Pensieve 2.0

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Whenever I start posting nowadays, I’m reminded of my friend K who was a king of sleeping in class.
There was one incident in college that is so mirthful that even today my ribs will be on the verge of cracking due to uncontrollable laughter, when I think of it.

In a particular lecture, K, being one who loved feigning attentiveness, was in the front row, center. I was somewhere in the second row in a corner. (because I didn’t get a seat in the prestigious LLB; (League of Last Benchers) I was too late) Midway through the class, I noticed that K was sleeping with his mouth open. (That too in the front row). It was amusing the way his head was bobbing, his hooked nose drawing doodles in thin air. After a few moments, gravity got the better of his subconscious head, and his head meandered too far to the front. He woke up, startled by the sudden jerk of his head. Then, to hide his embarrassment, he started making some fake calculations in air using his index finger. This was followed by an expression of comprehension of some higher realms of the concept being explained on the blackboard.
But before I could blink my eye, he was back into his slumber; his index finger had stopped in mid-calculation and was up in the air, pointing towards the blackboard. His head was bobbing back and forth once again. An uncontrollable fit of laughter erupted inside me. I tried to curb it, but hey, it was uncontrollable, wasn’t it? It resulted in a weird noise, which was more like an elephant’s trumpeting.
“Yes? You have any questions?”, asked the lecturer.
“No sir. It’s just my..er…cold.”

You might be asking what this has to do with my blog. My blog is quite like K, don’t you think? I go into hibernation, then suddenly a babble comes out as a post, then I again go into hibernation.

What is love?
Love is a score of zero. It usually is in Tennis. But it happens in life too.

He fell in love with her at first sight. He didn’t know why.
Was it her beauty?
She was not very beautiful, so to speak. She was not too tall, had freckles, but had a very pleasant fair face and beautiful short hair.
Was it her attitude?
I just said it was love at first sight. He hadn’t even talked to her.
Was it some kind of crush/infatuation?
I think not. Because this was a different kind of feeling.
He always felt the electric shock passing through his spine and ensnaring his body whenever he saw her face.
He always blushed visibly whenever she looked at him.
He always saw her in his dreams everyday after he first saw her.

One day he came back from office, he was in cloud nine. I saw the twinkle in his eyes. He said she spoke to him for the first time.
I got excited and asked him about their conversation.
“Well…I was walking through the pavement when she came walking opposite to me. I moved aside and let her pass as it was a bit narrow. She looked at me and said “Thank you”. I saw her smile.”
“So?”
“So what? That was all.”
“Holy cow! You just had the most romantic conversation ever.”
“Really?”
“Yeah! Right! Get a grip, dude!”

The next day he came from office and claimed that she too seemed to be interested.
“I saw her blush when our eyes met.”
I said, “That might be because she already has a rosy cheek. Remember? She has freckles.
“Or you might have blushed so much that your eyes were covered with blood and you saw everything red.”
“Problem hai yaar. I’ve fallen in love with her.”
“Then why don’t you go and talk to her?”
“I’m afraid. I don’t even know her. She’s not even in my team. She just sits a few cubicles away from me. That’s all. What if she is not interested?”
“You won’t know until you ask.”
“She always goes with her girl gang. I never get her alone.”
“Look. You have to find a way yourself.”
“This is not college. This is office for God’s sake. I’m afraid of the repercussions.”
“Is she showing some signs of interest? Or does she know at all?”
“I think she’s interested. She kept looking at me at the cafe during lunch today, but I can’t be sure, as there are hundreds of people in cafe during lunch time and she might be looking at anybody.”
“You better forget about her. You are such a coward.”
“I don’t deny that. But I’m happy just by looking at her.”

He doesn’t follow her, because he doesn’t believe in those concepts he sees in movies.
Moreover, he doesn’t want to force love out of her.
How the hell will he get to talk to her?
He doesn’t care. All he cares about is that he loves her. Or he thinks he does.
This really is perplexing because he never was shy towards girls or had any problem in talking with girls.

He is still in the starting line of the race with time. But he says races like this are not meant to be won.
Is this really love? I’m at a loss to answer.

The Saturday evening was special. (I mean last Saturday. I’m fully aware that it’s been one week, but I should have some stupid thing to write, shouldn’t I?)
We were meeting Moideen.
Now you might be thinking who the hell Moideen is.
Moideen is the nickname that we (my college music troupe) had given to Iron Maiden.
(I’m sorry if non-mallus don’t understand this joke; can’t help it.)
Talk about a college which considers PJ as a religion and talk about people who live and play rock and metal in that college; the naming conventions don’t come as a surprise.

We had one “Ikka” too.. Metallica. ( )

Anyway, jokes apart, we went to the maiden concert of Iron Maiden (Or “the lass made of steel” ) in India. The day was Saturday… last Saturday (Sigh! Still suffering from the hangover of a viewing Casino Royale yesterday!)
Whatever happened at the concert was as interesting as the concert itself! And it was another memorable day in my life.

