Hyperbole

Independence Day. 15th August '12. I start from the late 50s when my maternal grandparents used to stay in Kotwara house on the bank of Gomti. Hardly half a kilometer from where this snap was clicked. My mom used to tell us about the desolate jungle on the opposite bank of Gomti. If you look at this pic you feel as if nothing much has changed. This picuture has been clicked from Gandhi setu, overlooking Lart of La Martinete college. We see the lush greenery on the banks thanks to the monsoon. The black bathing and grazing beauties as they would have appeared 50-60 years back. And the beauty of this pic is that it has been clicked bang in the center of the city. Next to Taj hotel, Ambedkar park and a multiplex. Thats the beauty of Lucknow. Wilderness is just a stone throw away. Thats why you come across blue bulls at times on cantt road and tiger threat at times in the suburbs! Thats why the more things change, the more they remain the same.

31st July '12. On the way to Delhi just after Manaknagar station saw 3 blue bulls standing majestically gazing at my Shatabdi running through the green fields! As they were females should it be blue females? And if I would've taken their video would it have been a blue movie? With my ingrained hindu upbringing I wonder whether the sighting of these three ladies right at the beginning of my Delhi trip signifies anything. We'll wait & watch.

Moradabad holds so many memories for me since time immemorial. Ever since my childhood and the time of steam engines I have a vivid memory of Moradabad station. Our train used to pass here in the afternoon so it was where our lunch in steel trays used to come, full steaming and spicy. If the train was late then it was tea in mitti ke kulhad which I used to relish throwing on the tracks from the grilled windows in the sleeper coach while bundled up in our razais and hear them go krrrrack! More then the tea it was the pleasure of breaking my cup, and of everyone elses in the cubicle that I relished. There used to be giant, black steam engines all huffing and puffing with red hot cinders arising from the furnance and the chimney. I think Moradabad junction was the place where they stocked up on the coal keeping in mind the long halt we used to have here. With the advent of time sleeper coaches gave way to 2nd AC, ste engines to diesel engines and kulhad ki chai to disposable storifom cok

Roaming on a rickshaw through the bylanes of Moradabad. The hustle bustle, the ramlila jhankis (so soon?), the janmasthmi/eid decorations in the market place with the canopy of silver ropes, the two wheeler parking bang in the middle of the road, town hall, district jail, ifftar namaz, free parking, brass pieces at bartan bazaar, the infamous chadha plaza from where the local hero/villain Monty Chadha started his story. It's all here and more in Moradabad.

One gets amazed to come across simplest of things amongst most unusual of places. I came across this pic of my favourite Nirmal baba on a slide dispenser between two microscopes in the HOD's chamber in Kotiwal DC, M'bad. I always used to look at the kind of people attending his so called darbars on TV and wonder where do these weirdos come from. Now I know.

So this guy gets into the 2nd AC compartment and enquires for berth number M22. M22? No one has a clue what he is talking about till the time a helpful co-passenger doesn't gently remind him that M 22 is his sex and age! Later on the same guy asks how do we come to know where to sit when there are no numbers put anywhere. We politely point out the numbers put up on the side. I casually asked him whether this is the first time he is travelling by train? But apparently our lad had travelled before, or so he said. He's on berth 1 and I am on 2. This will be an amusing train journey. A Rakshabandhan special. Pallav Bhat hai apnae hero ka naam.

At last, at last! The rains have reached the pretty parched soil (and soul) of Lucknow. It has been raining incesstantly since the past 4 hours and I hope this goes on for a long time. The ACs are off, the windows are on and there's everything good, green and glossy in this world.

I should thank iPhone and it's apps for my return to blogger basically. I had started blogging on Evernote but now I am back.