One Nite @ Stand

Time: Friday 13th Apr 2007 1:37:45 am

Don’t even think about it, this ain’t on the similar lines like my previous blog. I know a post is due for a long time and the regulars (by that I mean the ones who frequent my blog space) list must have shrunk ………. But hey, it takes time for the experiences to thaw… to be more precise it takes time to experience something worth publishing here.

Well, lemme relinquish the excuses and continue …..

Time: Friday 13th Apr 2007 10:30:00 pm

This Friday I hit the lounge again. What was supposed to be a celebration for my friend's engagement, resulted into a ‘Lets have a drink to forget it’ melodrama. To top it all, I met a number of my friends who had tagged along with different groups in the same lounge. The evening started rocking as never before and after a pint, my cell screamed intimidating of a SMS arrival.

Temp = Time
Time = Time – 1 hour == 9:00pm

I put the car in fifth gear and increased the volume to step up my momentum and crazy frog shrilled in my ears.
‘Alkuuuuuuuuu, heyyyyyy, whatz up’
‘Hi AB, what are you doing?’
‘It is Friday nite lady, the weekend starts today, heading to Apache to meet few of my buddies’
‘I thought as much, well I had an offer for you but now that you are already game, might as well let it go’
‘Offer, huh? Try me …’
‘Well I was thinking if you could meet us and we can catch a movie and then you can drop us to Shivaji Nagar where we can catch a bus to A’bad’
‘You need to watch a movie before catching a bus? Thatz weird ..And who are these us?’
‘Well I am with my friend here and we both decided to go back home at eleventh hour. Now it is pretty risky to be there at such wee hours, so I was thinking if you could give us company till we board the bus?’
‘Mebbe you both can catch the movie and I will meet you after that, does it sounds workable?’
‘Yeah thatz fine, I will text you the movie timings and you can come accordingly’
‘Don’t you think it will be more risky to be with a guy who is just out of a lounge high on music?’
‘AB, you are the last guy I will be scared of’

Dunno whether that was a compliment of a sarcastic remark, nonetheless I am least interested reasoning out statements when I head to the lounge.

Time = temp

The SMS read ‘mu v : the shooter. v ll b out by 1:00. meet u by 1:15’. Shoot, I had expected them to catch a movie that would finish by 12:30am. That was the reason I even changed my plan to hang around in the lounge for an hour and half max. Well there were lot of my friends already in there and we decided to continue till the owner drove us out. I text back asking these two weirdos to come out by 12:30 so that I could drop them at the station and they could manage to get the 1:00am bus.

Time = 12:30am

Now there are two things I wanna make clear for the gals; first, “If you want a guy to behave like a gentleman, then even you ought to behave like a lady; not like some weirdo or ‘I know everything’ kinda gal and second, “When someone comes alone to pick you up in a car, you need to occupy the seat next to him/her, you don’t scramble into the rear seat.”

Man …….. and people expect me to be a gentleman …….. balls, I dunno wanna be one.

We reached the bus stand and I was zapped to see the crowd. There were so many travellers … so many of them; similar to ants near an anthill or prawns in a shrimp farm. We scuttled through the crowd and ST’s to reach the A’bad bus terminal. Juxtaposed between other terminals, which were under construction, this looked the best. So many people …. some with small hand bags, others with haversacks; some with their families, others with their friends or all alone. We stood amidst all of them, the gals nonchalantly waiting for the bus and running unit test cases on the nearby weighing machine intermittently.

The 1:15am arrived at the exactly 20 mins before departure time. The cacoethes that followed left me stumped. People were trying to get inside the bus through all possible vents; leave aside the door, which was clogged by salad of arms, heads, shoulders, bags, sweat and what not. The conductor continuously shouted of the 12 odd seats which were reserved, but the hyper chose to act deaf and the madness continued with some dropping kerchiefs onto the seat from the windows while few other trying to scramble in from the drivers seat to catch vacant seats; a complete pandemonium with babies crying in their parents arms and they struggled to get aboard

The gals smiled away to glory reading the expression on my face. ‘Welcome to the world of survival of the fittest’ was the message I could make out from what they were speaking.

“This is the way it is AB, we have to go through these hassle” she snorted as if to say “You have the luxury of not experiencing what we have to”

It left me thinking …. Even I have been through such experiences. I distinctly remember that nite when Nil and I were left stranded at Panvel bus depot for two full hours before we got a bus to Pune. It was a nightmare journey as there wasn’t a single part of the bus that did not make noise. Thanks to the rains, the roads were so smooth and the driver was more than determined not to miss any of the potholes. But I learnt something from this experience as I always do. I follow a simple philosophy, you always have to keep the learning eye open under any circumstances; pleasant or not; good or bad.

Time = 1:37:45 am

I have had my share of terrible travels and experiences and they have motivated me not to accept them as they come but to grow above them. An inspiration I derive after such events to do better in life; to climb up the ladder; to succeed. I wouldn’t be proud to tell anyone that look at the pains that I go through; rather I would appreciate myself when I rise above it.

That nite as I headed back in my car, I had mixed feelings. Whether I was right to feel contempt towards the life that I saw at the stand; whether I was right to smile knowing I wasn’t one of them; whether I was right to reason that I deserved the luxuries that I enjoy; whether I was right not to feel complacent with till date achievements; whether I was right to have ‘I want more’ attitude to life. One nite @ stand, one nite @ so many thoughts and the ride to my home was one of the best drives I have had with myself .......