Three of us had booked tickets together. KP had got his tickets booked by his colleagues. He doesn’t waste time for trifles like booking tickets. Think about this: He will go to his native place only if we take tickets for him and we drop him near the bus station.

Anyway, the three of us (me, Jaadu and Chekkoli) were planning to go in my car. The other two were supposed to arrive at my house. But it turned out to be one more. KP too came with them. I had a suspicion, that KP had just remembered that the concert was on Saturday when the other two were about to leave. (KP denies it outright, but judging by his nature, this is what might have happened.)
So it turned out that I hadn’t yet paid for my ticket, but had a sure entrance, and KP had paid for the ticket, but didn’t have a sure entrance. (How the hell would he find his colleagues in the human ocean? Only he knew.)

After driving my car at sub-zero speeds (You might be wondering, but it happens in Bangalore at peak traffic time), we finally reached Palace Grounds. KP part ways with us and went in search of his colleagues.

The horse he sweats with fear we break to run
The mighty roar of the Russian guns

We entered. Jaadu was a bit nervous about his hidden digicam. Anyway he managed to steal his digicam inside. They frisked, but didn’t find the camera. We were welcomed by the din inside. Lauren Harris (the daughter of Steve Harris) was performing. Iron Maiden was yet to start their performance. Lauren was pathetic to the point where we didn’t even listen to her.

We hurdle bodies that lay on the ground
And the Russians fire another round
We get so near yet so far away
We won’t live to fight another day.

It was time for doing a Trooper. We had to move forward through endless hurdles; hundreds of people who too were devising strategies of moving forward. We kept inching forward throughout the concert. All we could do was move 10 meters in 2 and a half hours. We got so near yet so far away.

The smell of acrid smoke and horses breath
As I plunge on into certain death.

People to the left of me were smoking. I hated the acrid smell. It was smelling odd. It might have been marijuana. I don’t know. I even hate the smell of cigarettes. This was awful. But I had to live with that bit of passive smoking
There was this white guy near us. There was another boy gang nearby too. Looked like they were students. So this white guy asked all of us whether we drink whiskey. Several of them answered yes in unison. (I didn’t) Then he conjured a bottle of Imperial Blue Whiskey out of thin air (Not thin air, in fact. He had hidden it in his socks.)
It was finished in no time.

The Bugle sounds and the charge begins
But on this battlefield no one wins

Soon it started. Explosive is the word. I don’t find another way to address the atmosphere. They played all the local favorites, Fear of the dark, The Trooper, Number of the Beast. But I was too sad they didn’t play Waster Years and Clairvoyant. The sets were amazing. I’m not describing more because I don’t have words to describe them.

Fire on the hair
As we were pushing forward through the crowd, we reached behind another guy with huge locks of hair. I immediately named him “”Jataayu” because he had huge amounts of “Jata” (dreadlocks). As usual, we teamed up with some unknown Indians who were standing nearby and even conspired to set fire to his hair with a lighter.

You’ll take my life but I’ll take yours too
You’ll fire your musket but I’ll run you through

What’s it with girls in cars almost hitting me?
This has not happened once or twice. It has happened three times. A car almost hits me, and it will invariably be a pretty girl driving.
Is it that all pretty girls don’t know proper driving?
It was no different this time too as we were leaving. I was walking through the crowd of four wheelers (which were hurrying to the exit) towards my parked car, when my shin almost got flattened between two cars.

We get so close near enough to fight
When a Russian gets me in his sights

I met an old friend by surprise while leaving. He’s the only one guy I know of who would fly from Calcutta to Bangalore to see this show. That’s Vinu. (Don’t bother to visit the link. He only posts once a year.) He was the kind of guy who’d splurge. (On second thought, Pavanaayi beats him at that. What’s your opinion, Sanju?) We had a lot of time to chat, because the exit was jammed for about 30 minutes. After that, we part ways.

And as I lay there gazing at the sky
My body’s numb and my throat is dry
And as I lay forgotten and alone
Without a tear I draw my parting groan.

The first thing I noticed after I came back to the real world; I was dead thirsty. We went straight to Cafe Coffee Day. They were closing, but they got afraid when I flexed my muscles, and gave us whatever we ordered. Then I dropped Justin and Chekkoli, and went home. India was in a pathetic situation. I thought… It was a wise decision to go to the concert than watch cricket.

I had never seen the last season of “Friends” completely, albeit being a big fan of the series. The stupid jokes of Chandler, the I-want-a-girl-on-a-bread ideal of Joey, mental-case Monica, kinky Phoebe, confused Ross and “daddy’s girl” Rachel. All were so unique and so together.

