What are the odds............. (ii)

The story starts in the year 2006 0r maybe 07.
One night while surfing channels I came across U.S Top 10 on Star Movies. There I watched the trailor or of a movie called "Into the Wild" for the first time. I got very intrigued by the plot of a young man hitch hiking all the way to Alaska to see if he could survive in the wild.
Amazing cinematography had to be there when the subject involves mountain and forests. Even the song they played in the promo was very apt. Meaningful and inspiring. I took down the name of the movie on my cell so that I don't forget.
The chances of such an off beat movie ever coming to the theaters in Lucknow were pretty remote so tried to get it from the local video parlours and the various music shops. As expected no one had even heard of it. My search continued for a couple of months more and I looked for it even in Bangalore and Delhi without any success.
The story restarts after a long break in March, 2009.
We went to Gurgaon to meet Ayush's friend. There in their book shelf I came across this book "Into thin air" by a guy called Jon Krakauer. That book was about a true account of a disastrous attempt to scale Mount Everest in which 12 people lost their lives in a single night. Really liked that book. Then during the course of discussion I came to know that they even had "Into the wild" written by the same author. I obviously was pretty excited by the find and finished the book in a single day, 3 sittings. The book turned out to be all that I thought it would.
The scene now shifts to last night. On my way back from Patrakarpuram market I decided to take a detour and pick up some magazines from a shop and if possible buy a DVD.
Changed my mind about the DVD and just picked up a couple of magazines. As the shopkeeper was busy with another customer I started browsing through the DVDs he had kept. After flicking through a round hundred of them I didn't find anything interesting. Gave the money to the guy and was about to leave when he told me that there was another bundle of DVDs in the back. Was in double mind but then thought what the hell, might as well take a look.
Another guy was already going through the bundle of around 50 DVDs and I just picked a few that he had already seen. As I turned to leave that guy had a sudden change of heart and he left before I could.
So I turn around to take a final look at the rest of DVDs and the last DVD in that bundle has "Into the wild" in the pick of 6 movies!
In all these years I must've gone through thousands of DVDs in video libraries, Planet M, Landmark, Crossword in all the different cities and many, many more in shops selling pirated DVDs without ever coming across this movie.
And then there it was all this while in a shop near my house waiting for me to come and pick it up.
What are the odds?

Field of Dreams

What a night! What dreams!
I saw rabid monkeys, someone out to kill me, my old school- Presentation Convent and L.K. Advani of all the people in this world.
The supersonic, psychotic monkeys (or maybe one monkey with her baby) was in Jammu. Out to get my ass, I was saved by Suzana who's trying her best to get a nip on the monkey. I was standing in the lawn and she seemed hell bent to bite me for some reason. The monkey is zipping on the boundary wall and propelling herself from the shesham tree near the waterfall. Divya is also there and I'm equally perplexed as what is she doing there, all the way from Banda. In the end I try to kick her and she almost gets a nip on my leg while Suzana is almost going to get a nip on her.....and I wake up with a start!
Before this in another dream I have this information that someone is out to kill/hurt me and I am put up in a hostel. I'm more wary then afraid. Nitin is in the room next to mine and I'm sitting there. A window/grill opens into my room so I can keep an eye if anyone comes looking for me. No one came from what I remember.
Nitin figures in the next one too. I've had a fight and am contemplating whether to call or sms. But I remember a chat about the one who is in England. Nothing specific but just ideal chit-chat which ended in an argument. Am lying on my stomach in the ground of PCS, facing the school building. For some reason I am eating powdered sugar from a paper bag. After some time I doze off and the next I know there is a commotion due to which I wake up. Lo and behold L.K. Advani has come to school with an entourage of 10-15 people. I get up to see what he has to say. He has three SPG guards with him in bandhgallas who are giving me dirty looks. One of them stands almost in front of Advani as if I'm out there to assassinate him. There is no platform and he's just standing on the ground and addressing a group of around 20 people. Nitin later comes to me and comments on how I was devouring sugar and then slept off there in the sun for an hour or so.
Two bad dreams out of three is not a good score and when was the last time I saw so many dreams in one night?
I think never.

