I always look forward to visiting Pune. I love travelling and infact, Pune is one place I love to visit. There are several reasons for the same. One is the amazing drive on expressway (yeah, I don’t own a vehicle and go by company car, still the feel of the car jutting ahead at over 140 km/hr on 8 laned road with plush greenery on both sides of the road is an amazing experience). The other is that you get to see amazingly picturesque surroundings. One crosses two hill stations – Lonavala and Khandala on way to Pune from Mumbai. There are several others, but then they are too personal for me to add here :P.
Just to get you started, I work for a company where Parsi New Year is a holiday. Today I was celebrating the parsi new year (naah not literally, but the holiday was welcome so the celebrations came automatically).
I decided to welcome the parsi new year by not sleeping and enjoying life. I was joined in this crusade of mine by a friend and we watched movies, talkshows, music videos, soaps, and every other thing possible to avoid sleeping. And yes, we managed to not sleep and were awake for more than 36 hours at the last count. We exulted at our naïve feat, but were nevertheless physically and mentally exhausted due to lack of sleep and rest.
Just as I was planning to hit the sack, I got a call from my boss asking me to go to Pune the next day. And I started my preparation for the trip. Just to bring the readers up to speed, I work as a Business Development Manager at an IT company. As a part of my role, I need to meet up with a lot of people. So as a part of my preparation for this trip, I started calling companies based in Pune requesting for a meeting the other day. Although, I was not successful in getting a meeting, I was atleast able to re-energize myself. In the ensuing enthusiasm I received a distress note from a client and had to go to Saki-Naka area.
I had a really really torrid time there. I got stressed out, to the point of freaking out. I was disgruntled, dissatisfied with life in general and began to wonder if I’m in the wrong place. To add to my misery I was supposed to talk and confirm with my company admins about a vehicle that should come at dawn break next day to take me to Pune for the meeting. Just as I was trying to get in touch with the admins at my company, one of the two cellphones that I carry decided to switch off on account of low battery. This appeared as if somebody wanted to add misery to my already complex situation.
When I took the other phone out of my pocket, I checked for the battery and was relived to see that it was flaunting nice strong looking battery bars. I smiled and dialed a number. But, to my utter surprise instead of Tring Tring or the now commonplace caller tunes, I head a lady saying in my year ‘to subscribe to this service please dial *&*’ . I tried a couple of times more and realized that outgoing was blocked due to some strange reason. I was stuck at an alien location and was not reachable and I on the other hand couldnot contact anyone else L.
It is at times like these when I think that Peter Principle seems so true (anything that can go wrong will go wrong).
I was amazed that so many things that have all decided to wrong at the same time. I was cursing everything that I could think of. And to be honest, today was one such day when I felt very sad and wanted to be with myself, primarily to introspect and to mourn also :P.
But, alas it was not to be. I got a call from a friend saying that he wants me to be watch a movie with his gang (remember:my incoming on one phone was working, but no outgoing-no sms,no outbound calls). I did all that I could; to explain that I am not in the right frame of mind for a movie and that at this time I’d want to introspect and just be with myself. But as some people have it, this friend of mine is very persuasive. He had his way and I agreed to reach to watch the cinema hall.
The time now, was around 8:25 pm and I was standing at Saki Naka area (in Mumbai-western suburbs). I was to reach Vashi (Navi Mumbai-some good 35 plus Kilometers from where I was) to watch this movie that was supposed to start at 9:00pm sharp. It was a hopeless cause from the start, but I said that since my friend was so adamant, I better try my level best and see by what best possible time I can reach the theatre. I in my quest to reach early started to wave frantically to every possible ‘autorickshaw’. But, as faith had it, there were only a handful that were empty and the ones that were empty didn’t want to go to Kurla (a station on Central and Harbor line-Mumbai).
I was in a fix. I did not want to disappoint my friend. But, I nevertheless had no clue as to how soon I’d be able to reach Vashi. Just as I was weighing my options, viz. Taxi, Train, Bus, etc., as if by stroke of luck, I spotted a city bus (BEST- as they are called in Mumbai) going to Kurla and ran to get onboard. It was as full as all government buses and I was barely about able to manage to hold on.
Through, this way and that I reached the cinema hall by 9:40 pm. Just as I entered the hall I saw the song playing ‘Pehli baa mohabbat ki hai’ from the movie Kaminey. So I kept my word.
In hindsight now, I feel that my going for this movie was a good idea. It made me forget what I ought to have forgotten. And I secretly (non-verbally) thanked my dear friend for that.
Life moves on!
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