Sony MHC-GZR5D Mini Hi-Fi

Shanu's b'day gift for me.

P.S. - Nobody delivers bass like Sony.

Diwali weekend

The lure of lucre had me at the office on Diwali Friday. Returned home by the time night had fallen & was witness to Diwali celebrations in full swing. Of late, B'lore seems to have embraced the North/East Indian Diwali celebration style .... that of making the most noise. And so there were people exploding 'aloo' bombs big enough to make car alarms go off & people stopping traffic by placing Chinese 'launcher' cracker boxes in the middle of the road.

Anyway, got home, lit up some diyas around the house. Priya had thoughtfully purchased some girly Diwali stuff & the sisters had a whale of a time burning it all up. The 2 had been planning on buying cellphones since the last couple of months & today was deemed d-day! So off it was to the dealer's.

Priya had made up her mind regarding the ....


.... Nokia X3 & that's what she bought. Shanu though, was another story. Having gone in with the Nokia C3 in mind, it took a bit of convincing to make her agree to the ....


.... Samsung Corby. It is a big moment when a middle class Indian lets go of his obsesion with Nokias & decides to try out another cellphone brand & I could feel history being made as the payment changed hands.

Came home & spent the next few hours growing increasingly engrossed with the nifty little touchscreen. Must say I'm quite impressed, even though it's got no Amoled or Android.

The rest of the weekend .... it rained. It was as if the Gods had decided to halt the downpour only for Diwali day & following it, the quota was released in full force. The rains this year have been sickening. I'm sick & tired of having to look at the same overcast sky for days on end. And the icing on the cake was when the waters took out my Walkman. Clearly, the rains this year have not been kind to moi.

Our 1st trip home

Got up at the crack of dawn or maybe even before that. Going home has an excitement all by itself. Had packed up late into last night, but there were still a few things to stuff into our respective strolleys. Achieved this with some difficulty & we were off .... dragging our strolleys to the bus stop at 6 in the morning.

Caught the Vayu Vajra as planned with our usual choice of seats, Shanu clearly stumped by the huge luggage racks on the Volvo. Hero Honda's adverts hyping up the Commonwealth Games baton relay were all over FM but Shanu was more taken up with the Nokia E63 being operated by the guy seated in front of us.

Reached the airport well in time & got my choice of seats, but no window for me this time cause Shanu was all keyed up for her 1st flight. Minor confusion at the security check & I was concerned about how Shanu would fare, but she got through coolly enough. Spent some time browsing through BIAL's retail section .... the only thing impressive, apart from the jacked up prices, was the smell wafting out from the CookieMan store.

For a change SG529 was dot on time .... & we were taken by surprise. Takeoff was smooth & Shanu was all agog about how fast the Boeing had risen after takeoff. Come to think of it, I was too! The usual ear-popping & nausea accompanied the landing at Kolkata.

Petrol prices had been raised 2 days ago & the Kolkatan taxi unions were doing what they do best ... striking. Had to shell out a hefty 600 bucks to get us to the train station .... would have cost me ~200 normally. This is the 2nd time I've been ripped off in Kolkata because of a strike/agitation. Bloody communists .... they have caused irreparable damage to this city & it's work culture over the course of their uninterrupted reign during the last >30 years. It's evident the moment you step off the plane & into the humid air of NSC Bose 'International'. From the terminal building to the state of the taxis to the litter on the streets to the dilapitated state of the buildings .... it screams of the prevailing lackadaisical attitude & babu culture prevalent in this city. What a comedown it is from spiffy Bangalore!

As is evident from my rant above, my attitude towards the East is undergoing massive flux. Anyway, was foresighted enough to have booked tix on 2 trains out of Howrah ... one can't take chances when there's a lady accompanying you. The railways have stopped running trains on the KGP-TATA stretch at night ever since the Maoists derailed the Jnaneshwari a few days back. The administration chooses to play safe instead of crushing challenges to state authority with an iron hand .... frustrating stuff!

Was thankful once the HWH-RNC intercity moved out of the station leaving behind the mass of humanity on the platforms .... things were really starting to bug me now. But the journey brought some relief. For starters, the driver kept up a fantastic pace as we zoomed past CCU's burbs. World Cup fever was in the air & one could see huge Argentinian & Brazilian (no others) flags hung vertically from the tallest buildings in several villages flashing past.

