Rosh decides to live

You don’t need to travel around the world for a vacation. You don’t need to chew self help books by the dozen to elicit a change within. In the end, it comes down to your own mindset. In between family duties and weddings, I had 72 hours of freedom for myself to go where I wanted.. and I chose the past. Because in the past lies some of my biggest strengths, my pillars. Of course, I wasn’t going back to Mangalore just to see if the birds and bees were still at it.. no, siree, this time, I was out to scare the city I once lived in.

1. An auspicious beginning : When I was leaving from Pune for my parole, I had made the most of my Pantaloons Green Card, looking for an entire new wardrobe, aimed just for this vacation. I was aiming for “moderately bright” ( something that would make Goan party-goers go jealous qualifies as “mildly bright”, what makes them nauseous.. now that’s “moderately bright” !!! ) Result : As I waited in the crowded railway station of Kannur, I was perhaps the only one who had free arm space to twirl around like a ballerina if I wanted. People were actually staring.. what be this ‘creature in a yellow short kurta” ? Mothers protectively shielded their children’s eyes, lest the child were to get mentally traumatized by such a explosion of colour in this sepia toned station. Hari, already in the train, and who had taken so much trouble in organising the much vaunted break for us both, had no trouble spotting me as the choo-choo train came to a grinding halt.. he just followed the crowd’s eyes to the yellow canary.. more like Big Bird, actually. You know what the funny thing was – I didn’t look to hide or jump into the bathroom for a change of clothes. Because I had 60 hours to enjoy life.. and I wasn’t giving it to the public.

2. Old caretakers : There was a sense of home, coming to the land where everything began for us. It isn’t monuments and girls that bring me back here. It’s the people I left behind. It’s the memories that I love walking by as each street intertwines with the next, as Malayalam couples with Kannada, a heady mix designed to destroy both original versions ( me being a pundit in both languages, I can survive.. but what about the poor regular folk ? ). It’s where we waited as our friends prayed in the mosques during Ramadan while we beat the rush and bought them their ‘kababs and mutton samosas’ ( they usually got the last piece ). It’s the old widow from whom we booked our travel tickets always for 6 years, even when we were in Kerala !! It’s where noodles were made in buckets using a water heater, where grown body builders were coaxed to danced in mini skirts, where a royal chicken dish still costs 60 bucks at a funky restaurant. It’s a place that welcomes me with open arms and no pretensions.

3. “Our public image” : Of course, my wardrobe and image transformation did not fail to scare the rest. Ani and Ramna, future orthopaedician and sweetheart no.1 respectively, were not given any hints of what I was wearing. They had come to pick us up from the hotel and I snuck in and got into the back seat while Hari chatted them up. They turned around to greet me.. and froze.
Ani : Umm.. yes, who are you ? How can we help you ?
Me : I missed you both too. Now, come on, start this buffalo cart. Take me to the old hangouts.
Ani and Ramna could only share one of those hubby-wife glances that say “Ani, we have a status in society. If we walk around in society with him dressed like that, I can’t show my face in the malls ever again. I know, but, what do we do now. He’s already resting comfortably in the back seat. You and your friends. Let me see you make fun of my friends ever again.”
Of course, I was quick to assure them that this collage was actually just a mild one.. that I had an amazon green kurta just waiting for a chance to be released from the luggage bag. It was perhaps for the first time that I saw fear in that poor couple’s eyes. It would not be the last time that day. Anyway, the ritual trip to CCD was par for the course.. the number of classes we’ve bunked during college for a Tropical Iceberg and hours of sofa chat are innumerable. And keeping with the script, along arrived the adventurer, VJ. As always, he went for the sugar free versions of coffee and then topped it with a choc-a-vloc ( 2 rich ice cream scoops with choco sauce ). Ramna too reprised her role as official food-and-drink tester of everything I ordered, having the first bite. Apparently, it’s because she fears that a big and famous personality like me is always at threat of being poisoned by jealous enemies.. I sometimes wonder whether she just wants to steal my food, but then .. she has a point about the “big and famous personality” and “people being jealous of mua”. Ani, meanwhile, after a couple more glances at my shirt, excused himself saying he had to ‘tie a tie’ for a guy who was graduating that day and ran away.. a process that eventually took an hour and a half..

