Hyderabad Chronicles

Here I am, not on the road but in air again, boarded the flight to Hyderabad, for me a foreign land. The only good thing is that I am not required to go through tedious Visa formalities. As expected, there are few connections here that I have. As precautionary measure, I floated an inquiry over sulekha.com for my accommodation there. The single person who replied I am living at her place, I wish I had not hurried. An elderly woman, with sugary tongue and I just got trapped. Oh my goodness, at no point did I doubt, knowing the fact she is a Punjabi lady.

So here the things begin, I leave home as early as 8:30AM, come back by 8PM and by her standards eight means late!! There have been 4 weekends as of now and I have successfully avoided the dragon back at home. I watched movies alone, went all the way to Bangalore over a long weekend, pleaded an auto fellow to drive me to monuments of Hyderabad and wait for me. So technically I was on a date with auto fellow. These days I really missed the yellow Ambassador bearing West Bengal number. Since I happened to park myself in one of the costly places of Hyderabad, the auto fellow would try to penalize me for the sins of those Audi, BMW, Mercedes owners. I have walked back home quite some times, a 4Km evening walk, just because I could not crack a deal with those hard nuts, the autowallahs.

Office is the place where I find solace. I tried my luck with learning another foreign language Telugu apart from French that we have in curriculum. So now, I can introduce myself in the language, few pronouns and verbs.

What Hyderabad could not do to me was bringing any change except the extra flab that I put on, it’s a seasonal thing. I am all the same, critical, psycho, khoonkhar Pathak. Bazi (colleague here) would offer testimony to the fact.

Next monthly report shall be out in June’13. Keep following!!!

Kolkata Diaries

A winter morning

I wish I could “Quit”

My patience is at the verge of a nervous breakdown, it says ,”Enough”. I have been unfair and put it through rigorous and elongated testing process that is unjustified. I can take no more of it, the pain is getting unbearable. I can no more carry the weight of this mask I wear, it has started itching inside. The mental duel has crossed yet another milestone, set another record a new high and the irony is I am still considering what should be the right option, the team I should bat for.

Through out this time, I have escaped my self, not allowing any thoughts cross my mind, fearing some might read them and cause me much feared embarrassment. I have had enough of portraying the confident and cheerful while reality reigned on opposite pole. I need no help, no sympathy but isolation. A place where I can be me, the real self, a place where is no code of conduct, no scale to measure me, to benchmark me. 

I wanna break free of all this mess like the sapling that grows a separate tree.

The KBC Experience..

29th May 2012..It was a usual day and now owing to my recent leg injury, I was very well familiar with TV soaps, thanks to wikipedia for that. Then came the voice of legend of Indian cinema Mr Amitabh Bachachan asking some stupid question for applying to 6th version of the popular show Kaun Banega Crorepati. My friend Suman was very excited about the show and she made me send the answer response. Done with the task and forgot about that.

Then it was 8th June 2012 , I was driving back to home from office, the usual routine and I got a call from a number with STD code 022 , I assumed it to be from one of my friend in SP Jain Mumbai. Being a good citizen, I did not pick the call while driving. One hour later, I again got the call from same number, this time I did pick it up. On the other side of line there was one guy wtih Bihari accent and asked me my name and told I was selected for the 1st round of KBC and I needed to provide him certain personal details. I took it to be a cranck call and deliberately provided him with my Lucknow address, the he redirected me to some recorded voice message where 3 questions were asked. The first two were quite easy and had options too and the third one, I was stumped. The area of Lakshadweep in sq km and to add to it no options were provided. I guessed this one as 22 while  actual is 32 sq km. Nonetheless I was happy that at least I got the call that too in just one go.

My mother and siblings were there with me as they happened to visit Delhi and I took them to Haridwar- Rishikesh. While on way to Haridwar , the same number displayed on my mobile screen and that was something crazy. I picked up the phone and surprise , I was selected for the second round to be held on 26th June 2012 in Lucknow.

In first place I decided I will not go , the luck thing is not my cup of tea but on 14th I decided lets take a chance. I booked my train to Lucknow  but the return ticket was not confirm. As 26th June happens to be my sister’s birthday, my dad thought I had come for the occasion. Such things do not appeal him much.