Reached KGP on time. The train was maintaining an impressive pace. Half an hour later, near the WB-JH border, the train slowed down to a crawl & blew a long blast from the horns. Looking out the right side of the compartment, one could see that we were passing the site of the Jnaneshwari wreck. There were 2 smashed locos by the side of the track with clothes strewn around near the drivers's cabin of the one in front. The locos were probably pulling the goods train that had smashed into the derailed Jnaneshwari, several of whose mangled passenger coaches were visible. Not a pleasant sight.

Reached JSR without further ado. Jolly had arrived 2 days back & was at the station. It was good to see them .... I think it's the 1st time I've come home in the middle of the year just for the heck of it. Should be doing this more often.

Next day was Sunday, & all of us trooped off to the church. Beldih seems so quaint in comparison to Bethel A.G. And Cyril Peters' sermon had the small town charm of it's own. The message of increasing women's empowerment in today's society & the consequent breakdown in the social & familial structure struck a chord inside me somewhere, even though we've all been conditioned to think that it's the best thing that could have happened for women since ages. Went off to the graveyard to visit Mom's grave .... it all seems so strange now, the spot is not even recognizable from the time the burial took place.

Next up was a visit to our favorite dosa vendor behind the ol' school. But he wasn't there. Dad says he's shut shop & gone off somewhere since long. With Swami's son having packed up & left for TN after his father's demise & Jaichand appearing to have thrown in the towel, the only vestige of the great Northern Town dosa is the stuff served up by Chhotu, Jaichand's erstwhile helper, who runs his own thela now. Dad says it isn't half as good. If Jaichand doesn't return soon, it would mean the end of a favorite childhood snack for hundreds, if not thousands of peaople. Sad. It was off to Anand next, but I never liked the dosas there.

Monday was spent playing with Chhotu who's lost almost all vision, thanks to cataract. Vini & Papa came over for dinner. Went off to B.S. City on Tuesday & returned on Wednesday with Shanu following on Thursday. It's a smaller city than I had imagined & pretty sleepy, especially with the electricity remainig on the blink for a majority of the time I was there.

Come Friday, it was time to board the TATA-YPR. Got space opposite an elderly Bengali couple who turned out to be pretty interesting timepass. The Uncle somehow brought up the topic of women's lib & had remarkably similar views to last Sunday's church sermon! I somehow don't recollect too much from this journey.

Reached BLR Sunday morning. Got off at K. R. Puram in the hope of saving on auto fare, but got ripped off nonetheless. It had been a nice trip home.

Home ...

I'm staring out into the night,
Trying to hide the pain.
I'm going to the place where love
And feeling good don't ever cost a thing.
And the pain you feel's a different kind of pain.

Well I'm going home,
Back to the place where I belong,
And where your love has always been enough for me.
I'm not running from.
No, I think you got me all wrong.
I don't regret this life I chose for me.
But these places and these faces are getting old,
So I'm going home.
Well I'm going home.

Our 1st trip home. Looking forward to it.

1 year to the minute since Mom left us behind.

Easter worries

Today is Easter. And it was probably the most excited I've ever been on this day.

Shanu called Daddy on the way to church in the morning to wish him. I was in a foul mood because of having had to wake up early. And because of the back pain I'd picked up playing cricket during the team outing. And because the church is so far.

Any way, church over, we come back home. Shanu lays out lunch & I'm just about to dig in when Jolly calls - Dad's mobile is not reachable. Since the last 1 hour. And no one's picking up the land line. Hmmm, this don't sound good.

Try calling him about 10-15 times. The same result each time. Call up Bunty, maybe he can go & have a look. He doesn't pick up. Call up Anurag, he doesn't pick up either. Am beginning to get worried now. Anyway, decide to continue with lunch. Tasty, from Shanu, as usual.

5 minutes later Anurag calls up & apologises, he was having lunch it seems. Ask him to go & check out the house. He says he will. I am somehow not assured. Soon, Papa calls up - asks when was the last time we talked to Dad - give him the details - he says he'll go & check out the house with Vinni. I'm beginning to pray silently now.

