Bangalore Express

I like Bangalore a lot. That's the place I got some real sweet and sad and warm and tingly memories associated with. And with my best friend A being there, it makes the city all the more welcoming.

Last weekend we made a short trip to the place. And it was a trip full of sweet nothings.

Friday evening was remarkable enough, when all of a sudden, dark clouds gathered and it started raining. And some rain it was, with blinding lightening and ferocious winds. I was all prepared and agog to scoot home soon so that we could be off to catch the train with lots of time to spare and I had promised A some snacks and savories, but seeing the downpour I felt dejected - it was gonna be a close call yet again :( with no time for purchases.

Then all of a sudden, I spotted a girl. Seemed to be a faintly familiar face, someone I had met while traveling in share autos to office. I gave her a buck tooth smile, but she never returned it. Ahem! Wrong number mebbe. Then after sometime she came up and said, did we meet before in a share auto or something? I was like Ya Lady! She was pretty petrified by the way the downpour was shaping up and tentatively asked me - shall we try to get home in this rain? I told, if you have an umbrella to get us till the main gates without soaking like rats, I think I am brave enough to face this rain. So off we went with a flimsy umbrella... and that poor thing was twisted beyond redemption thanks to the winds :(

We managed to get autos and reach till the penultimate stop for me. It was a pretty interesting ride too where I got to hear her love story, wedding plans and future programs. Once I reached the stop, my cell phone was ringing and guess who was it?! Hubby Gubby! He was close to the terminus.

So we met with the music of La la la la la la la la la la ( music of Sagar movie fame) :D We had tea and bread pakodas at a tea stall..... Hmmmmmm mild drizzle, K for company, warm tea in one hand and bread pakoda in the other ........ hmmmm heaven was close :)

Grub done, we ventured ahead. Caught the bus which would take us home in the nick of time, so much so that, we stepped into the bus at the same time and were stuck for a few seconds at the door :D Making a fool of oneself and still smiling at it - I am excelling in this talent I feel.

Journey itself was a little bit painful since all of a sudden I was having a headache - maybe a sinus prone person like me could blame the rains for it.

Sat morn as soon as we reached Bangy, the ever food loving K escorted me to a restaurant near the railway station. We shared a plate of uttapam while the most lilting songs wafted. The song that made it all the more special was Dhaage tod laao from Jhoom Barabar Jhoom. A personal fav.

Reached the destination and woke up dear darling A. And got on with the usual chatter chatter yak yak. A apart from sharing many of my opinions and tastes, also shares a penchant for getting the cold virus. Achoo Achoo Achoo she went hitting sixers and boundaries till noon. Thats when we decided to have a low key day. 3 of us generally lazed around in front of the TV, chatted and dozed intermittently, ordered and had some delectable sandwiches and noodles. Finally at 2000 we stepped out of the house to have death by chocolate - a lovely sundae at a nearby shop, which is a major hit with K since it was the very first dish I had shared with him. Once back, we guzzled generous portions of awesome ginger tea and emptied quite a few containers of snacks and savories :)

Time passed just like that, chatting,surfing the net, seeing pics of each others friends on Orkut, that A and I scarcely realised it was close to 0300 by the time we hit the bed.

Sunday started late, cos obviously we woke up late, were super lazy and there was some or the other thing on TV which was making us sit in front of it. Finally at 1400 we set forth. Again rains played spoilt sport. But inspite of it, we managed to make quite a few purchases. With her wedding coming up, A had quite a bit to do. But alas:( Still, what we accomplished within the 5 hours, was no mean feat.

Back home packing done, we had some pastries and puffs at a nearby bakery. It was really nostalgic to say goodbye, hmm, goodbye to miss A for the last time.

At the station, both K and I were reminiscing the 2 jovial days, we did not do anything, but still the time spent was so special. In the reverie we noticed that there was no sign of the train, though it was expected to depart in 15 more minutes. Thats when I spotted that we were facing platform number 6 rather than 5 (The setup is a bit weird, you cant see the platform number 5 though technically its just behind you. ) So we sccccccccccccccccccrammed to the other platform and got into the train Jab We Met style ( Ahem no no the train had nt started yet :) )

The rains and cold climes had forced me to take a couple of medicines to ward off the headache et al. But thanks to them, I slept like a dead decayed log!

