The academic term of my MBA program brings me to India where I will spend the next 3 months travelling, studying and exploring India's capacity and tendencies. I blog my experiences both good and bad every so often. Feel free to contact me at valiantca@gmail.com.
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On the phone with my friend, i was contemplating if going to Patiala would be a good idea after all considering i have exams coming up and a quiz to write the next day when i got a call from my prof. She said, "u can write the quiz when you come back". Here I was at 11:00am wondering if it is still a good idea to go, and my friend said, you should. So i jumped out of the bed and told myself, who cares! Just go!
The next thing that a person would do was to go the washroom etc, but I had to find a ticket to go to delhi and then to Chandigarh. A few websites later, I narrowed my search to the ONLY flight that was left en route to Delhi from Lucknow. At noon i called for a cab thinking I would make it there on time etc etc. I was still in the process of booking tickets when the price of the ticket went up by a full 400 rupees, i was desperate (for this amongst other things) so i continued. "Foreign Credit cards cannot be used for urgent air travel", a message popped up, FML i told myself and tried all the possible cards I owned including different permutations and combination of home addresses, but all efforts yielded nothing. The clock now read 12:20 and i knew i was in a lot of trouble.
A friend from IIM came to my rescue and tried to book the tickets, through her Indian Credit Card for a price that was not another 500 rupees more than the previous and a full 900 more than the initial quoted price on the website. I didnt care much at this point. "Its not working" she said as she called me to give her cc number and other info before running to a company info session. Yes! u guessed it, nothing was working at that point, and a question mark on my face was imminent. My thoughts of what to do were disturbed by the constant phone calls of the cab driver who wanted to know when I would come out of my room.
I looked at the watch and it now read 12:45. "What are you doing" I told myself pack and just go to the airport and try your luck", not a good idea on a day where failure had haunted me from the moment i got up. I quickly packed the necessary things and left to go sit in the cab and breathe finally.
5 minutes into the cab ride a whole bunch of thoughts went through my mind, some of which were,
1) you havent eaten since yesterday (being punjabi eating is an important part of my daily schedule)
2) you forgot your watch
3) you forgot your camera
4) you forgot the gift you got for your friends in patiala
5) you forgot to BRUSH your TEETH. (What the hellll i was freaking out on this one)
6) you have NO hard Cash
7) you dont even have a plane Ticket......
I wanted to jump out of cab and end my life, but my chances of staying in the cab and getting killed in an accident were far higher (considering indian trafic) than jumping out of the car. Guess the luck had turned and I had not died, welcoming me on board the Flight, the flight attendant walked me to my seat and offered me a carton of orange juice. I was a little puzzled from the extra nice behavior and the extra big seat my ass was currently situated in. Last minute the women at the ticketing counter had put me in a first class seat and upon analyzing my ticketing summary, my eyes popped out and my jaws just dropped, a swooping 7k for a trip that otherwise would cost me Rs. 1900. This deserved an entry into the Rohit's FML top 10 and Rohit's top 5 dumb moves, umm or not cuz those have already been filled by different tested, tried and failed moves used on girls.
Oh! well, one of the issues I had earlier was no longer an issues as a bowl of thai tofu with rice and some other delights was placed before me, ofcourse with a big smile saying, "Any thing else for you, Sir". My heart just melted as those words seemed to be coming from a Genie asking me for a wish and I had so much to ask for, soo much to wish for and rite before I opened my mouth another thought hit my brain. "Dude u havent brushed ur teeth, dont even bother". I quietly nodded to signal, No thank you! and entered this moment also into the Rohit's FML book.
I slept for sometime before which I was on board a bus to Terminal 1D or C or something similar to find out if I could get another flight to Chandigarh. So to add to my worries the last flight for Chandigarh had already started boarding and the ticketing agent was not willing to give me a ticked even for an outrageous amount of money. I had to downgrade my trip and settle for a cab that would take me straight to Patiala and there I thought about many important and serious things about life such as "how hot it can get in a non-ac cab", "what if I get kidnapped tonight", "what if I get the job I had interviewed for last night"... A few hours into the trip, I was not complaining, the driver of the cab had kept me entertained with his life history and opinions on many aspects of life. 5 hours later, we got to Patiala and as usual, I walked into Aman's house which was beautifully lit! Its, funny that none of the guards waiting at the door to stop unwanted ppl from coming inside stopped me, I mean I could be a thief etc. but i was not complaining. (Note: by this time I had brushed my teeth). Aman's mom was surprised to see me and offered me tea and thats when aman came out of her room with a grin. Rohit, you have changed so much since the last time i saw u. Ofcourse! i had changed, the last time she saw me, I was some 16 kg heavier with a lot more growth of hair on my scalp. I was trying to see if her comment was pointing at something good or bad, but the sadness in her eyes told me a whole different story. We hugged and sat down for a cup of tea and spoke briefly about her wedding after which I left to meet my best buddie of all times, Akhil B.