Half an hour later, Z Fi calls - she sounds really worried. From what she says, the entire relatives network from Tata to Patna to Bombay is abuzz. God! Dad, what are you upto? I'm sitting on the bed sick with worry. Try to calm myself down. Think of alternatives - go down some if-then-else lines of thought. Think of looking up the flights out of Bangalore to Kolkata today.

Jolly calls up numerous times - no luck whatsoever. It's been about 4 hours now. Papa & Vinni couldn't find anything at home.

Around 4:30 in the evening, Shanu's been trying Dad's mobile for 10 minutes - suddenly a new message - the number is busy - some relief - didn't get through, but at least it's not out of reach anymore! In another couple of minutes she gets through - can hear Dad's voice - he'd gone off to Chandil on a test ride of his friend's new Tata Safari and hence was out of the network area for all this while. Relief all around.

Call everyone else - most already know. Call up Vinni after dinner to get all the juice from her first hand. Poor girl & Papa went to the house, to the neighbour's house, the government hospital & were just about to go to the Police when contact was established. The especially intense summer heat made her sick by evening. Thank God for people like her. The feeling of helplessness one gets sitting here so far away from the scene of action is just too overwhelming. Call up Y Fi in Bombay - she's scolded Dad like in anything. Just goes to show the bonds between them.

All's well that ends well then. But it sure was scary. Happy Easter!

IPL 2010 is go

Wake up at 6. This being a Friday is another initiative. Leave for office by 8:15 am. Swipe in at quarter to 9.

Rajesh has been dropped hints all week, courtesy Nilanjan, that no one's gonna be around by 6 on Friday evening. It's a light load day & passes quickly enough.

Shalini has her 'supplementary' driving test. She passes. Very happy.

I leave at 5:30 on the dot. Traffic is light on the way home. Buy a couple of 'Feast's to celebrate. And am in just before the inauguration.

Kick back. Relax. Shanu rues the upcoming 45 days of non stop T20. But I don't .... not one bit. Heh heh.

The opening ceremony is a damp squib. I mean, who wants to watch UB40, Abba Revival & Lionel Ritchie in this day & age? Lalit Modi might have managed a package deal on the cheap for them.

Kolkata take on Deccan in the opener. The last team of 2009 vs the champions. And Kolkata win! SRK is mercifully missing from the screen for the duration of the match. A good win for KKR nonetheless. I'm somehow inclined to back them for this year.

@ the office

Arun Balakrishnan is a dead ringer for Siju Thomas who was with me back in college. The way he talks, his gait, the physique .... everything matches. Maybe the one above instantiates every new individual from one of several basic templates.

Meanwhile, The dumb asses in charge of blocking 'unwanted' websites at the office have zealously managed to block every cricket related site on the web. But iplt20.com remains accessible in all it's glory, with just 3 days to go for the start of the 2010 season. Maybe they look for the word 'cricket' in the URL.

And finally, as one friend leaves, another fills in .... Div joins the company a few weeks after Sittu's departure.

3rd March

Vini's b'day & the ol' home town's too. Me misses.

YPR - TATA

Early morning. The 21st of December, 2009. The YPR-HWH is scheduled to arrive at KGP at 4:05 AM. Having slept till noon during the day, I keep tossing and turning on the upper berth till about 12:30 AM. I have a nagging suspicion that the train is running late. My connector to JSR, the Purushottam arrives at KGP at 4:40 AM. It will be touch and go.

Awake at around 2:30 AM. Am down & ready by 3:30 AM. There's 1 guy at the door of the 3rd AC already. The usual conjecturing about the platform number takes place. We pause for some time near the huge Loco Shed on the outskirts of KGP station. The air is nippy .... the I-am-near-home feeling arises .... I've spent the last 38 hours inside the stuffy compartment.

Finally we pull in. I step down on the platform .... it's exactly 4:05 AM! We are on platform 3 .... start walking toward the shaded part .... it's a relief I won't have to lug the unbelievably heavy VIP all the way to the waiting room like I had to in 2007 & 2008. Reach a tea shop & ask the vendor where the Purushottam comes in. He replies it comes in right on this platform. Cool. Ask him for a cup. It's good to hear Eastern Indian Hindi after a long time.

The announcements for various trains are on. No mention of my train. As I finish the tea, the YPR-HWH begins moving out. Even as it picks up speed, the voice over the PA system announces my train number .... it's on time & coming in within 10 minutes .... super!