When embarking on the journey, I had armed myself with the fully charged digicam for a lot of clicks. Ironically, dont have a single picture - but enormously precious memories.

Friends are the family you choose - you are an integral part of mine dearie.

Register thy marriage

Yesterday we had gone to register our marriage, a formality to be completed within a year of wedding.

We had the form nicely filled. I had in fact filled it in my neatest bestest all caps handwriting. We had double checked it and taken utmost care to fill it as if our life depended on it. We went to the main window, which had a Lady Don sitting on her golden throne. She had a good thick glass wall shielding her from the spit of the people who come to (beg/appeal/scream/scold/sob ) get their land or marriage regsitered. She gave us a cursory glance as if asking, hmmm Now I have to dirty my hands for these commoners.

She so much as just scanned the application form and pat came her review comments:-

• Put parents age for both bride and groom in the form
• Put parents profession for both bride and groom.

Now, after filling in the whole family saga of both K and I there was hardly space to write anything else. But then, a command is a command, especially coming from a government official. So we some how cringed the ages and professions of both peoples. I think the paper just extended a bit because we were actually able to fill in both nicely.

First change request successfully added.

We gingerly approached the client again. Ahem said Lady Don, give proofs. I was like :O Is it this easy!? I expected she will make us dance salsa before assenting. Then she checked the proofs. My passport was issued to me long ago when I was doing my graduation, so it had my hostel address. Now her demand was, the address I had put for myself in the application form was supposed to be that address. We looked at each other and at the 3 witnesses we had asked to assemble (one being mom in law and 2 family friends ) Then Lady Don calmly said - get a new form.

Wokay .. :| We got a new form and filled the whole Ramayana yet again. This time K had the honours. She had also asked to give in the initials for all the names in the form, the initial signifying the parents name of the person. So I was B. Amrita since my dads name starts with B and similarly every single persons name there, mine, my parents', K's, his parents', every ones name got an extra letter. Weird? You bet. This is called Tamilicization of names :S :(

Whole 999 yards covered again, we went to her - on tenterhooks. She looked. Same look of utter disgust and contempt on her face. Looked at us and said -go to the registrar and get the signature.

Now registrar happened to be a rolly polly man with a lot of chandan on his forehead, seated with atleast 5 idols looking over him. Quite a contrast to Lady Don who was cold and sardonic. He placed his signatures on all the documents while asking under his breath - hope you guys have submitted all the proofs. We said yes in unison. Then his eyes fell on the invitation. He said BHUBANESWAR!??? Who is from Bhubaneswar? Looked at K and asks Neenga? (Means you with respect in Tamil) K said no and said she. But Gollu Pollu chose not to hear that and ask ed me Neenga? I nodded yes.(I thought, if not me then who else MAN? K does nt have a doosri biwi! ) Then he said oh Bhubaneswar has a veryyyyyyyyyyyyyy famous temple. I suggested Lingaraj? He chose not to hear it( Gollu had a mind of his own, and was very choosy in what is important enough to get his ears! ) Then K helped Puri? Jagannath? Gollu Pollu lept from his chair - YESSSS YESSss Yess. I was like - Hello!!! Puri is a good 3 hours journey from Bhubaneswar and a separate city - but if you want to club them together go ahead - but get our marriage certi done :S . Then Gollu Pollu said Very good! Long Live. You are from that place!

I was like ahem thanks ... Long live the King who built the temple and thanks Jagannath - you saved the day :)

Was it pathos?

Yesterday I took a cab from office back home. It was around 2145.

On the way, there is a particular junction which manages to have a decent crowd till very late hours. There my cab was slowed down by a bus which was not standing at its designated point. The bus was supposed to stand near the terminus to pick up people, but this one was standing after it had crossed the terminus, as if waiting for some frantic person to run up and board it. I didn't see any one hurrying towards the bus, so I was a bit perplexed as to why the bus was parked in the weird fashion, causing inconvenience to the incoming traffic. Then as my cab slowly managed to cross the bus, I saw - two people waving their hand vigorously, but approaching the bus at a slow pace. And between them was a man, I guess might be in his sixties - who was blind. I did not fail to notice the white stick with the red tip in his hand. He was walking a step behind his escorts and taking careful measured steps. Something told me, the blind man was not related to the two people beside him, but was merely being helped by them.

