IDENTITY CRISIS!!! literally...

This one day was the most painful in the past 2 months for me.

I have been going to IIT-B since the beginning of may and it has been more or less a monotonous and uneventful life from that day on, except on the weekends(discounting the exciting EURO matches in the evenings).Well and so it passed on till the last wednesday. that day i was pretty tired and sleepy from the previous days match. So i decided to leave a li'l early and catch up on some sleep if possible.

But i suppose someone somewhere had an entirely different plan chalked out for me for that day. I reached the bus stop of IIT-B at around 4pm. Now from previous experience i knew that there was to be a bus at around 4 which would take me home. if i did miss it the next would be there atleast by 5:00 or 5:15. So i decided to wait it out till that time, when there was no bus even at 4:30. Ironically there was to be no bus that day till 6:00.

Frustrated out of my balls, I was rather relieved when the bus finally decided to arrive at around 6:15. The only consolation for me in the whole thing was
that i had learnt to be a bit more patient and a lot more foolish. But when the bus came i forgot everything and flung myself at the entrance to the crowded
thing that would lead me home. After a stop i got inside the bus(till the it was a hang for survival). Thanks to the new system i already had my return ticket, so no hassle to buy one. Then i settled to be mauled by the unrelenting crowd. Generally i'm lucky and within 5-10 mins i manage to get a seat, but today was a tough one so i ended up standing for the worst parts of the journey.

As i neared home i managed a seat and took my bag in front to finally take out my keys. And lo behold! what am i facing - an open zip in my bag where my
wallet, earphones, keys et al are supposed to be. And my worst fear came true and my faith in the fact that i could stay untouched by the bombay pick-pockets
was shattered. As a consolation(to god knows whom) they had left my earphones untouched. The wallet had 1200 bucks cash( the highest amount i have ever carried in my wallet in living history) my college ID, my liscence and my ATM card among other collectibles of mine.

I was already frustrated because of the long wait and as an icing and cherry on top this happened. Man, i went berserk and crazy. I was cursing every
possible person who i believed had ever wronged me. And then i got off the bus after thoroughly searching it while making a fool of myself. As i entered the gate of my colony, there are security fellas at the gate( of the few previlaged ones who have had the fortune of visiting my place - well, they'll know what i am referring to). Now in my living history not once has it happened that the security guy has ever asked me for identification, not even when the 9-11 attacks had happened and security was at an all-time ecstatic high. And as i walked in this cool security dude asks me for identification. I was bloody raging and then this, as if the icing and the cherry had been not sufficient. But thankfully this dude just took my word for the fact that i stayed in the colony, probably because i blabered an address that he recognized as being possible.

After entering the colony, i called up mom to let her know what had happened and to handle the situation - well, dad was home!!! when i entered the most
methodical and excruciatingly embarassing breakdown of the whole mishap was extracted out of me. Then began the age-old prescribed process to remedy the situation caused because of my carelessness - blocking the ATM, going and filing the police report( no, there were no more mishaps at the police station - if you were expecting one).

And thus ended my most eventful day of the whole holidays so far. At the end of it, i had absolutely no documents( that people generally carry) to prove my
identity, and it has been so till this minute and will remain for at least a few more days!

regards

P.S. since that day i have been telling this story to all and sundry with much joy excitement and animation, much to the amusement of everbody. but it really helps make you feel less gulty about things!

Finally Jupiter hears me out!!!

Scene1 - the whole of past month i have been crying about the fact that rains have eluded bombay, because as earlier stated i was suffering due to the summer. I kept having the same discussion with every possible soul i came across, irrespective of the fact whether they were residents of bombay or not!!

Then i decided to take matters into my own hands - which resulted in the last blog getting written. I agreed to even do the rain dance also, if required(and the way gulu pictured it, i was all for it).

But to no avail. I was left waiting.

Scene2 - I am out shopping for shoes with my dad. He needed a new pair of office-wear shoes and i had sneakers in mind, so we set out on tuesday evening(3rd june) on our mission. As the evening wore on and i got bored of looking at all these black and brown colored shoes, which i would not be sporting at least for the next 2 years, the temperatures dropped a little. There was that slight, very slight hint of rain in the air. But i could not trust my instincts because they had been wrong the whole of the previous week. Then finally my dad decided on the shoes he wanted. As it was to turn out they were pretty expensive and pretty good looking too. i approved of them(generally i don't even bother, office-wear shoes are not my area of expertise).

Climax - as we walked out of the showroom, we hear a salesman shout - aala re, paus! - or something very similar.(the above translating to -"the rains have come.") And i look up to see these most awesome huge raindrops, most unusual for the first rains, literally pounding on the rooftops of the parked cars. All i could do, was to stand there gawking, with a very stupid smile on my face. i looked at pop and he also had a smile, an amused 1. On inquiry, he said that it was very weird that he had just bought these real expensive shoes and it should rain almost the next instant, rendering him unable to sport it for the next few months, at least. Then we ran to the car and i did not get into it until he had taken it out on the road, letting myself soak in the first rains of bombay! It poured at least for the next 15-20 mins with quite an intensity, reducing visibility considerably. But who the hell cared for all that at that moment.

that's how the story of bombay's first rains unfolded in my life in the summer of 2008.

sudhir poi

P.S. for all those people who are dead or on the verge of it, after reading this tiny-story-made-extravagantly long. I apologize and give you the full right to kick my ass the next time you come across me.

N.B. it has not rained since, too. so i will be taking suggestions on more variants of the rain dance and please keep it as interesting as you can come up with!