The Rise of the Phoenix

Hi internetters!!

Yes, I’m back! Back with a bang... Back with with peace and understanding, joy and confidence, friends and well-wishers, realizations and solutions... Highly recommended : ISABS lab for entire humankind!!!

To be honest, it wasn’t all masti and joy. I did have my fanatical moments when I got ample annoyed and also times when I cried like a baby, occasions when I felt lonely and instances when I got bored. However, the change in my attitude, beliefs and perceptions made the difference...

For example, it’s not always bad to be angry and impatient. Or if people do not agree with you, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’re wrong. In fact, you are not responsible for what the other person feels. True, you may care and you may get affected by his/her reaction, but it is more about acknowledgement and acceptance than guilt or regret.

Complicated, is it? Well, let me start at the beginning then...

As I told you last, I left for Goa on the 9th (Saturday), and as it had been a while since I traveled by train, that too all by myself, I thoroughly enjoyed it. There seemed to be more unconfirmed travelers on board the train than passengers with reservations, so I was glad that a seat was allotted to me in the Tatkal quota.

(Some gyaan - Did you know Tatkal has a wait-list too? And when the waiting list for Tatkal is full, “no room” status is declared on the train.)

I shared the bogie with several talkative young parents and their equally voluble kids going to Goa for the summer vacation. The children were a boisterous bunch, and their danga-fasaad was cute for a while.

Then it started getting on my nerves.

The tiny troublemakers kept shoving each other and falling on people unfortunate enough to be seated nearby, and yelling at the top of their goddamned trumpet-like voices. One kiddo played “Jungle Jungle paar chali hai” (the track from Jungle Book starring Mowgli, the chaddi champ) no less than 15 times, and I was on the verge of pulling my hair in agony.

And a miracle occurred. Chhotu dropped his dad’s cell, and the dad went berserk pummeling him as if he were a sack of potatoes. Now, I’m completely against any sort of violence, especially on kids, but sometimes, it isn’t so unpleasant or undesirable you see...

Or maybe it is. Coz the cranky kid raised such a din with his howling, that I was actually praying for the Mowgli track to resume. Needless to say, my prayers were answered and master-blaster was rocking in glee again. Amazing how perspectives come alive and preferences pale in comparison...

Also amazing is the way people cajole others’ brood even as they glare at and bully their own offspring.

But what certainly takes the cake for being the-most-amazingest-thing in the history of humanity is our in-built collective unconscious, specifically, the involuntary process of non-stop ingestion in a moving locomotive. I mean, have you ever noticed HOW MUCH people eat when they’re traveling?!! Barely have they settled into their berths, than out come the chips and cookies. No sooner is that over than someone grabs at a passing vendor selling wadas and chocolates. Anywhere the train halts, pax rush to buy some nashta-pani. I mean, have pity on your stomach, folks!!

Ahem... I’m no exception either. I curl up with a book and my packet of wafers and forget there is a world that exists around me.

(Until those noisy brats start again. Grr...)

Speaking of books, Twilight kept me great company. I found myself drawn to Edward (courtesy Meyer’s excellent narration and extraordinary picturization) and I could completely relate to Bella’s thinking-feeling-behaving patterns. Aah, the first stages of love and infatuation. So perfect, so innocent, so dreamy...

I stared out of the window and saw the marvelous sunset through the tinted AC glass. It brought me a few questions about the event I was going for. I had no clue what it was about, what I had to expect, and what I’d return with. However, as a friend suggested, I had to live life this once unplanned, without knowing what I was in for. “Just live life once like me”, he said, “and see how it is..”

... It was wonderful. Thanks boy.

I’m so glad I took this chance, despite all my uncertainties and ponderings.

As I was thinking all this, I noticed that all the men passing my berth were turning to look at me as if I was from another galaxy. I was reminded of Jab We Met where the station master tells Kareena (yuck, I hate her!) : “Akeli ladki khuli tijori ki tarah hoti hai.” LOL.

I was a little irritated by all the attention, but I was in such a jaunty mood, that nothing could spoil it. Not even when my Osho chappals broke, did I so much as utter a “shit”. See what I mean?!! Bliss is such a heady emotion, it’s our legal hashish!

Enter Goa, and I could see coconut trees all around. I alighted at Vasco station around 6 am, and the weather change from the cool AC to the hot, humid climate had me coughing and sniffing continuously. It was all I could do not to punch myself for getting sick when there was an entire week of a new, exciting life ahead of me.

Phir kya hua? Did Anuja get better?? Did she have a good week???

Catch all that and more in the next episode of Life... (Tee-hee-hee!! Sidey...)

Until then,
Asta-la-vista babies!!

Muaaaaaaaaaahhh, love ya all!

- Princess