Bacchaa Party!!!

Is it possible to ever forget your childhood??? Even if it is,I guess movies like Memento and its rip-off Ghajini will explain how. For me,those were the Wonder years,the years of my life I cherish the most. There are times I miss those days so much,there is either a tear in my eye or a thought in my mind to build a time machine. But unfortunately,we grow up......we become mature(well...most of us atleast)...and what hurts me most is we lose contact with ourselves and our loved ones just in order to keep up with our shitty lives.
There is a saying that our lives change for good. I must say I totally disagree with the git he stated this and I would gladly hunt him down and kick his ass. People say what they have to....but it all comes down to you finally.Ask yourselves the same question and see if your answer matches with the quote.
Today when I see a bunch of 11-12 year old kids playing in my colony,all those amazing memories flash right before my eyes. Playing silly games like lagori,chor-police,kho-kho,etc,etc..When I was 11,I always felt that I liked playing these games because they were fun to play.Now I realize that it was not the only reason.The people I played with mattered too.During those days, 4.30 pm to 9.30 pm was a time to just forget who you were,what your age was,what problems you had....It was just time to come down,play and have loads of fun with the people you grew up with,people you loved spending time with. I still remember those days ,when me,as a school-going kid and my group of other school-going kids humiliated our seniors in Cricket, how we fought for samosas and pedas on Independence and Republic days,how we rehearsed day and night to get our dance performance right for the Annual get-together,how we all came together to build lanterns for the building during Diwali and Christmas,how we fooled the secretary of the society for the lantern expenses and drank pepsi and ate chaat with that money,having boys vs girls fights and spray-painting the entire terrace walls with the stance "BOYZ RULE!!!"(though we had to re-paint those walls ourselves),building tree-houses,screwing up the car of the bitch that always had a problem with us playing.
But all those thoughts are wiped out when I sit at home day-dreaming,with an engineering book in my hand and Mum yells form behind,"Where the hell is your concentration???" When this happens it sometimes prompts me to get a tattoo on my forehead,"WHY DID I EVER JOIN ENGINEERING??"
If I had a choice to ask for anything I want, I would surely ask back my childhood.Because those were simply the best days of my life.(I know its clichéd...but still)

Shopping with Mom

"I am the King of the World!!!",I cried.....standing on top of Mount Everest with a sword in my hand.I was completely in shape and had an enviable body,to say the least.With a fully grown beard on my face,it would'nt have been easy to tell me apart from Leonidus,the King of Sparta in 300. And then....out of the blue.....I heard a shriek..."Wake up lazybones.....dont you remember,we have to go to Siddhivinayak today???" And that is how my dream ended."Thanks a lot Mom",I said. "Come on....hurry up....we'll be late",she yelled. And I was completely up,did my routine morning chores and got ready to go to Siddhivinayak. We left home at around 15 minutes past 6 in the morning,caught a fast train to Dadar from Andheri....and we reached Siddhivinayak at around 7 am. As expected,there was an incredibly enormous queue of people there,who had come to worship. I tell you....if you really want to see an example of India's ever-gowing population,you must pay a visit to Siddhivinayak on a Sunday.
Anyways,me and Mom finished our work at the temple in around 45 minutes. As we took our "prasad" and left the temple,I told her,"Mom please lets leave soon.....I'm feeling very sleepy!"She threw me a disgusted look then and there.....as if I had asked her to buy me a new car!!! When I asked her what made her throw that kind of expression at me....she simply replied,"We cant go now.I have to shop.Let me know if you see any saree shop closeby." Phew......here we go again.....Out of all the things I hate to do with my family.....shopping with Mom was certainly at the top of the list. "Oh come on.....have some mercy on me!!!",I begged her. But she didnt yield. It seemed as if the two of us were in a courtroom.....she was the judge and I was the convict. Finally,I had to give in (as if I had any other option left). So of we went...in our destination...a Paaneri saaris outlet,which was around 25 minutes away from the temple just in case we decided to walk.And the next thing I know.....yeah....we were gonna walk.It was an extremely hot day. I guessed the temperature to be aound 33-35 degrees Celcius. By the time we reached the outlet,I was completely drenched in sweat. I gave my Mom an angry look and asked her,"So going to Siddhivinayak was just a cover up.This is why you wanted to come here." She smiled and gave me a slight slap on my cheeks and replied,"See, Diwali is approaching....so I need to buy new saaris.""So why have you bought ME along??? I am not going to wear any saaris,am I??" i protested. She preferred walking into the outlet rather than answering me.But as soon as I entered the shop,I forgot all the arguments I had with Mom as soon as a wave of cool air hit my face.I felt so relieved,that there was a great possibility of me peeing there and then. After that(thankfully),Mom took a long time to go through the array of saaris the salesman had displayed before her,and I was just sitting in one corner,enjoying the cool waves flowing out of the air-conditioner.
After her shopping was over,we left the store,much against my wishes.On our way to Dadar station,Mom asked me if I wanted anything. "I have to buy underwear",I replied. So we bought that too. All the shopping and travelling had made me extremely tired and hungry. But as I had just recovered from Malaria,I resisted the temptation to eat any road-side food.
So even though I didnt quite like the idea of shopping with Mom,this was one occassion where I certainly didnt regret it.

