Finding my soul on 2 wheels -4

Eisenheim: From the moment we enter this life we are in the flow of it. We measure it and We mock it, but we cannot defy it. We cannot even speed it up or slow it down. Or can we? Have we not each experienced the sensation that a beautiful moment seemed to pass too quickly, and wished that we could make it linger? Or felt time slow on a dull day, and wished that we could speed things up a bit?

(A Dialogue from the movie,The Illusionist.) 

Chapter 4 : Riding the Dream

The Sun has calmed down a bit and I am about to reach the day's rest point.It has been a flat course on the first day of the trip except for the last 5-10 minutes, when I have had the first tryst with the valley, marking the beginning of what would be a romantic date with nature.An unknown calm sets in, i feel resurrected and small at the same time.I see a clarity in my thoughts and understand that this is what we call as unbridled joy and freedom.Today at 4 a.m.in Itanagar I spent a minute or two in solitude, gazing at the cloud covered mountains.I could hear them call and at this moment I embrace them.

                                                   On our way to Likabali

A journey is like the course of a river, it is destined to flow into the sea, but the path it weaves forms its essence.A journey is like a game of football , it is about the sliding tackles,the penalty kicks , the 50-50 balls,it is about every second of the 90 minutes.Sometimes a journey is like swinging on birch trees,for a moment leaving the earth into a free space and then returning back to start all over again.I had a journey of stumbles,falls,jumps,skids,punchers,smokes,rivers,waterfalls,rainbows,mountains,clouds,grasses,winds,rubble,horses,rains,songs,teas,samosas,apong,maggi,rice,solitude,bliss,peace,clarity and on and on.I was fortunate that i had friends to share these with.Happiness is a way of travel and at some point in this journey I found my way.

The journey of a river

On my second day on bike I knew that I was doomed to move in circles.At every 50-60 meters was a blind turn and brakes,decelerate,change the gear,honk,bend,turn, accelerate was to become a never ending regime for 10 more days to come.On an emotional level i was getting entwined with nature.The sweet fragrance of wet grass welcomed me as i entered the valley, but as the trip progressed i became a part of the aroma.What began as singing songs in the dark bubble of my helmet  was soon replaced by a natural symphony.With the passage of time , the rain felt less harsher,the water less cooler and every passing turn on the road more familiar.I realized I was becoming a part of the eternity and this was not a dream.

 The Bikes

Biking on a Royal Enfield in Ladakh was a completely different experience from what I was having in Arunachal.The best thing about biking here was that the roads prepared you for the next day.What started with flat roads on first day soon turned to never ending circles.Slowly these circles became narrower and landslides became imminent.And when i thought this would be it , it started raining.In fact I rode for one whole day in rain on the most difficult of the tracks.There are somethings in life which come as expected and then there are those which are unexpected.It is this anticipation of the unexpected which makes biking so exciting.On a rainy day there were many instances when I had to just go into the puddle and leaving things to fate,i wrote of this earlier I had to take the plunge.

Love the bike.

The chilly wind will not stop and the incessant downpour  adds to the cold. The deluge has washed away the road at many places. In addition to the apprehension which every blind turn brings, there is a high probability of the tyres slipping in the boulevard. Slightest of error will bring me close to the river which I have been admiring from this high altitude and in rather precarious circumstances. But there is still too much to see and marvel at, the joy of riding in the rain, the delight of every morning. So I just  move on and on.

Moli Bhai and me in Menchukha

You are a bit tired from the ride and you enter a tea shop to have the whole place on your own,this feeling of space made me often feel at home.If you have someone like Moli as your riding partner there is no chance of being bored.Often correcting his lyrics and understanding the theory of Adiabatic Penis ,taking videos, time just flew by.In the process I learnt discipline and patience.Someone has rightly said,"Patience is the ability to idle your motor when you feel like stripping your gears."

