The College, The Life and Whole Lot of Achaar.

Everything ends but nothing does actually. Its kind of a strange observation that people tend to miss something or someone even though they are connected via the phone or internet, like all the time I mean. So, for me, its an end to an era, of being happy, carefree and all that fun.

You see, there will be a time you actually think you don't belong here. But its more than that. You start to miss the silliest things, the lamest joke, your friends and this you. So, if you weren't here all the time, at least when I was here, this is for you.

The college part of this life is the same old sick joke, maybe. Boring lectures, assignments, crappy test, fights and all that running for internals. But the best things happen after that. Why this place was special was because of all there people over here. The hostel was the best thing happened. We lived outside the campus and 10 of us in a house. We were kicked out, reinstated, shifted and hell it was fun. Nights were the most adored stuff, fights and weird leg pulling. Life here was the shit and parties, God! Those late night preparations, long drives, late night eating at Ashtamudi. This life was all about do what you feel like doing. If you were not here, you missed it. Really you did.

Lot of things happen in the middle. If I start cribbing all of them, this will never end. And suddenly there was Achaar. There are many theories how Achaar was formed, it was impulsive, it just happened, just like that. The best part of Achaar was, no one knew nothing. No one sang, played any instruments or had some special talent. But we were different. Like the crowed loved whatever we did. Hell, they did. I dunno actually why, but they really did. Achaar was us, the group of like 10, who joined forces to do whatever we felt like. We were awesome.

If you were not here, you missed the forest, its lions, the stream, the ponds and the reckless paths around. You missed the mangoes and all those strange fruits that grew inside. You missed the last night preparations. You missed all that food, those day scholars brought and we ate. You missed throwing paper balls at the lecturer and each other. You missed the sleeping in the class. You missed telling lies to get all the money to buy ice-creams. You missed the crappy food from the canteen. You really missed our awesomest tours, our hideouts and surprise visits to some random friends house just to eat. You missed going for marriages of some stranger. You really missed just watching everyone in class. You really missed the hostel life. You missed the goondas. You missed stupid cocktails. You missed a lot of things, small things that made this place special, if you weren't with us. This place was fun. This place had life. We were.

Wherein Lies Her Memories

Stories I've told of my friends comes right from them. You get them some booze and bribe, and voila! They get you these things, wonderful stories. But this doesn't belong there. Everything began when there was this confess-your-love round  in the middle of the University Exam preparations.Usually for most of us here, studying is a mass effort.. Combined study exactly, as no one will have the textbooks or the notes. So it all works on photocopies, self-enlightenment and creative writing. 

Well, this piece is about a man, dressed in the worst and finds no time to bath, 'cause he thinks a lot, really! For this story to happen, we need to jog back exactly 1.75 decades back, the days in the kindergarten, when everything seems to be green, sunny and chocolate. He met his little girl. She lived next door, went in the same school bus. Sat together, ate together.  They became friends and more, they went and came back to and fro for six long years. He felt happy. They loved holding hands. But when you expect everything to be this perfect, entropy happens. This guys gets a kick in his head, and the next thing he knows is that she moved. The best of his days were over. The depression, the pain. Well, not exactly, when you are in 4th grade, everything goes away with some more chocolates, a milkshake and cartoons. Life!

So, when you think everything's over that easy, think again. This so called life, gave him a second chance, something to hold on to. After around 10 years from then, one fine day, she came back to his life. Well, at least the news. She asked about him to his Mom. This became significant in the calculation as this was repeated and she wanted to see him. But as usual, Mom forgot all about this and yeah, life! 

He picked up his phone and it was her. She called to say hi and to invite him for her marriage. Some second chance. His mind was hard to explain, desperate efforts to see her. Nothing worked. So on the day of marriage, that didn't even work. He was late and everything was over. But life, oh yeah, after the twists and turns, he finally got to met her. Engulfed in silence and smiles, the meeting was short lived. Whatever happened was blemished into a deep darker parts of his cerebellum. Facial hair growth recorded an all time high and 4 was the total count of days that he 'forgot' to bath. Life moved on, somehow.

Well, I don't know if this is a love story. But this, a requiem for her memories, the not so forgotten ones.

The Dream Is Real

Have you ever thought about yourself? This place we live in? All these people? All this mess and this sounds? What if, all these is just another dream? I always had that tough about this life, time travel, space vortex, Einstein, dreams, and I always wondered, what if we wake up from a dream when we die? A dream within a dream? An endless array of dreams? I had thought about this many times in my ever-weird-insomniac-bedtimes.

