Monday, August 20, 2007

Transactional nighmares

I have been an angry young man for some days now. May be its the stars or something else some of the problems I have faced in last couple of months from various service providers:

1) credit card company: it closed my account without informing me. resolved the matter through the banking ombudsmen.
2) Computer vendor: increased his float by good 44k by delaying the shipment by 20 days. They wanted to charge me for a mysterious banking charge which was nowhere in the bank statements.
3) Hostel Mess: Charged me for something I had never used. Matter yet to be resolved.
4) Bluedart: The overnight delivery company is into its 7th day of delay for shipping the laptop which was delayed by (2) and i am still counting.


and all these have been really energy sapping, nightmarish experiences where you end up banging your head into the wall that is the Customer care executive. They can drive you nuts with their apologies and not really helping you out.

Some body from Bluedart reading this? Your company sucks big time man. Its an even big sucker than the shitty place which Calcutta is.


I am in the middle of my end term exams and the only thing thats on my mind is the trek after the exams.

www.ihealthstation.blogspot.com

Grrrrr I need a break.

Sunday, August 12, 2007

IIMC-B sports Meet

Though my mom and dad never asked me to study, they never really made me play. I am not blaming them. But if i look back 5-6 years, the best thing to have happened to me is Running. It was too late but it was good. I would run long and felt at ease with everything. It was the kind of thing you look forward to when coming back from work. Its basically a solitary sport. And its peace.

We just have had an IIMC-B sport meet for the first time (I must thank our sport secy Kamble, and Dhamijjjjja). Its quite an atmosphere. Electric. Tense. Passion. Love. Ambition. Nerves. And Sledging :-) are just some of the words which describe such an event.

Though its too late (hitesh79.........com) but is surely possible for me to pick up a sport and XL. Me and Chopra have decided to work hard to be a part of the upcoming XL sport meet. May the better team win.

Thursday, August 09, 2007

Little Commandos

I was in 3rd standard and me and my younger brother were enrolled in Gyan Bharati Public School, Hissar. We went to school on a rickshaw. The owner of the rickshaw called himself Shobraj Madhu Charles. He was kind of inspired by Charles Shobraj (all of interpol was after him some time back). I remember his face slightly. If you ve seen those late 80s and 90s hindi movies. Some of the movies had those songs where the Hero danced and a whole group of guys would dance in the back ground. This group dancer with a french beard featured in most of those movies. Later he also played a part in the Movie Ghayal (the one who falls for the Moongra Dance Girl in the movie - Tu moongra moongra main gur ki dali :-) yeah that song). Shobhraj Madhu Charles looked like a impoverished version of the dancer dude.

Around 12-13 kids were accommodated on the rickshaw. The rickshaws were fitted with wooden seats to increase the capacity. In between the rickshaw picked up students from this Place called Canal Colony. The colony got its name because there were lots of open drains in the colony. there was a drain in front of each house. To make it easier to visualize I tried painting this rough sketch of the layout.

One fine morning when we entered canal colony I just felt good and got down from the moving Rickshaw. The rickshaw was slowing down to stop at the gate of a house. Now I really dont know what got into my mind but I kind of put my feet in front of the back left wheel of the rickshaw. And then something happened. The rickshaw lost balance and tilted to the right side. That was ok. No big deal. However, the kids (there were 11 of them) fell into one of the those open drains (nothing dangerous. those were shallow black water drains.

I will never forget that view. An inverted rickshaw, a visibly shaken Shobhraj Madhu Charles and 11 kids coming out from the drain with their heavy school bags on their backs. They all were black from the dirty drain.

Ha Ha and they did look like those commandos who smear their faces with black and green when they go for a mission with their backpacks.

All fingers were pointing towards me but I didnt admit anything . It was a rather funny accident. School was canceled for the day and shobhraj was furious.

