Bumbai se nikli gaadi, dilli chali halle halle

dhee dhee dhanak dhin, dhee dhee dhanak din...

This however, was no song and dance. From traversing the maze of irctc.co.in, the website of Indian railways to real time dealing with an "agent" for a "double" ticket - from Mumbai to Ratlam (the place has some karmic significance in my existence, pucca se!) to a weight-listed-but-not-confirmed ticket from Ratlam, yesterday's wheeling dealings were nothing short of a crash course in "how to book rail tickets in India" for the uninitiated like moi!

These are crazy times and we, are crazy people! How else would you explain the presence of "cash only, madam" dealings on a station with a disfunct ATM?? Or the "goodwill" of a TC (that's an initialism for ticket checker, by the way) being the main determinant of whether a passenger will have to de-board the train in the middle of the night? Or the fact that an agent for a "princely" fee of Rs.500 can get you a confirmed ticket on your preferred train of travel? While the security staff happily looks the other way to "enable" the transaction! Whoa, no wonder, despite being counted as one of the best rail networks in the world, citizens like me, the urban, independent sorts are quickly turning to travel by air even though sometimes we end up paying through our nose (not literally! Argh!!) even though we may have the luxury of time to take a train...Its bloody scary man, just go stand on a train station in one of the metros and unless you have done it before, you will be flummoxed. Fortunately, conservative middle-class upbringings ensure that we somehow know our way around (or atleast know someone who does;-)), but think of it, if an Alien were to land on one, the sheer hustle bustle, the random chaos that somehow everyone is in sync with and the typical Indian "hato bhaiya, company baag mein aaye ho kya" would make him/her/it (u decide!) scuttle for cover and wahin pe end any possibility of world denomination by any other species!!!! yay us!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In any case, I truly think humans are the only race deserving of this planet and are by themselves capable enough of ensuring it goes up in flames someday, but that's another thought-stream altogether!

Anyway, the lesson is learnt - planning is the answer to all your problems, nahi toh God's men (aka agents, TC) and if all else fails then go to sleep on the top berth on an unreserved ticket - you may just get a sound night's sleep!;-)

P.S. Some thoughts - plan your itinerary well in advance if you truly want to leverage the joys of train travel. And in the event of no direct reservations, best to have a backup ticket B in hand.

Travel light - it helps if you need to catch a running train, a la Kajol in DDLJ

Take someone to the station - you may need to use the washroom and trust me, it helps to have a known set of eyes on your luggage

Carry cash - this is is difficult coz you never know how much is gonna be enough - here's a thumb rule - have atleast twice the amount of your base fare - this is for sudden, unexplained emergencies like wanting to travel on a reserved ticket and by the means of a "double" ticket, there is a possiblity of making that happen.

Take a book, a bottle of water and fully charged mobile - to save yourself the headache of waiting and your family the worry of "where are you!!"

Be nice - you never know whom you run into, even though its not a "Kingfisher Class' flight!:D

Ok, now I am just being cheeky, so signing out for the day!!

Meow!

The whims of technology

It’s a task. A norm. An unsaid acceptance. Social etiquette.

This need to always be connected, available, "reachable"...To always be "online", "in network", to never just be.

It saddens me. we have become so inter-dependant, inter-connected, involved, that we are never really just being; we are always either being an employee, a friend, a daughter, a sister, a partner - what you may, but rarely for a not even a few minutes a day just being..

And the worst thing is that its expected, mandated, almost like "compulsory" to be so! In our drive for society, u know the whole "no man is an island" deal, we may have forgotten individuality somewhere on the way.

Btw, I finally got call waiting activated!

uff, yeh zaalim duniya, why couldn’t life be simpler!!

Yours,

Not meowing!

When Columbus discovered America...

did he have any idea what he was going to unleash on the world? I wonder....

Did he know the new paradigms, the future of the human race for the next four odd centuries would see the rise and fall of nations and this nation in particular would come to dominate global geo-politics, economics and even doom and gloom at some point in time?

My sense is he didn’t.

And that gives me hope for the future - yours, mine, ours.

We may not always know what we have come across - whether that glittering piece stuck in your shoe is a diamond (potentially) or a sliver of glass. should you just snap it out and flick it away? Or should you avoid wearing shoes altogether or fear that a "stone" may get stuck?

This willingness to just be, to not know one's true worth, this lack of true knowledge (if I may call it that) - may just be the making of the human race. Or the breaking point (- but then there are enough of those already and we the 'sunshine' people choose to focus on the good things!;-
)) For not knowing something's true worth, makes it potentially priceless! And that that the potential is not yet defined gives you the room to let your imagination soar! Afterall, we don't know if something is impossible or not, so why not reach out for the stars!

Meow!;-))

Haan haan hoon main

Super-sensitive, hyper-active, over-possessive - deal with it!

Strangely, ironically, magically - i like me!:D Just the way I am. Wish someone else was the one saying this, sigh, but in this new age, independent, i my me world - kya karen, apna dhol khud hi bajana padta hai! humph!!

Once upon a time, aisa nahi tha...no nonono no no..This is the story of the transformation of a simple, sweet, innocent (sachi muchi) girl into a deeper, darker, a bit dafter, corporate hyena. Ok STOP. In case you are getting any wrong notions, this girl isn't me! Well not entirely. She is the protaganist of my new book. So anyways, this is what I will be working on in my 'spare' time..Spare time...hmmmm...that's a myth actually coz spare time like spare change is actually never spare - you carve it out of something that's already there, yours - like a INR 100 note that you use to pay the auto fare and get 4 new coins back - you may call it "spare" but you may not be able to spare it for the urchin on the traffic signal or as change for dhobi when its a part of the note...It was that note that you had, was yours, gave you that spare change, usable as spare change. Life too is defined as big blocks, somewhere, between those blocks, one has to find oneself - maybe some chipped off from a confrontation with the boss, some glowing from a midnight surprise party, some unfulfilled with "saved" drafts, some fulfilled with a "thank you" from a college junior...Its all the sum of parts, but where lies which part - finding that is the process called life :-)

By the way, I really really liked "Karthik calling Karthik" but would not recommend it. Its one of those films that you can either identify with or get frustrated trying to figure it out - as someone put - "dimaag ki dahi bana di"! For me, it was one of those films I sat and watched - like a hungry kid gulping a glass of chocolate milkshake - I just could'nt stop! If I could have, I would have avoided even blinking for those 2-2.5 hours! "I've been alone, Its overrated"! wow!! Maybe we should have a award for alternative thinking? Come to think of it, what stops me from giving one out? To the team of KCK, I present the Bhavana Mahajan innovative cinema award for 2010 - keep calling guys, we, at the jury, are listening!:D

Hum toh aise hi hain!:P

Meow!