Day 0 and 1

Day 0:  Friday,23-04-10

It had been a while since I'd been on a trip of sorts; The last one being Kerala back in January. Only one branch mate was on the planning committee this time,but with such numbers, odds were it'd never materialise. But in the 3rd week of April, We found a window of opportunity, in the form of our annual cultural fest JAYCIANA. So we cashed in on it with no qualms whatsoever, And I figured the only thing I missed was Parikrama's inaugural performance in Mysore, but that was marred by rains as I later learnt:)

So Just a day before our planned departure, we booked our railway tickets for a  sleeper journey on the Swarna Jyanti express from MYS-BLG (belgaum). Train was to depart at 8, so I figured I can easily start packing by 6 odd. I am quite clumsy when it comes to packing and I find it hard to keep track of stuff that has already gone into the bag. So, as always, I took my Mom's help and she helped me stuff all the essentials into a single unit.

Later in the evening, I went to the General store to buy some Gum, Polo, 'Mysore Sandal Soap' TM  and the essential Hand Sanitizer that comes in handy on Indian Railways:)

The Train was scheduled to depart at 8.10, so I took a drop around 7.45 from my uncle. Two others arrived just on time, I guess they assumed I.S.T principle applied here too. 

We had not planned what we'd see in the coming days. We just had an overview of things and we had to figure out the best option with available time and money. So with the usual chit-chat and banter exchange, time flew by:).

Soon, our neighbours started to switch their lights out so we followed suit.

I chose the middle berth, kept tossing and rolling for a while but sleep didn't come easy to me like it usually does. I used my travel bag as a temporary pillow; it was at an awkward height. This was the only place I thought was safe for my bag, as I'd kept my cell and cash in there. So I decided that Sleep was to be sacrificed:)

Day 1: Saturday, 24-04-10

I'm no insomniac so sleep did come around 3.30 and I woke up around 6.30, had some 'chai' which was extremely sweet.. We were passing through the Khanapura Forest Range just before Londa, the air felt fresh and the sights were lush green. It was around 8.30 when we reached Belgaum.

ShravanIAS's Uncle Pradeep was to meet us at the station, which was surprisingly neat and well kept. 

From there, we proceeded to the Inspection Bungalow that Uncle had arranged for us, had a quick bath, and then hopped onto a big-ass Bajaj Trax and proceeded to Pradeep Uncle's place. There, we met his father who is all of 99 years old, but still had a step about him. After a quick visit, we went to a fine little place called Ajanta's cafe. We had Puri kurma for breakfast, It was simply A-M-A-Z-I-N-G, so much so that we ordered two plates. Each.

                           

                                                            Swell:P

  

After a heavy breakfast, we took a walk around the central square of Belgaum. The roads here are very narrow, almost non-existent, but are bustling with activity.

We took a stroll for a couple of hours, taking in the sights and sounds, savouring some Guava, Mango, and bearing with the heat:)
Soon, we were back on the trax and headed to a little town called Ramdurg, on the eastern edge of Belgaum District. It is believed that lord rama stayed in this place during his vanvasa hence the name. It was only a 2 hour drive. This region is very arid, comprising mainly wastelands and the occasional sugarcane plantations that apparently drained the water table.

On the way, we saw this very huge tree to the side of the road that is said to have medicinal value. Apparently, food placed beneath this tree would not go bad for days:)

                                              
                                                     Corn, anyone?

We reached Ramdurg around 2.30. Here we met up with Pradeep Uncle's brother, who is the M.L.A of Ramdurg. He had a delicious Jowar Roti lunch arranged for us. It was bliss.
Easily the best South Indian meal I've ever had. Everyone at that table from Mysore would probably re-iterate the same:p

This is called Killa Toregal, That's all i know, google didn't help:p

After lunch, we proceeded to have a view of the ancestral home under construction. 

                                             Everyone has a cellular phone:P

We then pondered for a while if we could visit Badami, Aihole 'cause it was in our itinerary, but then decided against it and pushed that plan to the next day. Later that evening, we walked to a Sugarcane plantation and had a look at how things worked in such an arid region, where borewells and pumps are farcical ideas considering the power crisis looming large.

The Sugarcane stalks were stacked up really high, and were swaying gallantly in the wind.

