Time for some swimming :)

Well, it was a hot day! We had just planned on a little outing. It was decided that we would go to the Bangalore palace first. But we all know wt happens to the greedy ones with heavy stomachs.. Bucket had hogged on plenty of chicken as usual, only this time fish was in the menu as well. One cannot help getting reminded of the movie “apocalypto” while watching him eat. At least that’s what Goutham says J. So they were all in the mood for a movie. But again, we all know what would happen to unplanned weekenders in Bangalore. They would land up with no tickets in the last minute. And so did we. So, as a last resort to spending some time, we landed in the sitting area in front of Garuda mall. It was I who noticed the 2 guys with Mohawk first. For some reason, it appeared to me as though they were worshippers of Satan. I had just turned to comment about it to moley. I would have been starin at them and commenting alongside, cause I noticed that they were staring at me too. I turned off and when I looked back to check, the stares were still there..Woh!!..I had done it again!!..I was thankful that mother Sandya was not there, for she would have mockingly admonished me for another ‘thoughtless’ attempt of mine. I was just gonna ask what our next phase of the plan would be, when I suddenly noticed that scarface had vanished, and was instead standing near the ‘mohawk’ guys. He was apparently askin them for a lighter, for its been quite sometime since he smoked for the day. I was glad that the stares from those guys had ended by then. It was then that scarface came up with the idea. “hey how about some swimming??” goutham who had not opened his mouth until then suddenly jumped up at the idea sayin.. “wow…it’s a great idea..c’mon guys..lets go n do some swimming” The next voice heard was Appy’s. “gimme a brk!!..swimming??…what the hell would I do?? I know no swimming!!” Apparently, she was ignored, and scarface and goutham were lookin at me, considering the fact that I was the major planner and approver of plans for the day. I dint take another second. “Yes” I said. The thought of watching our guys swim and the funny idea behind it really excited me. It dint take me long to convince Appy as well, though she ended up with a long face. Clearly predictable a fact, that it was.

 

None of us were so used to Bangalore. But I remembered seeing a swimming centre in Jayanagar sometime. It was decided that we would go there. We got into a couple of autos and reached the place. Little kids were running through the entrance. None of us spoke a word. Undoubtedly, the same thoughts were running into all our minds. As we entered someone commented, “Hey scarface, be careful!!.. They might ask if you are in here to get your children admitted!” And then we saw the board. It read “Timings for gents 3.30 PM to 4.30 PM” . And it was 4.40PM already. As I finished reading and turned I noticed that the rest had already taken a nice place in the shade and were trying to sleep. Enough is enough!! I had planned something in the morning. Not only was the plan screwed by them, but they were making the day hell for me. It was scarface who noticed my looks first. The next thing I remember, He took his phone out and called justdial. “hello, is there any other branch..swimming pool…around jayanagar??” After a few seconds, an address was mailed to his inbox. It read J.P.Nagar 6^th phase with a phone number. Scarface immediately called the place, enquired about the timings and then we had again started our journey in a couple of autos. Only this time, moley was clever enough to escape on the pretext that she had a friend waiting to meet her.

 

Appy, Scarface and I got into one auto, the other one was following us. We had been traveling for some 15 minutes, when we realized its going pretty far. We crossed something that looked like forests, empty wastelands and we entered something more like a village. The autowala needed help there. So scarface called up the centre to enquire about the routes again. “Sir, we need help in locating this place. So can you…..??……uh..oh..ok….uh…one second..I will hand it over to the driver, you better tell him.” The driver heard as much as he could. Later it was decided that the guy from the centre himself would come down to guide us. LOLZ. I was finding it so funny, but having Appy next to me, I thought I’d rather shut the hell up than get screwed by her. We traveled in the same road for a  few seconds, when suddenly someone clad in a fake Nike jerkin in a “Rajdoot” bike confronted us with “ uh…u want to go to swimming pool???….follow me”. Scarface had started to gape by then. As we followed the rajdoot, we went through several gullies..when finally we arrived at the swimming pool. Appy desperately needed a chocolate, so she and I went to the nearby kirana to get something. “Nimmathrey 5 star crunchy idhiya??” I asked, which means ‘do u have 5 star crunchy?’ for which he gladly nodded his head. Then I noticed that he was stretching his hand into the jar filled with normal 5 rupees worth 5 stars. I lost my patience and asked him again, for which he replied “this is crunchy only”. Realizing how hopeless the attempt was, Appy nudged me to get the normal dairy milk chocolates, which I did. Before I could pay the bill, scarface was behind me sayin, “ Hey, get me a 2 litre water bottle, a polo and some mentos, as we would be needing them while swimming, otherwise the mouth would go dry” I looked at him like lookin at a professional, and did as I was told.

