What a Weekend!!

What a weekend this had turned out to be. Read on to know further.

On Friday evening, I had a wedding of my brother-in-law's brother to attend. My family was already out there, as I had been out for work, I decided to join them at the reception. I had no clue on what was coming my way.

I had two choices to reach the place either take an auto or travel by train. I thought of travelling by auto as I did not wanted to take the risk of getting my clothes rubbed against fellow passengers while riding in a train. As I was already running late, I had not made up mind till the last moment.

It was the call from my sister who asked me where I was and told me to reach the place before everything gets wrapped up. I then decided to take the train route as it was much quicker than the road transportation. As some says if its ain't your day, you can do nothing about it.

I stood outside my building to catch an auto to reach the railway station, which is like a 10 min.walk from my place. As luck would have it, there was no single vacant auto moving and soon enough there was a traffic jam, thanks to the flyover build nearby. I decided to take a walk and finally managed to board a train. This did not end here. The train that I boarded was running late too, twice it stopped in between. It was then it sink in that I may not be able to make it on time. Later, I came to know a person at one of the stations came in between the train and the tracks while trying to reach the other side of the platform. I landed at the nearest station to the venue and thought my ordeal was finally over. I was wrong. I faced the same situation as I stood outside my building. sometime back. Only this time, the auto drivers were being choosy on where they wanted to go. There was long wait of commuters like me who were out on the road to catch an auto. I even went to the end of the road to catch an empty auto before someone else does. Even that did not work. Others also did the same. My patience was running out, so I called my sister to know how far was the place from the station, it turned out to be a 10-15 min distance. I decided to take my chances and walk all the way to the venue. As I made up my mind, and started walking, I found an auto camouflaged by the parking vehicles around which just dropped a passenger. I quickly made my move and asked him to take me to the venue.

There was another twist in the tale here. The driver told that he would take me if I knew the place as he was not from here. I told him, even I did not knew the place and that we can ask people to reach the destination. Soon he started his auto's engine and we were off. After asking a few people, I finally reached the wedding venue. I thanked the driver without whom my journey would have been incomplete.

The chairs were already half-empty when I reached there. I thought I am in for a lot of sound bytes. Thankfully, none of that happen. After that everything went smooth. There was more trouble coming for me which I had no idea of.

That night, I was constantly changing my positions and was unable to sleep. I did not know what was happening. It was only when I woke up on a Saturday morning with a cold, headache and fever that I realized what happened. The next two days, I slept and was on the couch wrapped with sheets watching TV and doing nothing. For now, I am avoiding cold water, though the fever and cold has gone, I am stuck with the headache and dry cough. Guess this is winter's way of telling its here and making its presence felt.

Lucky to Be Alive!!!

I thought this would be my last trip. If you have traveled in one of those "Super Express" buses plying in the state of Karnataka/Kerala, you would know what I am talking about.

This is not the first time that I was riding on these buses. The experience this time was definetly terrifying though. It looked as if the driver had made his mind up to live up to the name of "Super Express". For once I felt that the BEST buses in Mumbai was a smaller evil in front of this monster, but then you don't have so many open roads in Mumbai where you can really make your vehicles go faster.

Down here in Kerala, private buses form the crux of the road transportation. As there are many players involved, competition is tough. A case of who gets the passengers first at each stop and they would do anything to out do each other even if it means speeding, making dangerous manevours and overtakes.

The bus in which I was traveling had almost knock down a biker who made a wrong pass. The bus driver even went ahead and tried to make a U-turn without slowing down so as to reach the bus stop in the first position. His efforts did not pay off, but he did made me realize how one would feel if the bus is on a two set of tyres. There was a moment when I started chanting GOD's name when standing in a position made it possible for me to look outside the same glass the driver was looking through. The way he was driving, you too would have started praying. I am pretty sure that some of these 'maverick' drivers might have ended up in accidents. I wished not to be a part of it.

I am not sure if the people of Kerala find this amusing, but something should be done about this. For me, the bus ride was one hell of a journey and I feel Lucky to Be Alive!!

She Kept Pushing Me Away.............

I don't know why she does it every time I want to be with her. She keeps running away from me when I want to be closer. When I don't look at her she complains that I don't give her attention. She comes to me when no one is watching. Every time we meet she acts like she is angry on me, even though I have not done anything to make her feel offended.

I have never really chased girls in my life, but this one is really making me run after her. If you are wondering why I still try to woo her, well she happens to be my niece. She does not like to be near boys. I have a weakness for kids, I like to play with them whenever they are around. My niece turned out to be quite a "naatku". Always saying to me "kati", showing me the little finger whenever she pays a visit to her uncle's house.

Initially I thought she did it, coz she had not spend much time with me and it would go away with time. My niece certainly did not think so. Every time I tried to play with her, she would keep running away, telling me that she would complain about me to everyone. I was okay with this in the beginning, but then it started getting on my nerves. I know being a "grow-up" maturity is expected out of me, but then again with kids, you become one of them.

I started avoiding her, even acted like I don't want to talk to her. Even I did kati to her. She would then complain to her Mom (my sister) that I won't talk to her or say look at her. When she wants to play, she wants me around otherwise its kati all the way.

Even yesterday, the same story unfolded, raising the little finger towards me as she was inside the home. This time round, I tried to woo her and she kept running away some times hiding behind her Mom or Dadi's legs. Again complaining that she would tell everyone back home. Still I would try to play with her. Running behind her made me realize how we guys are kept on their toes by their girlfriends, she just reminded me of that.

Today, I finally find success when my efforts paid off, she kept calling up my name to play with her. It was a good feeling to feel needed. I just hope that this is just not for the time being. I hope the next time when she comes again, she won't raise that little finger again.