But, after watching Inception, I was like huh?And then like what? And then like umm, wait a minute!! What happened? How did I get here? Honestly, even after 24 hours, I still can't really keep off Inception. It's because I admire such cult movies a lot. And for those who still blames the movie to be over done with twists and turns, well, Nolan really wants the audience to participate in the process of unfolding, he appeals to think and to think good enough to keep up with the heist. I like his way to telling the story, rather than just being a dumb spectator.

The aftermath of this adventure was the real thing! My mind was clueless and still is on the path of recovery. My mind feels being turned, twisted and being pull out and stretched into layers. I felt numb, and going around and around in some timeless vortex. I felt claustrophobic. I felt like being carried away by an alien UFO light. powered abduction thingy! I felt wandering  in someone else's dream. Suddenly everyone was staring at me. I felt like, I'm gonna lose it! Gulp! I emptied a bottle of Coke. Sigh! It still feels the same. I tried music,  dunno how many songs I played, tried changing the topic and started talking with friends but none could keep Inception out of my mind.

"Dreams feel real while we're in them. It's only when we wake up that we realize something was actually strange." - I felt the same. Something was strange.

"What's the most resilient parasite? An Idea. A single idea from the human mind can build cities. An idea can transform the world and rewrite all the rules. Which is why I have to steal it." -  This is what the movie revolves around. Playing with dreams, dreams inside dreams, and to extract information while someone is asleep. But this time, the job was to plant and idea, an Inception!

"You're asking me for Inception. I hope you do understand the gravity of that request"

At the moment, I'm trying to get over this movie. It that kind of movie that makes you watch it a couple more time, 'cause you don't see many details at the first watch and makes you to love the plot more. I dunno how he does that, but he is one of the best story tellers in the business. BTW, for those who are easily taken by movies, don't watch this, it may cause suicidal tendencies. What if this is all real? Or is this really a dream?

Well at the end of it, one thing is for sure,  - for one's who actually enjoyed the movie, Nolan was very successful in implanting his idea into those millions. His very own Inception.

Laments Of My Soul

I ran , faster and faster, I tipped off a rock and fell down, I was running so fast that I couldn't see a thing. I bruised my forehead in the fall. I stood up, turned around, what am I missing here? I still have a heavy heart, what is happening to me? Chill of being alone, this place doesn't look familiar. This gravel road, with grass - seamless grass all around the path.I can't stop, I still have a long way to go. But, I miss so many things, I miss everything in my life, small things which made me happy. I'm not sad, but it doesn't feel right!

Well, they were right, I tried to change things but, the only thing changed was me. I miss my old friends, I miss innocence. I miss little takes in my life. I wish I could sleep all day, in my mom's lap. I wanna play with my dog. Sit along the playground with my friends and gaze at the trees and grass, dance to the wind. I miss those days when I used to pretend I was sick, and skip school, so that my mom and dad, would stay back home too. I miss school bus. I miss my bicycle. I miss old silly celebrations. I miss all of that, which so went away from my life, and what could I do? Stand here in this long damped road and watch... Gaze till this end of horizon. I wish I could cry, cry like a child, just cry loudly, for no reason.

Everything changed so fast, I... I just don't wanna grow this fast. I can't! I can't stop here, this place is so strange. This life, I am finding happiness again. Memories that keeps me happy. Smells, tastes and dreams that still makes me smile. This pain in my head grew. I pressed the wound, just a bit of blood, seems its okay, its gonna be fine.Umm... I could smell it, the rain it starts. Its raining hard. It made my converse wet. I turned and started running, again, while it rained.

Balloon In Flavours

I always like to blog about my friend's experiences. Stories they tell me, love, hate, embarrassment, lose - whatever. This is yet another true story.

Protagonist is a fellow being, who confessed this in the strangest of times, dunno why, but still it makes a wonderful subject for my blog. This happened when he was a little bit more younger, like say make 7 years from now. The cities monotone made him to enjoy the family get-together's, usually packed with cousins and friends and kids of his age. That's a probable relief from school.

To add up to the fun, it was his youngest uncle's after-marriage-math hours. The couple wedded 4 days ago and this being a Sunday, had the whole family down pour for party. This gave the lady folk yet another opportunity to blabber till eternity and the gents to do some talks too about the effects of - "Poverty after marriage" and "The Political Roller-coaster" , not to mention the "occasional" drinks. In short it was a fun-filled-all-talk-full-rubbish-awesome-big-fat-Indian-semi-wedding-reception-party-with-lots-of-kids-to-play-around like situation. 

