Excerpts from Life in Another Metro

Here, you will get to test your patience. If you can get to the end of this post without a feeling of boredom shifting your cursor to the little cross-mark on the top right corner, you know you are a patient soul.

I am in Mumbai, People! With two others who, like me, have never ever been on a trip like this one before. One of us has never been to this city before so its an entirely new experience for her while the other has lived here for a considerable time (which effectively means- we always have an unpaid guide by our side).
What makes this trip so different? 
Well, firstly, its just the three of us. We manage our own chores. And by that, I mean every task imaginable.  Buying grocery, using it to cook our own meals, eating whatever we cook regardless of the taste and loving it at the same time.(We have cooked a couple of things and, surprisingly they've all turned out quite well. Edible. Tasty.) We live in a teeny tiny walk up- complete with a refrigerator and plenty of freedom. Living in a city alone makes you see it in a light you would have never seen, were you accompanied by your family.

The start was eventful enough with my breaking of the wash-basin in the bathroom of our landlady's house. Needless to say, she's not our landlady anymore.
Local trains are not as bad as they are thought to be. They are the 'metro minus the air-conditioning, sliding doors and the weird-sounding lady announcer'. In fact, the relatively new local trains do have a lady announcer who sounds more human and less of a parrot(comparison with the Delhi metro).
Then there are the people here. 'Bindaaas' is the only way to describe them.

Wich Latte, Cossway

NOTE:
To shop at reasonable rates visit Cossway, near Gateway of India. Bargain your way through some really awesome stuff. There is a 98.9% chance that you will overspend and get value for your money. (0.1% chance that you don't overspend and 1% chance that you can't bargain). With a considerably lighter wallet, stop over at a cafe for your favorite beverage. And just in case shopping (or drinking) bore you to death, take a buggy ride to Marine drive. Or take a walk through the crowded roads that were witness to the 26/11 terror strike. As luck would have it, we went there- neither once nor twice, but thrice!

Some ten days later...

The Mumbai monsoons are upon us. The only problem is navigating the narrow lanes without the aid of rubber rain boots. Not that I ever used them before. I don't even own them. But now I wish I had them. Mumbai draws a few parallels from an ant colony. No amount of rain or sun can stop the people here from going about their business. The first day it poured heavily- we stayed in due to sheer laziness, under the impression that the flooded streets would result in walking in ankle-deep sludge. The second day, we ventured out anyway. Destination - Powai. One of the few places where a little greenery is visible in Mumbai.
Kung Fu Panda 2 's awesomeness blinded me like no other animated movie has ever done before. iMax 3D is simply too good to be true.(I like writing iMax the way I did.The inspiration is too obvious to be stated.)


Bombay was the perfect name for this city. Just like Bangalore is way better than Bengaluru.  But the Shiv Sena and its bunch of goons decided that 'Bombay' was a corrupted English version of 'Mumbai'. The British did hordes of bad things to India and its resources. Agreed. But christening the 'gateway to India' as 'Bombay' is certainly not one of them.The national government actually objected to this renaming, fearing 'Bombay' would lose its identity internationally.It hasn't. Foreigners still refer to Mumbai as Bombay. Ha ha.

Now that this first of its kind trip draws to a close, I guess I should conclude this post too and enjoy the last night in this city (on this trip).

In God's Land

How could I complain about life being dull? It can be boring at times, I agree. But dull it certainly is not. Here's why.