The D- day. The morning marathon begins. I reached the centre at 6:30 Am and was amazed to see around 300 people already queued up. I was one among late comers, though technically 7 Am was the reporting time. The management was very poor, we kept on standing in the queue for 2 long hours before we could enter the premises. I had formed a group over there in that time but never bothered knowing names. We were registered in same order so the group carried on. One coincidence I would point, the girl I was talking to , her name was also Swati. There was a 72 pages form given to us much on the lines of IIFT CV form and pages 15 to 72 required signature on each page. I was half done when at sharp 11 AM , Mr Bachchan appears on screen ( not in real) and says aur kaisa lag raha hai. Then there was a questionnaire comprising of 10 general knowledge questions and answer sheets were collected back. Now we were back to the forms. Then there was announcement that now auditions will start in 4 rooms with 1 room specifically to Idea Pass , the privileged ones.

The day proceeded, very slow progress on audition side, by 2 PM they had hardly finished up with 30 people and my number was 211. The girl with me had her flight at 8pm , so she asked for consideration and was given the slot at 4 PM. I also had train at 8:45PM but I was very optimistic that things would finish by 7PM. I was wrong, at 4 PM observing the efficiency, I told the coordinators about my train and showed them the sms from IRCTC, they gave me 7:30 pm slot.

7:30Pm , I reached the audition room , the producer seemed more concerned than I was. They fixed the mic and I had to start with tell me about yourself , the typical interview question. Then they just jumped to monetary aspect my salary, my dad’s income, his time to retirement, any loan etc. I could not prove myself needy How would KBC help me achieve my goals , why did I want to come to the show then the cameraman reports chip has no more memory they need to replace it. I was constantly looking at my watch and it was already quarter to 8. The only quick job they did was getting the chip , I continued with the auditioned, done and I just rushed to railway station, no going back home.

It was 8:40 when I reached the platform the train was there and was about to move. I just got in. I had 5 waiting and I thought it must have cleared by the time. I checked at railway helpline no 139 and got to know that it was not confirmed. I have very small experience of travelling in train so I did not know what it meant. The first person I thot of consulting was the TC. I told him the case and he informed me that I was now technically without ticket and told to get down but it was too late. The train had already started. I asked him to give me the ticket if some unoccupied seat is there and charge me fare and penalty. By the time I could actually get a seat , I found 3-4 people in my situation but they had window ticket , so they were not with out ticket like me. At around 1 AM , the TC provided me a seat with fare 564 and penalty of 250. Another shocker of the day, when I reached out to my walet I had just 350rs in it. I asked the TC if he would accept cheque , he was ridiculed. Then I asked one of the guys to lend me 500 and I would get down at Ghaziabad with them and return the money. They somehow agreed to help me but all the time I was busy thinking that Ghaziabad does not get missed and I don’t reach Delhi. Finally at Ghaziabad, a friend of mine came to rescue, I paid my dues and dat was the day.

It was a great experience and contrary to my nature , I managed well to form a group twice in a day.

Awaiting the results !!!

A Broken Promise…

That day he came on his old Bajaj Priya scooter, handed me a bag full of something, bade good bye and left.

I don’t know why but I was waiting for him to leave and check the contents of the bag. The bag seemed familiar to me, yes it was. It was the one I gifted him, in better words, he made me gift him the bag. It was from my first ever visit to city of dreams, Mumbai. It was one I bought from my pocket money saved It’s been years.The old days rolled back.

Then there were letters inside, letters dating 8-10 years back. There were promises and there were commands, there were grievances as well as demands. The creations of a teenage mind. The next thing I put my hands on was collection of my poems on hand made paper, oh my my, it was written in sparkled pen. I made this copy for him while staying back at hostel while all were gone to their respective places, how could it had been possible at home, my younger siblings would have made me die of shame.

There were tissue papers with something scribbled, ten rupee notes from my first ever earning, a spiderman CD case with CDs, movie tickets and restaurant bills and a scrap book, it was stupid of me to maintain such things. There were ugly photos of me pasted along with date, movie tickets from which now names and dates had vanished, a torn photograph memorising one big fight and at the end a list of 30+ movies I had watched with him in just 2 years.

