Mangalore-My love (beware, its too long)

Often during my conversations with Vikram, even now, suddenly we feel a craving to forget everything in the present and go back to the good old days, of college and hostel life.
But readers wait! This is not another of "Oh those good old days..those were the days" kind of story where its all about how hostel was funny and ragging was a blessing in disguise. Infact I planned to write a detailed description of all places, but then thought better i be some brand ambassador of Karnataka tourism. Instead I describe one incident here which sort of summarizes my love of what I like about Mangalore, rather DK district.

It was around 2^nd week of November 2004. I was in Infy Mysore and was aspiring for MS in US. Since me and Vikram had started this venture together we decided that it was high time we go back to the college (I graduated in June 2004 from NITK) for transcripts and recos. I started from Mysore, in Ideal Travels and reached Surathkal at around 5:30 am. Vikram arrived at 6:30 and we booked a room in Maharaja hotel, though it was a more common practice amongst the ex-students to stay with the juniors in the hostel blocks, but we had too much work to take it to hostel and frankly we were afraid of the numerous questions by the juniors.

Now let’s fast forward a bit, went to college, missed on one prof (out of station) and the other professor said no. Only one of them had agreed to give reco. But surprisingly, the best and the most strict professor and erstwhile HOD, Late Dr. P N Shridhar voluntarily agreed to give me recos. These things took up the whole day and since the success rate was only 66%, even Vikram had similar experiences, we were pretty down.

I don’t even remember what I did that day afterwards, but I remember sharing my frustration with mom over phone who suggested to further approach the prof who rejected saying that as teachers are inherently good people, he will agree. And believe me, it worked, the prof was really happy and said he wanted to see my real zeal. Well all went well and things were finally in place by 12 noon though we had to be back at around 2.

Oops, here my story actually begins. Such a long prologue, but well that’s my style!

Anyway, so now we have 2 hours to spare in NITK. We rush to the sadashiva temple near the college beach. This is one temple I like immensely mainly for its quiet atmosphere. Here our usual frightening priest was waiting. Frightening I say because he has typical Brajesh Mishra looks and I have a feeling that he doesn’t like college students coming in all odd dresses and without bath and pray and never even bother to put something in the donation box. But it was a rule that he will serve the holy charnamrit and a tiny ball of chandan to all who offer prayers.. He did that with such a pathetic face. But things change as soon as you ask for 7 Rs or 10 Rs Prasadam. This time we were prepared. We were earning J. I donated a new rs 5 in the hundi and asked him for another 7 Rs prasadam. Vikram, the rich obviously went for the 10/- prasadam. Now he gave us a broad smile, chanted mantras for us for 5 minutes, gave us big balls of chandan and of course a broad smile. Whew, we were relieved. After a hurried tour of the other surrounding temples and a hurried look at the art on the temple walls, we had to sit in the temple before leaving the temple as taught to us by Ananth.

It was barely 2 seconds and we set off again towards the beach. Happily eating the 17/- worth of prasadams, we spent an hour in the beach. We were quite silent in the beach. And each of us was thinking about ourselves. Generally I always feel this way when I go to the beach. The vastness of the sea makes me so humble that I feel I should pour my heart out to it as it can absorb anything. This way, when it was nearing 2 I never knew and had to run to reach the college.

The work was over in an hour and now the real fun was going to start! A race against time. 8 hours in hand and so many places to go. So here we go! Take a bus to surathkal. Typical bus, with lots of women dressed in their best of saris and tones of jewelries is a regular scene in the buses. And there is a marriage somewhere everyday. Anyway, in 5 minutes we reach suarthkal, hurriedly leave the transcripts and reco in the hotel and set off for the bus again. But alas, not so soon. Mr. Vikram has to have juice in Oasis. Now this is a wonderful place worth mentioning. It looks shabby where any parent will ask his pupils not to go. But surprisingly after cautious try for a few days, when nothing happened with these wonderful and thick 5/- juices, we had become a fan. My favourite was unconventional carrot juice and rose milk, but Vikram preferred the apple n grapes. After some 4-5 glasses each we catch yet another local bus with even more jhatackpatack women in even more jhatatckpatack saris and jewelries and head full of gajras. Well to tell you frankly, I really like the simplicity in these women, these old traditional dressing sense is lot better than so called “aaj ki naari” wearing short tops but then always pulling it down.

After half an hour we reach NMPT bus stop. The panambur beach is nearby. We had time shortage, so we took auto for a distance of about 1.5 kms which we generally love to cover by walking. And here we are again: In front of the sea. But this is entirely different. This is not where I loose myself to the sea, but here I see the sea of people merging with the Arabian sea. All sorts of people, the family types, the bunch of high school riends, the shy couple, the bold couple, the old uncle and aunty, the rich family, the poor family but everybody now equally madly in love with the sea. The food in this beach varied considerably. From gobi Manchurian to sugarcane sticks, form boiled wet whole groundnuts to the favorite “Churmure”. But we had other plans for food. We went far away inside the jetty! Now water was on all the three sides. We sat on the rocks and as usual we started talking about careers and it dwelled to my favorite topic o how I wish to own the “N V Hegde” house just next to the KREC beach.

