The Night Sky At Ella

"I can see the square root symbol" Sleepyface seeing the stars and trying to make patterns out of it

"I can see planet earth" ... alien from one of the planet-which-we-thought-to-be-a-star

"Fucker, that's not a square root symbol, its a man's thing which is very big" ... Oneiro on Sleepyface's comment

We sat gazing the night sky from the wall-less dining hall at Hotel Ravana in Ella (if you're at ella, please stay at Hotel Ravana). The owner was gracious to offer tea (for free) for the three of us and we, for a moment hoped that would double up as dinner.

The walk from the railway station to the hotel was nothing less than a trek. No lights, no road. We had to wade through jungles. After walking through 73 such jungles, I strayed and found myself at a massage place which was closed. Doel and Oneiro refused to stop for me and I had run helter and skelter to find them. Thank God, Ella is not as big as Paro, Bhutan (which only has 4 streets and an airport)

I found them and we quickly settled in the dining hall. We spoke about this and that, drank to heart's content, ate a little bit and saw a lot of firangs. In my dream that night, to my utter disbelief, I took the square root symbol and was hitting Oneiro on his head. Perhaps to have brought the abstract symbol in relation to something as real as the man's thing.

I wish I could die now

Oneiro, Doel and me, walking around the lake in Kandy. Its close to 2000hrs. We still don't know where we would be staying that night. We're looking for a budget hotel to stay. The lake itself is quite big and as we approach the Tooth Relic Temple, Oneiro suddenly stops and says, "I can die now". I totally understood what he said. It was understandable. We were coming back from Sigiriya, having visited the Sigiriya rock and creating drama wherever we went. I volunteered to push him into the lake. Doel suggested, he's been doing the reading about the hotels, lets find the hotel first and then we could push him to death. Logic worked. Oneiro survives, even today. As I write this, he is in Bhutan.

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Three LIONs down at Unawatuna near Galle. 2300hrs. We stayed in the most 'frugal' place right beside the beach. We had traveled from Kandy to Ella in a train. One of the best train travels ever. It has to be traveled to witness the beauty of mother earth... the train curves, winds up and winds down (and on rare occassion, flies) amidst breathtaking beauty. This being witnessed already and finding myself at Unawatuna, after emailing six or seven of my friends saying this is the best place on earth, I subscribe to the idea of death. My job on earth is over. I wish I could die now. The first sixteen times I said this (over an hour and a half), Oneiro and Doel were trying to convince me against it. It was the next 33 times that they saw the pointlessness in it. After this, I said only once and the two of them ran to me and pushed me into the water with all their might. (Spiderman came and saved me, but we'll save that story for later)

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After a futile attempt at reaching Phajoding, we return after trekking 0.3 times the original one-way distance. I must say, it was a great trek in the hot sun. A lot of songs, biscuits, bread with biscuits, dairy milk sandwiched between two slices of bread, water, yaks, a few games of UNO happened during the trek. Meeliya, on the way back, suddenly bursts out "I can die now" Meeliya continued her onslaught, "I'm a very content person, I have everything I asked for in my life"... Just as I began to say "I identify with your feeling", she flew from the cliff and reached the foot of the hill. I saw her only 90 minutes later.

*****
postscript: I still am with the "I wish I could die now" feeling. It is not that it is suicidal, but, more of, enough. I've seen enough, I've met the best people, I have the three +1 readers on my blog active.. but, you'll never know, there could be a next blogpost happening as swiftly as you wouldn't have imagined.

Pennyless in Sri Lanka (or, the return of Oneirodynic Spurtan)

"This is ridiculously expensive man!" ... Oneirodynic, in Sri Lanka

"I wonder how much they'd pay for our lives" ... Sleepyface, in retrospect

"Fuck. I think they've stolen the money I had kept in my backpack" ... Sleepyface

"What kind of a moron are you to keep your money in your backpack?" ... the other face of Sleepyface, on his previous statement...

So, my dear three readers of this blog. Please look out for the label titled, the title of this post for a recollection of stories and experiences in Sri Lanka. The author of this blog was accompanied by the well known (to you as well, I hope) Oneirodynic.

Oneiro, who accompanied me, was thanking me with all his might for agreeing to travel with him to Sri Lanka. We recreated the magic, we created a couple of years ago (here, here). It is totally unfair not to mention the third person who joined us. Please note that Oneiro and I tried as much as possible not to maker her "the third person". Doel, who goes by her first name in the stories, or D at times, made us the "trio".

Watch out!

12 hrs, Chilli Ice Cream and Imtiaz Ali

1730hrs: shared taxi to mumbai. turns out goes only until vashi. 120 bucks. vada pav at a pit stop. fight between old man and driver. get down by mistake much before vashi.

