My Marriage

It’s very a great feeling when you know your friends trust you. But it’s always more fun when you can utilize that trust and ride them through a never existing story. I have to confess to many of my colleagues and friends for exploiting their trust lately on a well framed stories with the help of some of you.  The story was about my marriage, when I had no plan of getting married.

Triggering

Day after marriage fixing of my brother, I went to my senior, Mahi at office to share my plan of leaves for the upcoming months. In the evening, Noman was there for usual chit-chat. To tell of Noman, him he can get married on any day after his elder brother’s marriage and he was so eager to get married as well. His brother was not finding a suitable alliance. Mahi loved to have some fun of him and announcement, “cj’s marriage is fixed”. Noman could not believe it. Why can’t I join the party?

Me:“I am getting married”

Noman: “What is your plan?”

Me: “My brother’s marriage is in Nov and Dec is month of lent for X’tians.”

Mahi: “So we can expect it by Jan”

Me: “Ya, but I don’t feel like marrying now.”

Then the discussion went on like that off topic.

Late evening, I was on chat with my friends. She was also at Kormangala and her office was near Maharaja’s hotel which was hardly 1km from my office. I was just checking the location on Google maps. As Noman and I usually leave together, he came to my desk and saw me checking for a hotel at 7pm. So he made up his part.

“Going for date, uhh??”.  

“Not yet, her office is here. Just checking the exact location”

“Where is she working?”

“Philips”

“If she is so near, why can’t you go and meet her for lunch?”

“It’s still in the initial days. And I am not sure of the marriage yet”

“How did that come up”

“It’s my daughter of dad’s friend. It came up like that.”

“So over a drink, ‘My son and your daughter getting married’”

“Not exactly”

So outline of the story is ready. But we need more stories before presenting to friends and more digestable stories as they know me last 7 years or so.

Broadcasting

Once you have the initial story, we have to spread it among your friends. Now I have to start the process of spreading it. I send a mail to “Seis amigos”, a mailing group for my close group.

Subject: 

I am getting nailed soon!!

Content:

Yeah sh*t happens!! And this tym, its likely to be worst. My dad's frnd want me to call him "papa" in recent future. Thalkalam chettandae ullathu kondu block chaythu erikuvannu.(I can block for the time being in the name of brother) bt soon it could happen. I am trying to avoid by all possible reason i could ever figure out but doesnt look like it will work .. Afterall njan allae, i wil find a fix ennu oru vishwasam. (Afterall it’s me and I will find a fix, that is my belief) 

Anyways her name is Ann Jacob, working in Philips at 80ft-road kormangala. 

We met once on last sunday for lunch. She is nice bt as u know i am not in marriageable age and she is even worse. 

further details after escaping from the trap 

That was enough. More questions and enquiries like photos, her backgrounds, her college etc came up.

Concreting

Phase 3 starts now. Now I had to make sure the things are more reliable. When you are framing a story it should be flawless. Next time when I came back from home, my ring-finger became an actual "ring finger". I reached office on the Monday. During the tea-break, the usual stories came up – I am getting married in  next couple of months and Noman’s marriage will take long time. I dint say much during the chat, but just raised my left hand and turned the ring at Noman's face. It completed the stories but I got congrats from Noman only and a more perplexed look from Mahi, who saw a sudden twist in story.

Someday along the week, Thanku was on GTalk and the same topic popped up. The discussion topic soon changed to Ann. I was least interested in marriage, and my mom cant say a “No” to him. He had a heart-attack couple of months back too. I can convince Thanku more than anyone with worst of arguments. Not different this time either. Ann can be a could friends but never more than that was my point.

Side-effects

We can never break Newton’s 3^rd law. When you are framing a rumour with you as the hero, there is always potential risk. It may kick you back. For me it happened during the last team outing. If front of elderly staffs, Noman said the same stories of my marriage. They had better logic than Noman, your brother’s marriage and your marriage cant be together. But they still congratulated me!!

If I still proceed with the rumour, I might get into deep trouble with reaching at wrong people. And I think I had more than fun in last 2 months or so. Afterall I am so happy to see how much people around me take me by my words.

Coorg-Madikeri Trip

 After a small break of small 3 months, it was another trip. We could not break the jinx of having some out of “Seis Amigos”(Six Friends) to make it “Seis”(six). This time it was Manu who missed it out. Plan was pretty simple – we have a cab booked, home stay arranged and  trip starts by Friday night and ends by Sunday evening. Where to visit, when to visit or such questions had no answers. All we know is, we are going and my friends trust me as well on this.

