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.