Mercury Shades

Long, long time ago when I had gone to Goa for the first time I bought a pair of cheap, roadside, mercury coated aviator shades from Madgaon on my way to Calangute beach with the gang. Fell in love with them but like everything else at that time they also became victim of my carelessness.

Couldn't afford the original Ray Ban aviators so forgot all about them

Later when I came to a stage of finally buying one for myself they had gone out of style.

Today after almost two decades I came across a pair of original mercury aviator Ray Bans at Shoppers Stop and latched on to them before they again disappear.

Like everything else in my life it took its own sweet time coming but then it eventually did! 

Destination Doda

Dreamt that I was on my way to Doda with H & D. And that to by a local bus! The landscape and weather is still fresh in my mind. There were these huge brown, barren cliffs and emerald green Chenab could be seen raging and roaring in the valley below. For some reason the river was getting split into two by a narrow, sharp mountain side. I remember telling H that just by looking at the steep surface of the mountain on the opposite side you can imagine how high up we were moving and any accident would plummet us hundreds of feet into the icy cold water of the river below. Crossed over the river via a old rope bridge with a ghat and a temple on its left. Ghat was full of people in various stages of bathing and washing clothes. On the way got a call on my cell from Ma teling me that Pa was waiting for us at the village and we had not informed them how or when we are coming. As the connection was bad and full of static it got cut. As I was conveying this piece of info to H & D I saw that one of my cousin is also there on the same bus and he told us that we have to get off before Doda to walk towards my village. As it was already evening I was sure it would be night before we could walk up the mountain and with the weather becoming chillier by the minute the thought was not very welcoming. Was looking out of the window of the bus and wondering how to contact Pa when I woke up with a start on hearing the doorbell ring......

Dreamlike & Engrossing

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami

Started on 30th Sept at 10:15pm, as soon as Lucknow Mail slipped out of Lucknow station.
Finished on 9th Oct at around 1:00pm, as Shatabdi Express was gliding into Lucknow station.
607 pages in 10 days. Not a very rapid read if you sit back and calculate but I was too busy for around 5-6 days in between. At times when I was reading I was oblivious to the surrounding and was one with Toru Okada.
This is not a mere novel. It’s an emotional rollercoaster which rolls back and forth between time frames, continents and the complex characters which are scattered across the pages.
A masterpiece which you know will end eventually but still want to prolong it forever........

Coincidence at Bhopal

Bhopal railway station. The second stop of this train after Nizammudin! My whole experience and memories of train journey revolves around getting off at different stations and trying out the local eatables, buying a magazine or newspaper or just hanging around soaking the local atmosphere. And here I am stuck on this train which stops after around four hours.

Anyway as I get off at the station I see a person standing right in front of me who seems to look like Daya. And it turns out its Daya himself! After the initial surprise I came to know he was travelling from Benares along with his parents and was on his way to Bangalore by the same train.

I told him to carry on with the boarding and come to IIIrd AC where I was put up. So the train starts from Bhopal and Daya comes to my cabin searching for his berth. And by the most amazing of coincidences his berth is just opposite mine and is the one which was previously allotted to Nitin. I was stupefied! What were the odds of such a thing happening?

Back to Belgaum.........

Day 1: Morning 8am, am standing at Kalkaji wondering where my taxi has run off? Got a lift from my father-in-law and after the standard weaving in and out of traffic managed to reach Nizzamudin station well in time. After 8 yrs of staying and studying in Karanataka this is the first time I’ll be travelling by the Yeshwantpur Shabdh Kranti Express. I had heard about this train, had thought of travelling by it a few times but its only now, 7 years after I left that state, that I am travelling by it.

In Indian railway stations you can normally make out the priority or importance of the train by the platform it’s made to stand on. My train was on the last one!

Got on the coach, saw the new brown upholstery and smarter reading lights and then saw the three berths put up in the gallery in place of the standard two. Cursed Nitin silently because he had made me book tickets by 3^rd AC while I was in mood to travel by 2^nd AC. Due to this new development my berth also changed to inner upper from inner lower. Resigned to my fate, I settled down and made the standard calls and messages.

The train was supposed to depart at 8:55am and it was already late by 10mins. Got off to buy a bottle of water and realised that my name was not on the booking chart. Great! That’s all I needed.

Train finally crawled out, already 15 minutes late. The coach was practically empty so I figured that this was not a very most popular train and I dread to find out why. Caught hold of the TTE who told me that my berth was changed and it’s inner, lower one. So that was a relief. 

In a run of 35minutes since we left Nizammudin, this train has already stopped thrice! I guess I should gear up for a long haul and an excruciatingly boring train ride.