I move over to the platform's edge & peer into the direction I think it will be coming in from. Obviously it should be the direction in which the YPR-HWH just went since, JSR is the other way. And suddenly, it's in .... coming in from the JSR side! I'm confused .... is this the other train, coming from Delhi? Anyway, let's check the reservation chart .... which turns out does not have my name on it. Hop on to the coach anyway.

# 55, a side lower is my reserved berth. And it's empty. Good. The caretaker appears .... I confirm with him .... yes, this train does go on to JSR. Sit down, make myself comfortable & pull out the Walkman. Daddy calls & confirms my position. And then the train lurches backward .... going back in the direction it entered the station .... no wonder the halt here is for 25 minutes .... the engine was changing ends.

All is well as we pick up speed. It's close to 5 in the morning but it's inky black outside. I let it sink in .... my last rail journey as a bachelor .... Belinda Carlisle sings 'Circle In The Sand' on the earphones. Time passes quickly. The train shoots past stations draped in darkness with the exception of the lone signalman holding up the signal lamp with it's blinking green LEDs.

And then I spy it, around an hour after the train left KGP, dawn is breaking over the horizon. I seem to be the only one awake on the train. And then it keeps on getting brighter. We cross the state border, Chakulia passes, Ghatshila too, it's overbridge clearly visible now. Govindpur appears, I pack up the Walkman. The journey home is always the sweetest. Stand at the door ..... the electric loco shed appears & soon we have halted at platform 3. JSR, good ol's JSR.

So everything worked out according to plan. The departure, the journey, the connection & the arrival. Daddy is there looking tired. We take the overbridge, Daddy pays 10 bucks to the coolie who asks for 20. I pay him off & sit in the car. I've come home for something big .... let's start it off on a good note.

The route home is dusty as usual. On arrival, Ratan uncle is on the driveway with Chhotu. Am meeting him after around 20 years. And Y Fi greets me inside. Her affection is real & touching .... unlike a lot of others in the family. I am home.

All good things .....

Moved.

The 7 year association with Sid & Arni & the 4 year stay at #77 is over. It's all a bit overwhelming.

Journeys end. Friends depart.
Every phase of life comes to an end.
But every end is also a new beginning.
It is a new chapter waiting to open.

Today

Raced a Dominos Pizza delivery boy today .... & won. Brought back a lot of memories from the ol' school days. It feels good to give up all that defensive driving & go wild once in a while.

Vinod got transferred out of OBS today. Good for him since the boy was desperate for billability, but I'll miss his company. This billability funda has taken all the fun out of IT, at least in this company.

Honda-fication

Bade papa took delivery of his new Honda Civic yesterday. That makes it 2 Hondas in that family adding to the Honda City that Vinnie drives.

Then there's Chhoti's City ZX. And Archana too moves around in a City. It seems the Maruti era in the family (when just about everyone gave up their Padminis & Ambassadors for assorted Maruti models during the late 90s-early 2000s) is coming to an end.

I think I'll contribute further to that next year.

Chivas & the homecoming party

The bottle of 12 year old Chivas Regal had been lying unopened ever since Arni came back from the US last Monday 'cause Sid was in Jampot for the Puja holidays. Well, Sid returned today & got about planning for Arni's homecoming party .... proper.


Mutton was on the menu while Anu, Soumya & Ajay were the distinguished guests & this short conversation summed up the evening ....

Arni: (looking at his glass after 2-3 swigs) saala bahut strong hai!
Sid: (pointing to the Chivas bottle) ye 12 saal se bottle ke andar g**** nahi maraa rahaa tha.

heh heh heh

Meeting MG

.... for the 1st time since 1998. "11 years, man, 11 years", were his first words. How time flies.

Working @ Ahmed Plaza

Having been placed on the 'free pool' in these now deadly dangerous recessionary times, while IT companies are laying people off using whichever excuse possible .... the opening (& subsequent call up) from Infotech came like a huge relief.

It meant that I'd have to work at Ahmed Plaza - a small company facility that I'd never paid much attention to on the way to the EC campus. Reported there on 6th July probably. Jayamohan came across as the professional boss .... somebody for whom work came first .... fair enough. I liked his introductory talk though.

