Things to do before 30

My trip to home for 15 days justifies my absence from my blog. I came back and then became busy with trivia. I have got so many things to pen down after this absence.

Delhi & SPA Dinner (Jan 5, 2006)
To see Delhi after a long break was very pleasant and nostalgic. As I was taking the route from the airport to IIT I walked through my past. I saw myself strolling in the streets that I had left. I saw myself busy shopping for project in the market. I saw myself talking to Shakeel Bhai in Munirka, the welder guy who had helped me with my major project. I saw myself working out in the park opposite to IIT hostel gate. I saw myself having amazingly tasty hot paranthas with butter at small time makeshift shops adjacent to the IIT boundary. As auto entered IIT I saw myself walking carelessly hand in hand with my girl friend. I saw myself having late night chats with her on the library stairs in the cool gentle breeze and sipping coffee together. I saw myself working late night in studios and having beer with Blessen and Ashish in the junkyard using staff’s heater and utensils to boil eggs. I saw myself working on my computer and finishing assignments in the nick of time. I saw myself talking for hours on the hostel reception with my girl friend. And the list goes on. I lived the past again. The experience was so intense and overwhelming that the present became fuzzy and blurred. I hallucinated in the daylight.

In the evening I had my dinner plans with Alpi, Abhishek, and Nitika. I met them in Saket. I saw them after a year and a half. Nobody was changed except Abhishek who was sporting long hair with pony. Both Alpi and Nitika had put on woolen caps, jackets and sweater to keep them warm. The girls looked very cute in their woolen caps.I always liked and admired Nitika for some strange uncanny reasons. Probably she always looked guileless, craft less, and innocent to me. Earlier when I used to go to SPA I was involved emotionally with somebody else and could never saw her magic and charm. That day I looked her from a fresh eye as I was devoid of any relationship. She really looked beautiful to me. Her eyes were radiant and shiny and again looked sinless. Her face was glowing with the freshness that she disported all the time. She really made me to look at her again. I guess that she falls in the category of girls who would not come close to you but also would not go far, approachable yet maintaining distance.

We had dinner at a Chinese place - Buddha delight with steamed rice was really tasty. Out of an impulse Abhishek asked me my height because Nitika is taller than me. He then told me that I did not qualify for her because I was 5’ 7’’. I did not understand his motive to ask that. Was it to tease her or did he see the momentary likeliness that I had developed for her. Nitika was sitting next to me on the table. In fact Abhishek’s statement worked as a catalyst for the feeling that was lingering in my mind. I am somebody who is not worried of traditions. I am always ready to take liberties with age, height, caste, and creed. That moment I wished I should know her a little. In my heart I had answered the question to myself that it was not a matter of physical features but about understanding mental behaviors. Only if I knew her more than what I knew her that day. Only if I had realized that feeling sometime back when I was in Delhi, life could have been different. But life never gives you second chance. I knew that the moment was gone. I might never meet her again. But that day I felt weak and feeble. Why do we always take wrong decisions in life? Why do we run after people who show us attitudes and apathy? I need to look for an answer for these questions.

However, the momentary infatuation with Nitika ended the moment she left for her hostel. Alpi, Abhishek and I ended our dinner with a coffee at Barista.

At Home
Being at home is a nice feeling. Surrounded with your parents and siblings gives a feeling of security and warmth of love. I was showered with mouth-watering luscious delicacies for lunches and dinners. I was eating so much during my stay that my time in the toilet doubled.
It refreshed myself and gave me time to introspect. I chalked my life again from my parent’s perspective just to found that leaving them alone in India was not a good idea. I thought about myself to found that I should become stable and settled. I made a note of all the people who were there in my life and figured out my compliance with them. My friend Marie told me once that if your best friend is unmarried when you are 35 then you should ask her for marriage. Fortunately Marie had no intentions to marry till she was 35 so I was kind of safe. I liked her idea to get married to a friend. But in India no girl would wait till she is 35. As I thought about stability I thought about potential females around me.
I cooked up so many stories and dumped them. I planned so many plans and erased them. Every morning brought me a new idea and every evening signaled the end of the idea. It just went on and on till I returned here in Mumbai.