At home, everyone was wondering how was it that of all, I was the only one who was clean. My parents always suspected me. Sometimes even without any reason. But they had a good one then. I was thrashed again by my dad when I was at home. And he asked me to leave house. It was around 9.00 AM. I had a nice long walk that day till it became hot at around 12:30. Then I went back home. My grandmother would always come to my rescue and was our last resort.

For your ready reference , I have tried to paint this rough sketch of the canal colony where the incident happened.

Saturday, August 04, 2007

the bullfights

Hissar is famous for its bull breeding centre. We kids would often go to the Haryana agricultural university to have a look at the bulls. they were kept at a safe distance from people. normally in their cages. Now these were not the ordinary bulls you see. They were like wwf wrestlers counterpart of the animal kingdom. Some times a couple of these would break open and roamed around in the neighborhood.

Neel and sarwar were two brothers who lived in the same colony as I did. Every time the bulls were out, neel and sarwar would spring into action and they tried to make the bulls confront each other by making them come after food.

Making the bulls fight was like starting a nuclear reactor. difficult to start and even more difficult to control.

Some times it didnt work but some times it did. And when that happened, all hell would break loose. Watching two 1000 kg animals charging at each other was amusing but dangerous. I still remember a curious onlooker who saved himself in just the nick of time by jumping over the wall of our house. He looked as if hed seen the ghost. I have never in my life seen bulls as strong as those. May be if i happen to go to Hissar some time, I hope to see some of them. Somehow I feel that the locality where i used to live wouldnt have changed much. And its quite nostalgic to visit old places which were home sometime back.

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Tue and Tuna

Strange but the brother and sister duo were called Tue and Tuna. Tue and Tuna were kids of Johrar Uncle in Hissar. They lived in the House facing the Haryana Agricultural University.
Their home was called Johrar House. Johrar uncle was a typical Jat. carefree and always chilling out.

Tue was the Dennis the Menace of the colony and Tuna, his partner in crime. Now I tell you, we three brother soon took the limelight away. We introduced many of the kids to the game of Marbles (Kanche) and we had many friends soon. Now all kids want their share of attention from other. I used to win quite comfortably. Tuna often had fights with me. Now Tuna was really fond of her grandfather and I was fond of my my grandmother. Normally the fights between us stayed with in bounds but one day when we were taking a walk in the Haryana Agricultural University, she said something nasty about my grandmother ( cause my grandmother would not let her kill grasshoppers) and I retaliated by bringing her Grandfather into picture. Poor old chaps. We were soon fighting like cats and dogs. Tue was bigger than most of us and he was older too. Tue wanted his piece of action but for the group of college students who on noticing that a big bully sort of Guy was thrashing this innocent looking chap (yours truly), came to my rescue. After that incident I had what you call a love hate relationship with them. Tuna was our neighbor so couldnt avoid her and we shared many more fist-fights.

I was told years later by my mom that Tue had left home and he fell into wrong company. Not sure what she meant. But I could always tell. Tue was never really a peace loving guy. But I met him once after some years and he looked every bit of a trouble maker. Dont know where he is these days.

Now when I am writing this, I can recall more and more memories. As if it happened yesterday. Time surely flies. I am 27 when I write this. And I was 8 when this happened. 19 years and some months. Those really were the "Wonder Year".

Couple of things that came to my mind while writing this:

1) How neel and sarwar would make the bulls fight and soon the whole colony was running for cover
2) Collecting Chanda for Lohri
3) Shobhraj Madhu Charles
4) Bhalle Singh Sir and the Convex Lenses
5) Topless kids and Mallik uncle with a stick
6) The little Commandoes
7) How deepu screwed up my reputation in front of Mona
8) Ankit Dalal . My nemesis in school.
9) Thandi Sarak and the Gymnastic Classes
10) Suar wali Gali
11) When mom hit me with a plastic pipe
12) Virender Chacha and Carrot and Sticks

well I can go on.....Will take each of them as I go....