Rahul, My Story

1600 hrs

Raining pretty heavily in Kondapur. Going by bus or MMTS will be pain in this weather. AC compartment + drenched clothes is a very bad combination.

1620 hrs

Stopped raining in Kondapur, only to start again in Gachibowli. PG is stuck now. What other options do we have? A cab perhaps?

1630 hrs

Welcome to Radio Cabs. Please hold the line while we connect you to one of our executives and get you bored to death with our music. You are the 77th person in the queue.

No thank you very much! What the heck are the other 70 odd customers doing waiting in such a long queue?

1635 hrs

Welcome to Dot Cabs. Please hold the line while we connect you to one of our executives and get you bored to death with our music. Hello and welcome to Dot Cabs. How may I assist you?

Hi, I need a cab from…

No.

Sorry?

No. No cab.

But I need it from Gachibowli to Secunderabad by…

No. No cab till 8. Anything else?

Yes, frock you.

1650 hrs

Welcome to Orange Cabs. We suck too much to afford a call center. So no music for you! Anyway, how may I help you?

I need a cab from Gachibowli to Secunderabad at 5:30.

No cab till 6 Sir.

Fine, 6 it is.

1800 hrs

So what is the plan now? Are we still stopping by Nanking?

Of course! Why do you think I came on a month’s leave to India?

Fine dude.

1820 hrs

Stuck at Punjagutta. Will we make it to Nanking?

1900 hrs

Stuck at the Paradise junction.

Don’t worry man. The soup will take 5 minutes. Starters and main course, 10 minutes. We will be out of Nanking in 30 minutes and in the station 10 minutes before the train leaves.

1915 hrs

Ordered the soups, starters and the main courses.

Waiter, we are really short of time. Please, PLEASE, hurry up!

1930 hrs

DUDE, WHERE THE FROCK IS OUR SOUP! We should have finished our starters by now!

1935 hrs

Soups finally arrive. One bowl of soup at Nanking puts you on Cloud 9.

1940 hrs

Starters arrive. Still enjoying the soup. Dude, we should be leaving in 5 minutes!

1945 hrs

Main course arrives.

Starters not done yet.

We will get them packed!

1947 hrs

So what do you think will happen if we miss the train? Are we so screwed up that we are actually contemplating the idea of missing the train for Nanking?

My parents are going to kill me.

1948 hrs

The noodles are just delicious. And so is the sauce and chicken pakoda. Is there time to have another bowl of soup? Still deciding whether to miss the train for Nanking. We could probably take a bus to Vizag.

1951 hrs

We have just 4 minutes to stuff ourselves with these dishes. Eat whatever you can. Hurry!

1955 hrs

Got into an auto.

Bhaiyya, station – quick – 25 bucks. Please start.

1958 hrs

Ravi calls.

Rahul and I are on the way to the station and we have 15 minutes to catch Garib Rath Express. Remember the time you and I sprinted to the station after eating at Nanking? I think we have to do it again. Stay on the line and be part this history in the making!

Dude, did you mean you have done this before?

Yes, with Ravi and Pappa, on separate occasions.

So you knew we would have to run?

Only in the worst case, don’t worry!

AREYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!

2000 hrs

Wow, Sunday night and the clock tower junction is empty! Guess we don’t have to chase the train afterall.

2002 hrs -

Wrong! Stuck outside the station.

This is it. RUN!

2003 hrs

Outside the main entrance. OMG, the train is on the last platform.

2004 hrs

Huff puff… Out of shape. Should do some cardio regularly.

2005 hrs

Landed on Platform 10. Compartment G14 in sight. With 600 seconds to spare!

600 seconds later…

2015 hrs

Train still on platform.

another 600 seconds later…

2025 hrs

Train still on platform.

Finally…

2030 hrs

The train starts.

Finally I get some time to sketch this idea that sparked up in a conversation with Naveen.

Oh you have already seen a version of this somewhere before? DILLIGAF?

@harithski thanks mate

My Experiments with Truth – Part 1

—————————————-

It all began in my fifth class. Well, everything began in my fifth class. Almost. HPS brings back memories of my ‘first times’.

• I smoked my first cigarette. I tried breathing in smoke from a lit paper rolled into a dummy cigarette I made during class. The experience was horrible, which was probably why I hated cigarettes until I learned they caused lung cancer.

• I tasted my first alchohol. Nana had a friend who drank and I had a cousin who worked as a doctor in the Military Hospital. Adults use so many code words when they discuss grown up stuff with kids around. Little do they know that those kids take less than 5 minutes to break the code. Beer (Code word ‘Beerakaaya‘) was cheaper and unrestricted for the Army. One fine night, I got to taste beer and I swore it would be my last time – yuck!!!

• I learned my first cuss word, FUCK! I mean I learned the word FUCK. I did not know what it meant, neither did I know what the FINGER – ,,|,, – meant except that it felt really cool to flip people off without a second thought. Then my sister joined HPS an year later and flipped me off in front of my friends. Naa Karma!

• I watched my first movie with friends in a theatre without my parents’ knowledge. It was my ‘rich’ friend, Rishi’s birthday and he invited all of us to watch ‘Tomorrow Never Dies’ after school. This was also my first Pierce Brosnan’s movie. I called up Amma and told her that I had a practice test match – unlimited overs implies a really long game. She asked me to get back home by 6:30PM to make it to Bhaarateeyudu movie. Lucky day!

One thing I so very well remember is that during the movie all of us were shouting and whistling (simply following some other group doing the same sitting close to the screen) whenever we saw a sensual scene – even though we had no idea of what was really going on.

• I bunked class for the first time. The then airport, Begumpet Airport, shares boundaries with HPS. While playing football after school, my friends and I used to watch airplanes take off right in front of our eyes, our mouths wide open. But never did we get a chance to see the runway.

It was the carpentry class. I had just finished designing an AK-48, in my head of course. It even had a 10 bullet magazine with spring loading and ejection of used shells. I then carefully explained my design to my teacher and also requested him to get me some good piece of wood to work on, after which he went into his office and did not come out for a really long time – must have suffered from a fit of laughter. Right about the time he went in, another plane took off and I really felt like seeing the whole process of takeoff. A couple of friends around me had the same urge and somehow, telepathically I guess, all of us decided to bunk the class and climb up the small hill at the backside of the school to get the best view of the runway.

The trail that lead to the top of the hill was isolated and scary. It also turned out to be a truth-dare type activity. Kids as we were, we used our wildest imaginations to interpret certain things like strange symbols written on some stones along the way, red colour of a tributary (of Musi?) flowing by the foot of the hill, et cetera.

Finally we reached the top and MY GOD, what a view! We had spent only about 30 minutes there when we noticed a guard at the foot of the hill running towards us, to catch hold of us of course. The sudden adrenaline rush brought us back to the class in just 5 minutes, and back to our seats. But we managed to see an airplane taxi onto the runway and take off, and that thrilled feeling took a few weeks to subside. More than that, being one of the first students from my class to bunk a class was even more thrilling.

Hmm, those were the days!

FYI : AK-48 is still in production.