one more time habit

just finished "To Kill A Mocking Bird" for a third time. Gandalf and Pippin are walking the courtyard out side the Grat Hall of Minas Tirith for the second time. um... there are actually there waiting for me to turn the page since last two months. "Fallen Dragon" too has done its second run after about seven years. "Wizard and Glass" wants to be picked up again before I start the last book of the epic series. the first one "The Gunslinger" of course was read for a second time at the start after about umm... say 10 years! And am trying real hard not to pull out "The Inheritance of Loss" out of that carton again.

More than a habit, I feel, its always the story that calls. which I had once in a way 'lived' and so fallen in love that it becomes like a place or a friend to where or whom I feel so good to visit again and again.
another thing responsible, I reckon, could be is the sadness with which I finish a book. like I never wanted it to end and maybe that's why maybe to see if there was something more of the story which I may have left out. like the beautiful and tragic story of the Mejis in Wizard and Glass. I want to hear that story again.

It's of course a bad habit coz there are so many more stories out there which I must be reading instead of repeating old ones. I hope the habit changes soon for good.

"Nanha Rajkumar" (the Hindi version of The Little Prince by Saint-Exupery) doesn't find mention above as I've never kept a count for it. this one is like prepositions in English language; filling in every now and then.

scrambled mind

first the status update for the more familiar to facebook crowd -
ongoing movies: LOTR (for 27th time), Barfi
playing on TV: news, animal planet, comedy central etc etc swaps every 2-5 minutes
books open: LOTR (it'll get over real soon i promise), Kim by Kipling, Wolves of Calla by Stephen King (ebook)
location: sofa, chair in balcony, doorway floor, kitchen
on laptop: blogger, nfs most wanted, ys flight simulator, (no facebook)
munching: banana chips, cake, pringles

and believe me, all above almost at same time, none of any going on more than max 10 minutes.
thats really scrambled. can't continue after 1-2 races, can't go on after 1-2 failed landings of a B-737, just 50 some pages of the novel and then move to tv or game or office stuff and then back to pages.

thats why i believe, i won't be writing here for long! hehe! its frustrating... more so when i am alone.
its much better when wifey and nitya are here. tv remote is in wifey's hand, location is always changing chasing the little one all through home, very little gaming. only the books keep shuffling.

i think the only thing in near past i kept doing for a decently long time was my loooong drive.
i'm abnormally impatient and i don't like it.

back or just another visit?

a mind of mine which i always call an idiotic scramble strolled over here after so long. scrambled, yes, going on super scrambled. confused and above all, impatient. and this mind knows, for sure, that this is yet another visit only.... maybe for a few days if not only today but only a small one. thats what the next post will be all about.
of course i can't directly start hitting or praising a music director or a city in the first text itself after eons. have to gain the right to write first. a preface is necessary. so it'll be

still homesick

June 2004, when I first left home after 14 years of schooling and 4 years of Engineering and many many friends. The train started moving. I was on the door and signalled and hushed mummy, who was trying to catch up with the speed, not to cry, and shouted to Sandeep... inhe sambhaalna. she controlled herself there, and I too was as calm as this was just another of my journey. have thought about that calmness a hundred times since... how unusual, how impossible.
6 years since that day, after staying in so many cities, with so many people and then with my wife... still I am homesick. wanderer as many know me, but still I always rear to go home. on the last day of each and every tour, on the last leg of travel, I want to go to my home at Bhopal first. these 6 years haven't changed me... how unusual.
and this despite the fact, which I have discovered in these years when I wend home for short spans, that except at my home there, right from outside the gate, the sight of almost each turn and street brings a painful feeling of memories of my beautiful days there. I try not to go through those lanes or visit those shops or stop at those spots as they remind me of my friends. I feel alone everywhere out of my home. Yet I always stay homesick or better to call bhopal-homesick.
I am a branch, my parents are its tree, my wife the water and my friends are the sunlight. am living happily with just one of them always with me... how impossible!

he's feeling cold and likes it

- dad...
   - hmmm?
- am feeling cold
   - first time?
- yeah... i think first time since i was born
   - hmmm. me too since i became dad
- i've seen rains, lots of it. those cities were wet

   - those water were not good

- ya... i got rusted here here and down there too

   - and the paint...