Once we were done, we entered the gates, and there in front of us was a pool of water, a little bigger than a fish tank, and there were 2 guys in it, with showercaps and boxershorts, and one of them was desperately hitting into the water with both hands as though tryin to save his drowning self. The rajdoot guy came forward and asked if we would like swimming and scarface said “ya wait, 4 more of our friends are comin…Guru..do you have shorts for us??” rajdoot said..”what??..you don’t have shorts??..ok..wait..lemme look into it..I may have shorts for you..but…for the gals…..” he said looking up at me and Appy for which I immediately said, “Oh no, don’t worry about us. We are not swimming!” Then he disappeared into a small store room kind of a place with scarface at his heels. Appy and I were waiting out. By that time, Appy had noticed that there were 2 guys in the pool, almost naked and she refused to even come in. I wonder what she expected to see in a pool..A bunch of kids or suit clad men??..Nevermind!! Scarface came out with a ‘not-so-happy’ face, “hey, they don’t have proper shorts..they have ony 2..and even that would be the size of what I wear inside!!”.The rajdoot guy came out again carrying the so called shorts, “Sir, when will you start swimming??”…and scarface went up to him. Anticipating some more fun, I went and stood behind the rajdoot guy facing scarface. Rajdoot was sayin,  “Sir, today adjust with this, tomorrow I will get your size” I was immersed in a sea of silent laughter behind him, and scarface was lookin at me, not knowing if he should laugh or respond to the guy. Meanwhile there was a call from the second batch sayin, they were lost and needed help to find the way. Again, we sent the rajdoot guy to go bring them. Tsunami, Bucket, Mottai and Goutham were apparently lost somewhere just like how we were. I was waiting near the gate, lookin out for them. Then I saw them walking and comin, and there was no rajdoot in front of them. Bucket immediately come towards us, “how much did he charge you??”..Appy said “70 bucks”…”oh no, it was double for us..he charged us 140 bucks” said bucket. One would wonder if there can anything be possibly running in his mind other than food and numbers! He added sayin, “ the auto fellow dropped us somewhere, and said it was the place, and by the time we realized he took off, not wanting anymore trouble” Entering in, I could see the sarcasm on all their faces, the same look that we had when we entered. The man in the pool, was still hitting into the water, causing a lot of noise. The rajdoot guy came back by then and asked, “So…u goin swimming??…”.. scarface replied, “guru..how can we??..we don’t have shorts!”.. “oh wel..you could go swimming just like that!..” he said again. Getting a little excited, tsunami said, “uh anna, you mean we could go swimming in our jeans??”.. Rajdoot replied, “Oh no..not that..you could go swimming with ur undergarments.!!” There was this sheepish look on everybody’s face, and they were tryin to cover the embarrassment of such open disclosure by laughing it off. Even Mottai who had understood nothing till then, seemed to have understand that part at least and started walking towards the basketball court. Suddenly, “Mine are in white.no way am getting into the pool wearing white ones!!”..take care guru..c ya later!!” Scarface who began everything the day, ended it for us too.. And the thought that he is swimming right now just as I am blogging about all of it over here makes me laugh.

 

In the order of appearance :-

Bucket – Shiva

Scarface – Anto

Moley – Divya

Appy – Aparnaa

Mother -  Sandya

Tsunami – Auxi

Mottai – Bhavesh

 

 

appy,mother sandya,mottai,me,goutham,gurubhai and kosu

 

sandya,me,goutham,mottai

 

me,sindhu,sandya,tsunami,goutham,scarface,bucket,nandini,appy (clockwise)

 

sandya,me and scarface

bucket & me

what’s in a name??

