Sunday, May 08, 2011
Days of Rememberance
There are days you remember, and there are days which you keep aside. A start like todays would obviously make you feel good for the whole day. So it all started in the morning.
It is a Sunday (still), and Sundays in Bangalore would mostly have a quiz somewhere or the other. Half will be KQA quizzes and the rest – I don’t know. Last night, Raouf called and said that there is a quiz tomorrow, and added in the same breath, be sober! I should have taken it as an insult; I am most sober when I am in the condition he was implying. Bah! Anyway, I hadn’t had a proper binge session in a long time. So on the morning of which I am talking about, I was normal. Woke up normally, done things normally, until something happened. Anyway, it did not last long.
There I was, trying to find where Malleswaram was in Google maps and found it nowhere near BTM, where I have tented up. I didn’t like drooling over the map for long, so I thought that I shall get a Volvo to Majestic and then from there take some bus which goes to Malleswaram. I took my iPod and a Malayalam book, Ente Naadukadathal. I didn’t expect that the book will be mostly redundant throughout the day. I reached the bus stop, and first bus I saw was going to C V Raman Nagar. That is a nice name. I did some mental calculations. Yes, it did add up. I planned my day till 2100 hours in the night I am a good planner (My friends, please don’t comment on these).
I jumped into the practically empty bus and took a day pass. The bus moved in a leisurely pace. I was not going to read the book. The first place of interest was the Salarpuria Oasis; I made a mental note that I shall be going to that place soon. The bus went through Eijipura signal. Soon I crossed a familiar bridge-over-bridge structure. I was going to Indira Nagar/HAL 2nd Stage. This was where we were struggling to find a wine shop, one particular wine shop which I believe is called ‘Drops’ or something similar, though you get whole jars rather than drops there. So next time, I shall take this route for my neurotic taste buds’ satisfaction. It took a turn towards CMH road, which stands for Chinmaya Mission Hospital road and there was another place of interest for me. The Max Mueller/Goethe Bhavan is situated there. My decision to take this route was being fruitful, till now.
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| The office by lake |
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| A usual sight at any time in Banglore |
We passed through the BEML area, HAL area and whole lot of GOI owned properties, and I knew I had to get down at one of these sooner so that I can minimize the aftereffects on my purse, but I didn’t. I went through to C V Raman Nagar area. It was the most beautiful place I have seen in Bangalore. There were these really wide roads, absolutely clean and no traffic. On my right was a lake, with a fountain in the middle. There were big glass houses on the other side of the lake (buildings, actually). There was a huge board saying C V Raman Nagar at the end of the road I was passing and it split at 90 deg there. I got down there itself, saying I shall be chose the roads at a later point of time, but now I need to savor the lake. My savoring takes hardly a minute time. I take the auto nearest to me and say, Malleswaram. Autowala asks if he can put gas in Thippasandra. I say yes, knowing that will make me shell out another 20 bucks. Then I am taken through Jeevan Bheema Nagar (of whose another corner I have passed through not so long back with my brother, who had said that he lived there before he became a loyal citizen of the Crown).
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| You see these too |
Malleswaram is a beautiful place. It has a very old touch, nothing of the new age flashiness of the Bangalore which I get to see every day. It has those old style shops, 10 by 10 feet with iron shutters on which only thing missing is a smiling Raj Kumar or Vishnu Vardhan. There were Kancheepuram clad beautiful ladies on either side of road. The air was fresh and everything around felt so fresh. I was not hearing anything around me, but just inhaling the spirit of Bangalore (the real Bangalore as the old timers say). I walked on through the incense smell of a small temple. I walked through the cow dung smelling roads. I walked through the aroma of dosas being prepared. I was walking through the place where people lived. There was one place where I am sure there is a temple, not just because I heard the bells or because I saw the beautiful ladies, but because I felt something different there. The road was dirty but felt clearer than other parts. There was a mini market in that area. I walked on.
A short note on what happened afterwards: Jithin and the other quarter CID were the QMs for the day. Raouf had snared a gullible Shamanth and Logic (whose real name I could not get) into letting us be their partners. We soared through the prelims like a B-52 in the Operation Freedom. Finals were good; or rather my partners were good. We finished fourth. And then we went for our Lunch. I was angry to the boot by that time. We went to New Krishna Bhavan and KFC for food. I had trouble with my stomach. I had Mirinda first, and suddenly I remembered someone telling me it is good for stomach. I did not recollect who said it at that moment of time, but now I remember that one of my senior site engineer in my old company said it to me when I had diarrhea. I exchanged it immediately saying that whatever is good for health is not liked by me, another statement said by a dearer person. I had my full and then we decided to part for a drink. My bloody CID partners were not interested in going saying there was a stupid football match (yeah, anything that doesn’t have Brazil primarily, and Argentina, Netherlands, Germany, Italy, African nations, Japan, Australia, England in that order is stupid match itself!) So we decided to split up and I reached home.
There are few times when you know you are wrong and what you are doing is going to be GIGO. I never care, because I have my own algorithm which process things and says what to do (actually, it is as good as a broken Gramophone). It so happened that by the time reached home, I was not in any mood, neither good nor mad: P). I had timed my anger to two different frequencies and both crossed and yet there was something which made me lose it all. Well, Bangalore hasn’t seen me in real sense. I do not want to show, but neither am I feign to hide it.
PS: The person lost a "Celebrations" in my anger :D