Then there were the colleagues .... Mantuno, Prashant and Rahul. Though Rahul wasn't on our project, he would always accompany us on our tea/coffee breaks. These 3 were some of the nicest guys I've ever met. I won't forget the numerous chat sessions we had while having coffee outside the office and often under the Bangalore Elevated Tollway flyover between pillar nos 196 and 197!

The work was mostly forgettable ..... calling up Deepak who was in Delhi & forever reluctant to take our calls, alongside Puneet, whom I somehow never got around to liking. Apart from this there was work on the prototype and .... that was about it.

The memories that stand out are those of the food .... it was horrible. I lost a few kilos in the 2 months I was there. And of course, the announcement of the technology change .... 'the client has decided not to go ahead with xxx platform since they don't want to spend on the licenses' .... effectively placing those of us who had just transferred in from Technologies & didn't want to relocate to Gurgaon/Hyderabad exposed to the vagaries of the free pool once again.

Anyway, all that's over now ..... Sarjapur is a far better place - food-wise; traffic-wise; facility-wise and 'greenery'-wise.

But there's one thing about A.P. that I'll miss .... the fantastic views just across the boundary walls. After all, how often does one get to see stuff like this ....



.... yup, a yard full of spanking new Beemers belonging to the adjacent BMW dealer.

MG reconnects

MG has shifted base to Bangalore. Had a long chat during which he informed about the unfortunate demise of his dad. The circumstances were uncannily similar to what happened with mummy.

Seems he'll be here for some time to come. Nice.

Dudes and TV

Ajay came along this morning. Was meeting him after about 6 months, how time flies. He has mellowed down after marriage .... in a pleasant way.

Caught up about a lot of things .... Deepanjan's leaving for UK, his own plans for the future and of course, the good old days at Shivam. It's strange how all past memories acquire a rosy tinge regardless of how the prevailing situation at that time might actually have been.

Gunakar has shifted base to Bangalore and with Arni set to arrive back from LA sometime in the 3rd week of this month, it looks like it's gonna be a partial Shivam old boys' reunion pretty soon.

On an aside, there's been a spate of emergency oral contraceptive ads on TV over the last 6 months. Was watching an ad for Parle's shitty lemon drink 'LMN' today. It goes by the tagline 'emergency lemon refresher' and when the dude doing the voiceover mentioned the word 'emergency', I was sure the next word to be mentioned would be contraceptive. It was only when he said lemon, that I looked up from the laptop & realized that it wasn't another 72 hour contraceptive being advertised. That's how pervasive their ads have been!

The 26th of May, 2009 & the journey home

Around 2:55 pm - a call from dad, he has never sounded this anxious, almost on the verge of breaking down. Mummy is really sick. I ask him to calm down and try to reassure him, but deep down there's a bad feeling.

I spend the next few minutes in a daze .... there's a briefing about an IIS related problem with Satish's website going on. My mind is elsewhere. Briefing over, Rajalakshmi & Rajani ask me to join them for some snacks & juice.

4 pm - Just as we are about to place the order, a call from dad .... I expect an update .... instead he informs that mom is no more. He asks me to come home and hangs up. I'm dumbfounded. Look out at the sunny afternoon outside the cafeteria windows. And then the brain takes over.

Head down straight to Pavan's place since I need a credit card. He's not there. Head to my place ..... Pavan is joking around with Mani & Manoj. Grab his hand & ask him to follow me outside .... he does.

'My mom expired .... I need an air ticket to Kolkata' ..... Pavan looks even more dumbstruck than I should be at this moment. In a moment he whips out his cellphone & is on the line to an agent friend of his speaking in Kannada. My mind is racing ahead ..... what after I land in Kolkata late in the night? Where do I go, should I book the rail tickets from here? In 5 minutes, he has it in place, the ticket will be in my mail. The flight is for 7:30 pm .... you'll have to rush, he says.

I go back to my place, open irctc & search for connections from Kolkata ..... damned site is too slow & pages won't load. Guru comes over & sees what the 2 of us are upto, oblivious of anything. I decide to junk the thought of booking the rail ticket. Call up Sid, ask him to arrange for a cab to the airport .... he promises he'll get it done. Head over to the printer to get a copy of the air ticket .... the blasted printer is out of paper. Decide to get it from some cyber cafe and leave. Pavan drops me home. The N73 shows 4 battery bars remaining .... I estimate it should be good enough to last till next morning.