Well..i believe that’s an age old saying!..”What’s in a name?”..I wouldn’t have given much of a thought to it myself if I wasn’t named MRIDULA. The name itself takes its origin from the age old classical language Sanskrit which i most often boast of. My earliest memories takes me back to my 2nd grade when i had to shift schools. People ridiculed me and made fun of me!, people who were no more older than I was. And I remember proudly talkin off (with my head held high) – “So what?? (U morons!) Do you know what Mridula means??..It means a soft natured girl!!..Now c’mon..tell me what your name means??”..And i still remember the gaping looks of my neighbours.. ..As a matter of fact, I never used to like my name back then. The name itself was pretty unheard of, uncommon, whatever you want to call it as..And i felt it somehow dint sound very girly. But now, having come across quite a few Mridulas, I cant stop priding on my name, especially when i hear comments such as “Oh..what a sexy name!”..,”Damn, I wish i had your name”..etc etc. lolz..its surprising how people’s opinions change as they grow up.. And now I have come to one such stage wherein I dont seem to like any other name in the world other than Mridula. Phew!!..What’s in a name??

something funny happened one day!!

Well.. am about to pen down something that happened, not very humorous, but an exuberant incident. It was a nice cloudy day, though not cloudy enough to rain, a day perfect for an outing, in Bangalore. My friend Sangeeta was having a problem. Her sister was comin down from a foreign country to do medicine, and Sangeeta was given the job of taking care of the application and stuff. Now, where was the problem. She needed a signature in the form from a gazzetted officer, and there it was, the problem. No gazzetted officer is gonna sign the form without the candidate submitting it in person. Well, they would, only if you had some influence. And moreover, the last date was too close to even sit and think of something. And then it was decided that my uncle who happened to be in Bangalore, and also a gazzetted officer would sign it. But then he was a busy man and I had no clue where he would be. So then, I decided to call my cousin and ask him… “hey, you know what??.. I need some help!”, I began, as I would usually do whenever I call him. He replied,..”ofcourse, anything for you ”..and then I told him. After suggesting some other ways, he came out with the best and funny plan. He said, “you know what??.. can u pitch in some 50 bucks?? If yes, the right place for you guys is the MAYO HALL”.. all I could think of was.’gosh..there goes my cousin’s influence!!’..”MAYO HALL??.. do u know someone there?..who is it??”.. he laughed and said, “I know many people there.. but don’t worry about who it is going to be. The moment you set foot in MAYO HALL, you will be crowded by a group of lawyers, and they’ll take care of you”. I was stunned and thought, “lawyers??.. damn.. how are we gonna make them sign our form??..”.. anyway, we decided to go there in any case. We took a bus to the place. We entered the building, and the next thing I knew, was being crowded by some oversized lawyers. One came over, and said, “what ma?…tell me ma, what can I do for you?”.. my friend told him about the form. He was nodding continuously as she was speaking. Then after she was done, he said, “ok ma, no problem.. it can be done, it will take only 250 rs..”.. at the moment we were glad that atleast it could be done. But my friend, as a miser that she was, continued..”WHAT??.. you are asking me for 250 rs???… no sorry.. I can give only 50 rupees for this”.. the lawyer continued..”what ma, don’t c for money ma..i’ll do it for you immediately.. I have to give the ******* himself 80 rs.. what will I do with 50 rs??”.. then somehow there was an agreement made for 100 bucks. We were really glad that our work was gonna get done. He went in sayin he would be out in a jiffy. Meanwhile, I had a call from my cousin and I was busy with that. Suddenly I turned around, only to see that Sangeeta was arguing with some guy sitting inside a car, which was parked closely, apparently he appeared to be the driver of the car. Getting instant curiosity, I cut the call and advanced towards the car. I did not say anything for the next few seconds, but just observed what was happening. Sangeeta was arguing..”don’t lie!.. I saw you!!.. I saw you take the picture!!..show me the phone!”