Showing posts with label Conversation. Show all posts

I had already finished my packing the earlier day with some minor leftovers for the last minute. Dad’s got office. Prepared breakfast and had it too. My train (to Bangalore) is at 11:45 AM and his (to Delhi) at 5:30 PM. Army Chief “Deepak Kapoor” was visiting AFMC. Dad left. I rushed back and forth in the rooms recollecting if I’ve missed something to put in my bags. Dad came back early (got me a bottle of hand sanitiser) and we prepared meals for the travel.

As it happens with most of the parents, they load their child with almost everything in their capacity without realising that their kid needs to carry all this. Ditto situation and the same question. How do I carry this stuff now? But my dad is never short of ideas – ideas driven by common sense. Why not? Being in Army, he has been doing all this packing, packaging and pulling for around 35 years now. Result -> I had the heaviest of luggages and I was the most confortable carrying it.

Left the house.
We are sitting on the back seat of the auto to railway station but not talking much. But we are looking at each other in between through the rear-view mirror. We’d be departing in opposite directions today.

Reach station. Enter train.
I was thinking that I am the first one to enter the compartment until I noticed a 50-something uncle sitting on the upper berth holding his undergarments in front of the AC. Gosh! What’s he doing? Is he putting a filter for the air to come out? Nah! he is trying to dry these. After a struggle of some 10-15 mins (how long could he hold these in hands?), he tied his lingerie stuff to the pegs around him. Better than before, but still! Others have entered in but might not have noticed (busy in setting their luggage) the display of his stuff. I got up and suggested him that it’ll take more time for these to dry under AC, better take it outside and spread your “Andar ki Baat” things under the fan outside the compartment. Perhaps he liked the idea, unpegged them and moved out. Good!

Start the train and the phone calls. Grrr… everyone is talking about swine flu. “Put on a mask”, “Take Tamiflu”, “Cover your nose”, “Don’t touch your face” etc. etc.
The longest phone calls since… I don’t know when. But never had I talked for so long that my hand set heats up. This time I could feel the warmth of the phone as well as of the ‘S’ and ‘P’ on the other side. Yeah, a conference call. Signal was coming and going, but the call went on, battery dying but the call went on. For around 2 hrs.

Dinner time. Sleep time.

After 2-3 rounds of increasing the temperature of the AC, the people were still feeling cold. The oldies asked for the AC to be switched off. Damn! Why are they travelling in AC coach if they can’t live with it? I couldn’t sleep the whole night and managed to catch some sleep only in the morning hours.

Reached Bangalore half asleep. Got surrounded by the auto-wallahs and coolies as I got down but I was in no mood to let them carry. As I am walking out of platform 1, 3-4 auto-wallahs are following me. A routine talk with these guys:

Auto Driver: Where sir?
Me: Electronic City.
Auto Driver: [Almost holding my luggage] हाँ, जायेगा ना. चलो बैठो.
Me: कितना?
Auto Driver: ज्यादा नहीं लगेगा सर.
Me: [मेरे पास ज्यादा हैं ही नहीं देने के लिए…] फिर भी कितना?
Auto Driver: 300 दे दो सर.
Me: [Ha Ha! I have only 250 in my purse!] बहुत ज्यादा है.
Auto Driver: ज्यादा कहाँ सर! बहुत दूर है. अच्छा चलो 270.
Me: [पर अंकल इतने पैसे ही नहीं हैं, बाकि क्या कपडे उतार लोगे?] 200.
Auto Driver: क्या सर. इतना दूर है और वहां से खाली रिटर्न आना है. कोई सवारी नहीं मिलेगी. 250 दे दो. [Got hold of one of my bags]
Me: [एक तो ये सामान वैसे ही काफी भारी है, ऊपर से तू भी लटक जा!] 200 से ज्यादा नहीं हैं मेरे पास. प्रीपेड ऑटो स्टैंड किधर है?
Auto Driver: सर, मीटर से चलो. Meter one-and-half.
Me: मैं बस में चला जाऊंगा. सिर्फ 20 रुपये लगेंगे और बस को रिटर्न खाली नहीं आना पड़ेगा.
Auto Driver: बस नहीं मिलेगी यहाँ से.
Me: [बेटा मैं पहली बार नहीं आया हूँ यहाँ!] [I start walking. He is left behind.] ओह! नहीं मिलेगी? कोई नहीं अंकल जी, Thank You. मैं पैदल ही चला जाऊंगा. :)

