Life & Times of a Bodysnatcher

This post much to mine and anyone bothering to read it's regret has nothing to do with body snatching. Though that term really fascinates me. I feel it's a profession (?) or a hobby which has been over hyped. Something like stamp collection. Yeah I know it's called philately, but the word philately itself makes it sound duller then it actually is. I worked tirelessly at it for maybe 5-7 years so I shouldn't be the one to crib. Philately, not body snatching.
Anyway coming back to the topic I felt that cutting up corpses in human dissection in first year of dentistry was another mind numbingly boring job. So why would body snatching be any different?

Comfortably Numb

Life at times is like an intoxicant. You are aware of your surroundings, you are lucid, but you are also comfortably numb.
I have had this phrase with me since ages. Thats what you get when you hear Pink Floyd too early on in life. I knew the song since I was around 10, I guess. But the gist of the song came much later when I was in my mid 30s.
My comfortably numb is a state of peace in a way and not a mildly disturbing song as sung by the Floyds. It's the closest I come to nirvana or tranquility. I like it because I don't do dumb or risky stuff in this state. Boredom is the state when I am the most dangerous surprisingly.
Factors which help in my being comfortably numb is a stable job, standard routine, regular sleep pattern, no burning ambition to prove anything and the desire to lie low and hibernate, and lastly the feeling that you have been there, done that, many times over.
I don't know for how long I will stay this way but I should make the most of it while it's there.

Leap of faith...

Last night I dreamt of swimming in a kind of a small emerald green coloured water body or oasis arising from a spring. There was a group and the guide or some person was encouraging us to take a dip in the crystal clear water.
No one seemed very keen to do so. I went ahead and just peeled off my T shirt and jeans, took a deep breath, and dived into the water. Due to the presence of a hot spring the water was warm, sweet and nice. I dove down and was amazed by it's glass like clarity. There were small fish swimmng all around of different shades. Sunrays being bounced around by the small ripples on top were dancing at the bottom which was light brown and wavy. It was just me in the water alongwith the fish and I felt as if I could stay down forever without ever needing to go up to breathe.
I could feel the warm water gushing up from dark, large round vents at the bottom. The water was totally lighted up by the sunlight filtering through but the vents stood out with their dark blue ominous colour.
I felt drawn towards the vents and was captivated by their enormous size and the warm water churning out of it. I remember reading somewhere that no one knew where the water was coming from and some kind of giant turtles come out of them at some specific intervals to feed at the top. At this time I realise that I am in some Arabian country, most probably Saudi Arabia and I wonder if they ate the turtles and why don't they use this sulprus of fresh water to irrigate the land.
I wanted to explore the vents so badly but was afraid as to what will happen if I never come back. And if I dive inside will anyone know and how long will it take them to realise that I have disappeared for good. I somehow had a hunch that there is something good waiting for me on the other side.
This would be my leap of faith!
Which would be more of a dive.

Pepper & Ginger

I don't write about pets as a rule, specially the younger one's as I feel that it puts some kind of a jinx on them.
But with these two I am making an exception to the rule.
These two as it is had an amazing journey in life so far.
They were born to Furgie a couple of months back and were in a litter of four.
Their mom made sure that they were delivered in an undisclosed location and I came to know only after she came back one day all slim 'n trim and ravenously hungry. She got them home when they were a month or so old and her daughter from the first litter, Soxie, joined hands (paws) with her to help raise the brood.
So there were 6 cats in the house now. As cats move in mysterious ways, Furgie took her litter and disappeared one day with Soxie left high and dry.
Soxie hung around the house for a few days and then went in search of them. Being familiar with the cat world she obviously tracked them down and got two kittens back.
Pepper & Ginger.

