Indiana Bones

OK.. its been three days since my last post and obviously, i dented my promise to maintain this page like a diary and write in it everyday. But then, that's what happened to all the diaries i enthusiastically started pondering weird stuff in the diaries we were gifted on all those January's since almost when i could write words that made the smallest iota of sense!

Today was, well.. interesting...

I woke up at 8.30... The guys had planned to watch Indiana Jones today (actually wanted to go watch it yesterday but it didn't work out because of the gujjar riots!) Anyway... so the show was at PVR Spice in Noida. It was supposed to screen at 10 and everyone was informed and asked to be up and ready by 9 (MAX!!). BUT.. and that's a big BUT :P.. as usual, someone forgets. Prasid had exams for most of the month and stayed up late almost everyday.. i hardly heard of the guy sleeping. And regardless of how good/bad the guy must have done in the exams, he deserved some sleep. Agreed. BUT WHY TODAY DUDE!! :P And he wasn't the only one. When Bonny (a.k.a. BONES) called me up at 8.30 (yes, when i had JUST woken up), he said we were leaving in 10 minutes (which in the normal English language would translate to about 45 minutes, at least :P). I told him my dads office was 2 mins from spice and that he would drop us there and once he agreed, i went for a bath and got ready by 9. He then asked me to call Prasid up and ask him to reach Anandlok in 15 minutes so we could reach Spice on time. I called him 3-4 times only to get a NO ANSWER. Anyway, only later did we get to know that HE WAS SLEEPING. In the end, Bonny, Niloy and Shankul went with me in my dads car. We reached the hall at 10.15 cause of all the delays caused by the sleeping kids... Met Shardul and Jasmine there too.. and Adarsh.. DUDE!! Who cares if u didn't take a bath till then... THAT'S WHAT DEODORANTS ARE FOR U MORON!! The movie was totally worth it in the end. And well, we had our share of latecomers... Prasid did eventually make it to the hall.. He, along with Akash and Tintin in t2's car and enjoyed the movie just as much.. The movie was followed by a couple of snacks at the in-house haldirams after which i bought another t-shirt and we hit the road back home. Or so we thought. At a little T-point on the road home, i had a fantastic idea of everyone going to sector-18... Actually, we had a match scheduled for today but got a call from one of the guys in the morning informing us that kids have football coaching today in that field and it would be out of bounds! So we hit the gas and parked the ride in sec-18... got off, wondered where the hell to go, checked our total money and hit a few cold drinks, drove back in all safety, parked at anandlok and took to lift to bonny's house. Then, things became LEGEN...wait for it.. DARY!

The first few minutes at his place, we kept increasing the volume of a few special songs to wake up Surender bhaiyya, who had been lying on the couch in the computer room. Once that mission was successful, A lot of fun unfolded. After telling t2 how loud he was in the bathroom, he ravaged out the door only to be welcomed by a pillow aimed at the bridge of his nose by yours truly! Then, random people changed random music, randomly. And the same random people (i.e. Bonny, Niloy, Tintin and me.. Pokey caught up on his sleep through most of this EPIC episode) took random shots at other random people in random groups. The pillows flew across the room like huge bullets in slow-er motion and hit like little cotton filled rocks that left nothing but a puff of dust and a random moron (usually Niloy) in a randomly LOL situation!!! ( i said RANDOM nine times, BTW, plus this once)

The pillow fight lasted about half an hour (which included an AMAZING chain of gang bashes.. the best one on me :P).. Then, we got a little tired and a huge bowl of lemon rice was more than welcome to our empty stomachs. Once the cutlery was cleared away, ROUND 2... FIGHT. BUT.. that one couldn't last too long.. We were to full up. Another tiny break caused by a few phone calls was all it took. ROUND 3 time... THIS TIME.. NO PILLOWS, NO CUSHIONS! Let the bodies hit the floor (or the sofa, whatever makes you happy ;)... CRASH, BOOM, BANG and the bell rang. I don't remember who won. Don't know if there was a clear winner at all. But it was funny. Bonny had passed out by the end of it. His lights were out. Prasid started watching Robin Hood, Men In Tights (the spoof)... this was the movie these people were watching on the night of the champions league final and i had fallen asleep 10 minutes into i, but heard it was good. Saw glimpses of it as Pokey jumped to his favorite scenes and soon enough, i felt the need to get some shut-eye and went back home, listening to the some of the 300+ songs i had finally transferred into my phone last night. I ended up not sleeping at all and just yawning for most of the time that i was online once i did get back home.. Of course, i played a couple of games here and there but that was about it. Then, as people vanished from the Online list, i decided to follow suit and went to the the market for a while. Thought I'd stop by at anandlok and say a few hellos before heading back home and to this desk. Did not expect the event that followed. From out of the blue in the recreation room where the favorite TT table is located, a brawl between two of the guys whose names must remain undisclosed here. And the only good part of it I remember is the slap! Very reminiscent of the slap bet from HIMYM. It was AWESOME! Then it was about time for me to go, mom had ordered Chinese food and that was my call to get my ass back home. Since then, times passed by and the noodles became the most interesting part of the remainder of my day, till the time i started writing this post... Oh and yea, The INDIANA BONES wasn't a spelling error.. that's the IM name Bonny put for himself on MSN Messenger. WAT UP! :P

