The Waffle Iron

Pav Bhaji, Pani Puri and an Ice Gola later....

It's VERY early in the morning, right now. So early, that I can still taste the mint in my tooth-paste, and recall a few of the strange dreams that I had last night. It's SEVEN O'CLOCK. [Which I assure you, will NOT be the time of POSTING this]

What is it about a vacation, that's SO numb-ing? You don't hear the clock ticking!! You don't know it's the weekend until there are additional supplements with the newspaper, you don't know it's Christmas until they're showing 'The Grinch' on TV. And I think I'm beginning to love it - the blissful ignorance of the insanity that lies beyond. But, it won't be too long until I miss campus-life. To deliberately steal (maybe YANK) time out of an incredibly packed schedule for a silly B'wood movie, to scour the bottom of the potato-chips bag and salve the last crumbs, to try HARD and keep a straight-face in class when the Prof says something that's unimaginably stupid. What I DEFINITELY WILL NOT miss though, is the hapless glances at my watch, every minute, of each hour-long lecture. Maybe it's despair, but the tiny dial looks like a monster-clock to me, every time I take a peek at it. I TRY and PULL the minutes-hand down, so it runs faster. But I just keep getting tinier, and the hand gets bigger and heavier. It's SO huge now, that I'm hanging from it. Now I'm using my weight, but it just WON'T move! O..K... I think it just did, but there.. it's sprung back into place. Sigh!! Who says 'Time Flies'??

But it IS true, Time's an incredible rush! I'm in the middle of my winter vacation, fighting the bitter cold; I'm rummaging through assorted trash on my hard-disk; and here's what i found. A post (that never WAS posted!) that I wrote when the semester was 'young' - VERBATIM. :P

Just for the information of the precious few that form the 'elite' group of my patrons, I'm back on our sprawling(do i hear objections?), GREEN campus; after 10 weeks of internship at Lucent Technologies, Hyderabad (for the obscenely, inexplicably ignorant.. Lucent Tech. is an offshoot of the phamous Bell Labs - guess where the enigmatic, bipolar junction transistor came from?!) As is the case EVERY new academic year, it's that time of the year, when everything and everyone is scurrying hither and thither to get the neglected state of the NITW {(formerly known as RECW) - Deemed University} campus back into what civilization would call "habitable". To add to the melee is Campus Recruitment; that inevitable roller coaster ride, which every "about to step out into the big, bad world" fresher can take, without a paid ticket.

However, this post of mine is a chronologically ordered sequence of 'oeuvres', that were typed-in on my humble PC, in my now furnished room. The Internet is a luxury, in the jungle that I live in now. I've even had one of the fans(yeah, the antediluvian three-winged somethings, that read "Usha"/"Crompton Greaves" in most places) in my room start turning with loud complaints the first time I switched it on, and then, screech haltingly after which EVEN a sacrificial offering can't propitiate it!! Alright then.. here we go...

Unfortunately, that 'chronology' ended there. I think the rest of the placement season was spent in attending endless Pre-Placement Talks, and waiting for short-lists, with fingers-crossed, hoping that THAT 'deserving' friend of yours gets into THIS one! I forgot about the post, the campus came back to life, the cog got out of the mud, and the wheel set into motion...

NOW, all that has been stashed away, to be trodden upon, only when there's a need for a 'walk down Memory Lane' - a series of sepia-tinted pictures. I celebrated home-coming, by indulging in "Pav Bhaji, Pani Puri and an Ice Gola" at Abids. It's WONDERFUL to eat good food, makes me REALLY happy. :P I'm now back from a whirlwind tour of Mumbai, Nasik, Panchvati, et al. And I guess train journeys (down South, atleast), offer the same painting-style landscapes. Mountains (the Aravallis, this time), hills, rivers, fields, tiny huts... But, it IS fun, trying to make shapes out of the mountains; just like it is, to conjure stuff out of clouds. A herd of rhinoceroses, probability-distribution functions, a collection of party-hats, a blind giant, a pixie's ear...

What I took, to read on the journey, is a book titled "Miracles of the Gods - A Hard Look at the Supernatural" by Erich Von Daniken. If THAT name rings a bell, it's probably because you've either read, or heard of his other, rather popular book called 'Chariots of the Gods' - VERY interesting! I didn't have oppurtunity to savour more than fifty-pages of 'miracles', but I DID get to take a HARD look at the Preternatural, though. At Mumbai, that is. While I write..err..type this, I'm reminded of the pictures of Hyderabad, I'd once posted; claiming it to be THE most beautiful city. I admit I went overboard with the "beauty" bit, but I confirm that it STILL is one of the best cities to live in. Not too expensive, not too crowded, not too polluted, not too corrupt, not too dirty. However, Hyderabad DOES suffer some notoriety. Whatever it may be, nothing can beat the lassitude that ripples beneath the city's cover. You see vehicles rushing, people pushing; but the langour's there. Not noticeable, but VISIBLE. Mumbai on the other hand, seems to be in a perpetual hurry. Like a string of 'Old Cities' glued together. And, no discussion of the city can be complete without a reference to the sub-urban trains. It's like the Tantra T-shirt that reads: 'Indian Railways: Since 150 years - Bringing people closer than ever'. A PRESS of people!

There are a countless things/people that spring to my mind, when I think of the last five days. But, I think the most remarkable ones are just a handful:

• The cottages on the hills in Khandala, that you can see from the train. THE place to settle in, if you ever wanted to write a book.


• The tourist guide who called this place "Baandh-ra Ri-kala-ma-(na)-shun [Reculmination, I thought]". The board read 'Bandra Reclamation'. It's like calling a gentleman, a genital-man!!


• The kindly sabzi-mandi lady on the sub-urb train, who was carrying this HUGE wicker-basket of greens.


• The boat-ride to the Elephanta Caves: the Japanese tourist, the calm waters, Lionel Ritchie playing in the background.


• The kid at Sion Centre, who was trying to draw a red tilak on a street-dog's forehead, with a sketch-pen.


• A questionable 'shop' that read "Crazy Land Video Game, Police License No. 270/2001", and the unmistakable jingle of coins, and shuffling of stakes.


• Juhu Chowpatty, and the little girl who lost her parents in the crowd.


• The walk from the Gateway of India, to Churchgate; the 'Café Royal' and the cricket-match being played at 'The Oval'.


• The Godavari at Panchvati, and the children splashing about, in it.

posted by Cos Θ @ 11:53 AM