Soxie, after she got these two back was in a very "chatty" mood and kept on meowing to me. I expected the worst and imagined some kind of misfortune befalling Furgie and her other kittens. Soxie got herself promoted from a nanny to a full on surrogate mom in no time and was busy playing and grooming them the whole day. The most amazing part was that she even started lactating and I was astounded to see the kittens suckling!
All this while I wondered what had become of my first cat, Furgie.
And then one night I saw her crossing the road just next to my house. I ran after her, calling her name, and she just walked away without even looking back.....

Random musings

For a person who loves his idleness and tries his best to be carefree I seem to be extremely busy all the time. How do people manage to run clinic, do volunteer/charity work or even read beats me. I am so sleepy by 10pm that someone would think that I had slaved in a stone quarry somewhere. Where do they get the time from? What do I do the whole day? Where does time go? Why don't I have enough of it?
Just now the attendant in my department came and tied a rakhi to me! That was something I wasn't expecting and despite my general rapid response took me by surprise. Though I must say that she moved really fast and it was all done in 3 minutes flat. I am getting too soft. Damn it! There should be a SOP for such eventualities.
I have to do something about the mental drifting. This year is taking way too long to get over. I feel as if I am slowly sliding done a mountain side, moving along with the slush and mud. It isn't harming me in any way and is all wet and gooey but nonetheless I don't have any control over it and neither do I know where it's all going to end. Such events make me realise how complacent a life I have been leading and a little bump is all it takes to throw me off balance.
The problem is too much reliance on happiness. People who are mundane or pessimistic all the time seem to remain unaffected. Did I have a good stretch for way too long now? Is this pay back time?
Irony of life : when you feel you will be screwed, it turns out you are safe. When you feel you are safe. You are screwed!
I feel like a traveler on a night train. My destination is supposed to come sometime in early morning. There is no landmark visible and it's pitch dark outside. The train is hurtling through the barren landscape. Everyone else is asleep inside the compartment. The air conditioning is at full blast and I am freezing to death. I am dying to get into the blanket and go back to sleep but if I do so I might miss my station where the train will stop just for a few minutes. You don't know whether the train is running before time, on time or is late, you have no clue where have you reached, you don't know how far your station is and you have a sneaking suspicion that you might have already missed your destination because you remember the train stopping somewhere in between but you could not read the name of the station in the dark. In such situation all you can do is wait.
The blessing is that I have this innate feeling that whatever will happen will happen for the best. I am not good with change but so far whenever it has come I have adapted to it.

Feline & Fangs

I used to be a dog person. Had dogs throughout my life. Of all assorted sizes and breeds. But this blog is not about dogs. It is about cats and how they entered and influenced my life.
We had a stray cat and kitten in Jammu who used to drop in now and then for scraps of food from the kitchen. They had this knack of appearing at lunch time and a cat with a pleading face is hard to resist. Even dogs do pleading expressions but the one a cat makes comes out of thousands of years of expertise. It is pretty hard to resist.
At around the same time we got a german shepherd pup and though it played with the cats initially with time it grew big. A dog, even a huge full grown one imagines it to be still a puppy throughout it's life, and the cute games he used to play with them became almost like a game of death for the cats. So with that there came an end to the beautiful friendship much to the puzzlement of our dog, Carlo, and the cats disappeared.
A few years back I started reading Murakami. The strong role cats play in his stories had a strong effect on me and I became intrigued with the breed.
I finally got my first cat, Furgie, from a kittens for free advert in OLX! So those things, the online placements, really work.
She was a handful to begin with. I had no experience of cats and already had a labrador, Suzana. It took me some time and quite a few bloody scratches to gain her trust.

