Meda(walk)am..!!

There is an area adjacent to the Pallikaranai marshland area in Chennai called Medavakkam. And there lived a great soul called Ravindran Chellappa ;) into the winding inroads of what has now become a jungle of concrete and was earlier no better as a vast plain and dry stretch of land with conditions of extreme weather - but that is a saving grace from the heartland of Chennai which knows only of heat heat and more heat..!!

Great people are bound to get associated only with other great people... and it can't be anymore true..! That's how I probably got hooked up with Sabesh Sundaram (a.k.a Sab), my colleague and friend who was residing in the same area. And folks, Sab is really great... If I should say in Tamil - avar romba nallavaru..!!

We were not aspiring to participate in any walkathon competitions. All we wanted to do was - find sometime each day when we can walk as much possible. From there stemmed the very many "memoragraphed" 'walk-the-talks' with the role of Shekar Gupta alternating between myself and Sab.

We often never knew when we started to walk in day and lesser said about the end time, the better..!! And what did the walk-the-talks cover? Just about anything - it could have been how I managed to get something accomplished in a two line awk program to an extensive analysis of how and why trains always find a place in any dream that Sab gets to wake with ;) But this was a routine that I am sure both of us loved growing with. So much so, whenever we meet in the office amidst our other friends and colleagues, we were nicknamed "Medawalkers!"

There are some days which remain firmly etched on my mind... Sample this - there was a time when Sab had a call requesting him to return home within the next 1 hour. And we had already walked off a cool 8.5 KM away from Medavakkam and positioned ourselves facing the Madras Christian College entrance, all set to walk back.

What do you think we decided? To the take the bus? Call an auto? No..!! We challenged ourselves to walk back 8.5 KM in the hour's timeframe..! We started at 10 PM and it was a sharp 11 PM when we hit the "Medavakkam Koot Road" junction.

I offered to accompany him to his house before heading towards my own. And guess what was the argument for the heck of it? I would be covering "more" distance than him if I accompanied him to his home and then head back to mine and thereby our records wouldn't be equal..!! :)

Well, that was just for the sake of an argument... Sab knows that during the nights, the way to his home would be like treading in the equatorial rainforest for the first time... dark and dangerous... ;) And the stray dogs in and around his place would love to howl at their highest pitch only during the times I enter their street in the night, giving a feel as if I am getting into some haunted locality..!! ;) And given his knowledge about the extent to which I like horror movies, haunted places and the darkness, he would advise that I carry on to my well-lit brighter side of the planet..!! :) A true and good friend would always lead you from darkness to the light, won' he? ;) :)

Now, when I get back to Chennai, I wish I find a place somewhere again in Medavakkam and that I can continue my walk-the-talk shows with Sab..!!

20th June 2009, Saturday

The Fray was in the fray at Chevrolet Hall, Wallingford, CT on the 20th June. My friend Venkat and I couldn't be more excited about listening to a live version of "How to save a life..!!". Very honestly, neither of us knew too many songs from The Fray. If anything, I knew one song and he knew two of them thoroughly. I had listened to them several times in the past on star99.9 - 99@9

As always, I went to Enterprise to help myself with transportation arrangements - I had to pick up Venkat from Worcester in MA, which was about 120 miles away from where I stay in Connecticut - the tiny, hilly, serene little town of Shelton. Got hold of a decently new Volkswagen Jetta which had around 24ooo miles on it. It had a powerful engine which would surely get one a speeding ticket if he is too hard on the gas pedal. Luckily, for such folks it also comes with a very nice cruise control feature too.

My journey starts at 10 AM in the morning on Saturday. I stop over at East Hartford,CT to pick up one of my friends and drop him to his office in the downtown area. Don't ask me why I go north east and then come south west only to head back again on the north east... I know I wouldn't have thought twice about it even if it was 50 miles distance from his place to his office. Apart from the predilection I have towards driving ever since I came over here, he is quite a down-to-earth kind of a friend of mine to whom I always love giving tough times and pulling his legs publicly with such captions in photographs on orkut and picasa etc.

