The KSRTC bus ride back home
Image Courtesy: Nostalgic Kerala Photos

That evening was a strange one. After bidding farewell to my friends, I took off from Kochi hoping to reach home by evening. Time does its plays in every man’s life, and on that day it had found pleasure in squeezing its fangs on mine.

The journey began rather well. I had refreshed myself with some snacks and a lime soda for the three and half hour bus ride back home. The places sparkled in familiarities; but the bus was overcrowded, providing a chance to explore my bachelorism.

The one thing you know when you are a bachelor is that time will pass easily. This theory is often picked up from laziness, as almost all the men in bachelordom like to waste time with their mischief and many pranks. One among them is flirting. The boredom arouses every now and then, leading to newer discoveries each day – some of which may sound totally insane!

One such incident occurred during my college days. The food at the hostel mess had got over by the time my roommates and I returned from our movie. Life in that remote area of Tamil Nadu is ever memorable with its mini-theatres and all the action available both in and out of campus - at rather cheap rates. Hunger had struck us by that time, and since we hostellers weren’t allowed to use electrical appliances, making something was not an easy task. However, I had some left over sugar in custody. We decided to raid the mess hall at night. The storekeeper was not pleased. He scolded us and asked to leave. We retorted, applying that all we wanted was a packet of coffee! He had to oblige. Now we did not have a kettle, but there was my oversized stainless steel dinner plate! We borrowed steel glasses of equal height and set them upside down on the floor of our room, to form a stove. Roaming around the hostel for some sort of fuel to cook, we managed to collect fifteen to twenty candles from various rooms. The match box was easy to find, as we teenagers had our habits! Filling two liters of water from the filter, we got back to our room. We set the candles around our ‘stove’ and lighted them up. Then we fixed the ‘dinner plate’ atop our ‘stove’, and poured in a liter of water. After ten minutes of boiling the water, we added the sugar and the coffee and stirred our beverage. The aroma was simply appetizing for that night! That was how we made our candlelight coffee, spiced up by a talented cameraman who did the commendatory rather well.

Tempting?
Image Courtesy: P/B

Travelling was one of the entertaining pastimes of my life. I’ve had my share of airplane, train and bus rides to various places around the world. Of all these places, India still intrigues me to this day! I’d prefer the window seat and gaze at life along the road. On that evening, I was comfortably seated aside a window and was enjoying the scenes of tropical Kerala. But before I knew it, I was texting this on my Nokia:

I’m pissed, I’m cold, and I’m wet;

It’s raining and I can’t feel any sweat.

This rickety bus mourns,

My self-esteem’s finding cons!

I just want to get home,

Or any place with a ‘MAN’ board on;

Just murder this guilty ride,

It’s a bachelor’s pride at plight!

Amidst the mind’s “oohs” and “aahs”,

I dream of a relief far from sight!

The bus had reached a quarter of my journey, and it would be difficult to quit the ride and find another one after relieving myself. So I shut myself to other thoughts. Uncontrollable emotions filled my mind. For once I wished I could just turn OFF for a while. But, all good things happen when you least expect it. And at precisely the right time, my adjacent passenger decided to exit, and a damsel standing next to him occupied his vacancy. Wow! I felt as if it had snowed in summer!

The sign I longed to see!
Image Courtesy: Amusing Planet

To add to my jeopardy, the girl looked familiar. It took some time for me to recognize that she used to live next to my home a long time ago. Oh God! Why this kolaveri? Could I tell her how I really felt at that moment? It was embarrassing. I didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry. I took out my phone and typed some more:

I mourn, I bleed, I scream, but

When I sleep, I dream, I fly!

I kid, I prank, and I joke,

When I see you face to face, I choke!

This girl was the girl of my childhood dreams. We grew up as play-mates, often playing childish games with our friends. Now, after many years, she was rather a cute stranger. Looking at my unfriendly appeal, she decided to strike her conversation.