Rewind to the morning of 9^th May.
College mates and adventure - a  marvelous combination. From jumping off a cliff into the Ganges to climbing down a vertical mountain face, white water rafting over a 16 kilometers stretch to an early morning nature walk – we did it all. Not to mention the trek up and down a hill along a pre-chalked out path complete with slippery steep regions and a silent zone(Its a human settlement, so you are absolutely prohibited from as much as whispering here. Nevertheless, this is where one of us started singing 'We are the Champions' at the top of his lungs and progressed to singing a few Christmas carols before somebody told him about the zone being a silent one) and a cleanup region(where we were supposed to pick up all the non-biodegradable junk careless mountaineers leave behind. Here we found out the brand of gutka (or pan masala) preferred by people while trekking. We stayed in a cozy little tent complete with an attached washroom. (Tents should be made up of sound-proof material. Even the people trying hard not to eavesdrop can hear everything you say. And whispering doesn't help either.)
Jumping off a cliff into a river is not really that tough. All you need to do is get to the edge, close your eyes, and take a step forward. Gravity will take over and the water below will cushion your fall(almost always). I never understood the power of the potential energy being stored in a object due to the work done on the object by gravity as well as I did during that 3 second fall.
Caves behind waterfalls have neither algae nor bats (or vampires). At least the one I went to only had loads of green surfaced-rocks, a marvelous view and a rare kind of peace and quite.
Most important lesson learnt: When on a bus full of your peers, take care not to fall asleep. Because if you do, you will regret it. Facebook will make sure that even the people who weren't on the bus get to know how peaceful you look while you sleep.

Though I am trying to give words to this experience of a lifetime, memory alone can do justice to this trip. Words simply cannot describe how exhilarating and rejuvenating a trip it was.
Pictures, you say? A few of them, I did manage. Just me and my ghisa-pita phone-cum-camera.

The End Of the Beginning

Today marks the end of one year of college life. No longer freshers with shiny faces,we are now the all-knowing second-year students rearing to have a go at the humungous work and bucketful of fun in the academic year to come.[We have repeatedly been told how ' your workload is nothing compared to ours. ' Its funny how seniors (be it the ones in school or college) always say that.] But we need to contain this steam because its still three entire months before college restarts. Till then it is Fun, fun, fun.


And when it comes to fun - nothing is fun on an empty stomach. So, we celebrated the end of  the end-semester exams with a visit to Pizza Hut. And the best(and most delicious) part was the cheese cake(see pic, if you haven't already).

There are so many things that need to be done during the vacations. Not to mention the great list of must-watch movies to be released this summer. So much to look forward to apart from the usual hobbies which are almost always neglected during term time. Its exciting just to think about it all.


P.S.: This post was due to be posted on 29th April 2011. No explanations available for the delay.

First Things First ?

Hardly the time to be writing a blog post but then, its been a while since I sat down to write something significant and even if its only a blog post, I like to think of it as doing something constructive(though at this point of time it most certainly is not).

I thought of numerous things that can be recorded here but are they significant enough? The significance of most things can rarely be fully comprehended. Anyway, usually some thought goes into my posts but this time I feel I must have one impromptu post. One which does not include me thinking about a specific something and then taking some time pondering over what all can be said about it.
 And I came up with something but suddenly as if on cue, a chat message started flashing in my gmail tab and before I knew, I was chatting to people about all kinds of relevant and irrelevant stuff. Then I started browsing about some random stuff and after an hour or two of that a little something in the back of my head reminded me of the homework I had to submit next weekend.So, I got down to look into the related specifics. Then when I decided to call it a day and was getting ready to sleep like a log, I remembered my original agenda. And it hit me (its hit me previously too but never with the same intensity) : That is how things I plan to do never get done. Because I usually get distracted by something or the other. But then after that brief distraction I should revert back to my original work. But I don't. I should. I will.

H v/s H

Being home after a particularly long spell in hostel, I grabbed one of the most fluffiest pillows on my bed and settled down. Two minutes into this semi-sleepy state, the following came to me:

1.) Home - means food is only a few steps away and every time you hear an odd rumble, you don't have to walk a few hundred meters to satisfy your hunger pangs.

2.) Home is spacious.You can jump, dance and hop all you want without the fear of hitting some random piece of furniture. On the other hand, hostels provide you just enough room to study, sleep, etcetra, etcetra...but NO jumping and absolutely NO dancing.

3.) Take a really prolonged bath. And if in the due course there is no banging on your door asking ...nay, ordering you to come out asap- you know you are at home.
And if its Holi, 'you gotta be home'. Or stay that tinge of green, red, pink, orange, purple, black or silver (or all together) till you get home.