The God & I

I have always struggled with the concept of god from a very early age. Surprisingly from what I recall I wasn't too god fearing as a kid. In fact I had more faith in science then I had in god. This must have been some where in 5th to 8th class and I distinctly remember telling my classmates in 6th or so that there is no god and one of them even complained to the class teacher! The little twerp.
I remember it was in a hill station where we had a hut, Patni Top, that I got around to the existence of a supernatural benefactor. There was this small rectangular mound of stones with a mud thatch on top, around 4 feet high which I discovered in the coniferous forest by chance. Inside there was stone plaque with a 4 arms deity engraved. The face was disfigured or not carved too well so I couldn't make out whether it was a god or goddess. It was kind of my personal divine angel. It started in a relatively simple way, I asked for something trivial. it came true. So I presented a small silver trident as a token of gratitude. These tridents or trishuls were available in the nearby towns for 40-50 bucks. As time progressed so did my desires and demands. I used to ask for something, it would come true, I would present a trident. As the stakes rose so did the price of trishuls. I think the last one I gave must have ran up to thousands!
As time progressed we stopped going to that hut and my folks shifted to our house in Kashmir. I used to go there every other month at one time. Now a whole year passed and I didn't even go there once. Eventually we decided to sell that hut.
That ended a part of my life which in retrospect seems like the closest I have ever come in being a believer.
I was a Shiv follower in college but that must be more due to the fact that we had a good Shiv temple in the campus and it was strategically positioned on the way to the examination hall!
Dharwar made me a agnostic once again. It was the trifecta effect of company, book and circumstances. I moved away then and it has been 14 years now and I am still away.
I believe in reincarnation. I believe in spirits. I believe in guiding angels. I believe in luck. I believe in coincidences. And I believe in houses giving good or bad vibes. But I do not believe in god.
Instead I believe that there must be some kind of strong supernatural force which guides this universe, but it doesn't give a crap on whether you have been good or bad. It runs things by it's own mysterious code.
I believe that I have some kind of guiding force helping me now and then along the way of life. I feel it when it's there and I know the times in life it has deserted me. Sounds very mystical, or maybe as if I am confused, but whatever it is that's the way I feel it.
So, I don't pray, I don't go to temples and I feel all organised religion is a sham.
I believe in me.

Silence

Silence is absolute
Silence is omni present

If there's death, there's life
If there's life, there's hope
If there's hope, there's survival
If there's survival, there's birth
If there's birth, there's a womb
If there's womb, there's silence
Inside

Silence is absolute
Silence is forgiving

If there's darkness, there's light
If there's light, there's day
If there's day, there's night
If there's night, there's loneliness
If there's loneliness, there's sadness
If there's sadness, there's silence
Inside

Silence is absolute
Silence is punishing

If there's peace, there's war
If there's war, there's strife
If there's strife, there's violence
If there's violence, there's fatalities
If there's fatalities, there's death
If there's death, there's silence
Inside

Silence is absolute
Silence is despair

If there's meeting, there's parting
If there's parting, there's longing
If there's longing, there's heart break
If there's heart break, there are tears
If there are tears, there's inner emptiness
If there's inner emptiness, there's silence
Inside

Silence is absolute
Silence is black

If there's youth, there's age
If there's age, there's disease
If there's disease, there's mortality
If there's mortality, there's pain
If there's pain, there's suffering
If there's suffering, there's silence
Inside

Because
Silence is life
Silence is DEATH.

P.S.: Got the 1st prize, Memoire 2000

Dog in heat

The other day on my way to the college I saw this middle aged couple walking up the rather steep incline of a fly over. Both of them were thin and a bit worn out by the daily struggle of survival that the poor have to go through in our country. The husband was walking ahead and the wife dutifully followed a few steps behind with her head and face covered with the palo of her saari. Though it was around 10am, but it was already pretty hot in the sun.
Now the part which caught my attention was a dog. A thin brown, around 6 months old dog. The husband was walking briskly with the dog tucked up under his right arm. I didn't notice anything wrong with the mutt. Infact it was all grins, panting away nicely in the heat and seemed pretty happy with the arrangement.
I used to assume that love for animals is a hobby of the rich and the poor have a rather practical, symbiotic relationship with the livestock they keep. But this man with his dog in his arms turned that theory around.
To keep a pet and take care of it when you are well off and have a support staff is easy.
To keep a pet on your own, to feed it when you yourself look semi-starved, and to carry it around when it's hot deserves Respect!

