Place for my head!

I am wondering why I am writing here when I usually prefer a paper, that too which is kept to myself. But then I looked around and glanced at the clock. 3.10pm. And I realised that this is the second time I am waking up in a day. I cant find a paper and a pen. No one is at home. Brother out for tuitions, mom and dad on work....and me...On this couch where I fell asleep 3 hours ago after having breakfast. Fell asleep again...3 hours ago.

Sometimes what happens, you are sitting in a bus(whatever), and your glance lands on an aged man in the corner of the street busy in his chore. And your mind starts building image of the personality about that person. And you reach on a conclusion about his family, maybe he is living alone etc. You think "He must be around 50-60, with a small house, earning his daily wages..Maybe he is arrogant, and is not in good health.....his wife and kids are living alone some kms away. Maybe he had sacrificed a lot for his family and now is living alone for them to be happy. Maybe he was a kind soul, yet arrogant, and person with values......." ...and what not. You draw out a complete image of his heart and his life. And mind you, all this takes just a split second i.e. as your bus(whatever) turns around that corner.

The other side of the coin is you come across a person, whom you talk to, unlike the old man at that street. Whom you become friends with. Whom you just...just like to talk to. And so you do. For hours and days and months.........And you rest yourself in the comfort that the person is one with whom you can be great friends with! And that you know them! And you quickly, add that person on all the social networking giants on which you spend most of the time of your day. And you are happy. That you found a good friend! And when you talk for a long time, you like talking more. With every passing day, that friend of yours, becomes more special. And adds on to write in your "Life Book" a new chapter. Without you realising it. One fine day you realise it, and its not LOVE that I am talking about here. You just realise the darkness of the ink with which this chapter was written in the book. Its DARK and engraved. Like a kid who writes hard pressed with a dark pencil for the first time in his school notebook. It feels good that it has been written. That someone, is so close that HE can edit YOUR "Life Book".


And one fine day, maybe a decade later, while you amble across that same corner of the street, you remember. That bus ride. You walk up to a nearby store to ask about the old man, and you get to hear this:

"How a good man he was though a bit arrogant. In his mid 50's he succumbed to bad health. Living alone in an old shack, he used to garden here to earn daily wages as he lost his job. And all that because of his cunning wife who lives with their kids at a distance of few kms. Sacrificed a lot for them. A man of values he was."

And it feels like déjà vu. You sit alone sipping your favourite coffee. The past cascades in front of you. Its tough to feel, that your favourite networking site doesnt have that "SPECIAL PERSON" anymore. And you flip through the pages of your "Life Book" to find that chapter. Its still there, written in the darkest of ink. But what you see, is that it has been earmarked, and left in midway...........just because a decade earlier, someday your conscience realised that you never KNEW them.

You still knew that old man on the street.


And you get your stomachs filled with a lump that travels up to your throat, choking your conscience. A stinging realisation strikes you. That maybe you were just ballistic in life. You never stopped. And questioned yourself, "Do I KNOW this person?"

And suddenly the page was left half written, because KNOWING is not easy....

Summer '09 - A lavish explanation!

Delhi's temperature is escalating by the day. So I got another AC installed at my place, in the hallway this time. (This step was specially taken for my mum who faces the kitchen heat everyday!) Now I am sitting here. Earlier I used to sit in my own room which, obviously, doesn't have an AC (I am not a descendant of a super filthy rich ancestry, quite the opposite I guess..). But somehow, I feel this AC had a different effect. Because I feel like "writing". After exactly 40 days since I last wrote something.

Anyway, first I would like to describe my absence. My exams started and I had to disappear, and then vacations of more than 2 months were round the corner. I returned home, and was gifted with the news that out of those two months of my holidays, I had to spend 1 interning. So bags packed, and by the end of the first week I was out. A complete travel freak, with sheer clarity I absolutely carved out the frolic journey that I was about to experience. Though I did not even guess, or care to guess, that the frolic would get blotted with patches of quest: about my own self.

Ok, so on the 3rd June late afternoon, the humid greasy late afternoon welcomed me at Ahmedabad airport. It had been over 5 years since I last visited Gujarat. So I realised that this was the 6th time now. My destination was around 2 hours from Ahmedabad. I left the airport by mid late evening, and crossed Baroda and Surat on the way. Though just touching the outskirts of Surat. Reaching the destination, I was told that I had to shifted to the site immediately, which was again 140kms away. The weather mellowed down, with a greyness and cool around. And the person driving the car, I guess, figured out that I loathed lousy speeds. So he pressed the accelerator.....enough to make the air hit my face hard enough. And make me smile as approaching milestones swished past me..........