Dragged my luggage from railway station to bus station (Majestic) via an under road subway. Got the AC volvo (could not get AC in the train, atleast here). 45 Rs and I am there. Wohoo! I am thinking – Good that the auto driver didn’t agree to my offer of 200 Rs. :)

As a usual Saturday, I joined my friends for playing cricket at 8 in the morning. Played till 11. When I came back and had a look at my phone – 8 missed calls from a friend. “What happened to her?” Called her up! Excerpts:

[It’s ringing…]
Me – Hello!
Furious S – How many missed calls did you get from me?
Me – Eight.
Furious S – And could you see the interval between the missed calls?
Me – Hmm… quite frequent. The phone was not with me and I was playing cricket.
Not-so-furious S – $%$&#^
Me – Ok sorry, what’s it?
S – We are going to Lonavla.
Me – When?
S – Now!
Me – What?
S – We are going to have breakfast and then we’ll leave for Lonavla.
Me – But, how? All-of-a-sudden!
S – We were feeling bored, so thought of going. It’ll take us half an hour to finish
breakfast. Join us a Wakad quick.
Me – Half-an-hour!
[I need to go to the market, buy vegetables, prepare lunch for dad, wash some clothes (which I had already dipped in) and bath]
Me – Hmm… it’ll be a bit difficult for me to join you at Wakad. How about if I come by a train and join you at Lonavla only?
S – I don’t know. Make it fast. We are leaving soon. Bye!
Me – Ok, Bye!

[Hurry up boy! C’mon!]

Went (ran) to market, bought vegetables, washed clothes, prepared lunch (a chutney was the quickest I could think of), had bath and asked Saumik to get me the timings of “Express” trains to Lonavla. I was quick, so was he.
The best possible option was to catch “Pune-Manmad Express” at 12:45.

Told briefly to dad about the plan and left for station at 12:10. Everything was so fast; I had the ticket in my hand at 12:40. Train left at 12:55 (IST – 10 min late is so-much-on-time).

Reached Lonavla station at 1:40 and joined others at “Bushy dam” at 2:10 around 40 minutes after them.

It was our second stint at Lonavla and it was again outstanding. All of us headed for waterfalls. The weather was as usual more than pleasant, the flowing waters more than titillating and we more than cautious with our steps on slippery rocks. Of course we did not want to washout our cameras as we so-coolly did last time.

Last week we went to Bheemashankar and we were disappointed for not getting any waterfalls around with Paramita jumping on every site where the water was falling even from a height of 2 inches, "Hey, waterfall, waterfall!" [Literally … each “falling water” was a “waterfall”]
And here we were at Lonavla with the real waterfalls around us giving a perfect complement to our Bheemashankar trip.

The “giant waterfall” that we feared to enter last year was a bit mild this time (thanks to no rains in the last 2 days) and we left no stone unturned to enjoy the magnificent water-body. And because we managed to carry our cameras safe-and-sound till there, posed-a-lot and clicked-a-lot. These waterfalls are a place where the “serious” become “rollicking”, the “shy” become “playful” and the “naughty” become “impish”. “Maine subah se kuchh nahin khaya tha!”, but the moment I entered the waterfall the “hunger” got washed away and I became a part of the waterfall itself. I sat silently (people around me shouting continuously) closing my eyes (not by choice, but the volumes of water banging on my head did not let me open up) under the head-tapping stream (pelting stream rather) listening to the tabla it was playing on my top.

We came out of the fall after some 1.5 hrs – drenched, with a skin like 80 year old, much-much heavier clothes, absolutely deaf and hungry again. Gobbled up some vada-pavs and corns in no time. Reached back to the parking area, parked ourselves in a side restaurant and again gobbled up vada-pavs and kanda-bhajji (obviously, “Maine subah se kuchh nahin khaya tha!”). Then we walked all the way (~ 5 km) amid scenic clouds and mountains, which was a nice diet to our eyes too, back to Lonavla bus stand to catch the return bus.

Everything fell in place and in time for me since morning till the time to catch the bus back-to-Pune arrived. That's when I realized the 7 missed calls from dad. Called him up and told that I am already in a bus to Pune. We were looking for a bus with a particular route (via Wakad) so that the girls can comfortably drop into their homes en-route. My dad was calling frequently asking the whereabouts, raising the tension-meter and these 3 girls with me were "not bothered at all". Grrr... was that funny, because as per dad I should have entered Pune and I was still "loitering" at the bus-stop? Waited for around 45 minutes and let go 5-6 buses to Pune (because Wakad was not not on their routes) and see, we got into the worst possible bus after that. The bus took the longest possible route (not via wakad) and dropped us at Shivajinagar at 10 PM. Took autos to the respective places to reach home after 10:30 PM.