It was almost 5:30-6:00 when we left that place. Took another bus this time and reached Saibeen. The biggest mall in Mangalore that time. It did have those swanky shops but not the usual branded ones, instead u see all local names. And full of Dubai merchandise. Vikram had to renew his neck chains bead. And then how can we miss the chamcham and the Badaam Milk of Shreyas sweet shop in the ground floor. After more window shopping and buying something totally unnecessary from Joofri’s superstore, we head for our final destination. Jyothi circle.

Here it was almost 7, stomach half full but so many places to go. Firstly there has to be poptates eatery. Poptates the Persian chicken grill shop specialized in chicken rotisserie. We finished a whole chicken between the two of us. This was just the appetizer. After that we had to go to Hao ming Chinese restaurant though we were not even a bit hungry. But coming to mangalore and not going to Hao Ming was like going to Agra and not seeing the taj mahal. So as if to appease the Hao Ming Goddess, we went and had some noodle dish. Now we were filled till the chest. After this we went to the new place “Liquid Lounge”, the swanky new pub in mangalore. Ordered some drinks and thought this will be it. But there was chicken salad and the rani salad which we had to order. Don’t ask me why we had to. You should never ask those questions when Vikram is around. As soon as we saw the quantity, we had almost given up our hopes to even inish half of one, but believe me, they were so so tasty that in no time, we see empty plates ahead of us. Now full upto the neck, we start heading back towards the bus stand. But then our eyes fall on Iceberg. Another analogy like the Agra one suggested and we head there. We couldn’t even walk. But we order 2 ice creams there. Thankfully, I guess icecream took no extra space and fit itself in all the small vacant places left around the stomach to neck. Now we dragged ourselves somehow to the busstand and caught the bus to Surathkal. The express bus (pronounced EsssssPresssssssss) literally flew to Surathkal in no time at all. I saw Vikram eyeing towards Sads restaurant. I was like “ no Vikram, I finally give up.” But then he said, “not the restaurant buddhu, the paanshop.” Asking the paanwala to put extra gulab…(ooops I forgot this name, but it’s a sweet jelly with embedded rose petals) we eagerly looked at it and each of us trying to grab the one which had more of it. And believe me, that paan digested all the food we had. Kit really had miraculous power.

Finally our trip came to an end. We packed our bags, checked out of hotel and caught our buses back to Mysore/Bangalore. While coming back I realized that this may be my last trip in a long long time. But then proper justice was done to all the places.

Mangalore for me is the beach. It is the temples, it is the richly clad women with flowers on their heads, it’s the fish stink that lingers all the time. It is the nice blend between modern and old. It’s the rich religious mix (Hindu, Muslim Christian in equal numbers) of the people and it is the district of highest literacy percentage in india (if I R rao is to be believed, which I do) but over and above all, It is the city of the heavenly food.

The bengali in me

Born and brought up in Nagpur , studied in Karnataka and now in the US, there is very little Bengali left in me. To add to it, I seriously hate Calcutta and the Red Brigade. At one time I hated cricket and so was Ganguly.
But ya there is no doubt that no other Indian language has achieved even half of what bengali literature has done. but its not a time for reminiscence about the past. I had liked Sharat Chandra Chattopadhdhyay immensely ( for all those who don't know, he is the one who wrote Devdas/shrikant etc.) but that was until i had read Shrikant. The story is wonderful but the continuous mention of "bangalir gorbo" (bengali's pride) really pissed me off. My mom asked me to ignore that and concentrate on the other aspect of the book but I couldn't.
Anyway this is not the point. Inspite of so much hatred, I don't know I think deep down somewhere unconsciously the bengali in me is still wide awake. I realised it when inspite of not being a big fan of Ganguly, I was deeply hurt when he was sacked and when people had created the controversial website ihateganguly.com . I tried to shove off those feelings by justifying myself of not being bengali but humanitarian. But when the reverse thing happened, I was surprised on my stance. This was the Chappell idol fiasco. I was very happy and was telling people about how creative the Bengali Murtikaars are by shaping "Mahishasura" as Chappell, and i was thinking that it is violation of freedom of expression when his creation was destroyed.
But when i compared that with my stance on ihateganguly.com, I think its just the bengali feeling in me, nothing else can justify my stance unless we take it to indian and non indian lines which will be foolish.


This also makes me wonder whether this is the reason why I like Rani over Preity, Sushmita over Aishwarya and Bipasha presently over anybody else? Is that why i wanted Antara Mitra to be the Indian idol2? Doesn't the feeling that all nobel laureates of India are connected to bengal feels my heart with a little pride? Do i like Arundhati and jhumpa a bit more because they are bengalis? Am i proud of the fact that the best quizzers in India are from bengal???

I guess my feelings were a lot influenced by my lifecycle. In the school days, it was all bright and shiny bengaliis all around me. The annual academic results annoucement was mostly a bengali affair, the Durga Puja was the most well managed event in my Defence Campus. But I hated the frequent load sheddings and the mosquito bites of Kolkata.

