Shivaji Park

Shivaji park


That hand appeared in front of him suddenly.It was not a request, nor a plea. it was just a hand which expected him to hold it and help. Bhavesh looked at the face of the lady who lent her hand to him. she was around 40-45. There was a childlike expression and weird eye motion. Bhavesh kept guessing if she were blind. He kept thinking while another person took the lady's hand and made her sit on a nearby bench. To bhavesh's surprise, there was no complain for his seemingly rude behaviour.
Bhavesh used to come for jog every morning to shivaji park. Today it was raining heavily and for the first time he took shelter in a gym, located in a corner of the shivaji park. Normally, he loves to get drenched in Mumbai rains. But today, he just didn't want to get wet for no obvious reasons.That lady probably came there as well to avoid rain. He gave a look at the lady again. She was not blind, but looked like mentally challanged now. Bhavesh also noticed the addidas shoes she was wearing along with her Saree.

It was still raining really heavily and Bhavesh just wanted this rain to get over.Suddenly a boy around 7-8 yrs old came there shouting, probably for the lady. Lady got up and started waving at him furiously, again in a very childlike manner. The boy had a white Maruti Omni behind him. It was around 20meters away. That lady was in a hurry and took the hand of the person who helped her earlier and almost ran towards the boy. Bhavesh started moving to give way to that lady, suddenly the hand appeared again and this time Bhavesh couldn't refuse. Soon he was holding the other hand of the lady and was taking her to the boy. Once he reached near the Omni, other person took control and made the lady sit in the car while bhavesh kept looking from a distance. The Man also had a chat with person who was driving the Omni. After having a brief chat, The Omni started moving and in a minute it disappeared.

That man walked towards the gym again where he noticed that Bhavesh was still there. He came near Bhavesh and before he could utter a word, his eyes and expression said that these ladies need our pity and we have to help them, they are so dependent. Before he could speak the same words from his lips, Bhavesh's eyes gave him an angry look and person left without saying a word.

Soon, Bhavesh was moving back his home as he realized he was too drenched now.

Notes from train journey - unedited version

32 hours train journey

..and if i had a choice
yeah.. i would wana be there

the lines you know.. summer of 69
well i ll use it for a real bad and irrelevant analogy

i am on train .. this is a really long journey and obviously if i had a choice i wud wana be at my place. i'm going to patna. but they this time this train journey is not so bad.. esp. if you got a laptop..

i boarded this train last night (14th aug'08)..it started from mumbai at 11:30 and will reach or rather try to reach patna on 16th aug'08 morning 5am - giving me ample time to celebrate independence day on the train with co-passengers.

co-passengers doesnt seem to bother about the fact that today is independence day.. but not for sure,if they look at me typing at my laptop, they will also not think that im thinkin bout independence day..

so how to celebrate independence day on train-
1) i got a patriotic song on my laptop (maa tujhe salaam) - though i'm not listening to it (summer of 69), but i want them to listen to it.and i just want to have some big woofers so that whole train can listen to it and then we can say that we celebrated.

2) this little kid of someone has come and doing something, i want to hug him the same way the girl sitting in front of me did - then give him some chocolates and say happy independence day(?) little crappy idea though

3) i want to see the video recording of T20 world cup final on my laptop - i dont have :(

4)i want to deliver a 5-min speech to co-passengers about the greatness of india and how difficult it was to acheive freedom - and convince them that today is a very important day. so we should thank those who sacrificed their life so that we can type on laptop in an 3-tier ac train, there was a time we were not even allowed to board ac boggies.

5)i want to curse myself for watching fondly london/scotland/paris pics on my laptop just before i started writing this

most probably i wont do any of these - or may b at a diff place and with diff ppl, i cud have possible done it.
Anyways - \
how typical indian i am :(

baaki ka part ghar pe likhna parega.. laptop has become so common dude.. ek baar charger kya hataya .. chargers ki line lagi pari hai :(



Return Journey
- not as many laptops as were last time
- no chargers, so doesnt make much difference
- one person was saying that angrezi mein ek kahawat hai "Time and Tide not wait for any1" - i suddenly remembered a blog by bhau about ppl discussin in a mkt place about human anatomy
- co-passenger is a lady, all the time she is talking about her daughters and herself. i suspect she wants to marry off one of her daughters to me..:)
she is asking about my title etc and whether i am a bania or not, she seemed a little disappointed to know that i am a rajasthani by origin, but quickly added that she doesnt believe in caste systems etc. she kept asking on stuff like whether we are vegeterians or not. she talks a lot, even if her daughter is sushmita sen, i wont marry her..uski maan hi itna pakayegi. anyways i dont care

- kuch baatein jo wo kar rahi hain
my father-in-law was great in picking up right girls for marriage - and believe it the first example she gave was that of herself