Onward Journey

We started by 11:00pm on Friday, as usual I was the first one. We had pick-ups from Domlur (Bhanu and Apu) and Marthahalli (Thanku and Aliyan). And finally we had to pick Sali, who had urgent work for the Saturday and was supposed to “Work From Cab” with his datacards. The drive to home-stay would have been a normal one, unless the driver tried to make a roller-coaster on the road. He never disappointed a gutter or a hump, always drove through the centre line on the road and fabulous breaking skills. It was around 6:30am when we reached the home-stay. 

Home-stay at Coorg

Our coffee was ready as we reached.  We roamed around before places, refreshed, had break-fast and initial set of testing on photo-graphical skills before 9:00.

Meanwhile, all the 3 ladies stood around me asking for day’s plan and I knew the perfect answer for them “Where all do you people want to go?” and in actual I was totally empty and had no idea on schedule. The plan is ready now. Irruppu falls and Nagarhole National Park in the morning. Later to Madikeri, so Sali could complete the work when we outside “No-range zone” Home-stay. Day 2  we planned for Madikeri again with Kushalla nagar. 

The First-Sight seeing

A snap from home-stay

Irruppu fall was first destiny.The fall had too strong and was more crowed that we had to get satisfied by just watching the water. Near the falls, we got another testimony of girls- we found 2 boys and 1 girl coming from opposite side. Girl was identified as our 3-year junior at college by Thanku. Soon a long chit-chat as expected blossomed after which we understood, the guys too were our juniors.  

Irruppu falls

Then we went for Nagarhole Rajiv Gandhi National Park. It was unlike most of the parks in India. We saw many spotted-dears and a snake. Soon Sali had a long start and announcement, “Its 12:30, I want to send my report”. Ok guys, we are going back to room then to rafting, which hardly 5kms from stay. So our plan had started changing. We rushed to home and soon we had awesome lunch with chicken, fish, ghee-rice and so on.

Lunch was so heavy that the plan has changed again. Sali and me will go for the hunt - hunt for range – while others will have a nap.

Cloudy Sky:A usual vacation spoiler,
whom we enjoyed a lot this time

Post Lunch

Of course, I had to go with Sali. In the cab, he was equipped with 2 datacards and his mobile phone and was looking for first signal from anywhere on the way to town. I had nothing to do, but to roam around for almost 1 hour to take some random pictures and to make all the time-pass calls.

When we reached back by 4:00, Aliyan was in sound sleep in gent’s room while 3 ladies on the bed talking and probably some rumours too on stake. So I went alone to have a walk in and around the home-stay. I got a good fallen-wood to lie down and enjoy the sky with no disturbance at all. It was rain who interrupted me. I enjoy 5 minutes drizzle, but had to go inside when the rain got heavy. I love to have some time alone and had my share.

When rain subsided, Sali and me had tried some badminton. Soon Bhanu and Apu joined us and now time for some mixed-doubles. We decided for a trek now. Actually it was Apu who wanted to have trek. So we entered the forest by 6:15 pm. Even though it was reasonably dark, each of us had atleast 10 leeches on our legs to direct us. So soon girls started to protest which boys never hear. But the cook converted guide announced a wild-boar is somewhere near.

Crescent-Moon Night

Back from trek, we all went an investigation on home many leeches we all had. We had a hot bath before going for the camp-fire. The owner of the stay, Mr. Pratap was a nice man and offered me a drink atleast 3 times. I don’t know why, he was asking only to me. I doubt I look like a drunkard. The cook had a drink, he smelt. I saw driver sitting with Manshion House. His son, Abhi had visited the camp-fire and had a chat with us. He was a nice little chap.

Dinner was soon served- another delicious one with some 2 varieties of chicken, rice, rice-kheer and many others.  We had a plan for second show but everyone was tired that we soon went to sleep with plan ready for next day. We will be ready by 7:30, and leave after breakfast by 8:00 to Madikeri targeting Abbey falls, Dubbare Elephant camp, Kushalnagar, Omkara temple but to leave madikeri by 3:00 pm and reach Bangalore for dinner.We soon went back to sleep.

Madikeri

With a fully packed day planned for Sunday, we were supposed to get ready by 7:30. But it was 7:30 when we left the room. Madikeri was around 100km from there. Just as we started from room, we saw some kids in uniform. We dint care much for that. But at most junctions, kids were waiting their bus or so. Suddenly we all had a feel of “Hangover” movie. Did we miss one day? NO!! That happens only in movies not in real life. But did we..? And that was the first time our mobile was useful. It was Sunday, more importantly October 2^nd, Gandhi Jayathi and kids are going to school for that. During the journey, I enjoyed a lot alone - a head massage from one of my friends.