[Face Papa!] Ok, he is sleeping. Shh.. Just sleep, I'd face him tomorow.

But boy, the trip was oh-so-economical, spending not more than 150 per head (including everything – to-and-fro tickets, snacks, eatables and all the more fun). I have learnt that the trips planned (or not-planned) impromptu turn out to be more fun and leave us more satisfied in the end.

Check out the coincidence: Lonavla was the first place I trekked when I came from Bangalore to Pune and Lonavla is the last too when I am going back to Bangalore from Pune. My take away - this place will always bring pleasant memories to me.

कल बैठे बैठे यूं ही पापा से बातचीत करते हुए ये बात छिड़ गयी।
कहने लगे, "हमारे परिवार का रहन सहन कितना ज्यादा simple है? परिवार ३ जगह फैला हुआ है, पर एक भी जगह एक टीवी तक नहीं है, बड़ी कार की बात तो दूर, कोई स्कूटर/मोटरसाईकिल भी नहीं है। वाहन के नाम पर सिर्फ एक साइकिल है रोहतक में, जो भाई साहब को करीब ४५ साल पहले दहेज़ में मिली थी। घर में कोई कूलर/एसी नहीं है (पंखे से काम चल ही जाता है), कोई किसी तरह का कोई आभूषण नहीं पहनता - ना कोई अंगूठी, ना कंगन, ना गले की चेन, यहाँ तक कि कोई घडी भी नहीं बांधता। किसी भी प्रकार का "junk food" खाने कि आदत नहीं है किसी को, कम से कम मसालों से बना भोजन।
कारण ये नहीं कि ये सब खरीदने के लिए पैसा नहीं है, या हैसियत नहीं है, पर बस यूं ही, किसी को शायद लगा ही नहीं कि इन सब के बिना ज़िन्दगी अधूरी है।"

वो बोल रहे थे, और मैं सिर्फ़ सुन रहा था। बीच बीच में "हूँ...हाँ... हम्म" से अपनी उपस्थिति दर्ज कर रहा था।
बात पते की थी। मैंने कभी सोचा नहीं था कि मैं जिस माहौल में पला बढा हूँ, मेरे पास ये सब संसाधन शरू से ही नहीं हैं। पर सोचने कि बात ये है कि मुझे कभी इन सब का अभाव भी महसूस नहीं हुआ, और ना ही अब इन सबकी ज़रुरत महसूस होती है। शायद मैंने इन सबके बिना ही जीना सीख लिया है, और मैं खुद से खुश हूँ। अब तो आदत हो गयी है, या यूं कहें कि खुद को समझा लिया है।
वैसे वो साइकिल (४५ साल पुरानी - "Eastern Star" कंपनी की) अब भी दुरुस्त दौड़ती है और घर के लगभग सभी रसोई के बर्तनों की उम्र मुझसे ज्यादा है।

सोच रहा हूँ कि क्यों / कैसे हर वस्तु इतनी लम्बी चल जाती है हमारे घर में (शायद दुसरे घरों में भी चलती हो, कभी पूछा नहीं)? शायद हमें अपनी चीज़ों को सहेज कर रखने कि आदत है।
घर में कोई भगवान् में यकीन नहीं करता, पर फिर भी कहूँगा कि ईश्वर कि कृपा से सब अच्छा चल रहा है।

महात्मा गाँधी न कहते थे, "सादा जीवन और उच्च विचार ही स्वस्थ जीवन की कुंजी हैं।"
बाकी का तो पता नहीं पर जाने-अनजाने गाँधीजी की ये बात तो हम follow करते ही हैं और गर्व है मुझे अपने इस रहन सहन पर।

