Kutch Kutch Hota Hai.

Looked forward to this trip for months. Talked about shopping for it. Finally bought nothing. Packed warm clothes, woolen socks and Hide & Seek.

Boarded Bhuj Express at Bandra Terminus. Created chaos by yelling a lot. Fought for the window seat. Made new friends. Screamed at the top of our voice. Sang cheesy songs. Stayed up late at nights as the temperature dropped down to 2 degree Celsius. Shared ghost stories. And got scared when another train went hurtling by. Realised that two jackets, one monkey cap and gloves wasn’t enough.

Visited Swami Narayan temple on the way to our resort. Admired beautiful marble sculptures. Clicked a million pictures. Scared away pigeons.

Jumped on the beds in our room. Almost got injured while jumping. Played in the swimming pool. Had cold ice water baths. Got badly tanned. Snuggled inside warm blankets. Listened to awesome music on headphones.

Screamed some more. Got a sore throat. Clicked a zillion pictures. Posed for another zillion. Reminisced our childhood by playing some old games: kho kho, lagori, red letter, langdi, sakhli. Fell flat on my face. Gazed at stars. Tried to identify constellations.

Visited the fossil park. Searched for cool fossils. Marvelled at the process of sedimentation. Realised how cool evolution is. Pocketed some fossils to take home.

Woke up early. Had a scrumptious breakfast. Visited the Tropic of Cancer. Stood on the Tropic of Cancer. Took a two-hour bus ride to view jackal-feeding. Got disappointed when the jackals didn’t turn up. Were told that we scared them away by making lots of noise.

Visited the India-Pakistan border. Stood on the India Bridge and saw a glimpse of Pakistan. Got mesmerized by the White Rann of Kutch. Simply stood and stared for five whole minutes. Realised five minutes wasn’t long enough. Realised that photos can not capture even one-tenth of the beauty.

Went shopping. Hogged on some Gujurati pani puri. Ate some Gurati sweets. Roamed on the streets of Gujurat at night. Got lost. Finally rescued by our group in-charge. Sat at the window in the bus. Stared out as cars zoomed. Almost froze to death but still didn’t shut the window. Hogged on dinner at the resort. Had rasagulla. Had another rasgulla. Then one more.

Sat by the campfire. Laughed till our stomachs hurt. Laughed some more. Played dumb charades. Laughed. Laughed. And laughed.

Visited a village. Discovered Rogan art. Played with kids. Tried to handle the charkha. Clicked pictures with kids, who offered us berries. Laughed with them. Ate Banarasi paan chocolate for Rupaye ka do and drank cold drink from a Pepsi bottle priced Rs 4.

Went to Mandvi beach. Saw tons of dead jellyfish. Poked many. Saw camels. Rode one. Got super excited. Ate bhutta by the sea. Ran on the beach. Bought channa bhel from a vendor. Got blessings from him for free. Saw giant windmills.
Stuffed our bags. Asked our professor to extend the trip. He laughed. We didn’t.

Finally returned to Mumbai.
And realised it isn’t so bad either.

Our room.

Swami Narayan Temple.

Grazing camels.

On our way to Tropic of Cancer.

White Rann of Kutch.

Mandhvi Beach.

Gujurati women.

Village kids.

A house in the village.

Camel rides.

Bhuttawala.

Sunset at Mandhvi beach.

Heaven Can Wait.

“Yes. Okay. Okay, mom, okay I will. I got to go, I will call. Bye.”

She always does that. Every single time. Even before I can start talking, she is yelling at me.

“Is this a time to call? You don’t care about us.”

If I didn’t care, I wouldn’t have called.

It’s Jimmy’s birthday today. We are in my car. I am driving. I had somehow managed to shut everybody up while I spoke to mom.

Tanya is in the back with Rohan. They have been “going out” since last week. That’s the phrase they use.

Manisha is sitting next to Tanya. She is unusually quiet today but she should return to her usual self after one or two drinks.

We are at King’s Circle. The signal is red. We wait.

‘Go, go shaawtie, it’s your birthday, we gonna party like it’s your birthday,’ fills the car as the RJ on whatever FM station the car radio is set to plays this song.

We sing along.

Green.

Go.

Damn that policeman. Shit, we are going to be late now.

Jimmy slips him a crinkled hundred. Free.

Finally, we are at Zenzi.

Adi, Sonia and Vivek have been waiting for us.

Manisha is looking gorgeous. As always. Butterflies in my stomach as she smiles back at me.

