The Postman's view

This is some time ago, when my sister and I were visiting my cousin M in Delhi. She and her hubby had recently shifted to a new apartment in Vasant Kunj. The place was new to us and we were having a hard time locating her home. Soon we at least found the apartments complex but were still struggling for 1029-A. Amidst our confusing arguments of locating it we heard the sound of a bicycle. As we turned around, we saw it was a postman carrying a load of envelopes and parcels and postage. For me, he was God sent. Without wasting a moment, I hurriedly walked up to him and asked, "Bhaiya, aapko yeh number maaloom hai kya?" (Do you know where this apartment is?) He stared at it for a moment and then after searching hastily through his postage, came up with an envelope with "Mamta Aswal, 1029-A, Sector C, Pkt D, Vasant Vihar, New Delhi-110070" written on it. "Is this the person?", he asked, and I nodded excitedly. Almost there I thought. Then he handed that envelope to me and said, "Ghar mil jaaye to yeh chitthi bhi de dena" (If you do find the apartment, hand over this to them as well).

(ps: We did find the apartment finally after realizing that all the apartments with odd noes were in one area and ones with even noes in another)

The Shatabdi train Episode

Its Saturday morning. My friend and I have to leave Delhi for another friend's wedding in Dehradun. We have booked our tickets for Shatabdi express. The train departure is scheduled for 7am. I stay the night at my friend's place so we can leave together early morning. We are out of the house next morning at 5:45am. Since we plan to be back Sunday evening, it makes sense to take her car and park it at the station. So we take the car. Also no crazy Auto wallahs or Taxi wallahs. 6:00am and we cross Connaught Place and now we are like 1/2 a mile away from the station. One red light (right in front of the station) and we are in. But wait, suddenly the traffic starts moving slowly and soon we realize that there is a traffic jam at the red light (this is the red light right in front of the station, you can actually throw a stone into the station boundary from here).

My panic level starts rising. What makes matters worse is that we are in our own car, so we can't dump it in the middle of the road. The place is like a maze and there is no space to move. Slowly the clock is ticking away. From 6 it is 6:15.. then 6:30 ..then 6:40. We are moving very slowly. We realize that there is no way to take the car into the station, so we decide to flow with the traffic. Finally we manage to get away from the red light and move towards the shops. There's a shopping market right off the road. We find a spot in front of a shop and although it's illegal to park, we stop there. Hopefully we'll be able to convince the shopkeeper. What else can we do? And as we are about to pick up our luggage and run for the station the shop owner comes along swearing in Haryanvi accent. Well, I am all panicky and mad and I tell my friend to ignore him. Its 6:55 am!!! We have to rush!!My friend is a calmer personality and does a good job of somehow convincing the bhaiya our plight, he kind of agrees (with some money).

And now we have only one manzil! Catch the train! So we rush across the station dragging our bags, pushing and pulling and running and panting. As we finally make it to the platform, to our pleasant surprise the train is calmly standing there. Oh My God.... its 7:10 am and it's still there! Shatabdis are almost never late! We feel blessed for our luck and quickly board our coach, find our seats and settle down. Oh my, what a huge sigh of relief. First, we exchange smiles and then retrospect on what happened. My friend advises me on how I become mad and panicky in difficult situations and how I should keep my cool. I sincerely agree and nod along now that there isn't much to lose. There is so much to change within ourselves I think. And then we chitchat a little wondering when the train will start. Its 7:25am, for the first time Shatabdi is so late....

After a few minutes, we see a couple board our coach and head straight towards us. Then glancing at their tickets and then at our seat numbers, the guy says"You have taken our seats". Yeah right! We take out our tickets and show them, "See, 25 A and B". The guy has a confused look, takes our ticket in his hand and scans the ticket left and right! And then suddenly his face beams in victory, "Bhaisahab, aapka ticket to Dehradun ki Shatabdi ka hai, yeh to Amritsar ki Shatabdi hai" (you have the ticket for Dehradun and this Shatabdi goes to Amritsar). And then we overhear from the back "Dehradun ki Shatabdi to theek 7:00 baje nikal gayi, yeh 7:40 wali Amristar ki Shatabdi hai". (The Dehradun Shatabdi has left at 7:00 already from this platform, this is the Amristar Shatabdi with departure at 7:40 am)

Us-^%^&;*(&*!!! 

(ps: We did make it to our friend's wedding ... we rode by bus)

Perspectives

Those days my roommate J and I had regular routines of washing clothes in the laundry, mostly on weekends. During weekends however, the usage was at its peak and we often had a hard time looking for empty washers/dryers. That day we kept our clothes in the washers and went out for shopping and completely forgot all about it. Later in the evening when our bulbs lit, we rushed to the laundry only to find our clothes in none of the washers! Our first reaction was shock but we soon realized that the probability of someone stealing wet washed clothes from a laundry seemed bleak (plus this wasn't India). So, we went ahead and checked the dryers and lo! Our clothes were all dried up. Someone had moved our clothes from the washers to the dryers! We dint like the idea of that at all. What freaky crappy folks! Impatient people! We swore and came back scowling and growling!