In NITK my views changed, I tried to compare regions based on the tiny sample of people that came there! I thought the bengalis are dumb,lazy and ill mannered the marathas are bright, shiny and well mannered. While the latter might be true, no doubt the first one is false. I think we can't judge people based on geography. We can't even say that there are exceptions to a generalization. Generally the exceptions are so big a percentage that they can't be called exceptions anymore. But ya during this NITK times, Calcutta became the city with lowest power cuts, highest average vehicle speed metropolitan in the country and there was kolkata shining.

Now i guess i have a more mature view. I can really see things with an open mind and I know that this feeling of being a bengali can never subside in me. Rather it is absolutely human to have feelings for your state. And as for the angst over others, try to keep that to minimum. I guess i should extend these feelings to nationalities , religion as well. I have off late felt proud of being a texan too. :)

As i conclude this article, I wonder about the last para. I claim i can see with an open mind, but may be some new ideas will open up 5 years henceforth. Here is a song, which though written in bengali is I guess true for anybody.This song has got the same status in Bangladesh as vande mataram in india- an alternate anthem.

"Dhono dhanne pushpe bhora
aamader ei boshundhora
Tahar maajhe aache je ek
Shokol desher shera.
She je shopno diye toiri she desh
Smriti diye ghera
Emon deshti kothau Khuje paabe nako tumi,
Shokol desher raani she je aamaar jonmobhoomi,
she je aamaar jonmobhoomi, she je aamaar jonmobhoomi"

Here is teh complete list, thanks to vivek:

dhanO dhannye is one of the most beautiful patriotic songs of Dwijendralal Roy.

dhonO dhanne pushpe bhorA AmAder ei boshundhorA
tAhAr Majhe Ache desh ek shokol dhesher sherA
she je shopnO diye toirI she je sritI diye gherA
emon deshti kothao khuje pAbe nAkO tumI
she je shokol desher rAnI she je AmAr jonmobhumI
she je AmAr jonmobhumi she je AmAr jonmobhumI

chondro shUrjO grohO tArA, kothay ujon emon dhArA
kothay emon khele torit, emon kAlO meghe
O tAr pAkhIr dAke ghumiye pOrI pakhIr dAke jege
emon deshti .......


etO snigdhO nodI tAhAr, kothay emon dhumrO pAhAr
kothay emon horIt khetrO AkAsh tole meshe
emon dhAner opor dheu khele jay, batAsh tAhAr deshe
emon deshti....

pushpe pushpe bhorA shAkhI, kunje kunje gAhe pAkhI
gunjoriyA Ashe oli, punje punje dheye
tArA foolEr upor ghumiye pOre foolEr modhU kheye
emon deshti

bhAyEr mAyEr etO snehO, kothay gele pAbe kehO
O mA tomAr choron dutI bokkhe AmAr dhorI
AmAr ei deshete jonmO jenO ei deshete morI
emon deshti.......

My Johari Window

This is fun. People do rate me plz!!!!!!!!!

Arena (known to self and others) adaptable, observant	Blind Spot (known only to others) caring, cheerful, clever, confident, energetic, friendly, helpful, intelligent, kind, knowledgeable, loving, mature, modest, sentimental, trustworthy, witty
Façade (known only to self) accepting, introverted, patient, shy	Unknown (known to nobody) able, bold, brave, calm, complex, dependable, dignified, extroverted, giving, happy, idealistic, independent, ingenious, logical, nervous, organised, powerful, proud, quiet, reflective, relaxed, religious, responsive, searching, self-assertive, self-conscious, sensible, silly, spontaneous, sympathetic, tense, warm, wise

Dominant Traits

80% of people think that Sandipan Mitra is friendly
80% of people think that Sandipan Mitra is intelligent
60% of people think that Sandipan Mitra is trustworthy

All Percentages

able (0%) accepting (0%) adaptable (40%) bold (0%) brave (0%) calm (0%) caring (40%) cheerful (20%) clever (20%) complex (0%) confident (20%) dependable (0%) dignified (0%) energetic (20%) extroverted (0%) friendly (80%) giving (0%) happy (0%) helpful (40%) idealistic (0%) independent (0%) ingenious (0%) intelligent (80%) introverted (0%) kind (20%) knowledgeable (20%) logical (0%) loving (20%) mature (20%) modest (20%) nervous (0%) observant (40%) organised (0%) patient (0%) powerful (0%) proud (0%) quiet (0%) reflective (0%) relaxed (0%) religious (0%) responsive (0%) searching (0%) self-assertive (0%) self-conscious (0%) sensible (0%) sentimental (20%) shy (0%) silly (0%) spontaneous (0%) sympathetic (0%) tense (0%) trustworthy (60%) warm (0%) wise (0%) witty (20%)

Created by the Interactive Johari Window on 30.8.2006, using data from 5 respondents.
You can make your own Johari Window, or view Sandipan Mitra's full data.