Nightmare?

Saw a weird dream in B'lore.
I was wearing my black short kurta and grey tracks and was standing near Tawi bridge on the Jewel theater side. I had two hundred bucks in my pocket. As I stood there waiting for a mini bus to come it started raining. As I was waiting for the bus to come and take me home I saw a sewer manhole right before the bridge opening up and Pakistani soldiers coming out fully stocked with arsenal. They were in brown pathani suite which is their uniform. This was war and I was the only witness!
As I watched I could see the Pakistani army taking over the bridge. Tried to run towards the stadium but saw that it has already been taken and an army picket has been set. I could see that they were consolidating their positions before starting for the final assault.
Everything and everyone would be removed. I had to get to the other side. Warn everyone at home. Try to run away to the hills with my family. My cell obviously was not working. I had just 200 bucks on me and was in Ts, tracks and slippers.
Thought of running towards the other bridge but the thought of crossing through gujjar colony stopped me. I knew I had a limited span of time in which to act cause after that the extermination would start.
I was at a loss as to what to do.
Death seemed imminent.

Foggy Days

23rd is my flight from Del to B'lore and the fog is on the rise!
In all my wisdom I got the booking done for the 9am flight but looking at the conditions I feel even that to will be a bit too early. It's 12:30pm and the fog is still very much there over here in Lucknow.
I guess, I should be mentally prepared for a long haul at the airport.
And with two kids in tow, that should be fun!

What are the odds?.....(i)

Quite a few times I have come across events which though ordinary in nature do seem to surpass beyond the normal number of odds stacked against it. Till now I used to just get amazed and wonder about it, but from now on I'll note them down in my blog.
Just the other day I was in a mall shopping for shoes for my kids. Came across Levis store and thought of purchasing a brown jeans as my previous one was tattered beyond it looking hep. Went in for a look but could see only blue jeans. Asked from a salesman and came to know that in India, Levis only sells blue one. I'm saying in India cause I've a black Levis but that has been brought from the States. The salesman was insistent that there are no non-blue Levis.
Anyway was dissapointed and came out. As I was looking around saw a clothes mart just next to the Levis store. Just strolled in for a look. As I was looking around their collection of jeans, which were all blue, came across a single brown one of just the shade I was looking for and that to in my waist size. On the whole there must have been around 300 pairs of jeans out of which only one was brown and that to in my waist size. Tried it out and it came to be a perfect fit!
I know this is nothing very great or ground breaking but still what are the odds of such a thing happening?

Cat-astrophe

Robin told me about the cat lying near the back gate while I was having my lunch.
Suzana had alreay given it the once over I was told, and there was no motion. So I assumed there was a dead cat on my hand now. No hurry, took my time to finish the lunch. It wasn't as if the cat had anywhere to go in a hurry.
The task was something I would have shirked at any time but just after lunch seemed to be the worst possible time. This one was brown and looked as if it had just gone to sleep. Seemed pretty healthy for a stray and I wondered if it was someone's pet and what they must be going through right now.
Reminded me of all the novels and short stories of Haruki Murakami I had been reading lately and how most of them had cat as their central characters.
A dead cat would have been an evil sign, indicator of bad things to come, a very big no-no in those books.

Waiting for Winters...

Winters have finally come to Lucknow after a gap of almost two years.
I remember last year I had hardly got a chance to wear my sweaters and passed most of the winter in blazers during college hours and a thin jacket in the evening. I even felt warm in my corduroy shirts at times.
In fact I didn't even go out anywhere and had celebrated new year in Lucknow itself, so it's not that I missed it or something due to the travelling.
This year seems to be promising. Took out by sweaters out yesterday and am comfortable in the blazer today in the college.