Salinger, Wild Hogs and Tiwari

I would have been making a Shitoon right now because I have an idea for a new joke, you know. I am writing this post instead. This is one thing that Salinger does to me. He makes me write. I was reading Catcher in the Rye long back – last month may be. It was a small book so I could have finished it then only. But the pirated version had a problem – it had blank pages. After having read about 100 pages, I realized that every once in a while, a pair of pages would go blank! It was so irritating. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want to skip pages just for the heck of finishing the book. It was then that I decided to pick an original from somewhere. I couldn’t find it anywhere – I tried only in the Oxford bookstore though. There aren’t more bookshops in Bhubaneswar anyway. It was only few days back, this Sunday actually, when I finally found out this cute book in the shop and oh boy, did I jump with joy! And it was only few minutes back that I finally finished it. And then I felt like writing myself – this is one thing that Salinger does to me. He makes me write.

Wild Hogs – everyone should watch this movie. It’s not too great or mind blowing or insanely funny or anything like that. But everyone who is planning to do a crazy bike-trip and all should watch it – Wild Hogs. The movie is sweet and cute, you know. There are like four friends, all ageing and all that and getting sick of their lives and then one day they generally decide to go for some bike trip without any plans and stuff and without their wives. Since it’s a movie, very funny things happen and of course in the end it’s all goody goody and all that. I mean I laughed a lot as I saw it being shown on Star Movies. I sometimes felt like crying too even when the movie never really tried to be too senti. But I felt like crying anyway. Bike trips and friends and all that – such things make you feel like crying when you are away from such things, put up in a guest house built on a 10 ft by 10 ft island in the middle of the Pacific. I am not saying that Bhubaneswar is so small and that there’s sea water all around, but it feels nice to crib anyway.

The awesome thing is that I am myself going on a crazy bike-trip in less than ten days. It’s not that I got inspired by Wild Hogs or anything. Hell, it wasn’t even my own idea. It came from Tiwari. Such things come from Tiwari, you know. He is normal otherwise but somtimes he comes up crazy plans and you have to love him for that. I would love him anyway but I like him so much more when he proposes a crazy plan like riding a bike for like ten days. Back in my second year in IIT, this guy proposed that he, me and Anshuman should go cycling from Insti to Mahabalipuram – that was like 80 Kms to and fro. Myself and Anshuman acted like bastards you know – we said yes, yes, let’s go, let’s go and then we never really went. And then one night Tiwari came to us and told us he was coming back from Mahabalipuram. He told us he went all alone on his Hero Hawk a friend’s borrowed bicycle in the morning and returned back alive. Suddenly he was like the man and we felt like pussies. I don’t know about Anshuman but I certainly felt like a pussy you know. I also felt bad that he had to go all alone and all that. So in the next few days – the three of us finally went together cycling to Mahabalipuram – and even made a video with some random rock music and all that after coming back. You know what, we started this trend soon – junta in insti started taking this trip. I don’t know if they still take such trips at IIT, but anyway, it was Tiwari who started it. Such things come from Tiwari, you know. He is normal otherwise but somtimes he comes up crazy plans and you have to love him for that.