The Unforgettable Day.....

Engineering professors are complete nut-cases. They have the entire semester to lay the heavy burden of assignments on students,but they always have to give the assignments a few days before the semester gets over.I have always noticed the profs giving us the assignments with a devilish smirk on their otherwise stern faces.When they do lay the burden on us,I just cant stop imaging them in a devil's costume.Anyways...my unforgettable day involved several assignment submissions,but interestingly,they dont form the crux of my tale. I got up in the morning as usual and while getting ready,wore my jeans low as always."Low-waist jeans are so God-damn cool man!!",this is what I keep saying to myself.And off I went to my "A" graded college,which is filled with "asels"(its some kind of dutch slang).The first half of the day was better than I had expected it to be.Several profs didnt show up at the lectures,so we ended up either doing nothing or completing our pending work.But as the day progressed,it took a turn for the worse.
"4 submissions today!",cried out a jerk in my classroom.So one by one our teachers started calling us to their classrooms and the submissions thus began.First up was Java.If I forgot to mention before,the Java professor was a total bitch and a pain in the a**.The way she talks and throws around her arrogance,it would'nt be hard for anyone to believe if I said that she was showered with attitude and arrogance instead of love when she was little.She just loves it when she is presented with the slightest opportunity to insult somebody.But I certainly love the look on her face when she is disappointed to know that she cant insult a student since his/her assignment was complete.Anyways that was done.Next up was Physics.That was easy...My work had been finished ages ago and the prof didnt trouble me much during the submission.In CS,all we had to do was to just place our journals on top of the stack,smile at the teacher and leave.That leaves us with Chemistry.Well,the submission was not that easy going,but i managed to get past it.
Phew....that was a long day.All the running around the college had made us EXTREMELY hungry.So we went to the canteen and ordered 3 plates of "Bhurji pavs".It was 4.30 pm then.We were supposed to board a train at 4.51 pm.At around 4.40pm,the guy who runs the canteen tells us,"Saab,bhurji ready hai,par pav nahin hai.......ladka pav bas lata hi hoga!!."So we wait......and the guy got the pavs for us at about 4.45pm.After that what happened was luckily wasnt seen by anybody below the age of 18.It took me and my friend 2 minutes to gulp down 3 entire plates of Bhurji pav.......I had never even seen wild animals behaving like that. 4.47pm....4 mins to go before the train reaches the station.The two of us ran as if a pack of hungry wild wolves was set behind us.And the low-waist jeans which I admired earlier,didnt help us much,as they have a tendency to just slide off your waist. So we set off......our destination....Nerul station......holding our pants so that they didnt fall off. I have got no clue how it happened,but we managed to somehow jump into the last compartment of the train.We usually travel by the First class.So the next thing we had to do was to get into the First class compartment.So the train stopped at Juinagar,and off we went again.....and got into the smaller of the two first class compartments.But then we realized that all of our other friends were in the other first class.....yeah ,you guessed it right.....off we went again.....I tell you.....I was too tired to run again....and thankfully we didnt have to after that(Well,thats what I thought).Come Wadala,we got down as usual to buy something to eat.We were at the counter,and the bloody train starts moving again.We scrammed to wards the train.My friend was lucky enough to find the first class compartment.....but I wasnt. In front of me were two huge compartments which were labelled "LADIES ONLY" from outside."Oh f**k",I said to myself.But I still managed to jump into the general compartment which followed the ladies one....
All in all,it was a very very eventful day,and certainly memorable.