4. Take my breath away : Evening brought the 4th piece of this jigsaw puzzle of nuts.. budding surgeon, Shaffi. Work pretty much limits our options, so any free time a doctor gets is literally gold, especially when you’re a resident. Thus getting all these fields ( Anaesthesia, Orthopaedics, Surgery and upcoming General Medicine and Hospital Administration ) together like this is a lot more difficult than it sounds. I was pretty much shocked to hear that since I’d left, this was the first time the 3 staying in Mangalore had actually had the chance to meet up in the last 6 months. I want to say it’s hilarious that it took me from Pune and Hari from Trissur to get us all together again… but deep down, I know, it’s more heartbreaking than hilarious, being in a field where “if you really want to, you will find the time to meet” doesn’t apply.
Of course, while Ani and Ramna had gone back in between tea time and dinner for a 2 hour duty at work, I had done what they perhaps feared subconsciously – I had released the amazon green shirt. Thus, at 9 pm, when the couple arrived back in town, they were greeted with a peculiar site. A green moving traffic light ? A green alien ? Ani considered running me over rather than stopping in front of me. I had faith of course in the kind heart of Ramna to save me from his evil plans ( I later found out that she was goading Ani to reverse after hitting me so that they could make sure I didn’t get up.. sheesh ! Marriage sure changes people !!! )
Ani got out of the car. “ What da hell are you supposed to be ? A peacock ?”
Ramna had her own point of view “Radha, please please give me this shirt. It’ll make an excellent blouse for me.” Of course, I couldn’t oblige.. Peacock Man does not have a spare outfit to fight crime. Await more toys and merchandise from Peacock Man as soon as I get a sponsorship from “the makers of Barbie.”

5. The case of the missing chips : Of course, with Peacock Man and Don VJ around, there just had to be an adventure lurking around. We had just entered one of the oldest lounges that the city had to offer after seeing Ani and Ramna off when we got a mysterious call telling us to come out. A challenge ? Silly fool. Super heroes like us never back down from a challenge. We came out. An eerie silence. Something was wrong. We looked around.
Where is everyone ? The streets were deserted. It was only 9.30 in the night, how could this be ? Something’s wrong, Peacock Man. I know, Don Boy. It’s almost as if the place has been cordoned off… my voice trailed off.
As a superhero, we come across scenes like this often. There was no doubt. Someone was out to get us and wanted no witnesses. But who ? And how ?
Patience,DonBoy, would be the key here.. years of yoga will be my ally in this.. "WHERE ARE YOU ? I CAN’T TAKE THIS SILENCE ANYMORE !!!!!" ( Ok, I needed to work on my patience a little more )
The phone rang again in answer. DonBoy answered it. “Will you two shut up ? We can here you all from the turning.” Donboy looked at me “Ummm.. Ramna , is that you ??” “Duh !!! Doesn’t your mobile have caller ID ?” “Well, actually, I’m the only one in India who doesn’t pay the caller ID tax, so actually..” “Gaaah !! Look, it’s urgent. My bus to Bangalore is leavin in 10 minutes and I need the secret CD key in your car which will activate my GPRS.” “Ummm.. that’s gonna be difficult, Ramna” he said. I intervened. Don’t be silly, Donboy. It’s just a CD chip. It should be easy to find. “Ummm.. PeacockMan, the CD chips are in the backseat of my car.” A sharp intake of breath from me and a gasp from Ramna in the phone entered the silence that followed.
You see, Donboy owns one of the few 2 seater cars in the city. Well, technically, it’s a 4 seater Matiz, but it’s been years since anyone has sat in the backseat.. anyone human, that is. That backseat has held, at various times. A microwave oven, a goat, a turkey, kittens, a post office box ( don’t ask.. seriously, don’t ask ). That’s in addition to stuff like his graduation certificates and other vital and non vital items. Sufficed to say, noone knew the colour of the seats in the back.
We opened the door. Nothing had changed. A bat and a couple of mating armadillos sauntered out, cursing in Amazonian slang. Not that that cleared the area any.. there was only one way we could find this. One of us would have to go in… this was a job for Peacock Man. A quick ruffle of my feathers and I had changed into civilian outfit ( 5 % less brighter than my superhero outfit .. helps me blend in with the everyday crowd.) After donning my scuba gear and double oxygen cylinder, I went in. I’ll spare you the details – sufficed to say, with 2 seconds of oxygen left, the chips were found.. another success for the dynamic duo as Ramna got her GPRS code.. it’s a different matter altogether that she never used it.

