One Day in the Life of

Yes, I am that jobless.

It was all calm and quiet from outside, almost as if nobody was home. I am known to exhibit an eerie inclination to land on friends’ front doors unannounced. Thankfully, Neethu was home. “You’re here already!”, she exclaimed, quite surprised with my early arrival for a lunch appointment. “Yeah, I was feeling bored. So, here I am.” The time was half past eleven and nobody else was home. A few minutes of catching up ensued and then, a cake arrived. It seemed like it was going to be a relaxed Saturday after all.

The telephone rang. And then it rang again. And then she made another phone ring somewhere. Meanwhile, I was leisurely flitting from car to car in Autocar, the car and bike magazine. “You’re coming with me, right? Of course you are.”, she said to me. In less than five minutes, we were in a car whizzing past the city limits to the CESS office. Yeah, that’s the Centre for Earth Science Studies. I got busy in reading the news articles pinned on the notice board at the entrance while she went in to meet someone. A few minutes later, Strange Lady comes in and starts a conversation with me.
“Are you here for a project?”
“No, I’m here with a friend.”
“Oh, the other girl! I saw you two getting off the car.”

Doesn’t that sound like a logical place where any self respecting person would stop an unwelcome conversation with a stranger who was busy reading the notices in the first place? Apparently not for some strange ladies. She went on to tell me all about her life, her education, her qualifications, her designation and then, her husband, his education, his qualifications, his designation and then, her son and his so on and so forth. Before she could go on to her sisters and nieces, Neethu came back and announced that we were invited for lunch at the canteen. So, we had a nice traditional Mallu lunch.

Next, we headed to meet someone else, who gave us a lecture on EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) and basically why these folks do the work they do. We were all set to leave when Strange Lady reappeared out of nowhere and requested to be dropped off at PMG. I would have wanted to say no a thousand times over but the driver had already said yes. At least this time I wouldn’t have to endure it alone. She started with a conference she was attending earlier that morning and added that she was heading back there as well. Just to clarify, nobody asked for such information to the best of my knowledge. She went on to talk about her husband next and then her son. More information poured out about his college and applications to universities and all that stuff. The driver enquired about our destination and she went overboard with, “Oh that place? I know that very well. I'll direct you there. Don't worry.” I had officially stopped listening to her with that. She was basically one of those old women you read about in short stories and wonder how you’ve never really met anyone like that. PMG seemed ages away but it finally came and she got off, waving a very dubious goodbye.

We got back to her house, stayed there for less than five minutes and left in another direction whizzing past city limits yet again to her under-construction house. A phone call to a guy with a girl’s name who responds to my name with, “she’s a weird girl”, happened. A few hours and a few FRIENDS episodes on a faulty laptop that made everything look like infra-red vision later, we headed back. And with that ended one day in the life of Blah! Blah! Blah!

I wish

I wish home was just a wink away.

That was my status message for the last couple of days. I guess it was bound to come up sometime but given that nothing even remotely close had surfaced for the three plus years that I have been away from home, I just assumed that it never would. Yet another first timer.

I had a nice happy Diwali with relatives and food and firecrackers. But, even so.

You know what's the bad part of festivals? When they get over and you are jolted back to reality, where you don't find sweets that you invariably overeat or firecrackers that you get saturated with. Like a bad hangover, it strikes you when you are least prepared for it.

My status message has changed now. To busy.

The Road Trip

03/01/09 Saturday

400 hours:
The blaring horn of a Van is heard.
“Wake up! Wake up!”

“No! We shall assemble at 500 hours. Let me sleep.”

600 hours:
One more bike needed.
Lesson #1: Get hold of borrowed bikes from the owners on the previous day itself.

800 hours:
Breakfast at mess.
Guys’ bags in the girls’ hostel. There was no bag raiding. Honest. Only Screwbey Doo can get ideas like that!
One Bajaj Pulsar.
One Yamaha Fazer.
One TVS Victor.
One Scooty Pep.
4 girls.
4 guys.

815 hours:
One phone call to mom.
Kaboom! Kaboom!
*wink*

And, that’s how we set out on a road trip to Pondicherry. The fun was just about to begin. There was Saturday morning traffic and there was dust. There were confusions about directions and there were imaginary gunshots. A couple of pictures were taken at VGP to show off the mega pixel strength of the different cameras. Vani’s uncle’s ostriches tried to add to the entertainment element but sadly, they didn’t even dig their heads into the ground. One round of Lakme Sun Expert followed by a water break later, we were back on East Coast Road.
Lesson #2: Take a lot of Sunscreen along. Moreover, apply profuse amounts of the same.

The rented Victor was a unique experience in itself. It would drive on auto-pilot mode; one speed only and no human intervention was required to maintain that. The pressure was on Pressure to drive it during the forward half of the trip. It revealed its screwed up self even more when its tyre burst. Two bikes and four of us spent half an hour at a repair shop where we ended up deciding that we would have to make it a road trip to Mahabs and not Pondy, over Slice and Lays.
Lesson #3: Rented bikes are invariably, screwed up.

One attempt by an amateur MRI on a bike ended up being a vain attempt at a wheelie. And he was banned from driving a bike ever after. Peace.
Lesson #4: Check for driving license before handing over a bike to over-enthu looking person.