Chillad happiness

This is all it takes to make me happy. A room with this kind of authentic, unique, and original light. It's there in my room in this hotel room in Kathmandu and I love it!
So local, so rural, so different from the ubiquitous hotel rooms you see all over.
Totally chillad, totally happy.

The Guru

This is a kind of misleading title because it has got nothing much to do with the guru guy but because it ended with him that is what I remember most distinctly.
The dream starts with me roaming around in Jammu on foot. I come across some police officials hanging around a parking lot chatting. There this one senior official, probably a DIG, is bitching about the new DGP, and how unreasonable he is to his junior colleagues. They get some message on the wireless and they all rush towards the police headquarters in a convoy of white ambassadors and gypsys.I for whatever reason follow them. How? I have no clue as from what I remember I had no transport or money and the place I have to go to is at the top of a hill with a very steep approach road.
There a police annual day or fair kind of thing is going on with school kids performing, police march past and a 21 gun salute with some kind of mini canons. After the event gets over I am on my way out and meet the school kids psycho therapist, a young man around 28-30, slim built, 5'8" with specs and in formal wear. As we are crossing his place it starts to rain and he calls me to wait till the rain stops.
I am shocked to realise that he stays on the roof, without any cover, we stand under two different overhangs to protect us from the downpour. There is a thick transparent polythene sheet put from the top to protect us from rain while standing and I make designs with my finger on the fogging on the inner surface of sheet. This standing in the rain makes him all emotional once it stops. He starts crying and points out towards the area of the roof where he sleeps on the bare ground. I am pretty stunned because with the school kids he seemed so positive, upbeat, well educated and relatively well off.
The rains have stopped and I see that the view from the terrace is spectacular! At the horizon I can see a thin horizontal band of red evening sky and thick dark clouds on top, covering the sky. I take out my cell to click it as I had seen this very sight once before in a trance.
As I am about to click the snap there is some kind of commotion towards the front of the house, we both to look down to see who is there. From the way the guy jumps back to get out of sight I realise that the house owners have come back and this guy is some kind of a squatter.
A female is telling a man to go up and see whether that guy is still there or not. Around 3-4 men come up, one is an elderly gentleman and the other two are boys around 16 and 20 years old. And there is some servant or someone with them.
Just as they are about to speak to the squatter a swami suddenly appears from the front side of the terrace. He is in a saffron robe, in his mid 60s, with a salt and pepper stubble and head covered with his cloak. For some reason it becomes obvious that the guy is there on the roof with the swamis blessings. The men touch his feet and it's then that I realise that there is a blue coloured plaster up to the thigh of his right foot.
The swami then realises that even I am there and we make eye contact. He gives me the "I know who you are" intense stare.
And then I wake up!
I don't think it will be that difficult to recognise a swami with a blue plaster on his leg if I ever come across such a character in real life.

The Shadow...

As Victor Hugo once said "To think of Shadow is a serious thing."

What is a Shadow? Is it an extension of your soul? Is it the dark representation of your purer side? Or is it just a mirage, a fiction, a figment of your imagination? An illusion which you start believing in? Or is the Shadow, the one you take for granted till the time it's around. You see it next to you all the time, you are comforted by it's presence, it reassures you, it stands by you no matter what and yet at times due to it's intimate presence you even forget that it exists.
If at a metaphorical level you imagine a day as a lifetime or a period in your life then your Shadow is there with you for the better part of the day, around you, with you, and constantly in touch. During noon time, which can be taken as your peak you lose sight of it and shine in the spot light, the glory of the overhead sun. The Shadow is at it's closest, just below you, but you are blinded by the sun and the brightness around you.
The Shadow leaves you when everything is dark around you, or maybe it is dark because your Shadow is not there with you.You miss it the most, lament the time you took it for granted, yearn for it to come, but you know whatever you do it is not coming back then.
At the dawn of a new day the Shadow is the longest/largest , a time of new beginning, a passage from the dark into light, a time of joy and celebration. At that time it is the most significant and you are so aware of it's presence, you are so relieved to see it again, so overjoyed in it's presence. The Shadow is right ahead of you, leading the way as you march into a new day.
At dusk, the time just before it will be total dark and there will be no hope, the Shadow is yet again large, dark and forbidding. You need it the most, you miss it the most but you know it's just a matter of time before it will slip away. At that moment no matter what you do, what you say, you won't stop it from slipping away and will stand there looking at it fading away slowly. The Shadow is behind you and you are left staring, waiting for the blackness to come and envelop you, while you stand there all numb and mortified.

