"Let's Walk A Little Further....."

This one is sort of a continuation of the post Im Waiting...Still Waiting...
If you have already read it then, you will most likely know my attitude towards Bangalore’s Auto-drivers. This happened to me on the 25th of this month. It was on that day that RCB was playing against DD in Chinnaswamy Stadium that is about 10 minutes (including traffic signals and crossing) away from U.B city. I had stayed back in the office way past my normal hours, actually to kill time. It was decided that since I was staying with my aunt who lives on the other side of town that I would share an auto with my cousin and come back home together since she had been posted to audit a firm that was on the end of Kasturba road (about a 5 minute walk from U.B. City).

Usually the auto drivers make a fuss to go all the way up to Ramaiah Hospital, and then again into the colony that she lives in, as it is about a kilometer away from the former landmark. So I bribe them by saying I would pay them 10 bucks extra, which makes it a neat 80 bucks. Unlike me, my cousin is not the type who’d pay a single pie extra if she could.

So on this SPECIAL day as I received a sms from my cousin asking me to take a ‘rick’ from under my building and pick her up on the way, I was trying to do just that. But what had completely skipped my mind was, that day RCB were playing the match in Bangalore!

Many a ‘ricks’ came and went by, some of them asked for double the price, while some said they’d charge ‘one and a half’, the rest asked for anywhere between 50 to 100 bucks over and above the normal fare. I WAITED…..for more than half an hour, when, I finally found one blessed soul who agreed to take me back home for just 10 bucks over the meter charges. Without any second thought I got onto the rick and quickly called my cousin, to tell her about this. When she heard we were paying 10 bucks extra she said, “Get down immediately! It’s not worth it these buggers always say that.” I jumped off the rick at the next signal and started to walk towards her office.

Not the both of us started walking towards Chinnaswamy Stadium. It was about 7.p.m and we saw that the match had just ended. A swarm of people walked out of the stadium and we were left at the mercy of God. There were about ten thousand people who simultaneously got out, so there were road blocks, traffic jams, over filling of the busses, screaming, shouting, confusion and a lot of cops who didn’t seem to bother too much about this! But the most phenomenal sight was what I like to call the “3-WHEELED-MASSACRE” where if anyone saw an empty rick they would pounce on the driver, shout at him and demand to be taken home that very instant even if he said he wouldn’t.

As for us, we just kept walking further along the road. We walked up to The Capitol building which took us 15 minutes (thanks to all the people my cousin stopped to talk to), Then found 3 ricks who demanded double the price! Now my cousin said, “it’s OK lets walk a little further we’ll find a rick there”. We walked further towards India Coffee House (old one). After another 20 minutes of waiting, “let’s walk a little further…” another 10 minutes of walking and 10 minutes of waiting later, my cousin says, “let's go further...” By now my left foot starts swelling up thank to the recent ligament injury, and despite my limping and discomfort I keep walking further to find a rick. Out of frustration I type a sms cussing my cousin for not taking that damned Auto, and instead of sending it to my friend I send it to this cousin without looking. Frantically, I try to come up with an explanation. And in a split second an idea flashes. I grab the cell phone out of her hand and tell her that I need to send a text to a friend back in Mangalore. Thanks to the brilliant Spice network the sms reaches her phone 10 seconds after I grab the phone I quickly delete it and thank my lucky stars. THINK STRAIGHT, I scream at myself. By now it is 9.p.m and we have walked back half the way home. When I look at my cousin all she can say is, “I think we’ll get an auto little further.” Too exhausted to talk I just stop there dead in the middle of nowhere and wait for another 15 minutes till I finally see a rick. I flag it down and with no mood to argue with the driver I tell him the place and he tells me he’ll charge us 10 bucks extra. I DON’T CARE!!!!!

This Was My Weekend...How was Yours?

It’s been a long and trying weekend and I’m glad it’s Monday again. Most people, I’m sure must think I’m batty, but I assure you I’m not. Just hear me out.

I got off work as usual on Friday, and decided to head back to my aunt’s place in dollars colony, which is Rs.70/- (Disclaimer: prices will vary according to the type of meter used, negotiation skills, knowledge of shortcuts and number of traffic signals you stumble upon) away from U.B. City (that’s how you measure the distance in Bangalore). Tired from a hard day’s work of Blogging, Facebooking, smsing, eating, and filling out applications I head out. After having waited for over 15 minutes for an auto, I stroll up Kasturba road and suddenly feel hunger pangs. I walk up to the end of the road and see that I had two options: SUBWAY, or Mc DONALDS!