These pack of kids where running around frantically to find new things to do. To be in limelight. They were running around the place, not knowing what to do, reminds me of the Sea-gulls in Finding Nemo :P. Anyways, the restless search around the house ended in finding a pack of balloons. Cool, he thought, and started blowing it up. It became big, really big and was kind of strange looking too. 

The delighted pack of monkeys, started making the most out of it. They played a round of football, and then some tennis, and some rugby and some more cricket and some ping-pong and to end it with a dodge ball session with the balloon of course! They ran across the corridor where the adult folks were having their part of the share.

Suddenly, everything went so quiet, dead quiet. It was like America has just dropped down another Little Boy, this time, without a sound. Every pair of eyes where glued on the kids and the balloon. The masculines gave the ladies a strange stare. In a split second, the kids where shooed away and the balloon was thrown away. They poor kids went, perplexed. What the boy didn't know was, that was a condom!

The Murderer Who Lived Among Us

What don't you have these days?, the whole world just a Google away, flashy iPhones, "awesome" police force, people cracking the origin of the universe. Amidst all that, someone among us got away with a nearly perfect crime. Something done with the precision of a diamond cutter - what is really an art. But the catch is that he got away with it - just that easily.

She - cheerful girl, jack-of-all-trades, smiles good. He was the most perfect guy in the class - Prince Charming, Class Topper and a guitar personality. And like in all usual Bollywood romances she fell for him. All this happened back in 11th grade. An year passed by. It happens to be so that she was madly falling for him and he was a monster in the making.

Scene 1

The day started with a phone call. She was desperate and restless and wanted to talk He asked her to come to the school. The place was empty as it was a Saturday. He took off in his bike and drove along the market place grabbing somethings. They met at the school entrance. Perfect day, he thought.

Scene 2

He asked her to come with him to the top of the school tower so that no one would see them. Unsuspectingly she walks with him. She could not control her emotions. Tears broke out as she told him that her marriage was being fix and would be engaged soon. Shocked, he thinks for sometime. Before he could stop thinking, she gave him the shivers. "I'm pregnant"-she said. P-R-E-G-N-A-N-T the words were like being told in slow-motion. The words took forever. He felt numb and deaf. Suddenly he talks and tell her that he needs more time, more time to think, "...its just 12th grade you know, I'm not ready for this". She had been crying since they climbed up the ladder. She refused. Cries became louder. In a split, he pushed her, down the 3-storied building.

Scene 3

She went down like a lead balloon. Crraaasssh!!! It sounded like she landed on a car. Beep-beep-beep the car alarm burglar alarm sound. His heart was pounding like its was going to rip down his cage and come out. Quick, he thought, climbed down the ladder with 3x speed. Took his biked with was tactically parked at a distance and drove back home. Just another day at the store. He hugged his mother and gave the groceries.

Scene 4

The sound of ambulance, impregnated the school premises. 3 days, she lay like the dead, doctors running in circles making prescriptions. She woke-up the fourth day. Like in a dream, she stared at everyone. She's lost it. She doesn't remember a thing. Not her name, not her school, her parents, and lucky not even him and the incident. She broke her elbow, multiple fractures  in both legs, injured jaw -  she was saved as she landed on that car. Luck did not all ditch her.

Finale

She is in a wheel chair pondering who she is? He parents takes care of her, still wondering why she jumped of the building. Her marriage was all doomed and their child, schooling - all took a big U turn.

He, topped his school, took the engineering entrance and studies happily back in Kerala.He trashed her and her memories, just like that. He still walks, sings, and laughs around us,  walks among us, quiet unnoticed and masked behind his true dark self.

No crime is perfect. It leaves trails behind, its natures rule. This story is written based on the experiences of a security who was at the school, that day. But no one believes him, 'cause he was the perfect little murderer.

Story Of My Hair

The first thing now someone says to me is that,

What is your hair? Engineering style huh? 
Puthiya trend arikkum alle?
Man, guess there are no barbers in your place?
Poi mudi vettadaa!!!

And I just say, style :D - laughing inside - generation gap. In this free country I find it extremely hard to grow my own hair. My grandmother gives me strange looks like, I married a girl from some another caste - "Nalloru cherukkanarunnu, ippo kando, mudi-yum valathi branthane pole aayi" It's harder than I thought, its harder that automata languages and computations. What is this? Social stigma? Black Magic? Taboo?