If you can't sleep, I'll be there in your dreams.
I'll be there in your dreams, if you can't sleep at all.
And in your dreams, I'll touch your cheek.
And lay my head on your shoulder.
Goodbye Shadow........

Panjab

This post is a bit late. I have been meaning to write it ever since I visited the state but just didn't get about doing so.
There is something about that state and it's people. From the minute you get on the train from Delhi the vibrancy, positivity and buoyancy of the co-passengers hits you. Specially when you compare it with the somewhat sullen and slightly malnourished variety you come across in trains traveling to the Hindi heartland. Or the serious, silent, subdued and very disciplined kind you come across down South.
Even for a train starting at 11pm there was so much energy and positive vibrations that you can't help but get affected by it. Everyone is helping everyone and food is being passed all around, even if you have met for the first time.
The degree of hospitality one comes across is pretty amazing specially when you have been an inspector/examiner since long, are pretty cynical and have been numbed by the usual pretense of welcome you see everywhere. How everyone is ready for a chat, concerned about your stay and leaves no stone turned in hospitality makes you a believer.
There are other communities who are good in making you feel comfortable, but a punjabi does it in a way in which it seems that nothing will give them greater joy then to see you happy.

Past life & forevermore........

Only once in your life, I truly believe, you find someone who can completely turn your world around. You tell them things that you’ve never shared with another soul and they absorb everything you say and actually want to hear more. You share hopes for the future, dreams that will never come true, goals that were never achieved and the many disappointments life has thrown at you. When something wonderful happens, you can’t wait to tell them about it, knowing they will share in your excitement. They are not embarrassed to cry with you when you are hurting or laugh with you when you make a fool of yourself. Never do they hurt your feelings or make you feel like you are not good enough, but rather they build you up and show you the things about yourself that make you special and even beautiful. There is never any pressure, jealousy or competition but only a quiet calmness when they are around.
You can be yourself and not worry about what they will think of you because they love you for who you are. The things that seem insignificant to most people such as a note, song or walk become invaluable treasures kept safe in your heart to cherish forever. Memories of your childhood come back and are so clear and vivid it’s like being young again. Colours seem brighter and more brilliant. Laughter seems part of daily life where before it was infrequent or didn’t exist at all. A phone call or two during the day helps to get you through a long day’s work and always brings a smile to your face.
In their presence, there’s no need for continuous conversation, but you find you’re quite content in just having them nearby. Things that never interested you before become fascinating because you know they are important to this person who is so special to you. You think of this person on every occasion and in everything you do. Simple things bring them to mind like a pale blue sky, gentle wind or even a storm cloud on the horizon. You open your heart knowing that there’s a chance it may be broken one day and in opening your heart, you experience a love and joy that you never dreamed possible. You find that being vulnerable is the only way to allow your heart to feel true pleasure that’s so real it scares you. You find strength in knowing you have a true friend and possibly a soul mate who will remain loyal to the end. Life seems completely different, exciting and worthwhile. Your only hope and security is in knowing that they are a part of your life.”
― Bob Marley

Two generations

One on the laptop and the other engrossed in a vernacular newspaper.
Bengali couple with a 5 year old boy on the side berth.
A guy working in DHL on the top berth and staying in Gomti Nagar like me.
A lady two young boys on the other upper berth.
Cross section of Indian middle class.

