5. one of my videos.....

I had taken this video at akbar's terrace, for no reason, maybe i just liked the whole setting so much that i could not resist but shoot it........





your comments are valuable

4. KID on the Beach

It wasn't long ago that I came across this kid on the Beach, but before that there are quiet a few things that need to be cleared before I get to the kid himself. First of all the Beach, definitely I'll have to tell where is the beach as its definitely not in Bangalore, why did I go to there.........And all the other things surrounding the kid which i believe are equally important if not more......

One of the best things you get to do while working an outstation project, is that you get to travel, one such place I got to visit was Chennai, where I spent a good six to eight months, all alone for most part of the stay. When you stay alone in an unfamiliar place for that long, one would try and find ways to kill time.... Being alone was never a problem for me, like this statement that I read [though i don't read much] somewhere- "I talk to myself because I like dealing with a better class of people". And in my own company I would often venture out into this unfamiliar city at the end of my days' work, obviously to familiarize myself to the city, one such place was THE MARINA BEACH, the same beach which I had visited as a KID myself in my school days, the same beach where I started smokin' for the first time and like all the Smokers after the first cigarette, I too think that every other cigarette that I light is my last one.... even to this day.

On one of those lonely evenings in the good company of MYSELF at the beach, was this SELF EMPLOYED kid selling baked beans, with a pinch of salt and pepper, flavoured with not so ripe mango pieces. The Kid marketed himself pretty well in front of his prospective customers and I for one was impressed with his marketing,[I leave the marketing by the kid to the imagination of the reader] and I bought a plate of baked beans at a cost of Rs.5/plate and paid him ten bucks....He innocently took the money searched all his pockets for the change and said he's not got the change, but being the smart ass that I am, I told him I can hear the sound of five rupee coins in his pocket. For that, what he said was so impressive that I took a picture of the Kid and asked for his name. I told him to keep the change for himself in exchange for the pic, as he had told me that he was collecting the five rupee coins......

About a week later when i visited the beach again, sitting in the same place where I was the last time, I saw the kid again doing what he does best, selling baked beans...... this time the kid recognised me and reminded me that I had taken his pic, sometime back. This time again I bought a plate of baked beans and gave him ten bucks, guess what, he returned me a five rupee note and left in search of new customers [at that moment, I wished the kid did not have the change, so that I could ask him to keep the money and take another pic]. After some time he brought his friends around [self employed kids] and was telling them the story of our earlier meeting. I could see the blush on the other kids faces, as if they expected me to click another picture of them....

May be I could have named this part as "Prem", that was the name of the kid but in spite of knowing his name, the kid remains a stranger.....and HE was special. Special because at some point in time in my life, even I had tried to save coins as a kid, Now I just hope He's saved enough COINS to buy something more important than what I had tried to save THE COINS for......

3. The GIRL at the BUS STOP........

Going by the curiosity of the readers of the blog and the considering Mr. Nippo's request as a priority , i would like elaborate upon each of the above STRANGERS n the situations.

• The GIRL at the BUS STOP........

GIRLS ..... always draw attention and beautiful girls, they don't have to even try....here the definition of beautiful is very personal, one such girl happened to be standing at the silk-board bus stop. It was a time when I was just out of school n the whole world seemed to be a much larger place than I had ever thought it was. I was in my first year of my pre-university and I generally used to travel by bus and on this particular day I was lucky enough to find a seat and that seat was a "window seat"..... Back then Bangalore was not so crowded as it is today and may be that was the reason why THE BUS DRIVER stopped the bus at the bus stop itself. As we know today that there are as many as 75000 auto rickshaws plying for a place on Bangalore roads but back then not many were there.... But why am i talking about an auto in the middle of a description about a girl I saw that day, well, maybe just because I want you to see the complete picture or add a bit more drama to the narration. Finally coming to the point of description, the girl had just got out of one those few thousand autos that were on bangalore roads back then.
As I could see, She was the eldest in the family of four, unless the whole family wasn't travelling, she was with her mom, who was busy unloading the luggage from the auto, dad was may be paying the driver or arguing with him about the auto fare..... But who is really interested about what the family was doing.... my eyes were glued to the girl n the rest of the things around her was blurred [DRAMA], ahaa, she was this really beautiful young girl, very sure that she was younger than me - must be about 13 to 15 years, thats because I was all of 16 then.... I guess you guys must be having a pretty picture of what was in front of my eyes, NOW close one of your eyes, maybe the left eye n see the expression on her face through your right eye, yeah your guess is right I just WINKED at her.....

That expression on her face was worth all the time that i'm spending here today, but I guess you'll have to just imagine that for yourself..... AND the best part was the EYE contact that we had at that moment that makes me remember that GIRL even to this day.....

Oh, I almost forgot, did I say they were a family of four and told what they were doing, by the way, I forgot to mention the fourth member of her family, her kid brother, he was unaware what was happening around him or may be I should just say HE was too young to be BOTHERED....

As for me, that drive to college in the BTS [BMTC was then called as Bangalore Transport System] bus was worth the two bucks, oh yes that was bus fare then, with the memories of that GIRL, that lingers on my mind even to this day and a long long time to come.......Even today, I still have that habit of turning my head when I cross a girl and try to make an eye contact, but nothing till date, comes close to that MOMENT with the GIRL at the BUS STOP...

2. Rendezvous with strangers........

Not everyone or everything that we come across in our lives, last etched in our memory forever, but we do come across some people, somethings, some instances, that happen to remain in our mind for some time before they fade out with time....

I would like to try n remember as many people, instances, things that I've come across till date and will try to reason out WHY I happen to remember these characters, not exactly by their names. I do not exactly know how to relate to them but in the course of this narrative, will try n find a way to describe them....

• The Tribal Visitor with his SEA SHELL...
• The GIRL at the BUS STOP...
• KID on the BEACH...
• Li'l GIRL on the highway...
• MGR - the auto driver at PONDICHERRY...
• suspected thieves at MARINA BEACH, Chennai...
• The Cyclist on the outer ring road.....
• THREE MEN in the middle of the night and their CAB...
• A foreigner at BELLUR....
• Babe in BLACK...
• OFFICER on patrol at 2 in the night...
• An UNKNOWN place where I've been...
• A project manager at PVR cinemas....
• An anonymous chat on a college table....
  

each of these characters have an interesting situations or a certain quality that makes me remember them...... there have been lot more instances n lot more strangers that I've come across but these are the ones that i can remember at this point in time....

1. this one's totally personal....................

All the views expressed in the blog are purely personal n almost true, to the best of my knowledge.

I would like to share my views on certain things that influence my life directly or indirectly. Certain experiences that I think are worth, of being written here....Few people might just be named here n there but NO offense intended to stir their emotions.....