Bee kidnapped? (Jan 20, 2006)
I was sitting late in the office for a call. Sarvesh was sitting with Sarit and Saurabh when they were jamming. After the jamming session when we were leaving for our home, Khusboo requested us to drop her. Being gentlemen we agreed and while we were walking to get the car she proposed for a long drive. We hesitatingly agreed to this proposal also. By the time we left it was already 1 am in the morning. We set for an unplanned destination thinking aloud to make sure that we were following known routes. Think aloud lead us to Bandra. We were talking lazily half slept when the Khusboo’s mobile rang. Neetika had called her, as she was scared of her absence late in the night. Though I could not hear Nitika but the expressions left by Khushboo while attending the call were enough to tell me that Nitika was really pissed off. She scolded her for not picking up the phone and not intimating her about her Bandra excursion. Khusboo made and unsuccessful attempt to justify her. They reached a consensus and disconnected. Two seconds later Patrick called. Again worried about her disappearance late in the night. She explained him the situation. Saurabh made the last call enquiring about her. I was so carried away after these calls that I also wanted to call Khsuboo though she was sitting right with us. Sarvesh and I realized that we had just missed an opportunity to kidnap her.

Sarvesh and Khusboo were hungry and wanted to eat at 2 am in Bandra. We found a bunch of young freaks like us and asked for an eating joint. The guy jokingly told us about a restaurant called Sigri near Tava. I thought if Sigri and Tava could be possible then why not Patila and Baatli also. We managed to find the place and extinguished the burning appetite with some good food.

We headed to Bandstand to see the lazy sea tired of working through the waves the whole day. But it was high tide and the breeze was enough cool to make you shiver. It carried late night mumbai’s fragrance. There was nobody except us. Lonely roads, deserted pavements. The sea and we three were trying to communicate as we were hearing the crashing waves. A cleaner came later, whom did the girl label as criminal and kidnapper. Girls are very fast at judging people and I know that most of the times they are wrong. The girl who suggested long drive realized that she asked wrong people, as we were not ready to leave the place. Finally we were subdued and forced to come back. 3:30 am we left the sea alone though it wanted to continue the discourse. We also stole the fragrance of sea; she had decided to come with us.

Things to do before 30 (Jan 21-22, 2006)
Strange thing happens whenever I go out for dinner with Neha. I was fortunate that nothing happened on Saturday. Sunday dinner again proved to be eerie when we met an accident while coming back.
We had planned for a movie and a dinner. Movie was “Things to do before 30”. Though the title looked promising but the movie only upset us. Neha was late as usual and I had a quick snack in the meantime. She had worn a skirt and a shirt like top and looked beautiful in that. I was dressed up shabbily and it gave me complex. She was looking like a true corporate woman. She had picked up a sandwich and I was helping her to open the sauce sachet. I tried hard to make a small hole in it. She tried to force out the sauce but she failed. I also tried with extra power and spoiled my already shabby looking clothes when the sauce splashed all over my trousers and shirt. I was lucky to get the stains only in places where they were not looking so loud and obtrusive. She laughed on my agony and made fun of me. Instead of worrying about my clothes she got worried about the drops that fell on her new Hidesign purse for which she had spent 1200. She asked me to clean it sounding materialistic to me. Here I was struggling to clean my clothes and this girl was worried about the purse.
I always enjoyed her company. She thinks aloud most of the time. I like her because she fills in the space when I do not speak.
After finishing the movie we rented an auto to come back. Near Saki Naka we heard a sharp shriek as the auto tilted to its left. For a moment we saw death but finally the rumble and tumble got over as the auto stopped. I came out to see the damage. The wheel had come out of the axle and the axle rubbed off the ground for almost 10 mts. It was a miraculous escape. If there were a vehicle behind us it would have collided with us. The auto could have toppled over. Nothing that sort happened. Perhaps one of us saved the other.The dinner mystery yet remained unsolved. This time we saw the extremes of life and perhaps knew the things that we should do before 30.
Finally we had our dinner at Subway and bid good-bye to each other.