Subbu had been pestering me to make a caricature of Sachin and couple of more. So that he could print them on t-shirts and coffee mugs. I do not understand his business model. He has this site called dezains.com. And the only way he can supply products is if I make caricatures! I mean WTF! Sudhar jao Subbu.

Anyway, this probably is my last post for this month, so let me post my North America itinerary, so that just in case one of you happen to be in the city that I would be in, may be we can hit a pub together or something.

• Fri, 3rd Sep – Fly to Mumbai (probably in the evening)
• Sat, 4th Sep – Fly to Toronto (Canada) via Frankfurt and be in Toronto till Wednesday morning
• Wed, 8th Sep – Fly to Regina (Canada) and be there till next day morning
• Thu, 9th Sep – Fly to Ottawa (Canada) and be there till next day evening
• Fri, 10th Sep – Fly to Boston (US) and be there till next day afternoon
• Sat, 11th Sep – drive down to New Jersey, attend a small even there and reach hotel in New York and then put a night-out
• Sun, 12th Sep – Fly in the morning from NY to LA and be in LA till Wed morning
• Wed,  15th Sep – Drive down to San Diego in the morning, catch a flight for San Francisco in the evening and be in SF till Monday afternoon
• Mon, 20th Sep – Fly from SF to Seattle and be in Seattle till Wednesday morning
• Wed, 22nd Sep – Drive down to Vancouver and get free of official work by Friday afternoon

Now, the best part is I haven’t yet figured out what to do once I am free in Vancouver. Because I plan to fly back to India only after a week – on next Friday – 2nd October (Gandhi ji ki jay). Anyone wants to suggest to me a good tourism trip for a week starting from Vancouver? The trip should be such that it ends in a place which is easily connected to India (for example it could end in Vancouver itself, or in Seattle or some such place).  To koi karega madad ki khud hi fight maroon?

PS: the Canada part would work only if I get a Visa this coming week, varna lag gayi samjho

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Last Friday evening, I flew to Bangalore and straight away hit Hard Rock Cafe. LoLy and Taploo joined me. And Taploo and I drank till we felt good about life. LoLy couldn’t drink as much. She had to drive. And cops in Bang are hyper when it comes to Alcohol testing. We crashed at her place. Except that I crashed like I was not going to get up ever again. While she and Taploo made dinner and all that. Of course, I never got up to eat it. When I finally did get up, LoLy was busy crashing. And when everyone was finally awake, we hit some random theater to watch Pipli Live. We were about 20 minutes late but we liked the movie anyway. Funny movie. Good movie.

I went off to see Mintoo chacha after the movie. He had a baby boy few months ago whom I hadn’t yet seen. Aakarsh. And Aakarsh just did not find me aakarshit enough I guess. Because he just did not smile for any pic. Except for one millisecond – which I actually did capture (just one of the thousand shots). And then I took a bus to Chennai.  I was in Chennai the next day morning. Sunday. Independence Day. And Chennai smelt the way it has always smelt.

Tiwari was to come and pick me up and all that. But the bastard kept crashing. So I went to insti instead. He finally called up while I was on my way to IIT. I asked him to come to IIT as well. And when I asked him to do that, it felt like a moment straight out of 3 iditots. Except that Tota wasn’t around. And no Chatur as well. I guess a brief pang of nostalgia hit me very strongly the moment I entered the IIT gate.

Tiwari and I attended the morning ritual I-day ceremony hosted by Diro. And my God – we still have the same diro – and he looked and spoke just like he did when we had first seen him seven years ago. Convocation! Long time! Brief pangs of nostalgia kept hitting me that day. We ran into a department prof as well. He was happy for me. And for Tiwari. And were were happy for him. People in India are usually happy on the morning of 15th August. LOL!

Since Tiwari lived close to IIT, we returned to insti later that evening. I wanted to meet Lux. I dragged Tiwari along. Lux made filter coffee for us. And we chit-chatted. Nn joined too (Nn and Lux are a couple – Nn had taught me thermoD in my first sem). He told us that Bhand was likely to pass out this year. And we all chuckled together. ‘English’ was the language that connected different parts of India during the British Raj – it was the link language. In IIT Madras, Bhand is the unifying factor.

