Shells, starfishes & a bunch of friends: Part 1

“For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move.”
- Robert Louis Stevenson

The Journey

Some things in life look simpler at a distance; the tougher part is implementing it. Waking up early is one of them! And to add to that, a Saturday morning in cool November surely makes five more minutes of sleep seem like heavenly bliss. Yet, the very thought of our journey to the sea side managed to draw the sleepy legs out of slumber. A quick shower of cool water shrugged away the remnants of sleepy confusion and replaced it with the expectations of our weekend trip. The idea of a trip to Mandarmani was conceived amidst the boredom of office routine. A mere suggestion took the form of a plan and in no time transformed into a full fledged tourist schedule. A chain of mails and a couple of calls later, we were ready: Papori, Mani, CK, Upasana and me - the group had been decided.
It was 7:15 am and there was still no sign of the Sumo we had booked or rather, the people that were supposed to come in it. At 7:45am Upasana called up Papori and spoke animatedly. I sat at the dining table and sipped my morning tea, waiting for them to end their conversation. Gossiping and girls go hand in hand. “Mani is in the bathroom and CK just woke up” Upasana said, making a face as she put down her mobile. “Well, boys will be boys.... And I should go back to sleep” I said, inviting a hard glare from those small mongoloid eyes that challenged “You just dare!”

Another forty five minutes later, a white Sumo with dark tinted windows stopped in front of our house to fetch its second pick of travelers to the beach. Our journey had finally begun to a small coastal village along the shores of the Bay of Bengal. Mandarmani, as it is known, is situated at a distance of around 180 km from the heart of Kolkata. It is a fast developing seaside resort village of West Bengal and arguably much cleaner than it’s more famous cousin, Digha. Records state it to be the longest drivable beach in India.

Breakfast inside a cramped Sumo has its own share of drama. Boiled eggs, brown bread smeared with flavored cheese and assorted range of juices was in demand as hungry people satisfied their starving stomachs. Upasana on one occasion came close to smearing the driver's face with cheese as the vehicle took a sharp turn. “Lucky fellow, he escaped the assault.. he he..” I tried to visualize a surprised cheese coated driver and the apologies that would have followed thereafter.
After an hour into the journey, we stopped at a small town to get some music mp3s. Mani and I got down and finalized a couple of mp3s with the latest hindi chartbusters. However, latest hindi songs doesn't really mean that all of them would be good on the ears. Mani realized it the hard way. As he shuffled the player through ten disastrous songs, Papori chose to pick up the favorite line, “Who chose the mp3s?” Although a partner to the crime, I pretended to be asleep. Experience told me what was coming next. “Mani, you could have chosen some good songs you know....these are all crap... blah blah blah... dishum... dishum..” the girls had found their prey. Mani helplessly tried to jump to the next song only to find himself deeper into trouble. “CK, you went along with them, didn't you?” Papori asked. “No..no... I just got down for some fresh air.” CK defended. I smiled to myself. Some fifty pathetic songs later, a familiar melody finally brought relief to the ears and to Mani of course.


Amidst music, gossips and beautiful landscapes, the Sumo went into a cruise mode and covered more than half the distance in two hours. To a person used to crowded traffic, a smooth journey through the green fields was very relaxing. The small towns on our way brought about fond memories of home. “Wow.... look at that!” Papori's excitement disturbed my line of thought. The source of the hullabaloo was a strange looking three-wheeler that we had never seen before. A customized ride, I surmised as our Sumo zoomed past the vehicle. It was a motorized multipurpose cart: a open cart carrying passengers attached rigidly to the first-half of a motorcycle. The only public transportation in Mandarmani, we realized later. The girls were delighted as they clicked photos of every passing ride like amused kids and planned to ride one in Mandarmani.

It was noon and we had still not reached our destination. The excitement associated with the motorcart gradually faded as the journey grew tiresome. CK dozed off in between, while Mani tuned through the list of songs. Now and then, the girls would be excited to see something interesting. At one point of time, Papori even concluded that she could actually hear the sound of the waves. It was another thing that we were still about thirty kilometers away from the beach at that time.
Around 12:30 pm, we finally made our way through a dusty road to the beach. The vegetation beside the road changed drastically as we approached our destination. This time, we could actually hear the waves lashing the shores. The suspense built up as we waited apprehensively for a clear view of the sea. The trees gradually thinned out to unfold the secret of the blue waters.

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November rains and pakodas

"Did you hear that?" I asked Pranai as I packed my bag to leave office for the day. "Rains !" he exclaimed on hearing the skies rumble once again."And no umbrella." I added, grinning at him. Five minutes later, I found myself amongst the crowd at the entrance, all awaiting impatiently for the rains to stop. A cool wet breeze swept across my face as I stepped out of the door."Aaahh.... November rain," I said to myself enjoying the moment. Although November had set in, the temperature dip was still missing in Kolkata. The rains had made up for the missing element.I wished to go out and get soaked in the rain. But better sense prevailed for two good reasons. I didn't want to carry a soaked laptop back home . Secondly, I didn't want my colleagues to take me to be a crackpot. But the rains had set in the mood for a jovial evening. People carried that extra skip in their step as they boarded the office bus and kept on discussing about the fine evening. An old melody drifted out through the speakers of the bus and it was just about perfect to suit the ambience.