Lights,Camera,Action

Finding my soul on 2 wheels -1

Prologue

“The chilly wind will not stop and the incessant downpour  adds to the cold. The deluge has washed away the road at many places. In addition to the apprehension which every blind turn brings, there is a high probability of the tyres slipping in the boulevard. Slightest of error will bring me close to the river which I have been admiring from this high altitude and in rather precarious circumstances. But there is still too much to see and marvel at, the joy of riding in the rain, the delight of every morning. So I just  move on and on……..”

Chapter 1 (Reaching Arunachal)

“Only a biker knows why a dog sticks his head out of a car window.”

When I boarded the Garib Rath express to Guwahati I had one thing in mind ,I wanted to do a Dilli.But I guess this Chaiwala had betted a fortune on waking me up. It was not that disturbing feeling of a bug singing songs in your ears but a knock on the head to wake up. The tea smelt good, probably it had gathered some aroma from the passing tea fields. I would say aroma because it was devoid of milk and little less heated than what we call lukewarm. So in one word the tea only had aroma.

If you have seen the secret inspirational documentary you will understand how strong desire formulates into results. Ask me how this trip happened and the answer I have is strong desire. At least you will agree that there is frequency between two people and you keep on bumping into those with whom your frequency matches. This is the reason why I have named the blog as serendipity and serendipity it was when one of my close friends (In fact one of the very few from the fairer sex) was in Kolkata. I may forget the umpteen beverages we may have had together but a cup of coffee in a packed railway station is something I would cherish for a long time to come. Stepping on the train I was both happy and thankful that we met.

It feels like the sets of the movie, “Before Sunset” as my train speeds towards Guwahati. The only difference is that there is no beautiful lady on the other side, in fact there could have been one. When I boarded the train there was a lady and her daughter already sitting on my allotted berth. The lady to me,”beta aap agar akele ho to is seat pe chale jao please.” At that very moment another female walks in and the lady repeats the same sentence to her. I had no choice but to pick one seat while the other chose one. All I can say is,”Bhagwaan aakhir kab tak kaat te rahoge?”

The last 2 hours of your journey towards Guwahati is very scenic. It reminds me of one  post that Moli wrote while  traveling on the same route. Assam and Arunachal Pradesh are two states where one can see the tropical rain forests. I verified the fact later but at that moment in the train I knew this has to be an evergreen forest. As far as you can see it was all green and if you strained your eyes a little more you could see a brown outline of mountains covering this magnetic green. I went a step further and strained my ears to listen the mountains calling me. So it was how I reached Guwahati reading a book and occasionally admiring the reflections of the sky in the clean streams. 

Do you remember the temperature change we experienced on entering the main gate of our college? It is exactly the same feeling when one enters the Bandardewa check post towards Itanagar.The distance from this gate to Moli’s place was 30 km and I was overcome by an inexplicable excitement. The hug seemed so familiar, seemed we had met just yesterday. We slept for half of the day and then met the other 2 biker friends. Later in the evening we had a game of football reminiscing of the numerous evenings we had spent doing the same.

P.S. Much of this was scribbled on a national highway when Moli was busy taking some video shots.

Everything is green and submarine

You may boast of all the food joints in your city but you can never comprehend the fun of living in a city where you get ready made joints. 

When Johnny walked and people danced

It’s almost 2 years since graduation and probably one thing which I still miss the most is  the hostel roof top.I would always love to have a hostel re-union  on GRT(Ganga Roof Top).There are very few places which are associated with all your good and bad moments of life. For most of my friends and me our hostel terrace was one such place. One night you would be lying all alone on the terrace gazing at the stars and other night dancing on the weirdest of Bollywood songs(Saat samandar paar stuff).A place where you had candle night dinners  and  you tasted bidi too. Remember all those exotic brands we devoured, especially all those monitors MGMs and sandpipers. The joy of peeing from such heights is one of the many things that money cannot buy. Terrace was for all trivial matters like break ups to the serious ones like Moli’s dance (Teri aadaon pe marta hun). In a nutshell most of 4 years of our lives happened here.

So why all this talk today ?  

