Facebook Status Updates in April 2010

Because, they tell the whole story. is helplessly thirsty: 4 litres of Coke within 20 hours. hasn't changed/grown a bit since class five. Only the external show has been improvised upon. is feeling fresh, finally. Sleeping helps. April 2 at 12:59pm uploaded the Sikkim video finally. On the list, one item down. April 2 at 4:09pm Had a wonderful evening. Prevented someone from breaking a promise. Against my own interests. Should be regretting it now. April 2 at 8:54pm Disha's new tee's quote: Winners make things happen. Losers let things happen. April 2 at 11:53pm is utterly bored. April 3 at 12:48am drunk, and bankrupt. Also, wonders, if it's natural to want to bring about a change. April 3 at 2:36am · re-arranging priorities, again. Postponing studies, basically. April 3 at 11:33am · had a fulfilling, tasty and timely lunch after more than two months. April 3 at 2:06pm · Found. Lost. Found after four hours. Fifteen thousand bucks. April 7 at 10:58am Computer. Cellphone. Money. Studies. Sleep. Climate. Time. All screwed up. Un-screwing isn't impossible. It isn't fun either. April 7 at 11:02am Four gulab jamuns. One diary milk silk. Chilled Coke tastes bitter now. April 7 at 2:40pm Like every year, it's the hope of monsoon that makes the summer heat bearable. April 7 at 5:35pm is "online" from a cyber cafe after more than a year. April 7 at 8:07pm doesn't understand the "sport" in cricket. April 7 at 11:37pm World movies. The colour purple. Unbelievable. April 8 at 1:02am Living off a bag in dad's bedroom (because, finally, my room won't be yellow in colour anymore!) April 8 at 3:44am Sleeping. Sad, bad dreams. Can't call them nightmares or daymares. Need a new word for sad dreams. April 8 at 3:30pm And, a powercut in the middle of the story. April 8 at 6:51pm Everything that seemed unreal in movies, is coming true. April 8 at 9:32pm For someone nocturnal like me, this summer isn't that bad. April 9 at 1:18am Musical death. No musical experiments since months. Fuck. April 9 at 1:42am is hoping to make the most important purchase of the year, today. Money changes lives. April 9 at 4:36am is angry that j.k.rowling is planning an 8th harry potter book. April 9 at 9:06am Listened to the song Masakalli, whole, for the first time. Seems Mohit Chauhan can be versatile. April 9 at 11:55am Can't decide whether to watch The Japanese Wife in hindi or bengali. April 9 at 12:35pm New Art Tailors. A shop beside the South City Mall. The man still smiles at me. April 9 at 5:59pm Good. Bad. Good. Bad. Too many events in too less time. After turns of emotional extremes, now its numbness. Wish they were still here. April 9 at 11:01pm Videogenic. April 10 at 12:51am More bankrupt than i've ever been. ROBBED OF all the money the very day i brought it from Durgapur. April 10 at 1:19am Glad, that the first thing i wanted to do when the day started, has been accomplished. The highest-amount purchase of my life, till date. April 10 at 1:23am Sony Handycam DCR-SC44E. April 10 at 1:51am love the sound of birds chirping at night, even though i know it's a sign of an environmental hazard. I've always loved it. From DPL, to City Centre, to Kolkata. April 10 at 3:09am Patience is always the key. April 10 at 3:42am cycling in the hot afternoon sun. i'd rather sweat than sacrifice nicotine. April 10 at 12:48pm miss blogging. April 10 at 1:01pm the worst thing about going to a party: you have to bathe, brush, and dress well: the three things I never do, otherwise. The best thing is, of course, the free food. April 10 at 1:06pm all the shirts i want to wear are either too loose or too tight. :( April 10 at 1:38pm When cycling is the fastest means of commuting, you know you're in kolkata. April 10 at 3:00pm Stuffed cheese naan. It made my day. April 10 at 5:00pm the productivity of fun, or the lack of it? T20 matches are good. they make me think. :P April 10 at 8:47pm Indifference in presence. Reminiscence in absence. April 10 at 11:50pm 10/04/2009-10/04/2010: the journey, the change. Thanks to the 7 wonders, who not only brought it into notice but brought it about too. April 10 at 11:55pm woke up late, and found everything around the bed re-arranged & turned upside-down. April 11 at 11:22am Sad that Mum and Bro are coming to Kolkata to surprise me, on a day I