- is that can empty? next sunday its' my heart's turn

   - ok

- dad... i like this cold. and this sun. i like the mornings here

   - and i push you through those mornings not lettin' you enjoy a lot of it

- na... i don't mind it. thats a good highway there. i love it at 72. am as smooth as on 50. ain't i?

   - yup!

- why there was no cold there?

   - geography. proximity to sea. so it was humid.

- and more watery. that day my wheels were half under water!

   - were you scared?

- yeah... a bit. but felt good when all water drained out of that secret hole!

   - a hole at the underside of silencer... some great mind worked it.

   this cold will grow by mid december.

- you like it?

   - of course... missed it for last three years. my body couldn’t adjust to this cold in the beginning.

- was it cold in Bhopal?

   - yes it was. beautifully cold and then a nice soothing sun. me and Bony bhaiyya ate all the fresh green peas aunty bought when we were leaving for college. then she would buy more for sabzi or pulao.

- dad, we are doing 90.

   - any problem with the rear rubber?

- na... the tarmac grip is good on this highway.

   - you sound grunty these days.

- am fine. daily 20 kms and that too mostly on 70+. we’ll get myself checked again. traffic is bad in the city.

   - it’s not regulated that’s why. again it’s relative. mumbai’s was regulated, still painful. too many vehicles. kolkata was worse with a bit more short tempered and impatient drivers. here it’s free flow, as if everyone owns the road and the turns and rotaries and dividers.

- sometimes we look fools stopping on signals, you wearing helmet. so, which one you say was/is better?

   - highway, anywhere. they are all same. cities are different. adaptation is difficult. you can’t boast your driving skills here in udaipur if you were a traffic cutter in mumbai. the road sense and behaviour is totally different.

- and the truckers on the highway?

   - you’ve seen them. as i always say, they are the best drivers. they drive very sensibly and in discipline. you ask for side they’ll give it. they know in which lane they should be. they are helpless only with the mass of the machine they drive. trucks are so heavy and so difficult to control and we morons jumping in front of them and then blaming those poor drivers for the mishap.

   now look at these cows. having their share of land on this road.

- here. we’ve reached. chalo dad, bye. have a good day at office.

   - you made friends with Bibek’s bull?

- yep!

   - good. we’ll go on a long ride together. bye!

wake up gaurav!

... and what could be better for gaurav than getting what he wished since his childhood. a home close to a railway line! then the best thing... morning 7 am train waking him up with its loud horn, then, when he snoozes, another one at 7:15 pushing him off the bed for a fine morning. the fresh mind then starts running alongside the tracks and the thumping of wheels continues as the tea brews.
hmmm... lovely morning these days. just a few hours left for yet another one. after the hours of sleep which will seem to have passed in just a few minutes.
its winter. when days are short. but this meteorological fact is more of a theory in job-o-logical fact. the day starts at the same hours of clock and ends with the same shows on TV. let the stars and planets do their job; we have to do ours.
so lets sleep light sleep tight for a great and good night :)

read or TV

i don't switch on my TV unless i have completed reading newspaper or a magazine and reading is the first thing i do in morning or after i reach home.
i also know that once i start watching TV, i won't be able to switch it off and resume reading again
so exactly what do i prefer? reading or TV?? hmm...!???

