Nostalgic Summers......

It’s been more than a year in Bangalore. As much as I can remember, last year the summers were not this hot. Even people who have been living here for a long time say it’s the worst summer.
Well most of you will agree that summers in general are worse only. There is no other word to describe it. But these summers have brought a bit of nostalgia with it, especially after I started writing this blog so frequently.
How can someone say that summers are bad, when we get to have Mangoes in this season only. The king of fruits spreads its taste only in this “worst” season. I don’t know about others but I still remember, the electricity used to ditch late in the evening and we used to take our cots to the rooftop, while the little ones used to carry the mattresses and pillows. Lying there under the sky we never regretted summers and sweat. The breeze used to be moderate and the sky clear with all the glittering stars. I haven’t seen that clear sky in my last 4 years where I have stayed in Delhi, Surat and Bangalore. We all remembered so many of the constellations and the way to find them using the pole star. I can’t forget my Dad’s Nanaji, who was able to predict time with 5 min error just by looking at the stars. This amazes us till date.
How can we forget to mention the ice creams and baraf gola. I still hold the record of having around 15 – 20 ice creams in a day among all my siblings.
Having grown up in a village I had the rare advantage of taking bath in the tube well. Every afternoon we used to pluck tomatoes from the farm and burry them in the sand in flowing water. They used to get chilled in no time and then we used to enjoy them. Not to mention the melon and watermelons. I don’t think any other season can furnish us with the water filled fruit and you really can’t relish as much as you can do in summers.

Talking about college life and we can never forget the hostel life of summers. I started to stay in hostel during winters but as the summers approached, it became all the more unbearable. We were on the 2nd floor and the rooms used to get sunlight from all ends. By the time we went back from college, it transformed into an oven. So we preferred staying in the corridor and playing cricket all the time. We used to sprinkle water, sorry not sprinkle but nearly flood our rooms to get some respite while sleeping.

Then came the monsoon, ruining the flavour of mangoes and making watermelons inedible. Though the rain brought some respite from the heat but for fruit lovers the party gets over. Monsoon has its own fun but I still miss the college summers.

Himanshu (Lella) Episode.......

Most of the college time, or I should say all the time went in Leg pulling, Corridor cricket and hostel room discussions on specific topics. Of this the leg pulling was a major junk. No day ended without one or the other person getting irritated of our pranks. The leader was Nandi, me the pseudo leader, chotu ready with some inputs (which usually led to a shift of focus on him), Manu usually silent and Malhotra ready with his one-liners, which became the show stealers. One such incident I recall included nearly everyone and the target was Lella (Himanshu Aggarwl).

It was some time in 3rd year I believe cause I wasn’t a hostler then, probably 5th semester, A Hostel, Perry’s (Parminder Singh) room. For a change we all went for lunch to the hostel canteen. Some lectures were free so we thought of relaxing in the hostel casino (Perry’s room). It was summer and Nandi felt thirsty. Now he needed some one to fill up the water bottle for him. Among all, only lella was one whom he thought will do and it started. I don’t know why, but he didn’t want to bring water for Nandi. Here he kicked the sleeping tiger right in his butt. Nandi started and didn’t stop humiliating him about the food he had on some hostellers account. Well it subsided, but there was no stopping for Nandi as he started it off again while returning from the hostel. This time it went a bit too far and Nandi said something that irritated Lella. To top it I laughed and the blame suddenly shifted to me. Before I could even realize, Nandi had pulled the trigger off my shoulder. Now for all that happened for 2 hrs, I was the only one responsible and till date Lella believes in it.
This is one of the many incidents where the plotter was Nandi and I the pseudo plotter. Still I don’t regret even one moment, infact I relish them till date.

The beginning.... thanks to Nandi

Yesterday I happened to catch both Nandi (Dinesh Bharadwaj) and Chotu (Nitin Mohan Gupta) on gtalk. We started to have a group chat. I sent the link of this blog to Nandi and he made me realize a major miss. I had forgotten to write anything about the most wonderful 4 years of my, sorry our life. The chat became a bit nostalgic, including some fond memories from our last 2 years… well I don’t want to mention the topic… The major breakout was that Chotu sang a Hindi song on radio. Doesn’t really sound interesting, isn’t it. Well I know the reason, its cause most of you wont be aware of chotu. A little insight, and a dive in good old times.

