Surprise Guest

In wee hours of a lazy sunday morning, something made me awake. I looked around and was shocked to see that i have company on my bed. I dont know when she came, but my sudden movement made her awake as well. She got up to leave. I didnt know what to do. Never in my craziest dreams had something like this happpened. Finally, i got up and brought her back to my bed. She didnt say anything. I was just thanking my lucky stars. What, if i am seeing her for the first time, this was a miracle.

After a couple of hours of sleep, i got up, but she continued sleeping. I told my roomies that i have a guest in my room and they should see her. They went, saw and returned speechless. They wanted to know how she came inside. After some investigation, we concluded that she came through the window. Anyways after lots of petting i finally made her go and closed the window. See you soon, my dear cat.

Help Thy Neighbour

Scriptures says that be kind and help others without any expectations and you will be rewarded in your afterlife. What if its big lie. What if faith and hope, the two ‘virtues’ we have in these holy books/wisdom ultimately turned out to be a big scam played by someone or our own mind. Will you feel cheated then? Will you curse yourself for not being selfish, for all the sacrifices you made, for all the pain you suffered in denying happiness or comfort for yourself so as to help others?

So what to be done now? Follow the herd and do good when it suits you or to embrace death and find the answer? I live by the credo ‘Ignorance is bliss’ and hence, for the time being i am ignoring this problem. hehe.

Eventful Weekend

• On Saturday attended a job interview in a bigger company than mine and got the offer. But alas, the role was not what i was looking for.

• Had a gettogether of college friends at Shiok, the far eastern cuisine restaurant at Indranagar.Met many people whom i havent seen after college and also experimented with lots of new food.

• Sunday went to the office. While coming back i saw some watery substance on the road and applied brakes. Wrong judgement, the bike skidded and soon and i was sliding on the road for some distance before i was stopped by the divider. Thanks to the helmet, there were no head injuries. Got up by my own, it was paining like hell, some bystanders helped me with the bike and i drove back home. Both legs and hands were bloody, Amit applied Savlon on the wounds, insisting that i go to a hospital. We had a small fight on that and i finally had to lock myself up in my room, for fear of my roommies dragging this vulnerable soul out to the hospital. Called up sick the next day and for the rest of the week, walked or rather limped to the office. But now everything is back to normal. Lesson learned – Dont go to office on sundays. 🙂

Harthal

My friend’s marriage was at Ernakulam. Reached just in time there. And that means just before the lunch got over. When everyone parted it was 2.30pm. Everyone wanted to go home early, as it was declared that there will be a hartal(strike) from 3 to 6. As the guy who had to travel the furthest and that too using public transport, i was least bothered. And that was because of the reason given for hartal. ‘Saddam Husein was executed’. A hartal in kerala for a state execution happened in a far away country. People/News channels were praising Saddam like anything. Its funny how they forgot the scars of kuwait occupation. But the underlying anger is against US and they got a martyr for it.

Anyways, i managed to get into one of the overcrowded bus to my place before 3. But my joy was shortlived. The bus was stopped and streets barricaded around 12 kms before i was supposed to get down. The passenger’s appeal did not receive any empathy from the protesters. According to them, any vehicle can move only after 6pm. Instead of just sitting there till 6, i decided to walk. My rationale was, maybe some distance from here, there wont be any problem and i might get another bus. And hence i started walking. 2 kms from there i saw the road completely blocked by placing concrete slabs and wooden poles across the road. Another few kilometers, people have gathered in huge numbers, some with wooden sticks ready to bring down anyone who disobeys the hartal, but most as spectators.

On the way i also passed a march parade with slogans against George Bush, long stretch of blocked vehicles, couple of fights and indifferent police. In short, every few kms there were something new/exciting to see. I must have walked around 8 kms, people who was standing by the roadside and those sitting in their vehicles started asking me about the situation in the roads that i have passed. I assurred them that everywhere its the same situation and after 6 thing will become normal. But i wondered, how did they know that i was walking from that far. Some distance ahead, another set of people asked me the same questions. And when it happened a third time, i seriously checked my body to find if any sticker has been pasted saying ‘This idiot has been walking for the past 2 hours’. Anyways i reached my final detination, 12 kms from where i started in around 3 hrs. Celeberated this acheivement by drinking a lime juice from the nearby shop. 🙂

The ‘fun’ aside, i saw people suffering beacuse of hartal. I also saw people’s(including me) apathy who know this is a stupidity.

Bliss, Salem, Tricks

Bliss
Its raining in kerala. With occasional thunderstorms. Its not normal to rain so much at this time of the year. But this doesn’t affect me as i am home. Fully  pampered by mom. She has prepared my favorite dishes, pullisserry and chakka kuru maanga. Yesterday while surfing the channel saw a cookery show where they were preparing chicken 65. And by dinner time she had prepared it.  When i am not eating and sleeping, i sit on the arm chair in the sit out facing periyar(the mighty river) reading the newspaper or some old magazine. Its bliss.

Salem Fruits
On the way from bangalore to kerala, we stopped at Salem for dinner. I called up home to ask if i should buy anything from there.
Salem is famous for their mangoes. Salem Mangoes. Mom tells me.
Ok, anything else?
Fruits must be cheap there, since the fruits we get in kerala comes from tamilnadu. Buy some Musambi also(sweet orange).
So after the phone call, i bought 2 kilos of mangoes and 1 kilo of musambi. Both were 40 bucks per kilo.
Next day we reached home with the fruits. What was the price she asks. i tell her the price. She started to laugh. You guys have been cheated. Musambi is only 20 rupees per kilo here. We had been fooled. On top of that, the mangoes were not at all sweet. Prince have decided to give the shop keeper a piece of his mind on his way back.