Five minutes later, I got out of subway with a 6inch roasted chicken sub custom made (NO, I did not chose subway since was healthier out of the two, but McDonalds was on the other side of the road and I was in no mood to walk back half the way to cross the road; thanks to the road divider). All I needed now was a ‘rick’; and voila, just like that there magically appeared an empty auto and stopped right in front of me. The driver even agreed to charge me by DIGITAL METER. On the journey back home I received an sms from a friend inviting me for her birthday, my calendar showed that I was supposed to meet my school friend for coffee, another friend smsed saying he had gotten tickets for AVATAR in 3D, my cousin invited me over for lunch on Sunday.

I was joyously planning the weekend ahead when I received a phone call from a dear friend, late at night saying that he was coming to Bangalore the next day to surprise me! So I quickly got to work cancelling all my prior commitments and now making different plans altogether just for him and me. It was there at that very moment that I decided that that was going to be the best weekend of all!

Little did I know…

… that when I went to pick up my friend from the bus stop the next morning I would find out that he was in fact joking about the whole coming-to-Bangalore-thing!

…that I would end up un-reserving the dinner reservations I had made at my favorite restaurant, for my friend and me!

…that I would go to GARUDA mall alone just because I had nothing else to do (thanks to all the cancellations)

…that I would end up eat cookies, apple cables, an entire sizzler, a lemon soda, a cold coffee, a double chip brownie, all by myself just to stop myself from breaking down in the middle of the mall in frustration!

…that I would end up shopping for clothes worth ten thousand rupees, to cheer myself up only to realize that I had spent 2 months rent money. God help!

… that I would have to wait for 2 hours in the middle of brigade road for my friend to pick me up and take me out for some Chinese Soup and Kebabs, last minute!

…that I would get blasted at by my mother for accepting a gift from my aunt, who is not in talking terms with the rest of the family.

… that I would miss the movie that I have been longing to watch ever since it had released, just because the movie was house full in 3 theatres!

THANK YOU MISCOMMUNICATION!!!

Do You Believe in G(H)OD(STS)?

I’ve never quite been able to answer these 2 questions honestly in my life. The first one is, ‘Do you believe in GOD?’ and the second one on similar lines, ‘Do you believe in GHOSTS?’


If someone asked me either of them I’d simply say, “I DON’T KNOW.” It’s not because I really don’t know, but I find it very tedious to answer it as YES or NO, since it indisputably will start the age old debate of HOW-CAN-YOU-BELIEVE/NOTBELIEVE-IN-IT.

It’s not that I have not tried to contemplate over this, but I know that I will end up back where I started from. Like whenever I’m in my hometown, I visit my favorite Panchalingeshwara (Shiva) temple. And I make it a point to visit some temple or another when I go to a new place. I never leave home without applying ‘kumkum’ (Not the serial; but the red powder offered in most of the temples, which is popularly known as ‘sindoor’) and the holy ashes (that again is offered at select temples but mostly in the ‘Sai Baba Temples’). I always make munificent offerings at each of my temple visits (ok I confess that most of the times these offerings are made because of guilt and it is more like a bribe to the God’s).

But I have never been a religious sort of a girl, I do the minimum required to please the God’s, I don’t know many long ‘Sanskrit Shloka’s’. I don’t understand any of the ‘pooja’s’ that are conducted twice a year at my parents home nor do I like being asked questions about my religion and then being condemned for not knowing any of the history of my religion. It surprises most of my relatives that my father; a quite a well known member of the society, is a very spiritual and a god fearing man; and my mother is equally spiritual. Sometimes my dad jokes that I am more of a Catholic than a Hindu, as I was one of the few girls from my community who studied in a CONVENT school all my life run by the A.C (Apostolic Carmel) nuns, and then went on to pursue my graduation in a Jesuit Institution. But to my relatives, it is a shortcoming in my upbringing and they blame my parents for this- they say I’m somewhat ‘loose’

But honestly all my life I have only done what I have felt like and have never been influenced too much by anyone; even through the toughest phase of decision making in every students life at the end of their 10th grade board exams- to chose SCIENCE or COMMERCE; (no offense to the ARTS students but that was considered to be the lowest in the academic caste system-to be chose by the dullest of the lot). Honestly Arts was my first choice, I wanted to get into psychology and literature but ended up compromising by taking up Commerce and then borrowing my ARTS friend’s psychology text books over the weekends.