am NOT free. April 11 at 11:28am a fee rise, without having asked for it. feels like a job promotion. April 11 at 7:22pm is calm. Yesterday was one helluva day. All i want now, is to watch The Japanese Wife. Let's see. April 12 at 11:05am Conclusions or compromises? April 12 at 1:58pm wants every friend to come and visit Aditi Aunty's bedroom in the evening. April 12 at 1:59pm Wonder what bollywood would do without music! April 12 at 2:00pm Beauty in all its forms, is depressing. April 12 at 2:01pm Even absurdity can be appealing. April 12 at 8:10pm Watched The Japanese Wife. Sayak was right today morning. You don't need to be in a relationship to feel committed. April 12 at 9:09pm ever-changing or ever-adapting? April 12 at 9:49pm another good-for-nothing day ahead. "I hope I never lose hope." ;) April 13 at 5:43am Biycle not in function. Miss the freedom of transport. April 13 at 11:35am Everytime i sit on the Physically Challenged & Senior Citizens' seat on the metro, there's a senior citizen at every station. :( April 13 at 12:03pm The same old New Market. The same old "you shop. I watch." The same old "how long do you need to choose a dress?". What's the difference, eh? April 13 at 12:50pm Wonders who's responsible. The accident. The incident. The chaos. The waste. Yeah i'm talking about what happened on the bypass today. April 13 at 4:54pm 6 people died. 12hours later, 1 km away, the chief minister's inaugurating a swimming pool. Anything wrong? No. April 13 at 6:24pm College life changes a lot of people. People with a P. April 14 at 1:16am "the candle burned on the table. Tears of wax fell on the floor." -how many ways can you explain and interpret this? April 14 at 1:32am Age doesn't give the right to claim that you're right. Hoping against it. April 14 at 9:04am First dad, then Disha. I can't wake people up when i see them sleeping like they haven't slept in ages. It seems too cruel. April 14 at 9:06am Looking forward to a lot of "talking". April 14 at 9:07am Punk. Damn. April 14 at 11:33am Mani Square. 14th april. Every thing at 35/- this time! Good, very good. April 14 at 12:29pm The first day of any new year- i've always tried to make it perfect. April 15 at 12:01am And the clock strikes 12. I'm walking on a deserted road, on my way back home. :) April 15 at 12:02am Ok, first day of a year. Woke up late. Woke up with a sad dream again. Dates don't matter, i still hope. April 15 at 12:56pm Terribly terrifying dreams. A nightmare at last. In the afternoon, though. April 15 at 4:38pm First day of the year. At least, i had a full fledged bath before it ended. And Shochi mashi made soft luchi-s for a change. And KFC. And Anshul. April 16 at 12:16am "intezaar aur kab tak hum karenge bhala? Tumhe pyaar aur kab tak naa karenge bhala?" as usual, my expectations from a movie fall when it has too good promos April 16 at 12:44am is feeling naive. April 16 at 4:01am is trapped in the cage of language. Words put a check on expression. April 16 at 4:04am miss microsoft word and e-blogger. April 16 at 4:05am has survived a whole week with an empty wallet. Without any bout of depression. Mastering the art of detachment! April 16 at 4:07am I express. I don't complain. I don't mind experiencing the worst of emotions. Even if they repeat till they get boring. I don't mind experiencing boredom. April 16 at 4:12am Detachment, the most necessary virtue. Humility, the second most. Generosity, the third. April 16 at 4:15am A face scratched all over, by a 5-yr old kid. Sweat makes it worse. April 16 at 6:46pm Sitting on the staircase of Tolly metro. It's been long. April 16 at 6:48pm Responsibilities increase when you're single. Because then, people expect you to have time enough. April 16 at 6:49pm To help, is to interfere. Getting sucked into a number of stories. Feels like my plus 2 days. April 16 at 6:57pm Priorities. Priorities. April 16 at 9:18pm Why look for the answers, when i know from the beginning, that there are no answers? April 16 at 9:21pm Savage garden. Truly madly deeply. Power fm. April 16 at 9:28pm Now, i'm so sick of love songs. It's the same crap, with synonyms. April 16 at 9:29pm Life is infinitely beyond all our theories. April 16 at 11:29pm Morning walk. With the camcorder. And Picco. April 17 at 5:59am Had three cups of tea from a street-stall. For