cnu’s brain

Ahmedabad Trip - Day 5

Morning as usual I woke up early and slept again. When I woke up again by 7:50, I found that everyone had their boxes out and eating their breakfast. We weren't even remotely ready to get ours in Vijayawada. I woke up Sathya and we got some pretty good breakfast and juice at Vijayawada. We asked that big, fat guy to go sit somewhere else till we finish our food and atlast he moved his ass.

We had out breakfast and soon he was back into business and we were back to the upper berth. Soon the train began to slow down at every other signal and by the time it reached Nellore, it was an hour late. It reached Chennai by 5:30 pm and Sathya was speaking to someone (his aunt I guess) that the train's scheduled time is 9:10 and is an hour early - so they can expect him by 8:10. This made me thinking "Oh, I wonder how they believe these things? Its the most illogical thing I have heard today".

So we left and had a great tiffin at Saravana Bhavan and then got an Auto and reached my home to give Sathya his paycheck. There are many things missing here which the would be obvious to the people related and they would know how to get those details.

But this was THE most greatest trip that I had and which couldn't be quite easily forgotten. Though I didn't get to see many of Reena's friends as she had promised, the trip was worth it.

I wish Reena and Pinakin a great married life and now my fingers are getting numb and sore after typing in almost 4000 words. One interesting thing I have decided to do is to have a new hobby and only a select few know about this and the amount of influence it will have on the others.

So, I would stop here for now and will probably have to do this again sometime during March. Till then, only short posts and funny pics of cats.

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Ahmedabad Trip - Day 4

Today I woke up by 3:30 (Ok, it was around 4) and got some hot water from the sleepy attendant and we got ready by 5. Arul had told us to come to Reena's house to get the sweets before we leave and she left for the airport.

After getting the sweets and getting dropped in the middle where we could get an auto, we reached the station and got into the train. While waiting for the train to start we had our cuppa tea and then sat down.

In Vadodara a big Tamil group came in (I think Lakshman Shruthi team) and a guy who was supposed to sit with my also came in. The TTR asked whether he could trade places for a girl (named Divya, 17) so that their family can be together - but he wanted only a side berth. If only he went to that place, things would have been completely different.

So he sat in the seat and within minutes he lied down and began to sleep. He got up only to goto the loo and for almost 30 hours he was lying on the seat. I was totally exhausted sleeping in the upper berth and would have become mad if the train didn't reach soon enough.

We were pretty bored looking at what others were doing. One thing I noted was many families there carry a huge cardboard box (size of a normal cabinet box) and when it was time to eat, we discovered the hidden truth about it. It was full of food and then had a variety of things to eat and they even have things to mix up on the go. We Tamils couldn't match their preparedness and if we were to go on a week journey - would probably end up dead.

There was one girl in Sathya's bay who was a bit heavy and who had got a upper birth. She was having difficulty climbing the berth as it was close to the door. So Sathya (the usual hero) goes up to the girls (there were two of them and the other was like Kamalini Mukherjee) and tells the girl something in English. What he said was that it was dangerous to climb up as the door was in the way and people could open it without noticing the girl (its difficult to not notice that big girl). So he suggested that she climbed the opposite berth and jump over to her's. I was thinking "Ok, he is ready to drill a huge hole in the floor". After he said and left the two girls were amused by the suggestion of Sathya that they were looking and laughing at him as if he were a jerk.

That day were were tired of the food from the pantry that we got some bread and omlette and had our dinner and slept. The day was pretty boring (as will be the next day) but I was occupied with my book (my iPod was totally drained).

Sathya was complaining that he needs something kill time and so I asked him to calculate the average speed between the stations from the LED display. And the next day I found that he did calculate the speed. Boy, he does need a life.

Update: I forgot to tell about the pair of jeans hanging on the window. Sathya wore the same jeans and it wasn't washed yet.

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Ahmedabad Trip - Day 3 Part 2

After the wedding was over, Sathya went off to see a friend from IIM and me, Arul and Bhavik were waiting in the lobby. He had told me that he would come around before 9pm to get his stuff for the airport as his flight will be from 9 - 12 (direct flight).

