In Want Of Updation...

I havent written from a long time I know..But call it dealing with engineering woes if you want....Submissions,assignments,practicals,midterms...whatever!

This was just after the sky cleared up after the surprising November rains...

The first rays of the sun after a Sabbathical of 2 days..

The Indianness in them....

This is after the article that I saw in the Mumbai Mirror this morning..

On the first page...."INDIANS STOP BOTHERING ME"-Nobel Laureate Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

And the whole Indian thing of "Look-we-have-some-part-here-so-its-ours" couldnt help but come to my mind.

Indians are hypocrites when it comes to such things.We just realize that there are some of us working out there,slogging when they get some recognition.

Now consider this...theres not much of India in Sunita Williams...except her first name and the fact that she was born here (Even taking samosas to outer space doesnt count..really)

But when we got the news that shes going out in space..we suddenly realized that theres a woman out there who was born in India.

Then there was Slumdog Millionaire,never mind that more than half of the crew working on the movie was British,the fact that it was shot in India with Indian actors suddenly made it an Indian Movie..And when the movie got The Oscars...Oh my god "We Indians are great arent we...we showed them!"

It was the same with the movie "Water" at the last Academy Awards.

When movies like "The Sixth Sense" and "The Village" were successful we started behaving as if M.Night Shyamalan had never left Kerala for Philadelphia..

Vijender Singh was made the Poster Boy of Indian sports when he got the bronze at the Olympics...but wait...wasnt there a piece of news some days back about how P T Usha was refused a room of her own at a National Sports Meet...why was that?

Because shes been out of action from quite some time now..

I dont say we shouldnt be proud of what our fellow Indians achieve...but what irritates me is this sudden affection that we get for people whn they get aome well deserved fame and recognition..

Now,Venkatraman Ramakrishnan was born in India and educated here..fine enough..But the research?All the hardwork?That was what he did in the US right?So why are people suddenly forging long lost relationships with him...why are people clogging his email when all these years they didnt bother to keep in touch?

Salman Rushdie and M F Hussain are in exile..Why?Coz we cant face their work..we are intolerant when it comes to their work.

But do wait sirs...maybe it will take another Man Booker and maybe some honour in Arts..before we finally realise that even you are Indians..

Some planning...eh?

So..here I am typing away.Sitting online,having nothing else to do (I have got first year engineering studies to do yes...but that's different).It wasn't what I had imagined myself to be doing about three hours back.It all started a week back..

"I want to go to Jehangir Art Gallery and the Prince of Wales Museum...Are you interested?"

"Sure,I am in,"

"And then maybe we could check out the booksellers near Metro at Dhobitalao."

"Cool"

This is what transpired between me and Nikhil a week back.

I had wanted to go alone..spend some time with myself..but then I thought,

“Why not call Nikhil, he’s interested in such places too and it had been quite some time since we met.”

The fact that we had met just five days back for I-Rock was conveniently overlooked by me..People whom you used to meet everyday…five days is quite a long time when it comes to them.

“I want to come too..”

“What will you do with us anyway?Its just two of us guys and maybe Siddhesh will join us.”

“So call the others na..Even I’ll be able to come then.Call Subhi,Barkha,Dipti,Tabish and all the others too…”

“Fine,I guess we’ll all be able to meet that way.”

That was Sneha..So now it was decided..all of us were going..it was gonna be fun.

“Why don’t we go after Tanuj comes?”

“He doesn’t like such stuff..”

“How can you assume such things?”

“Because I know..”

That was Sneha again…

One of our friends was coming back from Delhi-where he had gone for studies-

this diwali..And we had planned to go three days before his arrival..

“I have got classes from 7.30 to 12.00…”

“I have got classes from 4.30”

“So now we cant go?”

“We can go in the morning na,,”

“Yeah right…you thought I had classes till 12 at night?”

“Oh..”

This was with Nikhil the previous day

“I wanted to come….”

“I know, but we cant do anything na..”

“Hmm…Yeah..”