10 mins later, I was loading up my luggage into his car and getting ready for whats going to be an exhilarating two days. We went around the city for a bit, before stopping at "Our Lady of Fatima Convent" where the same old flashback hit me. I promised myself to come back the next day and see it in broad daylight. We went to his house and before I knew I was snoring away thinking, what a day it had been. A few hours and atleast a couple thousand kilometers, here I was in Patiala.
The next morning started pretty late, considering we had slept at 5am. A quick shower and 3 gobi paranthas (stuffed bread) later we were en-route to Fatima. I had no words for what I saw, most teachers did not remember me, the school had changed quite a bit and so had the children. Instead of me running around in half pants, it was some other kids, instead of me fighting over lunch, it was some other kids and instead of me as a kid, looking at some older guy visiting his grade-school, it was me visiting it. Wow, i said, this is where my journey as a student started, so many nites, days and over two decades later, here I was where it all began back in 1990 I closed my eyes n saw a lil kid dressed in a white shirt and navy blue half pants and a sky blue tie who hung a bottle of water around his neck as an olympic gold medal walking down the same ground to his first class. The same guy a lil older now, telling his friends that he was going to leave for an unknown land called "Canada". The same guy opened his eyes as tears feel out, thinking where had he left those innocent days where he had first met both Aman and Akhil.
After all the sad and flash back moments passed and Akhil's stories about various other classmates (most of whom i cldnt remember) ended, we headed to the main event of the day, Aman's wedding. A BIG bouquet in our hands we entered the hall thinking life has changed soo much. The girl we called "MOTI" all our lives and made fun of, the girl whom we chilled with at lunch and the girl whom we most dreaded as kids was getting married. We finally spotted her and passed on the bouquet and our wishes when she said we have to join her in some ceremony of tying something to her ankle. We were in no position to refuse and obliged to participate in the ceremony to be held in 30 mins. Little did we know that 30 mins by IST meant an hour and by BST (brides standard time) meant 3 hours. In these 3 hours while the bride tried different shades of make up and all permutations and combination of blue eye shadow with light pink blush and red blush with green eye shadow, we visited my old house, the University of Patiala, a few close family friends houses and my brothers old warehouse.
Walking into my old home was ecstatic. I opened the doors and was welcomed by a hazy place which was full of dust. There it was all, the couches, the TV, the dining room, my first video game, my study table, my collection of center fresh cards, trump cards, other cards. All these possessions that were neatly covered in white sheets. I always wondered, why they used White sheets for the chances of them getting dirty were the highest, i still dont know. I had visited this place 3 years ago but it felt very different, for then it was full of happiness, after all it was my brothers wedding then, but today everything sat quiet waiting for someone to speak to them, waiting for people to be around them. My brothers possessions from his teenage were also still intact, his boxing gloves, his trophies, some certificates that hung on the wall and ofcourse! the dumbbells and other home gym equipment all waited for life to begin around them again.
Walking out of that place, i just felt sad, for I had not lived a life that this place demanded of me to have lived with it. Locking the doors, I promised to come back soon and get the place cleaned. We went to Aman's again to do the rituals, all the shades that the beauticians had owned had been tried and the bride was NOW FINALLY ready for the groom and the cameraman.
We sat through the religious ceremony when Akhil almost had a nervous breakdown, sweat trickled down his face when he said, "Dude she is getting married WTF, we are soo old, life has changed, we are sitting at AMAN's wedding", i had a confused look my face for i didnt understand where did that revelation suddenly come from? I mean it was a known fact, but he seemed to have just figured it out. 4 laps around the sacred Sikh Book, a few hundred pictures and a few tense moments later, the man and the women were pronounced MARRIED. Aman and her husband (sounds weird to say that, now i understood wht Akhil was saying) went to take those pathetic wedding pictures with different backgrounds while we ran to the dining hall and tried different things followed by a scoop of sharbat icecream. We promised each other to not stay here any longer for the "Crying ceremony", it was almost necessary for the girl to cry after she got wed before she departed with the Guy. I had never understood this, why spend soo much money and sit through the pain of dressing up, changing, smiling at ppl and thanking ppl for coming at ur wedding, when at the end of it all, you were going to regret it all and cry to show the regret. It was almost seen wrongly to not cry and leave happily. What about the guy, if it were me, I would have told the girl, "its ok ill get you some other time, you dnt have to cry, almost feels u dont want to be with me any more", what a blow to the man's ego it would be I thought. Here is my wife and the first thing she did after she got married to me was CRY and made every other kinsman cry with her. Wonder if that was some sort of a signal, look I have the power to make atleast 100 ppl cry, beware of what I am going to do to you.... Obviously! make u cry for the rest of ur life...... Yikes, now i was having a nervous breakdown.