Arul was waiting for her fiance and we were seeing some pics. After a while Karthik came in and she went off to introduce him to Reena. I was sitting around with Bhavik and Jai (a little boy who was playing with my mobile) when I got a call from Arul and she asked me to come with them off to Gandhi Ashram. I didn't want to go and disturb them, but she asked "You are going to sit around with nothing to do. Its better you come with us". So we left in the car booked by Karthik.

We searched for some restaurant so that he can eat something. We got to a place and I had "Cold Coffee" which was literally sweetened, cold, coffee water. After that we went to the Gandhi Ashram and were seeing all the writings and pictures. Soon I got a call for Sathya asking whether I had cancelled the train tickets and that he had cancelled the flight plans and would be coming back in the train. He also asked me where I was and said that he would soon come there.

We went around the place and then came down to sit by the grass when Sathya came in. After about 15 mins, I called Sathya to come over to the Sabarmati river bank and we both went off. After sometime, Sathya told that he wanted to get some Khadhi kurtas and we went back into the ashram. After sometime, everyone were asked to leave as they were about to close the place and so we both decided to go and get the kurta he wanted.

After walking down the road and asking a few people we found out that all shops were closed as it was a Sunday. We then got an auto back to the room and the auto driver stopped the vehicle in the middle for some unknown reason. Luckily he stopped in from of the Gulmohar Park and we already wanted to go there. So we went there and the first shop that caught my eyes were the iStore.
We went in and saw the new MacBook and played around with it. It was so slim and sexy that if left for a few more hours I would have run out with it. We then got a Phillips earphones for my iPod and went to every floor. We had some Samosas, Katchoris and shake. We were pretty full from the lunch and this is all we could have.

Then we found a video game place and Sathya wanted to go and play around there and got some cards and we played on for 1 hour. We finally finished with a game of basket ball. In the middle we got a call from Arul asking us where we were and whether we will be coming for dinner? We said "No way. we are busy for an hour". It was damn addicting and when someone keeps losing to you, it just adds up to the pleasure.

Later we got home and after talking to Reena's parents for a few minutes, we told them that we would need to start the next day early as the train was at 6:30. I also made sure that I get hot water at 4 in the morning.

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Ahmedabad Trip - Day 3 Part 1

I kept the alarm at 5 and I woke up by 5 on hearing the alarm. But since I am famous for switching it off and sleeping back again, I got a call from Arul by  5:45 and I lied to her that I was awake only. I had to wrap the gift and it took me solid 30 mins to do a small box.  Then I got ready and was searching for the attender of the guest house to get some hot water. As luck would have it, I had to bathe in the ice cold water and then reached the wedding hotel by 8:30 with the gifts, hunger and a bad headache.

I went there and was waiting for Sathya to come and was constantly being asked by everyone "Where is your friend?" and I had to tell "Oh he is sleeping. Will be coming" or "He is on his way". After calling him numerous times, he said "The water supply is stopped and I am waiting for the water in the bathroom". After 45 mins, "Oh, just now got the water. Will bathe and start immediately".

One thing I learnt while I was sitting there was that some girl in a green saree (I doubt whether it was a saree, looked like a cross between a chudidhar+Dhuppatta+saree) had changed the dress 3 times. I also notice that everyone keeps on changing the dress every now and then. I wonder how they do it and where?

Till Sathya came I had to sit around looking sheepishly at the small kids running around and listening to the talk of the guy-in-the-yellow-t-shirt.

There are two such conversations:
The groom's friends have come in from Singapore and this yellow-t-shirt-guy was telling, "You see those chinese people. They are the husband's friends. When pinakin came, they too came and my father asked me to go and see whether the rickshaw guy cheats the foreigner. You see in India, we always cheat foreigners."

I keep nodding my head for everything he says with occasional "hm" or "Yeah". Then he continues "You see the meter said 94rs but the rickshaw wala was asking for 100rs. He was trying to cheat 6rs from the foreigners. They too didn't have 94rs and were about to give 100rs."