We did some night photography in the campus and when we returned to Tiwari’s place  later that night, I got myself hooked to Indian Idol Grand Finale. For the past few months, this show had been our favourite Mon-Tue 9-10 pm pass time in the Gandhinagar guest house. And our only pass-time actually. I was happy to see Sriram win. Though I must say I wouldn’t have minded the award going to Rakesh as well. I could not sleep for the rest of that night because there were just too many mosquitoes. So it was with an unnecessary night-out that I finally left Tiwari’s place. Early in the morning. For my US – visa interview. The real reason I was in Chennai anyway.

There was the typical hoopla poopla – queue, frisking, waiting time and all that. But the actual interview didn’t even last a minute. The three of us got a 10 years businesss Visa to US – Hanuman, Singa and I. I worked from my Chennai office that day. I called Gaya for a lunch get-together in a nearby Subway. It was great to catch up with her after about two years. We had acted together in a stupid short-film that never got completed. The trailer had been good though. And since it’s been two years I think it is okay if I declare this publicly that I had kind of crush on Gaya when I had first met her (take that as a compliment if you are reading this Gaya ). Except that she wasn’t single then. The good part is she is still seeing the same boy. I love couples like that – they remind you that it’s indeed possible!

Tiwari and  I caught up once more at the Chennai airport. He works at the airport. No, he is not the guy who asks for your id when you want to enter the terminal. But LOL – it would actually be funny to have a friend  like that as well. Anyway. Yeah, so Tiwari is working on the expansion of the Chennai airport. And after eating idli and all that with him, I flew to Mumbai. Subbu lives close to the aiport these days. He came over and we booked a taxi to Firang Pani. I had already asked Chutki to come over. She arrived in a few years time. And once again, we drank till we felt good about life. Chutki presented me a rakhi when were about to depart. And some pastry too. And I was so happy I finally met her.

So that was it. Last weekend! Extended weekend if you think about it. And how has it been ever since I flew back to Ahmedabad on Tuesday morning? Sit and work. Go and attend meetings. Work after the meetings. Make phone calls to US and Canada during the night. Reply to business emails – day and night. Coordinate with a million organizations. Find time to do research work in between. And time to write new proposals as well. Sleep if possible. It had never been this crazy. I could not go running a single day after coming back. Finally at  03 AM on a Sunday I have the time to write a blog. My God! Heh – funny life. And in two week’s time, this funny life will keep me away from India for about a month – would be traveling extensively in North America. Have fun folks!

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We saw Aisha on Friday night – Bali, Ali and I. I know many wouldn’t like it. It was very art-housie stuff. But it had class. And we kinda liked it. For what it was. Abhay Deol was brilliant. As usual. Sonam has a long way to go when it comes to acting. The girl who played Shefali seemed to be over-acting initially. But she nailed the role as the movie progressed. Cyrus cracked his role too – awesome performance from him. And just like Nita, I have been loving the song – Shaam bhi koi. Amit Trivedi has a goood future.

On Saturday night, I motivated Machul and Bali to be my bakras for my strobe experiment. We did some photo-shoot together in the guest-house (one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine). Bali and I even went for a drive outside in the middle of the night. But it was raining and all that. So we couldn’t do much shooting.

On Sunday afternoon, when I got up from sleep, I suddenly realized that I was too alone. It took me quite some time to accept that it was okay to feel that way. I chatted with Chutki over phone. And it felt nice. It had been a boring day for her as well. And then I chatted with Ms. Short Story. And with Neelabh. And Taploo. And Sweety.

If things go as planned, I might soon end up catching up with Taploo and Loly and Tiwari. And before I end this post, following are this weekend’s celeb caricature.

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Which one do you like most?

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Self Portrait with fake smile lit using Neelabh’s detachable flash light reflected from wall

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I called up Mamme to ask him if he was in Mumbai. He said he was. He asked for Subbu’s address. I smsed him. And then I called up Til. I already knew he would not come. Not because we were enemies or something. But because Til was Til. And Til lived up to his reputation.

I reached Subbu’s flat in Kandivali.  And what a lovely view the window in the hall had – lush green hills adorned with white water-falls. I went online. I put up an open invitation to all on my Google-talk status message. For my birth-day. CSLV and Proto responded. They said they would come. And then I wrote an e-mail to Chutki. I wanted her Mumbai number. So that I could talk to her and ensure that she came over (I wasn’t going to get a reply till next day). And then I thought I should also call up Tota. Not to invite him, because he was obviously coming – but to ask him when exactly was he coming and all that.