We go and pull over near a traffic light adjacent to his office building... I wouldn't want him to go and he wouldn't get off immediately too. We keep talking for a while, turning on the hazard lights on the car, shutters down. After a while, we realize a need to get going with our respective work and he gets off wishing me a safe drive and a happy time at the concert. And yes, not before asking me to drop by once again, either the same day or the next day on my trips back and forth from Conn. to Mass.

From Hartford downtown, I was crawling at 65 mph towards Worcester. I must admit that if I hadn't got my speeding ticket a month earlier, I would have definitely been at least at 80 mph on I-84 East. What an adorable road, neatly paved along the hills, with lush greenery overlooking every foot of your travel from either side. Since it goes up to Boston, it is a three-lane all the way too.

I had the GPS with me. But my ego and half-baked sense of geography and topography wouldn't just allow me to use it. A nice green huge board announces an exit to RT 20 towards Worcester and I gleefully hop onto it. I don't know what would await me on that road. My plain trust was - Worcester is too big a place not to be having any kind of sign boards. And yeah, when I took on I-290 towards it from RT-20, I realized how big a place it was - I had to call Venkat to find out which exit I would need to take to come over to his place :-) There were a total of 9 exits spanning around 10 miles, each with speed limits ranging from 40 mph to 55 mph with a note that the speeds are tracked through the radar.

"Take the exit onto Burncoat and Lincoln Street", he said, over the phone. I take the exit, hit a traffic light, where I turn left - only to find pretty much later, after driving into the town for more than two miles, that I should have actually gone straight in the first place. But anyways, it was worth the diversion, with a scenic valley view embellished with grassy patches (which O presume, should be some kind of golf courts)

Once more, my egoistic geographic and topographic senses wouldn't allow me to pull the God darn GPS out and set his address on it. I meticulously take a K-turn and come back to the traffic light where I swerved off to the left. I take a left and I got going in the right direction. I hit another traffic light where I turn right. I drive a few hundred feet and pull over. I call Venkat to find out how do I reach his place from there. He struggled to answer my question. At last, with such a great hesitation, I take out the GPS. And what does it say? "Drive 100 feet. Take a U-Turn. Drive 0.6 miles. Arrive at destination on the left..!!" :) I curse myself that I was so close and so correct but wasn't able to make it properly..!! :(

We play a short game of tennis for sometime in the afternoon and later set out on our journey towards Wallingford. I got to the theater at 06:45 PM. The concert was to begin at 07:30 PM. The gates were slated to be open by 07:00 PM. What do we find? It starts pouring cats and dogs :) And what do we do - keep the umberalla safely locked in the car and head out getting wet in the rain.. lolz..

The concert begins. Another funny thing happens - we got our tickets by just looking at "The Fray". There was supposed to be one more performer whom we didn't know. And he was the first person to perform, starting around 08:00 PM or so. He goes on until around 09:00 PM. Not that his singing wasn't good. He gave a few decent numbers as well. However, we were more looking forward for "How to save a life".

After quite a wait, we have The Fray come on stage. There was an upbeat mood everywhere. The tone was set by some fabulous guitar. Then, he announces that he is going to get to his piano.

We knew what was coming and a pulse of excitement ran through our bloods. It had to be "How to save a life..!!" After a few seconds of listening to the "opening notes" for the song, I was already on my feet, clapping my hands and raising myself balancing on my toes and popping my head to see him play the piano. I don't think I would ever be able to do justice to the ecstasy I had through words. And I believe Venkat shared the same too as well as he was equally enjoying the whole thing.

The whole concert ended around 11 PM. We move out slowly - in the rain, towards the car. We get partly drenched. We need to drive south and get to Shelton as Venkat was supposed to stop over at my place for the night and get dropped off at Worcester the next afternoon. We had planned a boating trip on Sunday (which didn't kick off with both of us sleeping only by 03:00 AM on Sunday and never managing to get up until 09:00 AM in the morning).