I was thinking "6rs? Oh My God. You better never come down south. You wouldn't survive an hour. And no sane person would have exact 94 rs. We always give Rs.100 and get back change".

He goes on saying "So I gave my money 94rs to the rickshaw guy. Now I was thinking whether I should get the 94 rs back from them or not". I was about to say "Buddy, if they had 94 rs they would have given it. They didnt have the frigging money and you had it. You are a loser and so be happy about it", but ended up saying "No, they are guests. You shouldnt ask them for the money".

Sathya came in atlast and everyone were getting ready to welcome the groom in the car. There were dance and lots of enjoyment in front of the hotel.

The other incident with the yellow-t-shirt-guy was - we both were sitting and suddenly he comes up and asks Sathya "Arul Mozhi is not looking". Sathya was shocked to hear that. We asked him "What?" and he said "No, I looking that Arul Mozhi is not looking anywhere."  For a moment both of us didn't know whether to laugh first or to tell him to go off. What he meant is left to the imagination of the reader.

Later the bride and the groom came in and there were the usual formalities to be done. First they were asked to sit facing each other and then they sat next to each other. But whatever they did, they didn't do it facing the 300 odd audience. They turned the other way around and everyone had to stand balancing on each other's toes to take the pics. And Sathya was taking the pics - but he missed most of the groom. Arul took the pic of the back of the pundit and Sathya took the pic of the back of the green saree girl.

Then there was some frying pan in the middle of the platform and the pundit suddenly light it. But on the wrong side. He light it inside the pan and this was the fire they had to circle around. The bride and the groom circled it and there was some competition about who sat down first. There was also some game with they stealing the groom's shoes and asking for money. Oh god, they are so dumb. Instead of stealing the shoes, they should have taken the wallet and would have gotten the money easily.

The people there were really good and were so cool with us sitting there looking like a bunch of idiots looking at the actual wedding while everyone were eating their full at the buffet.

Anyway, after all this we had some really nice food and lots of Gulfis and fruit halwa. After that we went and gave the gifts and talked to both of them before they went off to a huge family lunch. The wedding was officially over and what happened after that comes up in the next part.

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Ahmedabad Trip - Day 2

Most of the day 2 was spent on the train. Woke up quite early (5:45) and decided to not break my practices and slept again. Woke up late and then spent the most of the time reading the Hitchhikers Ultimate guide to the Galaxy. There was some station in the afternoon where we got some Gulfis and it was my first time.

By evening, the ladies in the next bay asked us whether we would help them in offloading the luggage from the train and then they gave us some rotis. Man, Sathya atlast had some food after more than 30 hours. They were talking about how they are going for a temple and that they need to climb more than 3500 steps 108 times over a period of 2 months.

After we helped them getting the luggage out when we reached Ahmedabad, we went out to get an auto. Now Sathya was the doing all the talking - and talk he did, everything in broken hindi or broken english. Pretty soon he would have gotten a broken jaw to match with his vocabulary.

He got the driver to put on the meter, but after some time I noticed that there was no meter in the place where it was supposed to be. There was some kind of a weird meter near the the driver's seat.

The roads were pretty big and there were no traffic jams at all. We were also looking at the pretty girls - but most of them were covering their entire faces with cloth. And Sathya was getting nicely from Arul for constantly commenting and staring at the girls. I was expecting her to give him the broken face, but it was also without any incidents/accidents.

Anyway we reached the place and got down near the wrong flats. Then we called up Reena's number and then atlast reached the place. We got introduced to her aunts and uncles and cousins. We then got a room in the guest house and then when we went for dinner, it was 10pm. We got together with Bhavik (Reena's brother's friend) and went in search of some food.

There was one corner shop which had lots of chairs and lots of people sitting simply without anything to do. We  then got some pani puris and vada pav. But unfortunately vada pav wasn't available and so I had to have some other item which was some sweet/hot masala inside two pieces of pav. It was good and then we washed it down with some juice.

