The story-teller is back…

It is always a pleasure to be back in Doon, even if its only for a few days. And once this sweet period is over, I have to rush back to gurgaon. And I am not really fond of it. But alas! You don’t have a choice. So as I geared up for the monotonous journey back – all alone, I had no idea what was in store for me…

There is just one direct bus shuttling between the two cities. Officially, it leaves from ISBT at 11pm every night. For any ordinary bus, reaching 10-15 minutes in advance would have sufficed. But, then this is no ordinary bus: Welcome to the Bus Extraordinaire (BE)!
Infact, some of my well-wishers had already advised me to reach ISBT earlier. This meant: 9.30pm to be on the safe side (90 minutes before the scheduled time!). Anytime later may jeopardise my plans. So I decided to play safe. And the rest is History:

Scene 1 (On Independence day break)-

I was there at 9.35pm (a trifle later than expected). Now as this was my first rendezvous with BE, so I was unawares of its location. I went to the enquiry to check it out! There was this typical enquiry guy (in his mid 50’s or so). I started: ‘Bhaiya woh gurgaon wali bus kahaan…'
I was cut short, as boomed the reply: ‘Arre bhai late ho gaye ho aap toh, jaldi jao platform no. 14’! I don’t exactly remember whether it was this urgency in his voice. But whatever be it, I literally ran to no. 14. One look at the maddening crowd there and I had a hint of difficult times ahead. There was a huge line (never ever seen anything like that before). I gingerly searched for the end as I stood there dazed. Well, it was my lucky day or night: I got the all-important ticket (a big achievement keeping in mind that almost 30% of the people did not!!!). Well everything went smooth from there on…

Scene 2 (On Rakshabandhan break)-

This time, I came well prepared. Infact, I was there at 9.15pm. But My God! As I reached no. 14, there was not a single soul to be seen. All had vanished without a trace. Then I recollected my thoughts: During my journey from platform no. 50 to no. 14, a bewildered crowd was running haphazardly towards me and there were familiar faces.


Suddenly, a voice roared: ‘Gurgaon jaane wali sawariyon se anurodh hai ki who platform no. 42 mein line bnaiyen’! And it was Run-time again. On no. 42, CHAOS prevailed…
A ruffled up person was standing on a bench and shouting at the top of his voice: ‘Agar tumne line nahi bnaiye to saa*** kisiko ticket nahi milegi aur…’. Before the conductor (yes I had recognized the poor soul) could finish. The raging crowd backfired: ‘Hamein pagal samjha hai kya b***c***, picchle 2 ghante se kabhi yahaan kabhi wahaan bhaga rakha hai. Teri toh ****…’

I was almost paralysed at my place. When I finally returned to my senses and got hold of the situation, it seemed too late. I was standing on the 7th new line (the guy ahead of me told me this highly controversial no. – he had arrived at 8pm to catch BE). Hoping against hope, I gazed at my watch: 9.55pm. Then I looked forward at a gleam of hope. For there right at the start of the line, stood my old coaching class friend- Mayank! I knew: it was now or never! I dumped my bag on the ground and ran towards my would-be savior. After a quick introduction (Thank God! He recognized me too). He agreed to buy my ticket also, if allowed. But there was one small problem: His bag was lying somewhere in the BE. I assured him that I would take care of his belongings.

The interior of the bus told a different story. People had already occupied 90% of the seats and his Red & Black bag was nowhere to be found. Then I glanced on that last seat: Yippee! There it was lying beneath 3 big bags. In an instant fit, I took the bag in one hand and jumped to the nearest vacant seat. Two seats were booked now by yours truly, but where was Mayank?
More people had started filling the bus now (with those precious tickets in their hands). And then I saw a family of 4 people approaching the last seat.

‘Bhaiya yahaan koi baitha hai kya (pointing to the bag)’
My reply: ‘Haanji’
‘Kahaan hai???’
My reply: ‘Mera dost hai, washroom se aa rha hai…’
‘Jab aayega tab baithna, abhi utho yahaan…’

Before I could bounce back, there he was: my dear friend with the tickets. I have never been so much relieved to see a person.

So as 8 people sat on the last seat of BE: victorious after waging a herculean battle, the bus finally moved! I was again lucky. Because the whole bus was completely packed to the doors, with people standing everywhere (believe me even on a night journey)…

To be Continued…

I was LOST:

‘The vagaries of an uncertain mind’ had taken over…
Suddenly there were too many questions and too few answers???
There was too much to do & so less time to do it…
I was always one step short and everyone else seemed to be a step forward!
Everything was becoming unmanageable day-in and night-out!

Something was wrong, very wrong somewhere!
The smiling face had LOST its charm, work was assuming gigantic proportions and to top-it-all, I even freaked out at one of my dear flat mates (without any reason).

