Big wheels keep on turnin'....
Guess who's back!
Yes, I understand its not exactly a 'long time' that I've been out of town for...but when you're as used to Bangalore's pace of life as I am, five days seem an aeon!
There is something indescribably nice about travelling by train that is felt even if you are deprived of a sleeper-class seat and bumped into the general compartment at the eleventh hour....especially if your compartment is filled with funny, chai-drinkin teammates!
My 12 hour journey to Gulbarga was highlighted with drinking 8 cups of uncomfortably sweet train coffee, falling asleep by the window while listening to music for 6 straight hours, trying to get past four pages of Brief History Of Time and fatally revealing to some pals my fantasy of being sexually subservient...faargh!
Our destination was a dreary, dark place called Shahabad about 20 km from Gulbarga.
Finding the lodge in the dead of night was the last thing a sleep-deprived group of train-lagged students could possibly ask for.
The next morning was pretty rushed and frenetic as we were supposed to play a match against PESCE, Mandya which on winning would put us into the semifinals.
Occassional remarks of partial disbelief and sheer dazedness of playing cricket at the inter-zonal university level punctuated the thoroughfare of getting set for the game.
We won the toss, put them in and restricted them to a paltry 136 off 30 overs.
Its so much nicer to chase such totals because you know if you hang in there and get a 30-odd, your score's good enough to get your name in the papers!
I got a 40...yey!
...and yeah, we won.
We had the next day and a half to spend before the next match.
I'd have written about all the fun we had during this time if I weren't so darned drunk as to not remember a friggin thing about it.
A gazillion KFs and 6 hours of r.e.m-ridden sleep later, we played M.S.R.I.T in the semis as lost.
Nevertheless, it was all awesome....and instilled quite a lot of self-belief.
Fallacy of believing that sheer talent in the criterion for success was one of the most valuable lessons the experience taught me.
Among others were the fact that beer can actually cause hangovers and that Stephen Hawking can be nice to read if the last thing on your mind is sleep.
...ooh and I found a Grateful Dead song echoing my thoughts!
You're sick of hangin' around and you'd like to travel;
Get tired of travelin' and you want to settle down.
I guess they can't revoke your soul for tryin',
Get out of the door and light out and look all around.
Sometimes the light's all shinin' on me;
Other times I can barely see.
Lately it occurs to me
What a long, strange trip it's been.
Yes, I understand its not exactly a 'long time' that I've been out of town for...but when you're as used to Bangalore's pace of life as I am, five days seem an aeon!
There is something indescribably nice about travelling by train that is felt even if you are deprived of a sleeper-class seat and bumped into the general compartment at the eleventh hour....especially if your compartment is filled with funny, chai-drinkin teammates!
My 12 hour journey to Gulbarga was highlighted with drinking 8 cups of uncomfortably sweet train coffee, falling asleep by the window while listening to music for 6 straight hours, trying to get past four pages of Brief History Of Time and fatally revealing to some pals my fantasy of being sexually subservient...faargh!
Our destination was a dreary, dark place called Shahabad about 20 km from Gulbarga.
Finding the lodge in the dead of night was the last thing a sleep-deprived group of train-lagged students could possibly ask for.
The next morning was pretty rushed and frenetic as we were supposed to play a match against PESCE, Mandya which on winning would put us into the semifinals.
Occassional remarks of partial disbelief and sheer dazedness of playing cricket at the inter-zonal university level punctuated the thoroughfare of getting set for the game.
We won the toss, put them in and restricted them to a paltry 136 off 30 overs.
Its so much nicer to chase such totals because you know if you hang in there and get a 30-odd, your score's good enough to get your name in the papers!
I got a 40...yey!
...and yeah, we won.
We had the next day and a half to spend before the next match.
I'd have written about all the fun we had during this time if I weren't so darned drunk as to not remember a friggin thing about it.
A gazillion KFs and 6 hours of r.e.m-ridden sleep later, we played M.S.R.I.T in the semis as lost.
Nevertheless, it was all awesome....and instilled quite a lot of self-belief.
Fallacy of believing that sheer talent in the criterion for success was one of the most valuable lessons the experience taught me.
Among others were the fact that beer can actually cause hangovers and that Stephen Hawking can be nice to read if the last thing on your mind is sleep.
...ooh and I found a Grateful Dead song echoing my thoughts!
You're sick of hangin' around and you'd like to travel;
Get tired of travelin' and you want to settle down.
I guess they can't revoke your soul for tryin',
Get out of the door and light out and look all around.
Sometimes the light's all shinin' on me;
Other times I can barely see.
Lately it occurs to me
What a long, strange trip it's been.
posted by Manu at
12:29 am
16 Comments:
sounds good. :-)
Non-Sensei
You didn't mention an LBW. :|
The sweet coffee in the trains the only hot coffee I drink! It's just so awesome to drink it with the world to pass you by.. and with amazing music in your ears, considering you did use head phones, of course. :D
One thingthat has always amazed me is that wherever you go in Karnatak you only get KFs.. Damn IT!Q!! I want Sand Piper.. I just love that beer...and yes... next time you start on chai-drinking people .. I will take offence....
New post up at my blog
Prateek
http://prematurearticulation.com
KF aa? I usually stick to fosters... Annnyways, Stephen Hawking's 'A Brief History Of Time' eh? It's too brief...
I love train rides... loooong ones... like bombay calcutta... on gitanjali express... when i was 9 :)
jusht realised there's another song mentioned as well.
*singing* the sky's rearranging.. look my friend, the weather's changing!
huh - reminds me of days when we used to have "Cricket tournaments" within our area!
@NS: :)...it was!
@sita: puh-recisely how the setting was! sweet coffee was largely ok with me actually...u c there's nothing called bad coffee!
**sorry for the delay...major computer crash kablooie**
@prateek: u think? i actually did find sandpiper up there...i just happen to a KF/Fosters fan is all! how do u like coffee btw?!
@SF: first off, wazzzaaa! where've u bn?!! and then, shut up...Grateful Dead rocks...haha. either that or i'm easily influenced by my nice-lookin neighbor..;)
@AC: there's also Jaguar...which is nice and winey...local maal though! Brief history in time was hardly brief maga...no offence but i was fairly bugged by it..mebbe i aint the one for new,improved science theories
@percy: aaw...lookey who got all nostalgic!! i'd prefer solitude to company though...on train rides...unless ofcourse there's ramya krishna in my compartment...;)...vokay saarie..what about Smriti Rao....no?..sigh
@sita: umm...u mite just have got the wrong song...the 'other song' happens to be sweet home alabama...which I thought would be apt..
@srini: hands down the happiest days of our lives dude....too much fun...miss 'em like mad!
Coffee is not my cup of tea ;-)
Prateek
http://prematurearticulation.com
@prateek: :))...it sure is mine though!
Best of the text i read about a problem.
We are wellocme to it's configuration.
Wellcome to the real world.
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