Inside, loud music greets us. Some French-African beats that would make no sense to me even if I tried to listen to it. Hot women in tiny clothes are all around us. Several firaangis.

We sit at our table and order our usual.

I don’t like this place too much. This is not my type of music – I am more of a lounge guy - and the food here is almost decent.

But Jimmy likes it. He likes the people who come here.

And of course, alcohol makes everything better. That is pretty much all you need.

Tanya and Rohan hit the dance floor.

Jimmy asks Manisha to dance with him. She smiles and nods. I know she doesn’t want to dance. She doesn’t like it. But it’s his birthday, so she doesn’t refuse.

She didn’t like to drink either. She used to try to talk us out of it.

‘I don’t understand why people drink. Just to get high?’

‘You know you will die sooner and faster because of it...’

But now, she spares us most of the speech. We are too high to listen to her anyway. After sometime, even she stopped caring. ‘We are going to die anyway…’

We have been here for 3 hours now; all of us are super high. All my senses are stimulated, though my vision is a little blurred.

Adi is talking about Red Indians, to no one in particular. Sonia has passed out and is sleeping at the table. Feet curled up.

Jimmy is still drinking,

I think I am passing out too.

I remember Navya, my cute 8-year-old neighbour. She is awesome.

She comes to our house daily. Sometimes, she asks me to play doll with her. I am a policeman and she is a doctor. I fight criminals and she treats my injuries.

Someone is flashing light into my eyes.

Yes, I had passed out.

I blink and open my eyes and look at my watch.

It’s 3.30 am.

“I think we should leave.”

Jimmy nods.

Adi is still talking about Red Indians.

I can’t walk properly. My legs are trembling. My eyes are watery.

I get inside the car. Drink some water. Eat mints.

Yes, I can drive.

I put it in reverse and almost hit an SUV behind me.

It’s okay. I can drive.

I am on the road now. Speeding. 80 km/hour. No traffic. It’s easy.

I look at Jimmy next to me. He is resting his head on the window. Manisha is sleeping in the back.

I look ahead.

And brake hard.

I hear tires screeching; the car crashes into a wall.

My head hits the steering wheel.

Blood. My blood.

I close my eyes. I see mom.

‘I told you, don’t do it, you don’t listen to me. You never listen to me.’

I see Navya. She is waving at me.

‘You want to play doll? I am the doctor. Don’t worry, I will treat you.’

There is darkness.

And then there is nothing.

                                                 Marine drive.

Age of Innocence

My heart was pounding against my ribs. I was breathing fast. My brain was numb. I was looking at the dangerous creature in front of me, whose black right eye was fixated on me. It's blue left eye was looking elsewhere, perhaps at a different prey. I blinked and looked around. Anxious faces surrounded me. I could see the fear in their eyes. They could see fear in mine. My terror-stricken face must have screamed for help, but none of them could do anything. They were as lost as I was, as scared as me. A bead of sweat slowly trickled down my back, dragging a chill down my spine with it. The creature took a step towards me. I gripped my sword. I had to fight this, I had literally invited this trouble, it was all my fault. What was I thinking then? It wouldn't notice? It wouldn't care?

My heart beat faster. I could hear the winds howling. It seemed to me they were celebrating my impending defeat. They were supporting my enemy, but after all, it was his kingdom. He ruled it.

The creature's mouth moved. It was almost as if it was talking. It repeated the same action. I still couldn't understand what it was doing.

Then something sharp poked me in the back.

"Are you nuts? Answer his damn question!!'

"What?" I was confused now.

Then reality zoomed back to me as my friend poked me again with a pencil.

My chemistry professor was staring at me, with both his blue and black eye.

"What is the answer?" he said, perhaps for the third time now.

"I am not sure sir. I got 316 kilo joules per mole."

"316.14 kilo joules per mole," he corrected me. "Pay attention now."

Here comes the rain again.

It rained yesterday.

It had been cloudy for the last few days. Thick white clouds would form shapes across the blue evening sky as the sun set.

I was sitting at the window and listening to songs on the radio. Cold wind blew through my hair and splashed raindrops on my face.

I put my hand outside and cold water trickled on my arms.

People started scurrying around for cover. Kids from my building were jumping into the puddles formed by the downpour. The watchman from the next building looked happy to get drenched by the rain.

It seemed that every body had been waiting for it. Every bird, every tree, everything.

The leaves that had been bent down by the summer dust turned fresh and green as they swayed in the rain. I saw flashes of lightning but I didn't hear the thunder.

Finally, after months of bearing the scorching heat, after tolerating power-cuts for days and sweating it out, the monsoon is finally here.