Had one of those terrace evenings with friends today.I had the 43% poison in my cupboard for quite sometime and had saved it for one of these days.We sat on the top of a 12 storey building under construction and had rains for ambiance.As the liquid started walking in our systems we shifted gears from Metallica to songs from Karan Arjun.When it started walking really fast it was the time to dance on all time hit Dance numbers like: Tip Tip barsa paani and I am a Disco Dancer.Felt great to be back to the old job of bar-tending.A perfect celebration for an awesome day.

Every moment of this party I was reminded of you all and all those moments.Oh God!!, once again to dance with my college friends in this rain

चीनी कम

बेटा चाय में चीनी कम है क्या ?

मैं :  चीनी भी माया की तरह है , कम की आदत डालो तो कम में संतोष होगा.

L to M

6 months back when i looked at the mirror , I hated myself for being lazy.Most of our actions is to prove our self to someone.But I knew for one time this fight was against me.A mind battle which I won .Football was a great help in the 11.5 kg weight shedding.Only it is coming at the cost of buying new clothes and this time I am not hating the mirror in the trial room.

Time Travel

“Live as if you were living already for the second time and as if you had acted the first time as wrongly as you are about to act now.”

Very rarely do we get the chance to relive a day of our lives. I  relived one day  with few of my school friends and we did all the things which we used to do some years back.

Dhurva dam is the favorite spot for guys who bunk school. Situated far away from the city , it offers clean water for swimming, clean sand for sleeping and plenty of solitude for thinking. We had successfully completed 24 trips without being caught until my sardar friend distributed Fivestars on our 25^th mission. Today was the 26^th and this time our parents knew our destination. 

Sundays have been a biking day for me and I clicked a beautiful one today.

I have mentioned in my previous posts about the patri.This place holds the same significance to me as the coffee shop in F.R.I.E.N.D.S. We had our cups of tea here, discussing our school and the favorite question, “Which girl did u like in the class?.”

In the last five years I have made a set of elite friends. I have learnt a lot of things from them and have enlightened them a bit in my own way. The friends here are very different academically but amazingly positive and simple in their lives. They have always been my teachers in a different way.

Overall a fun trip and a memorable day.

Redefine

OVERCONFIDENCE : The confidence your parents have in you .

FANTASY: The feeling you had during the date.

OBLIVION: It happened to your GF during the Soccer World Cup.

FIGHT : You spill my beer and we fight.

Music to ears

Like everything in the world, there is no good or bad music. Anything which makes you feel good is music for you. The good thing is that there is music for all moods and  it makes lives of people much peaceful. Thanks to mobile phones, today your choice of music is just a download away and added to that almost all the mobile phones come with good speakers.

So this is what is lately happening to me, there is narrow road just close to the window of my room and I have been a silent listener to the music of the people passing by. It’s amazing to see such a varied variety of music in such road which is scarcely used, probably another thing which makes India unique. I will be writing about few people who represent the users of this road. I know all of them personally and may be because of this I know about their choice of music and stuff.

Dhandhan , the cow boy cum entrepreneur :

Well, the name may make you laugh but believe me this is the name given to him by his parents, a irony because they had decided his fate right from his birth. But they may have never predicted that their son will be an entrepreneur some day. Dhandhan is an ordinary boy from the big cattle ground close to my house. Life for these boys is simple , they take care of the cows in the daytime and deliver milk to houses in the mornings and evenings. But this guy does is somewhat intelligently. On his way to the customer’s houses he has made many customers of his own and sells milk to them and compensates by adding water. One evening he finds me at ease and asks me the cost of a mobile phone. I show him my handset which is the cheapest Nokia set available in the market. However   he wanted the one with the music apps and I promise him to tell the rates the next day.

You can hear these boys with their cows in the daytime. The music is bits and pieces of some latest Hindi number which they happen to hear in someone’s mobile or in their customer’s houses. Their music may not make any sense but only this is something which keeps them going.

The Grass cutter:

“Munni ke maye” (Mother of Munni) , this is the name I have known of her since childhood and everyone calls her by this name. She categorizes the class which is the most desolate. Most of the times she used to come to our house to cut grass and later sell it as fodder for cows while her daughter worked at our place. But the love for alcohol has ruined their lives. So on many evenings you can hear ladies drunk and singing [A community still oblivious to the invention of mobile phones] their local numbers. Somewhere in their music you can feel the despair and just pray.