I saw the entire last season on DVD last weekend. And now I wish I hadn’t seen that. Not because it didn’t make me laugh, but because it made me cry. It turned out to be a “sitcry” for me rather than a sitcom.
I just couldn’t bear the six energetic friends separating, because they were running after their own lives. I couldn’t bear to see the helplessness of Joey towards the few last episodes. Reminded me of the scene in “Dil Chahta Hai” where Saif Ali Khan looks helpless when his friends part their ways.
I broke down into tears. (And I’m not embarrassed to say that!)

There are some things in this world which are very important. Friendship, bravery, courage to face any obstacles in life. Family and friends are very important for me. Perhaps, that’s why I cried.

I’ve had lots of “friends” (My mom reckons its a truckload), ‘had’ with emphasis, because I’m not in touch with several of them.
Why did this happen?
Was something wrong with me?
I contemplated. I asked my own mind.
Was there a problem with me?
I didn’t think so. There wasn’t. The problem was with everybody.

I would do most things for my friends. “Anything” would a hyperbole. I am yet to find a human being who is 0% self-centered.
That was the problem!
The answer was already known. There are no unassuming people in this world. At least, none that I’ve met. (Of course you have to exclude your immediate family; they may be unassuming towards you, but not to an outsider.) People (including me) consider their own benefits before even thinking about anything else.

I am not trying to preach here; but I keep on thinking about these things every now and then. Maybe a tad of selfishness is necessary in today’s world. I’m not here to debate that. But I think we are missing something in the rat race for a better career and caring about self.

Can I live without friends? Answer is an absolute NO.

I know I haven’t posted in ages and I’m really sorry. I promise that there will be one in a couple of days.

Until then, keep laughing at this joke. This is a real “own-goal” cracked one of my friends under the influence of alcohol I think it will be a classic.

DAT: I am Don Corleone.

KP (with an expression of superiority and pride in his face, jumps the gun) : I am Michael Corleone.

DAT: Well, Hello, my dear son.

[Everyone else roll with peals of laughter]
[After some time KP realises what the laughter was for]

KP: Oh Shit. Bloody f***

Let me start by saying this is one of the sensible tags I’ve ever seen.
Srijith threw an open tag, and it was hard to resist. It has even overtaken another pending tag that I have.

The tag is about the fellow bloggers whom I’d wish to meet in person. It’s a wishlist of bloggers.

The problem is I have a very small blogroll (compared to people like Srijith) to choose from. And I’ve met most of the people in my blogroll. So, naturally, it would be a mistake to meet them again. Just kidding..

Actually, I’m too lazy to browse and find interesting blogs around. Consider this: most of my blogger friends became my blogger friends because they had commented in my blog in the first place, and I had reciprocated. Anyway, I’ll have a list of 5 here, not in any particular order.

Maya Cassis
I confess that her blog is the one which I visit most often. Her blog is one of the more recent entries into my blogroll. But her writing style and her ebullience has impressed me so much. Never sticking to one writing style, she still manages to infuse the right amount of charisma into her posts. I want to meet her to learn; “learn to unlearn”, as she says. Maybe we can exchange a few ghost stories as well.

Chaos
I know Sanjeev and have met him already. He was my batchmate. But I want to meet him again. I will punch him in the face and tell him to write proper posts. They are becoming one-liners of late.

Tanu
For the records, I didn’t meet her in blogosphere. I met her in Orkut because of a common interest - Reiki. Soon she proved to be much more than that. A talented photographer, her photoblog is worth a visit. She has another blog, which she updates very sparsely. She has one of the most interesting and unique career paths. What’s more, she holds a doctorate!!!
I would consider it a privilege to meet her, for being the wonderful person that she is.

Miladysa
It was a chance encounter with Miladysa. I don’t know how she reached me for the first time. I visited her blog and liked it so much. She writes mostly about her family, and things that go on in her family. Her writing is so good that it makes a lasting impression. Today, she is easily one of the most loved bloggers of her friends. (I’m sure about that from the comments that she regularly gets, and the warm welcome on her return from hiatus.)
I’d like to meet her, with her family.
But the person I’ll be really looking forward to meeting, if I get a chance, will be the very smart and cute S, her granddaughter.

Srijith himself
There was one post in my blog which had doubled the incoming traffic in my blog - Fear of the dark. But only a few of the new fellows found a place in my blogroll. Srijith was one among them. His blog always radiates the analysing mind in him. He writes about various topics - his day to-day life, incidents arounds, thoughts and poems.

Actually, I want to meet all of the people in my blogroll. All of them are special. (That’s why it is a small list) But then this tag would be no good if I write about everyone.

I am throwing this as an open tag. Anyone can take it up. I want to expand my blogroll. So go ahead, tell me which are those blogs that I ought to read!! Do comment on my blog if you take this up, to let me know.