All in all, the day was.. LEGENDARY.. wait for it.. DARY!

(p.s. I HOPE u have SOME idea of HIMYM cause if u don't, you'll NEVER get my LEGEN-DARY joke :P)

\m/rock.in.peace\m/

The Rat

Dear reader,

I know I've been telling u the never ending story of the two weirdest weeks of my life but today, i wanna tell u a different story.. one that has nothing to do with the weeks that were.. its about today and the stuff that built up to this day. Its the story of "THE RAT"...

DAY1

About three days back, i was up late at night publishing another one of my posts while chatting with my IM friends online at the time.. It must have been around 3 am. I don't really see the time when I'm at the computer.. ESPECIALLY at night but i think it was around that time. And sitting for a long time at the desk obviously tired me and i went to the kitchen to get myself a bottle of water. Now, you must understand the layout of our kitchen to really understand this story... From the door, there's a fridge on the right, followed by the kitchen counter complete with a stove and a rack for some utensils near the window where the room ends just before which, we keep bottles of water at room temperature. On the left is a whole shelf where most of the groceries are placed after which there are some more utensils on a hanging rack and the basin.

I marched into the kitchen to get myself a PET bottle and just as i picked one up... BANG!
Now, i know that might sound very loud here but it wasn't an explosion. And no bottles hit the floor either. But.. IT WAS HORRIFIC. From out of the blue, and for the first time in the EIGHT years we've resided at this house, I SAW A MOUSE.. and not just any other mouse.. it was in all probability, A RAT! And after falling from somewhere around the water purifier (my best guess as to where it came from), and the moment it saw me, that thing ran back up from the shelves and into the cupboards over the counter (i.e. at the top of the ceiling!!) THAT THING CAN CLIMB.. Which made us believe that the only way it could have entered the house was though the kitchen window, and the cupboard was where he had set camp .

A rat wouldn't generally freak me out much but seeing once up THIS close after SO long was overwhelming. I know A LOT of people who would scream at the sight irrespective of the time of the day! What it did do however, was gave me a weird stare from its "campsite". That look was intimidating. So much so it was almost certain to me that it would pounce onto my shoulders if i took even a step to grab the bottle i had dropped to the floor on seeing him. To maintain the peace (and not cuz' i chickened out), i opened the fridge, which was in my half of the kitchen, took out a bottle which felt frozen and REALLY REALLY cold and walked out of the room, closing the door behind me.

DAY 2

The late hours of the night had crept in again. This time, at 2.30 am (yes, i saw the time), i wanted to get a bottle of water (again! i LOVE water, i guess) before i went off to sleep (I like having a bottle in the room in case i get up at night and need some). I walked into the room, this time with a torch in my hand, shining its bright, almost xenon-like lights in the direction i would flash it. And when i aimed it at the bottles in the corner or the room, i saw ITS eyes. Staring down the light as if it were staring at the sun. But it didn't move. This was no ordinary rat, it was a different, superbly intimidating kind. One i had never come across ever before. It scared the living daylights out of me. And i don't know why, i was the only one in the house to have seen him. It was like he PICKED me be his target! Anyway, i repeated the drill from the night before and went off to sleep after checking for rats in my room.

DAY 3

Now it was getting out of hand. I had put a bottle of normal water in my room at 8pm to avoid confronting that stupid THING at night and told my parents to KEEP THE KITCHEN DOOR SHUT! They did. Dad was up till about 1 watching the news and nothing went wrong till then. I thought to myself that perhaps, my little friend had called it a day and found a new CRIB for itself.

