Beginning of a return ?

Woh kehte hai na ki ek halki si hawa bhi kabhi phoolon ke barsaat laati hai.
Kaash yeh bhi unh phoolon jaisa hota, naazukh aur pyaari.

Still confused as to how to write down my "dil ki bhadass". Let's see kuch na kuch aa hi jaayega. Sometimes it takes the slightest of push to turn something tipsy-turvy. Well, subaah bas ek board dekh li aur gaya mera mood. Ek saffed board jis par uski company ka naam tha. Shayad woh uski company ka cab bhi nahi hoga, lekin kya kare kambhakt dil ko bas ek jhalak hi kaafi hoti hai. Aur ho gayi saari din ki tai tai phus. Na jaane kyun aaj bhi woh chehra aankhon ke saamne yunh hi aa jaata hai. Woh kehte hai na, dil ki lagi sabse zor ki lagti hai. Aaj to rone ka bhi mann kar raha hai aur hasne ka bhi. Yaadon ne to rula diya lekin brain to mazaak udda raha hai ki woh kaise abhi bhi tujhe aise touch kar sakti hai.
Is kashmokash mein to aaj saara din nikal gaya. Na thik se kaam kar paaya aur na thik se hass. Waise rona dohna bandh aur back to recollecting aaj ka din.
So another Monday comes by. Btw, I went to Mom's place this weekend after, I think around, 4~5 months. Ammachi seemed so happy to see her eldest grandson again and Maamu ki Jaan seemed his usual self. Waise, it was fun to travel in the bus from Trivandrum to Adoor. Seemed like the old days were back. Those 3 hours on Sat afternoon, magical moments that leave me wanting for more. Wind in my hair and the shaking of the KSRTC bus while keeping my nose inside some novel. Oh, this time it was JK's book for company. "Immortals of Meluha" by Amish Tripathi. Something based on Shiva, the trilogy is named as "Shiva trilogy". Turning one of the most eccentric Hindu Gods into a man of flesh and blood. Whose deeds led him to transform from an ordinary human to one of the Triune Gods. I may hurt some sentiments here with all this words, but then who cares what you think. This is my place of "F&**@*@&^" expression. Anyways, reached Adoor in like under 2.5 hours and then a bus to Mom's place, Chandanapally. A small walk home, under the moonlight... Sigh. Reached home, Ammachi was alone in the kitchen. Maamu was still at the library with his bunch of friends. Had a small chat with ammachi, then a quick dinner and after that back to Meluha. Sorry, the dinner wasn't quick enough since Bincy "aunty" and Sundar ji had to call up in between. Bincy "aunty" doesn't need to have anything in particular to call me up but Sundar was planning for another movie outing. First show of the "Second Show". Made plans to reach TVM before 6 so as to catch the movie and then back to Meluha(again).
Woke up late on Sunday, as usual, and no going to Church. Ammachi woke me up at 6 in the morning and yet I somehow excused my self from attending the Mass, half-awake. Seems like I argue better hald-awake. ;) Should try it out at office someday. Drooping head in the meeting and slurry speech. Would be one for the record books, or better videos. So back to Sunday, woke up at ~10:30 and straight to kitchen for the tea. Armed with tea and laptop, I walked into the Hall wanting to switch on the TV instead. Thought against it and started watching "It's kinda funny story" on laptop. Got bored and closed lap before switching on to Meluha. Finished up 75% by the time I had to leave for Trivandrum. A quick bath and then the rush to bus stop as usual. Speaking of the bus stop, standing there made me go on a flashback. I used spend my times in the bus-stop fighting with Spoon over SMSes while waiting for the bus to arrive. Thought of SMSing her but then hesitation. Woh kehte hai na, ki kaafi din ho gaye msg behjkar. Agar abhi bheja to kaisi lagegi, wagera wagera. So didn't msg her and spent the time doing nothing. Bus came after 20 mins of wait and then a quick drive to Adoor. Caught the first KSRTC bus to Trivandrum. It was mostly empty and so I sat on the seat opposite to the door. Got back to Meluha after paying for the ticket. Finished it up before reaching Kilimanoor, I think, and then the usual job :  mouth-watching.  In between Sundar called a few times to know where I had reached. Somehow reached the city. Called up Shekhar to transport a packet to Kani as I had to reach Ajanta for the show. After passing the Achar packet to Shekhu at PMG, I called up Sundar who said that there  was only 1 last balcony ticket which he took. Since he wasn't sure if I would reach on time, he didn't take the risk of getting two tickets. So I got down at next stop, near the Govt. Students' Hostel. Walked past the State Central Library and then a circuitous road back home. Dinner, a few chats and then a tight sleep.
Monday morning. Got up pretty early, by my standards, at ~6:45am. Next the daily activities and Run for the cab. Speaking of which, I think the cab seems to be growing smaller with every passing day. As the number of daily "regular" travelers are increasing, the size of cab seems to be decreasing. Anyhow, I managed a seat, thought of bringing out "The Fountainhead" for a quick read but gave up seeing the number of people already present. It seemed a bit of a choc-a-bloc. Reached office, and oh yes, saw Meher's company bus on the way. :P
The first mail I saw was from Arun chettan asking how we missed an important functionality for the last week's release. What a way to start off the perfect day. Anyways, replied the mail and went for breakfast. Wanted to bring back my appetite and so ordered 2 Aloo paranthas. Ate through them while sipping the rich Banglore coffee. Just thinking of it seems to make my tongue salivate. After that, back to office and a few goofing before lunch. Lunch and then back to office. The gloomy mood still stuck made work seem so boring. Thought of leaving early today and working the extra hours the next day. Anyhow, sat through till 6:15pm after which I couldn't bear the melancholy that had descended on me. Speaking of 6:15, it was the time I used to excuse my self for a water break and to watch her leave for the day.. Sigh. Ab to bas aahein barthe raho. A ride back home on JK's bike and dinner at KSRTC. That pretty much sums up for the weekends and today.