Nitin Mohan Gupta a.k.a. Chotu. Quite, cute, adorable, funny, a little reserved, Green card Holder (had to mention) and fattu, some used to call him this but I’ll preferably put it as confused about his emotions and so acted like one. Recently with a breaking news he confirmed to all that he is no longer a fattu. He was dearly in love (infatuation I’ll say) with one of our classmates and whenever she used to step in, he used to sing “Suraj hua madham”. I know I am very besura, but chotu ruled. He was a veteran in the field. If you don’t believe you can contact Mohnish walia (Another veteran, but in the true sense). Chotu left for US around 2 years back (remember I mentioned green card holder). He is working there for some project company as a chemical Engineer and is always on a move. He is in Brazil at the moment.

Chotu sang a Hindi song on radio. Now there seems some interest building up, especially to the fact that the radio was of Brazil. He was trying to convince us that he sings well and that is the reason he is appreciated there and we never saw the talent in him and were always involved in making fun. We all can imagine the RJ’s condition and also of the listeners. We all used to support him in class just cause we were so used to leg pulling that we couldn't imagine staying away. Nandi used to lead the attack and always provoked him to sing. Today we are happy to know that we are not the only ones in the world who have gone through that torture. Thanks to the RJ friend of Chotu who gave him (us) this chance.

We have the fondest memories together me, Nandi, chotu, pandit (Manu Sharma, I like calling him Manu), Malhotra ji (Amit Malhotra).

This one has nothing special, apart from the fact that it marks the beginning of writing about those unforgettable years. I’ll make an effort to put all those memories here and weave a memoir of the passed years. Thanks a lot Nandi for the insight.

Trip to Munnar..... (In the laps of God's own Country, Kerala)

1st may brought a respite with a holiday on Friday. This gave us 3 days and a chance to execute our long pending plan of visiting Munnar. Let me brief you a little about Munnar.

Munnar is a town located in the Idduki district of Kerala, situated in the southern Western Ghats Munnar usually refers to the whole tourist area of the Idukki District of which the town forms only a small part.The name Munnar is believed to be derived from the Malayalam words Munu (three) and aaru (river), referring to the town's strategic location at the confluence of the Muthirappuzha, Nallathanni and Kundaly rivers. Essentially a pass ; the area around Munnar is surrounded by vast jungles and remains wet and cold during most of the year. Sprawling tea plantations, picture book towns, winding lanes, trekking and holiday facilities make Munnar a unique experience for the tourist and traveller. Munnar is essentially a tea town.
The region in and around Munnar varies in height from 1,600 meters to 1,800 meters above mean sea level. Munnar enjoys a salubrious climate. The temperature ranges between −5 °C and 10 °C in winter and 15 °C and 25 °C in summer. The tourist season in Munnar is from August to May. However, even the monsoons are lovely with many streams and rivulets in the area and post drizzle the dew drenched tea gardens looking majestic and heavenly enshrouded in light mist.