the first time, it didn't smell of elaichi. April 17 at 6:54am The short messaging service is malfunctioning. Receiving every sms a hundred times. No numerical exaggeration, i swear. April 17 at 8:20am The sheer excitement of getting a blank call from an unknown number! April 17 at 12:50pm living in a different time zone altogether. April 17 at 5:43pm got blisters on my foot after years. Reminds me of my younger days. April 17 at 5:55pm Finally, an uneventful evening. :) April 17 at 6:39pm Made the worst Maggi ever. :( April 17 at 7:07pm The best way to resolve a row with dad: A peg of whisky and a plate of white Maggi. April 17 at 10:41pm The pursuit is the achievement. April 17 at 10:55pm Sunday. The worst day for couples. The best for us. April 18 at 4:50am Dream-stories. April 18 at 8:03am The inheritance of loss. Err...hair-loss. April 18 at 10:09am The problem of 'change'. I mean currency denominations. April 18 at 12:57pm A new back-up plan. April 18 at 1:32pm "One who hasn't suffered, hasn't seen Life's beauty." (less than 100 pages to go. I'll finally finish Doctor Zhivago today) April 18 at 1:35pm And the princess gets married. Yet she needs me in the prince's absence. Finally, dreams are in the control of the conscious mind. April 18 at 6:53pm Four square meals a day seems abnormal. Even to my digestive system. April 19 at 12:51am Walking on rain-washed streets at 2am in the night. April 19 at 1:10am A very hectic day ahead. Repair bicycle. Return books to library. Collect money from sskm. Anshul. Disha. April 19 at 7:46am Cancelled or postponed. Money, the lack of it. Looking forward to some aimless work. April 19 at 10:58am Lost one of the books borrowed from the british council library. It never rains, but pours. Let's see. April 19 at 11:02am Hungry. Too lethargic to cook. April 19 at 11:02am Want april to get over soon. April 19 at 2:40pm Did a satisfying painting and impressed Anshul's parents. Gives me a high, that's incomparable. April 19 at 6:24pm Waiting for the stations beyond Tolly to get the smart card swipe-outs. It's been months. What's the problem? April 19 at 6:45pm Dinner at the ipgmer main hostel canteen with a friend who never fails to make me feel human, by displaying his own inhuman characteristics. April 19 at 8:08pm SSKM hospital: still can't believe i was born here. April 19 at 8:11pm Had set five jobs for the day. Three out of five done. April 19 at 8:18pm The risk of lending dvds: never getting them back! April 19 at 9:18pm Made satisfying pancakes for Disha, Picco, n Dadabhai at 3am. Appreciation boosts energy. :) April 20 at 5:00am Somehow, for me, the mood i wake up with, in the beginning of the day, is usually the mood i go to sleep with, at the end of the day. April 20 at 5:01am The only person i know, who needs to be reminded of an exam few hours before it: me. April 20 at 6:38am If some people are good at screwing up, i'm good at unscrewing. April 20 at 10:42am When two hundred bucks can buy you fifty whole marks, you know you're in Scottish Church College! April 20 at 11:07am Facebook statuses, comments, unauthorised accounts, hacked passwords, black colour, Durgapur, Tollygunj. Unpleasant dreams uninterrupted. Nothing is virtual. April 20 at 1:08pm is awed by the ingenious soft drinks sold in local trains. April 20 at 1:30pm 19th april went unnoticed. Now, i don't need to fake that i don't care about birthdays. I really don't. April 20 at 6:17pm The best relationships are those which remain unchanged even after the participating individuals have changed. Night with a long bereaved friend from college! April 20 at 10:39pm An unscheduled, appointment-less day ahead. Beginning it with sleep! April 21 at 3:41am People change. Hearts don't. Hearts can't. April 21 at 9:51am Why didn't indians ever invade any other nation? April 21 at 10:03am 11th hour. Heard about this movie it was screened for my Bro's class at Xaviers, Durgapur. Watching it on HBO now, to impress Anshul's mom. :P April 21 at 6:03pm Realised that being good in spoken english is still far from achieved. Anshul's mum deserves a lot more than my admiration. April 21 at 6:38pm When people who actually matter are lost, everybody else matter. Impartially. Context: Holi 2010 April 21 at 10:44pm Miss living in a city where off-liquor shops remain open after 