15th May:
*alarm* – I look at my watch. It says 7:00. I can sleep for 5 more minutes, I have got time.
*alarm* – I look at my watch. It says 7:12. I can sleep for 5 more minutes, I have got time.
*alarm* – I look at my watch. It says 8:38. WTF!!!@#!@#!@^&#$%@$
I cancel the alarm and check my cell phone for any missed calls. Sure enough, I have one from Mots. First things first – I call up Mots. I cannot quote her words here because to tell you the truth, I am never in my best just after waking. So all I remember is the essence of what she told me.
She told me that the Bandh that had been called was not a major one and that all the vehicles were plying. I tell her that I will be at her place as soon as I can.
I take a bath, brush my teeth, dress up and leave for her place.
The jeep I boarded gets a flat tyre and I jump into the first auto that followed us. I don’t even know where exactly it is going in Ranchi. After about half an hour, at some place, almost all the travellers get down. So I get down with them. I look around and find that I am in some part of town I have never been before in all my 4 years in this town. So I whip out my phone and call up Mots.
“Hi Mots”
“Yes Boss”
“OK. Listen carefully. I am somewhere in town and I have no idea where. I am right now standing in front of this huge building that says ‘State Bank of India Zonal Office’. What do I do now”.
She laughed and continued, “OK relax. You are right now near Kachehari Chowk. Walk to the chowk and then from there you can get one of those big autos to my place”.
“K then. C ya.”
“K”.
When it comes to talking to others on my phone, I try to be concise and precise and brief coz I never know when the damn piece of shit will die on me.
Finally I managed to reach her place. She opens the door and wonder of wonders, I see Baba.
I never expected to see him there. But then Baba was unusually quiet and did not speak out much. The only thing he did was check out the photos Mots had in her laptop. Which left me and Dolly.
Dolly is Mots’ younger sister and hence, sort of my little sister. Together with her elder sister, Dolly sort of fills in the gap in my life of lack of any female relatives of my age.
Lemme tell you some things about my family.
- As my brother once put it very eloquently, my family doesn’t have a family tree. It has a family forest.
- My mother once counted and told us that she has a total of around 37 cousins and second cousins. And in typical mother fashion, she correctly remembers all their names, the names of their spouses, their children, where they work/study and everything.
- Among all my close relatives (close not just by blood but also by familiarity), I have NO female relatives of comparable age. In the close family, the female relative closest to my age is my aunt. She is about 7 years younger than my mother. If course, one can count my Akkachi (Mrs Bro) but then according to my mother, the elder brother’s wife is like a second mother, her age be damned.
In light of these truths, I here by proclaim that I was starved of any interaction with a close female relative. And the two girls I mentioned earlier filled in that gap. And the gave me a taste of all that I had missed.
Anyway, back to the matter at hand, Mots then proceeded to make some sort of Appam for me. The initial ones turned out a little weird but the later ones, especially the culmination, was perfect.
One of Mots’ best friends, one called Tsunami (a.k.a D1) was leaving for home that day by the afternoon Dhanbad Alleppey exp. So Mots and me went to the railway station to see her off. Baba had to see off some friends of his own so he came along. On the way to the station we found some watermelon guys. So we filled our mangers and then packed some for the departing ones (bad choice of words, I know). The train was announced and we took our positions on the platform with all her luggage (Seven bags. SEVEN) and wonder of wonder, who turns up to see her off? None other than Mots’ dad. The Deadliest Dad ever, as I named him.
Mots’ father looks pretty senior. Possibly older than my own father. His hair is already almost completely cream white as is his mustache and beard. His hair is combed backwards and his mustache is thick and curled upwards. This coupled with his height and stout build and the black Bullet Enfield Electra he sits upon wearing his black helmet makes him deadlier than any Veerappan you have ever seen. And so I rightly named him the Deadliest Dad ever.
After we see D1 off, Mot’s father gave her boyfriend a lift to the bus stop en route to his office and the three of us said that we would meet him in his office.
Once in his office, the important things are finished first, i.e. Writing a couple of DVDs for Mots. She wanted some movies from me. We have some interesting conversations while the DVDs are being written. I find out that Mots’ father is a Robert Ludlum fan and has read every book of his at least thrice.
Outside his office is a huge mango tree with a lot of raw mangoes hanging. Baba tried his hand at a couple of them but couldn’t get them to leave the shelter of their mother tree. This spurred us and we began trying in earnest. The tree was a very branching one and it was like a dream come true for me. I quickly climbed the tree and walked along one of the thicker branches towards the desperately clinging mango when I walked into a swarm of fruit flies. They surrounded my whole face and threatened to enter my shirt. In my panic, I jumped of the tree. It was not a very high jump and as soon as I was on the ground, I squirmed his way and that to try and get rid of the flies. Once that threat was neutralised, I climbed the tree again but this time, chose a slightly different path. This time the bees were still there, but in a smaller number. Still, one of the managed to enter my ear before it was expelled by my furious head-banging. From my vantage position, I managed to pluck enough and more mangoes to satisfy us all. We collected the fallen bounty and then bid our farewells to Mots’ Dad and left for her home. But we didn’t have enough time and soon had to leave for our hostels. Baba and me told our farewells and left for the college.
Baba had to go back to the Railway station to see some other friend off so he told me how to get to the hostel. I don’t know if it was he who screwed up or if it was me but what I do know is that I got lost and instead of ending up at the bus stop, found myself at least 2 km away from it. I hurried and tried to catch the bus to college but when I reached the stop, there was no bus there. I whipped out my untrustworthy cell phone and rang up Mots to ask for a way to reach the college without spending 100 bucks on an auto.
She told me what to do. Then corrected herself and told me another way. And then corrected me AGAIN, this time, to give me the final definitive way to reach college. This time, the directions were perfect and I reached college without much hassle.
16th May:
I woke up pretty early (around 7:30) and finished my packing. All my bags I deposited in Somar’s room and left for town. Apparently, there was no bus headed fr town at that time and o I availed the use of a trekker. Unfortunately it was so crowded that I had to hang from the back of the trekker with just one hand while the other hand called Mots on her phone.
“Hey Mots”
“Yes Boss. Where are you?”
“I am headed to Jail Chowk. What do I do once I get there?”
“You can get one of those small autos to my place from there”.
“K then. C ya.”
“K”.
Precise and concise instructions ensured that I reached her place without much trouble (unless you call sitting on top of the vehicle instead of inside it as trouble) where I find that she has made food for me (again!!!). This time it is Lemon Rice (or something like it). She also packed some for the seven of us train voyagers. Bless that princess.
Soon it was time for me to leave for the station. Dolly gave me a hug and we said our farewells. Mots accompanied me to the station and we had our fun seeing Thadu squirm and squeam in front of her.
And then it was time for the worst part of it all.
Farewells are disgusting, aren’t they?
