A Sunday in 1996- part 1

Raja…..Raaajaaa…mom shouted at the top of her voice trying to wake me up unsuccessfully. Fully able to hear the sound I was still not ready to leave bed. Dad talked to mom, ‘Let him sleep a bit more, its Sunday ’. ‘Let him sleep one day and ruin the good habit of waking early for school’, mom said. Dad just smiled from the corner of his glasses and edges of the newspaper which he opened completely to scan through each line and bit of news. He loved to savour the news line by line. Mom had already started cooking the special Sunday meal. I could hear sounds of the utensils from under the bed sheet which I had covered over myself.

                Finally not getting more sleep I decided to leave the bed finally. ‘This sleep is also a weird thing; it comes on school days but not on Sundays’, I thought to myself. After getting off the bed I went to the verandah and started yawning with all my might. I didn’t wash my face and slowly got into the sofa making sure that I do not draw mom’s attention. I slowly turned the TV on and sat comfortably on the sofa. Chitrahaar was showing one after another old movie songs. That was still one of the main source of entertainment on TV then. We did not have cable TV connection then and even if we had taken the connection, they did not have as many channels as today. Another song played which used to be mom’s favorite so I took the liberty to increase the volume. Mom slowly started to hum the tune to herself while working her way in the kitchen. I liked it when mom sang. The song got over and I knew what is to come. Mom shouted once again from kitchen, ‘Raja….go and brush your teeth and have your breakfast first’. ‘Hmm, just going to do that after this song’, I said. The song changed and I was still sitting there as I liked the next song better. They usually had a pattern of repeating songs and I knew my favorite song will come after 2 songs. Knowing that 2 more songs have already played since I told mom about going to brush, she shouted again with a bit more high tone, ‘Raja, if you don’t get up from there I will personally come there and make you brush your teeth’. I knew, this was the threshold and I slowly started towards the bathroom and took the Colgate toothpaste and squeezed a big quantity on the classic toothbrush. I dipped it in water and put it in my mouth. Started working on my teeth for about 1 min and spat all the foam in a jiffy and ran back to the kitchen, took the plate of steaming hot Upma with light stew gravy on top of it and ran back to the sofa to watch the TV.

                I made sure that I finished the breakfast was slow enough to be able to watch Chitrahaar till its last song. Then came the boring program, ‘The Doordarshan News’. I slowly took out an action comic book ‘chacha chowdhry and sabu’ from my school bag and started going through it. Mom suspicious about me doing exactly the same came from the kitchen and held one of my ears and told ‘why not complete the homework and fool around with this comic book?’ I said, ‘please maa when do I have time to read it?’ almost pleading for it. She said, ‘OK, only 10 mins. Then you immediately start with your home work’. I knew how to extend the 10 mins. Finally when mom discovered what I am up to, mom came straight up to me and took away the comic book. I had no options but to sulk and start working on my home work. I hated doing home work then. I didn't like the teachers who wanted Home work to be completed by Monday. Somehow, with grueling dis-interest I somehow managed to complete the home work. Then was the time for bathing. That also was not a favorite item on my list on a Sunday. I wanted to bath late and if possible then skip it all together. 

              Another shouting from my mom and I was in the bath room. I didn’t want to touch the water itself as it was cold. But had to come out soon or else mom will send dad to check if water sound is coming from bathroom or not to ensure that I am bathing. I managed to complete my bathing in 1 hour after 1 more reminder from my mom. I went to the shelf where we used to keep all out gods (idols of gods) and mumbled a prayer and then changed over to dry clothes and was sent out by dad to get some minor groceries from the kirana shop around the corner of our street. This would help mom to make the food (Sunday special) tastier.

On the way I met Sumit. He was on his new moped gifted by his uncle who stays in the America. They had sent this to him as Dussehra gift. I hated the way he showed it off to me. I only had my Hero bicycle. Still curious of how it runs I asked ‘Sumit, will you let me ride your moped for 2 mins?’ He agreed and I rode his moped for a very small instance of time. When it was roughly about 50 meters he said ‘That’s it that’s it, stop! Petrol costs 28 rupees you know’. I had no answers to that and got off his moped. With a sad face I bid him bye and walked to the kirana shop. I bought some garam masala, some other masalas and a detergent powder packet. I left the shop and while on the way, I was checking out the label on the detergent packet. It said a matchbox free with that pack. I ran back to the shop and asked about it. He said ‘I must have forgotten’. I was happy inside to have not been duped by the lala at the kirana shop.

To be continued….

The journey of duty

Sitting (NO! hanging) from the 1st seat of the auto rickshaw (Americans call it the tuk tuk) along with the driver there are variety of scenes I witness daily. Some days we guys get lucky and get the rear seat of the tuk tuk but other days ? well we have to hang along till the journey ends to reach the office or back to the room where we started from; thanks to our female counter parts who do not even look at the face of the guy who sacrifices his seat to let lady sit in convenience on his seat .

In the wee traffic hours, sound of horns much due to the reckless driving of the auto driver are the most annoying while going to the office with a fresh mind to achieve something that day. Returning back has another story; High beam lights on the face when there is no more energy left out to bear it after the long day of hard work. Only thing possible and done then is to close the eyes till the vehicle passes. Here the agony of the guy does not end, he has to cling to some part of the auto to prevent falling off it when it speeds on road. To make the thing worse Indian roads are the perfect match to the situation to make it a night mare to commute to the office.

Wheezing along the spanking new bikes tell the tale that a guy got married and got it in dowry or jumped a new company and got a good hike which allowed him to get this bike. Much to the jealousy of the front seated guy, the new bike owner makes way through the traffic and escapes it like a snake. Mid timers like men in late 40s and in managerial positions try to rush through the traffic on their hard earned hatch backed cars.

Being in an tuk tuk has its own charm also. If lucky you get to sit next to very beautiful girls with nice fragrance who you thought are always out of your league. Not sit by the side but by the way luck has it many times almost with full body contact by the side. some time you also get sandwiched between two heavy guys(Some new generation guys might like this but not all)You get a very close view of the next auto passing you or the young girl sitting in the pillion seat of her boy friend's bike.

The main good thing one feels in this daily commute is that you have some time to your own. In the daily rush to the office and back to room this is the time which help you be alone with your thoughts that get triggered by the side scenes along the route. You see a poor child and you imagine what I would be doing I were in his/her place. You pass by a cemetery you get all spiritual and think nothing is permanent and the next moment you pass a nice bar, you start thinking when will next Friday come? If a new car model passes by the heart burns thinking 'Will I ever own one of that type?'. Thinking of kids being stupid who try to show of their 'dad bought' bikes by speeding across. But once in a while the wish comes out of the mind to also have a bike that will be a head turner. Maybe the person can buy one, but living in a city foreign to their native state makes them think twice before buying the vehicle. Different things like the shipment, road tax, police charges, broker charges etc go through the mind of the person and eventually the idea gets delayed so much to a point that either he gets married by then and has to buy one vehicle or makes up his mind to buy a car instead.

This is how an IT guy from another city goes to his office:)