Last day we had lab exam vivas and I was sitting eagerly for the first question, and the examiner asked me, "Why are u growing your hair?" Perplexed!!! I gave him a strange look. He gave me a look back and said, "Nalla kolam!!!". I guess he even lowered my scores for growing hair or was it the stare?

I never grew hair, always had a decent boy haircut. My mom always used to say, Go cut your hair, when the threshold had been reached and the regular visit to the barber shop. That guy should miss me by now! I even get strange comments always. People say a lot of things, some say its good and like "dude, freak look!!!" and some others say, "Mudi vettadaaa, kandittu oru branthane polundu".

I'll never in my life will grow hair again. I'll cut hair tomorrow.Two things that never come into my mind now. Guess what, grandmother gave me money to cut hair. I guess if I grow more hair, I'll earn more. At last  I found some use to all this hair. And for everyone's horror, I grew a goatee too. Well oh yeah, the goatee came before the long hair.

Anyways this is summer madness, and I'm in no mood to cut these locks now. Guess I should color it green now! I can imagine the look in my moms face already!

The Avatar Day

Avatar, it took about 4 years to make the movie and another 9 years of planning and a humongous budget of about Rs. 2000 cr. Heard that James Cameron made up a new production and "invented" the technology for making the movie. My God!, besides all those hype, and a rating of 8+ in imdb, we decided to watch Avatar 3D back in Cochin. Well, after a quick completion of the week's classes, we were out there to watch Avatar.

It all started back in 19 December 2009 (:P), (the 2nd day of release of Avatar) when we boarded the train to Cochin. According to our planing specialist, we were expected to board a train at 12:00 am or like 1:00 am (like there is a big difference) and will be reaching Cochin around 5:00 am in the morning, which leaves us plenty of time for shower, breakfast and getting the tickets. Well, but nothing goes according to plan, as always. We got an earlier train this time, which was pretty much all empty. We got in and after a couple of stations, it went hay-wire, the completely empty train was crowded by pandi's. Everyone probably back from Sabrimala. Damn! all those noises and shouting and smell, gross. People were sleeping - on top, under the seat, besides the toilet, hanging down the window, and like in some yoga position.

And finally, Cochin, the fresh air... ahem. 5:00 am.

We made it to my Dad's place, had a couple of hours of sleep. Hit the shower and after a struggle around Cochin's very own traffic, we made it to Sreedar Cineplex. All those made us to quit the day's breakfast (like any other day in college) Oh no! we could see the long queue from the other side of the street. Aaaahhh! There was no screening on the first day? What? (there was no show on 18th because of some technical problem) That makes this show, the premier of Avatar 3D in Cochin. Great!!! :'(

By the time we reached the place, balcony was already full. No tickets in black. No nothing. There was more police than you can find in the stations and the tickets costs over a 100 bucks. Pheeeww... now whats next? Heading over the longer queues we found guys from college standing there for hours in that queue extending beyond the entrance to the theater. Poor boys. Probably we won't get tickets either, if we stand in there.

OK! time to think. The line was bent at the entrance to the ticket counter due to all those rush. Anyway (due to our widespread technical expertise in the field of ticket purchasing from years of painstaking experience, dude, we are engineers - at least!), we got a couple of our best guys into the line, just another trick up our sleeves! There was this police guy who was getting nuts by all the crowd, doing strange thing with his cane, more like in a Kung-fu movie. He wasn't allowing anyone to get near the counter, but our boys were in. That police guy gets more action-hungry when girls gets near, he beats all the dudes away, poor dudes! (like always the girls blame boys for all that). Finally after some constant texting and calls with our ticket-boys inside, we got 'em. Carrying those heavy bags on our back which was there from the staring of the trip, 'cause everyone was returning back for Christmas Holidays, it was just a pain in the ass. Well we got our tickets as everyone jumped in joy and enthusiasm. What? The seats were almost filled! We managed to move those poor guys at the front rows and finally got ourselves a front row seats. (moved a couple - here and there for getting consecutive seating) The movie started. Perfect. Everyone was spellbound. The 3D was so real too.

What-you-know!, we didn't go through all that for nothing. The movie was spect-a-cularly-fanta-bulous. Best in the year maybe!

Poor guys from our college, heard that they didn't get the tickets for the whole day's show, after being in that line like - forever.

Letter in Blood

This girl was one of the popular one in class, you could actually say, school too for so many reasons. All rounder maybe. And it was in 9th, when everything started. Everyone suddenly looked gorgeous. You know that feeling when, love is in the air. Anyway, there were three guys who were after this girl. And the day came when she knew about all these three, were in love and agreed to choose between them.