Abbi Falls

First we went to Omkareshwara temple. It was build during the Mughal reign, and was build more like Mosque with dome. There was a naming ceremony going on as we entered the temple. I could make some hymns which were wishing to have long life and all pleasures in life. We moved from there in 10-15 minutes.

We reach Abbi falls with lot of expectations. Last day we dint get wet at the Irruppu falls and we had planned to get into the falls. Yet another disappointment was the result. The water was so powerful that no one could get to the stream. But it was an amazing to see the falls from the hanging bridge build across the stream. The tiny water droplets that shattered from rocks and carried by wind could alone make the whole trip unforgettable.

We decided to drop the elephant camp as we were running out of time. And by around we started off for Kushalnagar. We had lunch on the way from a mallu-hotel.

Tibet in Karnataka

Kushaalnagar was a place I was waiting to visit the most. I am always interested to see different cultures and different people. As you enter town itself we will start seeing the difference. My thought of Buddhists was people who are so silent and left old worldly luxuries like Buddha. I saw them having now-veg food, playing most of the games, using mobile phones and doing everything like any of us. But I could not get answer to one question - what are they wearing, a skirt or a lungie like mallus?

The first room we saw had prayer time. They were using trumpets, drums and other musical instruments. It was making a lot of noise and I was actually running to see what was happening. I could not make out anything on what they were praying. Also they were serving some snacks and Pepsi for people inside the temple. We could watch everything from outside only. I tried to make something out from what was happening for 10 minutes or so. Finally I gave up and went to next temple.

Golden Temple

I can bet to you, if are not blind, the moment u enter the temple you would be astonished by the amazing 60-feet tall Buddha’s statue in copper plated with gold. There were a couple of other statues which was 58-feet tall on either side of the central statue. The statues were filled with holy-scriptures, teachings, clay and so on. The wall was adorned with 25 pictures based on the teachings of Guru Rinpoche. I doubt, some paintings had more of Indian style than the Tibetan paintings. As they had written, to understand those painting we should be aware of all teaching of the religions, I gave up the attempt to decipher the paintings. But another question that popped-up in my mind was, unlike most religions the Temple had too many dragons in too bright colours; very much unlike Christian or Hinduism. I dint allow my friends to sit for resting inside the Temple as was written somewhere as it was a place of worship and not entertainment.

We then did some shopping from the shop near the temple and started back.

Back to Old-world

All our plans were changing or dint work at all, but our plan to reach by 7-8pm has worked. We reached Bangalore by 7:30 or so and we had a coffee together

For anyone who loves to travel or nature or history or to just sit idle with no disturbance, you should visit Coorg atleast once and I am sure you will wait for your next visit. Never miss a chance to Coorg that comes your way.

Nice shoes!! Where did you buy it from?

Everyone likes someone to appreciate you and your belongings, but not always. It’s true when you are in corporate world. When someone says to me, I have done a good job through chat, nowadays I reply with “tel me” instead of thanks and there comes the next task for me.

But a week before something worse has happened. After reaching back at Bangalore in the morning, still feeling the home, I had to rush to office. I have a habit of keeping all my shirts ironed in a stack and will pull out the bottom most shirt from the stack (yeah,  I actually implementing FIFO- First In First  Out) so each shirt will have same frequency of usage. Today it was “Pink-shirt” day. When there are only guys in your office, who cares what you wear. So I started to office at usual time as usual except for feeling home-sickness.

I went for breakfast from usual hotel. Everything was normal till the middle of breakfast. Then a man from nowhere turned up. The first dialogue itself created confusion.

“Nice shoes!! Where did you buy it from?”

(OMG!!! An unknown “man” coming to me to say my 2+ year old Woodland is nice. And this guy does not look new to Bangalore and I can bet he has seen the same shoe – exactly same colour and model - atleast 20 times. So what he is interested is not my shoe, but something else. Then I realized, I was wearing wrong shirt today. Did I turn on a wrong indicator? I have never been an attraction to girls, but now!!! Oh no!!! This cant be so. This is the worst that can happen. But I still tried to be polite to him but want to avoid him. )

So keeping my eyes in my plate,  I said “From Marthahalli, Woodland showroom”. So that’s the end of conversation for me. But he remained there.