I reached the site in one hour. Got my accomodation. Settled down, and was told to start work from the next day. I loved the place. The weather. The people. There was hardly any thing that I did not like. Umm...actually there was. My laptop charger got screwed up by the first weekend. And my phone after 3 days of the above disaster. I became restive. Damn frustrated. Though I somehow managed to cure my phone problem, I missed my laptop for the whole period of one full month. Another reason why I could not write. (Reason : Excuse :P).

Anyhow, I started working. 8am to 8pm. Nothing else except work. I used to come online for some wee hours of the night, but blogging was something that I just could not manage. I used to feel like a thoroughly beaten ass by the end of the day due to the work and writing in such an awesome situation was something that I could not afford. I was still human guys. :). Days passed with me working like a full time rented ass, who wasnt provided the liberalness of anything except having his food. That too, if generosity prevailed beyond humane limits.

Two weeks passed and an incredible twist was in store for my modus operandi since I started. I had to meet a really close friend. We met and had fun for four eventful days. For me that acted as a lumpful breather. I relaxed and the beauty of that time is impeccable. A substantial break from work was essential. And such a beautiful break....nothing better that i could have asked for.

"Nothing remains." I knew it. And in less than an eye twitch, I found myself again playing ping pong with tons and tons of iron. And also trying to reason out my decision of coming for my interns. But as I read somewhere very recently, "To have a gain of something, you've got to loose everything first." So work followed. And I followed it.

For the next 15days, I met people, talked on phone, (too much...damn too much..), completed a project ALONE (Supposedly, to be done by 4 people), and waited. WAITED FOR THE LAST DAY. AND MY FIRST EVER TRIP TO MUMBAI!

3rd July 2009, my last day of interns, I could see my bag packed. And I smiled. By the end of June, the rains had set in properly, and it was coldly misty and windy all throughout my way to the railway station. And again, the car was speeding. And again, I was loving it. I got in the train, it shunted, with me sitting by the wet, dripping wet window, and it left the station. It was one beautiful journey. I met people, which I had never done before. I had been to the North, the South and the Central belt of India. But in the West region, no where apart from Rajasthan and Gujarat. As mentioned earlier, being a travel freak I really savored the trip. And rains! They added to the flavour .....



Dadar Jn., 6.45 pm
3rd July 2009.

Yes. I was there! Mumbai welcomed me with...the very famous, Mumbai Rains. The welcome on the station was much better though. I went to a friends place to stay overnight. We discussed college, upcoming results, my journey, women (not those from college! PLEASE!), food, plans for my stay in Mumbai etc. I had to meet two more of my friends who were doing their interns in Mumbai itself and I was excited. Next morning I woke up to this view from the window of the room:


Meeting my other friends at VT, the four of us went to Gateway, (Rainy Gateway!), Taj (Rainy Taj!), and I was exuberant! Seeing such a beauty, which I could not ever find in Delhi, I regretted the short stay I had planned for Mumbai. Marine Drive, Chaupati, Gateway, Taj, Causeway....and what not. Though I know I could not have covered a lot, I was still satisfied. The next day was another beautiful experience. I spent the whole day with special people and attended the workshop that was planned with a very good friend. The nights and the days were memorable. The next day I met a friend for lunch and spent the day with another very good friend. However the night was unimaginable. LITERALLY. I was with two of my very close friends, and we had planned dinner together. And marine drive was added to the plan. So I was at marine drive at 12.30am. Bliss, for me atleast. But my mood wasnt the way I had imagined it to be. I could not even think. Something happened and ...........and the "quest-blot" was there.

Another main reason I did not feel like writing for more than 10days now.

Though with a complex ending, this was one hell of a time I spent. And thus could not blog. Work was tiring, but hell interesting. Imagine, what you just read in books and see in pictures and read in long boring paragraphs, everything happening right in front of you! And then meeting people, friends, some for the first time, some for the nth time! And that too in Rainy Mumbai!

Now I am back in Delhi. Hope that I remain regular. Though it might take time for revival, but the spirit in me is surely poking me in the ribs. And waking me up....



(By the way people, I got royally screwed up right now for keeping the AC on for hours continously............. :P) .