Of The Year That Passed

In the beginning of 2011, I was in a totally new place, among the tranquility of monks, the awkwardness of being a vegetarian and the acceptance (and later the getting back) of a story that wouldn’t work out. I know I am talking in codes and utter bullshit. But that was how 2011 started for me – in complete mystery. But from that mystery arose a year, that shall forever remain etched in my mind.

One of my major achievements that I conquered in the previous year was coming to terms to being in love with Delhi. My post graduation here the past two years, couldn’t make me love Delhi, than the time I left for other places. I came running back as soon as I realized it.

It is in 2011, that I became a post graduate, along with some of the most awesomest friends I will ever make. And the greatest thing to happen to your 20-odd classmates, is see them all be in really good positions across the country. I am proud to say that the batch I was with is wickedly talented and I hope to see them achieve more than what they ever dreamed to.

Also in 2011, was when I got my first, second and third job. Well technically speaking, my third job is my first job. I was first offered a job in Bangalore (my loathing for Bengaluru is quite out there in the open), with a clause that came into view only when I was in Mumbai. I didn’t take that up, after which they did one of the most childish thing that a real firm would never do – go complain to our institution director that I didn’t take up the job. Hilarious. Then I was home, rummaging through media websites and what not, sending resumes in the bulk to media and production houses alike. I got a call from a few, but in the end decided to go for one in Chennai – the Deccan Chronicle. And it was not good. The only big city I was not able to cope with till now is Chennai. I headed there, with hopes of being closer to home and easier adjustments than in Delhi, but it was just the opposite. The one week I worked for Chennai Chronicle, the tabloid piece that goes alongwith the main newspapers, made me realize, this was not what I was cut out to do. I left the job within a week. I missed my Delhi. I reached Delhi, to find that my old roommate was still there, but I had to move out of his place (read here). But in the two weeks he put up with me I was back to doing what I had done back at home in Calicut – send resumes by the dozen. But who would have known that it would be the social networking site of Twitter that would finally save my life. My friend Manoj re-tweeted Venkat Ananth’s tweet about an opening in Sports Illustrated India. When I contacted Venkat, he gave me a mail id where I could send a resume to. But the mail bounced back. But I didn’t back down. I searched the net, found the correct email id and the rest as they say is history. I got in, after a grilling session by the most awesomest boss I have had till now – Kadambari ma’am. But it was not just Kadambari ma’am, the entire team at SI, is absolutely fantastic. Each and every person is a character in themselves and the past five months has been a revelation for me. Hope this doesn’t end soon. This to me is a dream team to work with.

In 2011, I travelled. A lot. Starting off with Bylakuppe in the new year, I actually came back to the place during the end of the year. In between I was all around the place – Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Mysore, Kochi, Kannur, Mahe, Calicut and so many more. It has just made me realize that this is the love that I’ve been looking for. Traveling makes me happy. It brings to me the variety of culture and stories, that I would never get sitting on a chair staring in front of the computer. I hope 2012 has more to offer.

In 2011, I understood the true love actually triumphs. It started off with the wedding of my brother and bhabhi. I still am to know their love story, because it obviously has to be a love story. Maybe in 2012, I will get to know. Then there was the surprise package of Faris and Lanisa, college sweethearts, who tied the knot in a ceremony that was attended by the most number of our friends. Another love story of 8 years, came to fulfilment at the end of the year, making me understand that perseverance is the key to achievement. Congos to Nahla and Wasseem for that. Even after years of defiance and rejection, they held on to each other, and finally the two families agreed. And then there is Fathima Ali, one of my bestest buddies (who incidentally didn’t come to see off at the station) got married this year to the most awesomest guy she could ever find (no Basri, I ain’t gay). And to those who have best friends who are about to get married – never piss the bride and groom off on their first night.  But I hope 2012 brings more love stories to life, and I wish this would be the year I could begin telling my kids 20 years down the line, about ‘How I met their mother’ ;)

In 2011, I have realized that failures only makes one tougher. I’ve had my share of failures. But each failure has taught me something new, and a person who has never failed, has literally learned nothing at all.

I guess to sum up 2011, would be a difficult deal, but it was beautiful while it lasted. Here’s to wishing 2012 be much more than what 2011 ever was. Cheers and always keep smiling people!

The Nomad That Is Me - Part 1 (The Story Of My Homes)

Its true when people say that this generation is not going to have a hometown to support or be passionate about or even boast about. We have become nomads. With very few people sticking to their roots, people are travelling anywhere and everywhere their jobs take them. I am no exception, but with the case of job being my reason, is only very recent.