Reading about it may have created a beautiful picturesque scenery in your mind. Even we had all this in mind when we planned to start from office on Friday, April 30th. All had to go together but as always, not all plans go well. Me, Praphulla and Elizabeth Left together, Sonal came on her own, Mayank came with Subhra’s family and Saket sir came with his. We reached Majestic at around 2030 hrs. We couldn’t have missed the dinner at the Andhra style restaurant, where we had it while going to sharavati. I think it will become a hangout spot for us before to leave for any trip. We were only 4 there for the dinner as all else were running late. After dinner we were joined by saket and his wife and we went in search of our platform. Found our bus and waited for Mayank and Subhra. In the meantime we had one more task at hand. Selling off the 2 extra tickets we had. I didn’t want to mention about the people who had to miss this trip cause of some unavoidable reasons. Their emptiness had to be felt for the whole trip. The selling of those tickets showwed us another face of “The Great Indian System” and the laziness of Indians (ours). We directly talked to the conductor and he willingly accepted our offer. We were paid half the ammount, and sold the tickets at full rate to some other person. Finally everyone came and we set off to Ernakulam. It was a 11 hr journey. To make it more interesting, they started showing the worst flop of this year, some Bobby Deol and Nana Patekar starrer EK. I believe everyone else slept except for Saket and Mayank who enjoyed the whole movie thoroughly.
We reached Ernakulam bus stop by morning 9. A driver with a Tempo Traveller was waiting for us. The first thing we wanted to do was freshen up and have some breakfast. Everyone had waited till 9 for everything, some like me didn’t even had tea. Well we managed to cross Cochin and stopped at a roadside restaurant with facility to get freshed up. Had a wholesome of breakfast with a variety ranging from kerala parantha, omlette to idiyapam. After being content we left the place for Munnar. On the way we visited a fall. We all knew that coming before monsoon will surely kill the thrill of waterfalls. Made a 5 min stop there and left for our destination. Suddenly to our surprise, it started raining. We couldn’t have expected anything better. Suddenly it became very misty and the valley was at its best, exhibiting all its beauty. We stopped at a place called “View Point”. Like its name, the view from there was spectacular. One can see the whole mist covered valley. The mist would fade away in some time exposing the nature and when you would feel you havent had enough, the mist would again come and hide it from you. The wait for the mist to fade and view the natural beauty was worth. We spent sometime there untill it started raining again. We left from there prepared to stop at the hotel only. On the way we saw another waterfall which seemed a little big and had enough water. We couldn’t help, so stopped and went to relax there. There was a shop selling homemade choclates, old coins and tea. The numismatist in me started to jump in me for the coins. To my surprise and dissapointment, I had nearly all the coins he was selling. We tasted the choclates there and then went on to have a quite time near the water. All seated on the rocks with feet dipped in water. Somehow I had this intution that there is going to be splash. Strangely so it was right. In no time prahulla and Elizabeth started behaving like children and splashed water on each other. Seeing this some local boys got excited. Must be around 8 – 10 years old. They jumped in the water and splashed the water all around. Something else also happened there which I dnt want to mention. Don’t want to be a victim of wrath. We left for another surprise in waiting after the short stint of fun.

The hotel looked cool, to be very frank we never expected it to be like this. It was far better than the pictures on the internet. All the rooms faced the valley, with a view of a large tea estate. We were quite content with it, specially after all the speculations about the hotel type. We rested for sometime, took a bath and then gathered to leave for the town. The town was crowded, cause of the start of season and also it being a long weekend. We roamed around looking for places to eat and shop for choclates and tea. Our group was actually searching for some place where we can get sme beverages. To our shock, we didn’t find even one shop. On asking an auto driver, we got another shock. He said we wont get it here. It seemed as if all the enthusiasm was killed because of one shortcoming. With one final try we asked our cab driver, he explained us that every month on the 1st the shops will remain closed. It was a big respite. With all this and some coldrinks and chips we went back to our hotel. The night went by playing court–piece and watch IPL games.

We woke up at 7 in the morning and gathered out for a morning walk in the tea estate. The walk through the dew dipped tea estate was ecstatic. Moving all the way through the estate, we came back after about an hour to have our breakfast. After breakfast we left for sight seeing in and around munnar.
First we went to the Mattupatti dam, had to walk for some distance as the road was small and it was overcrowded. We all bought cowboy hats and stayed there for some time. Next to the dam was an echo point. Because of the crowd it wasn’t really an echo point. Only whistles were echoing. Well we thought that the afternoon was all wasted so we left for the town to have lunch.
After lunch we left for Eravikulam National park. We had to stop at a place and take tickets to visit the place. The queue for the tickets was neverending. There were around 3 busses which were used to commute to the hill top. We waited for around 2 hrs for the ticket. Finally all of us boarded one bus and travelled for around 25 min to reach the place. From here we had to walk to the final limit of the national park. Everyone was enthusiastic about seeing some wildlife. We walked for another half hour to reach the top. In the name of wildlife we saw only wild goats, but the scenic beauty was mind boggling. We could see a deep valley from there. All covered with mist. The mist would rise and then hit the mountain and stay there for a while before disappearing. This place made our day. The dissapointment caused by the echo point and the dam was covered up. Finally we left in the last bus after thoroughly enjoying the place. On the way we bought everything necessary to make the night more lively.