Get into the Sify cyber cafe .... locked, shutters down. Rush to the other one near the temple ..... 'no power since morning sir .... UPS bhi kaam nahi kar raha hai' .... I'm well & truly in a spot. Without power I can't charge the phone/get a printout of the ticket/get cash from the ATM. It's 5:15 pm now.

Joy bhaiya calls up from Hyderabad .... asks if i need help in Kolkata .... I tell him I'll manage. He asks for Jolly's number which I SMS. Which is when I notice that the battery bars have dropped to just 1! The memory effect on the Nokia battery has manifested itself at the worst moment possible. Without the phone, I won't be able to contact the cab driver who'll be calling up shortly.

At this moment, I'm standing outside the gate of #77, looking around helplessly ..... when the water pump hums to life & the LEDs on it light up. The power is back .... thank you Jesus!

Rush upstairs, put the phone on charge & bundle a few clothes into the bag. The cab driver calls up .... as usual he has landed up near the 'traffic' police station in place of the parent police station which has been given to him as the landmark. But he soon has the place sorted & lands up in time for the departure. I tell him to wait while I get the ticket printout & cash. I'm back by 6, just in time to avoid the rush hour. There's no charger on the Meru Renault Logan & I switch off the phone to conserve whatever little is left since I'll be needing it for use in Kolkata.

The driver makes good time. Sid calls up on his phone via the cab company's call center after finding my phone switched off. I tell him I'm ok & will manage to catch the flight on time. The driver gets ripped off at a petrol station on the way after falling for the double-attendant-sale-promotion-diversionary-tactic-while-meter-is-not-reset-to-zero trick. It's amazing how a cab driver fell for it .... I tell him so, & he seems to have realized it belatedly. Anyway, he pushes 140 along the airport expressway past the Hebbal flyover & we reach well in time. He apologizes for the speeds after having spotted me eyeing the speedometer .... I tell him it's not a problem. It's my 1st time at the Devanahalli airport.

Jetlite is the carrier I'm booked on .... and the flight is 1 hour late. I'll be landing in Kolkata sometime around midnight. Inside the airport I try to fight the urge to buy something edible after looking at the high prices ..... but succumb eventually for a chicken sandwich. The one and only charging point available for personal chargers has been taken over by a gora using it to operate his laptop. 2 guys sitting next to me are talking in Bengali .... one of them smells of gutkha .... how I hate that smell. Call up Vini didi .... enquire about dad, ask her to take care of him, I'm so thankful they all are there with him.

Get on the flight. It reaches Kolkata at 11:45 pm. The typical Calcutta humidity greets one on the tarmac. 3 domestic flights - ours, an Air India & a SpiceJet have landed within minutes of each other. I hope to catch a taxi & reach Howrah by 12:30 am. But my hopes are dashed.

Cyclone Aila had visited Kolkata 2 days ago .... a lot of rain ensued & there were areas of the city where there was still no electricity or water supply. So the residents of those did what they do best in Kolkata .... took to the streets in protest, blocking the main thoroughfares. As a result, there's a mile long queue at the pre-paid taxi counter. I am probably in the 120th position. Each person will take at least 2-3 minutes to process .... and so here I am - hungry, feeling sleepy, tired, having lost my mom, not knowing what I'll do once I reach Howrah & a 2 hour standing wait to look forward to.

The line moves forward very slowly. News comes in that taxi drivers are asking extra for taking diversions. My turn comes at around 1:30 am. My taxi driver is as usual back in the stand & not where he should be to pick me up. He asks for a 100 bucks extra straightaway. I agree .... just get me to the darn station already. We travel fast on Kolkata's bumpy roads inside the rickety Ambassador. The door on my right feels like it's gonna fall off. On the way, there's a long stretch of main road brightly lit by Halogen lamps. I notice a long line of ladies of the night, along with their fat madams & some pimps as well. I wonder how they can do business so openly, which is when I notice the white uniformed Kolkata police standing at a rounabout barely meters away .... it's all 'legal' then.