I am new to Pune city. As a daily routine, I catch a bus from my company to my place and I don't know much about the areas I cross on the way. The normal timings are: I get on to the bus at 6 PM and get off at around 7:30. What happened yesterday is - A road construction had just begun in "Kondhwa" area. We were almost in the middle of the route when we diverted from the normal route from this junction where the traffic policeman was guiding the traffic away from Kondhwa. We were on a completely new route now. And in the last 2 months, I had never seen so much traffic and such a big traffic jam in Pune. The roads are wide enough, clean enough and the traffic is decent. But now I was in a completely different Pune. Our bus started circling the city. After struggling for around one hour on a completely novel route, we entered the city via one of the holes (entrant road). I was feeling good that at least we are into the main city now but I was oblivious as to which part of the city I was in. Still I was constantly looking out of the window and noting down the areas I was crossing. Then it striked me, "What if the bus is very close to my place?" The thought was enough to bring a grin on my face. It was 8 PM when the bus stopped at one of the red lights. I don't know, but my sixth sense made me to get down from the bus. And here I am, I don't know where? I asked a couple on scooter - "Which way to take to go to AFMC". The response - "Sorry, we are new to this place". Oh! like me? And I started moving intutively in one of the directions. Phone rings. Some unknown number. I received, "Hello". A girl voice on the other side.

Girl: Hello, I am calling from Idea customer care. May I speak to Mr. Praveen Rathee.
PR: Yes, I am speaking.

Girl: Hello Sir, I wanted to confirm your phone number. Is it 99******44?
PR (Surprised at the question, What kind of question is this, didn't she just dial the same?): I hope you dialled this number. So, that's right.

Girl: Thank you sir.
(A small pause - about 2 seconds)
Girl: Sir, may I have two minutes of your precious time?
I thought, "Of course, my time is helluva precious at this moment. I am somewhere in the middle of a road and don't know which way to go.".
PR: Yes, tell me?

Girl: Sir, I wanted to take you through the...
PR (interrupting, realizing that it is something that is going to take long): Actually, I am lost in the city (I am laughing).

Girl (amazed voice): Lost in the city?
PR: Yes, I am new to this city and right now I am somewhere struggling to find my way back home.

Girl (a feeling of guilt): Oh! I am sorry sir. May I call you sometime later?
PR: Sure, you can call me tomorrow morning. (tiny pause) Wait a second... Hello... You there?

Girl: Yes sir.
PR: Can you please guide me through my way? (I didn't wait for her response) See I have just crossed this area ... (thinking very hard) ... "Bibwewadi" and my bus was going towards "Kondhwa"; I got down and now I am standing on a red light. And I have to go to AFMC. Can you please let me know which way to take?

(All this time I continued walking)

Girl: Sir, can you please tell me any landmark around you? Just to know which red light you are on.
PR: Actually I am walking. And there is this "GREEN Hotel" to my right and "Electric Substation" to the left.

Girl: Sir, I guess you are close to AFMC. Can't you see any signboard nearby? It would be easier.
(I am walking faster now taking long strides... Brisk walk)
PR: No. Right now I can't see any signboard.

Girl: If the "Electric Substation" is to your left, you just keep walking straight on this road. You are already into the cantonment area.
PR (gazing far ahead through the dark, getting on toes): Mmmm... I can see a board. Can you please hold on for a sec? I am getting closer to that.

Girl: Sure Sir.
(Pause... And to my extreme happiness, The board read: "पुणे छावनी - Pune Cantonment")
PR: You are right, I am in the military area. But are you sure I have to keep walking straight.

Girl: Sir, you just don't leave this road and you'll get AFMC to your left.
(I am running now and a few steps ahead I see a colony - Netaji Nagar)
PR: Thank you madam. I am in front of Netaji Nagar and I very well know the way from here. Thanks a lot.

Girl: Welcome sir. (Laughs) I hope you really know the route now.
PR: Yes. I do. I have been to this place some time back.

Girl: OK sir. Take care. Bye.
PR: Yeah. Thanks again. BBye.

I knew that region because Papa took me through this area around a month ago as a part of morning walk. I just couldn't figure it out because it was dark. It was 15 minutes of walk. I was home at 8:15 PM. Took bath, had dinner, brushed my teeth and slept. No post dinner walk as I had enough a lttle while ago :)
Today morning when I asked other passengers, what time did they reach? I found that I was the earliest, most of them entered their respective houses after 8:45. I was feeling proud of my decision of getting down the bus (I deserved a pat on the back). I was even happier that I got down at the nearest possible point to AFMC. Great timing! I didn't have to do any auto, or any bus, public transport etc. :) We can call it LUCK.
The mistake I made was I didn't ask my bus driver before getting down.
But that was fun. Idea cellular service providers guiding their customers through Pune roads. What an Idea!