I do have a lot of spare time at hand in this train journey.
Now I am hungry.
Oops! The pic is upside down.....

I need some sleep...

I need some sleep
You can't go on like this
I try counting sheep
But there's one I always miss
Everyone says, I am getting down to low
Everyone says, you just gotta let it go...

I need some sleep
Time to put the old horse down
I am in too deep
And the wheels keep spinning round
Everyone says, I am getting down to low
Everyone says, you just gotta let it go...

Evil Me

I wonder how I am perceived as an external examiner. I feel that I am pretty relentless and go after the poor guys with a hammer amd tong. Today I wasn't even the senior most but I just took charge and went for it in IDS Bareilly.
I am incisive, I am wicked and I am the worst when I start asking questions in hindi. You can really let it roll in that language.
I don't believe in free lunches. If you are going to get your Masters you will have to earn it.
A few tears and a certain amount of personal humiliation is the price is you gotta pay.
I am mean!

Dilliwala!

The other day I was thinking about this city and one fact struck me, and that is till date I haven't come across anyone from Delhi Delhi. That means someone whose past generations have been in Delhi for forevet.
I am not talking about going back to 6th BC or anything but even a century will suffice.
Khushwant Singh's father must be the earliest settler I know. From what I remember he had some role in construction of Lutyen's Delhi. That must be somewhere in 1930s.
All the people I know have come here from some where else. Punjabis forming a major chunk and almost everyone's forefathers were from Pakistan. The way they say it is as if it's some kind of an achievement or something to boast about. Trust a Delhite to turn the most inane of things into something to brag about.
Seeing how many times the city has been pillaged, ransacked and it's whole male population decimated the chances are that the oldest specimen would be some poor muslim in the by lanes of Old Delhi. Most probably around Jama Masjid or related to it somehow.
Muslim cause they have ruled in some form for around 6 centuries over Delhi.
Poor cause during partition most of the rich families left for Pakistan.
Jama Masjid is a safe bet cause at least after Shah Jahan's realm it has been a functional mosque so it would be a constant source of survival.
I imagine a stooped, dark, withered, old man with a shabby white beard sweeping the humongous courtyard of Jama Masjid, totally oblivious to the fact that he has a lineage going back to the mughals or even Tughlaq and is the winner of my earliest inhabitant of Delhi contest!

How to of Delhi

Things I learnt on an auto ride in Delhi:
- How to fleece the travelers and how much to charge from people at different times.
And how to make all those passengers thank you for various reasons at the end of the ride.
- How Railway stations are ruled by Taxi drivers and they lay down the rules.
And how and where to get back at them
- How foreigners used to be golden hens
but now are sharper and savorier.
So how to tackle them. Trick is to learn a few key words of english
- How autos in Delhi have to be driven by the owners themselves. They used to be for 6.2 lakhs before!
- How to smuggle auto chassis from NOIDA and sell it in black market in Delhi.
An auto costs 1.6 lakhs plus 10 grands for interiors.
- How to get humongous tips for getting passengers to the hotel of your choice
- How to spot couples making out in autos and what advice to give them.
- How to make special deliveries for romancing pairs where the guy will pay him in advance for dropping the girl home.
- How to have a fair idea of which train comes when. For a busy station like New Delhi that is a bit impressive.
- How all traffic police in Delhi are corrupt to the core and how to handle them
- And the BEST :
How you can get an auto to go anywhere, at any time in Delhi by saying these golden words : I need to book a hotel in _______ area.

P.S.: all this gyaan in just a 25 min ride!

Eternal constancy of the Indian landscape

Traveling by train in India makes you realise how constant the landscape seems to be everywhere you go.
Maybe around 80-90% seems to be the same. Whether it's near Hapur or Hubli.
Kind of reassuring. Something homely, something familiar, something you have been seeing since forever. Like the moon.
Sun changes it's characteristics with weather. Moon is moon, half quarter or full.
Travelling by train is almost like a homecoming of sorts by now for me. I travel that much.
Have to write something about this love of the railroads someday.