Kolkata rains bring along with it another aspect that is not so comfortable for the common man . Long traffic jams! We had somehow reached the AJC flyover without much stopover time, before we came to a standstill halfway through it. And when you get stuck atop a flyover, there is not much that you can do. There is only one way out and that is to keep your patience in check .
At a distance beneath the flyover, I saw a chaiwala brewing up some hot tea. "Ahaa... chai in this weather would have been perfect." I told my colleague beside me. "Yes, pakodas would've completed the package" he added, smiling at me. I thought about calling home to place a special pakoda request.

Inspite of the traffic jam, no one was complaining much. The rains had brought along a lot to cheer about. The torrential downpour had gradually changed into a drizzle. Parts of park circus area had been flooded. Little children waded through the knee deep water holding colorful umbrellas. Twenty minutes later on, the traffic finally started moving. The city looked a lot cleaner even under the streetlights. The glowing neon lights created a myriad effect combined with the rain.
As our bus took a right turn to enter Salt Lake, I picked up my ringing mobile. "Yes, I'll be reaching home in five minutes" I told Upasana. "What are you doing ?" I asked. "Making some pakodas for his Highness" she replied mischieveously. "Lucky me !" I couldn't help smiling.

Matrix- A Journey to Office (short story)

"Arre... eat your sandwich properly" she commanded in a stern voice, looking at me as though I was a disgrace to civility. "How typical a wife can she be?" I thought, as I tried to do a balancing act on my left leg pulling up the socks on my right. My mouth was already stuffed with a slice of sandwich and that was all I could afford with the little time I had. "Sorry dear…I gotta reach office by 9.45 ...mmmnn... an impor...tant conference call..." I mumbled, the words filtering out through the stuffed sandwich like an old track record gone awry. But the important thing was that she understood and that meant precious time saved. "In any case, the matrix awaits me and that would digest anything by the time I reach office" I said with a smile lest she frowned (and that would mean greater trouble)."Okay" she finally said with a sigh, "but have something once you reach there". "Sure", I said without losing another second. As the eager legs managed to fit into the shoes, the eyes took a quick look at the hands of the clock. I knew the challenge will be a tough one today.

A quick peck on the cheek and I was ready. As I marched out of the gate, suddenly I found myself standing at the threshold of the matrix, the hot and humid May morning sun glaring down at me .The action starts in no time and there is no stopping once you are in. Across the two-laned road stood the two important characters of my story, Neo (the driver) and his deadly three-legged devil (the auto rickshaw).They looked so harmless that you almost get fooled. The traffic moved on, but I managed to cross the road without too much acrobatics involved. At a distance, Neo stared at me. His left hand rested on his hips while his right hand was engaged in digging into the depths of his not so beautiful teeth; probably in search of the remnants of yesterday's dinner. "SDF dada?" he asked casually, his right hand continuing with the engagement. As I nodded in agreement, he directed me to the front seat of the three-wheeler beside his own. "So, it is economy class today." I thought as I looked at the three people already occupying the business class seats at the back. Neo took the driver's seat and I managed to make myself comfortable with the economy class accommodation to his left. The seats were extended sturdy wooden ones, each clamped on either side of the driver's seat. Neo pulled up the lever with known expertise, making the three legged terror roar to life and ready to rule the roads. "SDF! SDF!" Neo announced to the passersby popping his head out through the open side. There was still one more seat to be occupied before we started our destined journey. A young lady was the answer to Neo's sound prayers. Neo slid with ease to his right and asked me to do the same for accommodating the lady to my left. The matrix has started. Neo would be driving the devil seating to the extreme right, his left foot in charge of the brakes instead of his right and I was in the driver's seat without being the driver. To add to it, a lady in that cramped space only increased the discomfort level.

The auto moved forward from the narrow lane into the busy road and I found myself staring at windscreen. That was the only thing I could do now. I couldn't help visualizing myself inside an NFS game. Only this time, I wasn't driving a Lamborghini or a Lexus, my computer screen was replaced by a partially cracked windscreen of an auto rickshaw and most importantly, I wasn't the one in charge!

Salt Lake is perhaps the one of the few properly planned areas in Kolkata and the government took great pride in declaring it as a showpiece of the city. Over the last few years, this area has seen tremendous growth and the ever increasing traffic bears testimony to this truth. Although divided into a number of sectors, it is Sector-5 that is the heart of Kolkata's corporate world and that is where destiny brings me every morning. "The government should think about building a few flyovers at some pla...ces..." my thoughts were suddenly disturbed by the sound of screeching tires.