                                      This poor chap was telling us about all his problems in a dialect we couldn't quite catch. The farmers here were very courteous, they greeted us with a 'namaskara' almost every time. They were camera-friendly too:)

                              Perhaps we were interrupting their peaceful sojourn:P
                                               

After our little excursion, we sat by the side of a well and ate Mirchi bajjis with  onions, It was blissful:) We were actually pretty full with a heavy lunch still ballooning in our bellies, but this was one of those days where everything tasted so beautiful that we had to make room for more. 
We did also have some wonderful mandakki, and to top it all, some elneeru which was very warm yet had a cooling effect:)


                             

After all this, we did return to Ramdurg to have a drink called Doodhcold, which is a I-cannot-put-to-words-wtf-is-this drink that i will talk about in detail later.
Around 7.30, we finally left Ramdurg to Almatti, which was to be our camp for the night. For dinner, I could only manage a packet of chips. We checked into the IB there, and sleep soon beckoned. :)

Two weeks back!(continued-part 2)

Okay, all reminders not-withstanding, let me continue with the recap. Well, I can say there was a sense of satisfaction masking all the embarrassment, mostly 'cause I was relieved I'd finally done something about a crush, and it took me about three of em to make a move. Looking back, I still can't fathom how and why I did it, and albeit I do ponder about how things could've much better, I've no regrets whatsoever:). That being said, It'd still be nice if I had a number to work with, I figure I'm good with the 'virtual flirting' game. 

I put all this at the back of my head and went to attend classes, which were real boring to say the least. There was this one lecture by TRM, who is pretty much an eccentric fellow, real enthusiastic when it comes to comparing Electronic device performances to real life situations. This Guy T.R.M had brought along with him his childhood friend whom He let us address after 'his last class', after much emphasis on the end of 'a marriage' with us:p. TRM went on to ask us the meaning of success, or in other words 'when is a person successful'? Most of my classmates went on about the stereotypical 'he should be happy, have money etc etc', but I went on to say 'he must think out of the box' or something on those lines, and I was met with a few aaaaaaaaaaaahs and oooooooooohs, with TRM then giving the example of a burglar carrying out a stream of fruitful raids would be quite a successful person in his own regard.


This friend of his acted retarded. He went on to tell us how he ended up finishing his B.E about 6 months later than TRM, then went on to start his own company, got bored with it, and then got into animation, quit again and went on to do his masters and now has currently applied for a Phd course in national security which according to him has never been done in India! All this seemed pretty farcical to me, and so I didn't give this 'talk' much importance.


But then It got interesting. He went on to ask us whether we liked challenges. Sure, most of us put our hands up. So then He challenges us to drink six large bottles of beer.:P More chit chat, gibberish etc etc and a while later He basically told us to have Fun whatever we did! His basic Idea was- Career choices shouldn't be mainstream, we all should first do the things close to us, our the things we possibly connect with, but also ensure that we're 'there' career-wise on the sidelines. This really got me thinking a lot about life, it's cruel lessons and complications, subtleties, manipulations and I realised something- Life really is a lesson thrown out to us with hurdles attached, and well, we probably will never know how well we've fared (relatively speaking) until we're dead. Amen to that!


In the afternoon, the summer that drives the sweat glands also drove my body to sleep. I woke up around 4, K-man dropped in to say Hi. I think he expected some kind of birthday gift, but I made sure I gave him no such satisfaction. Later that evening, we visited the nearby Ganapati Sachidananda Ashrama, mostly 'cause he wanted to say hi to God on his Birthday! For those who don't know, I'm not that big a fan of the 'Creator', although I do fold my hands together and pray during the end-sem exams:)
On the way out, we received the customary 'prasadam', avalakki of some sort that tasted horrible (No offense to God or anything holy), So we figured the best we could do to avoid a situation was to give it t the beggars outside on the street. This brought a smile as we kept saying- 'Dhana maadidivi', like as though this one good deed would negate sins of a lifetime. 


We then proceeded to attend TechNIEk's, which is NIE's annual cultural celebrations. Most of the performances sucked; this could be attributed to the heat coupled with the fact that the fest was being held in their college auditorium, which had zero ventilation.
Nevertheless, we came, saw, bitched, and then left. Since it was still K-man's birthday and we wanted it to be special for him, We planned a Night out. 
As most engineering kids would know, A night out is incomplete without the customary booze a.k.a tanni. So, Ashish a.k.a deal and myself proceeded to purchase the essentials from a liquor store about 6km away. Only 'cause K-man wanted MRP rates! But he was kind enough to pay for it so I'll stop complaining. 8 cans of carlsberg beer,3 K.F blue large,3 quarters vodka and 1 quarter signature whiskey was what we deemed sufficient for 8 of us. We then proceeded to Sagar Katte (read here). 
There, under the starry skies with a few beers in our belly, we belted some Floyd in the car system and exchanged a few jokes here and there. I've always maintained that Floyd really DO sound hauntingly beautiful under the influence, and I'm sure the 7 others would reiterate the same. The problem with night outs is- If one guy falls asleep, it triggers a chain reaction.
Sleep was the only spoiler that night. We returned to a friend's place to finish the booze, but sleep had other ideas:) 


The next morning, I raced back home and went straight to bed. Sunday morning blues, I say! Thursday onwards were our 2nd internals that we had to write; We simply chose to bunk the first internals. Four months of no studying and then suddenly turning it on can be quite a bitch. Especially when some subjects have 3 units to be studied. 
This was the first time in my engineering life that I missed all subjects the 1st internals, and so the anticipation that one feels when he arrives early enough to college so as to not miss catching the last bench, coupled with expectations of an easy on the eyes- I hope he lets me copy- kind of lecturer on evaluation duty cannot be explained in words.


