The Chennai trip
Nov 7 2009: 4.30 AM..
Stepped out of the office and found it raining. Thank god, it's not so heavy. I had decided to take a bus ride to the railway station. I did not want to start my journey doing some nasty negotiation with the auto rickshaw fellows. The trees on the way to the bus stop helped and I did not get wet much. Got my ipod on and waited for the bus to arrive. Almost 30 minutes before I got my ride..
5:15 AM
Wow! that was quick..in about 15 minutes the bus had covered a 10km distance to the station. Went inside the station and walked around the platform with the music still on. Around 5.45, I got into the train, found my seat and quickly settled in. I had done the usual ritual of checking the passenger list stuck outside the compartment. When I was young, it was fun to look at the list before any long distance train journey. As a kid, it felt good to see your name stuck out there :) The funny thing with this list is, everybody has different reasons for looking at it. The old people want to confirm that their seat still exists and they will not be thrown out during the journey (so much for belief in Indian Railway system). The young couple checked if there are kids around who could spoil their fun. And I along with thousands of men (of all ages I guess) checked if we are lucky to have a young opposite gender in the next seat. Damn, unlucky this time as well :( . Not many people around. Most of them get in from the other stations in Banglore - East and Cantonment. It was time for me to take out my Shawarma. I love them. It is a famous fast food sandwich in the Middle East. A pita bread filled with meat and pickles. I had it the first time during my trip to Dubai, few years ago.
6:05 AM
Train is out of the blocks. Chennai calling! Frankly, it was a lousy journey. I badly needed some sleep and got none of it. The good thing with Shadabdi express is that they keep serving you food. But this time, I found it very disturbing! They start with the days newspaper. Then follows up with marie biscuit packet, bottled water, coffee... I think it was after 8.30 that the breakfast was served. The guy next seat was busy with his PlayStation Portable. I guess he got bored with it and then took out his laptop to watch Blue, yeah-the hindi movie.
11.00 AM
Touchdown Chennai. Quickly got out of the station and walked towards the bus stop opposite to the station. As usual the the rickshaw drivers were on the hunt jumping at people with all kinds of offers. By now, I am an expert in dodging them whether in Trichur, Chennai or Bangalore. Lucky, the 11G bus was just leaving the stop and I quickly got in. I didn't know it was raining in Chennai. The bus seats were all wet, but the bus was empty and I got to sit down. By the time I reached near my destination, it was pouring hard. Completely drenched, I ran towards the house. I forgot, it is not a house anymore, but they had constructed a flat few months ago. R chechi and H chetan was in Kerala, so patti was alone in the apartment. I called up my friends and planned for meeting in the evening for the function. Now it was time for a quick nap. Well, it went on for a while and by the time my friend called, I was already late. Quickly got up to get ready for the marriage reception fuction.
7:10 PM
Ah, still raining. With water all over the road, and the auto rickshaws busy splashing water and dirt around, I was pretty sure to make a fashion statement in the function. Finally after waiting for almost 20 minutes, I get an auto to take me. Destination- Ega theatre. I remember going there couple of times, more than 3 years ago, with the same set of friends whom I would be meeting in few minutes. The ride was fun as usual. The driver asked for 20 bucks more than what was earlier agreed upon. He contested that the roads were bad. I shot back that I didn't build the roads. Wow, not bad Sarath.
8:05 PM- Evening showtime...
Finally, am in the reception hall. Chicko boy is on the stage with his sweetheart, all smiles! I track down the real estate millionaire and 6 feet CEO. There was the Airtel lifetime subscriber as well with his diamond stud shining bright. It was good, fun. We quickly started the countdown on who could be the next person among us out of bachelorhood. I guess we were bored with each other after talking for sometime, so we decided to go up the stage and scare THE guy and THE gal. Chicko boy was still having fun there shaking hands and smiling with everybody who went up to congratulate him. I bet he didn't know half of them ;) or did he! Once on the stage, we went through the usual ritual of trying to crack a joke, everybody laughing and then the shooting. I meant the video camera shooting. After the brief stint on stage, we turned our attention to the best part of the function, FOOD! I have always pitied the couple on the marriage day. They are supposed to be the hero and heroine, the limelight and this is supposed to be the best day of their lives. But I guess, mostly they are asked to stand all day, with no food for a very long time and the torchure of shaking so many hands and touching all the feet. We all stretched the capacity of our stomach to the maximum and when it thought we are done, Ice cream followed, then came pan. Not bad for a sluggish raining day.