Sneha again…

I got up early the next day (today).. I had my maths classes and I didn’t want to get late…there were two batches that day…I didn’t want to be packed in like some cattle so I had to go early.

(Ten minutes later)

“Aaj class nahin hain..”(“no class today”)

“Why?”

“Dunno…”

And unlike the other guys I wasn’t abusing the classes people for having made me get up early…I was happy that now I’d be able to go…

(Ten minutes later at 7.45)

*Phone rings*

No one picks up.

*Phone rings*

“Hello”

“Where were you…sleeping?”

“No…”

“Fine get ready,we gotto leave..Classes got cancelled..we can go to Churchgate now..”

“Yeah that’s good….”

“Call Sneha and Nilay tell them to get ready..I ll tell the others…We leave in an hour”

“An HOUR?”

“Yeah…why?How long do you take to take a bath anyway?”

“Hmm…Yeah ok…”

Now….

Sneha and Subhashree couldn’t come because there weren’t many girls,Nirali had her midterms so basically I helped her by waking her up and asking her to get ready—she didn’t come though-

Nilay had classes,Nikhil wasn’t allowed to go, Samir was busy as usual,Tabish for once was ready…but then,there was no one else

Dipti and Barkha normally needed a weeks notice whenever we planned to go out so they were out of question…

Ultimately it was just me and Siddhesh…and we would have gone too…only I thought it would be wise to call enquiry to ask whether the museum and art gallery were open…..It was Election Day after all…

“MTNLchya 197 enquiry madhye aaple swagat aahe.”

“Welcome to MTNL 197 enquiry”

“Hmm….are the Jehangir Art Gallery and Prince of Wales Musuem open today?”

“Naahin..Aaj Election aahe naa…” (“No,since its election day.”)

“Thanks…”

I felt like a huge balloon burst inside me…I had really wanted to go from a long time

“You can spend time alone at home too..”

“Yeah,I guess you re right…I ll read some books today or go online….”

So here I am….

Take my word….excessive planning is bad…all the more when you have got such a huge group as mine..

Though you should take care to plan things like which day to go on…Unlike me…we decided to go on the wrong day and the enquiry struck me at the last moment…..

So long…

Like logs in the sea....

I meant to post this long back...but couldnt cause of my exams and new college and settling down and all that...

Still...read on.I guess everyone goes through such a moment some time or the other in their lives...

And do comment..

He was looking around for them, his friends..the long haired,fair skinned girl-the one who wore spectacles,the wavy haired fair guy whose bulging eyes couldn’t be seen because of the glasses he wore,the short and stocky guy who had a cackle of laughter,the thin,lanky bowlegged one whose whole body shook whenever he laughed,the nervous curly haired guy who would laugh nervously whenever people around him turned abusive,the short plump girl who could always make him forget his worries because of the cheerful tone of her voice,and the others……He was missing all of them and was looking around for people who showed even the slightest signs of being like them…

It was the first day of college, he had been excited the first day yes…but he hadn’t expected to feel lonely..How could he? After all he was the one who approached people to talk to them…the supposedly ‘outgoing’ one..

The next whole week was spent in hoping that he would get someone who was like them..he didn’t..and that made him feel worse.

All the things that they used to do back in junior college came to him all the time..

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“How can you expect to meet the same kind of people everywhere you go?Fine we had a wonderful group and we had awesome friends…but you cant go around getting upset just because you cant find people who are like them..”

“But we had such a great group…we might never have such a group again..these people seem to be sooo dull,”

“That’s what’s going to happen if you refuse to give a chance to knowing the people around you.I was having the same problem in my college too…I was looking for someone like Subhi and was getting upset cause I couldn’t find anyone..give them a chance na..you might end up liking them the same way you liked our group”

One of the less talkative and a into-herself girl of our group was telling him this…the most talkative and the over-the-top…into-your-face friendly guy..She was one of his best friends..and she made him feel like a kid at times…and like some grown-up at others..God,he missed her!!…

“Dude…do me a favour,say you gonna get into my college in the next round..”

“Look..its not as if I don’t want to…I want get into that college too..but its not in my hands is it?”