Satender the Mason:

Met him for the first time when he came to repair a leaking portion of our house. He turned out to be from a village closer to mine and so ended up having a cup of tea. However when all of a sudden when he turned up some days ago , I was totally amazed at the strong bond one cup of tea makes. He said,”Bhaiya idhar paas mein hi kaam par aya tha socha mil loon.”I remember that rainy evening when he was working and enjoying the 90’s music by Kumar Sanu. In the evenings when the laborers pass on the road playing the music from 90’s it always reminds me of him.[On this type of music : I have heard people play this type of  music in Chennai on Vishwakarma puja’s , in local trains , in buses and many places where it was the least expected.]

Rai jee , the prosperous milkman:

 I have known him since childhood. I have seen him work hard and set up a large flock of cattles.He has built a house and keeps his cattle at a place far from his house. He likes to get drunk on Bhojpuri music and on the nights he stays in the cattle farm is just an excuse to live life. Late in the night, you can here many gwalas returning back from their evening indulgence , with Bhojpuri music breaking the silence of the quite nights.

 “ On a summer evening in Delhi , you borad a crowded bus from Safdargunj to Munirka. The road is busy and you are stuck in a traffic jam. Someone just pushes you to get out of the bus and you have had a bad day. You are about to lose your cool when you hear a song(Pal Pal Dil Ke Paas ) being played in the local radio channel. You forget everything and just move on.”

I have many other stories to share on music and my life but may be some other time.

Some lines from one of my favorite songs called Age of Innocence by Iron Maiden.

So we only get one chance can we take it

And we only get one life can't exchange it

Can we hold on to what we have don't replace it

The age of innocence is fading..... Like an old dream

Pink Panther

Try typing Pink Panther in your mobile ....


Got a smile ?


realized while suggesting a movie to a friend just after very encouraging comments on a PPT  , " Some peoples commitment to work is exponentially decreasing."

The Ideal son

I am having a lovely time with my mom who is  staying with me for a few days.We have many topics of discussion but somehow all of them converge to one point, the final destination, the one aim in mother's life , marriage. The saying goes,"Marriages are made in heaven." but they are executed by mothers.

So these  are a few problems in my life as per her :

1.)I can't tell whether a T shirt is dirty [The fact that most of the guys use their smelling sense for such critical issues.] and when i tell her this  she just gives up on me.

2)My type of music, my habits of sleeping , the food i eat , my work timings , the places i go for trekking,  can all be summed up to being devilish.

3) I have the dirtiest room in the world . [I hope  my friends who have been to my clean room can understand my pain.]

4) I don't have a goal in life and I am mentally deranged.

5) I am the most careless , selfish antisocial creature on the planet earth.

6)Football is the game of ruffians.

Remarkably she has a solution for all this.An arrangement can be made where someone would intrude in your private space and change the course of your life. 

Good thing : It has given her a time to understand me and i have bought at least 3 more years of freedom left for me.

 

Chatter

Me: Hi God u there ?
Me: Come on you are there just now you changed your status message to,"Engineers don't ping"
Me: U always prefer babes haan, come on be a man I want to ask you something.

God: Hi Abhinav after a long time whats happening ?
Me: He he I knew you will talk, you desperately need us there. But to be frank,  no one will join you because life really sucks at your place man.
God:U again started!!

Me: Listen last time I told you about what my Father says, may be i will remind you again,"You can't become an engineer, if you don't drink."
Me: But you went offline seeing this. I just wanted to help you out.  Open some good pubs at your place I am sure your problem will be solved.

God:I am leaving ....

Me: Are.. wait i wanted to talk about  something else. Send me an offline message antime you want to discuss on this topic.

God:Say fast I gotta go.

Me: Again Rakhi pinged, haan, come on she is doing wierd things these days , I don't know what suggestions you are giving her.
Me: See I am bugged by this Buddha fellow, what do you feel about him.

God:He is one of the few people I like.