I was born in a small yet historically relevant city in God’s Own Country (Kerala, in South India) called Calicut, a.k.a Kozhikkode (historically because that was where Vasco de Gama landed almost five centuries back.) But I didn’t stay there for long considering the fact that my father was one of those millions who had shifted base to the oil-rich Gulf in the 1970’s. (and yeah, I am the only one born in Kerala among my siblings. Both my brothers were born in Muscat, Oman.) So sooner than later, I was in the Middle East getting used to the constant air conditioning and biriyani or ghee rice on Fridays (it used to be a tradition for up until the late 1990’s in our home – Mom used to make neychor (ghee rice) with chicken curry or different biryanis on Fridays, so that the whole family sat together and ate peacefully after the men came back from the Friday Juma prayers). Oh yeah, I forgot to mention – the sweltering heat, even though nobody ventured out before it was at least 4 in the evening.

I vaguely remember where we used to live when I was really very tiny (I have to ask ma mom one of these days about it), but yeah when I was around 5 years of age, I clearly remember staying in this flat in Muttrah. It had huge halls and there were around 10 apartments within that hallway. It was fairly a huge apartment with two bedrooms and very friendly neighbours. It was the 90’s, people did talk to each other then. My mom, used to being the clean and practical one used to even get out of the way into cleaning the hallways, clearing it off the cobwebs and dust from time to time. I remember a Malayalee family, with whose children I used to play around with. When my mom left for Hajj, dad used to make us breakfast in the morning, cover it with a plate and head off to his office. Me and my brother after having our breakfast (which mainly included bananas or Upuma) used to head out to our neighbour’s place, where we played our hearts out until it was evening and our dad came back. It was a fairly nice place to stay. I remember my mom walking me down the steps towards the bus to take me to the school, which was situated towards the Corniche side of Muttrah (and yes, this very school would metamorphosize into the once prestigious Indian School Al Wadi Al Kabir).

That apartment was also the site of one of my worst personal accidents. I had burned myself real badly when I knocked over a mug of boiling hot water, which was being used as a vaporizer to clear off blocked noses. Ugh, the pain of having my skin peeled off when my dad pulled down my shorts to help take the scalding hot water away from my body was absolutely excruciating. For the next one month, I had to visit the hospital every day to have new dressing on both ma thighs. But that was just one of those many things, that you will encounter in your life. You will never know when the next incident that will scar you for life can come along.

The Al Fayha Complex as in 2009 (courtsey: Jonathan Kotker)

But after living there for almost three years we shifted base to Al Wadi Al Kabir, when the new school came up there. It was called the Al Fayha Complex and it was the company building. It still remains to me the best place I have ever stayed in my entire life. We lived through there from 1993 until 1998. We started at the second floor, and after my Uncle (Dad’s brother) brought his family down from India, we shifted our flat to the fourth floor. It was a two bedroom apartment with a sitting room, two bathrooms and a very nice kitchen. We lived a very comfortable life there, with mosques on all four sides of the building, the school was just walking distance and I made quite a lot of friends, with whom I still keep in touch.

I also remember heading off to three buildings to the left, behind the Adam and Sons Jewellery (who have been robbed quite a number of times), where my close buddy Jasper used to live. We would take out the Four Square, mom had gotten for me when she came back from India attending her sister's wedding. We'd go on out to the road, and make the pipes on the side of the wall our wickets and play gully cricket. Occasionally we were disturbed by the Omani hooligans, who didn't take a liking to us just minding our own business. But we did have a huge Asian contingency there. The Pakistani boys in our building used to get together in the evening and display some of the most awesomest gully cricket i have ever seen. I was basically blown away by their fast bowlers and big hitters. Being the small me, i was not able to be part of their teams, but time to time i too got a chance to see my wickets being shattered with a 100 km/hr ball.

Other than that our building had so many interesting people. There were the sisters (i don't remember how many they were) from Hyderabad, who used to always come out in their Hijab, which made them all the more mysteriously attractive. There were also the bachelors on the first floor, who used to work in the printing press on the ground floor. There was Jijesh uncle, one of the coolest friend's my Uncle ever had (he even got me a walkie talkie from Singapore when i asked for it, but leave it my elder brother who asked me not to accept it, since he thought our Dad won't like it.) I remember the time when me and my brother got into a fight destroying the huge balcony window (and the subsequent punishment by Dad, who beat us with his now famous cane stick.)