This is Jo signing off,
Adios

Days in Kolkata

So much to add, yet so lazy to write.. :P

It's almost 6 days in Kol, and I'm yet to meet my classmates. Going on small recap for the last few days.
Day I
Landed at 2:30 in the afternoon, waited for around half an hour so that Pops and Mom would pick me up. Came home, met Kaku(Sultan uncle) and family. Kusum seems to have grown up so much. BTW, she was unable to recognize me, thanks to the "not-so-wonderful" mustache that I had grown over the last 2 weeks. Anyways, had to shave it off because of Mom's wish. Went to Church for the pre-Christmas services. Adding to all this, it was damn cold when I landed. People were saying 24th was the coldest day of the week till now.. :(. So attended a service in Church after, I think, 3 or 4 months. Oh yes, at church, I fell asleep standing twice or thrice. Came back to senses when I was like gonna fall. The "kick", as they said in Inception. Now what could I do, when you get up at 4 in the morning and catch only a few naps in the flight. Came back home and had to sleep early for the next day. ;)
Day II
Mom woke me up at 4 again. But then, when was I gonna straighten up. Got up from bed at 4:30 and then a hurried bath. Freezing temperatures and I get to pour cold water on my face. Anyways, Mom to the rescue. She made some hot water for the bath. Oh yes, I was finally able to breathe out "smoke", like in the old school days. So after the "quick" bath, got dressed and went to church with mom, dad and sis. Ya, even my Bhootni is in town for the Christmas holidays. Attended the service with a few "kicks" in between/ Had to meet up Achan. He's related from my Mom's side, as if there was any dearth of religious officials in the family. Came back home, had breakfast and then straight to bed. Aaah, missing those moments already. When we used to come from Church, have lunch and then straight to bed. Waking up to watch F1 races on the TV. Screech, reality check.. Woke up at around 5pm, almost 8 hours of sleep in the afternoon, no wonder I never knew how 25th passed away so quick. Anyways, Mom was ready with chicken and roti for dinner. Speaking of Christmas dinner, the wine bottle that I bought is still unopened. Hoping to open it before the year end.
Day III
Monday was the day for shopping. Mom was already geared up to finish up all the shopping before hand this time. She made sure that all our shopping lists were ready before we left. Bought slippers for Mom, Dad, Bhootni and me. Also, wallet for Sundar and myself. Another thing in mind was Bhootni's new cell. Her cell was stolen on her birthday. Poor thing, went for writing exam and by the time,she was back, someone had stolen her cell. Got her a new cell, Nokia C2-03, and also one for Pops, Samsung (not sure of the model). That was real unexpected for me, buying Dad a mobile. Anyways, bought all those stuff and came to Khidderpore. Dad had another plan in mind. A family photo for all time sake. So we were off in different directions, me and dad for buying paneer while mom and bhootni went off for buying other stuff. Met up in front of studio, then the photo session. After that, bought a parcel of veg chow for the whole family and then back to home, sweet home.
Day IV
Dad was supposed to get Bhootni's DD on 2nd. Made him go to the bank on Tuesday itself. Was a blessing in disguise, as the bank is supposedly on strike for 2nd Jan. Anyways, made our, Me and Dad, to Dad's office area. The banks are all situated there, wishing that no one from office saw Dad roaming there. Dad's on a 2 month hiatus. He met a small accident at church, burnt a bit of his skin in boiling water just for fun. Anyways, he's got a variable BP now, thanks to that accident. :P A cholestrol check shows his count to be on the higher side. Seems like masti ke din are over for Pops. He's stopped smoking, something good finally. So since he supposed to be at home, recovering, a sighting would be so disasterous. So somehow, we managed to navigate thru those streets and get the things done until we were ready to go home. Met one of the office staff on our way out of the place. :P Now that's too good a luck but then, people understand and so dad's safe for now. Came back home after having some veg chow for lunch. BTW, Dad's not allowed to have oily food and so this is the last time he's gonna have that with me around.
Day V
