kels

The word kels had evolved amidst a group of boys who randomly stumbled upon the idea that buying a banana (kela) for someone who has just fucked-up and saying kels while holding it upton his face is really really funny. Soon it caught everyone's imagination and the same word was used repeatedly on the slightest pretext of someone making a fool of himself. The word amplified the erring act and highlighted its idiocy, no matter how insignifcant the act in itself was.

Recent examples of appropriate usage :
Yesterday I had packed my bags and was about to leave campus for Goa. I'd never been to Goa so needless to say I was looking forward to the same with a great deal of impatience. So it was sunny beaches, skimpily clad women, and various intoxications that filled my daydreams while I made my way to our mess for my last lunch of the week when a batchmate informed me that I had a repeat exam scheduled, repeat for a paper I wasn't allowed to write last semester due to shortage of attendance, this week and that it was to be my last chance to clear the paper.
If you were sitting next to me, now would be the ideal time to say "kels" with an annoying nasal intonation.

Also yesterday The Hindu reported L.K. Advani saying that if the BJP comes to power this time, "India will follow the Gujarat model".
Appropriate time to say kels : If BJP wins this year.

ps: The aforementioned does not stem out of any political inclinations of the author, but rather out of common sense.

The Days of My Life

With the commencement of the present year I found myself curled up in the cornermost room of the senior boys hostel, where the sunlight entering the room can be filtered upto a great extent. I lay there going throught the motions of life neccessary to do for me what is neccesary. ie. I clean myself before each day begins, maybe play some background music while at it. Then as the morning wears on (btw morning starts post 12 noon) people keep coming into the room and out searching sustenance for various addictions. And then the days go by, I just sit around and get real high.

Our recruitment season has begun. Having performed "poorly" throughout law school, it doesn't come as a surprise to me that I have not been shortlisted for any interviews this weekend. While this is not really a bad thing, the terribly good thing is that we have been given over a week and a half off from the mundane classes. Hence everyday since college began, for me, has been a Sunday with late mornings and even later nights, cause well I know that tommorrow too is going to be the same.

Life in college lacks the flux, the energy or rather the mobility that I've have enjoyed for the past couple of months in the cities. Thats cause,
a) Our campus is 28 kms from the nearest city bus stop (Jubillee Bus Stn, Secunderabad).
b) Also we have stringent fuck-demented (there I created a word for them) rules governing our lives.
Stuck in the aforementioned scenario for 5 years with breaks coming only after every 5 months takes its toll on most people. Most definitely on me. And strange as it may sound I look around and I find most of the individuals around me hooked to something or the other for their kicks. Now don't get me wrong I don't mean everyone here is literally always getting high. But rather metaphorically, they are always in a proccess of doing something that would lend some meaning to their time spent in here. Perhaps because really really deep deep down inside they don't really want to be here. However, its an inevitability that one learns to accept after 5 years. So you find characters drowning happily in alcohol, while some others smoke their time up and away (myself included), while others are either mooting (random shit that happens only in law school) or ego tripping or pms-ing or politicking, and they do so continuously as if pursuing this ardent need to do the same. None of the aforementioned occur because the people practising the same really want to do it. It seems to me that people just do things naturally most suited to them and keep at it, for the lack of anything better to do. Or the lack of ANYTHING to do for that matter. We're all addicted to what we do here, and we're soon to become lawyers. Shit.

I still miss the stars, though. I hadn't a glimpse of a clear star scatterred night for last 2 months. Now I do. Almost every single night.

On Theatre Rd.

Yesterday there were 5 of us sitting under the tree infront of Vien (our hallowed tea stall) when a middle aged lady passed us by screaming into her cellular phone, "I am not your boyfriend okay."

There have been no typos in the aforementioned. It was a lady, and yes she said boyfriend. Nor was it a figment of my imagination. I have 4 witnessess. FLUMMOX.

Cheers.

Mellow Yellow Evenings

Ever noticed the brightness of a city after sunset? I'm not sure, but while taking a long city walk (from Rabindra Sarovar to Theatre Rd.) it suddenly struck me that the evening lighting in Calcutta, ie. the streetlights, are far mellower than that of other cities that I've been to recently. Atleast this winter. Its not that there isn't sufficient lighting, although one does pass through certain areas that are left in the darkness (eg. next to Poddopukur, today there were no streelights) which is not so bad thanks to the numerous car headlights that invade the street. But in general, compared to the Bangalore and Hyderabad, this time's Calcutta winter evening seems beautifully mellow in just the perfect amount of yellow streetlight. Also it could be because of pollution leading to smog. But its beautiful nevertheless. Beautiful the way the streets reflect the yellow shine of its tar, and pavement roll/chow shops illuminate the way for pedestrians with their 100 watt bulbs hanging off their store ceilings; and its a continuum of mellow yellowness surrounding the walking man.