9.30pm, at least. April 21 at 10:48pm I don't need anyone. Until, other people need me. I can't counsel more than one person at a time. April 21 at 10:53pm Conviction under compulsion. April 21 at 10:54pm Would love to participate in two contests: one, for the highest number of days without sleep, & two for the deafest sleeper on earth. Contrast, eh? April 21 at 11:29pm Anniversaries: how important they were, and how idiotic they are. I'm the audience, as usual. April 22 at 12:02am I repeat: I don't need anyone as long as no one needs me. April 22 at 12:04am To all those who're subscribed via sms to my status updates, keep your cell in silent tonight. I've got volumes to speak! April 22 at 12:05am To booboo, i did buy ice-cream. I didn't have it though. April 22 at 12:07am Can't figure out how somebody can screw up the jobless job of formatting a computer. Somebody is me. April 22 at 12:12am Expectations. Ones that others had out of me. Ones that i didn't fulfil. Makes me wonder if nature has its own ways of balancing things. April 22 at 12:15am History repeating yet again. Going outdoors post midnight, only to return before daybreak. It has become REGULAR again! April 22 at 2:00am Ever sat down on the bumper in the middle of the main road? Strange view indeed. April 22 at 2:03am Mission Computer Recovery failed. Phew! April 22 at 5:21am Need a substitute for Energy! April 22 at 7:40pm Hate it when i'm made to betray Gublu April 22 at 9:10pm agrees with Puspen Dasgupta about his views about photographs. April 23 at 6:20am burdened with work. Sorry, Sritama Bose. I haven't had even five minutes without work, not even now. April 23 at 2:23pm · Alzheimer's Disease. (doing a project on it, since the last few days: feels like i'm having nervous degeneration myself) April 24 at 12:26am · work. feel sleepy. sleep. dream. wake up. work. work, work, work. April 24 at 3:49am can't get over Anshul's "Please come" wails. April 24 at 3:50am wishing Disha Sengupta good luck with the earnest-most desire. April 24 at 9:36am Love it. April 24 at 12:38pm Hate it when dad is sick at a time i can't afford to stay indoors too much. April 24 at 1:11pm Will have a good sleep now, one that's devoid of "must wake up within fifteen minutes" worries. April 24 at 1:14pm five hours of sleep. now work again. my own projects, this time. *droopy eyes* April 24 at 8:13pm can't believe I survived an entire week without a single movie. April 24 at 9:05pm dirty, discarded paper flying around, a few discarded CDs, smashed food morsels, crumpled dirty tissue paper, cigarette stubs, matchsticks. No, I'm not describing a station platform. I'm describing the floor of my room. April 24 at 9:06pm saw a rat for the first time, and guess where? On my CPU. didn't do anything, because I was too awed by it's "exactness" with the pictures. April 24 at 9:25pm · love it when non-bengalis try to talk in bengali. Oindrilla Mitra is an exception though! :) ^_^ April 25 at 1:03am · Pink Floyd will drive me insane. April 25 at 1:41am · the problem with anything good, is that, it is good. I hate music. It affects me more than I want to let it to. April 25 at 1:43am have overcome my childhood hatred of Shilpa Shetty after reading her tweets, her blog. I wonder how badly they wish to be themselves, ever. April 25 at 2:32am wonder if Paulo Coelho was right about dancing. Why can't I dance? April 25 at 2:34am needs to stop being nocturnal. Other people in the household suffer, for me. April 25 at 2:34am need money to buy a black ink cartridge, to print my computer projects. Wish Dad was on Facebook. April 25 at 3:18am · Unfortunate dreams. Again. Strange. April 25 at 12:19pm The thoughts have changed. The topics haven't. April 25 at 1:56pm As usual, if i wake up sad, i end up sad. In spite of the efforts to be otherwise. Dhyatt. Bhallage na. April 25 at 5:28pm Missed a movie by ten minutes. Couldn't afford to miss the first scene because it's The Japanese Wife again. April 25 at 6:46pm Prinsep Ghat for the second time. A little less depressing this time. April 25 at 6:47pm The sorrow of not having enough money: the joy of having a dinner worth 400rs. How can we claim to be "common people"? April 25 at 9:38pm a man's collection of books, always say a lot about him. April 25 at 11:13pm · found a number of 1963 editions of Reader's