“Yeah I know,…by the way you know what happened….”

And he went about saying those many things that he always talked about with this guy…oblivious to the fact that at the end of this long dialog he wasn’t going to remember why he had started talking about it and what exactly he was talking about…but it always happened when he talked to this guy…

“v r meeting at pizza hut 2moro.guys plz do cum.it ll b fun.”

Negi…he had messaged that…god bless him they all were meeting…finally they were all going to meet…three weeks after their respective colleges had started..

And they did have loads of fun that day..it was like the old times…but surprisingly,that night when he got into bed,he didn’t feel that usual sense of loneliness…in fact he was looking forward to the next day at college…

He got out of the train at Kandivali…the train was going to halt on the 8^th platform at the next station…he didn’t want to walk all the way…

He was waiting on the platform waiting for the next train.Hopefully it would halt at the 1^st platform….

The train arrived..He was just about to get in when….

“HIIIII…..”

Startled, he looked around…and he saw two of his college friends…Subhi and Sneha…and he got a wide grin on his face…he was going to let the train go…

(Fifteen minutes later..when he finally got into the train..he was feeling elated at having met his friends..He had met Barkha and Neha previously that day…it had been a great day

“I wonder when I ll get to meet Vinit,its been almost a month now”)

(Borivali station-ten minutes later)

“Arrey woh dekh…Abhishek…”

(“Look there,that’s Abhishek”)

And he spotted them….Negi and Vinit…and to think that he had been thinking about Vinit ten minutes back!!

(Half an hour later…when he finally got home…he started thinking about his day and he realized that it had been a great day…By some scheme that the Universe had planned for him…he had ended up meeting some of his friend from “The Group” that day..all on the same day!!)

And that’s when he realized that this is what his 8^th standard Sanskrit Subhashita had actually meant..

You meet people and then you move on..the moments that you share with them are the things to be cherished all your life.You cant keep crying for these people all your life..You have gotto go on meet other people make other friends in life..But meeting other people doesn’t mean you are letting go of the people who mean a lot to you.

Similarly he couldn’t keep hanging on to his friends all the time..He was going to make new ones..He was going to enjoy his life even now…and not being in the same college certainly didn’t mean he was going to lose touch with them,did it?

He was going to meet his friends again sometime soon…but like earlier on..he wasn’t going to keeping waiting for it..he was going to look forward to it,sure…they were going to have a bash as always…and maybe get thrown out of the restaurant like they had been showed the door at McDonalds before…

“Abhishek coming to college tomorrow?”

“Obviously man….wouldnt miss it..we have our TechFest tomorrow..Its gonna be AWESOME!!...”

Camaraderie Over Guns......

Me

Nikhil

Negi

top:(l-r)tanuj,me,tabish,negi,nishad

bottom:vinit,nilay,samir

Deeganto

Vinit

Tanuj

Its amazing how much can happen in a 7x12 feet space..Emotions running high,swearwords in the air and whoops of joy whenever someones killed and even more frustration when you get killed.

Who says teenagers cant concentrate on a thing for much time?If someone were to see the hushed atmosphere they would probably marvel at the ability to focus in the supposedly ‘volatile’ minds of teenagers..Parents would shake their heads sadly saying,

“If only he could concentrate so much while studying…”

The same people who were swearing at each other a moment back could be seen walking arm in arm,laughing together after leaving this place…Maya’s..the place where the eight of us could be seen almost everyday in the second term of FYJC.

Nikhil,Tanuj,Samir,Tabish,Nilay,Vinit,Negi and me(Abhishek).Nishad joined us later on and sometimes Deeganto and Nisarga Would join in.

Maya’s happened to be a an Internet Café…but we never went there for surfing.Our common passion was Counter Strike.(For people who don’t know it’s an FPS compter game where you make teams and try to kill the opponent team members in hostage and bomb situations)

Expert psychologists and shrinks believe violent video games are harmful for young minds. Well, given that we all bonded over that violence I don’t think so..

Each of us had our own special names that we were very proud of.