Walking down the streets of Calcutta I can't help but notice how the city is full of pictures. One is surrounded by images. Images of what kind I cannot say (I am not a photographer), but I haven't noticed such perfection of black and white stills ready and waiting to be captured in any other city. And they simply pass you by, like walking through a rolling still documentary. From the rickshaw-wallahs waiting outside Bhobani cinema with its Bhojpuri movie advertisement outside, to the jumping jack flames from underneath a slightly titled tawa, to the annoyed little boy/girl (I couldn't figure out) trying to grab a bite out of his/her candy floss as his mother tries to adjust his/her maanki cap (monkey cap).

There is a certain beauty in the pictures and stories and the life of this city that appeals to me in a way no other place ever has. And I know I am home.

Criminal coming into my palace

Yesterday a friend posted on his blog about 'bumping' into a Hummer on Rafi Ahmed Kidwai St. in Calcutta. I was with him when the same occured. He was completely flummoxed by the entire episode. He couldn't believe his eyes. I had never seen a Hummer before so it was quite exciting to finally see one, but the inanity of its presence (apparently an All Terrain Vehicle used primarily by the United States Army which runs at 2kms/lt. ie. a completely useless vehicle to possess in Calcutta) in the aforementioned crowded bylane was not lost upon me. My friend was speechless. He studies in the United States so finding a Hummer in Calcutta was absolutely pointless and surreal to him. It was even more surreal to me since our teeny weeny local auto easily overtook it (of course it did, that goddamn car ate up half the street to move). We simply dismissed it as another of the random surprises that life in Calcutta chucks at you.

Surpises continued right till today when the same friend and I, while on our regular walk back down Theatre Rd. to Park Circus from our favourite tea stall, overheard a Puchkawallah (Panipuriwallah) tell his companion that "a criminal coming into my palace and..." (we pass him by and his voice trails off and yes he spoke precisely those words in English). My friend and I flummoxed yet again out of our wits burst out laughing at the randomness of it all.

I don't know what to say. I'm still grinning as I type. Its real good to be back home.

Home & Hiatus

I came home late 13th night and life has been blissfully hectic since then. There were surprises and counter surprises, friends arriving from across the atlantic and friends leaving to live their dreams. Amidst all this chaos I've found this time's Calcutta winter to be particularly exhilarating. It's not cold (it never really is in my nick o' the woods). But its beautiful and nippy every morning, and continues to remains so for the rest of the day, allowing my mom to force me to put on a sweater before leaving home.

Also my monitor has gone caput hence no more blogging or checking mail for a while. Randomly most Calcutta Net Cafes have begun asking for Photo IDs from their clients. I don't what brought this on, but being ID less effectively rules out my presence on the net. I guess its a sign. I'm yet to figure out for what.

So thats it for this week and the next. I'll probably be back post 3rd Jan. In the 'new' year. Cheers.

Of Internships and The End of an Era

This is my last morning in office. My internship at EnY ends today and with it comes to an end the "Age of being an Intern", for this stint was my last internship (I've done 8). After this I shall be expected to sit for Campus Recruiments next month and then hopefully begin the working class life.

In all the trial runs of being a working man that I've had before the erstwhile internship, I had enjoyed my 1st internship at ICHRL the most. Primarily for 3 reasons:

1) I got to travel all over Maharashtra conducting a survey. Travel basically.

2) I got to travel with 3 very pretty women.

3) I loved the work I did, and was good at it. Made an impression on my colleagues and am still in touch with most of them.

Its strange now that from a career perspective I cannot do a similar internship, ie. not work in a NGO. From my 3rd year onwards I focussed more on law firms/corporates/banks to find work. And I did get opprtunities in decent places, however nothing was quite like ICHRL.

I didn't come to Bangalore with any hopes of "enjoying" my work. I came to work, and to impress and thereby assuring myself a job in this firm. However, being a large office I got to meet a lot of people here and from different academic backgrounds such as CAs and BBMs. And strangely I found myself having fun working with them. Its not like the work was great or really really fascinating. But it was more like 'boss work is work, we have to get it done but no point not having fun while we're at it'. People at EY hang out in groups, and I found myself a chilled out bunch of people across departments to hang out with (or rather they found me). We played pranks, shared cigarettes, pulled each other's legs, shared info on pretty chics in office, and competed with one another on cracking the worst jokes ever. Good fun.

I really liked my stint at EY and would put this last internship of mine right up there with my first. Life's come a full circle I guess, and whereever I am I do hope to meet these guys again.

I was also thinking, just to give people a hint of these new acquaintances I've made, what some of them would be like if I had met them in a fantasy novel set in the medieval times. The times of kings and courtiers. I think they would be;

1) Imran : Definitely the court jester.

2) Shriya : The matron. Sweetness overflowing.

3) Thomas : The stud boy. Medieval or modern, Tommy always gets to be the stud boy.

4) Mohit (Suzy) : The court pansy.

5) Jomu : The King's private dealer.

6) Saket : The wise Vizar.

Cheers to them all. And maybe some alcohol tonight. God Bless.