Howrah station looks quiet at 2 in the morning. A few laborers are working away unloading a large consignment. I look around & notice some counters. Head there, and ask for the reservation counters .... the helpful clerk points me in the direction of the main entrance some distance away. I enter & find all the counters empty bar two. I ask for the 1st train to JSR. He tells me there's an EMU local leaving at 2:30. I ask for the ticket. It costs Rs. 32 .... for a distance of around 300 kms. I paid Rs. 650 for the cab to Bangalore airport, a distance of 30 kms. A confused villager from Bihar asks me for the way to reach Darbhanga, I plead helplessness.

Reach platform 11. Wash my face, buy a packet of biscuits & wolf them down hungrily. The EMU's lights appear in the distance as it moves into the station. I jump into the first rake that stops near where I'm standing on the platform. No one sits next to me, or opposite me. There's a few tribal guys in the seats next to mine. They promptly spread out their gamchhas & go to sleep. The train leaves 5 minutes late. It picks up speed rapidly. A cool breeze starts blowing. I put my feet up, place the backpack on my lap & try to catch a bit of shut eye.

The EMU stops at every station - small or big. But it's just for a minute. And it accelerates rather quickly. Still, I'm worried about the >10k cash on me & the 3500/- Casio G-Shock I'm wearing. The train clatters on in the darkness. 3, 3:30, 4, 4:30. I awake. The train has remained stationery for an inordinately long time. We're not even at a station .... it's some place in the countryside between Kolkata and Kharagpur. From somewhere far away, waft in strains of music .... some kind of live late night concert ..... we're definitely in the eastern part of the country. I suppose it's some Bengali song .... but it sounds familiar, I listen more closely .... hell, it's somebody singing Daler Mehndi's Ho Jayegi Balle Balle! At 4 in the morning! In rural Bengal! I smile to myself ..... my 1st smile in a long time.

We move on. Dawn breaks. I spot signs of the cyclone's aftermath still fresh .... uprooted trees, water in the fields, but nothing too destructive. The train stops near a pukur .... I follow a duck as it walks into the pond & proceeds to swim across to the other end leaving ever expanding ripples in it's wake. A calming sight.

The crowds begin to swell. We move into KGP at around 5:30 am. It turns out to be a long halt. I'm running out of patience and beginning to feel irritated. There are no vacant seats as the train leaves KGP. Soon the sun is beating down in full force. There are huge crowds at every station. Everyone seems to like the EMU. Just when you think the rake can't take in any more, even more manage to adjust themselves inside. Very soon, every inch of vacant floor space is occupied, even between the benches. People get in with all sorts of cargo, some even have ingeniously devised hooks which they hang on the strong window bars holding earthen pots meant for sale in the city. I feel like Shah Rukh Khan in the train in Swades.

The heat rises ... thankfully I have the window seat. Every new station ratchets up my irritation level one notch higher. There are stops I didn't even know existed .... even though I've traversed this route so many times ..... that's a local train for you. Sometimes I wonder whether we are even heading to JSR or somewhere else. Finally we cross the border into JH. And an hour later we are at Tatanagar. It has taken around 6 hours for a journey I usually cover in 4. A huge crowd rushes out. An autowallah on the overbridge probably senses my foul mood & asks for 60 bucks for the trip home. I agree, relieved at not having to haggle for the fare. 60 is the accepted rate.

Reach home, give him a 100 note. He doesn't have change .... I'm at the end of my tether, ask him how much he has, he shows me three 10 rupee notes. I say lao with a hand signal & open the gates to enter the house. Sanatan comes out. I'm meeting him for the 1st time. Gives me the keys. Dad's not in. The house is eerily quiet.

There's a stack of chairs in the verandah. Dad has been busy organising. Chhotu runs out as I open the locks on the grill. I go in & put the phone on charge. There's no network .... & the landline isn't working. Raju bhaiya drops in like a god send. Use his phone to call dad & inform him that I've arrived. He can't believe I'm here already. Neither can I. It's now 9:30 am. I've been on the road since 4:30 yesterday afternoon.

RIP Bobby bhai

Daddy informed that Bobby was found dead at his residence on Saturday probably due to a drug overdose. He had gone into depression and drug abuse since his divorce.

A highly creative and artistic talent with an ear for music, I still remember his renderings of Fido Dido which were such a rage in India when 7up was launched back in 1990. His tragic end is such a waste of life. God bless his soul.