Mom and Dad came up with the wonderful idea of going to Bandel church. It seems like a routine now, to visit Bandel Church when I'm in town. So another early morning rising, by my standards, at 8. Another round of quick freshening up and then off to station for catching the Bandel local. Thankfully, the train was 10 mins late and so we didn't have to wait much. Reached Bandel, caught an auto to the church and reached in 10 mins. The sight was shocking as the place was overrun with people, far more than I ever expected. Some of them seemed to be out for tour, busy posing and snapping up pictures. Even I was gonna snap up a few pictures, but seeing this, I gave up. Next in line was to buy candles. Mom, Dad and Bhootni went inside the room where candles were being sold while I stood outside. Watched so many people moving in and out that I was starting to wonder if this was the wrong place. Because, the last time I was here, there were roughly 50 people in the whole premises. The atmosphere, back then, was so calm and conducive to praying. All the present hustle bustle left my mood all F&@*@#^ up. I was now going thru the motions with Mom and Dad. Lighted candles. said a silent prayer and moved on to the next place. Felt so "dhongi" type, that I am unable to explain the crawling in my skin. Somehow, I lasted thru the whole exercise without shouting "WTF" out loud. Even had our lunch just ouside the church compound, as in every trip we made for the past 20 years, i think. Came back home and then went to Smitha chechi's house. Her Dad's ex-military, so we buy food stuffs thru him. Landed at their place at 7:30, i think, and had a long chat, or should I say Dad had a long chat. Till mom called on my cell, at around 8:30. On the way back home, picked up 3 packets of veg chow, for mom, bhootni and me. Oh, don't worry, that was just a gap filler. I had a few more chappattis after that for dinner.. :P
Day VI
Woke up late today as there wasn't much planned. However, Mom had to go to church as part of her responsilibities. She is supposed to help with the Church dispensary for today and tomorrow. And then, me and dad went to BSNL office to get the EVDO card. It was quite a hassle, believe me. Spent around 3 hours for a job that would have taken only 1 hour at the most. On top of that, the first card they gave had "FAULTY" written on top of it. Had to show it specifically to get it replaced. WTF. Anyways, got it replaced and came back home. Dad had to go for checkup for his variable BP and so Mom and Dad left for the doctor's place. Meanwhile, after lunch, i went upstairs to relive a few memories. Met a few old friends and came back downstairs. And finally, this entry happened..

This is Jo signing off,
Adios.

Meandering thoughts

A late entry again. Something that I penned, err.. typed while on my way back from office.

The rain gods seem to wake up in the evening these days. Travelling in a cab with all windows closed seems so suffocating but there seems to be no other option for the time being. Back at work, my mind seems to be stuck at some place, the pace of work so slow. My first task seems tough, there seems to be a lot of loopholes. Hoping that it doesn't turn into a nightmare. Btw, the leaves for the exams have been accepted and now all that remains is to study. God help me with that. Speaking of God, it looks i'm drifting away from the Christian way of life. Life seems to a meandering stream with no specific goals. Seems like the rain has stopped, Yippee ! Speaking of rain, missing those hot coffee on balcony times at Kani.*dreamy eyes * Back to reality, the bus is stuck, as usual, in a block. More time to write, err.. type. Flow gaya :-x..
Got lost in the songs being played in the cab. Most of them are of the romantic oldies, shit.. Starting to feel sleepy, effects of the songs :-x.. Anyways, looks like it's gonna be long ride to home, stuck at Sreekariyam for some time now. I'm off to surrender to the songs, err.. sleep.#

Re-Union of sorts

Creativity jumps at you from the wrong places. Long time since I last blogged and it seems pretty tiresome to blog after a hard day at work. So here at the beginning of this new week, I'm back to blog. Recalling stuffs hasn't been my forte and so this may seem like an abridged version of events. Last week, I had a small trip to Kannur. How to classify the trip would be a near to impossible thing, as it was almost a re-union, a marriage visit, an excursion, a sleepover and what not. So begins this account of my latest foray to the Malabar side.