"Dei.. CT-15 south should keep right. CT-15 north should keep left. You are on the left lane. Pull over the right as quickly as possible", Venkat said, as we were getting out of the theater. Though I did see cars which kicked down the traffic cones and shifted lanes, I am way too safe a driver to do all that stunt.. ;)

I managed to get onto the right lane. And what do we find? After driving nearly 3 odd miles, there are no directions to CT-15. With a good deal of cop lights flashing that I could see from a distance, a K-turn was surely ruled out :D Venkat pulls out the GPS and tries to fight with it to get the route. By the time he gets to see something, I already saw a sign towards I-91 south and I hop onto the ramp in that direction. I tell him I have been on I-91 many times over and I wouldn't need the GPS any longer. He would insist that he finds out why this GPS is useless.

It was already a very heavy rain by now and I was driving on the road more by the virtue of knowing it by the mile than seeing it and driving on it - there was hardly any visibility whatsoever..!! But I still offer to help him sort out the GPS thingie.. Due to the bad weather condition, the satellite wasn't quite getting picked up and the antenna had to be adjusted. And yep - it shouted "Drive 4.5 miles on I-91 South" lolz..

We reached home safe and sound at 1 AM in the morning. And got going to sleep by 3 AM after some pep talk, chatting, listening to more music etc.

All in all, it was quite a Saturday I must say!!

Row row row your boat gently down the stream :)

"Row, row, row your boat - Gently down the stream - Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily - Life is but a dream."

Well, when we were taught this nursery rhyme, we were not on any real boat. We just use to just sit opposite to each other, hold each of our hands and pretend as if we were clasping an oar and steering a boat through some limpid waters.

It has taken almost a complete 20 years before this turned a reality for me, when I visited the Bethany state park in Bethany, Connecticut. This park has something unique to it, I feel. Other than being associated with the memory of the veterans, the sense of serenity here is simply unthinkable elsewhere - probably because it is not any closer to any of the Interstate highways which keep the northeast busy and connected with a heavy traffic volume.

Located behind the hills through which the CT-8 northbound cuts across, this park is a perfect blend of synthetic tennis and basketball courts, set amidst sprawling woods - where man meets nature so simply and wonderfully..!! There is also a mini soccer / football field out there on the grass, with some trekking/hiking trails and horse riding too.

Now, that's for getting into the setting. Coming to the best part - the boating on the lake. First thing - there are free boats available (though you could get one too I believe). They are of three varieties. One is like a kayak. The other is a pedal based boat. And the last one is the oar-based boating.

I was with two of my friends - Zakir and Gosa, who had been courteous enough to come down all the way from Hartford, CT to Shelton, traveling for about an hour, believing my words that they can get ample enjoyment in this small state park - My many a thanks to them, again..!!

Gosa was pretty excited about the whole idea of rowing a boat in the still waters. We get to it - there are three lifeguards on duty to assist should you be in any kind of trouble with the waters. Zakir and Gosa get onto the boat. I get on. The lifeguard struggles to push the boat into the water. She was well built, no doubt. But she couldn't surely move a 260 pound rounded object which is 6 feet and an inch tall single handedly :) I leave my sandals in the boat and step out. Asked her to leave and I pushed Gosa and Zakir into the water and jump in all by myself when the boat was just on water but not so much into the deep waters yet.

"Row, row, row your boat - Gently down the stream - Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily - Life is but a dream."

Well, it didn't sound all that rhyming when we were gone into the waters. Gosa rows. Zakir rows. But in opposite directions. The boat starts to turning and I was thinking we would head somewhere... no - it was turning in a circular fashion :) I suggest that I jump over and try to coordinate things when Gosa reminds me that Zakir is a married guy who had a kid recently and I cannot think of doing any circus business in the middle of the lake :)

With much difficulty and pretty much a tiring stint with the oars, Gosa and Zakir managed to redirect the boat to the shore. Gosa signed off stating he would prefer doing it individually or taking out a pedal boat. I wasn't all that interested in pedaling as opposed to rowing using an oar.