Tota asked me if it was okay if we could meet the next day. He had already partied and all the previous night and his place was very far from Kandivali. That was like a 100 pin-pricks at the same time. And at the same point in your body.  I told him it was all cool and I understood. But I didn’t really understand.

Neelabh and Sweety arrived from Hyderabad late in the afternoon. Just for me. And the pain of the pin-pricks started subsiding. Slowly though. It was a fairly cold rainy day and when evening descended, I went out running for half an hour. When I returned, Tota called up to tell that he would come if the rains slowed down. Neelabh was watching some news channel on TV and told me they had just announced that the rains were not coming down anytime soon. I laughed out loud.

Neelabh had arrived with his detachable flash and for quite some time he tried clicking nude pictures of mine. Some with clothes on too. The one that I like most is the following. For obvious reasons.

I don’t know if the rains really slowed down finally but Tota did show up later that night. And I was so fucking glad he came. I can’t express  how depressing that night would have been had he not come. And that’s not because Neelabh or Subbu or Sweety were not good enough as a company. That’s because, I had left a big part of myself with Tota when we had moved away from each other few years ago, and though I can never get that back, when he is around, I at least get as close to being what I was. Same goes for Maina too. But then expecting her to come over for this party was kinda over-expecting.

The only other person who joined my party was Proto – an insti-junior and a good friend. I had helped him with few poster and t-shirt designs during my final year at IIT. Mamme was caught up in another party so he couldn’t come. I would get a mail from CSLV the next day that he did take a rick all the way from Powai to reach Kandivali. Only to get a ‘this is a wrong number’ response when he tried calling me to locate the address. CSLV returned. I only hope that CSLV actually did call a wrong number because if he really called me that night and I indeed replied what he said I did – God will never forgive me. He came all the way from Powai to Kandivali and had to return. God should never forgive me.

So with Subbu, Sweety, Neelabh, Anshuman and Proto around, I cut a cake embedded with magic candles that just never went off, however hard you blew. A little bit of the cake was smudged over my face. May be more than just a little bit. And when we sat down after the cake cutting and eating session, we realized that all beer was over. So Tota and Subbu went to fetch few more bottles. Proto left too. And then Maina called me up to wish me and chatted for a while. The last time we had spoken ‘on phone’ was when terrorists had attacked Mumbai. LoLy had called up a while ago (and Tiwari called the next day). And when Maina put down the phone, Tota and Subbu were back with more beer. And the night went on as usual. Except that I had grown older by an year.

Prologue

I did catch up with Maina. And Sadhu. When we went to see Inception together. Of course, for lack of sleep the other night, Tota and I kept crashing and entering different layers. No one even gave us a kick.

Chutki did call me up finally the next day. We promised to meet each other the next time I came to Mumbai. I did not tell her how much I missed her the other  night. May be she understood.

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Cousin Anshu – he told me this orange thingy was his camera, except that the moment you clicked photographs, they disappeared. I told him his orange camera was better than mine. And then I offered him mine to shoot pics. And he shot pics. The one below – of chote baba – was shot by him. I cropped, processed and all that, but still – he is just 5, so give him a pat on the back world.

And below is my dear Dadi’s pic. Had clicked this just before leaving for the Patna airport. Oh so beautiful this woman is, isn’t she?

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Beer (and only beer btw) is on me. And so is the food. And the address is:

D-201
Bhoomi Valley
Thakur Village
Kandivali East Mumbai 400 101

(click on the map below to see a bigger map)

PS: Please leave comments to confirm participation – Neelabh, Subbu, Sweety and Jhopad are confirmed as of now

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My baba (grandpa) has a house in Patna (the dotted balloon in the linked map) along with chote baba (his younger brother). The two houses are inside the same campus and only a staircase separates them.  But there are two separate gates – you can use either of them to reach the staircase. Baba’s house had been locked for the past six months because baba-dadi had been staying at papa’s place in Deoghar. So when I reached Patna, I stayed with chote baba all day. And I played with Anshu, my cousin. All it took to get the shy fellow talking were few chocolates. And my camera. I clicked his pics like crazy. And he posed like crazy. And then he also clicked some. And he did a good job I must tell you (are you reading this Ali?). And then I bid him good-bye to hit the road.