He wants to start a conversation. Ok. I don’t mind, this is the first and last time we are going to talk or meet.

“How long have you been using these shoes?”

“More than 2 years”

“Oh! It is nice”

My eyes are more into plate. He has no plans of letting me enjoy my food.

“By the by, I am Ajith, Working at blah blah. May I know your name?”

“George”

“Which is your native place?”

“Kerala”

“Do you watch Tamil Movies? There is a hero named Ajit”

So do you think you are that hero??

“I don’t  watch much of them”

“My name and his name are same. My Mallu friends watch his files...Where are you working?”

“Kormangala”

“In which company?”

“Blah blah blah”
Please.. Please leave me. I am the not kind of person you are expecting

Then he had a series of questions to be answered in one word.

“How long have you been to Bangalore?”

“Were you working with same company for all the time?”

“What platform are you working on?”

“What do you do on weekends?”

…

I never have seen a man with these many questions.

There comes the one last, but the worst question.

“What is your mobile number?”

And he gave me a miss call. I dint save his number, but he was saving that.

By then I have completed my food and said I am leaving. He has repeated his first sentence again.

“Nice shoes!!”

Then he went to parking lot and took his Honda Activa. For me,  my doubts were cleared, such soft spoken man having Activa!! I completed the story. But still wanted to know what he wanted or more importantly, I didn’t turn on a wrong person.

I soon called my friend and told what has happened. He could not stop himself from laughing. When he had a similar experience, it was me who made most of the fun. But he dint share his number. I was sure I will get a call from Ajith in one week time.

On that Friday, my phone rang by 6:30 pm. An unknown number.

“Hello”

“Hello”

“I am Ajith”

“Ajith? Which Ajith?”

“We meet there in hotel last Tuesday”

“Oh ya”

“I told, I am working in Blah Blah. Me, with my friends have started a venture. We you are looking for part-time employees. Are you not interested in some extra income from your spare time”

“No. I am working in a start-up and am fully occupied. 24*7 I am busy”

“Ok. If you know any of your friend looking for an extra bonus, please let me know”

“Sure, I can call in this number itself?”

“Ok”

So I am safe.The worst hasn’t happened. I am so relieved at that. But I learnt something from this, a man can also start a long conversation by talking about your shoe!!

Stories I heard the most

Sometimes loneliness is a blessing, especially when it is self imposed. This is partially true for me about this weekend. I was just at room, going out for 2 meals on each day and spending most of my time in front of laptop or by sleeping. During the post lunch nap today, I had a visit by Dad in my dreams- the most common figure in my dreams. I woke up soon with a lot of memories of him. He was a more like a grandfather to me as I was youngest of four in the family. He caned me just once or twice, he never said a ‘no’ to me and I could go with him to anywhere in the world.

My dad had a set of stories with some moral which I have heard atleast 20 times. Thereafter the title of stories would convey the meaning. Obviously they were not bed-time stories. I would like to share some of my favorites of the same old stories with everyone.

The Dead Dog

It’s probably the smallest story, but the best.

A dog was lying dead on the road. Everyone who passed by said, the dog smelt bad. But the hero came by the road and said “Look at its teeth, they are glowing white!!” 

And obviously moral is find only good in others.

Dad and Son with a donkey

This is my personal favorite.

A dad and son were going with some load on their donkey’s back. Then someone on the road asked, why can’t one of you can also get on donkey’s back and son got on the donkey’s back. As they went on someone else asked, how can you make your dad work when you are not. So both of them swapped. Next person had the opinion of both travelling on donkeys back. Next was on opinion of no one on donkey back as it was tired and even asked one of them hold the load as well. Father and son obeyed everyone.

The story has made me a bit adamant too. I wont accept anyone unless, I feel its right.

Manager and Peon

You might have heard the story in different version too. But this was the most repeated story.

A rich businessman had a manager and a peon. The peon used to complaint, why the manager was paid much and had less work. So finally the rich man decided to answer him. Rich man found a load of firewood taken through the road. Rich man asked the peon to check whether it was for sale. Peon came back saying, it was. The rich man asked the peon to check whether it was dry enough to be used next day. Peon ran again. When he came, manager asked to for the price to peon and the peon had to run again. Now the manger was called and asked the same question and he returned with all answers for all relevant questions. 

Once again moral is so simple. Its not the hardwork that matters but smart work.

Be always the last!!

The dad was teaching his son, always take the smallest piece of sweet from the plate. And then dad asked his son what he understood. The boy was smart, he replied like- always be the last one to take from the plate!!