Thank you CH Apt122

Its exactly a year today since we are living together at 122 Cherry Hollow, College Station, TX . On 2005 same day I committed for living with 3 other people for atleast 1 year! Now this was different form other lifestyles I had earlier! In hostels, its just the room that you share, mainly to sleep and rarely to study! This one needs more commitments! U cook for yourself as well as for others! You share the same bathroom, kitchen etc. Its pretty difficult. I got the taste of it in BBSR and they were excellent roomies. I would even go on to say the best ever, but that was a short period of time of 6 months and I knew I would be leaving that place. But at cherry Hollow 122, I was for 2 years!
My roommates are:
1) Nikhil Nemade : His fav words : Moron and R u OK
2)Mahesh Sonawane: His fav words change with time, beginning it was "Amazing" and now it is "faar white aahe"(God knows what that means, but certainly not its white far away)
3)Shridhar Yamijala: No dialogues by him in particular but we do associate him with the words "aeeeeeeee bayiiiiiiiiiiii"
4)And me: My words : I don't remember , but i do like to greet the above three as "Yen magaa"

Anyway so here are some salient things that happened to we 4 as a group along the year.

* The Ganapati Chaturthi celebrations. Fresh from home, we were brewing with all the hinduism and Indianness and 3 being marathi, the puja with agarbatti and shira was something i will never forget.
* Nikhil's decision to leave us. At the very beginning Nikhil decided to leave US because he didn't like what they teach here which afterwards changed to living with other people! We 3 wondered what's wrong with us, why is he leaving us, but in the end, he stuck with us.
* The visits by the panchayat! We had made family friends. As if we were a family. The friends were the panchayat, rather only 4 of them living in Casa 604 who came regularly and as a group and we had "chaha taakoing" sessions.
* Reeta hurricane: We got all prepared for the hurricane which never came. But finishing all the emergency drinks and gazing at the fast moving cloud till 5 am in the morning is what we did on Reeta day.
* The dumb Charades sessions: One fine day we started playing dumb charades and it still remains the most popular and easily accepted games amongst all of us.
* Nikhil breaking his hand and being unable to cook for 6 whole weeks. It was fun and especially the colourful plaster on his hand and his Tom Cruise lookalike doctor.
* Thankgiving end: Shridhar coming at 8:58 from California and met a prof for interview at 9 who gave him an RA.
* The birthday celebrations: It started with mine, and what a pleasant surprise it was! The biggest cake I had ever cut and then the dipping into the icecold swimming pool. The trend followed with Shridhar, Mahesh and a comparably much warmer pool for Nikhil.
* The aggie nights: A post has been written on this by Mahesh and i won't wish to elaborate more.
* USAMOVIEEXPRESS : The five dollar rental movie parlor! We have even seen 4 movies on a single day. And we still do atleast 3 movies a week.
* Nikhil's laptop and his permanent place in the corner of the drawing room.
* Shridhar's camera, which everyone of us has used more than he did.

Well there are many more and I would ask the roomies to comment about them. There were moments of disappointments, and extreme anger on one another but we still cruised along. Off late especially since I came back from cincinnati, i have seen that bonding getting stronger and even though Nikhil is in Dallas but we have never missed him.
Recent past we have been seeing roommates falling apart after a year and then I wonder what it is that holds us together. But now I realize how we have changed in the past year. As for me, I understand more marathi than ever before and I guess I have learnt to be tougher in my life!
A visisble but surprisingly cute change was that of food. Nikhil from Jalgaon, Shridhar from AP and Mahesh from Nashik have all a high tolerance for spices. But now they have changed, I guess for me, Thanks folks. I had the shock of my life when Nikhil told that he found that he found the Chitale's Bhakhar wadi too spicy. Well its tme for me to divulge the secret to you 3 guys today! Never on my cooking turns since the last 10 months have u had less than 2 tbsp of sugar in every food that I cooked.

Anyway I am out of good finishing lines now, so lets just say Happy Anniversary.

Bips in Sush out

No no, I have not changed to a "lafoot" kind of guy. But past few events prompt me do change my taste. It also has got nothing to do with being bengali. I still hate riya/raima as bad as ever.
I had a post about why I like sushmita but things have changed. She is still bold but she is looking cheap nowadays. It started with chingaari. There was nothing good about the movie. A movie can't be bold and good just because a top notch heroine plays a prostitute. The story was so pathetic and B grade types. And then this miss started acting pricy when the hero commented on the smooch.
Then came ditching Randeep Hoodda, she talks so highly of motherhood and womanism but if she doesn't have any respect for men, what's the use. She is is using them like dolls.
Next one was even worse. She wanted to act laxmibai but the director chose aishwarya though people voted for the short plumpy and more laxmibailike Rani. Instead of taking it well, she starts dating another boyfriend and convinces him to make a movie with her. And the funda about highlighting the motherhood of laxmibai is new to me. I guess none of us ever cared for laxmibai the mother. Let's see, if she does anything good, I may change my views.

Let's come over to bipasha now. Always being tagged by sleazy names (bengali bombshell) she has never shied from the comments. Neither she went around with too bold comments like Mallika Sherawat. Slowly but steadily she is proving that she is not just an item number. The 5 minute role in apaharan goes a long way in proving that. And nobody can deny she looks absolutely stunning and apt in Omkara as billo chamanbahaar.
But here is why I like her now.
1) Only an extremely powerful woman can keep John Abraham as a boyfriend for this long.
2) Her hairstyle, as in the pic above was something I always looked for in girls around.