10:00 PM - Goodnite...
Since our main work was done, we decided to call it a day. Opps, almost forgot our Chicko boy. We bid the couple good bye assuring that we will be back for food the next day as well. Back to the base. The real estate lord was kind enough to drop me home in his chariot. Thank you pal! Goodnite.
Nov 8 2009: 6:00 AM - The final countdown...
Not much of sleep :( To avoid being late again, I used the alarm services of my mobile and clock. Am ready in time. 7 am - Our 6 foot CEO called me as planned and informed that he has started his ride from his village. I got out of the base and decided to walk since the weather was good. A tea shop was open and I had my share of tea and vada. I miss these shops so badly in Bangalore. I guess the city of garden needs more malayalis to start one of these or may be I should start one! Now, I admired the weather too early. A sudden down pour started and I was afraid, I will be late again. Fortunately, our own MTC bus came to the rescue. As soon as I got down in Ashok Nagar, udhayam theatre, our CEO called and I ran into his car. We picked up Motta boy on the way. Damn, he is a father now!!!! What has this world come to ;) Frankly, good for him. He should be in Romania now. With the real estate man already in the marriage hall, we hit off to our destination.
7:45 AM - Its showtime folks...
As soon as we entered, we found the bridegroom with even more bigger smile on the stage. He seemed to be in a hurry to get married, but enjoying all the ceremonies thoroughly. Now, we being who were are, went straight for breakfast. Another showdown. After satisfying our craving, we decided to be good to our friend and joined the marriage audience at the back of the line. I guess, few things never change, back bench everywhere. It was time, Chicko boy finally ties the thali. Congrats to him. One more wicket down in our bachelor team. I guess all of us were thinking, mera number kab ayega! But we put our brave faces on and said, poor Chicko, when each one of us were actually thinking "bugger, he overtook me". The funny thing with thali is, that is the only time the guy gets to tie the knot around the gal. For the rest of the life, it happens the other way around. Once the main part of the function was over, a submarine owner from T. Nagar and MicroSoft owner from close to T.Nagar arrived. Good to see them. It has been few years. After some rumblings here and there, the 2 VIPs left. Nobody complained ;). We continued our chit chat and once all the ceremony was over, we finally decided to leave. But we didn't want to be home yet. So we drove to Mocha (the coffee shop) to let the marriage sink it. They had all kinds of coffee, Jamaican, barbarian, mars, venus. We quickly became adults discussing business for a change! After pricking our brains for sometime on how we can change the world, atleast our world, we were ready to finally go back to our bases. The CEO dropped all of us in our bases. We had decided to meet in the evening. Once home, I decided to again hit the bed.
Don't remember the time! - The reunion dinner...
CEO picked me up from Ashoka pillar and we proceeded to the pick up motta father. The real estate moghul was busy with work, so he called to inform us that he will join us later for dinner. So the 3 of us decided to go to Marina beach. It was fun. I had not been there for few years now and I loved it. As soon as we parked the car, we decided to try out the shooting game. Strange, for the 10 years I was in Chennai, I never tried it. So CEO went first- 1,2,3- all missed! The board was full of balloons. Fatherji went next- bang, bang, bang- noooo, he too missed all the shots. So finally the hero -'THE ME' ;) took up the challenge. Bingo!! 3 shots and 3 hits. That was crazy, sounds like a movie story? but true. It was fun, atleast for me :) We walked towards our next target, corn. All of us got one each and heavy winds started blowing at us from the Ocean. A light drizzle, we were enjoying it. We decided to walk towards the car and then motta did a big mistake- He called up bhabhiji and told her what we were doing. Looks like beach is her favorite place. I guess motta was lucky that she was far away, otherwise it did look like he would have been beaten up :) Now it suddenly started pouring heavily and we ran inside the car.