We had already arranged for a Campfire at the hotel rooftop. We all gathered there at around 8 in the night. It was bitter cold and the fire was a big respite. Had our drinks there and enjoyed for around 2 hrs before we departed to our rooms for another round of card playing and IPL.
Coming morning was the day to leave the place. We had our mornign walk, but this time the volunteers were less. Had our breakfast and gathered to visit a waterfall for some fun in water. We reached the one we had visited the other day. Everyone jumped in the water with excitement. After sometime we started climbing the rocks and tried reaching the top of the fall. It was quite risky as the rocks were slippery and steep. After a lot of effort four of us reached the top. To be frank I didn’t have the heart to go back through the same route, it was scary. So me and praphulla planned to take the root towards the jungle and then reach the road. Mayank and Elizabeth receded through the same path. Somehow we managed to reach some house in the forest. From there we headed using the road towards the waterfall. We had diverted a bit too far and now it seemed quite a distance. On top of it, Praphulla was in his shorts only. Everyone was seeing us as if we were aliens and blurting something in Malayalam which to us was alien. Finally we managed to reach and left from there to check out from the hotel.

We left munnar at around 12.30 for Cochin. On the way we had our lunch (it wasn’t worth mentioning even). We dropped Subhra at Cochin airport and we headed towards the cochin beach. We reached there just in time to see the sunset. Till now everyone was exhausted. After the beach we visited the chinese fish nets and then went to the marine drive. Everyone had icecream there amidst all the dirty talk. Everyone was in full flow. Finally we had our dinner at pizza hut and the left for Ernakulam bus stop for our bus to bangalore. The bus was late and it was unbearable to stay in that humid weather. It was a respite to be in the bus. We reached bangalore Monday mornign at around 9. Boarded our bus to home and came back to office by afternoon.

Three days went like a few minutes with all the fun except that we missed the company of few, without whom everything lacked the lustre.

The most meaningful materialistic thing.....contd....

Continuation of this phrase wasn’t intended, but had to.

Why does it happen that when u resent something the most, u even need it the most. When you hate going out, it’s a perfect weather for outing. When you have a filled stomach, someone pops up with your favorite delicacy. Like everything is working according to a plan. Some say you are being tested so we shouldn’t move by our instincts and stick to the resentment, while others (I call them optimists like me) get carried away and do what u like doing. Eating even when your stomach is full or going out even if somehow you don’t feel like, cause that is what makes you happy and completes you.

Something similar is happening to my blanket and me. From the past few days since I thought of discarding it and getting freed from it, Bangalore climate has taken a U turn. From a hot 30°C it has dipped to as low as 21°C. During all this I had packed my blanket, and placed it in the closet, never to open it again. I thought I’d transfer it home and will purchase a new one. One with which I’ll feel more cozy, where I m not afraid of loosing it in winters when I need it the most. Till the new blanket doesn’t arrive I thought of using a bed sheet. Suddenly in the morning it becomes chillier and forces me to open the closet and take that blanket back. I somehow refrain myself and go for other measures like switching off the fan. But cant sleep after that, that’s cause of the habit of cuddling to the blanket when I feel uncomfortable. So I end up waking early.

Sometimes during the day when I open my closet I feel like the blanket is looking at me and prompting me to pull it out and place it near me. Then I know it’s the optimism in me that makes me think that way. The blanket is quite comfortable there, far from me. It doesn’t wants to be there. Somehow the switch that made it mine has been turned off.

Someday I want to wake up in the morning and instead of switching the fan off I want to switch the feeling off for that materialistic thing. Don’t know I’ll ever be able to do that or not…. This time its not the hope to do it that’s keeping me going, but the hope of not getting into that situation is doing the trick.