The auto swerved to the right and came to a halt, inches away from the rusted metallic bumper of the blue city bus. Neo’s eyes blazed with fire. As he shot a never ending dialogue of his enriched vocabulary at the bus driver, I realized what had happened. Our auto was following the city bus for quite sometime and unsuccessfully made a few attempts to overtake it. Neo was frustrated, but the bus driver had his own intentions. To allow an auto rickshaw to overtake his bus would be a shame; but he couldn't resist a couple of passengers waving their hands on the road ahead. The latter held greater priority, obviously! The result... Brakes slammed to stop the bus just in front of the passengers followed by enormous expertise of Neo to save our poor souls. As the situation turned serious, I thought I was definitely going to be late to office, but destiny decided otherwise for a change. The bus driver popped his charming face out of the window chewing a paan, the red-stained lips complimenting his 'khatarnaak' look. He gave Neo a piece of his own mind in reply to the latter's volley of uncensored vocabulary and thankfully went on his way. My ears felt hot, as the lady beside me tried to ignore what she heard. "Big Brother would have hard time beeping every time Neo opened his mouth, if he ever happened to be on the show" I thought gleefully.

Sulking under his breath, Neo re-launched the auto with vengeance and renewed vigor. The gears screamed as they put the devil into a murderous mood. As adrenaline rushed in, Neo went into overdrive overtaking anything that came in his path. I imagined how it would feel to be a part of an F1 race. Perhaps, Neo was metamorphosing into a Michael Schumacher. "The F1 sponsors should take a look at Neo" I thought.

The breeze rushed in and I couldn't help notice that the people at the back had stopped their conversation. They were concentrating more on grabbing the side bars of the vehicle or rather anything that looked solid enough. I was also trying to keep myself steady. Applying more amount of pressure on the floor wasn’t helping much. Neo was bent upon shifting the center of gravity every now and then with his swift turns. I wondered what the lady beside me was thinking. She had a multifaceted task at hand, something we software people have learnt to master over time. Trying to hang onto the auto without falling and maintaining a somewhat comfortable position sitting alongside a complete stranger didn’t seem a cool job for her. I felt sorry for her, but Neo seemed in no mood for mercy. With horns blaring on, the devil went ahead with the rampage.

"Oh God!" my prayers went up for the only help that might work "Here I was stuck in a game that offered no second chances." My prayers were finally answered when Neo's terror run came to a standstill at the main traffic point. Our auto stopped behind a Govinda-colored yellow taxi (somehow the yellow colored taxis always reminded me about Govinda and his costumes).I was just sighing in relief when I noticed that something was irritating my eyes. I took a glance at the lady by my side. Her neatly tied hair was undone and all over her face. Some loose strands found their way onto my cheeks. "Clinic plus!" my nose confirmed. Perhaps my actions made her realize the discomfort, as she readily tried to arrange her hair into a bun. In the meantime, Neo somewhat attained his composure. He turned on the FM radio inside the glove box and tuned through the channels. An old melody "Ye reshmi julfe.... ye sharbati aankhen..." blared out through the speakers and suddenly I felt my ears turn red again. As I contemplated about how to stay normal without getting embarrassed, this time the savior was my mobile phone. With great skill, I managed to bring out the ringing mobile from deep inside my trouser pocket. On any other day, I would have cursed that my mobile always rang at wrong places and at wrong times, but for this time I was grateful that it did. I took a look at the number and picked up the call. It was my Team Lead. In the din of the traffic, the only thing I could make out was that the meeting has been postponed for afternoon. "Someone up there was looking after me today", I thought.

After ten minutes of extreme patience (that seemed ages) amidst chaos and the sweltering heat, the traffic seemed to move forward. "It must have looked like a giant snake crawling forward at its own pace", I imagined. Slowly, the auto crawled on, almost colliding with the taxi ahead a couple of times; but saved again. After all, it was Neo in charge. Finally, as we crossed the traffic point, the traffic dispersed a bit and Neo was back to action overtaking clumsy vehicles. The lady got down a little ahead at Millennium Park. Her expression showed that she was relieved. "Probably, she worked in IBM" I thought, "But she would not forget the experience she had today for a long time!" On second thoughts, maybe she would. After all, it was Neo and who knows what happens tomorrow. "Maybe, another deja vu!" I found myself smiling. Neo looked at me suspiciously and my smile disappeared. Some more action on the road and eventually I reached my destination. I handed him the change and got down. As Neo raced ahead with the rest of his passengers, I watched him leave for a moment. I had arrived and my feet were on the ground. It seemed amazing to still be in one piece. I looked at the office ahead and then at my watch. It was 9.45 am and I was very much there. Right on time! As I proceeded with my final steps towards the lift, I pondered over my adventure. "Deja vu! Deja vu!” the words echoed in my mind. It will be another story when I return back home in the evening.