There are sane people and there are insane people, if u belong to the latter or are bored of being the former this is where you parked your craft, come on aboard
I hurriedly finished packing and in even more haste packed up everything that was there in the room. Then I looked at my laptop and then at my now in a dilapidated state laptop bag, and then looked at the poor laptop that would have to either travel in one of the 2 already over full bags or in that laptop bag that hardly looked like it was in a state of carry it. I decided to put the legendary culcom rope to some use and tied the laptop bag to ensure it would hold its own and then sadly packed the laptop in it.
It was around 5pm and I was ready to leave, I had to take care of some more loose ends before leaving, which I did with a little hiccough and then I left for the railway station along with Preethi and Iti, who were headed to the city for a little after end term celebration. Packed food and the regular take home lassis. Then we were heading towards the train, but there was a very long line for the platform tickets and Preethi was in one of those “lets not break the law” moods, so after waiting for a few minutes we decided that I would miss the train if they waited any longer. So unwillingly Preethi and a more willing Iti came on the platform and made sure I got on the train and all that. I then saw them both stealthily sneak out of station (remember they dint have platform tickets) and then I retired into the AC three Tire coach B2 of the so well known train mandore express.
The train took of on time and I had just settled down and started listening to some music when along came Krithika and Sindhu who were in S1, we chatted for some time and then I went along with them to meet Roopal who was sitting in B1. This was all very usual on this train on the last day of the semester, everywhere there were students, some chatting, some watching movies on laptops, others roaming from one coach to another in search for other friends, it was like NLUs Hogwarts express.
At around 9pm Sindhu and Krithika remembered that they had seats in the sleeper coach and in a while the gate that connected the two classes would be closed and then they would be stuck in the AC compartment till Jaipur. So we bid Roopal good bye and went back to our respective coaches. I was feeling much better now but the fever had left its weakness and I decided that I could do with some extra sleep, so I finished the sandwich I had packed and went to the top birth set an alarm for 5am ( that’s when the train normally reached Gurgaon) and went to sleep.
We know how it is with vacations, internships and blogs, they all usually start together and get dormant at the same time. Yes, another vacation has started and this post is about the first 30 hours of this vacation and it’s a long 30 hours.
The last exam was labour law and I was not feeling too well, dint really feel up to writing the paper, somehow I wrote enough to satisfy my conscience and then I got up and rushed to my room to pack and move. Still suffering from a bad cold and terrible body ache, I packed in haste, just picked up everything and stuffed it in my 2 bags. Little did I know that this hap hazard packing would turn out to be a boon in the near future…
Well it seems like the world is going from wierd to really really wierd now it all started withVoixand her barbie and then that car ... of that poor car ... and i thought that Mumbai was the only place struck with the insanity of vanity.
Then however along cameHuh who had his own two bits of clothing disaster with what he called the most wanabe shirt ever and I really wouldn’t argue with him on that, and he witnessed this piece of fashion calamity in Delhi.
I give you straight from what lots of people consider a city where people know how to dress and trust me they do, Barcelona, the BIKE
Star studded in Pink this once Macho sports bike just seems to take the cake and oh lord why ? why ? why ?
I know big back log on the Stay in France but this one just took precedence the rest coming up very soon watch this space
Hopefully you have read all the previous posts in this series but in case you haven’t this is where it all started with a flip
Now last Sunday since I was staying in Bordeaux only I decided I would go do some thing totally Sunday like. Now on Friday when I was getting back from work I saw this big board about some international fair in Bordeaux so I googled it and it seemed interesting so I thought it would be a good place to spend a Sunday afternoon, plus the fair ticket came with a all day pass to travel by bus and tram, so even if I did get bored at the fair I could roam around the rest of town. Now in France there is an interesting thing about cigarettes, it can be very annoying at times but everyone smokes, so there are naturally a lot of cigarette shops which the administration has conveniently turned into retail outlets of tickets and passes basically like the mother dairy in Delhi. So I walk to the nearest cigarette shop and buy a ticket for the fair along with which I get a day pass for travel so I board the next bus I see and head to the fair.
