Shoe story

You know those nightmare one has of going to school without shoes? And then in the assembly you realise that you are standing in just your white socks or bare feet and everyone around is either staring or making fun of you. 

Well today was one such day when that dream kind of came true. I had this laced up formal pure black leather shoe with leather sole which I had purchased a decade or so back. They at that time were the most comfortable formal shoe I had ever worn. So even when the leather sole gave away I got it resoled with a rubber sole. The shoes were honorably retired from active duty and transferred from Lucknow and stored away in my cupboard in Jammu. 

So after all those years I thought I would take the treasured shoes out and wear them to college for everyone to admire. I left early in the morning and had stopped on the way to Rajouri from Jammu at a water front near Nowshera. Went down to the river to admire the view, with the mist, the pine trees, the gurgling water and all. As it has been raining everything was damp and wet. Anyway after I had my fill of the view I reached the hospital. On the way up to the department I could feel something different with the shoes while walking. To my horrors of horror I could see both the soles of my shoes coming apart! Literally in huge chunks of black plastic/rubber 😦 I changed my steps and slowly trudged upto my chamber somehow. I shut myself in my chamber and planned to leave my seat only once at the end of the day lest my shoes came apart! After a bit I couldn't take it anymore and thought it would be better to leave early, that way no one would seem me coming apart at the seams! I gingerly walked in the corridors and down the stairs, making sure my feet were never more than a few inches above the floor. Unfortunately my car was parked deep inside the parking lot and I had to trudge through wet groud and mud. I could literally feel the mud and the water was seeping through the groud into my socks. With every step I prayed that I should get to the car with my shoes as well as honour intact.

I stormed out of the hospital in my car and couldn't find a parking space near my accommodation. Had to walk a bit in the rain to reach back to my place after parking the car but then I was too furious to care about the water running on the road and soaking my feet!

The shoes had an abrupt exit and end. They were disposed of into the garbage bin the minute I opened the front gate of my flat.

A bitter end after more than a decade of glorious service!

Trials & tribulations of boiling an egg!

Finally managed to make my own breakfast today of boiled eggs, peanut butter sandwich and coffee after much trial and tribulations. 

The tough part being the evasive electricity and that being my only way to cook (on a electric heater) or make coffee (in an electric kettle). I started the boiling the eggs day before at 6pm and finally managed to boil them by 11pm! I had infact forgotten all about them through the multiple power shut downs during the course of evening. Was reminded about them by the incessant banging of the eggs on the steel utensil once the water had fully boiled. 

Bottom line being I am totally dependent upon electricity. Will have to make arrangements for a gas connection and an inverter if I have to stay long. Aisae kaise chalega!

Danced a mini jig after the successful completion of breakfast in the morning today. Even an inane task like this seems like such a Herculean effort over here!

The one who almost got away...

So I have this record which I am rather fond of. I have never lost a friend, as in I am not talking about death, but never lost contact. I have tracked down people who had settled abroad, had changed their surnames and that too before Facebook and Google, after a gap of around 2 decades. There was hardly anyone I couldn't track, and I did track down quite a few and the rest I never lost sight of. Except one.

The irony of that was she was in my hometown, so technically she should have been the easiest to track. But I never could. She wasn't there on any social media. The hospital where we both had worked had shut down. We had no common acquaintance. Our one common friend was now semi-hostile. Plus with my bad memory for names I could not recollect of anyone else who had worked in the hospital. In short I had no leads to follow on, so was practically screwed! But I never gave up hope. 

I used to regularly scan the social media platforms in case she turns up somewhere, but with no luck. 

Fast forwarding to more than 21 years later one day while passing time in the department I thought of googling her name while doing research for an article I was working on. And presto! There she was!!! Or her mention in an article about a private medical college in my hometown.

After that I forgot all about my article and got on to dig out more details about her from the net. There was hardly anything though worth retrieving, but I did manage to grab hold of her Twitter handle. Now Twitter was one platform which I had never checked in cause one, I hardly used it and two, hardly anyone in my friend circle was active on it. That was literally the last place where I could have expected her, or anyone for that matter who is avoiding social media, to be. 

To cut the long story short, I inboxed her a message and thanking my lucky stars she remembered me! I met her the next time I came home.

So here we are, very much in contact after all these years, my outstanding record restored, and planning to not let her slip away from my sight ever again!

Storm in a teacup

Had a first hand experience of "breaking news" in the department at GMC today. 

Some media person with a microphone and a guy holding a cell phone recording the event broke into the dental department today. 

They caught hold of an attendant named Zia not wearing a mask and asked him where his mask was. He not knowing who the guys were asked where is your mask? When they revealed their identity Zia pushed them out of the OPD and locked the doors. 

Then all hell broke loose!

Incidentally the Principal was in our department getting his dental treatment done at that time. So it was all the more absurd and more of a real life drama.

Dream within a dream

I woke up at around 3am, fully awake, not the drowsy awake kind. I couldn't figure out why. I was neither cold nor under any pain or discomfort. Finally managed to drift back into sleep after an hour or so. That's when I saw this lucide dream.

"We were in the botanical/science institute in Jammu, but in my dream it was in Lucknow, on a Sunday. Walking towards the main building there were pretty weird kind of plants and I was telling Jai about the fruits of one of them. Ayush wanted her pics clicked near the statues places at the entrance of the closed building. There was an another person with us but I can't remember who. 

I started walking back when I saw there was some cultural program going on in the baradari like open structure in the lawns. As I approached it to check it out I could see a couple of yound women turning and looking towards me and talking. On coming closer I saw it was Vandana who was giving me a sheepish smile. I was so surprised to see her! The first thing I said was ki tum yahan kya kar rahe ho? She apparently had come for the function. She came down and I gave her a tight hug and a kiss on her forehead. It felt so good to meet her after so long. While we were hugging Ayush also came from behind. She obviously was pretty confused about what was going on. Vandana hugged her too which puzzled her even more. I mouthed Vandana's name to Ayush while they were hugging. 

In the second part of the dream I was talking to Harman while walking in the corridors of the building. In the dream he was inferring that he and Vanadana were married and now divorced. I was a bit puzzled cause I never knew that they even knew each other. He was also talking about his life in America and was not as overweight as he used to be when we met last. While we were talking it struck me that Harman has passed away in real life and I told him so. He said yes that's true with a laugh. So I figured out that maybe I am dreaming and asked him. He said yes you are seeing me in a dream."

And in my dream I am thinking that I am dreaming of Vanadana and Harman. After a long time I saw a dream which left a lasting impact on me.

Cacti cauldron

Started my cacti collection in Jammu too. Had got the one in the beer mug along with me in the plane and a few cuttings of the one in green Buddha and now they are multiplying. 

For some reason cactus have bad press, people only have bad things to say about the poor thing. But for some reason they resonate with me, I seem to understand them, or maybe they are just too easy to grow. Have to get another Buddha, maybe a brown or a black one. They should be in odd numbers. Hinduism as it is has a fascination for odd numbers.

The return of the native...

 I am back. Back to the room where I was back in 1974!

Took me around 46-47 years to complete the full circle before coming back to where it all started from.

I am in a state of limbo. Jobless. And almost penniless.

But I am at peace with myself. Secure and relatively stable.

Ah! The travesties and uncertainties of life.

My agyatvas, my hibernation.

 Amongst all this gave a presentation on history taking in a CDE organised by KGMU too. This pic is just to remind me later on in my life of these times. A speaker without a college to represent. Like a vagabond or a freelancer. 

The song "Sochna hai kya, jo hona hai hoga, janae kya hoga Rama re, janae kya hoga humara re?" is what all my life is about now.