We went home and jumped into the bed to rest for a bit. It was also Akhil's birthday the next day so upon getting up we were all exited about what we were going to do tonight. Again, we planned to go watch a movie but that obviously didnt happen as we ended up in CCD by AROMA in Chandigarh at 11:30 at night to check out some really hot girls, kind of girls i had not seen since my last trip to Delhi! (ok i will write about soon).
Well, at midnight, we wished him happy birthday, cut a cake and had some Espresso (and not EXPRESSO, i hope u r reading this) shots and started our journey back home to only get up in the morning and come back to Chandigarh, as I was to catch a flight from there in the morning. Before we went home, we went to the railway station and had a cup of tea and ParleG cookies to charge up. As I sat in the plane, this time in a normal economy seat, I recalled all the memories I had just made. I had attended my friends wedding, another friends birthday, both for the first time in 23 years (lol), visited my old home, school and neighborhood (all of which had changed so much).
Life will never be the same I told myself and it is a continuous journey and I must continue to walk was a lesson well learned from this trip............
__
On the phone with my friend, i was contemplating if going to Patiala would be a good idea after all considering i have exams coming up and a quiz to write the next day when i got a call from my prof. She said, "u can write the quiz when you come back". Here I was at 11:00am wondering if it is still a good idea to go, and my friend said, you should. So i jumped out of the bed and told myself, who cares! Just go!
The next thing that a person would do was to go the washroom etc, but I had to find a ticket to go to delhi and then to Chandigarh. A few websites later, I narrowed my search to the ONLY flight that was left en route to Delhi from Lucknow. At noon i called for a cab thinking I would make it there on time etc etc. I was still in the process of booking tickets when the price of the ticket went up by a full 400 rupees, i was desperate (for this amongst other things) so i continued. "Foreign Credit cards cannot be used for urgent air travel", a message popped up, FML i told myself and tried all the possible cards I owned including different permutations and combination of home addresses, but all efforts yielded nothing. The clock now read 12:20 and i knew i was in a lot of trouble.
A friend from IIM came to my rescue and tried to book the tickets, through her Indian Credit Card for a price that was not another 500 rupees more than the previous and a full 900 more than the initial quoted price on the website. I didnt care much at this point. "Its not working" she said as she called me to give her cc number and other info before running to a company info session. Yes! u guessed it, nothing was working at that point, and a question mark on my face was imminent. My thoughts of what to do were disturbed by the constant phone calls of the cab driver who wanted to know when I would come out of my room.
I looked at the watch and it now read 12:45. "What are you doing" I told myself pack and just go to the airport and try your luck", not a good idea on a day where failure had haunted me from the moment i got up. I quickly packed the necessary things and left to go sit in the cab and breathe finally.
5 minutes into the cab ride a whole bunch of thoughts went through my mind, some of which were,
1) you havent eaten since yesterday (being punjabi eating is an important part of my daily schedule)
2) you forgot your watch
3) you forgot your camera
4) you forgot the gift you got for your friends in patiala
5) you forgot to BRUSH your TEETH. (What the hellll i was freaking out on this one)
6) you have NO hard Cash
7) you dont even have a plane Ticket......
I wanted to jump out of cab and end my life, but my chances of staying in the cab and getting killed in an accident were far higher (considering indian trafic) than jumping out of the car. Guess the luck had turned and I had not died, welcoming me on board the Flight, the flight attendant walked me to my seat and offered me a carton of orange juice. I was a little puzzled from the extra nice behavior and the extra big seat my ass was currently situated in. Last minute the women at the ticketing counter had put me in a first class seat and upon analyzing my ticketing summary, my eyes popped out and my jaws just dropped, a swooping 7k for a trip that otherwise would cost me Rs. 1900. This deserved an entry into the Rohit's FML top 10 and Rohit's top 5 dumb moves, umm or not cuz those have already been filled by different tested, tried and failed moves used on girls.
Oh! well, one of the issues I had earlier was no longer an issues as a bowl of thai tofu with rice and some other delights was placed before me, ofcourse with a big smile saying, "Any thing else for you, Sir". My heart just melted as those words seemed to be coming from a Genie asking me for a wish and I had so much to ask for, soo much to wish for and rite before I opened my mouth another thought hit my brain. "Dude u havent brushed ur teeth, dont even bother". I quietly nodded to signal, No thank you! and entered this moment also into the Rohit's FML book.