Me: Ya and you also like Monica Belluci and dislike our race.
Me: Was reading this quote by him,"Live your life in happiness, even though those around you lead lives which are unhealthy, and wish to spread their illness to you. Be Happiness itself."

God:Be specific , I gotta go !!!

Me:Ok is drinking beer unhealthy by any chance ?
Me:Can you connect me to him so that we may have a group chat?
ME:Hey please  tell Diana also to join, her views will be great.
Me:Oh you again go offline ........See Rakhi is spoiling you , next time think of an answer and come and ya remember my proposal.

Smoking Advice

"Jo bhi karo Dum laga kar karo."

Habits

Some habits that people develop due to excess repetition of work:

A IT guy,"Shit I missed the semicolon in the sms."A tendency for
looking out for ENTER buttons at weird places.

A guy who is in a habit of looking in the rear view mirror while biking tends to do the
same while walking.

Company guys using a lot of swap cars to enter through glass doors generally try opening their room windows
in the same way.

A call center guy to his Girlfriend, "Hi Madam this is X calling from Company Y, how may I help you ?"

Someone in a habit of automated taps forgets that one has to open and close a tap.

A Auto driver will sit in the same angled way in a chair in his room as the seat in his auto.

You can see the guys into cricket, practicing imaginary shots.

Someone into lot of chatting on writing an essay in school "Kinda stk up , brb." Another one is pinging his mother and asking,"Hi asl?"

A bartender pouring water in a glass in the same fashion as beer.

Early in the morning a traffic officer put the whistle in his mouth instead of the tooth brush.

Bike

Me : Aaj mere pass degree hai , naukri ahi aur bike bhi hai, tere paas kya hai ?

X: Mere paas Bandi hai.

Me :!!!

Human Mind

Someone reporting his ability to recall GRE words in a fashionable manner ,

"Human mind is complex; it kind of registers everything. In my wakeful, conscious thinking, I assume many things has forgotten, but in actuality if I travel a few layers beneath, things pop out to amaze me."

The saint and the train journey

“ I can’t see you going bacchi I am leaving yaar.”

“Ok yaar”

I understood the feeling because I also do the same when parting with a loved one. Well this time it was the other way round when Ranvah was speaking these words to me. This is something a realization to me of how much we love each other. 4 years spent doing all the bad and good things together. True partners of crime I admit. Then one day everything comes to an end in a moment, a good bye, tears , laughs and you start living once again knowing the fact that things would never be the same.

The train journey from Chennai was pleasant because nothing can be hotter than Chennai. It was cloudy when the train was running through Andhra. It started raining in Orissa and in spite of the inconvenience of the fellow passengers I did not close the window and let the water drops fall.

On reaching Kharagpur had a dinner at one of the Dhabas at IIT with one of my close friend. Another hours journey was to be done to reach Tatanagar and that too in general compartment. Somehow got into the compartment and then began one of the most exciting journey’s of life. I sat on the foothold along with a saint (probably going to Mathura). Then started a long lecture on life , God, love , sex and me being the listener. From somewhere popped up a beedi which he was able to light up in such a strong breeze. Wait !!! dude this is not beedi this smells of something else. On asking him what was that , I got the expected answer. So I shared the light with the saadhu in a jam packed compartment amidst some discourse on life , clean fresh morning air and the external greenery and also the internal one.

WTF?

A Vodafone message reads ,"Do you know how many times will you fall in love before you find your true love ?"
And then it says to sms to some no. to know it. :)

BTP

Harry finished his schooling and me the college :)
We both had a great time.
But, wait I still have to work some more days and at least to get my degree.

After a long days of work what can a person think of while staring at the stars?
I saw the stars as points in a workspace and wondering whether I will get a smooth curve joining a set of stars using cubic spline.

"Need to think 10 minutes over my BTP."

Quotable Quotes

Laundry people announcing on the mic,"Laundi pick up and delivery" :)

ON DDP,"I did the experiments using 4 KG weights , Simulation using 7 Kg and in thesis i have written it as 9 KG's"

Hum Spencers kyoun ja rahe hain Moli bhai . Reply' "Ice cream khane ."