Spring Special

Spring in the plains are a short affair. Maybe a couple of weeks or 10 days max, before the full onslaught of harsh, cruel summers.
This time for once we have prolonged spring after a phase of prolonged winters where temperatures touched an all time low.
Creepers are bursting with flowers and you even have tiny yellow ones blooming in hordes on the road side. I had seen this sight only on the mountain roads before.
Temperatures are down, the breeze is blowing, flowers are at their best and birds are chirping like never before.
Aah! Spring.......

P.S.: Have to get bird seeds for the sparrows today.

Chinta ta ta Chita Chita......

There's school right across the window of my chamber where they play this number almost every morning nowadays. And it usually it plays on "repeat" so it must be pretty popular with the kids.
I was a bit mystified at first about the fact that who was playing this song on full blast on their speaker system.
Then I spotted kids in full school uniform dancing on it in the school courtyard. Must be some kind of a new age exercise regime.
Jo bhi hai, I love it!
Nothing like a good Chinta ta ta Chita Chita to pep you up early in the morning :-D

Furgie kicks ass!!!

So here I am walking Suzana outside just a few minutes back. And the two cats, Furgie and Soxie come along for company.
As we reach our place there's this big white dog, around 3-4 years old, standing outside our gate.
I shoo the dog, Suzana gives a mock charge, and then from nowhere there's a buzz of fur zips pass me and then Suzana.........
It's not a plane, it's not a shooting star..................it's Furgie to the rescue!
In one single motion she leaps on dog's back and bites it!
I am stunned
Suzana is zapped
And the poor dog runs 100 meters at top pace yelping for it's life.
So now I have a dog that only barks
And a cat that just bites!
"Killer Kombo"

Ven & Van

Both deliver on the same day, i.e. today, 12th of March.
Ven, her son, second child after a daughter.
Van, twins, a son & daughter.
Seemed like Dwd re-visited to me.
Tamil eelam forever!

Side by side it's also Afshan & Auntys b'day today. This should be taken as the biggest proof of how bogus astrology truly is.

12th of March.
Huh! What a date.

White Magic, Dark Death

It was a warm day, the first one after months of cold and a spell of rain. Sunny, bright and a bit dusty. 4th of March, Chotti's b'day.
As I rode up to Shaheed path it was surprisingly empty. I was on Thunder Bird, oblivious to the events unfolding just minutes ahead.
I reach the straight long stretch near Ansal's Golf City and there's just me on the road at that time of around 3:20.
Far in the distance on my side of the road I see a white Tata Magic carrier standing on the side of the road at the left curb.
A man is underneath it. I assume repairing some fault in the machine.
As I move closer I see that both the doors of the carrier are open.
By now I am pretty intrigued by the whole thing. A bit uneasy. A bit apprehensive.
And then I get close to the Magic.
I see a bicycle underneath it, right between the fron and back wheels.
And then there is the poor guy. Old. Dark. In white.
Dead...
Lying all alone, the occupants of the Magic on a run and his blood just starting to seep from his ruptured skull into the black tarmac.

P.S.: I call 100 to report. They put the ball in my court and instead ask me about the jurisdiction!

Time goes on, so slowly......

There are good days, bad days and days when time just comes down to a crawl. All those theories of time is relative anecdotes come to your mind at that instance. I think I need something to think about to make time pass. Not in the mood for anything bugging, just something pleasant to think about. Or I can just go home. I need a distraction, a diversion. something to chew upon in my head.

South of Lucknow, Right of the Sun

I am back on Blogger after ages. This time from a new place, a new tablet. Not one of the best days to write as my mood is really not in it. Just wanted to see if the blogging thing will work from this place. Spring is the season for rejuvenation so I should make use of it and get back to my writing. Lets see if this goes.