Little Tricks
I dont like vegetables. But they are more healthy. So what does mom do? She makes fried rice and cutlets with lots of vegetables in it. And i like those, provided they dont taste like vegetables. Win win.

Road Trip

Tomorrow is my friend’s(Mickey) marriage in Kerala. Myself and prince are going for it. 650+ kilometers. In a 5 year old Maruti 800. Have to drive 16 hours straight to reach on time. All night driving. On national highway, the play ground of heavy trucks and buses, with their blinding headlights and crazy driving. Sleepless for approximately 40 hours. Both Prince and car doesn’t have any insurance. Police already likes the car very much as it has been pulled over twice in the last 3 days we have been using it. I will have to drive 90% of the distance as Prince has just learned to drive. The guys who have already made such trips and know the above facts, tells us that it is a risk. I am all excited. 🙂

MTR

Mavalli Tiffin Room. Mother of all darshini’s and shiv/sukh/shanti/* sagar’s. I have an yearning desire to cover all the restaurants and pubs in bangalore. Although i have visited many restaurants, it was a shame that even after staying in bangalore for more than two years i haven’t gone to MTR. So today we(Amit and myself) decided to check this place out. Reached there at 1.45. The front door was closed. We tried to enter through the kitchen. Sorry, the watchman said, meals are over. We were not ready to take no for an answer. We approached the cashier. When asked for a table, he smiled and told us that we have to make reservation one or two days in advance on weekends. There was also a couple standing next to us. The girl was actually begging to get a table. It seems they had come from far away to have MTR meals. But the cashier showed no mercy. So we asked him, what time does it open next. 3.30 to 6.30 for snacks. Any reservations required? No.
We are back at MTR by 4.45. Headed straight to the cashier to know what should one do around here to get fed. If you need coffee, sit downstairs or if you want snacks, go upstairs. Up we go. We see two rooms and lots of people waiting in anticipation. Some sitting, some standing. The board on top announces them as ‘Waiting Room’. Two big rooms, just for waiting people. You have to get your name written on the list carried by the waiter/sentry at entrance to the eating section. 30 to 45 minutes waiting, he declares after writing down the name. When i told this to Amit, he was dumbstruck for a moment. So much waiting for a f**king dosa? He wanted to leave immediately. It took all my persuasive skills to calm him down. Luckily we got the table after 20 minutes.
There were only few items on the menu(there is no menu card), and we ordered most of them. Masala dosa, Kara Bath, Vada, Gulab Jamun, Coffee and some pumpkin based sweet. The food was excellent. I didn’t like the sambar though. And the masala dosa was full of ghee which can be either good(for me) or bad(for Amit). Also, there is some time of waiting for the stuff like dosa and coffee to reach your table. The bill was only 128. And that’s the end of another gastronomic adventure.

Choosy Beggar

Now, i never thought it actually happens. But it did. Today, in the morning while i was leaving for the office, a beggar was passing by our house asking for alms. The elderly woman who is staying in the ground floor of our building gave him a one rupee coin. The beggar first looked at the coin and then returned it saying he will only accept notes!!! Even though i have heard plenty of jokes like this, its the first time i am actually seeing one. Now is it the inflation, high cost of living, microeconomic strength or just plain greed at work here? Whatever, in here beggars are choosers.

Training Day

Last two days i was in training. Training days are good. Because you get to leave office on time or even better, before time. Training days are bad. Because you have to come to office on time. And you have to fight falling into deep slumber.
Its war. You and sleep. Especially after lunch. The monotonous blabbering of your trainer is like a soothing voice that magically makes your eyelids to sink with gravity. Its like some voice in your head saying “you are going to sleep now, you are going to sleep now”. And like a hypnotized body we obey to its commands. Then Bang!. Either you suddenly remembers that you are supposed to learn all the invaluable lessons the kind trainer is trying to teach you or the trainer catches you on the act. You wake up, determined not to drowse again. But alas, like a new year resolution, your brains doesn’t take itself seriously. It becomes a cycle. Nap, wake up, nap, wake up. And all the waking seconds you will be longingly looking at the watch hoping that it would magically go faster.

Doesn’t this bring back memories of our school/college life? There is a small difference, though. There we could have done any buffoonery to avoid sleeping. But here you are supposed to act all matured. Bull!

Octoberfest

The Indian clone of the famous octoberfest, Germany, at palace grounds Bangalore. Was not bad, i must say. But then again, after some beer inside, anything will look good. We(my roommate Paresh, classmate Prince and myself) reached there by 3.30 itself. Entry fee was 150 bucks. A mug was 25 and a can was for 30. And only kingfisher. If you buy 3 mugs/cans you get complimentary games coupons. One coupon was for the card game flush and the other was for the puzzle where you have to arrange the broken pieces in a shown pattern. I chose the flush and miserably lost. While Paresh won an opener key chain for the puzzle. And ofcourse, we bought more beer to get more key chains. 😉

Next they were calling volunteers for some ball game. Paresh was very enthusiastic and dragged us to the game. And you know what, our team won. The prize was a can for each team member. Not bad at all. Later on, the rock show started. Two Indian rock bands. Both bands played a mix of their own songs and some international numbers. The sound system was awesome. I am not too much into heavy metal. But enjoy them at pubs and live shows. The first band(forgot the name) included songs from Korn and Pink Floyd. But it was the second band, named Them Clones which really rocked. Really enjoyed.

The Tattoo shop at the venue was very inviting. But the prices were not. It starts at 1500 bucks. But one of these days i am going to get myself one. That would be coooooooooooool.
Yeah i am still juvenile. 🙂