As I ran I remembered a lot of things. The St. Karen’t school bus-stop. What was my bus number? Z7? Z9? Some shit like that. The National Seeds Corporation, up till which I used to run from  my house. Only for some time when I was very very small and mummy still lived with me and Subbu and Sweety in Patna. And papa used to work in different towns. To come back on weekends. Till one day Papa took mummy and Subbu and Sweety to his place forever.  I was in seventh class. I was left in Patna. I was told that there was no good school at papa’s place. It didn’t matter for Sweety who was in class V or Subbu who was in IIIrd. But it mattered for me. I was in class VII. And I bought this logic. And for most of the time after that, I stayed with baba-dadi whenever they were in Patna and with chote baba-dadi when baba-dadi were not available. Mintoo chacha was my best friend in the house then. He had a Hero Puch. And I had a retarded sky blue coloured TVS Suzuki which I started riding once I reached Xth class. The bike was fourteen years old then. And Neelabh and I had a hell of a good timing riding it. I sold the bike for 3,000 bucks when I left Patna after Xth.

As I ran I noticed a lot of things. So many shops in Patel Nagar were still there, just like the way they had been ever since I had known what shops were. The shop from where I used to borrow comic-books at 50 paise per book. Khusboo general store from where I used to buy pens and gifts and very rarely – a cold-drink (one cold-drink in a month was a luxury). Even St. Albert’s, my school before St. Karen’s, was there in Patel Nagar.  I remembered the Bengali girl Ratna who lived close to my house and with whom I had a massive fight once in class III because she had borrowed a book called ‘100 natak’ from me but had returned it with missing pages. I remembered wading through water-clogged streets between our house and the school during the monsoons with Ratna, her small sister and Sweety, dressed in our sky blue shirts and navy blue pants. I never spoke to Ratna after our fight and I wonder where she is now. While I moved to St. Karen’s in class IV, she continued with St. Albert’s and we lost touch.

Baba-dadi and papa were to arrive in the evening. When I called them up to ask where they were, papa told me the train had been stuck in some station for over one and a half hours. And then my phone got discharged. And for the first time in its life – the charger stopped working. So I had no clue when baba-dadi and papa would come. Chote baba-dadi went to sleep. I kept waiting. I found Sweety online and asked her to call papa. She said she didn’t have his number. I felt like telling her papa must be so proud of her. I didn’t. I just asked her to call mummy and take papa’s number from her.  It took her half an hour to do so. Finally when she called papa, he told her he was about to reach home. Soon he reached home. And baba-dadi. It must have been about 12 in the night. I was seeing baba-dadi after more than an year. They looked frail. And weaker. And sadder. Exhausted. They had been in a train for about 11 hours when it should have taken less than six hours. Welcome to Bihar.

I hadn’t asked chote baba for keys to his side’s gate because I had thought baba-dadi would have keys to their side’s gate anyway.  Dadi did have some keys with her but she could not find the right one. So after wasting lot of time in the middle of the night trying to enter the house, we had to finally wake up chote baba. He opened his gate. And then everyone  could reach the staircase.

We climbed up. Chote baba went back to his house. I told him I would shift to baba’s. We opened baba’s house. It was full of dust, litter and dead roaches, rats and lizards. And there was no water because the water pump had stopped working. We were in a dirty house. But this was also the house where I had grown up – where I used to have a room of my own – and a table  with three drawers covered with Boomer stickers – a red jute carpet – dark curtains – a sofa set – a million magic books – the ICSE books – sketch pens – a blood-soaked Valentine Day card – portraits – sketches. It always feels special to be in the house where you have grown up. Even when it is full of dead lizards. We were a family. Three generations. We slept inside the dirt house and felt good about it.

I got a bottle of ‘Minute Maid Nimbu Fresh’ for dadi in the afternoon the other day and she liked it so much that she asked me if it had ‘alcohol’ in it. It’s just nimbu pani dadi. I assured her. And if you really think about it, what is life but nimbu pani. Relish it. And remember it. And once in a while, write about it.

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