Unlike other people I have never had conventional ideas of GOD and SPIRITS, I treat both with equal respect and sometimes when I’m really lonely I talk to a close, deceased member of my family. Like just the other night I was telling my grandpa, how it felt like being alone in Bangalore with no friends to hang out with on a Saturday night. But I have never seen any form of a ghost or spirit in my life. Then again I don’t profess this to anyone, as I don’t think anyone would understand the concept. I even do the whole GOD-IS-MY-GUARDIAN-ANGEL-WHO-IS-BY-MY-SIDE-ALWAYS and sometimes talk to my version of God: who is this formless, nameless, male spirit (call me a prejudiced, but I find it easier to talk to guys).

Recently I came across the weirdest of “GHOST STORIE’S” that a friend of mine had encountered. But this story comes with the usual disclaimer: Believe it or not!

‘So it was just like any run of the mill weekend where the guys got drunk and challenged each other to do some really off the wall things. This time it was Naveen’s (my friend) turn. The challenge was simple, since he did not believe in ghosts and was an atheist he was told to go inside a “haunted” mansion and get footage of checking out 2 rooms inside the house and come out ALIVE! They struck a deal for 1000 green ones (or red ones, whatever suits you). So after they gulped down the last drop of some cheap booze they all led him to the “SCARY HOUSE”. As they reach the big iron gates, Naveen in his now sober state of mind (or so he claims, as the so called “high” drops down when u walk for 20 minutes) goes up to the large main door and unlocks it. He then sets up the camera and walks into the house and enters the main hall room, suddenly he hears a screeching noise and sees a shadow zoom past his head and goes right out of the door. Undeterred he walk into 2 rooms inside the house and gets a good footage and then his cell starts to vibrate! The guys ask him to narrate his actions and as he is moving to the third room he stops at to look at the latch on the door. He had never seen anything like it before. It was not rusted like any of the other latches and looked pretty well used! He opened the door and saw a passageway. Onto his left he saw stairs leading up to the top floor of the house. As he is continued narrating this to his friend’s he tells them that he would climb up the stairs and check out the top floor. Suddenly his friend’s ask him to get the hell out of that place as they found something fishy about his description. And the fully charged phone suddenly conks off and he can’t get it back on. He was not in a mood to leave this challenge half done and decides to go ahead he climbs the first step and just as he is about to climb the second one he sees a bright light and suddenly slips off the stair and falls down. With a little panic, he gets out of there and walks back to his friend’s, who are now frantic!

Even after repeated questioning his friend’s don’t tell him what the matter is. The next morning, they all head out to the same house. And check out the place in broad daylight. All the rooms are just as he Naveen had captured them on his camera the previous night, except door which had led him to the passage. He saw that the door was latched back shut.

So as he unlatches it and walks through the door, he sees an open backyard, which was not how it had seemed the previous night. As he turns to his left to check for the stairs he sees an open well and his shoe print on the rim of its wall!!

Now he never misses Sunday Mass!

And I have just another reason to believe that there is a greater power above US!

SUNDAY BLUES!

It is truly extraordinary what one can face in this modern life. The world moves upside down. The once vitamin enriched sunlight is now one of the biggest concerns of skin disorder. The 9 to 6 jobs have now become the 2 to 11 jobs. We sleep during the day to keep awake at night. We take time out of our schedule to carry out our evening walks but take out cars out to buy groceries at the local vendors which is one block away. The lesser the clothes the more affluent the person!


And in this, mad world which I am very much a part of; I faced something even more extraordinary than I have ever heard anyone face. At work I always face the pressures of my boss sitting next to me not restricting me to achieving completion of a project- it is worse than having to complete a project within a deadline. Hence I always wait for the glorious weekend; not because I was fatigued by work; but I just couldn’t wait to get back home and do things which I could set deadlines; complete pending projects and slog like a workaholic.

But, my last weekend was the first, and might I also add in last of its kind, that I would not be going home. Rather, I would stay back in the garden city to savor the much hyped weekend life. So I set out to chalk out my schedule. Well I must say! It was the most fun I had in the office, for once I wasn’t bored by the routine research that I was doing for the project, nor did I yawn even once! So there I was on ‘Google’ typing furiously, all the combinations possible for the list of events in Bangalore on a Friday night. To my utter delight I found plays, movies, concerts, buffets, exhibitions, fairs etc… the list was endless and my joy threefold!

I jotted down every event I could get my hands on, then scanned about each one of them, making a detailed report on the cost analysis, feasibility, strategic movement, list of people who would be interested to accompany me, I get references and cross checked every single one. Then at the end of the day I decided to finally put the plan into action:

It was going to be- A one hour play in Ranga Shankara, followed by dinner and drinks in a pub (maybe also a little dancing) on FRIDAY NIGHT.