But the point is,this was the first time we couldn't finish the booze. I figure it's got something to do with God:)

Last week- part 1!

It's been real long since i last wrote something that made sense. The previous poem on clouds was full of shit. Well, I'd say I'm seriously running out of creative juices. It's actually painful 'cause usually, when i'm sitting in front of my laptop, my fingers actually 'roll' over the keypad and sentences do come easy.
I for one especially feel bad about this 'drought' of sorts, so this attempt is one to fill a few characters, speak my mind and make some sense! A few years from now, I wouldn't want to look back and ponder about the lack of enthusiasm I've shown recently when it comes to writing, and now I think I've done enough to accentuate the same:)


One credible reason I'd attribute to this self imposed hiatus would have to be my lazy ass getting even lazier. In fact, I haven't even been doing the things I love to do- Watching movies and reading novels. Anyway, enough of this nonsensical talk and let me get down to business.


9th April was the eve of my friend 'k-man' a.k.a s.f's 23rd birthday. Usually how it works with us is we all pretend that we've forgotten about one's birthday and don't give a rat's backside. But this time was different for some reason.
At around 11.30 p.m, I messaged s.f, wished him a Happy Birthday with all ardor that one can possibly fit into an s.m.s, and told him I was pretty sleepy so I wouldn't be able to call him up. But I somehow ended up on facebook and he was there too, so along with another 'virtual' happy birthday, I was forced to call him up past 12 since now he knew I was lying.
Seriously, this whole charade of who wishes first and who tries the hardest to wish at 12 is so cliched, or at least that's how I feel. How're 'virtual birthday wishes' going to make one's birthday any better? :O


The next morning, I somehow cajoled myself to attend class, what with all attendance issues that I'll talk about later. We had a break at 9.30, so us class guys went down to Yampa (milk parlour) to have some milk-shake. 
Well there she was. My latest crush, sitting with her back against me. Her dark hair shining brightly in sunshine. So near yet so far, I thought:P
It had been almost two years since the last time I did something about a girl. So the odds were I wouldn't do anything that day. But s.f convinced me to go talk to her. He used a filmy touch in his conviction, about how we only have 60 days left in this college life, and the number of rejections wouldn't matter since we'd all save face anyway. 
I was still pretty skeptical, since I'd long lost the 'art' of flirting or even talking sensibly to a girl I found cute. Even to this day, I don't know!
Seriously, what is with the female species.

• They have this thing called ego, which they flaunt around thinking it adds to their attitude.
• They have attitude, cause they always expect the guy to come by and talk.
• They expect us to talk in the first place:)

Anyway, I walk up to her with some josh coupled with a bundle of nervousness trying to convince me to turn back. I say- 'Excuse me, Can I have a word?'
I figure All's going well so far. But then she gives me a nervous look so I literally crap in my pants. She gives nervous glances to her friends as if she were asking for solace from me.:P 
But then her friends nod and so with much apprehension, I take her to a side and say something that goes like this-
' Hey My name's Kishore I'm from 8th sem EC. What's yours?' 


I was so nervous that I couldn't catch hers and didn't bother to ask again. From what I garnered, her name's Aindrita or something with some 'phlegm' like effect in between syllables:).
Then I tell her that I sorta had a crush on her. Then I wait for a few seconds but she doesn't move or speak. I wanted to get this over and done with so I directly ask her if she's seeing someone to which she replies with a short yes. When has 'yes' sounded so degrading?:P 
I was already acting retarded, and plus her friends were giving me looks so all I could manage was 'Catch you later then'. I didn't even ask for her number. Thu. I feel like such a dick. 
To top it all, One of the reasons I did this whole pointless-embarassing- I knew I'd be rejected thing was S.F had told me earlier that He had a girl in mind and was going to do something about her too.


To this day, he hasn't done shit and I haven't seen my chick either. Hopefully I can muster some courage next time and ask for her number. After all, What have I to lose? My rep? It was never on the line anyway.


P.S- S.F, the point is, you haven't done shit yet. So I'm using a 'virtual environment' to remind you, rather than meeting you in person.
More later, folks! I promise to write more often as I've a feeling i CAN!

Clouds!

They're drifting away in the night sky,

high above us, their colours sucked dry.

Oblivious to light, they jitter away;

they glide past countries and literally sway.

They edge on, with all their might;

Only the other side have them in sight.

Clouds, Oh clouds we see 'em in the day;

But during the night, they have their say!