The tender coconut water by the roadside was salty. Welcome to Pondicherry.

Lunch overlooking Rocky beach followed! Well, we tried to overlook and see the Rocky beach but there was a wall separating us from the view. Imagine a 6-7 pages menu with only half a page of vegetarian dishes. And, imagine a bunch of vegetarians coming to terms with this harsh reality.
Lesson #5: Continental dishes can look real yucky.

From there we headed to Paradise beach where the much sought after ferry ride was closed just ten minutes before we reached. Even Tam fundaes did not work at this place.
Lesson #6: Tam fundaes might fail. Be prepared.

A couple of phone calls later, we embark on this unique route through a village to reach Sand beach. One of the best beaches I have been to, so far. The waves were shallow and soft. They seemed to say, “I will only touch your feet; I will not startle you.” Some crazy Coked people ended up collecting shells too.

Tip: If someone has a sleeping bag with them and happen to be peacefully resting on it in an almost mocking way, be unanimous in zipping the person up in the sleeping bag.

Warning: Shampooed people might end up laying a cowboy hat, after a while.

A castle was made. And sand was thrown at whoever thought about attacking it. All hail her Vainness! And shells were collected. And a bike key was lost.
Lesson #7: Use a keychain for a key. Try not to lose it. But if you lose it, try your luck with other bike keys.

The return drive was more like every bike for itself. The air was cold and the rare roadside Rs. 3 tea was heavenly. And the drive continued with loo stops and water breaks. It was fun to tie a red scarf for a Poisonous guy who ended up looking like Little Red Riding Hood.
Lesson #8: Take necessary warm apparel along.

Good ol’ insti CCD marked the end to the wonderful trip. Lol level laughs and bike bitching followed and culminated in a group photo with wide Colgate smiles, in spite of the tiredness, on everyone’s face.

Post-trip discussions continue even three days after the trip. Need I say more?

PS: I am going more bike crazy than ever!

The New Year Post

I had my first ever New Years' Eve outing this time. With a 15 km ride on a Pulsar, dinner at Food Village, an auto driver who desperately wanted to beat the Pulsar and later, listening to free trippy songs a DJ dished out and a countdown that I could barely hear followed by a dirty beach where we did absolutely nothing and a few circus stars on the roads, 2009 happened.

Happy New Year 2009!

First time for everything - 3

“I am telling you! Pongal at Tifanys is not worth it. I have only ten minutes left for the next class and I really don’t want to miss it. You can have your breakfast later, can’t you? I repeat; Pongal is not that tasty there. When I said I wish I could have some, I meant it as a wish. Nothing more.”
“Pongal at Tifanys. And that’s that. No arguments. You can get to class a bit late, I’m sure.”

“Oh well. Fine. I can’t believe you are making me do this.” smiles

After some fifteen minutes, I got back to class. I had left my bag in class when I left. I entered by the back door and found, as expected, that someone else had taken my seat with my bag beside it. I tried my best not to disrupt the class as I entered and settled down. Being almost invisible helps at times.

As my bag containing my stationary stationery and notebooks was elsewhere, I asked Ramya, who was seated in front of me, for an extra pen. She gave me one. And a notebook to write on too. Just then, the professor shouted, “Out! Get out of my class this instant.”

“But, sir. I had come early to class. Even my bag is somewhere here only. I had just gone out for a couple of minutes.”
“I said out.”

I walked out of class thinking what was going to be my next first.

PS: This is the first time I have been sent out of class by a professor. Ouch!

PS2: And presenting, one more from the Dream Productions. If you are new around here, that means that this was a dream I had on the night of 4th November. :D

First time for everything - 2

fTime: 9:15 am

New text message
Put proxy.
[backspaces]
Put its the proxy.
[backspaces]
Please put its the proxy.
[backspaces]
Please put its the proxy for B slot.
Message sent!

..and that is the first time I asked someone to put a proxy for me. It has taken me 4.5 semesters to get myself to do that.

Ah, well. What's next?

PS: Here's First time for everything - 1

First time for everything?

Conventions in amino acids, it seems. How do I care which groups have what charge and what the abbreviation or symbol is for some –cine or some –gine? Get a life. I have one. Let me live it my way.

How many are interested, I wonder. Isn’t it a much better use of time to solve your A slot assignment out of a sudden outburst of interest in the subject than talk or doze or play?

I appreciate Life Sciences (that's the course). It’s a beautiful world and that’s where I leave it. Asking a fellow classmate who had deviated about 10 degrees from the normal to sit up straight! Oh come on! Whatever happened to the fundamental rights of students. Wait a minute… there aint any! We hardly got to choose what we wanted to study at school and the same situation continues through college.

If you are wondering why I put up such a post then read on. I had all the enthusiasm in the world to solve that assignment. There was no deadline, yet I was doing a Math assignment. That’s not something you see everyday. My book was confiscated by the sadistic TA. That’s a first and I didn't like it.

@Noldorim: I listen in most classes. This was an exception. :)

@Freakin’ E batch fellow on the next bench with the irritating guffaw: It was not funny.

I don’t want the book back; I didn’t write proper notes. I do miss the L&T book-cover which looks real pseud though!