I slept for sometime before which I was on board a bus to Terminal 1D or C or something similar to find out if I could get another flight to Chandigarh. So to add to my worries the last flight for Chandigarh had already started boarding and the ticketing agent was not willing to give me a ticked even for an outrageous amount of money. I had to downgrade my trip and settle for a cab that would take me straight to Patiala and there I thought about many important and serious things about life such as "how hot it can get in a non-ac cab", "what if I get kidnapped tonight", "what if I get the job I had interviewed for last night"... A few hours into the trip, I was not complaining, the driver of the cab had kept me entertained with his life history and opinions on many aspects of life. 5 hours later, we got to Patiala and as usual, I walked into Aman's house which was beautifully lit! Its, funny that none of the guards waiting at the door to stop unwanted ppl from coming inside stopped me, I mean I could be a thief etc. but i was not complaining. (Note: by this time I had brushed my teeth). Aman's mom was surprised to see me and offered me tea and thats when aman came out of her room with a grin. Rohit, you have changed so much since the last time i saw u. Ofcourse! i had changed, the last time she saw me, I was some 16 kg heavier with a lot more growth of hair on my scalp. I was trying to see if her comment was pointing at something good or bad, but the sadness in her eyes told me a whole different story. We hugged and sat down for a cup of tea and spoke briefly about her wedding after which I left to meet my best buddie of all times, Akhil B.
10 mins later, I was loading up my luggage into his car and getting ready for whats going to be an exhilarating two days. We went around the city for a bit, before stopping at "Our Lady of Fatima Convent" where the same old flashback hit me. I promised myself to come back the next day and see it in broad daylight. We went to his house and before I knew I was snoring away thinking, what a day it had been. A few hours and atleast a couple thousand kilometers, here I was in Patiala.
The next morning started pretty late, considering we had slept at 5am. A quick shower and 3 gobi paranthas (stuffed bread) later we were en-route to Fatima. I had no words for what I saw, most teachers did not remember me, the school had changed quite a bit and so had the children. Instead of me running around in half pants, it was some other kids, instead of me fighting over lunch, it was some other kids and instead of me as a kid, looking at some older guy visiting his grade-school, it was me visiting it. Wow, i said, this is where my journey as a student started, so many nites, days and over two decades later, here I was where it all began back in 1990 I closed my eyes n saw a lil kid dressed in a white shirt and navy blue half pants and a sky blue tie who hung a bottle of water around his neck as an olympic gold medal walking down the same ground to his first class. The same guy a lil older now, telling his friends that he was going to leave for an unknown land called "Canada". The same guy opened his eyes as tears feel out, thinking where had he left those innocent days where he had first met both Aman and Akhil.
After all the sad and flash back moments passed and Akhil's stories about various other classmates (most of whom i cldnt remember) ended, we headed to the main event of the day, Aman's wedding. A BIG bouquet in our hands we entered the hall thinking life has changed soo much. The girl we called "MOTI" all our lives and made fun of, the girl whom we chilled with at lunch and the girl whom we most dreaded as kids was getting married. We finally spotted her and passed on the bouquet and our wishes when she said we have to join her in some ceremony of tying something to her ankle. We were in no position to refuse and obliged to participate in the ceremony to be held in 30 mins. Little did we know that 30 mins by IST meant an hour and by BST (brides standard time) meant 3 hours. In these 3 hours while the bride tried different shades of make up and all permutations and combination of blue eye shadow with light pink blush and red blush with green eye shadow, we visited my old house, the University of Patiala, a few close family friends houses and my brothers old warehouse.
Walking into my old home was ecstatic. I opened the doors and was welcomed by a hazy place which was full of dust. There it was all, the couches, the TV, the dining room, my first video game, my study table, my collection of center fresh cards, trump cards, other cards. All these possessions that were neatly covered in white sheets. I always wondered, why they used White sheets for the chances of them getting dirty were the highest, i still dont know. I had visited this place 3 years ago but it felt very different, for then it was full of happiness, after all it was my brothers wedding then, but today everything sat quiet waiting for someone to speak to them, waiting for people to be around them. My brothers possessions from his teenage were also still intact, his boxing gloves, his trophies, some certificates that hung on the wall and ofcourse! the dumbbells and other home gym equipment all waited for life to begin around them again.
Walking out of that place, i just felt sad, for I had not lived a life that this place demanded of me to have lived with it. Locking the doors, I promised to come back soon and get the place cleaned. We went to Aman's again to do the rituals, all the shades that the beauticians had owned had been tried and the bride was NOW FINALLY ready for the groom and the cameraman.