I was wrong.

I don't know what was up with this rodent and the 2.30 deadline. Ive heard of werewolves but what the hell was this!? Again, though i tried ignoring the watch, at the strike of 2.30 am, while i was playing a round of counter strike on my computer, in a moment of silence, I heard an unusual sound from the kitchen. Something, maybe a box or so, had fallen. There was not a wind blowing outside and the kitchen door was closed. My parents were both asleep too. I had to get up and check on this. And so i did. While standing at the door, i saw a container of garam masala had toppled from the shelf over the stove onto the floor. IT WAS BACK. As i went to pick the box up, the BEAST squeaked, looked at me and from the top of microwave and the extension of this shelf, ran back to its shed. Lightening had struck not once or twice, but three scary times.

TODAY

Finally, my parents were convinced about the inhibition of the rodent. Afraid it might destroy our kitchen supplies, my mom, dads helper and I set out on a mission. GET RID OF THE RODENT IN ANY WAY POSSIBLE! We shut all the doors to our rooms. And the helper started cleaning out the stuff from the shelf the rat had set camp in. A few sightings of him led to another discovery. This rat was purely non-vegetarian. The only food supply he kept upstairs were a few bones we had thrown into the bin after dinner a few days back. But nevertheless, we took the stuff out, one at a time... Once most of it was out and it started running around, i was handed a stick and the responsibility to beat it against the shelf's wall so as to scare it away to the adjacent door where the helper stood ready with an empty sack we had gotten rice in. A few hundred beats later, it jumped out from the opening, onto the helpers shoulder and to the ground, jumping over the sack successfully.

After this, we spent about an hour continuously tracking it down and then trying to shoo it out of the open door after we realised he was too fast to be caught in a sack. But it just wouldn't give up. I don't know but i reckon he was on some weird drug and his testosterone was sky-rocketing! It ran from point A to B to E and back to B before going to points X Y and Z!!! It went crazy!! And it went everywhere but outside the house!! UNTIL.. Yours truly used his brains.

See, this rat made us clean up most of the mess the house was in (blessing in disguise, truly) and in doing that, a lot of useless boxes had stacked up in the drawing room. Or so the other humans in the room thought. I stacked up the oxes and blocked every way the rat could and would have gone. With one last bang, we got it to sprint, only to find a box in his way. He turned to the other way and guess what... a BOX awaited. After a third such incident, it took the only way it could spot. About an hour and a half after we started the mission, i declared it SUCCESSFUL!

The work wasn't over there though. We had to make sure it wouldn't try finding a way back home. Now, i stay on the third floor. This thing ran down half a flight of stairs and climbed a pipe that's used as a guide-rail. After the helper dashed behind it to shoo it away, it jumped onto the wall and clung on! And surprisingly, started ascending upwards, almost like a Lil rock climber. expertly manoeuvring its way through. I dashed up to the next floor with a broom to knock it down and when i saw it, in a sudden blink of an eye, the helper took a ball of mud from the plant on the balcony and knocked it down all three floors!! I saw it plummet to the ground with a wry smile on my face. My nemesis had gone. I was victorious and the war was over. Finally tonight, i can grab myself a bottle of a desired temperature and not have to worry about a rat pouncing on me!!!

:D

\m/rock.in.peace\m/

Trust

Dear reader,

I'm sorry for last night. I was desperate to get some sleep in. Anyway, the next chapter is here... i've tried to find ways of ignoring this bit and moving on but i think its best if i get this confusing phase off my chest...

--TRUST--

It had been a couple of days since i had come back from Haridwar, with a lot changed in the way i thought and my perception of things. It was here.. I'm sorry ill have to edit most of the details here since all the people in this story are still very dear to me and i don't wanna mess things up with anyone.

-- INFORMATION REMOVED SINCE PEOPLE INVOLVED WERE NOT OK WITH IT --

That instance, when i got to know that HE got to know, i lost all my TRUST.. i didn't think anyone was really worthy of it and that in the end, everyone had a motive. I stayed up till the break of dawn pondering all possible thoughts about this.. the whole four months came running back into my head. I still won't let it get over. I don't think it is. I hope SHE is reading this.. All of these things made me stronger and made me realise that i shouldn't give up easily. She means too much to me to let it slip away.