I m going home!!

Yeah!! I am going home again for the weekend. Don’t get into the false impression from my excitement that I am going home after a long time. In fact, exactly 4 weeks back I was at home; but 4 weeks is long period for me. At anytime, whether you go home once in a week, or a month or an year, u will wait for that days to come only to see yourself back to your routine much before. Last time I went home it was another proof of Murphy’s Law from the time I planned the trip.

I had to go home town on that weekend as it was my Grandma’s –I don’t have faintest of memory of any other grandparents - death anniversary. And the Mass at church was at 7:30. I booked a ticket for bus at 7:30pm on Friday, leaving my usual 10:30 bus. I am all set to go on Friday morning. After reaching office, I got a call from travel agency saying, I can go only by 8:00pm bus. Fine, I agreed. I can still manage to reach in time.

I was in the middle of the meeting at 6:45pm at office. My system was used for conferencing. Its ok, I asked my one of my colleagues to lock my laptop in one of the drawers after meeting. And I started running. As usual, my bag is not yet backed and there is no power at room. As I was planning to go to church directly, I wanted to iron my shirt too. Ok! I will manage in a T-shirt. And so while I was having my dinner by 7:45, I remembered about my mobile charger. Again I ran back to get and somehow reached back by just 5 minutes for 8. Then I heard the good news, my bus is at 8:15. Still I can manage to reach for church. I always hate waiting, and I am waiting for my bus to go HOME!! Finally bus comes by 8:50 and starts by 9:10. Still I had a hope of reaching in time.

Bus journey is always the same. Everyone wants a lady to be seated next to you, but only ladies can ask for it. But you can still feel something running very softly through your skin. After 5 minutes, you can make sure, bedbugs always causes irritation. I wont wake on any sudden breaks in the bus, but bedbugs... Bus stops for dinner at 11:00pm, don’t ask me who will have dinner at that time. After all, I still prefer bus to train.

And now starts the worst part. I woke by 5:30 in the morning; bus is stopped at the check post – state border. Checking is always there and it will take upto 1 hour. So I went back to my sleep. If the bus is not moving, I cant sleep in the bus and by 6:30 I decided to have a look outside. Then, I realised the scene was worse than I thought. Bus reached here by 4:45 and there was no conductor and driver in the bus. Someone tried to call the travel agency and they too don’t know what is happening. Issue is simple, bus had 2 feet tall luggage and it was more like a courier from someone to someone. So my first question got an answer, I wont reach for Mass. Now, I want to reach at the earliest.

I got into next local bus that came by and boarded to nearest town, Palaghat. I was seeing that bus stand for first time in my life. After a couple of calls, I found the shortest route bus to my hometown, Thrissur.  After 15 minutes, a guy from the old bus has got into this bus. In next 10 minutes, the bus which we had left hopelessly is just behind us and it soon overtook us and would have reached Thrissur atleast 30 minutes before me.

And finally I reached the town by 10:00. I need to travel for another 1 hour to reach my uncle’s place on a normal day. But monsoon always doubles your time for conveyance. It was pouring so heavily too. And finally I got down at the bus stop. After heavy rains, it was kind of flooded and I hate walking in water, atleast when I was no extra Jeans in my bag. And finally I reached, with just 5 hours of delay.

But my luck dint change now too. After dinner, we went back home. I had bought a new jeans after my last visit to home and wanted to show to everyone. Then I realised the fact, I forgot to take my jeans from uncle’s place. I immediately called to uncle’s home and it was aunt who picked the called.

Me: “ I think, I have left my jeans there”

Aunt: “No problem, your uncle will wear”

Me: “I don’t mind if he is wearing it, but I have nothing to wear tomorrow”

Aunt: “You mean, you haven’t got anything when you came from Bangalore”

Me:”Nope”

Aunt (she cant stop laughing): “You don’t have anything else!! you are the best.”

One of my uncles, who was going back only on Sunday morning helped me to get my only Jeans back.

And the Sunday is always short, especially if you are Christian. Waking by 8:30, going for Sunday mass, lunch and a small sleep will make it 4 in the evening. And time for me to leave.

The return journey will never be better, but I will be tired after the weekend that will have a sound sleep. Bus coming late by 1 hour, bed bugs and much more colder night.

Whatever be climate or by whatever time I get late, once I reach home, have some homely food and then lie down in my mom’s lap, all those golden days returns.

Again I am going home on this weekend and all my siblings and nephew and nieces are at home. And I am so eager to join them....