Sathya then wanted to do some shopping - to get some soap for washing his jeans (4 days). After that we went back to Reena's house and were told that we have to get up by 4. We both then agreed to come there by 7 and we went back to our rooms and slept.

We went back and Sathya wanted to book a air ticket to bangalore on Sunday night. So, he went to a browsing center and was sitting there for half an hour trying to book the ticket and I was outside talking to Pratheema about the things happening around here.

By 12, the shop closed and he came out telling that there was some flight from Ahmedabad to Bangalore. It takes 12 hours as it stops at Bombay. I asked him whether he saw whether tickets were available and he said "If I saw the availability I would very well have booked the tickets. I will book the tickets tomorrow only".

There are couple of things to notice in this day's events. One is the pretty obvious to the people who have read my other post. And the second one is the jeans which wasn't washed for 6 days. Well it was hanging on the window when I slept. But what happened to it is on the Day 4 post.

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Ahmedabad Trip - Day 1

This is a multi-part post about our trip to Ahmedabad for Reena's marriage. It all started out by about 8:30 in the morning when we all (me, Arul Mozhi and Sathya) reached Chennai Central. We decided to have a light (light, that was a big mistake) breakfast at Saravana Bhavan. After that we got into the train (Navajeevan Express) and it started off towards Ahmedabad. We got a second class ticket and that was another mistake.

Everything went on well till it came for lunch time. We ordered lunch from the pantry and were seeing what the others were doing. Surprising not many people ordered lunch. Everyone had their own lunch. There was an old couple in out bay who took out the vessel to have the lunch. On seeing that, I said "Woah, the train will reach in 2 days right? I suddenly have a feeling that it would take a week".
The day was pretty eventless except for the really bad food, beggars and eunuchs. There are two incidents which I would like to tell here.

When you see an eunuch, you shouldn't see a eunuch. Just ignore them as if they are invisible and almost 80% of the time they don't disturb you. That is what most of the people in the train were doing. But Sathya instead sat up from the seat (side upper) and suddenly was giving attention to them. This made them to ask for Rs.10. That idiot didn't have any money with him and asked me to give. I had to give the money, all because of this Sathya. But he reasons out that if not given the money, they would insult your very badly. I do agree with it, but its better to look at it as a SEP (Someone Else's Problem).

Beggars: India is full of them and they have interesting ways to ask for alms. One common type you can see in trains are small girls having a ring - which they use it to go into and out of. They bend their body so much that most people would give money. There was a girl like that and here is what happened. She came near our bay and was doing this thing with the iron ring. Sathya was seeing this (as usual side upper) and was asked by the girl for money. He asked me to give some money to her (as he doesn't like to give money to beggers) and I said that I too don't like to. That girl was standing near him for a minute or so and then went off to the next compartment. But Sathya wasn't satisfied and asked me whether the Biriyani guy from the pantry was here. I said that I didn't know and asked why? He said that he wanted to give that girl something to send her off. He atlast made me get a packet of biriyani and had it for the girl to come. After some 20 minutes she came by (just to get off the train) and he stops her and gives her that packet.

After that I asked him, what the hell is wrong with him? He said that he was very disturbed by the girl doing such things that he wanted to do something to get her off that place and since he doesn't like to give money he got her some food. I said "Whatever you did was uncalled for. As the girl wanted only money. Even if he gives her something to eat, she is is going to go and beg. It doesn't change her. It is the same as giving her money. The end result is 'you make people lazy'. Giving money won't solve anything".

Actually the same thing happened a few hours back (he got three samosas for a begging family) but I didnt make any comment on it. But this one was the last straw. He needs to learn when to help others and how.

When the dinner came in, I found out that the biriyani was awful and had to share Arul's meals. She was really considerate enough for me to finish my part before she could have the curd. The day ended with me having to give my berth to a pregnant lady (who got a upper berth) and I had to sleep early (10PM is early for me).

One fun thing that we did was, get some 7'up My Cans and drink it up and squeeze it up and crush it so that the height gets reduced to almost 1/3. Arul was very sad to see such a tall can being converted to something like her.

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