That sight stayed on with me. Dont know why, I got tears. I had a blob in my throat with the pent up emotions. And I was unable to be normal till some 10 minutes or so.

I dont know why was it so. I saw the man for a fleeting moment - did I feel pity for him? Or was I utterly touched by the selfless way two by standers were helping him? Or was I amazed by the way the blind person trusted them? Or was I emotional because I saw the vulnerability of the old man? Or did I just realise how blessed I was......



PS. I wrote this post to remember the emotion for posterity. Economies world wide are slumping, people are loosing jobs, yesterdays necesseties are becoming luxuries today. But still, I feel we should never stop counting our blessings. Yes, there are people who seem to be having all the good luck with all the goodies coming their way. But, there are also those who have all the bad luck, for whom everything is down in the dumps. So keep counting the blessings, if theres nothing now, count the ones you had, and if you never had any be sure you will have to do a lot of counting in the future! Keep the faith.....

Finally at peace

Small small things make a big picture I feel.
Ever since I came back from my vacation, I was so ill at ease... And there was no big trouble behind it. Only small matters, trivial things.

I did not have a decent pair of shoe for all my outfits. For a person like me who chooses which shoe to wear it was a problem of catastrophic proportions! I had just one "wear worthy" shoe! And cos of that I had to ration my clothes. I had to keep some of them at bay, cos they would not go with the only (yes only) shoe that I had. Boy it was so agonizing in the morning :( I felt all the more terrible because there was one particular darling black shoe that I had got with so much fervor, but it was being an unbearable pain. It used to give me terrible shoe bite in the heel. So there I was all dejected and gloomy, with one stupid shoe :(

But then on the weekend before the one that went by, I went shoe shopping. I had no hopes to get a good pair, but my lone shoe had borne the brunt of a week's incessant rains, and I couldn't be certain of its health. What if it breathes its last during an all important office day!! I could be beyond redemption. So I made an iron will and thought, no matter how the quality, I will get a pair for backup sakes at least. But at the shop, I picked not one but 2 shoes and both to my choice. Anddddddd surprise surprise, I also got transparent heel pads, which I could use with the bitter black shoe :) and voila!!! Since I already had 3 in my kitty, I decided to give a long discarded sports shoe a goooooood wash so that I can be choosy on friday mornings as well :D . Woo hoo! :)

Apart from that, it had been 2 months since I did any sort of exercise. I was feeling like the fattest person on earth. For one reason or the other I had not been able to renew the gym membership. During the Dusshera vacations I had eaten like a properrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr glutton. :( And I was somehow not able to summon the will to re join. I coaxed K to join me to motivate me. But no. For him the early morning slumber was way too important. I was waiting for some divine intervention, some push which would make me turn towards some form of exercising. K said, join after Diwali. Enjoy the onset of winter as long as you can and there is no better way of doing so but wrapping oneself up in bed. Hmmmmmmmm very pleasant thought and verrrrrrrry tempting, but then with tyres and radials shaping up, I again had to give so many items on the wardrobe a miss :(

I was waiting for 1st Nov all the while, but that day also I felt lazy in the morn :( When we were out for some shopping, K turned towards the gym and said, cmon, go pay the membership and start from tomorrow. You will like it. Oh how I love my hubby!! :) And from 2nd Nov, I was back on the treadmill. Feels great you know!

The long pending bed for mil was finally assembled together. The bed has the typical make of stuff from my uncle's factory, which makes me feel as if I am at my paternal house!! The room looks awesome with the stunning bed right in the center of it. With a new mattress right in place, I feel so satisfied giving my mom in law a lavish bed as a Diwali gift!

Diwali itself, though it was a much anticipated event for me, went a tad off key . Some minor mis understanding ruffled a few feathers in the morning. It was supposed to be a great event for me, cos the first Diwali after wedding is a much celebrated affair. The issue was resolved no sooner than it happened but then, the very fact that it was there, left a sour taste. Hmmm well who said life is a bed of roses.

Right now, the weather is taking a turn towards winter, and I think I am getting the groove back.