We sat through the religious ceremony when Akhil almost had a nervous breakdown, sweat trickled down his face when he said, "Dude she is getting married WTF, we are soo old, life has changed, we are sitting at AMAN's wedding", i had a confused look my face for i didnt understand where did that revelation suddenly come from? I mean it was a known fact, but he seemed to have just figured it out. 4 laps around the sacred Sikh Book, a few hundred pictures and a few tense moments later, the man and the women were pronounced MARRIED. Aman and her husband (sounds weird to say that, now i understood wht Akhil was saying) went to take those pathetic wedding pictures with different backgrounds while we ran to the dining hall and tried different things followed by a scoop of sharbat icecream. We promised each other to not stay here any longer for the "Crying ceremony", it was almost necessary for the girl to cry after she got wed before she departed with the Guy. I had never understood this, why spend soo much money and sit through the pain of dressing up, changing, smiling at ppl and thanking ppl for coming at ur wedding, when at the end of it all, you were going to regret it all and cry to show the regret. It was almost seen wrongly to not cry and leave happily. What about the guy, if it were me, I would have told the girl, "its ok ill get you some other time, you dnt have to cry, almost feels u dont want to be with me any more", what a blow to the man's ego it would be I thought. Here is my wife and the first thing she did after she got married to me was CRY and made every other kinsman cry with her. Wonder if that was some sort of a signal, look I have the power to make atleast 100 ppl cry, beware of what I am going to do to you.... Obviously! make u cry for the rest of ur life...... Yikes, now i was having a nervous breakdown.
We went home and jumped into the bed to rest for a bit. It was also Akhil's birthday the next day so upon getting up we were all exited about what we were going to do tonight. Again, we planned to go watch a movie but that obviously didnt happen as we ended up in CCD by AROMA in Chandigarh at 11:30 at night to check out some really hot girls, kind of girls i had not seen since my last trip to Delhi! (ok i will write about soon).
Well, at midnight, we wished him happy birthday, cut a cake and had some Espresso (and not EXPRESSO, i hope u r reading this) shots and started our journey back home to only get up in the morning and come back to Chandigarh, as I was to catch a flight from there in the morning. Before we went home, we went to the railway station and had a cup of tea and ParleG cookies to charge up. As I sat in the plane, this time in a normal economy seat, I recalled all the memories I had just made. I had attended my friends wedding, another friends birthday, both for the first time in 23 years (lol), visited my old home, school and neighborhood (all of which had changed so much).
Life will never be the same I told myself and it is a continuous journey and I must continue to walk was a lesson well learned from this trip............
sorry for making it sooo long.....just couldnt help it
ReplyDeletesounds like you had a truck load of fun
ReplyDeletespontaneous is great isn't it? yes. we
learn lessons... but spontaneous is awesome.
it may scare you... adrenalin rushes... and you
don't know what may happen...
have you ever read those books. "Pick your
story". its a normal short novel, but when you
get to page 5, it asks you if you want to
open door 1 or 2. And lets say you want to
open door 1, go to page 7 and if you want
to open door 2, go to page 10. In this
way you could read the same book many times
but picking and choosing along the way
takes you on a different path. And you read
a different story each time.
Our lives are like that. Escept (expresso :P)
we cant go back and chose something different.
We live with the choices we make and need
to learn to move forward. But the past
is not part of a time-line that we can step
back from and look from the yonder. Its
a part of us. Nostalgic or none, the memories,
are really about the connections we make, the
emotions we hold. Deja vu?
Just keep walking. Make more memories.
Give yourself more reasons to smile. it will
all be worth it. :D
Wah wah wah. Kya baat hai. Lolzz I giggled a lot. And it made me feel all soft and mushy. It was def a Karan Johar blog :P good job !!!
ReplyDeleteN my God congrats for the amazing experience!!! Lol good job.
p.s. the girl doesn't cry because she's stuck wid the guy or repents anything..come on u idiot u knw this? ghar chod ke jaane waali hai..toh rona toh aayega hi nah..its like she cant call HER HOME "her home" anymore...her home definition changes after marriage..this doesnt happen with u guys..
ReplyDeleteps: see its the girl that has to leave her maiden home. What if it was the reverse Niki? would the boys cry?
ReplyDeleteWe get older and generally move out... and y get married if u dont want to move out?
ReplyDeletelol. what kind of logic is that? family is important. that's what my modernized "daadiya rabba" showed. its not like the old times anymore. :D the woman does leave her maiden home but she doesn't lose that connection...
ReplyDelete