We started from the beach and decided to meet in Palki for dinner. Our Skoda man was waiting as we reached the restaurant. It was fun filled dinner. We talked about all the fun we had in college, especially all the 'BITS' during exams. No, not computer bits, this is the life saver bit which comes handy whenever we do not know the answer. In our case, we knew all the questions in the exam, the answers were the problem and we heavily relied on bits. Damn! same old lousy joke, I know. Still, couldn't help it. 2 incidents stood out, one is when motta relied heavily on the intelligence of our dear friend ,whom we passionately call by the name of a big fat filthy animal; starts with the letter P. Motta used P's answer paper itself as the bit and he scored 54 marks. But our intelligent poor friend failed with only 27 marks, exactly the half. We were still trying to figure how the hell it happened. Another was when our Skoda man filled 30 pages of answer papers, an exact replica of his neighbour without knowing that his neighbour was just writing the questions all over again. Heights of human intelligence! He scored a 0,1 or 7- can't remember the exact number. Each of us did have our fair share of chasing as well. With a heavy discussion on marriage, work and life, we finally decided to call it quits for the day.
Hold on, I guess we were having too much fun and decided to hit the bar, naaaa, just the ice cream shop. After a good dose of kulfi, we finally took all our memories back to our brains and drove back to our bases.
Good nite...
Nov 9 5:15 AM - Back to reality...
With my morning train at 7:15, I did not want to take a chance. Got up early and started off to the station. Back to reality :(
Nobody told me this before I started from bangalore, but it truly was Bon voyage! Would love to have more of these :)
Please leave your comments in the comments section...
Stepped out of the office and found it raining. Thank god, it's not so heavy. I had decided to take a bus ride to the railway station. I did not want to start my journey doing some nasty negotiation with the auto rickshaw fellows. The trees on the way to the bus stop helped and I did not get wet much. Got my ipod on and waited for the bus to arrive. Almost 30 minutes before I got my ride..
5:15 AM
Wow! that was quick..in about 15 minutes the bus had covered a 10km distance to the station. Went inside the station and walked around the platform with the music still on. Around 5.45, I got into the train, found my seat and quickly settled in. I had done the usual ritual of checking the passenger list stuck outside the compartment. When I was young, it was fun to look at the list before any long distance train journey. As a kid, it felt good to see your name stuck out there :) The funny thing with this list is, everybody has different reasons for looking at it. The old people want to confirm that their seat still exists and they will not be thrown out during the journey (so much for belief in Indian Railway system). The young couple checked if there are kids around who could spoil their fun. And I along with thousands of men (of all ages I guess) checked if we are lucky to have a young opposite gender in the next seat. Damn, unlucky this time as well :( . Not many people around. Most of them get in from the other stations in Banglore - East and Cantonment. It was time for me to take out my Shawarma. I love them. It is a famous fast food sandwich in the Middle East. A pita bread filled with meat and pickles. I had it the first time during my trip to Dubai, few years ago.
6:05 AM
Train is out of the blocks. Chennai calling! Frankly, it was a lousy journey. I badly needed some sleep and got none of it. The good thing with Shadabdi express is that they keep serving you food. But this time, I found it very disturbing! They start with the days newspaper. Then follows up with marie biscuit packet, bottled water, coffee... I think it was after 8.30 that the breakfast was served. The guy next seat was busy with his PlayStation Portable. I guess he got bored with it and then took out his laptop to watch Blue, yeah-the hindi movie.