One of the contestant in the Swayamvara, a close friend, thought of expressing his love for her. Hormones maybe, anyway he managed to get this girls handkerchief and decided to write I Love You - in blood! Cool, everyone thought. So it began. We took a pin and pierced his fingers one by one...That wasn't easy you see. He didn't have so much blood. We could only complete the I and half of love with that. And came the next machine of pain, an old Gillette Blade. It was pain all right but no blood, that left lots of scars on his hand.

Oh, we were running out of time. So we had a secret plan, then someone took a geometry compass and punched one of the spectator. Blood, lots of blood. So we could happily complete the task. So it was completed. The great words in blood. Also, that poor guys blood was all over the place and that added beauty to the letter with splats and funky designs.

So after the school hours, he showed this to the girl. She stared for a second and walked away. Never realised that it was written in blood.

The next day she chose one of the other guys.

Damn! I'm Gonna Be Dead

Damn! I'm Gonna Be Dead, I was drowned in blood. The car, I know this car. Its that car. My God, they found me. I saw the dagger which shove in the light. He walked towards me. This is it. This is the end. Are they going to kill me?


It was a Saturday, after a long gone week, I sat off to relax to find some rain. Ha! rain at last. It wasn't for long. It was a good short spell of rain. I backed on my camera and started off on my mom's Honda Activa. Clicking photos was fun when it rains, especially when the sun is on. The sun was already going to set. I heard a faint noise from the nearby place. I still remember that place. The wall had the election campaign on. The voices grew louder. It sounded like two of them, bullying someone. Something was indeed fishy about that. I kept the scooter near to the wall. There was a big mango tree near to that on the other side of the wall. I stood on the scooter a looked, standing comfortably behind the mango tree.

Holy Fish, someone was lying on the ground being beaten up. I could see blood. Quick thinking, I turned my camera on and took a photo. Damn, auto flash was on. In the scurry, I forgot to turn off the flash and the light was low. They should at me, and called someone. "Damn it! damn it!", I could hear my heart, pounding, - "Am I going to get a heart attack?". Gave the accelerator to the maximum. Took a shortcut, to keep off the track. Took all the random routes to home. Oh great, it was running out of fuel too. Took a left and went to the fuel station and got some refilling done. On the return path, I took the unusual routes to home. Finally,.... home. Sweet!

I could not stop thinking about that. I fell asleep on the bed. Time passed by, gradually I forgot that incident, and the photo did not reveal anything. It was all blurred and dark. The flash never helped too. What but I kept that photo for some reason. Rubbish stuff like that fill half of my Hard disk. Whatever.

Its been sometime, I was back with my life. Friday, a friend of mine rang up and we decided on a movie. On the way back, I dropped him near his house and started my ride back home. Something was really strange. I had a feeling of being followed. It was an MUV. Couldn't see anything else because of the light. I was getting scared. They were actually following me! But why me? I tried losing them, but still there were on trail.

Craaaassssshhh! The next thing I remember is that I'm lying on the road. I blacked out for a second. The car was parked in front of me. Damn! I'm Gonna Be Dead -I thought. I was feeling cold. I was drowned in blood. The car, I know this car. It's that car. The vinyl, its their car , that day, I took that photo. It had this strange face like vinyl on its sides. My God, the found me. How did they know it was me? Someone walked towards me. It was all dark. The light from the car was too bright. But still I could see the dagger it. shove in the light. He walked towards me. This is it. This is the end. Are the going to kill me? I got so scared. I couldn't think. I couldn't even scream. My head, it was so heavy.

Suddenly, out of the ordinary, I came back to my senses. Holy shit! What the hell am I doing here? Oh no! I'm sleeping in the bathroom? :-O ??

The one who saved my life

Its was long back, like in 6th grade or something. I was some restless when we decided to head on to India's second largest amusement park in Cochin - Veegaland . Well actually it was in its prime stages of development, but it still had all the pools, slides and some of the rides. The pool of most of the slides were too deep at that , I mean its like too deep anyway the just changed all those now.

Anyway, in the gush of adrenalin ecstasy, i climbed on the slide and jumped on.. it was fun altogether but it soon ended! At the end of the ride I just fell heads on into the deep pool. Everything was blue. The feeling of suffocation, the soundless background.

"I'm going to die" - I thought. "This is what dieing feels like" - I thought again. But something pulled me up. I was on my legs again. It was a tall, dark man with a long hand, i really don't remember him anyway. Finally i realized that he was the life guard at the pool. So much for all that. After a few hiccups and coughs, I moved on to the rest of the rides.