.. the driver was arguing back..:”illa madam.. naan e photo maadilla”.. it seemed to me that he did not know English. That was funny enough, because we both did not know kannada, though I could manage understanding and conversing with the language. But apparently, what I had heard this far was enough for me to understand what was happening. Suddenly, looking at Sangeeta, I got courage outta nowhere, and I opened the car door, and stretched my hand towards the driver and said, “give me the phone!”.. he was trying to say something, but I cut hom off saying..”you just gimme the phone.. I’ll find out if you have taken a photo or not!”.. he looked at his phone and was trying to do something with it..i was alerting Sang sayin..”hey see, he’s trying to delete the pic!”.. the fellow seemed to have understood what I was sayin for he replied..”illa madam.. naan delete allam madalla”.. immediately Sangeeta and I pulled it off his hand and Sang started to get to the pic.. in the pandemonium, a crowd gathered around us, and we suddenly became aware of it. But both Sang and I did not falter, and Sang suddenly remarked with a smirk,”damn.. how the hell do I get to the pictures??”…lol.. I helped her, and we scrolled through the pics, and there it was.. a pic of sang and me, deep in convo!.. wasn’t that enough??.. we blasted the shit outta him.. the crowd came to his rescue, and was trying to talk us outta it.. they said..”please don’t take it to the police. He will loose his job. We will take care that this does not happen in future.”.. we tried arguing, but then realized ourselves that we were just wasting our time. We probably realized that we might have been clicked by a million staragers, unaware. So we dropped the matter. In seconds, the driver fled with the car. We laughed over it later. Meanwhile, I noticed that our concerned lawyer had somehow taken his place within the crowd, but what was more interesting is that, there was a very huge lawyer standing next to us, his ass too huge to be explained by words. He tried to pick on a conversation. He said, “you should not have left it like that??.. what all they do to women nowadays??.. you want me to do something about it??”..lol.. it was then that we realized that he was trying to get a case so desperately.. We shooed him away, and came back to our lawyer… he had the form attested. But then, to our horror, he had signed in one of the wrong places, though we had mentioned to him that it should not be done. We got angry and shouted at him for that..”what is this?? Y did u do it??.. dint I mention that u should not do it there??.. now c what will I do??” went on my friend, in utter disappointment. Only she could feel it as she had to use her precious 500 bucks to buy the form, and the thought of having to buy another one nearly broke her heart. “what, are you a lawyer??” she asked..actually, they just slipped through her mouth, she dint really mean them. The lawyer, calmly and patiently replied, “what ma, are you having doubt on me ma?”..i just couldn’t control my laughter on the situation. Dat being one of my weaknesses, I started giggling there, and trying to suppress myself from laughin, the noise became only even more apparent. Sang noticed it and she too started laughin. Lol..well..later, though the application was spoilt, we somehow managed it.. well.. more happened regarding the same thing,.. but that’s not coming yet..

Trapped in a crammed precinct!

Getting into college was one of the unforgettable memories of my life..that makes an exceptional point in everyone’s life(atleast in india)..as for the first time, people come outta the alma mater ambience (besides da fact that they get to wear clothes of their choice )..Well da first day of my college was appalling too!!..We, the whole lot of the first years were seated in the magnificient auditorium, and for the first time, we were addressed ‘ladies and gentlemen’..boy!, was it the first time i realized i was a grown up??

When i was in school, i used to think..”college..its all about fun and frolic!!”…well..at least that’s what they used to show in movies…ignorance at its peak!!..n i just couldn’t wait to get into college..But what am i gonna study?..Now, how conspicuous was that? It was obligatory that i should take up a course which was the most dominant, that which was imperative to help reach the pinnacle of the corporate industry. And i did..