11.00 AM
Touchdown Chennai. Quickly got out of the station and walked towards the bus stop opposite to the station. As usual the the rickshaw drivers were on the hunt jumping at people with all kinds of offers. By now, I am an expert in dodging them whether in Trichur, Chennai or Bangalore. Lucky, the 11G bus was just leaving the stop and I quickly got in. I didn't know it was raining in Chennai. The bus seats were all wet, but the bus was empty and I got to sit down. By the time I reached near my destination, it was pouring hard. Completely drenched, I ran towards the house. I forgot, it is not a house anymore, but they had constructed a flat few months ago. R chechi and H chetan was in Kerala, so patti was alone in the apartment. I called up my friends and planned for meeting in the evening for the function. Now it was time for a quick nap. Well, it went on for a while and by the time my friend called, I was already late. Quickly got up to get ready for the marriage reception fuction.
7:10 PM
Ah, still raining. With water all over the road, and the auto rickshaws busy splashing water and dirt around, I was pretty sure to make a fashion statement in the function. Finally after waiting for almost 20 minutes, I get an auto to take me. Destination- Ega theatre. I remember going there couple of times, more than 3 years ago, with the same set of friends whom I would be meeting in few minutes. The ride was fun as usual. The driver asked for 20 bucks more than what was earlier agreed upon. He contested that the roads were bad. I shot back that I didn't build the roads. Wow, not bad Sarath.
8:05 PM- Evening showtime...
Finally, am in the reception hall. Chicko boy is on the stage with his sweetheart, all smiles! I track down the real estate millionaire and 6 feet CEO. There was the Airtel lifetime subscriber as well with his diamond stud shining bright. It was good, fun. We quickly started the countdown on who could be the next person among us out of bachelorhood. I guess we were bored with each other after talking for sometime, so we decided to go up the stage and scare THE guy and THE gal. Chicko boy was still having fun there shaking hands and smiling with everybody who went up to congratulate him. I bet he didn't know half of them ;) or did he! Once on the stage, we went through the usual ritual of trying to crack a joke, everybody laughing and then the shooting. I meant the video camera shooting. After the brief stint on stage, we turned our attention to the best part of the function, FOOD! I have always pitied the couple on the marriage day. They are supposed to be the hero and heroine, the limelight and this is supposed to be the best day of their lives. But I guess, mostly they are asked to stand all day, with no food for a very long time and the torchure of shaking so many hands and touching all the feet. We all stretched the capacity of our stomach to the maximum and when it thought we are done, Ice cream followed, then came pan. Not bad for a sluggish raining day.
10:00 PM - Goodnite...
Since our main work was done, we decided to call it a day. Opps, almost forgot our Chicko boy. We bid the couple good bye assuring that we will be back for food the next day as well. Back to the base. The real estate lord was kind enough to drop me home in his chariot. Thank you pal! Goodnite.
Nov 8 2009: 6:00 AM - The final countdown...
Not much of sleep :( To avoid being late again, I used the alarm services of my mobile and clock. Am ready in time. 7 am - Our 6 foot CEO called me as planned and informed that he has started his ride from his village. I got out of the base and decided to walk since the weather was good. A tea shop was open and I had my share of tea and vada. I miss these shops so badly in Bangalore. I guess the city of garden needs more malayalis to start one of these or may be I should start one! Now, I admired the weather too early. A sudden down pour started and I was afraid, I will be late again. Fortunately, our own MTC bus came to the rescue. As soon as I got down in Ashok Nagar, udhayam theatre, our CEO called and I ran into his car. We picked up Motta boy on the way. Damn, he is a father now!!!! What has this world come to ;) Frankly, good for him. He should be in Romania now. With the real estate man already in the marriage hall, we hit off to our destination.
7:45 AM - Its showtime folks...