The past few days

Well, I don't want to write a diary entry here but I am not getting anything else to write. I can write about the oncoming Rakhi but again it will be a blog on rinki about whom I have already told so much.
Let's start with the day I came back form the wonderful trip of cincinnati. Things looked real good the moment the plane landed in Houston. A voice mail frm Dr. B meant some serious work ahead and I was really bored with the no work scenario. Coming home I see a definite change in my roomies. The feeling of being 1 year together has seeped in all of them and it has now sunk in me! This is the longest time ever that I have been with same set of roomies.
A guest had come down (we host new poeple coming form India for fall untill they get apartments.) He too a cool and easy going fellow, it was always laughter that filled the house since the last few days, not the usual gloom of shridhar talking about how he selected the worng course and Mahesh busy with his work.
Things began from thursday evening when we decided that we will go to houston over the weekend. and then suddenly I decided to give the written test for driving. It was fun , studying for it a bit and the feeling of telling pople i am studying took more time than the actual time of study. I guess it has been 3 long months since I had been busy with studies.
On friday we went for the test but boom! They needed the SSN which I didn't have. So got back again. Next time me n patil alone went for the test. I won't say that the test was easy/difficult, I would say it was good. I believe that even if I do excellent in some paper, it may be a good/hard exam unlike many poeple who say "paper easy tha" when they answer everything. I rather like to think I did a good job than examiners making my job easy. (My way of looking into things.) I also liked the no. of best of lucks I got for such a exam. Nikhils asking about the result immediately after the exam also boosted my feelings.
Then came the trip. The maps ready, first time i thought like I will do some style. and I had put gel on my hair, a jhatack patack red T and topping everything was a sunglass. Thus I sat in the navigator seat for the drive. Its not new to me, but here are a few things that I understood about navigating.
1) However good or bad navigator you are, understanding with the present driver is important.
2) Its always if one person does the job and not the entire car, though occasional comments are helpful.
3) Leave decisions with driver. don't push him/her to do something.

We reached houston maharajah restaurant by 7 pm and after a looong time had mutton biryani. It was too good! I cherished each and every piece of it. Later came the Kheer, it was just like my mother cooks. Ummmmmmmmmmhhhhhhhh, too good! What followed was seeing omkara and coming back.

Saturday we all had the omkara fever the entire day with nothing but 'namak' and 'beedi' songs and even danced on it.
Sunday the highlight was me playing frisbee for 45 minutes or so and then sweating heavily! I don't remember when was the last time i had sweat. The day and the series of events ended with cihcken curry, jeera rice and Gchat sessions.

Another wierd but insightful dream

I say another because i have written about one of my breams earlier too!

This dream goes this way:
Place: Ambajhari Nagpur Defence estate but now in the backdrop of a hill and somewhere in the Indo-Pak Border area. Consists of 2 buildings facing each other (for those who know, 1/66/ and 1/108 of the defence estate)
Characters: Again it includes all, till date. Not necessarily the people of Nagpur.
Context: Indo-Pak war has started. US is on Indian side though they are using any force against anybody. Just providing moral help. There is a rule of the war: It won't continue after sundown (The mahabharat effect)

All the people are carried back to the place as mentioned above as sun has gone down. 3 truck loads of common people under heavy guard. These consist people aged 1-35 only. These people are the last remaining people living in this hilly area and government had resources only fit for these people! So it made a rule that anybody above 35 is too old to survive.
I along with my friends were in the truck. I am back to India after a brief stint in US for MS.
We head for a nice natural spring by the river. Shubhajit (My schoolmate and now an army officer ably guiding us.) I feel so shameless as to being so many of us all fit and youth, we can't do anything to save the country or fight. Like some special and bound people we are treated as VIPs.
So now beside the spring, I am sitting with my friend Sumit,Anshu, Manisha and a few others (don't remember) that suddenly from behind our back giggling sound comes and we see a group of young girls and army men just married coming down the hill. All have decided to marry because their life is at risk in the war. So they are fulfilling their commitment towards their girlfriends! Surprisingly all pairs had wed in Christian style and had that flower bouquet in their hands! Their helpless action made me really sad!

Then suddenly my mobile rang. It was a call form maa. She was asking how am I doing. She was not at all worried about her own safety. Then she give the phone to dad who asked me about what are they going to do with us and all and gave me some courage instead!

This had then become a regular feature. Daily we are ushered to a safe place blindfolded just as the enemy troupes came down from the hill and started bombarding. Surprisingly there was no death in my entire dream though the fear haunted everybody.

One day suddenly Bush comes and offers his help. He says he will take us safely to his own country. Hope dawns on all of us! But then he says he can't take everybody and preference will be given to those who have studied in US with scholarships! I was the one and so was another friend parag (he is in UFL now). But then i was feeling so ashamed. All my friends/family were left here to die and i was all safe and doing nothing for the country being too valuable a resource to be risked! This was a big joke being played on me.
Such were my thoughts when this tremendous tension of being the "privileged" one woke me up from my sleep!

Traveling in continental

Off late, blue with golden has been a very lucky combination for me (not just me though). I just love the color. Somehow any good cobalt or darker blue piece of cloth has to come with golden in it unless it is formal mens shirts! Though yellows are even substituted at times.