I was going to sleep in till late afternoon on SATURDAY (to catch up on all the lost sleep during the week, then a quick lunch at this steak house called ‘The Only Place’ followed by a funny movie ( depends on what was playing at that time, and finally catching up with old friends over dinner.

And SUNDAY was again going to be a complete bliss when I’d hangout at the mall all by myself and then maybe visit my cousin who said we would ‘catch up over the weekend’ and then hang out with her till I lost track of time, then come back home late night and then drift away into my blissful contended sleep!

AAAAHhhhh…..what could be better than THE PERFECT PLAN?

Well the answer to that question is REALITY!! Which I can now say is a COMPLETE BITCH!

So as I left the office on Friday my friend calls up and says, “Hey gal lets catch a late night movie. I want to watch LSD.” So I agree and get dressed to meet up at this café on Brigade and there we were served the most scrumptious dinner of all; best Spaghetti Bolognese ever, and hands down the best Chicken Tikka Sandwich. And though I was promised the best blueberry cheesecake well lets jus say there will be a next time.

After the dinner we walk down to watch LSD. And if you want a review of the movie, well that will be a whole other post. So I head home after the movie and drift off into this amazing well deserved sleep I hear a loud banging. I pretended not to hear it and did not budge a centimeter from my bed.

“BANG...BANG…BANG….HELLLLLLLOOOOO!!!”

Now who the $%&^ could that be at this early hour in the morning? I opened my eyes and checked the time it was barely 9 in the morning. MY GOD!!!! When did I sleep?

“HOUSEKEEPING!!!”

I was hoping if I didn’t make a sound she’d just walk away and after 5 minutes of screaming she did walk away only now she came back quicker than she left with my landlord. As soon as I heard him I decided that it was only sensible of me to let her in and she was in and out of my place in less than 4 minutes. But my sleep was ruined!

Then I decided to get up and text my cousin to check if she was free, and this was her reply verbatim:

‘Hi I’m going out to a relative’s house today for a Pooja and we will be busy tonight as we have to visit some family.’

Whatever! So I decided to hang out in the mall all day all by myself. Well shopping was fun but there is a rule which I forgot- ‘the greater the depression, the more money you blow.’ I actually didn’t realize how lonely I was till I came out of the mall, 4k POORER!

OK. Not that bad I could allow myself to a treat once in a while and half my bill was just lunch and gifts for my friend and sister.

I reach home at 5 and realize I have nothing to do! ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! So I decide to watch a couple of episodes of F.R.I.E.N.D.S and suddenly I get a call from a friend to accompany him for a movie ‘The Book of Eli’. Not that I remotely liked action movies or anything, but I just wanted to get the hell out of my home.

Well I realized the movie was the biggest mistake of my life! For one I hated it, and then I got teased by two of his friend’s about my figure. BIG TURN OFF. Then I decided to go out for dinner with him, only to realize that his friends were coming along. So I made a silly excuse and walked back home and watched more F.R.I.E.N.D.S throughout the night, only to wake up to a bland Sunday and realize I still had nothing to do. So I walk down to Brigade do some grocery shopping buy 2 packets of MOMO’s and 2 doughnuts and just as I am about to gobble the food down I get a text from another cousin asking me what I was doing. As soon as I texted her that I was lunching that was the end of our conversation. So all of SUNDAY I sat alone at home brooding over what could have been a perfect weekend, how none of my friends cared enough to include me in their plans, how no one called to check in on me ( except MOM, but, that just aggravated the pain of loneliness more) and how all those people who said

“HEY GAL STAY BACK A WEEKEND IN BANGALORE NA, PLEASE, WE’LL CATCH UP, GO PARTYING OR CLUBBING, OR YOU CAN COME OVER AND STAY AT HOME, OR LETS MAKE SOME PLANS TO SPEND THE DAY IN MYSORE, OR LETS CATCH UP OVER THE WEEKEND, OR LETS GO FOR A LONG DRIVE, OR LETS MEET UP, OR LETS TRY OUT ALL THE RESTAURANTS, OR LETS GO SHOPPING”

didn’t follow up on any of their plans, just made me realize that -

I WALK A LONELY ROAD!!

Now you must be wondering what I’m doing the coming weekend after facing the lowest point’s of my life?

Well, I’m on ‘Google’ again; but only this time I’m busy booking the seats for busses leaving for home, EVERY FRIDAY till the end of MAY!