I also remember the time when my Uncle decided to cook for his sick wife, and literally got the pressure cooker to explode by trying to open it before it had lost out on all its pressure (the dal was all over the ceiling.) Relatives used to visit us. We had parties. This place sure did have quite a lot of memories and anecdotes to go along with it. It was a beautiful time. It was a beautiful place.

But all honeymoons get over. Sadly, my Dad hit a rough patch after his Sheikh expired and people were in danger of losing their jobs. He decided to send us back to India at least for the time being. So there, after almost 12 years in the Gulf I was heading back to the place I was born in - Calicut.

I didn't like it one bit that we had come back to our motherland. I was getting comfortable with the kind of life i lived in Muscat - quite, slow and relaxing. Its not like i hated Calicut or anything, but you know how it is when you leave your best friends in the world, and come to a place to begin a new life all over again. It was quite tough. And this was one of the main reasons, i initially didn't like the place. But things change, and it sure did for me. But that is for another blog post, when i move into our second home.

ONLY ONE ADVICE : Never get into a KSRTC

At the fabled marine drive in Kochi!!

Rare non motorcycle diary:

Kochi – The Queen of Arabia

The day started off as usual. Nothing much to do. Pretty much the usual college going day. PMG, one of our teachers told us that there would be a workshop in the evening where we would have to teach the newcomers how to make paper bags at the eco club. And that is what we actually did – we were making paper bags, and instead of the required 25 bags (as there were only 25 newcomers) we made almost around 40 or something bags. Anywho in the middle of all this, I receive a message. But I was too busy teaching all these people how to make paper bags (and the fact that I had forgotten how to make paper bags made me more interested in the bags than anything else). But my phone has the habit of sending me alerts every ten minutes. And then after the last bag, I looked at my phone and guess what – it was my best friend – Anusha!!! She was really missing me out there and she needed somebody to give her some company and she asked me as to whether I could make it to Kochi the next day. I called her up and she was quite glad that I did. But then she had a kind of guilty feeling. She didn’t want to disturb me. But I got real tough with her. I asked her to think it over and asked to her after half an hour that as to whether I should come tomorrow. And she said – YES!!!!

Well, now begins the part where I’ve got to use my head. Now if I were to tell my mom that I was going to Kochi to meet up with Anusha, she would not kill me, but she would surely guess that I’ve got some ‘chakkar’ going on with Anusha. If my dad was here, he would have understood better. By de by, Anusha likes my dad better. Yeah, so I decided to use the usual lie and escape treatment. I bought in my accomplice for the crime – Harish. I told him that he should tell my mom that we were going for a tour to Athirapilly waterfalls. And it worked, except for the fact that my brother tried to disturb the trip by discouraging Harish a little!!! But that was not to happen!!! And then I went and booked the Volvo bus to Kochi at the KSRTC bus station. And then I left for Harish’s place to stay over for the night! And there I was at Harish’s place talking to everyone on his phone, which has unlimited free calls to all Airtel numbers within the state!!! Talked to his girlfriend Jisha, Fath, Adu and loads of others!

Anyways that was just the night. I got up early in the morning and then saying bye to his family, Harish dropped me at the KSRTC (the state run bus service of Kerala – the Kerala Road Transport Corporation) bus station, from where I got into the Volvo A/C bus to Kochi. Now funny thing – just within an hour and a half to our journey, we broke down at this place before Kunnamkulam!!! And bloody the conductor didn’t even refund our money (which we found out only after coming to Calicut). Anywho we were ushered into a fast passenger bus (which did not have A/C) and taken to Thrissur! We had to wait at the bus station over there, until the nest fast passenger to Thiruvananthapuram came there, and then we were ushered into that bus! (It was one of the worst bus rides I had ever got into) (And the fact that I was getting such a service after paying Rs. 206 is what eats my head!!). Anywho, I suffered it all since I really wanted to see Anusha and she too wanted to see me real badly!!! And then panting and sweating, I knew I had reached the cosmopolitan city of Kochi, since the bus as no more moving at the usual pace and you are encountered by a traffic signal every now and then!!! And the fact that it was sweltering hot and that you also got a headache helps in the fact that you knew you were in this city which I don’t like too much!!! Anywho, next on I dropped myself off at the Kaloor bus station and then caught the next bus to Marine Drive, that’s where the Bay Pride Mall is situated and that’s where Anu is gone be!!! And then again I reached there at a snail’s pace!!! After almost an hour I was at my destination and then it was all normal after that!!