The Monsoon Tragedy

Rains in Mumbai.....well actually i dont need to talk about that,since all of you are familiar with it. For some reason its got to be the shittiest period of the year if you are a person who hardly stays at home.Me....well what do i say?? I was born in July and the meaning of my name is "The Rain God".....so I am associated with the rains and the monsoon quite often.I used to love the rains as a kid.Used to get wet in the rain,play ,play and play.My mum often says this jokingly...."You were born in the muck....how the hell will you not enjoy getting wet in the rain?",when i was a child. Since the monsoons are so closely associated with me,my cousins often push me hard so that i fall down.wierd,aren't they????Well their reason for that is very simple.India is losing a match and only the rain can save them(as it often does....)....so for the rain to fall,i should fall.I recollect being pushed around 12-13 times during the 2003 Cricket World Cup in South Africa,when India(who surprisingly reached the Finals) were absolutely annahilated by the men from Down Under.Back in 2005,after I finished my schooling days,I remember going to various Junior colleges with friends to collect admission forms.We could not have chosen a better day.It was raining as if a massive shower covering the entire sky was allowed to pour. Somehow,we managed to go around about 4-5 colleges around Mumbai.We somehow protected the admission forms from getting wet but could not save ourselves from getting drenched.We were tired,hungry,thirsty....you name it.We were all cold and wet...and then.....while walking back from National College on the linking road in Bandra....we saw something that looked heaven-sent....It was nothing but a McDonald's outlet.We all went in and had hot coffee which we all savoured. God bless McDonald's,we thought.Speaking about monsoons, I dont think there would be any individual in Bombay who doesnt remember 26th July. What a day it was! I mean what was going on that day?? The amount of rain Bombay received that day would have probably been the sum of the amount of rain our city has received for the last 3-4 years. Everywhere you went,you could see hapless people stranded.....stray dogs flowing along with the water.....complete traffic jam.......It seemed as if Bombay....which is always on the run....where stopping for a moment is like wasting money....where time and money is everything....had actually been brought to a standstill. The struggle people had to go through to reach home,to tlak to their loved-ones,to know how they are....was extremely sad. I remember to have walked for 6-7 hours in knee-deep water(which reached my chest at some places) to reach home. Even though it was a very difficult day for all Mumbaikars.....I have to say....ity was one hell of an experience.Another reason i hate the monsoons is that it attracts millions of unknown insects and all those icky things.Some of whom we have never seen before.The look small,but the damages they can do to you is something we underestimate.I say this because I have contracted malaria for two years in a row...and trust me.....thats something you dont want to experience. I absolutely hate insects....especially mosquitoes. A friend of mine has a sick way of killing them. He catches them....does not squash them.....but slowly and gently...disesembles its body parts.This happens when the mosquito is lucky. If he gets extremely pissed with the mosquito....he goes ahead to burn it....All i want to say is.....Bincy....BEWARE!!!!!h