Digest in Dad's book collection (which he's selling away, bit by bit). Each issue cost Re.1.75 back then. :P I want to show it to Sayak Shome April 25 at 11:14pm Requests his friend from IPGMER to explain his actions. I don't like hearing people call him names, when i don't have anything to say anything in his defense. A lot more things deserve explanations, really. April 25 at 11:27pm · sad, sad, sad. all throughout. It's better to cry, than to be unable to cry, with the lump in the throat unmoving. April 25 at 11:45pm · Watching MY SISTER'S KEEPER, finally. Disha Sengupta was right, films are not reality, they are an exceptional case of reality. But, does it matter? Everyone is an exception. Everyone. April 26 at 1:28am · My Sister's Keeper's is the most painful movie I ever watched; was in the "near to tears" state, right from the first dialogue till the last April 26 at 2:19am · Finally, the ends. Best moment: when Sayak Shome and me were lying on our backs on the boat on the Ganges, and staring at the sky, talking. Worst moment: The Fire & Ice treat plan, with the twist of fate, err....circumstance, sorry. April 26 at 2:23am · the day ends: time to sleep. Hope to have a dreamless sleep: don't want to wake up in the morning, knowing how the day's going to be. April 26 at 2:24am · Life isn't bad. Life's just different. April 26 at 2:25am · the only painful thing about summer: prickly heat bumps. April 26 at 2:31am · no bad dreams, but bad things have started happening. April 26 at 9:22am · lots to do, yet. April 26 at 9:31am · Lost my precious samsung corby earphones April 26 at 12:37pm Strictly technically speaking, today is a wasted day. April 26 at 1:39pm T20 World Cup next. Rickshaw-pullers and auto-drivers are already talking about it. April 26 at 2:49pm · Amrita Chattopadhyay, Sayoni Biswas, Indrakshi Roy, Nikita Kamath, Rupsa Ghosh, Suchanda Sinha, Abhik Chatterjee, Sreeja Chanda, Payal Roy, Yealeena Chakrabarti, Tuhar Mukherjee, Sayak Shome, Delete Puspen Dasgupta from your friend list, or I'll delete you. You can ask me questions if you want. April 26 at 3:09pm · Anshul to me: sir, sir, tumi tomar baby k amar thke beshi bhalobasho na toh? April 26 at 10:04pm Tussle on terrace, cold drink shop at dawn, movies, scripts, sleeping, Domino's, the helpless faithfulness of love & friendship. Had a beautiful Bandh day! April 27 at 10:02pm In two minds, yeah. Like every other conflict, both sides are on the right. April 27 at 10:07pm Miles to go before i sleep, err...before i start walking back! :| April 27 at 10:08pm The necessity of nicotine is going negative. April 27 at 11:27pm Betrayed by blood. Oh, how i long for a completely eventless day! April 28 at 6:35pm the difficulty of decisions. the trick of time. the responsibilities not respected. *tch, tch* April 28 at 3:15pm Not to be myself, feels unhealthy. Damn unhealthy. When did I care about my health, will you ask? April 28 at 3:21pm · Life isn't hard without money. Not for me. Because i have rich parents, rich friends. Hahaha. Freedom is hard, though. April 28 at 6:37pm Can anyone kidnap me and ask dad for ransom? I'll pay you half of it. April 28 at 7:39pm [Wednesday is April 28th, can't go on with the editing anymore] To gariahat and back. For nothing. Can't believe the waste at a time such as now. Wed at 7:41pm When it comes to being stoic, i've always had only one rival. I'll defeat him soon. Wed at 7:50pm I prefer work to sleeping, when it's work that i love doing. I prefer sleeping to work, when it's work that i'm compelled to do. Humane, definitely. Wed at 9:05pm · It's like I've given up. Not on hope, on love. Wed at 11:07pm love reading. anything, anytime, anyday. Wed at 11:09pm · tried activating mobile-blogging, & ended up with negative balance. :( Yesterday at 12:04am just back from the best night-walk ever. Shounak Mukherjee & me were talking. The window blew shut; we looked out. A freaking wind was blowin' outside, we rushed out. It started raining; then....huge rain droplets hitting hard, the wind blowing hard, and we walked and walked: picturesqe avenues, waterbodies, Green Day and Mohiner Ghodaguli, photo-shooting on Sukanto Setu, scaring away cars with our Made-In-Sikkim-umbrella, two rounds of tea from an open-24-hours-stall. Lots of ...cigarettes. Back home at 5am, roads dry