A trip to Chhoti Sadri- long, tiring and lonely.

Long- Udaipur is nowhere as near to C.S. (though it might remind of Computer Science, it is Chhoti Sadri, as you might have guessed already) as was Pratapgarh. Reaching there takes more than three hours and requires a bus change most of the times. Needless to say, it doesn’t make one happy about traveling there.

Tiring- As it is with me, I was awake till 4AM in night, playing Assassin’s creed. When I finally slept, I knew I had to wake up again at 5:30, and so I did. Went to Bus station, got a bus at 7. Initially, time flew fast, thanks to my PSP. But as siesta took over me, it became harder and harder to pass every single minute. A RSRTC bus doesn’t make a very good sleeping environment, until and unless it is a Sleeper one, or at least a Silver or Gold line. So time crawled and I yawned. But as Shrimadbhagwatgita(and ‘The Matrix’, just kidding) says- ‘Everything that has a beginning and has an end’, it ended and I finally reached CS.

Lonely- Damn Sandeep for this. When I reached his home, surprisingly the so whinny, so sick and ‘oh so can’t come’ guy was gone on a trip to Saawariyaji. Needless to tell, I was furious. There was no one other than her mom at his home. And the funnier argument was that the mistake was all mine since I didn’t call before coming. How was I supposed to know that guy having Ulcer will be running Olympic marathon the very next day?

I went to Jyoti’s home then, unfortunately she too wasn’t there, gone for some computer course class. Then I went to Mahesh’s shop, which now is filled to brim. The cabin is gone and a computer has taken its place. It seems his new venture into all mobile related things is successful. I had to wait till 12 and so I did at his shop. We didn’t talk a lot as his shop was almost getting mobbed by customers.

Then I went to Jyoti’s home and luckily, this time she was there. After the usual barter of greetings, we didn’t know what to talk about. She had to bath so she went. Then I talked to her mom and it turns out that their financial and social condition is dilapidating by each passing day. The truth as it stands, and is heart- wrenching, is that a woman who doesn’t have any job or any other source of money, finds it hard to save her youngest daughter and to feed her children, when her husband declines to give money for family and rather drinks it with liquor. I did help as much as I could and will do in future, but until I start earning, it will be miniscule of what they really need.

Jyoti’s father came after a while, and as usual, he didn’t mind my presence and was amiable to me, just like last time when I met him.

After he was gone and Jyoti’s mom was gone to Neemach, Jyoti and I again started talking. I told her about Rebbecca (I don’t know if she had some trouble remembering the name, but she opted to call Rebbecca Miss Sweden instead) and all about how Rebbecca was slowly and steadily becoming more and more important for me, she also asked how I was doing these days, as far as my health is considered. By the way, it was the general consensus that I had improved a bit on my health. But then again, that might have been a hallucination because I was wearing an open shirt over my T-shirt, which made me quite an attraction for people there, making me nervous more than once. Jyoti told me I was looking good in that dress and I was feeling good, then Sandeep’s mom asked why I was wearing another half-sleeved shirt when I already wore a full-sleeved T-shirt? I told her that it was a kind of fashion and I didn’t device it either. It was probably the first time when I came out my usual dumbo style of wearing normal T-shirt and trousers (thanks to Gudia, she was who suggested that I come out of the eternal style of mine, if it was at all any style) and generally it went positive, apart from the fact that I didn’t know if many other people in CS were thinking along the same lines as Sandeep’s mom. Let’s hope that wasn’t the case.

I took a one hour nap, waiting for Sandeep. They all returned at about 4:30PM. Me and Sandeep went to have round around Chhoti Sadri and to have some nice chat (doing this is my favorite thing to do in CS with a good friend, 14^th January 2005 being one of the most beautiful days of my life, when I was lucky enough to have about 4 complete rounds around CS, with another best friend from past). We talked about a lot of things, ranging from things not related to us to things close to our hearts.

It was about 6PM before we realized time going by and soon I was in a bus towards Nimbahera, going home.

A tribute to first love....and moving on

Anything tributary is usually written in the end, but I am writing it in the beginning. Reason- I wanted to end it before moving on. Despite of me having said that I was not going to write abuot Bhumika, I am writing this because all those who saw me as 'one woman man', or better to say as 'one girl boy', and appreciated for that (Oh I so recall Ravi tahiliani right now) will cry if I dont do this. So here, first I write a tribute to Bhumika.

A blurring memory she is, with aeons passed since I last saw her. A good companion, a better friend. I lost her because of some follies and tried to ger her back as hard as I could. After lingering on for long, I am finally moving on, when all doors are closed and hate is the only feeling she has left for me. I couldnt have said it better myself, so I use these lines from one of my favorite movies- 'Little Manhattan',

"Love is an ugly terrible buisness, practiced by fools. It will trample your heart and leave you bleeding on floor. But what does it give you really in the end? Nothing but a few incredible memories, that you can never shake. The truth is, there's gonna be other girls out there. But, I am never gonna get another first love. That one is always gonna be her."