Nikhil-Wrath/Agony

Vinit-Adich

Samir-Knave

Tabish-Blaze/Tabu

Nilay-Silent Screamer

Negi-Ronnie

Nishad-NemeSys

Nisarg-Wizard

Deeganto-Eclipse

Tanuj-Champ/The Confused/Prodigy/(and finally on my suggestion…Abyss)

Me-Carnage/Death

We have many pleasant memories associated with this place..

The way we used to race each other to this place from our college gates in order to get the best pcs(the best pcs as in the only 2 pcs out of 9 which didn’t hang or get stuck when the game was in progress)…

This was the place where Nikhil invented a swearword totally unheard of.

Deeganto,Nikhil,Tabish and me had teamed against Nishad,Tanuj,Negi and Nilay. Deeganto and me…we both teamed up together and went about killing all the guys from the other team.As a result Nikhil had a very low score..and he wasn’t happy about it.

“Hey, Nikhil join us wont you?Even you will have a decent score that way.”

“No, thanks,”

“Leave him alone Deeganto,He probably wants to show he’s different from the rest of us..”

(Deeganto and I both started snickering at that)

So we continued for the rest of the game..As we left the café..Nikhil turned to us

“You guys were behaving like Ment**** Re****ed Ass***** .”

This didn’t please Deeganto and he just left with a sharp rebuke at Nikhil…(everything was okay the next day though…)

……..

And then once I started jumping up and down in my place and screaming at the top of my voice at Tanuj and Nishad because they were irritating me during the game which ended with bomb blowing up on my face…

I didn’t stop taunting Tanuj for the next half an hour to which his only reply was his characteristic “Aisa hain kya?Achchi Baat hain..”(“Oh, is it? Very well..”)

………………

I would shout at the top of my voice suddenly during the game startling the others as a result…which gave me a second of advantage thus killing the other guy..heh heh

……………….

Negi would me made fun of by all the others for his overly smartass behaviour.Come to think of it…there was never a day when he wasn’t so full of himself…heh heh

………..

I got to know that Tabu and Samir were dead against swearing..(Whenever someone exclaimed some swearword they would chuckle nervously and shake their heads in a disapproving way.)

This particular in cident I remember clearly…

Maya’s was a 7x12 feet room with 9 pcs.What with chairs ant tables. We had very little room.Even if you raised your hand to scratch the itchy spot behind your ear…their were chances that u would get your elbow into someone’s neck..

Well in this small space and no airconditioning all of us were hot and sweaty and playing with full concentration..It was Nikhil,me,Vinit and Tabish against Nilay,Nishad,Tanuj and Negi..

Our team had to defuse the bomb..All the others being killed..i was the only surviving member from our team.All the opponents were killed too… I just had to defuse the bomb now..

“Go Carnage go!!”

“Ha ha ha….My scores gonna increase now...I’ll be at the top..I am the best player here.”

“Aisa hain kya?...Achhi baat hain..”

And suddenly Nilay got some inspiration and he got up from his chair and started tickling me behind my neck..

And I am pretty ticklish so I started laughing and struggling to control the mouse properly at the same time.Negi joined in and they both decided they wouldnt let me win…

What happened next was something like this…

Somehow the thin…almost scrawny Nilay all of 40 kgs managed to tilt my chair carrying my weight of 81 kgs(I still wonder how he did it)..so that it was balanced on its two hind legs now…

I was already squirming as Negi tickled me…

The next few events had the sound effects from some fighting scene from an old Manmohan Desai movie..

The chair gave way under me and I collapsed with a loud thud with the chair beneath me…Nilay lost his balance and lay sprawled all over me…

Everyone lost it at that moment…we were all in splits laughing like madmen at what had just happened.Nilay and me were in the same position as we were and shaking with uncontrolled mirth…

Even the owner was laughing like nuts(which was saying something since there were serious chances of the chair being broken and the mouse was dangling from the table.even the keyboard was balanced precariously at the edge of the table)

The next 30 seconds were spent in struggling to get back on my feet..which was difficult with the chair below me in such a cramped up place.Nilay being above me didn’t help matters either…

The bomb had long expldedand we had lost the round…but no one cared really..