Im waiting.....Still waiting...

As a pleasant and cool wisp of air gently strokes my cheek; not wanting to wake up to the soft golden rays of the sun and the mellow chirping of the cuckoo bird; I lay there on my over stuffed feather mattress covered by a smooth silk bed spread buried under a plump comforter, I turned around lazily and my face brushed against the pillow that was as soft and as pink as freshly spun cotton candy. “AH! Bliss”, the alarm softly ringing the tune of ‘you raise me up…..’ makes me reluctantly wake up to this glorious, perfect Tuesday morning. As I glide across my room from one corner to another to get dressed for work, I think about the fantastic day ahead in the posh office nestled on the 13th floor of U.B City. It seems surreal sometimes that I actually get to work in this place. Nevertheless I gulp down a bowl of cereal and bustle to get to my office. I think of the wonderful day ahead…..




the quiet hum of the central air conditioner, the soft yet very effective lighting, the friendly smiles of the security guards and the pleasant “hellos” from the strangers, a great bunch of team members who help me out with even the silliest of the doubts, and a BOSS mind you, who is the best of them all (and no, I’m not writing this coz I’m trying to butter him up. I work for no pay and still love my job BEAT THAT!)



As I reach the office and park myself at my desk I switch on the computer and start my research work. Before you know it, its lunch time, and I’m having a hearty meal (may be not that hearty) at the cafeteria. When I’m done I go back to my cozy corner seat and in that relaxed atmosphere I work happily for another 5 and a half hours till it is time for me to leave this fairyland office and go back home to my dreamy home… What a perfect day!

But thanks to one small tiny yet most significant detail in the city of Bangalore; that is the{[(“AUTOWALLAHS”)]}

These MOFO’s rule the “effing” city! When I come out of my office at 6.30 and cross the road to catch an auto as it is a one way I see a long queue of vehicles waiting their turn at the signal (don’t get me started with the signal….that story some other day). As the signal takes its own sweet time to turn green like my lazy morning I see a train of Autos coming towards me. Out of the 12 odd autos 8 are bursting with people, 2 when stopped say they don’t want to go to my home as it is TOO CLOSE BY, and the other two those ‘basket of stinking flowers’ don’t even stop for a girl with a broken leg.



Actually my home is a lovely 15 minute walk away from my office; But thanks to the footpaths of Bangalore ( I fractured my tendon as a fell into one of the withered cow trap’s on Residency road. Pedestrians beware!!!)



As time passed by rather urgently I guess by now it was sick of me hanging on to it and stretching it out like a taffy machine that it decided to screw me over. Another bunch of auto’s passed by, but every time the same response. So at 7 I finally decide to walk up to Coffee Day Square and wait for an auto. By that time I saw that there were more than 8 people waiting for the auto and it was like the ‘crab story’ there. People who had come after me left before and I was reaching my brink of patience. I wanted to look up and scream “ Isn’t the rat race in the corporate life not enough that I have to fight for my survival here???” but I quickly realized I wasn’t in a movie and that it would be absurd to do so.



7.30; and still no sign of a bloody auto it’s officially been one hour of waiting. I was so frustrated that I almost ended up crying out in AUTOSTRATION (i.e. frustration when waiting for an auto in Bangalore.)

At 7.45 I decided I didn’t care about these Baskets anymore and I would walk back home even if it meant that I had to walk in pain. So I started in the opposite direction and kept waking till I finally found one Auto empty!!! OMG it was bliss at that moment I felt all my weariness disappear and I felt numb with joy. I rushed to him and told him to take me to Albert Street. He bluntly said NO. I begged him. NO came the reply again. Then as I limped away as I almost gave up; I guess he took some pity on me. He called me back. I rushed in joy not giving a damn about my leg. He looked into my eyes in pity.



I knew it! I knew that he had a heart!

As I sat in the Auto he said “MADAM, 150!!”



I jumped out and said YOU @#$^&* #$@^$*! It costs me minimum till my home 14 bucks.

He said “madam I have to take a turn. Give 100”



By then I was too angry and too frustrated, I hadn’t felt anything like this before. It was beyond autostration. So I was back on my feet and on my way home. As I limped slowly I heard someone call out my name. I looked around!

NOBODY

Just as I guessed I was hallucinating, it was 8.09 and I was tired and hungry, as I heard my name been called out again I didn’t bother looking back. Suddenly I felt a hand on my shoulder, I looked back and it was a colleague of mine, she had found an auto and was walking in the same direction as me. It was 8.23!

THE WAIT……OH THE WAIT!!!!