4.) Going home on the very weekend a live band is performing in (almost)your college grounds implies there's a 99% chance you are going to miss an Awes..full ...Awesfull performance. It should actually have been 100% if unlike me, you don't believe in miracles.

Yawn...Post Holi lethargy catching up with me.
Continue this in another post.

Will Magic Be Recreated This Summer ?

                              

They are all lined up neatly for the summer vacations 

| Spider-man 4: May 2011 |

| Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part2: July 2011 |

| The Dark Knight Rises : July 2011 |

    Spider-man. And Tobey McGuire immediately springs up in my mind's eye. For all those who aren't too keen on the Spider-man movies, Tobey McGuire is to Spider-man as Daniel Radcliffe is to Harry Potter. Now, if you are not familiar with Daniel Radcliffe or Harry Potter, then you are seriously not living in this world.You need to start being a part of this world. HP will be talked about in another post.
Spider-man 4 is scheduled to be released sometime in May this year. And  oh, the wait ! Tobey has passed on the spidey mantle to Andrew Garfield. In all probability, Carnage and hobgoblin are going to turn up in this one. But the anticipation is high. Will the movie be as good as the previous ones?

Sequels rarely work out as well as the previous flicks when the lead characters are changed. Agreed, Andrew Garfield is better looking than Toby. But then behind that red and blue suit spider man jumpsuit is a nerd's face. Peter Parker is a nork(hybrid of a nerd and a dork) and the more the directors stick to this reality, the better it'd be for them (and the movie series). I wonder how long it'll be before people start associating Spider-man with Andrew Garfield. Eternity would be my guess.

The Dark Knight Rises : Christopher Nolan's third and last installment of the current batman franchise. I am eager to see how the addition of Anne Hathway affects the movie.(She'll be portraying cat woman ) She's done a few action movies before so, she obviously has a certain amount of experience but how a tight black suit affects her acting prowess is yet to be seen. (Frankly, I am not a huge fan. Sib usually made me watch batman movies (and the cartoon too !! ) and after watching 'The Dark Knight' , the result is this: He doesn't have to force me anymore. ) The one thing I am going to miss terribly in this movie is, Heath Ledger's amazing acting.


                                  

Addiction

Addiction - they say is bad , but is it ?

Most things can be classified into a number of categories and I just figured that addiction follows that rule too. You can be addicted to almost everything or nothing at all. Anything that completely engulfs you and leaves no room for anything else is termed as addiction.You simply cannot live without it. If addicted to alcohol, liver cirrhosis will eventually become a part of you while tobacco addiction will considerably reduce the distance you need to cover on the road labeled Life. ( Fyi, besides being a major cause of cancers and respiratory disorders, tobacco consumption also increases the risk of a heart attack or stroke.) Drug addicts are no different and by the time they are finished with drugs( or the drugs are finished with them), only a shadow of their previous self remains. Most of them look little better(and sometimes worse) than a corpse.Internet addiction is another one that is clubbed along with these three.But I'd like to honour this one with a post of its own.
Then there is addiction to music, novels, and all sorts of stuff. But these activities are healthy as long they are  practiced at the right time.I'd prefer to replace the word addiction by the love of music, etc, etc.
You might also be addicted to fun ... pure undiluted fun that will make you highly allergic to work.Trust me, this is Bad. Been there. Done that. I know its Bad.
Tobacco, alcohol and drug addiction are undeniably, forms of escapism. A simple and self-destructive way out of a situation. Literally making a part of your brain numb and oblivious to certain things around you. But the rest, I am not even sure should be referred to as addiction since the word is considered to be synonymous with evil by many.
The point I am trying to make or rather the question here is - Till what extent can you go before your addiction ruins you?? In a way, you could be called lucky if you are alcoholic or a chain smoker, for then you have a solution - rehabilitation centres and counsellors etc, etc...but otherwise who can you go to other than the latter(most shirk away from this considering it to be a sign of weakness)? Who decides where and when to draw the line? Usually, people don't come to know when they cross the line and turn into addicts.They just take the plunge and don't realize the magnitude of damage they are incurring on themselves untill its too late.
So, lesson to be learnt : Always take the right path not the easy path and if you get both , then you are *el.you.see.kay.why.* . 