We had this trip planned a long time back, mostly banking on the fact that Monday,the actual marriage day, would be a holiday for most of us. Yet as the date came close, most of us couldn't get our leave sorted out. So it forced us to pre-pone the trip by a day or two. Friday night was settled as a beginning of the journey. As usual, I was late to reach the station and thanx to Jazz, the guy's a gem in case of trouble, I reached just in time. Ghosh was already there in the train waiting for me. The fact of the situation was that only two of us were making the trip that day, or literally night. Anyways after a fairly uneventful journey, we reached Kozhikode in the morning, late by an hour or so. There was an intended meeting of the Infy girls and us at Kozhikode at 6 in the morning, Saturday. But thanks to great Indian Snake that didn't happen. So we went straight to Thampi's house. BTW, we had some friends of Ghosh to guide us the way, friends he made on the train. So we reached Thampi's dwelling but not before a long walk thanx to our eagerness to get down before the actual stop.

A break in the real world, went to make coffee to stay up long. It's around 1:30 in morning.

Anyways, after a morning jog and a freshning up at Thumps' place, we left for Kozhikode stand, the meeting place. We met Lekshmi, our bhujji, who's currently in NIT,Calicut doing her Master's. Makes me think on Vaarnum Aayirum every time I think of girls doing Master's away from home. Coming back to point, she wasn't gonna come with us 'coz some report stuff had come up. So we six, Thampi, Ghosh, Me, Prinku, Manjaly and Spoon, made our way to Kannur. We took the bus, instead of the train, for that section of journey. Experience is the greatest teacher and so we now know that train is the best way to Kannur. Anyways, having journeyed continuously for 4&1/2 hours, we reached Payyanur. From there, Soumya, the would-be bride, picked us up. Got a small treat from her for being so late. We promised to be there by 1 and we landed there around 4, i think. We ordered drinks for all, strictly non-alcoholic :). After that, straight to her home. It would be better to say we swam through currents, fought the tempest, vanquished the fire and rode through deserts to make it to our fountain of youth. Finally we reach her place. What a place that was, mind-blowing. Pure heaven on earth, I'm exaggerating but close. It was lush greenery around, a few miles and you could step into Karnataka and a jog the other way would take you to Kasargod. Kidding guys, but far from the hustle-bustle of city, this was like heaven. The place was teeming with life. People all round, getting ready for an important day that was soon to be on them. Got a warm welcome there, made us forget how tired we were and then the gift session. I seem to be in a hurry to finish this account, and why not, given that I have been sitting with this for the last 2 hours. We had a great lunch at 4:30 in evening, fried rice and Kerala Chicken curry, made me look a steam-engine with smoke through my eyes and ears :). It was simply too good to be true, the people, the food and the atmosphere. Makes me yearn for another trip back.

Next on cards was our trip to the fields and the streams nearby. Thanks to Ghosh's curiosity, we, atleast some of us, got a first-hand experience of pisi-therapy. Some photo-session and then back to Soumya's place. From there, a straight journey to Kozhikode via Payyanur. Reached there late @ 10pm. Got a treat from Prinku as it was her birthday. Then after some shopping, the girls made it Prinku's home for the night. They had to catch the 1am bus to Mysore. After goodbying then, we left for Thampi's place. A good night sleep after a heavy-duty dinner.

The next day, we reached Kozhikode station for return. So we got tickets for Mangalore express which was supposed to reach there by 10:25. But then when does Indian Railway come on time. So it was supposed arrive at 12:10, with plenty of time left we planned to visit famed Kozhikode beach. Called Prinku too for company. Had a jolly good time. Then a palmistry session for Ghosh and Thampi. After that we came back to station. But then, the train was late by another hour. So we sat at the station till 1 in the afternoon. Finally the train pulled in and after waving Prinku goodbye, we left for Trivandrum.

As if the train wasn't late already, there were stops almost every half an hour to allow other trains to pass. By the time we reached TVM, we were dead tired and ready to fall asleep. In between, Ghosh discovered the joy sitting on the foot-board of the train. It was a glorious sight to behold, sitting with ur chums, looking into the setting sun and passing greens. It was almost 12 when we finally landed in TVM. From there to Kanimangalam and heavenly bliss in form sleep.

That's it for now, almost 3:45 in morning..
Signing off for now,
Adios...