I remember...

How many of us still do this? Close our eyes and forget the present. Take a trip down the memory lane and think about only the good things. What comes to your mind?

To me comes a winter morning. Early morning. Just when the fog is clearing and the sun is trying to shine brightly. But the fog diffuses the light and the warmth and it fills my room. I snuggle my blanket closer. Time to wake up and be on time to catch the bus.

A place abuzz with lively voices. Strange cacophony with a life of its own. The voices together show the character of the place. The voices speak a myriad of qualities. From thoughts of having lunch after skipping breakfast at home to thoughts about how a political unrest in Cambodia needs a voice of protest. Someone starts singing, the strum of guitar, a row of faces stare at the walls searching for a significance of the song in their life.

A starry night with the moon high up. "Spirits" are running "high". Someone starts a topic, others join in. Some move away to have a smoke. Few others join in. A clink and a clank of bottles heard at regular intervals. The conversations continue. A voice breaks into a song. It soon becomes a chorus. Time passes. Sleepy eyes have lost their sleep. Dawn. Time to go to sleep.

An ashtray, a mattress, a packet of cigarette, a lighter, a dark room lit by the light of a laptop. Fingers tap away at the keyboards. Excitedly. Like a baby trying to grapple at anything he lays his hands on. Cool breeze blows and the night has just got older by an hour. The steady sound of a leaky tap. And in front of me a vast expanse of smoke. Taking various shape and playing with each other as they disappear into the air. I don't need to remember this. I am back to reality...

Glimpses...

I have become progressively less creative as days have gone by... Now I am reduced to an absolute nothing... Living in a strange city where people speak in Hindi which is strangely fitted in with words of Telugu... After 10 at night it becomes an adventure to return home... You cannot talk on your cell when walking on the road lest your cell is snatched away... Where am I living???

My dinners have been reduced to sandwiches which are fancifully called subs... My lunch is no more than glancing at an array of taste bud tickling names, then swiping my card to ask for the simplest food available... I miss fish and mutton and all things that I liked... I hate the food that's called "ghar ka khana" coz it tastes nothing like "khana", forget the "ghar ka" part... Hyderabadi biriyani is better prepared in Calcutta...

My weekends are spent sleeping like a log and planning to go and do something more eventful next weekend... My house is exactly in the middle of nowhere and where the world ends... I have to pass a jungle to reach my house... Well the road is the only saving grace... Auto rides are painful when a nauseatic mix of Himesh Reshamiya is added with heavy beats of typical South Indian mindless film music... Lots of pubs and dics with sad ambience... "Touch" lacks any touch of good music... 10 Downing Street seems more like sitting in a house which was forced to turn into a pub since it had a fair amount of furniture... I am sorry but I didn't have the heart to visit any more... Not that I am too keen to...

Anyways my drinking sessions have almost vanished... People here think that dancing their wigs off is partying... Wearing the skimpiest of clothes with no one even sparing a second glance is dressing up... Running for 10 mintes on treadmill is being in shape... Working out means going to gym at 9 at night... "We will have good food" means the afore mentioned "ghar ka khana"...

Restaurants are good compared to other "hanging out" places... Barista and Cafe coffe day are the places where the best coffee and tea is served and over a cup of coffee you have intellectual and deep conversations... If that's so, I have never interacted or participate din converations with people who are content with the Rs2 tea in a broken down shop with a 50p biscuit and able to talk about "Roshomon" and "state space model and Kalman filter" in the same breath... Having intelligent talk means plans to see the world and gather experience (without having any idea about where to apply them or whether they even have the ability to apply)... Did I talk about the people here??? Naah.. No point... The best part of the city is most other cities are overnight journeys... I love that...


Enough of crap... Half of these facts may not be true but I am just in this phase of finding faults... It will go in a day or two and I will talk about nicer things and might just negate all I said just now... :-)