“I thought you didn’t recognize me until I saw you smile at the window. What are you doing these days?” she inquired with a smile.

“Hmm... I’m studying at Kochi. Didn’t you see that on Facebook?” I replied, stabbing myself mentally for not making the first dialogue perfect.

“I’m not an avid FB user. Totally busy these days with college work you know”, she said with a frown.

“ Yeah, that’s what they all say!”, I guffawed. I wondered if any of my other friends on Facebook really knew what I was doing.

“Who are they? Your girl friends?”, was her immediate sarcasm.

Now that was too much. Girls always want to know you better once they are familiar with you. Some even think they have you all figured out.

“No, I meant that on a general note. Where are you headed?” I was trying to act friendly while mourning inside.

“To a friend’s place for the weekend”, she replied. “What about you?”

“I’m going home to meet my Grandma”, I replied uninterestedly.

“Oh. That’s good. How is she? And where are your parents and sister? She was being friendly.

“They’re all fine. Parents are in Kuwait. Sister has joined college”, I replied quickly. 

After that I couldn’t control myself. So I got up, took my bag from the rack above me and pretended to pull out a pair of headphones to listen to some music. Seeing my unusual behavior towards her, she sighed and started texting or calling someone on her iphone. I didn’t bother to talk to her as I was busy trying to contain my situation, although I must admit that it was heaven in hell!

Life felt like an advertisement. The smarter you present yourself the wiser people think you are. Instincts! But that doesn’t happen always. Nature was calling me madly. And time was moving slowly. The bus managed to find all the unnecessary hurdles that day. Crazy speed breakers and the endless rain had fueled the adventure. But my mood was not right for such an occasion. To add to my misery, an accident had taken place along the highway and the traffic through our lane was soon diverted, which would increase my journey by half an hour! There was no escape from the inevitable. I couldn’t spit or swallow – I just had to eat time!

At that time, I decided to pray! I closed my eyes, tuned my playlist to Worship songs and pretended to loose myself with it. But with each beat, I was gripping my bag harder, and cursing my bad luck!

Somehow, the bus reached the next big station – Alappuzha. I go out from the seat with my bag and headed to the rear exit of the bus through the crowd. As soon as the bus stopped, I jumped out and was scanning the area for a spot. Thank God I was in Kerala where the field of scope for such entities is endless. Behind me I saw a fellow passenger push me and run. I followed him. Soon we found ourselves a clearing behind some trees and relieved ourselves.

He was smiling at me. “Thank God… What a relief!”, he said.

“Hehe…I never thought I’d make it!”, I exclaimed.

I had exited the bus without wishing her goodbye. I saw her heading towards a shop in Alappuzha. I decided to wait for the next bus rather than to follow her. I felt guilty for being rude to her with my silence. The next bus arrived and I took it to my hometown.

Night fell by the time I reached my destination. The daily power cut was going on, and the rain seemed far from stopping. I left my umbrella in Kochi; however, I had a torch, and decided to walk home. Some wild dogs were seen patrolling the roads and some of them barked at me disapprovingly. Along the way, I met an old man. He had an umbrella. It didn’t take long for us to share our resources and move ahead, although we never spoke a word. Sometimes, some angels are sent from God even amidst rainy situations - here I was his angel, and he was mine!

Nostalgic Backwaters
Image Courtesy: Nostalgic Kerala

I reached home, and after a brief welcome and story-telling session from Grandma, I got refreshed and logged on to Facebook. To my surprise, she was online.

“Hey, reached home? I couldn't say goodbye before I left”, she messaged me.

“Yeah, you were too busy with your phone nah”, I guffawed, hiding the truth.

And then we continued our private conversations…

An evening on that bus and the events that followed, taught me a lesson. If it’s wintering in your life right now, can spring be far behind? Soak tears of sorrow no more, because joy is on her way home!     