If anyone has been to the India international trade fair this one was just like that, only it was a Bordeaux International Trade fair, so they had this one hall that had stalls from all over the world and a few other halls that had French companies with their stalls. I was roaming around the stalls from Africa and was very impressed by some of the wares of the Chinese stall. They had on display all various sorts of knives and daggers including the Samurai Katana which is an extremely interesting weapon. Lingering there for a while I went on to some of the other stalls when I heard some music in the back ground that had me cock my ears and listen with joy.
The music seemed to familiar to be true, and I could not believe that they were actually playing Aaja Nach le, being drawn by the Hindi words I went towards the source of the music to find a stage held by four sari clad girls dancing to the song. The first thing that reminded me of course was Sindhu, and then I thought about it and it had been over a week since I had heard a Hindi song, or spoken to anyone in person in Hindi, and I felt nostalgic about the language.
Almost as though there was someone listening to my thoughts this voice came from behind me saying ‘aur bhai saab kahan ghum rahe ho?’ a guy from Delhi had also come there to put up a stall. So I waited and chatted with him in Hindi for a while asked him how things were and he told me that business was bad and that no one in this city buys anything, they are all here just to roam around, and when I looked around he was right hardly any one was carrying any bag or evidence that they had been buying something, they were all just roaming around, just like me enjoying a Sunday afternoon. Then I continued to roam around in the vicinity hoping to run into some more people that spoke the language that I did, the dance got over and that was followed by some Egyptian dance. Time and again after that the troop that had done the first dance on the Hindi song kept coming back and dancing on different Hindi numbers, the dance was good for someone dancing on bollywood numbers in France but I was much happier just listening to the Hindi words. While still roaming around I ran into the girls that were the Hindi Dance troop and I just felt like going and speaking to them because they obviously had something to do with India, so I went and congratulated them said the dance was very nice, asked them where they were from, had random small talk for about 45 seconds and then they needed to get back on the stage for another dance so I went on roaming around. Soon the Hindi songs stopped and I shifted to other halls saw some very interesting gadgets that I just could not imagine using back home. After a few hours of roaming through different halls including one that had farm animals apparently in their natural environment, nothing in comparison to what we are used to seeing on Delhi Roads…. Farm animals in the natural environment.
Having spent a few hours walking I decided to get out of the fair and roam a little on the other side of the river. The only glitch with that plan was that I had no idea what was on the other side of the river, none the less, armed with my full day travel pass I got into the tram that was going on the other side of the river, traveled a few stations in until I felt really hungry and spotted a Quick just at the tram station. I got off and entered the burger joint, stared at the menu for a few moments asked the lady at the counter if she could speak English, receiving a negative response I proceeded to point out on the menu what I wanted and within a few moments was served and seated.
Fed and ice creamed I decided to call it a day and head back home. Once I got into the tram I felt this sudden nostalgia for bollywood and Hindi songs in general and then it hit me that I had my phone and handsfree and some songs on it. So I quickly setup the apparatus and was swinging to the tunes of Bollywood.
Now as such that’s all that happened, I listened to music on my way back, but the feeling was very different, and so was the effect. Now till a point I can take a tram or a bus but beyond that I need to walk and that is roughly 5 and a half kilometers from where I stay, so I was walking in the direction of the place of residence snapping my fingers to ‘kisi ki muskurahaton pe ho nisar’ when I thought….if I started singing loudly no one would understand what I’m saying so it really wouldn’t matter, and that’s what I did, I started singing on the top of my voice that song and the next until my phone decided that it was time to take it to the next level. It played ‘masakali’ now we all know that its impossible to not sway to Rehman’s tunes when ‘masakali’ plays. So I was not only singing on the top of my voice I was also swaying to the tunes on the road while cars are passing by at all sorts of speeds. The most interesting was this car had stopped at a signal and I needed to cross that road, now I was a little far away from the crossing and pedestrian signal turned red so I stopped still swaying with a tune on my lips and earphones in my ears and the lady in the car signaled me to keep going even though she had the right of way, I think it was because I was practically dancing while standing there but it could be she was just good natured and normally lets people cross, either way I’d like to believe it was the former. I got back listened to some more Hindi songs for a while changed the songs on my phone and now when I’m walking I’m singing.
Well if this was in a court of law, I'd have just held on the the insane label, but as such I'm this crazy guy that thinks about crazy stuff and i seriously have no idea why all this crazy stuff is subject to humans, it should be banned from the internet on grounds of insanity :)