6. Sone de Nakra : Zero Degrees combines an awesome menu with a great ambience and best of all, a great DJ. That DJ, was of course, tempting me for awhile with some really funky beats. Hari, ever the sane one out of the 2 of us, of course, was searching for a bicycle chain to tie me up to the table so I didn’t make an ass out of myself. After getting adequate promises that I’d stick to food and drinks, he turned his attentions to the Plasma TV. As the beats started to merge with the next song, he turned to ask me whether I recognized the ‘familiar tune.’ Silly boy. I had left the table at the first change in the beat.
For neither twists nor a plethora of dishes could have hidden the beat of ‘Sone de Nakre’.. I had promised I would dance to it before I died, remember. Well, Rosh is a man of his word. That DJ probably knew it too – “Nach Roshan Nach. Tumhe mere Kasam. Tumhe Govinda aur Salman ke kasam..” Of course, maybe he didn’t say those exact words.. maybe he didn’t say a thing. I wouldn’t know. I was too busy dancing. Hari, of course, realized the futility of holding me back and did the only thing that made sense.. joined in. When the song started, there was one couple on the dance floor. I’m proud to say, I left the dance floor only after bringing in 70% of the crowd into the dance floor. Introverted ? What’s that…

7. Final touches : Every good thing must come to an end. We knew that when we started on this journey, didn’t we ? It had many moments besides the above snippets –
• Meeting batchmate and ENT surgeon in the making, Nazia, now a mother, but still the same kid we always knew her to be.. I don’t know what kind of women would make the best moms but I always believed it’s these type – the type who stay young at heart always.. not with makeup and botox, but just by being sweethearts. No makeup can hide that.
• Goldfinch is a new hotel which came up which looks extremely promising and I and Hari didn’t miss the chance to dine there twice. Valet parking, a creme de menthe and a James Bond drink showed our complete lack of respect for the Gandhi notes.. of course, Gandhi had his own revenge and the next day, I was playing host at Pizza Corner to make a quick buck for my train ticket back ( forget the lunch crowd, the damn cook ran away within an hour of my joining ). Anyway, I was paid to leave and that was good enough..The gang made it to the station in time - Shaf feigning an illness in his department and Donboy sporting his rockstar brother’s band shirt ( try it out.. the songs ain’t bad at all ). Sweet goodbyes, inside jokes.. oh yes, and a superfast rush to catch the train which was trying to escape without me…hah!
• The icing on the cake ? The news that Ramna and Ani are now mothering and fathering, respectively.. the perfect news to end a memorable trip. I’ve already promised to make little boy and girl outfits out of my Peacock Man outfits for the kid and teach the kid all about fashion.. for some reason, the phone line kept getting bad as I told them about my plans and they claimed they couldn’t hear what I was saying… stupid phone lines. Weird, huh ? They could hear everything else but when I tried explaining how I figured on developing the kid along a Bappi Lahiri style.. zzppiit, the line goes bad. Oh well… I'd have plenty of time to ponder over it once work begins again.

It's a funny aspect of life. You don't always have to go far away to find yourself.. sometimes it's right where you left them. You don't have to see a new destination to enjoy beauty. Sometimes, looking back itself reveals sights you've never seen.. sights you've taken for granted till they were gone. Sometimes not having friends beside you can be a blessing as it helps you realise just how much they mean to you.