Bachelor of Technology!!…Damn..dat sounds so venerable!!..But what about my passions? Ah..there we go..As i begin to reminisce what my passions were, ofcourse they still are, am aware of a world that now is just a fantasy, but which had seen better times. Achievable dreams!!..Not much..and not novel..just modest fervors a sane mortal could possess. I can never forget the way those huge buildings and fortes captivated my attention, and the sophistication of the neatly embellished suites. Back then, i used to watch a show on interior decoration, and i never missed out on even a single show. I used to collect these small pieces of decorations for my house(my room gettin most of the assiduity ), mostly gilding the lily

Or should i say music??..

My mom, herself being an ardent lover of classical dance and music, tried as much to make both my sister n me learn them..n we did..only to quit half way through and spend more time on boondoggling..Being more fascinated with instrumental music(which sadly wasnt realized until lately), i really dindn’t give the classical stuff the diligence it needed.

Or is it photography?

Or is it Writing?

or is it travelling?

Or is it fashion designing?

More lots i can speak of, but the truth is, ryt now, they’ve turned into fantasies, and here I am, TRAPPED IN A CRAMMED PRECINCT!!

Outta a 100 people, about 90 are into it..damn! I wonder whats so smashing about it??..I dont find any dignity in sayin, am a Technology graduate(now that am gonna graduate this yr)..If IT industry is gonna be the boon today, so be it. But i fail in the part which leads to an understanding of what recognition(apart from sayin “am a graduate”) it gives each individual. Now dont get me wrong!!..I dont mean to underestimate anything. Wtever the field is, its gonna take up a lot to gain recognition and a satisfaction. But, its not too gr8 to have almost everyone do da same thing u do..Perhaps, u could have been different! more innovative! more creative! What da hell went wrong??n when did that happen??

Watch put ppl!..N yeah, now comin outta it, college life sure is fun. But am not spillin the beans yet, dats comin up probably in my next blog post

Why do I Blog??

Am i so jobless??..da truth is “yes”!!…I remember how excited the beginners of the blogging community used to be..n i always wondered…’whats so interesting about maintainin digital diaries…??’..Ofcourse..i’ve blogged before..long back, and i lost my blog site now..i dont remember the name, nor can i get the ryt links..Dont get me wrong!…my previous blogging experience was devoid of any intrigue and engrossment. And am not dying to get back to it…its just to bear testimony to the fact that i was a blogger too

Life’s a pretty long journey, and one can find real lots to blog about..so did i..i blogged about my school life, my friends, the little fights i had, my embarrassing experiences..so much more an immature mind could think of. Within a couple of days, i had so many blog posts, and i was beginnin to get proud of it. My blogging journey had started sometime towards the end of my 12th grade, and by the time i got into college, i had completely forgotten about my blogs. So much of a blogger!!!..

I still remember how i started with blogging in the first place…I used to write diaries, not regularly though!..

One night i was writing about a bitter, silly fight i had with my sister, and the next day i found out that she happened to read it!!..Now c’mon, my personal stuff r mine, and mine alone, and I precisely loathe anyone trying to sneak into the personal wall of my heart and stare at my feelings. That day, i decided never to write diaries again. I took to bloggin instead, only this time, not my sis, but for the whole world to see…Somehow, the whole world seeing was far better than my sis seeing

My college life kept me occupied for a long time….i never bothered to blog again, and the truth is i never met any bloggers since then. And i decided, bloggin????what kind of jobless idiots take to that???..n i became more bemused with the virtual world..the world where u meet new people, make a lot of friends,and waste a lot of time chit-chattering. I can say i never was bored with so much of gaming and e-books and music ryt before me!…And if these were disenchanting, i always had my class assignments to keep me occupied!

And just towards the end of my graduate course, one of my cuzins (who supposedly had started blogging again after a remarkable gap), instigated me to start bloggin again..i never really cared.. ..Am ryt now, sittin utterly jobless, and just as a thought crosses my mind, i decided maybe i can try blogging for a change!!!

And herewith, i start….and before i go ahead,lemme just dedicate my posts – to my parents, my sister, my cousin(who influenzed me), my other cousins, my school and college life, my uncles and aunts, grandparents, and most of all to my friends who are the biggest part of my life and also those who unknowingly create a niche somewhere in my blogposts, and finally to the world of wordpress!!!