Life was going haywire, spinning out-of-control, never like before!
& then happened the unimaginable: I LOST myself physically: on that dreaded night, I bled like it was going to be The End of Days! Courtesy, my flatmates it became nothing serious…
And that was the wake-up call for me.

Because, then I relaxed (oh, how I like that word). I decided to take a break and it paid off! I remembered: All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy! And then I implemented it…
It was a journey of rediscovering my inner self.
Peace, happiness, laughter, joy… Everything was back!

It all turned out to be a BIG learning for me, though it came the hard way. But this is something I will never forget for the rest of my life.

My six-pence to the world is: Take everything by the smooth handle. And SMILE, because it is infectious!

No gyaan here, just lessons from my experience.

And hard work counts, but smart work counts more!

Because, The Smarter you work: The Luckier you get!

The earlier uncertainties had evaporated and I was pretty sure in my head now! There was answer for every question now, because I had erased many questions. The time was on my side yet again. Everyone was on the same page. And I FOUND the key to managing my life better.

Yes, I was Lost earlier…

But I have FOUND myself again :-) :-) :-)

P.S. This post is based on some real experiences, which I can’t detail too much. But I assure you those were hard times. Nonetheless, the good, no the better, infact the BEST thing is its all back to normal again. Hence, I am back to blogging again.

I call ‘it’ the “Blogging syndrome”. Now, this refers to a curious situation in which a blogger can’t stay away from updating his/her blog after a specific duration (Otherwise there is a big crisis!). This time-period may vary from being few hours/days to maybe weeks and months. He/She has to religiously follow this regime or abnormality beckons! Its latest victim is “yours truly”. The time-frame happens to be a couple of weeks or there-about. So here I go again…
The purpose of this post is two-fold:
1. Ofcourse, to remind my dear readers that this patient is a severe case of BGS. Infact, it is fast becoming an epidemic in the blogosphere. So fellow bloggers: Beware!
2. To answer the eternal TGIF (Thank God Its Friday!) question:
What are you planning to do this weekend?

Now, this is a rather tricky question. For had it been dehradun, one could have come up with some interesting solutions after a bit of brain-storming! Well there are so many places to visit & lots of things to enjoy in ‘my’ doon.

But, alas its gurgaon, we are talking about! And when this query is about ‘there’ gurgaon, you always unfailingly utter this stale one-liner:
Malls, Movies etc.
Oh I almost forgot, there is Mocks in the end too (reminds me of how I forget to give the mocks too!).
This is not a complete answer. It is applicable when you are not busy with other very important weekend activities such as sleeping, sleeping and more sleeping………………………
So when you are not pursuing this favourite hobby of mine, you try (with not-so-great expectations) to explore the minimum city (liked this name more than the city itself!). The first place you go to (the word ‘visit’ should not be used here: it sounds too good) is Malls and then there is no second place! (Stumped?)

Though there are quite a few of this type here, you will not find any striking differentiation between all of them. But its quite amazing how most of this city’s junta targets the one & only: The Metropolitan Mall (Its in the name I think!). You must have heard about the Delhi marathon and stuff like that. Well, something very similar takes place here too. For those wise people, who don’t wake up early in the morning (like me) for a walk, this turns out to be an intelligent alternative. They walk ones & tens of kilometers. From one shop to another, from one elevator to another. They go forwards & backwards, upwards & downwards. Sometimes (no most of the times), they stop, so as to admire the artificial beauty around (no offence to the fairer sex, but its meant to be a wake up call for the relevant readers). And yes, some of them (who are fed up with money) are interested in ‘shopping’ as well. (And just in case you were wondering: ‘I’ have been a part of ‘they’ from the last century of days or so…)

But there are exceptions: As there is indeed another different class of ggnites, which does not walk but sprints to the ticket counter, watch the movie and then ‘quietly’ move out.
‘Quietly’ because they are always baffled by this query: “Was this worth 200 bucks?”

In this context, the ‘I’ in this ‘they’ has been lucky so far. As all I’s movie ventures here have been worth the fortune (Harry Potter-5, Ocean’s 13, Chak De! India & The Bourne Ultimatum).

And then there are the ‘Mocks’.
My long-term relationship with this species has witnessed different phases: ‘The Good, the Bad & the Ugly’ (exactly in this order). The Ugly phase seems to be almost over now (or so I hope). And most probably, the ‘Good’ would be back pretty soon (how I wish that!!!).

So as I try to prioritize & implement my plans (to bring the mocks before the malls and movies). Its time to change the gears for ‘The Race Ultimatum’ on November, the 18th.

And if you were quizzing yourself about what ‘I’ meant by etc. (in the rare case that you still remember the title). It referred to my incessant gossips & some interesting conversations with friends! {Ok enough of brackets & commas, must be some sort of a record by now :-)}

So as my office colleague shoots another question at me:

What are you going to do this week?

Work, Work, Work etc. :-)

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