Anyway, such was my excitement on my trip to Cincinnati which was by continental airways( The airways with the blue with golden tail). Preparations had started one day before and when Dr B finally approved my work and said have a great trip, it was like the final seal for happiness.
Tensed till the last moment that my neighbor who was supposed to drop me till easterwood airport. Plane was scheduled at 11:25 and I left for easterwood at 10:45. I had started chanting gods names. This is one thing I hate afterwards. I always remember god when I am tensed. But never otherwise. But yes, I don't forget to thank them also. (God for me will always be them, never a he, may be a she).
Enough of digressing from the topic, after a hurried check in and a momentary mood off as I was searched and not the amru next in line, I got into the plane. I was looking at my ticket for the seat number when the stewardess came and told me, take any seat you like! The plane was a 37 seater. It was much smaller than even some buses. 2+1 was the seating arrangement. I got reminded of my Mangalore-Bangalore travels where traveling in a 2+1 bus was a luxury. The seats were much worse than the ideal/sugama buses , I sat in one with 1 seat only. Suddenly the stewardess announces, sorry for the delay, we are waiting for 2 more passengers to catch up who have just checked in. I started laughing there! It was like those private buses where the conductor waited for more passengers raising the tempers of the fellow passengers.
Anyway, finally the plane started moving and so did I started peeping form the window. It was a cloudy and rainy day, so I knew I wont see much of it. But as the plane took off, the view was breathtaking! The best part was that each house of college station seen had a personal pool. The bright blue spots in the green and brown landscape were looking like sapphires thrown around.
Soon we crossed the clouds and all was vapours all around, top, bottom. But soon we went above the clouds and now there was clear sky above and dense clouds beneath. I had just begun wondering about meeting one of the gods floating across the sky , high chances of meeting up narad muni who travels the most, the pilot announced our descent. It was funny as it had been just 15 minutes we had been airborne. Again the same landscape with the dazzling blue pools soothed my eyes.
Our plane didn't even get any terminal to land and we landed in the middle of the airport grounds. A bus came to leave us to terminals. And as we had to land in the middle, we were given those stairs we see VIP's landing from. This was much smaller and much shabbier than any of those, but I could barely resist the temptations for waving a hand at the non existent crowd.

Well this now abruptly ends as there is nothing more to write after this apart form the fact that the stewardess on the IAH-CVG flight was more interested in talking to fellow passengers than checking if the seat belts are tied and the full airplane crew highlighting the well known fact that air travel is the safest mode of transport, may be even safer than sitting at home.

Koo Jhik Jhik

Indian Railways is an experience in itself. That can be understood from people liking it even though the only travel they made is as small as Mumbai-Pune or Bangalore Mysore!
I am proud of the fact that I have travelled most of the sectors except the North east Frontier and Mumbai-Delhi track! ( But that too i travelled form Ahmedabad to Abu Road) . The best track of course was of Konkan Railway. It s scenic beauty even puts hogwarts express to shame!
But my best experiences and most travelled route is Nagpur-Howrah. And it was all 4 of us (Mom,dad, me n bro) together! Our last meeting together has been exactly 1 year back, second week of july,2005.
Ok enough of it, lets start off! Timeline - Around Summer of 1990
5 pm. All packed up. But dad has not yet come from the office! No phones to contact him . Me jumping with tension. Finally he comes at 5:15 and the last minute packing starts. We are going to Kolkata - our Mamabari in beleghata n own house in barasat. Heera Sweets special kalakand is packed though sweets are anyday better in Calcutta. Rishi Autowala is supposed to come at 6:00 pm! But it is 6:15 pm and yet no sign of him. All the neighbours have come down to bid us good bye. Shanta kakima, Latika Kakima, shondhya kakima, rinki, babuji, mana, bonty didi all have come but no sign of autowala! Fnally he comes at 6:30 and gets a scolding form everybody above! We start off amidst all the bbyes. As soon as we are out of sight of those people, maa starts wondering, gas to off kiya naa, latch theek se lagaya naa. Me on maa's lap but wanting to go to dad's. But he is too tired after hectic day in office! But finally bends to the continuous pestering and takes me. Rishi the autowala talks occasionaly and suddenly the auto makes sounds and rishi says we have to get petrol. Again tension, kitna late karega. Maa telling dad in hushed tone, agli baar se isko nahi bulayenge (but obviosuly same story next year too).
Finally around 7:15 we reach station. Train will come only at 8:05 pm. We all go to the wheeler bookstall. Mom buys a womans magazine, Dad gets an India today. I eye for The costlier ones, chacha chaudhary Digests which are 20Rs while noraml chacha chaudharies are just 5 rs. But father presuades me to look for something else. Finally happy with a 5 rs champak, i walk back. Bro obviously has to do something elderly. He eyes for sportstar and gets it.
We eagerly wait for announcements. And finally it comes.

Pravasani Krupya Lakhshyazave, gaadi no. Don aath Paanch Nau
Mumbai Howrah geetanjali express platform kramank ek var yet aahe.

