My living example

Money's been tight but life's been great the past 2 weeks. The basic agenda of this post is to be sort of a travelogue. As I sit here in pretty Pune, the last of my destinations, knowing I will seal this post only when I return to sucky Ahmedabad, I will try my best to narrate the experiences of the days that past and another wonderful day thats about to be spent.

26th September: The journey starts
The journey started with a rural project that we did in this village called Anandhra in Gujarat. What was supposed to be a week's worth of work, we somehow managed to finish in less than 24 hours thanks to a jewel of a man who took us around and helped us out tons. The village people were so much more progressive and optimistic about life than we ever imagined! Really, I have to admit, we city people are narrow minded and spoilt for riches.

But we did get a reality check on our way back to Ahmedabad when we traveled in the general compartment. My friend almost beat up another woman. Yes, tempers run high in that little coach. Please refer to the pic below to see how most of India travels.

28th September: Ahmedabad to Goa
UNO, Lay's, novels, iPods, gossip - pretty much make a train journey for 6 young and 2 old (Hashvin and me) people. I contemplated 20 hours of traveling with people I anyway stay with on campus 24/7 would be like signing up for Bigg Boss - Campus Voyeurism. It's a good thing people were sleepy cuz we reached before anyone could say Gobichettypalayam.

We were only half an hour into Goa that my friend realized he left his 7k worth shades on his upper berth. Then started an array of phone calls to stations we had never even heard of in our lives. When that matter got solved successfully, the same friend decided to take a short ride on the rented 2-wheeler in the evening, only to return a few minutes later - bruised and having half smashed the Activa. There went 30k that his daddy will never know about. Talk about a bad day!

Did I mention that the entire 4 days we were there it was raining? Aha! So friends who expected Sun n Sand were terribly disappointed as we were pretty much cooped up in either our hotel room drinking right through our noses or having coffee at the nearest CCD. I did find a very effective way to stir up the gloomy environment. At regular intervals during the day I would say "I love rains!" and would manage to provoke some change in facial expressions (read nasty faces) of my friends'.

Apart from a friend getting an impulse tattoo at Baga, finishing an entire bottle of Citrus vodka by myself, doing expensive hookah  and Arambol, a beach I highly recommend to visit, not cuz of the beach per se but particularly the road to it, Goa was a nice but regular thoroughfare, nothing unexpected or particularly exciting. Gots to find me a new beach city.

Don't look at me, look at the sea!

3rd October: Goa to Mumbai
What was frightening was an early morning call from my friend's dad that trains are getting cancelled due to heavy rainfalls and subsequent flooding. We were lucky to not having been a victim of endless train delays and reached Mumbai late night. Then came Wake Up Shit! (as AGG mentions) on Sunday, the less said the better and one of the best parts about my journey - Blue Frog. What we knew was that my friend was playing a gig there. What we did NOT know was that it was actually an international advertising awards function and his band had landed a gig as part of the show! So while we cheered for Leo Burnett for no rhyme and reason and the on-the-house drinks and food, I realized how much I had missed my favorite seniors who all happened to be there! In my drunk state I did get married to one of them simply on the criteria that he was older and single. Now what has this life come to... (Vidyashankar you ass, you need to send me the pic!)

The friend whose house I was staying at is a Marwadi. I would stop right there but I think I should elaborate, for the uninitiated. See, one word that describes Marwadis is opulence. Sheer opulence. If you ever happen to chance upon such a family especially at a time when the wedding season is near, like I did, you are sure to be acquainted with the life you have never seen before. From designer sarees to lavish food, there's nothing that they ever compromise on.

I did rediscover another side of me - the one that is extremely popular with the kids. Suddenly I became the kids' Archie bua and I had to listen to every nursery rhyme, see them play every video game and try to look like the loser in every game that they asked me to participate in. Fun. I don't wanna pat myself on the back or toot my own horn but Adu's mom even copied my tactic to make her finish her glass of sweet lime juice. What can I say, I'm a natural! Though I shudder when I think of the time I will have kids of my own. But that's a story for another day.

7th October: Mumbai to Pune
Is it just me or did the Mumbai-Pune highway get beautiful by the manifolds? 10 whole months of being away from the beloved city I wanted to hurry to get to it as if I had ants in my pants. And Pune never disappoints. It greeted me with the same amazing weather as when I had left it last. Meeting an old friend was purely the icing and most parts of the cake. Damn I feel alive again just moving around the city! Today, the 9th, we head to watch 2 back-to-back movies at love-me-or-hate-me E-square. It needs to be fun cuz tomorrow its back to same old blah Ahmedabad.

Yeck my balloon top and all that holiday weight.

What makes me sad is that after this trip I would have no reason to come back to Pune as my friend gets transfered in a few months (This is the part where I expect Mindey to extend some kind of a ehm...generous offer) Maybe I will join Osho sessions and do the crazy dance at German Bakery. Or maybe not.

10th October: What goes around, comes back around to Ahmedabad. 
Leaving Pune causes me to have separation anxiety, every single time. Can't believe I could've got proxy attendance and stayed there for 2 more days :( I guess it was a good thing I had a great media lecture to attend cuz I feel sort of like at home. Yeah ok, I'm a geek.

On a totally unrelated note, my love for Brandon Boyd has quadrupled given Incubus' new greatest hits album and the song that has been making constant rounds in my head - Admiration. Anyone can write beautiful lyrics but to be able to sing like him is a gift from God.

I hope you enjoyed my twin-city blog post :)