come wind come rain

one funny dialogue from movie 'Bhool Bhulaiyya' "itna susu tum laate kahaan se ho?"
i ask myself these days daily morning between 9 to 10... "where do you bring all this sweat from?"
its hot and humid here in kolkata... and i enter office dripping the same as i do when i come out after my bath. wet, soaked shirt turns into different colour!
and its not only me... in queue, in metro, in lift, almost all are ditto. it feels as if me is moving in some viscous mix of stench and sweat!
then sometimes, it feels heaven with a slightest breeze of air... metro approaching, door opening, people moving, a bus crossing, lift descending, the fan oooohhh!
end this... send some wind send some rain, will do it myself... come wind come rain, we need you

and now i...

now i am woken up not by my phone alarm but by her voice
now i walk among the morning hustle of my breakfast and lunch preparation
now i see someone in prayers to god in other room
now i smell insence sticks burning and fragrance all around me
now i get delicious breakfast when i am dressed up and ready
now i dont lock up my flat behind me
now i honk and wave back to two hands as i move out on my ride
now i carry a lunch box to office
now i have my lunch on time
now i try to finish off my work on time
now i am more than eager to go back 'home'
now i don't worry where and what will i eat tonight
now i see four eyes in balcony and window as i look up to my flat
now i ring the bell and the door opens
now i see smiling faces and feel wait in the air
now i relax among the hustle of dinner
now i take a walk after my meal
now i don't think of 'office next day' at home
now i wait for another great morning as i go to bed
now i have my mom, dad and my wife making my home

Dejavu

Dunno exactly whether this is called dejavu or something else... Never really even tried to find out but this feeling for few seconds that 'this' what's going on i've seen before... this happens atleast twice a day... Is it normal? Sometimes for about 20 seconds!

my way of starting the year

26.12.08 5.00 am @ Bhopal

29.12.08 Morning: still @ home Bhopal

29.12.08 Afternoon: cancelled return ticket to Mumbai

30.12.08 6.00 am: on train to Ujjain/ plan to stay till 1st morning ;)

30.12.08 Afternoon: lunch @ naniji's home

30.12.08 5.30 pm: met my to-be :) / received "the" call :(

31.12.08 1.15 am: on train to Bhopal

31.12.08 3.00 pm: on train to Delhi

01.01.09 0000 hrs: in taxi in traffic in cold Delhi

01.01.09 6.15 am: in flight to Kolkata

01.01.09 10.30 am: joined as Associate Manager Marketing (East) Hindustan Zinc Ltd., Kolkata

02.01.09 6.15 pm: tasted the famed momo

03.01.09 till date: searching for accomodation for my to-be family

Happy New Year buddies :)

was just trying to help

i regularly check the tyres of my bike for any sharp objects that might have stuck in the rubber and may damage the tube inside while running. have recovered pins, sharp gravels, glass, nail etc.
this morning i parked my bike and just noticed a nail, buried half, in the rear tyre of another bike beside mine. so, with all good intentions, i went and started pulling it out. it was quite thick and used some extra efforts. but i was glad to work to prevent another puncture and a hapless rider!
then, when it was loose enough and about to come out, a faint sssss... sound started. the nail had already punctured the tyre! a late caution thought came up '*stop! this is a tubeless tyre. it won't deflate until the nail is in. leave it. atleast the guy can take it to a punture shop riding. pull the nail out and u'll pull all the air out and he'll be pulling his bike all the way! stop...!' but, as always, it was too late. the piercing had already started hissing and with a very slight tuck, the nail was out. i saw the poor man's bike slowly lowering towards ground, whisling tunelessly. i tried to put back the nasty nail in the hole to plug it but now it wont go in. withing seconds... flat!
no one noticed what i was doing at the rear of a bike in the parking lot. i placed the mighty nail on the seat and... ran for cover!
sorry buddy, was just trying to help!

advertising myself

just remembered the infinite loop error. goto the following link! :)
http://wanderlust-gaurav.blogspot.com/
why not use this opportunity? have started writing 'prose'! (haha... as if i know how to write a plain text) of course am not at all good at it. just a break from the loop...
http://white-striped.blogspot.com/