It was just the eight of us laughing…in that tiny space,sweating but not really noticing how hot it was….

PS: This is just the first time that I have written narrative material..Do comment on it and any suggestions are welcome

PPS:81 kgs was long back…I have lost weight now…

Celebrity..Not!!

Whats wid this affinity for mindless celebrity gossip?I mean...i know that many people are intrested in the hottest B-town news and want to know about the new upcoming movies and all that...but whats wid this obsession wid celebrities.

And sum of these "celebrities" dont even deserve all the coverage that they get..i mean seriously..WHO wud want to know abt Bobby Darling?this guy(!?)..who takes grt pleasure in crossdressing and has just appeared in a few movies...(even in these movies they are made fun of for what they are).And who in the name of god..is Queenie Dhody?Shes supposed to be sum yesteryear model..but the way she hogs the limelight at parties and page 3 events...she cud as well be the next lady mayor..(no offence meant to the current mayor..seriously..i dont want the people from her political party banging at my door tommorow)

And how can someone be so interested in knowing abt Kareena Kapoors new size-zero,brain-zero..or whatever?Why are we so bothered abt who shes dating and who she isnt dating anymore?Salman Khan and his Hong-Kong born,London bred Girlfriend...or was it good friend..no maybe it was girlfriend..everyone has opinion abt how he ought to pop the question to her..and get settled down.Akshay Kumar asked his wife to unbutton his jeans...and the whole city goes into an uproar abt how its supposedly vulgar...

But then the latest thing is ofcourse the great decision of our item-girl-pretending-to-be-girl-next-door Rakhi Sawant..she and tht guy whatsisname got engaged this sunday...that too for national amusement...you cud see her weighed down by tons of gold jewellery(which mite seem familiar to the regular soap watchers..since it was obviously borrowed)..and trying to have this shy and demure expression on her face...and failing spectacularly!

Throughout the show the one thing that she never missed out to mention in an episode..was abt how life had been very hard to her and how she had dealt wid her problems..(well...hmm..yeah i did watch it..cmon..a guy needs a few laughs dusnt he?)..and you could see guys fighting for her flirting wid her (blearghhh!!) ...but hey whats a bit of fighting and sucking up when u r getting good money?

All i mean to say is that we are creating all thse supposed celebs...who are famous just coz they are famous...and then these guys feel they are grt ppl who others look upto and then give their stupid opinions on things in which they dont have any knowledge..Really...sum of these "celebs"..(snicker..)..had opinions on 26/7...ingenious ideas like.."Dont Vote!"..or "Carpet Bomb Pakistan"...Wow such brainwaves eh?..calling Simi Garewal(an actress who liked her looks when she was young..so much so that she chose to be stuck wid the same expression on her face for the rest of her life)..to talk abt terrorism was by far the greatest stupidity i hav seen..

This mindless exposure really is bringing out the idiocy in us..guys give urself a break!

Introductions in order...

Ok...so this is my first post..I had always thought of creating a blog,or writing articles and sending them over to newspapers but never actually got upto it...(read...I was too lazy to do it right then and kept postponing it)..so there.

An 18 year old guy..living in a big city like Mumbai,doing normal things..attending classes,bunking them even more...and like the cliche that is going around a lot these days "Being a teenager in Mumbai gives u a lot of exposure"...well yeah i have got quite a lot of exposure to things happening around me-Mumbai-The city heading towards globalisation..north indians cowering in fear at the mention of the initials "R.T"..The city where people supposedly have the "spirit" to take every piece of crap thrown at them..and finally stand up when they realize that its gone too far-these are just a few things that i witness around me..

All this while i used to rave and rant abt these things only with friends...i could go on and on and on abt these things...as i said the fact that i was postponing writing a blog dint help my talkative manner...

So coz of a bit of coaxing by my friends..and the fact that i have nothing much to do these days...i finally got down to writing this blog..

So much for introductions...gonna post a lot of things in the near future(provided i retain my present active state)...so there!

-THE VERBOSE THINKER