5 Days and 7 Hours

"Everything comes together ...its me.... I chose this ... I chose all of this.... this rock has been waiting for me my entire life ... ever since it was a meteorite million billion years ago .... its been waiting to come here...I have been moving towards it my entire life and every breath I have taken, every action... has been leading me towards this crack on the outer surface"


Hope you like your rock when you find it (unlike Aron Ralston).
Though, this encounter with the rock cost him his arm, he must have been thankful to it.
After all, it altered the entire course of his life ... for better.
A MUST-WATCH.

It's in the Air

The season of spring's approaching and a pleasant balmy breeze blows all day long. Other things coming up : a test, a marriage in the family (Yipee... I am attending :D), another test(s) and mid-sem exams (in that order). And various miscellaneous events at college. And Holi is coming up too. But its still a good one and half month away from now. Plus I'd like to devote another post to that.So, I'll leave it at that.

And yeah ... St. Valentine's execution day is just around the corner too. The most plausible story behind 14th February runs as follows :
Claudius II announced a ban on marriage because he believed that marriage made young men emotionally unfit to become good soldiers. But, St. Valentine, a priest defied the emperor's direct order by secretly joining young lovers in holy matrimony and was arrested for his actions. During his imprisonment, a deep friendship developed between Valentine and his jailor's (previously blind) daughter (whom he cured through his strong vehicle of faith - Catholic interpretation or some miraculous powers - Protestant interpretation ). Impressed by his conduct, the emperor tried to convert Valentine to the Roman Gods but Valentine instead tried to convert the emperor. This angered Claudius and he ordered Valentine's execution. Valentine signed a note addressed to the jailer's daughter as "From your Valentine" -  a phrase that became immortal along with Valentine's name. But it is widely believed that his execution had more to do with agape than Eros (Use your favorite search engine here, if the need be).

So, things are lined up neatly for the next few days.  ;)

The Good Ol' Days

Everytime I close my eyes and think about 'em, here is what I get....

School : Four Faces. School : March past . School : White and blue.

School : Cool winter dress. School : Neighbours. School : Prayers. School : Grounds . School : Humming . School : Races.

A few instances I can recall.... for now.

The Principal : She was popularly referred to as IAD( Invisible After Dark). To fully appreciate the humor behind this name you have to see her with your own eyes.But a majority of our school was sure she had supernatural powers. You would find her at every corner and in every corridor. And god forbid (!!)anyone put a single toe over the line...well...IAD would turn up. The ventilator was her favorite means of spying on the lot of us(students and teachers both). Had the ventilator not served so many purposes( sneaking out , spying on people outside , ventilating the room in the hot weather..etcetra...etcetra...)

The 'Group': Funny yet true story. The house captain "Premiises" comes up and tells(more appropriately commands) us to attend the council meeting. Confused and wondering what we had done to be this situation we turned up for what later turned out to be a complete waste of time and a huge strain on our vocal chords. Premiises claimed that we were spreading rumors of our group "Aryans" being a gang. Simply Preposterous. The council had enough issues without adding this to their list. After a heated argument we managed to clear the air about a few points. The name 'Aryans' was coined by a girl called Cha***. And she was the one responsible for making it well known that Aryans was not a civilization.

The Guttar : Yeah the 'Guttar' ...favorite hangout. Securing a place at the Guttar (near the junior wing) was the first thing we did everyday during lunch break. Not being able to do so would put us off and we had to eat at another place that did not have the shade , breeze(occasionally) and overall noisy aura that the Guttar offered.

Cho-Cho : Don't know how it came into existence but that is how she was referred to as since times immemorial. I don't remember her ever being called by her real name. She provided way too many laughs, sticks(wouldn't like to elaborate on that ...not very pleasant) and free periods.

There are so many things I would like to talk about but I'll do that at a time when I am nostalgic enough to remember everything(or close to everything).