Here Begins...(I)

Ok, so this one is going to be a collection of a lot of things...stuff that should have been written long before, and perhaps some things that do not even deserve to be written about. But such is life and so are we, bloggers

The past couple of weeks have been eventful, quite eventful, for me. I travel with a guitar and a laptop bag in the 0800 local from Kalyan to Mulund; People who are familiar with Mumbai locals would know better. I leave my office at 0600 hrs in the morning (redundancy) to reach Mulund at 0700 hrs, and come back to office at 1030 hrs; I work on 3 bits simultaneously in the office (I know this could have been left out, but such are we bloggers); I arrive at a dear friend's place at 0130 hrs in the day, all the while unaware of his birthday, which I learn only from his mother; I am awake till 0330 hrs just to record a song with the same friend. Now I am getting Tarantino-esque with my timelines, but it was the same day when I had the guitar and the laptop bag. I also boarded a 1520 hrs train from Thane at 1530 hrs, somehow managing to jump in the train through the last open door, fortunately. I learnt that I have a liking for every other girl in this world, something that I was unaware until someone told me of this. I bought new shoes, in the meanwhile, when I learnt that my old shoes were not leather, neither rexine nor any other shoe material, when they gave way in the Mumbai rains and I am not one bit sure if my new shoes are of any better material. I went to a random rock concert in the deeply distressing city of Pune. I composed two starkly different melodies on my guitar. I met a likeminded person, a rare breed, through another friend. And again, random stuff about myself. The timelines might be nonlinear because I am deeply distressed at the time of writing this blog, but such is my wont.

Trying to put the first things first, I begin with the Kalyan Story. So a dear friend comes from Bangalore to Mumbai to celebrate his birthday with his family and I am unaware of the latter part of the story. We decide to meet up on a certain Sunday, but my employer (if you are reading this post, you need to look up Deloitte in the urban dictionary) was thankless enough not to allow me any time on the weekends. The fun is that back then in the college, my friend used to tell me that he lives in Mumbai. The day he was here, he said his place is in Thane. Upon telling him that Thane is not a difficult task, I came to know he lives in Kalyan, and when he called me in the morning to give his local number, the STD code was that for Ambarnath. I was forced to tell him my hometown is Patna (for beginners, and to make it sound funny, if at all, I am from Bhagalpur, a place ~200 Kms east of Patna). 

So on a Monday evening we decide to meet up. He starts calling me from 1800 hrs in the day and I keep pretending to be hopeful of leaving the office "pretty soon". Upon realizing that by 2030 hrs there were hardly any encouraging signs from my manager, I decide to tell him the truth, finally, that we would not be meeting. He is distraught, but so am I. And I know my readers would not give a damn to it, but such are my readers. He asks me to stay at his place and the music enthusiast that I am, agree, without thinking that it was so ungentlemanly to barge into someone's place late in the night and stay there overnight. But I did. In the process, I assumed that the friend I was staying with then would allow me to take his guitar from Mulund to Kalyan, but it was not to be, and he had his reservations. To compound matters, I had just changed my place, but left my guitar at the previous place, in Chunabhatti. So, I had to get down at Kurla and get my guitar, and all this while, that 3 Kg laptop bag on my shoulders. That I also got some money that the local grocery store owed me is a small matter considering it was already 2230 hrs in the night (redundancy). 

I took my guitar, and with the two bags, boarded the slow local from Kurla. I should have known that I made a massive mistake. Yes, I already knew that. So the train slowly chugged out of the station, stopping at every station (redundancy), and at least once at every non-station between stations. I was getting frustrated, as should be normal, at the weight on my shoulders and the speed of the train. Now the mobile that I have did not help either. My friend was trying to call me and I was not able to listen to his speech due to some issues with my cell phone, which would require another post to detail. The only ray of hope was a fellow passenger who told me that it would take only 20 mins from Mulund to Kalyan. I knew that the guy was new on this route. It was more than 40, by my watch, and that is discounting the time it took me to from Parel to Mulund, and that entire Chunabhatti detour. According to a consultant's (yeah, that is me) estimate, it was around 120 mins.

I reached Kalyan and could not have any auto-rickshaw driver agree to take me on the meter charges. Several attempts with the “wretched” cellphone (notice the frustration growing…this is 3D effect in written literature) I finally reached his place. A quick glance showed that the day was already past. His mother was kind enough to have taken all the trouble to stay up late in the night, and give me some food. Now I am fond of sweets and on a random mention of sweets, came to know that it was his birthday. So much for a good friend, I thought, and pitied on myself. (But such is my wont.) We had a good time, playing guitar and flutes and all those nice sounding instruments till late in the night, 0330 hrs till I remember correctly. We also managed to have a decent recording of the guitar bit of the “Iktara” song from Wake Up Sid. He was supposed to do the flute bit, but we thought it would not be civil to play the flute loud to have it sound clearer at that hour and left it there. I had a good sleep.

But then, people who are employed with private firms do not have much of a choice in the mornings. I woke up and was already in the train by 0800 hrs.