As soon as we entered, we found the bridegroom with even more bigger smile on the stage. He seemed to be in a hurry to get married, but enjoying all the ceremonies thoroughly. Now, we being who were are, went straight for breakfast. Another showdown. After satisfying our craving, we decided to be good to our friend and joined the marriage audience at the back of the line. I guess, few things never change, back bench everywhere. It was time, Chicko boy finally ties the thali. Congrats to him. One more wicket down in our bachelor team. I guess all of us were thinking, mera number kab ayega! But we put our brave faces on and said, poor Chicko, when each one of us were actually thinking "bugger, he overtook me". The funny thing with thali is, that is the only time the guy gets to tie the knot around the gal. For the rest of the life, it happens the other way around. Once the main part of the function was over, a submarine owner from T. Nagar and MicroSoft owner from close to T.Nagar arrived. Good to see them. It has been few years. After some rumblings here and there, the 2 VIPs left. Nobody complained ;). We continued our chit chat and once all the ceremony was over, we finally decided to leave. But we didn't want to be home yet. So we drove to Mocha (the coffee shop) to let the marriage sink it. They had all kinds of coffee, Jamaican, barbarian, mars, venus. We quickly became adults discussing business for a change! After pricking our brains for sometime on how we can change the world, atleast our world, we were ready to finally go back to our bases. The CEO dropped all of us in our bases. We had decided to meet in the evening. Once home, I decided to again hit the bed.
Don't remember the time! - The reunion dinner...
CEO picked me up from Ashoka pillar and we proceeded to the pick up motta father. The real estate moghul was busy with work, so he called to inform us that he will join us later for dinner. So the 3 of us decided to go to Marina beach. It was fun. I had not been there for few years now and I loved it. As soon as we parked the car, we decided to try out the shooting game. Strange, for the 10 years I was in Chennai, I never tried it. So CEO went first- 1,2,3- all missed! The board was full of balloons. Fatherji went next- bang, bang, bang- noooo, he too missed all the shots. So finally the hero -'THE ME' ;) took up the challenge. Bingo!! 3 shots and 3 hits. That was crazy, sounds like a movie story? but true. It was fun, atleast for me :) We walked towards our next target, corn. All of us got one each and heavy winds started blowing at us from the Ocean. A light drizzle, we were enjoying it. We decided to walk towards the car and then motta did a big mistake- He called up bhabhiji and told her what we were doing. Looks like beach is her favorite place. I guess motta was lucky that she was far away, otherwise it did look like he would have been beaten up :) Now it suddenly started pouring heavily and we ran inside the car.
We started from the beach and decided to meet in Palki for dinner. Our Skoda man was waiting as we reached the restaurant. It was fun filled dinner. We talked about all the fun we had in college, especially all the 'BITS' during exams. No, not computer bits, this is the life saver bit which comes handy whenever we do not know the answer. In our case, we knew all the questions in the exam, the answers were the problem and we heavily relied on bits. Damn! same old lousy joke, I know. Still, couldn't help it. 2 incidents stood out, one is when motta relied heavily on the intelligence of our dear friend ,whom we passionately call by the name of a big fat filthy animal; starts with the letter P. Motta used P's answer paper itself as the bit and he scored 54 marks. But our intelligent poor friend failed with only 27 marks, exactly the half. We were still trying to figure how the hell it happened. Another was when our Skoda man filled 30 pages of answer papers, an exact replica of his neighbour without knowing that his neighbour was just writing the questions all over again. Heights of human intelligence! He scored a 0,1 or 7- can't remember the exact number. Each of us did have our fair share of chasing as well. With a heavy discussion on marriage, work and life, we finally decided to call it quits for the day.
Hold on, I guess we were having too much fun and decided to hit the bar, naaaa, just the ice cream shop. After a good dose of kulfi, we finally took all our memories back to our brains and drove back to our bases.
Good nite...
Nov 9 5:15 AM - Back to reality...
With my morning train at 7:15, I did not want to take a chance. Got up early and started off to the station. Back to reality :(
Nobody told me this before I started from bangalore, but it truly was Bon voyage! Would love to have more of these :)
Please leave your comments in the comments section...
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