone one hour seems like a lifetime and they talk so much?? I smell a scam!!) I dropped her home. Every minute on the way seemed to pass like a second and in maybe 10 seconds, we were there outside her flat. She got down from my bike. I had to make the parting comment- thanks for the great evening.
oh yeah thanks. see you. bye. and she turned and walked inside
Blow me down.
To be continued...
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Just another boy meets girl story
It was a Sunday and the day of the first mock-cat when I first set eyes upon her. It wasn’t the proverbial love at first sight but pretty damn close. I was busy admiring my toe nails when when a voice called out from the row in front of me.I turned up to see that a girl from the front was talkin to prasad, who was sitting next to me. Lila her name turned out to be. But what caught my eye was not the not so aptly named lila but that of the fair girl sitting next to her. Just for the sake of conversation, or maybe for some other untold reason, the fair one turned around to ask me if I had prepared for the test that day. With an expression on my face that I thought made me look like James Dean, I said ‘no’. This I think was a preliminary to all the no’s to come later albeit for different reasons.
The test started and as expected, turned out to be a disaster of epic proportions. But I wasn’t bothered as I knew that I was taking the test just to get a feel of what would ‘the mother of all entrance exams’ be like. I could always improve on my scores. But how often do you get oppurtunities when a pretty girl actually initiates the conversaton with you? It was just great. After the exam got over, I was more keen to talk again to the girl rather than to discuss what my potential results would be. I already knew it to be a disaster so what was the point anyway? And we met in the corridor outside the exam hall.
Hi.
Oh Hi. How did you do?(shit!!! She had to ask me that!!!)
Well I guess I did ok.(James Dean Anyone?)
So you engineers must have it easy. Always doin maths and all. All this must be a cinch for you.
(Oh absoloutely!!) Hmmm…(Someone tell me how to react here!!!)
Us BCom people are not cut out for this.
(Yessss!!! Here is my chance to cut in!!) Oh you are BCom… Which college?
Stella Marris
That’s great(For what joy!!) So how is college going?
Oh its goin great. Lots of fun
Dey. How did you do?
(Bastard. Bloody useless prick has to come in now!!)
I did it ok Prasad.
Who is this? (and by himself) Hi, I m Prasad.
Hi I m Shakthi.
(Shakthi. So that’s her name!! wow!! Whatta name!!)
And the banter went into these two talkin about the mock and I m just standing there waiting to strangle prasad any minute. And Oh Lila is walking towards us.
Shakthi can we leave? Its getting late.
Ok guys, bye.. gotta go..
(here I take all my courage in my two bare hands and go)
Do you have a number where I can contact you maybe.
Sure Its 9840* *****. Gimme a missed call for you no.
Have you ever felt weightless on earth? At that moment, I did.
To be continued...
The test started and as expected, turned out to be a disaster of epic proportions. But I wasn’t bothered as I knew that I was taking the test just to get a feel of what would ‘the mother of all entrance exams’ be like. I could always improve on my scores. But how often do you get oppurtunities when a pretty girl actually initiates the conversaton with you? It was just great. After the exam got over, I was more keen to talk again to the girl rather than to discuss what my potential results would be. I already knew it to be a disaster so what was the point anyway? And we met in the corridor outside the exam hall.
Hi.
Oh Hi. How did you do?(shit!!! She had to ask me that!!!)
Well I guess I did ok.(James Dean Anyone?)
So you engineers must have it easy. Always doin maths and all. All this must be a cinch for you.
(Oh absoloutely!!) Hmmm…(Someone tell me how to react here!!!)
Us BCom people are not cut out for this.
(Yessss!!! Here is my chance to cut in!!) Oh you are BCom… Which college?
Stella Marris
That’s great(For what joy!!) So how is college going?
Oh its goin great. Lots of fun
Dey. How did you do?
(Bastard. Bloody useless prick has to come in now!!)
I did it ok Prasad.
Who is this? (and by himself) Hi, I m Prasad.
Hi I m Shakthi.
(Shakthi. So that’s her name!! wow!! Whatta name!!)
And the banter went into these two talkin about the mock and I m just standing there waiting to strangle prasad any minute. And Oh Lila is walking towards us.
Shakthi can we leave? Its getting late.
Ok guys, bye.. gotta go..
(here I take all my courage in my two bare hands and go)
Do you have a number where I can contact you maybe.
Sure Its 9840* *****. Gimme a missed call for you no.
Have you ever felt weightless on earth? At that moment, I did.
To be continued...
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Clink clunk
There is nothing better that i would love to do than sit back on rainy day and watch the rain falling. On this particular day i doin precisely that when i got a call on my mobile phone. The id flashed office. I knew that there would be something in office that needs my urgent attention. I really did not want to get off my perch and disturb the tranquil that had developed in my mind. Maybe if i did not take the call, they would think that maybe i was sleeping, sunday that it happened to be. and maybe they would not call again. But then maybe what if that something that needed my attention could make the difference on my rather dull career. What if it got me the recognition, reward and remuneration that had eluded me all this while? Clink clunk Clink clunk Clink clunk Clink clunk Clink clunk Clink clunk Clink clunk Clink clunk Clink clunk Clink clunk Clink clunk. the drops of rain turn my attention briefly towards them. the phone goes on ringing incessantly. I finally take the call. As i expected, I have to go and check out a particular piece before 10,000 more of such could be machined and sent off. I get off the couch, get dressed and drive to office. On the way, the rain keeps on hammering away on the roof of my car as if imploring me to give back the lost attention to it. I drive to office, ok the piece and come out. the sun is hining, it seems the rain has gone away. maybe its angry. oh well. I turn the other way and my desk looks up at me. shocked that i might me hallucinating, i turn the other way to see my computer screen flickering away with the words above. maybe i am not hallucinating now. or maybe i am.
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