1945hrs: travel by local bus to vashi bus depot. 8 bucks. get a seat after standing for twenty minutes. conductor announces my stop.

2040hrs: long phone call. frantic search for a taxi cab to Sion. finally finding one. reaching Sion railway station.

2230hrs: finally meet friend. drive to pot pourri. order a sizzler and a pasta. long dinner follows dessert.. may be he thinks only one of us on this table drink water ... finding laptop bag safe in car. am shown salman's residence and then shahrukh's residence.

0030hrs: the walk along "land's end" disrupted by police. seeing "pick up"s in progress. chilli ice-cream on marine drive (!!!). water in eyes. smoke from ears. burning throat. water water water. seeing cafe mondegar closed. seeing leopold closed. sitting on the parapet in front of Taj. Almost tripping and falling off on the other side of the wall (ocean). In alpha state (more later).

0130hrs: caught by police for driving in the wrong way. get out of trouble by age old Indian trick. drive to Trident coffee shop.

0230hrs: enter coffee shop. blah blah blah blah ..... ya da ya da ya da ... she said this .. he shouldn't have ... oh? I din't know this! ... I think quite the same about her .... No, I see it differently ... do you think there's a pattern ... ya da ya ya da... wow... That's Imtiaz Ali sitting there... may be we should go sit with him ... cafe americano please ... and an espresso con panna ... blah blah blah ... the education system of India ... (sees the time) what!

0455: lets go. the maid will be here by 6 am. how 'bout watching the sunrise? ... Ooh I'm feeling sleepy ... Usually it takes 1.5 to 2 hrs to drive, at this time of the day, only 40 mins...

Lest you forget

Lest you forget what happened during i17d, I hereby bring snippets to keep you refreshed. Okay?

Day 3: Ahmedabad:

After having a good gujju thali at a restaurant run by Gujarat Tourism (opposite to Gandhi Ashram), we waited for mode of transport to Akshardham. There are lots of jeeps available. You just have to wait and stop them. Stopping the jeeps is a trick which only people of Ahmedabad can do. Rocket Science

Day 4: Bhuj:

The image I saw in the morning of Day 4 was quite disturbing. Filth greeted the early morning eye, right at the entrance of the door in the train. The autowallahs mobbed us, as if we were film stars. After assuring that we only looked like them, they treated us as customers.

5 minutes into the bus journey to Koteshwar, Oneiro and I felt as if we were in a bus in Pakistan. Whatay people. Whatay journey. Un-ignorable stench. To add to that, rain. Boy. Four hours and thirty minutes spent in sitting in the same position, in such a pleasing ambience and sweet sweat.

That's only a sample from two days. Imagine 17 such days. In sweet sweat, filth, film stars, stench, a whole lot of fun!

When She Came..

I sit in the balcony,
with the stick lit

talking to the hills
in deep silence

along she comes
calls out my name

completes the picture
with her beauty and life

When Life Found Meaning

....As we entered Meghalaya, the view outside was like a dream. The greens, the constant drizzle, the clouds, it was in this setting that life found meaning. I had dairy milk chocolate in one of the most pleasant places on earth – Meghalaya. I probably couldn’t have asked for more....

That was Day 14 in Meghalaya - home for clouds. I bet you've forgotten all about it by now! It was in August 2007. Nothing is still lost. You can read all about it here.

And the entire 17 days account here..

Today's Moments

The books at the British Library Pune are a much better collection than their Bangalore counterparts. Oh, and, the library has a living room, a reading room, a room for books on business, a room for books for children, a room for DVDs, a room for your complaints, a room for generosity and a room for anything else you may want to share with them. Its a "home" for books. I could spend a whole day there. And I'm looking forward for that day.

The good looking woman behind the counter at Vodafone store in one of their stores in Pune (nope, I won't tell you which one) does think in the best interest of the customer. And yes, she works at the "customer service" desk. The connection got re-activated the same minute the bill was paid. (Oh and on a related note Reliance needs a minimum of two days to generate their bill after the end of the billing cycle)

Having coffee Barista, Mocha and Cafe Coffee Day within a span of eight hours is my vengeance for living without coffee for a week.

When your favourite sister says "I know the bachelor's life, get your unwashed clothes over, I'll get it washed by the maid who comes over", it is music to your ears. (Er., the premise being you are a bachelor and you don't have a washing machine near you)

Sitting on the seats on the roadside on FC road and thinking about "what could have been", "what was" and "what would be" didn't really take me away from "what is". The pleasantness of watching the vehicles go by is like witnessing a "train of thoughts".

Reliance Netconnect reaching 250+kbps download speed consistently is like living a dream. Mine does.

Well, tomorrow is another day. Lets see what that brings.