And though a LOT of things killed me when i thought about em (, there were a lot of other things i learnt from those 24 hours. One of the guys who spilled it, my best friend from the gang, proved exactly why i thought of him as that. Every time i got another message from HER or something else got messed up, the first thing i tried to do was throwing my phone away (MY DEAR N91!!!) and trying to break all contact with the world and run away. Every time i did that. EACH of the 9-10 times i threw it (once into a garbage disposal), he made sure to pick it up and not let me run away (being faster than me when it came to running obviously helped him too). The trust that had been dented, though didn't get fully revived, but a lot of it sprung back up. That's when i realised what friends are for. and yes, it is true that a friend in need IS a friend indeed. Period.

I realised that i HAVE to learn not to give up on life and all these things that revolve around me so easily. I realised that no matter what i say to them, even if they aren't at fault, my friends are going to be there more often than not.

I learnt that my life had a reason. It had its worth and had a value. I meant something to some people at least. And i learnt that no matter what i post in this blog i chose to write, SOMEONE WILL READ IT!

The Next Chapter

So.. The last time i was writing stuff for this page, i told u the story of the cremation and how when i came back from Haridwar, i had changed the way i perceived things.

Thats when i thought things were getting alright again. Little did i know that all of this was a part of an ugly puzzle, and i wasn't looking at the whole picture, but just a piece of it. Like i said in the beginning, this was part of the 2 WEIRDEST weeks of my life thus far.

This is one chapter of this story i really REALLY wish i could ignore. But its too close to the heart to hold back... that would only kill me and i'm too young to die..

but well.. i hate to break this to you, but you're going to have to wait for this post a little longer.. a whole day of doing almost nothing, though my buddy Marshel was over and we saw some episodes of HIMYM (another bugger infected with the disease!!!), i feel tired and really sleepy right now... i promise o fill up this article asap.

till then,

\m/rock.in.peace\m/

The Saga Continues

My first whole day with my new phone.. i'm getting used to this already, and it sure feels good to finally have familiar names in my phonebook (PHEW!!)... I even got to use my new football shoes today.. had a match that we lost terribly but hey, every dog has his day, right?

But anyway, thats enough about my phone and most of my day... i wanted to urge all readers.. request you... PLEASE DONT MAKE UP YOUR MIND ABOUT THINGS AND FEELINGS IN MY LIFE.. CONSIDER THIS ONE CHAPTER OF A STORY, A FEW BAD DAYS.. I'M WRITING THIS AS WHAT I FELT AT THAT MOMENT, IVE MOVED ON NOW AND THINGS ARE GETTING BETTER BUT YOU'VE GOT TO LET IT UNFOLD.. PLEASE!! :)

And now that i've written a whole para in bold, italics and caps, i shall continue the story of the week that was...

--MOVING ON--

So, where was i? Right... i left you at the horrendous description of the burning body.

13th May 2008.. The day after the cremation, i had to travel with 3 of my mashi's (aunts), a mama (an uncle) and a mesho (another uncle.. damn ENGLISH LANGUAGE!!) representing my mother to "visarjit" my nani's ashes into the holy ganga up north... it was a long, tiring journey that drained most of us mentally too but once the ceremony was completed and my aunts, uncles and i sprinkled the water that now carried my nani's remains, we visited a temple on the banks of the river (just as most temples in haridwar are placed) after which we did what everyone in the car wanted to do and told me i should. We washed away our sins by taking a swim in the holy river. I dont know if that swim washed away my sins or not but it surely removed the muck from my eyes and opened them up... That one swim and all those dips made me realise that her death was the only way she could escape the pain that enveloped her. It was always a very disheartening picture to see her so very ill... It was really heartbreaking.. she was living like a leaf, honestly. I think that dip made us all realise that fact. and it WAS a fact. The ultimate truth...

And with this enlightenment, despite a few minutes of an awkward silence, we all felt lighter in our hearts.. the burden of this loss felt like more of a blessing now. Smiles returned to the faces that had thousands of lines running across them from the tears and frowns of the days that preceded. And we all drove back home, smiles intact, tears of joy flowing down our cheeks in slow motion, all to tell the tale of how we learnt the ultimate truth..

But like i said before, this was the beginning of the two weirdest weeks of my life... Ive been through the high and low this week.. its like trying to surf on rough waters, really.. but all that comes in the next chapter. Hope u turn the page and read.

Till then, take care my friend.

\m/rock.in.peace\m/