Long rail journeys are generally very boring. They tend to get all the more abominable when you are travelling in a second class with each seat packed with 5 people, 4 of which are travelling without reservation. Needless to say, you are the one with the reservation.

Recently, while undertaking one such journey, I came across a person travelling without a ticket sitting diagonally opposite me along with a couple of his other friends. For the first 15 minutes, I simply thought of getting up and swinging a roundhouse kick across their respective heads just like Chuck Norris. But then, I just decided to bear them. They seemed to be very well informed about the happenings around the world.

One of them sparked off a discussion on the Baba Ram Rahim row, wherein one of the Baba's bodyguards shot dead a man in a shopping mall. The guy, who was gonna be the target of my kick, came up with a fantastic point. He said and I quote - "In my opinion, when someone has decided to spend his life meditating day-in-day-out and preaching his followers and dons the regard of a BABA, it implies that he has decided to spend his life serving God and His people. The word BABA makes people believe that this man is so close to God that maybe by following him they too can serve God and wash away their sins.".

Till this point, I felt that he was saying something I may have thought about at some time or the other. But then came a barrage of questions that were worth quite more -
"If this guy has decided to be called a BABA and he claims being close to God, why the hell does he need 2 cars full of bodyguards ? "
"Why does he stop people from entering the shopping mall when he is shopping ? Why is he afraid that someone might hurt him ?"
"Why did he have to take refuge in Mysore when he knew one of his bodyguards had made a mistake ? Why is he trying to protect a criminal ?"

No one had an answer to these rhetorical questions and the man had proven his point.

The questions are worth a thought though.......

The Morning Saga....

Picture this – “It is just about time for the sun to rise. You are comfortably nestled in your bed. The fan is on full blow and a cool natural breeze blowing through the window adds to the comfort. The annoying cricket has disappeared. You are having just the perfect early morning sleep.”

I was having one of the many such perfect mornings a few weeks ago. Suddenly, I was shaken by the shrill noise of the phone alarm. It was time to go for a jog. Initially I just ignored it. But, the manufacturers of Nokia probably considered this to be normal with many people (Thank God!! I am normal) and therefore made sure the volume of the alarm increases from “subtle” to “unbearable”. Unable to take it any more, I just grabbed the phone and hit the “Snooze” button. “Snooze” is just a polite word for “Shut up…I will deal with you later…” The sadistic grin of having shut the alarm appeared on my face before I dozed off again. But, alas, it was so short-lived… The alarm took off again in 5 minutes….That’s so sadistic of Nokia to set the snooze period to just 5 minutes. I just hit the Snooze button and yet again the next time… Finally, out of frustration, I hit the “Stop” button. The ultimate solution to my problem.

But, then, looking at my weight increasing exponentially, I really wanted to go for a jog. So, I finally managed to drag myself out of the bed and headed towards brushing my teeth. While brushing my teeth, the dream that I had conceived while sleeping re-appeared before my eyes. It continued from where it left off. Suddenly, I shuddered when I heard someone from behind saying “Deepshu, so gaye kya????” I opened my eyes and it was my Mom. I had fallen asleep while brushing my teeth. I know that’s so unlikely, but it’s true. However, ashamed that I was, I got up with a start, got into my tracks and went out for that impending jog. I must admit that getting up early is tough, but the feeling that one experiences during and after a jog is so serene and satisfying. It makes you feel that you are already a few pounds lighter. But, don’t you fall for that, as it is not very true.

The next few days were easy and I was quite regular. Then came the weekend and I thought of giving myself a break since I had been quite regular throughout the week. Before I could realize, the weekend had zoomed off faster than a Ferrari, and here I was on a Sunday night, setting my alarm for the next day. The next day, the same process repeated itself and found me trying to get myself out of the bed. I did manage that and went through the entire brushing phase without any problem. I washed my face to make sure I did not feel sleepy. It worked. I got into my track pants. I was ready to put on my shoes and leave. I noticed that I was ready about 5-8 minutes earlier than my usual time. I decided to lie down for 5 minutes. There...that’s the mistake I made. I, immediately, started feeling sleepy and the effect of the face-wash had started fading. I got up after 5 minutes and went to my room to sleep through the next 2 hours. You guessed it right; I did skip my jog yet again.
After I got up, I would normally curse myself, but instead I felt… “Aaah...wow….that was good…”

Quite some time has passed since these incidents happened and I am fairly regular now.
I manage to go about 5 days a week. How did I manage to find a solution to my “morning saga” problem??
Well, 3 out the the 5 times, I go in the evening ….it’s much easier….

“Saamp bhi mar gaya aur lathi bhi nahi tooti….”……

Mix-ology or Crap-ology

Sheeesh...!!! Its been quite some time since I have posted in this space. Well, to say the least, I have been tied up with a lot of boring activities which lynched most of my time. Now that I have managed to break free from all the shackles, the first thing on my mind was to get back to blogging. So, here I am, writing again. It may not be something I am great at, but it’s just like a dope. You hate it, or love it, it’s addictive.

Over the past few days I have seen some horrible movies – December Boys , Krazzy 4 (it surely drove me crazy) and some good ones like Ironman, Race. The other thing I have spent some time on over the past few weeks is reading. I recently started reading and I must admit, it’s a lot more fun than I initially expected it to be. I have gone through a couple of interesting reads and some not-so-interesting ones. In the process of it, I realized that the one thing that surely makes me dislike a book, against most avid readers, is something utterly unrealistic (not exactly fantasy).

For instance, I recently read a book called
“The fundas of Mix-ology. What bartending teaches you that IIM does not...”.
It starts off well describing a group of guys, one of them being the protagonist, who work for a very reputed firm – “Dynamix”. The protagonist has always taken the safe route for his career, and ultimately lands up in this firm. However, he has always wanted to be a published author, but never had the guts to quit his lucrative and comfortable job. Till this point the story is believable, a bit slow though.

Suddenly, one day he meets with an accident and then finds himself in a strange location. He is further bewildered when he is told that he is dead, although he wasn’t meant to be. It was a mistake on the part of the company to which this work had been “outsourced”. Yeah, right … God has outsourced his work to agencies now, which make mistakes…. My 3 year old niece would like to hear this as part of her bed-time stories.

Later, as the agencies are figuring out a way to send him back to life, he decides to kill time by watching the possible options for his future – will he be a writer or not ? He does not like any of the options he sees and just wants to stay there. Hahahahahahahahaha….Is he in school ? It does not end here. He is then sent back to his life on earth. Circumstances make him believe that all that he saw up there was not a dream. It was actually true. Now, this just knocked me off….

I think there was a movie based on this story in the 90s where Kadar Khan played Yamdoot who had come to earth to hunt for..eh…I think, Chiranjeevi….(The famous actor from South).
I am having a hard time remembering it's name .. Please let me know if you can recollect...
I have no doubt about the author’s writing skills. He surely has good writing abilities.

But, the story, as he rightly accepts in the book itself, is something no one except he himself can believe.

-Deepesh