P.S.: This post is a work created for the Soak No More Contest by SurfExcelMatic on IndiBlogger.in If you liked this post, please vote for it here

I was on the way back from college. The 5^th exam had gotten over, and it was time for a long study break. We deserved a long trip home, as frying asses on the examophobeboreattact wasn’t my type. In spite of the addiction to the internet, the days had to be spent at home. It’s been a while since I’d seen my place, and the folks were worried that I’d forgotten about them.

So, off I took into the realm of the travelogue you're reading now.

At first, the bumpy bus ride, took me from my college to the nearest town. Being the only source of hope, I had to take the earliest train to our destination as the pilgrimage season was going on. Managing all the hurdles of a rush hour, I got past the railway station and board the first train, the West Coast Express. The mayhem of wild monkeys from all over the world reigned in that jungle of adventure. There was a lot to explore and the world seemed a tinier place with the advent of faster technologies and click lifestyle.

An assuring barbarian dinner of some rich south Indian and continental cuisines had set my stomach churning, and the sleep glands were getting their full. Once entering the train, the occupation of one’s empire was a niche of easy touch. Lucky for me, I found peace! But sleep was the worst option on a tired old day trip on a train. I’m a pillow guy, who likes to hug, squeeze and sleep on his pillow. Most kids love a fluffy teddy bear at bed, but my mate was the pillow. Over the years, the times on train rides had caught up my imagination and I was found to love my bag. The habit of hugging my bag had come to reality. But unfortunately for me, today, my bag was heavy.

On entering the train, I had found neighbors who were on a saga to the holy mountains. But, one little girl among them caught my attention. She was trying her best to fall asleep in her daddy’s arms, but the discomfort was so restless it kept her awake all night. My overweight bag had started to hurt my legs, so I offered it to her to use it as a pillow. To my utter surprise, she immediately liked it and started loving it, sleeping well for the rest of the night. On nearing my destination, I had to forcibly pull away my bag at my stop. The possessive ideology no longer sprouted wings, and today I lay content with emotions as I remember that day again. 

P.S.: As was written on 19th November 2011.

Examophobiboreattact was a word coined by me and you can see more about it here. 

Today was an action packed day. A day that's so rare in it's own kind; a day which took me to places I've longed to see yet couldn't because of my ego and shy attire.Today, I've achieved what i didn't in the past 3 years, I've visited a prominent part of Namakkal and roamed around her out-skirts, freely like a man should be! I never know this situation would arise. It so deliberately happened that i had to purchase some novels for the symposium that is due at my college. I was accompanied by two of my friends, who had not the rarest clue that i was a first timer to this part of the town that's nearest to my college. It's a shame that I had never shown the guts to try out a venture into this place. A fear of the inevitable, as many people would call it, had blinded me over the years. I have never felt confidence in myself to stand up and be a human being with emotional qualities. But the time and tide keep changing, and today one such coincidence gathered my wildest dreams into reality. I'm thankful to the Almighty that each situation that i'm put into is a rare occasion to me, and it's a chance for improving myself. The whole day was spent in front of the Principal's office, involving myself in various activities for the symposium. And now i'm back at the hostel, resting and content; lying in peace until dreams cast me away into sound sleep! 

A normal day travel on a train can cause you to write wonders, just by looking at the happenings inside your boggy. Have you felt the same?

Saga of a Survivor

Through the shadows of night,

I travelled by a way of mockers;

They gossip about black dime,

And meek treasures of human slaughter.

A path so broad and open,

Full of souls that lust of the mortal.

Evil spirits haunt till dawn,

Around Castles of Living ‘Dead men’.

The new moon must rise,

Till then they carry their melodrama,

And once they’re drunk deep with love,

They lose conscious and murder.

Hastily missing each foul did I,

Survival as Only Aim in mind,

I cast these thoughts away,

Like a butterfly on a glide...

Written By: Anoop M. Mathew

Written On: 18th June 2010


Image Courtesy:  Google Images