So, I completed my tribute and am ready to move on. Hence, let is move forward with the juicy thing.....

It was a boring afternoon, as I was lying on the bed in hospital, waiting for the daily checkups, I saw a foreigner girl coming towards my ward. She went towards the nurse, showed a note and asked about 'Kamal'.
"Oh! That would be me." I said.
"Hi, Kamal. I am Rebecca."
It turned out that she was a member of the IIT Bombay foreign students association or something like that. They do some welfare too. They heard about me and my condition and all, and she came to wish me well.
She is from Sweden, and is, obviously, fair as milk. Now dont expect that I would write anything bad about her, so keep reading only if yuu want to know what happened next.
After talking a few minutes about all that I was going through, we moved on to different things. Whether call it good or bad, we are at extremes only about our dislikes or likes. Either we love the same thing (or hate) or either hate absolutely what the other one likes. For example, her favorite band is 'The corrs', which is same with me. But then again, she likes 'The Cranberries' and I think that all their songs other than 'Zombie' are crap. She absolutely loves 'Smallville', and so do I. But then again, I like 'Seinfeld' as I think it is one of the best TV series ever made, but she thinks its characters are unreal. In movies, we agree on 'Vanilla sky', but differ highly on 'Requiem for a dream', as I think it was really slow paced movie.
Then we talked about many other things, like girlfriends and boyfriends. I told her all the truth from my side and dont ask how she reacted. Guess from the fact that she too split from her boyfriend about half an year ago, before coming here (Oh thank God for that).
We talked for about one hour, before my checkup time came. As she was leaving, I somehow managed to ask this daring question- 'Will we meet again?' and well, what she said was rewarding. 'Sure, why not? Lets go to McD tomorrow evening and murder a big mac or two. Are you free?'
Although I was free, I could have cancelled anything to go with her.
I prepared a lot for that 'going out'. Shaved. got a hair cut, bought a new pair of dress and prepared a lot about what I was going to talk about.
"Are you ready?" Her call came exactly at 5pm.
"Yeah, absolutely."
"Good, cause I am standoing outside your hostel." So she proved that she did posses some sense of humor.
As I went out, I saw that gorgeous girl waiting for me. She was wearing knee-cut jeans and sleeveless T-shirt with something like hand version of leggings (sorry I dont know what they are called exactly).
Unfortunately, she was also wearing high-heeled sandles, with lesses rounded up high. No-no, they were absolutely fine as far as looking good is concerned. The problem was, when she came to hospital, I couldnt exactly compare her height with mine. I was afraid that she might be a CM or two taller than me (BTW, I measured my height after a long time and was surprised to see that I am 176CM now, and not 173 which I was about two years ago!). Those high-heeled sandles worried me more. But in the end, even with those 5-6CM high heels, she was only almost as tall as me. So without heels, I am about 3-4CM taller than her. Yippy!!!!!!. And those who say that it is fashion having taller female companion, citing Tom-Katie or Sarkozy-Bruni, I say I still prefer the old way, although I do believe that the difference should be minimal.
Before moving on, I would describe how she looks, as this is a good opportunity. She is kinda slim, which makes her look taller than she is. But then again, no one ever said that I was a fatass. Her color is, as I said earlier, fair like every girl (and some boys like me) dream of. Her hair are mostly blonde, with some brown ones here and there (I didnt ask if she colored them). She wears specs when she studies and hence obviously, she wasnt wearing them there. Needless to say, she is gorgeous.

We walked till McD, which was about 2 and a half KM from my hostel.
And for a surprise, and a huge one at that, her favorite topic for talking is video games! For a girl, that is really really strange, but I am so damn impressed. We even sang lines from 'Still alive' song from game 'Portal'-

"And then science gets done,
and you make a neat gun,
for the people who are still alive."

That was really beautiful.
Then we had a competition of drinking hot Espresso- that who would drink it faster. This, although debatable, I won.
After having a lot of fun, we came back at about 9:30pm. And when I was leaving, this time she asked- "Maybe we can do it again, this time somewhere funny."
Oh!!!!! How could I have asked for more.
"Yeah, of course. This Saturday."

And then I returned back, cheerfully.

So folks, this saturday, I am going to IMAX with her. how I became so lucky to be with such a gorgeous girl and so unlucky to have so little time remaining in life?
Yes, I do want to ask her that what she thinks about me, but as a guy who himself dosent know whether he is going to live more than four months, I cant take this risk. And then again, howsoever blur she may be, Bhumika is not totally out of my mind. I am trying hard to forget her, and Rebecca made it much much easier, but till I get both these things sorted out, I wont ask her anything.