There was my friend, let me correct that again, my best friend, Anusha going through hoards of cards in the Archie’s Gallery on the first floor of bay pride mall. I wanted to hug her as soon as I saw her. But it was all different than I had imagined it. There was no hugging, only the usual ‘hi’, ‘was sup’ and the following. We immediately got out of the shop and we were like where should we go to have lunch. We had quite a few options and then we decided on the food court in Bay Pride Mall. And so there we were sitting on a table for four, waiting for our order of burgers, fries and Pepsi. We talked for a quite a while and we ate (or rather Anusha ate so slowly) that we finished our lunch only in around an hour and a half i guess. Anywho, after that we talked more and then Anusha went and ordered the Joey’s chocolate cake (I had named it Joey’s chocolate after watching an episode of F.R.I.E.N.D.S in which Joey eats this totally sumptuous chocolate cake with so much chocolate all over it that your water starts watering almost immediately as you see it). Anywho enough of making your mouth water already. So after that we decided to buy each other gifts and we were again in Archie’s Gallery. While she bought me something, I was outside getting money from the ATM. And then I went in and bought her a gift – a book titled – “101 reasons why I love you”. I know it’s kinda cheesy, but let me tell you, this place from where we are buying all this is damn-damn-damn (yeah three times damn) expensive. I was lucky that I found that book at a reasonable price. So after carrying each other’s gifts we decided to take a walk on the marine drive. And we walked and we walked and we talked and we talked. I wanted to take some pics of hers, so I went on clicking my (actually ma friend Nawab’s) camera again and again. In the end I decided that a video would do me better. So I took a video. And in the meantime, we exchanged our gifts and you should have seen what she got me – a cute little huggable teddy. It was totally adorable and I am glad that she thought of me the first time she saw it. It gives you a feeling that someone actually does like you after all. Anywho by the time all this happened, time had passed by so quickly, yet so slowly that it was time for the bye byes. We caught the bus to the railway station and she sat with me till I reached the station. (Yeah people no more KSRTC’s for me). I took the ticket to Calicut for the executive. And as usual the train was way beyond its normal arriving time. So at around five it came around, and then it was the way back!!!!


Anywho, once again I am in this one hell of a train. It’s so crowded that I am able to keep only one foot at the place where I am standing. But after three or four stops, things eased a bit, until we reached this station called Shoranur. Now Shoranur is this junction from where trains are passed to two different tracks of railway lines in Kerala, and usually trains stop there around for at least ten minutes. So I thought, why not go and have some ‘vada’ and ‘chutney’. I had my fill, and I was buying a bottle of water and drinking when guess who comes along? My cousin (who is very close to my big bro), and I was like – “shit, all my planning is down the drain”. But being as diplomatic as I could, I totally veered away from where I had been to with the conversation with him. And he moved on, as he was in some bogies down my bogey. And whilst I was drinking my water, I heard a familiar sound go off in the distance. And before I knew it, the train was moving. There was this mad rush for people to get into the train, that somehow I got one leg in, and then the other, and all the time hanging to the side bars on the edge of the door, and before I knew it, I was sandwiched in between the people who were trying to get in and the other people who were not pushing into the bogey as they should have. Somehow as the train gathered speed we were slowly finding ourselves reaching the inside of the bogey. A lot of people fussed about this and then again we were back to the normal rush hour within the train. And then immediately after this we had a scuffle in our bogey between an alcoholic and a drug addict. But as they say Indians tolerate much, but after a while they react. And they did this time too. They shut both the intoxicated men and it was back to peace.

at the station

At around 9.30 we reached the Calicut Railways station. Harish had come to pick me up. And from there I traveled to the KSRTC to see if I would get a refund from y wasted Volvo bus trip!! And surprise surprise….looks like the conductor had to pay us after all. So there went my 206 rupees down the drain. Never again would I get into a KSRTC after that (but if somebody else’s is eager to take me a ticket I wouldn’t mind that), but otherwise the point of writing this whole blog – I know that India can be quite a scary place to come down and have a holiday and stuff. But then again we are not so bad. We are people with heart. They say man is an extortionist, and we ain’t nothing more than that man. But whatever comes, in the end you have the adventure you were looking for. And that’s exactly what I had in this single day. Then again I have just one advice for you people who are coming down to Kerala to do – Never ever try (yeah, don’t even try) to get into a KSRTC. That’s all and that’s what it is all about!!!