Yaatrigan krupya dhyaan dijiye, gaadi no. Do aath paanch nao
Mumbai Howrah geetanjali express platform no. ek par aa rah hai.

Passengers, Attention please, Train no. two eight five Nine
Mumbai Howrah geetanjali express........................(voice dies down in the jhuk jhuk sound)

We all rush to S2. It's a crowd of people there cramming to get in first. Dad with 2 suitcases, Mom with a heave side bag, bro with same, and me with the Kool Keg (5 l water storage) also doing dhakka dhakki. Dad is shouting, arey pehle utarne waalon ko utarne dijiye. But nobody liking that obviously! And finally after 10 minutes everybody is in. But people have already occupied full luggage space under the seats and sitting on our seats also! Dad does some jhagda and then finally we all settle down. Me almost into tears and asking maa " Dad itna chilla kyon rahe hain" and maa says, "nahi tho koi uthta hi nahi aur hum baithte kaise?". Finally everything settles down and train is yet to leave. Dad goes out. and comes from outside towards the window and starts talking! And me crying, "baba, bhetore esho, train chere jaabe( come inside, train will leave)". But he wil come only at the last moment.
The train has finally started. And immediately me and bro put a series of questions to mom, "mummy, joota utar loon?","mummy, khana kab khana hai", "muumy haath dhoke aaoon kya".Even the walking in the shaky train was fun. But she replies , "we will do all after Kanhan."
So me n bro start waiting. With our hands cupped on the window to see outside in the dark. Meanwhile dad has started conversation with the same people with whom he was arguing for seats sometime back. Mom keeping a dignified silence, and me and bro, still looking out.
And then it comes. "Ghadang ghadang ghadang ghadang Ghadang ghadang ghadang ghadang Ghadang ghadang ghadang ghadang." The great Kanhan river. We have a hearty laugh as the river is almost dried up and how can they still call it a river.
Finally the river crosses away. The Hawai chappls are taken out of the bag and shoes and socks tucked under the Lower birth seat. We all wash hands and come. Mom takes out the 4 dabba ka tiffin box. Hmmmmmmmm, the mutton smell comes out. (This was before mom had stopped bringing non-veg in trains). Poori n mutton is what we have! And has to end with a sweet. As usual I crib about brother getting bigger pieces than me. And they give me the odd logic of he being elder so he has to eat more.
Anyway after that again jhagda between bro n me. As to who gets to sleep in the middle bunk, generally we always got 2 upper and 1 middle, one lower. This middle bunk fascination i guess was just created by me n bro, i never heard any other 2 kids cribbbing about it. Whatever, seeing our jhagda, some other passenger generally gives up his middle birth and we both are made happy. So we sleep. Even before bhandara has crossed.
Morning i wake up, i generally wake up very early in trains, and so did my bro. Though mom was awake below, we have to peep through the 3 inch view which u can get from middle bunk. It was divine, though what was divine about it i myself don't know, but surely enjoyed it a lot. The sun rising slowly behind the fast changing landscape.
And then chaiwala comes. Chai chai chai chai. Soon it will change to just cha cha cha( As bengal approaches) . Mom n dad get their cup of tea and we good boys, don't have tea. Especially not before going to Relatives for whom we are even better. My report card safely packed in the suitcase to show my Grandpa my 1st rank.
Anyway, we get hungry. Though mom has loads of biscuits and sweets, we want breakfast especially the terribly costly and unworthy train wala cutlet and bread jam. More so when somebody nearby is having it. But dad convinces us that we will have better food in Rourkela Jn, just 1 hour away.
Now another drama starts. Who gets the window seat. I don't know why mom n dad never intervened but it was always bro who won because his being bigger than me. Though a little while later, the kind person in the next window seat will give away. And i will go there and sit and try to showoff as i am seeing much better than my brother.
Rourkela comes, we have breakfast. Bread-omlette ya Puri Tarkari(they don't say bhaji there). Again eyes glued to window. Train gets a bit late, but we two hardly care much. Still ogling at the outside world. After sometime i get bored sitting alone, and i go n sit in brothers laps. So we both can share the same window. And mom sits in the other. Reading her "Shanonda" and dad doing justice to India Today. Suddely bro cries out-"Train benkche train benkche" meaning train is along a curve. We had made a logic out of it also. U can enjoy the maximum view only if you forst let the full frontal part diaapear from your eyes an then only look at the back part of it. But impatient me has to look at both ends.