A few weeks later...

We had to travel to Smoky mountains the next day and had a huge pile of clothes to wash. Luckily it wasn't still twilight and we had enough time. Off we went carrying our hampers and quarters and detergent and softener. And lo! All washers were in use! But wait ... the last one looked done. There were clothes inside but they were washed. So, someone had forgotten to do the second round into the dryers. What followed was a moment of silence followed by some "dharam sankat". And then with silent agreement, without exchanging a word or a glance, we quickly moved those clothes from the washer to the dryer. Then went ahead with our chores in a matter of factly way.

We never talked about it.

Tiger not found

And in the jungle, the mighty jungle, you want to see the tiger.

I remember my trip to Corbett National Park a couple of years ago. All I wanted to do there was catch a glimpse of the tiger – the royal, majestic king of the jungle, the gentleman with stripes, the lead protagonist of many stories and the beauty of our emblem. I even carried the book "The tiger is a gentleman" and educated all my friends around how they were such wonderful creatures. Every moment spent, every second passed without the tiger was like a withered wasted moment. We did elephant safari at daybreak, foot safari in the afternoon and jeep safari in the evening. But no tiger rose to the occasion. Towards the end of the trip, I even settled for the glimpse of a wild elephant. I wanted to see at least something that was "wild". What would I tell others about my Corbett trip? What did I see in Corbett National Park?

So did I get to see an elephant (I mean other than the one on the elephant safari)? Well long story short, elephant grass I did see; also with due respect, some wild hens, roosters and a few deer. In due course of time, our perspectives totally changed from worshiping the tiger as the one and only to utter reverence for the ordinary. In the process of seeking retribution for the utter rudeness on part of the tiger our eyes opened up to everything. Now the beauty of small run of the mill things started coming to our notice. We began to love all- from the unkempt elephant grass, the familiar grasshoppers, the narrow streams of water, the pine trees, the friendly sparrows, the black-eyed grunting toads to the unsophisticated crickets, the not so picture perfect swans and the un-feathered peacocks. And the safari elephant with its cute trunk and mushy sweet gentle non-complaining self became my personal favorite. It was interesting to watch its calm gigantic self bowing respectfully to the mahaavat, jumping around with dried tree branches, playing the scare-you-away game with flies and cats and catching a doze of peaceful sleep in between its elephant safari duties.

Once back home, we made up some stories.

Teaday

The sunlight is bright and warm outside. It's rays twine through the branches of the maple tree in front of the house and then slowly peep through my window. I am reminded of the childhood fairy tales of walking through the woods, with sunlight peeping through the trees with a little stream running close by. I feel too tempted to pull out a charpai (the Hindi of "Cot") and sleep in the sun, which is not possible both due to lack of "charpai" as well as "sleepiness" (slept like a log last night.. in fact, I think I am becoming a log).

'just had my tea and am on a high! Tea does that to me- it brings that happy-to-do-anything smile to my face, ecstasy to my life. Tea is enchanting, fulfilling and nirvanic, tea is healing and heavenly; simply, tea is the zing thing! . For those who haven't been introduced to the "tradition of tea", you are missing something!

Stains on the beautiful day

It happened all of a sudden when I was walking from our dining table to the kitchen after a sumptuous lunch... that one moment of carelessness.... until then it was a picture perfect day .... rising early morning , watching sunrise (read "was awake during sunrise") ... some lazy netsurfing, nice refreshing morning tea, a short and sweet morning walk... beautiful old music in the background ... praying to God and lighting incense sticks ... feeling good about Dussehra.... some cooking, some cleaning, some washing .... nice brunch of home-made fresh and yummy "Poories and Chhole"!! and then everything changed :-(...

I dint know when that bottle of tamarind chutney fell off my hands and splashed everything over - onto the carpet, the wall and the ceiling! (Can you believe the ceiling part? I still can't...)

Vijaydashmi

It’s good morning for me at 2:15am. Had a hard day yesterday, gave the worst exam of my life and slept like a log in the evening. Thank God yesterday is over.
Today it is VijayDashmi (Dussehra) in India. It is a festival that celebrates the victory of Lord Rama (the good) over Ravana (the evil). The festivities last for ten days and Ramlila - an enactment of the life of Rama is played in every nook and corner of towns and cities. Its really beautiful and vibrant there at this time. I think I am missing not being in India.