Using the oars to row the boat meant many things to me at that point in time:

1. Nursery rhyme come true :)

2. Principles of refraction in physics - we had always been told how an oar would appear bent/broken.. I have NEVER got an opportunity to observe that phenomenon from a boat myself.

3. The sheer pleasure of putting something into the water and creating waves and see myself getting propelled

and so many other things which would take paragraphs for me to keep writing about :)

I was with Zakir now. We were sitting in the opposite directions and trying to get the boat going somewhere. It was an absolute fun experience for me. I dip my oar into the lake, first using my left hand - on the left side - which meant myself and Zakir were in the same direction - but we were rowing in the opposite direction of each other. Second time, we had our ours in a different direction and rowing pushing the water in the same directions.

Many a thoughts ran through my mind during all this - thoughts on literature, physical laws etc. We could see Gosa had long retired happily with his Canon camera in one of the benches in the park by the lake shore, watching us row and steer throughout the lake and crossing over into the swimming area too, frightening some of the kids there who were out swimming :)

Ask me another time - I would still say I want to row a boat gently down the stream, whether merrily or other wise. Whether life is just a dream or real.

With this, I am signing off abruptly :)

Quarter Dollar's worth - Thank you series - II

Long time ago, I remember reading a short story titled "One Dollar's Worth". This has nothing on similar lines. This is just yet another thank you note to well.. I cannot really say as a stranger since she has been my bus co-passenger for almost more than 2 months.. but yet - not that she is so close to me that I cannot term it that way too.

The bus is at 5:05 PM from my office. Miss that - and I get stuck for the next one hour in the ten-storied building which is floored with nice, smooth and green Italian marble - at least in the reception area, watching the statues of David surrounded with Tulips underneath and a fountain pool with the statue of a man spitting out water.! Not that I don't love talking geography with the security during that time - just that I don't want to do it too frequently either! :)

It was 5:03 PM when I rush out of the 4th floor south-side entrance towards the elevator lobby. I keep hearing "ting" sounds but nothing comes. And the one that opens up is actually a one that was going up all the way for 10 floors. I rush towards the staircase and make it to the ground floor security area within a minute. After taking a deep breath, I exhale in all happiness that it doesn't become like a "death row pardon two minutes too late" (yeah, I borrowed this phrase from Alanis M Ironic - which has become my favorite song too).

What do I have is a minute time for the bus to come. And what do I realize? I am falling short of a quarter..!! Automated ticketing system in the bus can only swallow your money. It cannot give you a change if you pay excess. Which means - I now have a choice to lose $5 or ask for a quarter..!!

I look around quickly. I almost made up my mind that I need to lose the $5 to learn a lesson or two to do it right the next time when this lady who commutes from New York to-and-fro on a daily basis to Shelton (I once did ask her what makes Shelton so special, especially when you can't even move around quickly here without a car!) was near the entrance waiting for the bus too.

The chill weather well into the summer beginning always use to be a good topic to talk about for us, if we did pick up any conversation at all during the transit between Bridgeport to Shelton or vice-versa.

Another person who pretty much works in the same building as what I do and commutes in the same bus was also near. I first approach him asking if he has a change for $5 and tell him I need it for the bus. Most of my co-passengers did know that I was one of the few "weekly pass" guys and normally never dropped a coin into the bus for a ticket. But on that day, my pass had expired by the AM travel and I needed cash for the evening. He regretted he couldn't be of help to me. And our New Yorker happily takes out her bag and lends me a quarter. I offered the $5 to her asking her to give me the change later. But she refused it stating "Don't even worry about it"

The times are definitely tough and even the largest companies are counting every cent they spend. And here there was - a lady, who was traveling all the way from New York to Shelton (a travel time of almost 2 hours on one way) for her daily job, lending a quarter to a person whom she knows just as a co-passenger and nothing more!!

Many a thanks to that young lady, who lent me a quarter and saved me $5 alongside instigating quite a few insights on my mind.