Time goes by, a bit of champak , a bit of scenary, a bit of talking with new people of the train and here comes Tatanagar. Sun going high up and things get really hot. Time for cold drinks. Oooooo. What a thrilling word. Generally cold drinks was restrcited to just 1 during the journeys and 2-3 in durga puja. That's all. SO then i kept on shouting LIMCA LIMCA. Bro took a Maaza.
And i obviously the limca. But oh gosh. After one sip i hand it over to dad (its so strong) and eye for Brothers Maaza, but that he won't give.
Its lunch time now. And as you can't keep food for long, lunch has to be bought. And how we used to like that railway food. It was pathetic, but still we liked it. The 1 inch thick pooris which took away all the energy to tear and the tasteless Dal, but that was heaven. And especially the mix veg pickle. But it was too much for me, though i cried for a full lunch pack for myself, which they never bought, after 1/2 poori and a few morsels of rice, i quit and mom has to eat it all.
Meanwhile scenes are fast chaging outside. From the dry and yellow landscape of Bihar, we enter lush green west Benal, with green fields, lots of coconut and khajoor trees and water bodies along the tracks. Vendor comes saying "Mudi Mudi Jhal Muri". And this was the first thing mom demanded on the train. We all get 1 each. One with no mirchi especially made for me. It is just awesome. U have to eat it to believe it.
And now comes the penultimate stop. Kharagpur Jn. The world's longest platform. Heard of IITs just a few days back and IITKGP was just next to the station. Bro saying "how i want to come here." Mom beaming at him, and me thnking what's so great about it, i will go only to IITK. (Well those dreams were i guess not that early, i was just eight then but they came pretty soon, when i was in 5th and all. Whatever those dreams never came true and now nor do i care)

Now train leave sthe platform and we all get eager. Just two more stops. With every 5 minutes "Maa aar kotokkhon (how much more maa)", we get desperate and a different question comes now. "Shall we wear the shoes,Should we comb the hair, should we wash the face." And she says -Let Roopnarayan pass. And then after an hour from kharagpur-
"Ghadang ghadang ghadang ghadang Ghadang ghadang ghadang ghadang Ghadang ghadang ghadang ghadang Ghadang ghadang ghadang ghadang Ghadang ghadang ghadang ghadang Ghadang ghadang ghadang ghadang."
This is a much bigger river and full of water too. As soon as it passes, we start gettng busy. Just an hour more. Go to freshen up, wear the shoes, mom combs our hairs. And now mom occupies the window. After all, kolkata is just a fun place for us, it was where she stayed for years. And she gets the first peek at the great HOWRAH BRIDGE. Howrah bridge mein jo baat hai, woh much biiger and beautiful hote huye bhi 2nd Hoogly bridge mein nahi hai.

And then turn by turn we alll take a peek. But cug chug chug. Train has stopped in Santragachi. Line not clear. Each minute seems like a day. But finally at snails pace, train enters the platform. Me and bro, face stuck to the windows, see who has come to receive us. Oh Its Boro mama and choto mama.
The train finally stops!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Late on Saturday Night

To hell with it!
Nobody is reading my blogs, nobody is commenting. So let me start off with my own stories just for myself!
My weekned stories. Earlier they used to be there in my mails! To my friends, then talking about it in my cubicle and lots more! Well with orkut and Gchat, e-mail has become as rare as snail mails letters in my inbox! Only deepak (chacha) never quits replies to replies and so do i! So that is the mail I get daily!
Anyway, My weekend was eventful! Mixed goods and bads.
1st the bads! My two favourites, England And Argentina are out of the world cup now! The World cup now olds no interest for me. The first change I did for that was change my yahoo avtaar! I Do really like what I have done now!

Ok that was the bad part! Now the goods!
Brazil lost! That was real good! I have always compared brazil in football to what Australia is in cricket! It is fooolish to play with them! But whatever, now that they are out, its nice! Though i hold no high feelings fro france too.

Secondly I saw 2 superhero movies.
Superman And Krrish

Well both movies were good! I mean i expected more out of superman but it was not that bad!
The best part of Superman was Superman Himself! Brandon Routh does his part well! And he looks just like the old Superman, and that alone can make the movie a hit.
And then I saw krrish! It was quite good! Finally really an indian superhero! He can fly and he can jump from trees! The special effects were pretty realistic and nobody can doubt that Hrithik Roshan was best suited for the role! The review wrote Priyanka Chopra was underutilized but I can't undwerstand what else she could have done! It was not a superheroine movie! And the only Indian Heroine who is capable of making a hit superwoman was already there in the movie!
Rekha never ceases to amaze me! To be frank, I was never into movies in her era! I started following movies only during Juhi Chawla's rse and she was and still is my favourite.
Whatever, Rekha for me was always the heroine they used to shwo in filmfare when Amitabh Bachchan went on stage! And the movie I had seen was Khoon Bhari Maang or something that had "Secretary Follow Me" dialogue! I started liking her after her "Rendezvous with Simi Garewal". Then movies like silsila, utsav, umrav jaan follwoed and i kept on liking her even more and more! She is really fabulous!!

Another movie I saw was "Dirty Pretty Things" starring Audrey Tautou. She was just too good. And the storyline was also too strong!

Ok now enough of movies. But these were not the things that made my day! I was really down after the England loss and I called up Vikram. Then somehow we decided to have a conference call with Advay and later Ananth joined in. It was really welcome! We talked for looooong and enjoyed the good old days. The usual Advay n Ananth saying bad things about HER and me and vikram started hitting back and finally i guess it was we who won [:0] Anyway who cares! The call went on for 30+ minutes. It was the best 30 minutes of the day.
Another high point wa scalling Anindita on her Bday. It was her birthday today! I really liked talking to her and i guess it was the same feeling from the other side as well. She had loads to tell and i was patient to listen! It was a real fun!

Anyway that's all happened in the day!It's 12:09 now of sunday as i post this.