Waiting next for its turn was a diary filled to its last page. The day I smoked a whole pack of cigarettes for he lied to me that he had left this evil, the day I told him just because I was being lenient, he should not cross his limits and dance over my head, the day I lied to him and he caught me, courtesy my own mobile camera, all came alive. Also lay there a dried rose that I gave him on a day I told him I was to take him to date. That day I had behaved best I could have, I did not get angry when he came half an hour late, chattered a lot while the movie and even criticized my ways, my clothing etc etc.

The last thing that came out was a piece of paper with my signature, saying, I, the owner, declare on this day that I shall increase my shareholding in YOU the “Saman” Inc. to 100% and retain it year 2010 onwards.

A little smile visited my face and I packed back the things to return to someone it belonged.

 

The World of Abby – Part I

She was a curious kid. She wanted to try new things, have friends of her age but all she had a cousin who mostly lived at his maternal house and a little sister too young to accompany her while her adventures. She found few whom she could call play time friends in the kids of workers on her farm. The barriers of caste and class were yet to approach her. Constant beating and scolding could certainly not keep her from her mischievous acts. Another reason was typical set up of an Indian village household where women rarely come out of house, that meant her mother would not come chasing to beat her. And by the day ends, she may forget what happened.

The monsoons were making a slow exit leaving grasses grown large and some weeds also found home. Abby’s grandfather had asked the workers to cut the grass growing in front of the house . Lawnmowers had not made entry into Abby’s village till then and a cutting equipment with wooden handle called Khurpa was used for the purpose. With the lady workers, their kids were also learning to cut. Abby wanted to try but she was not allowed. To deter her from doing the same, one lady asked her to get her own Khurpa . Ok , she got a way out. She knew her grandma had ordered 2 new grass cutters the other day . She approached and with her usual charm she tricked her to give her one. She preferred one with red handle.
With her weapon in hand, Abby marched into the battleground of grass cutting. There was no dress rehearsal, direct entry onto stage. Some mishap was inevitable. She held her khurpa with the blade pointing towards her feet. One trial , no grass comes out, second one, again a failed attempt. She saw children of her doing the work very efficiently and effortlessly. Now this was an ego issue. With reaffirmed confidence ,Abby gave the grass a sharp blow and what , the green grass turned red. Abby had made a deep cut through her left feet. Blood was spurting out at quite a rapid pace. She first tried to stop bleeding fearing that her mom would kill her if she saw her this way.
But all in vain, all her attempts failed but still she did not cry. She went to her mother , she was doing dishes sitting near the hand pump. She got furious at the sight of blood on her daughter’s feet. Living to Abby’s expectations her mother gave her a nice tight slap , and then another. Then she was seated on her swing and pushed hard , it moved very quick to and fro, she kept on crying until her grandma picked her from there.
Her wound was nursed and she slept quietly to wake up next with next round of mischiefs.

The Secret of Nagas : Book Review

 The first book in series Shiva Trilogy ” The Immortals of Meluha” ends at an episode where Shiva cries out Sati’s name.It is the place where ” The Secret of Nagas” start. Mahadev and Sati chase the Naga but are left way behind , the Naga shows great skills.

After discovering that Chandravanshi’s are not evil and they are not associated with Nagas, Shiva’s next task is to find Nagas and thereby the evil. This book again is divided into various chapters in form of various episodes and very simple and interesting way of story telling.

In his search for Naga secret and to get to murderer of his brother-like Brahaspati, Shiva traverses many lands from Ayodhya to Kashi , then Branga , Dandaka Aranya the dreaded forest and Panchavati the Naga- land. Kartik is new entrant as Sati and Shiva’s son. He is born while their stay in Kashi. Sati also gets to know of her twin sister Kali and long lost and hitherto believed to be stillborn son Ganesh. 

The chapters are woven into each other to keep the reader stick to the book. In every episode, there is one new fact to surface, new characters come to life. The theme remains that none but all are evil as well as good. There are cases for Branga community, Parashuram , Naga Queen and Prince. 

The book is a work of fiction yet very logically written. The details given are as such you will form a picture of it, an imaginary world- the land of Kashi and Mahadev Rudra temple’s description, the Branga ship and gate to the city, the Dandak aranya and Panchvati. 

One of main attractions of the book is simple language, rather than long never ending sentences and incomprehensible vocabulary, simply daily life words are used.

The only disappointment was towards the end , the real secret, the secret that was meant for title of the book. All in all it is a good book to read.