now. Wind still blowing. missed the "Wow, this is awesome!"s by Sayak Shome Yesterday at 5:22am When I look back at the last few months of my life, and compare it with the last few years, I can't help but, be surprised. Never knew that being single could be so much MORE fun. And so much LESS...of everything else. [yayy, got another poem!!] Yesterday at 5:29am · One day, very soon, I'll be bored of never having being bored. Yesterday at 5:34am Nine hours of sleep, not bliss. Yesterday at 7:04pm How bad is it to sleep through days, and talk through nights? Talk, not work. Yesterday at 7:08pm Every time i get the hint of a new tution, i'm scared of losing Anshul. Strange. 11 hours ago Watched Up In The Air finally. Movie was good, because it re-asserted my faith in what i believed. It would have been great if it changed my beliefs. 5 hours ago The human brain: the mysterious most object of nature. No wonder, only 6% of it has been discovered. 4 hours ago All plans and predictions gone awry. 4 hours ago To those who commented on yesterday's status updates, i can't reply till my computer is in my own hands. Or I have money enough to use gprs. 4 hours ago Facebook has taken over our real lives, so how can i say that the internet is a virtual world? Even love and friendship kickstart online these days! 4 hours ago Having dry un-cooked Maggi at 4am. 3 hours ago recovered my Indyarocks profile after ages. It has the best "About Me" I ever wrote. 2 hours ago Introspection is Retrospection. The "Present-Doesn't-Exist" theory. Even light and sound need time to travel. about an hour ago Today is 30th April. The last day of the worst April I've ever had. I'll be regular on this page henceforth. That's the only way I can study. You know that already.

Movies, Money and More.

This will be a short post. I'll try and write down what happened since the Sikkim tour in the last week of March, till now, the last day of April. The first thing I had to do, after coming back from Sikkim, was to go to Durgapur. To give away the things I'd bought, and to replenish my "walking bank". I did, after a week, because my brother had his exams till the 5th/6th... Anshul came back from his "vacation", and the only place whose name he could recall, was Lachung. He still believes I'd seen him there. I enjoy teaching him. Mehan's Mum had said she'd call me when they'd return to Kolkata. She never did. Nor did I. The money that I wasn't paid, didn't matter. Anshul was keeping me occupied enough. I had a funny, yet sad experience while returning from Durgapur. I left the bag on the bus on which I was initially supposed to travel. Blame my need to smoke, or my mother's SMS asking me to have some food, but it's me and my careless, err....carefree behavior, that did it. I came back to Kolkata on the next bus, recovered my bag from the SBSTC Bus Depot. The 15 Thousand bucks that I was carrying, were halved, as I realised a few days later, when I went to buy a camcorder. The camcorder, however, despite having rendered me penniless for a long time to come, gave me some inspirational energy-and-joy packs, for a few days. I watched only two movies on the big screen this month. The Japanese Wife, and Up In The Air. Both were good, from every point of view. Rahul Bose, and George Clooney, failed to capture my admiration, though. Both movies had un-criticisable direction. My cousin Picco came up with some ideas. Sayak too. Even Dad, after his initial rebukes for the unnecessary expenditure, gave ideas. Spent a lot of time with Disha this month, helping her with her project on Alzheimers' Disease. Learning is fun, always. Bad dreams returned this month; they had stopped mid-January, after my Delhi-trip. I still have bad dreams every time I go to sleep. I got to know Anshul's mother even more. His entire family, in fact. It was good for me. Anshul's filling the void that was created in December. In terms of time, money, thoughts, and more. Everyone appreciates it. I'm skeptic, though, as usual. Not much happened in my first family. Adit Aunty and Dadabhai had a fight three weeks ago, that's still not resolved. It was nasty. Both hate each other, officially, and publicly, now. Love? I've given up on it. I've got to be satisfied with occasional crushes. The big picture is sill un-changed. Bad dreams are bad, sometimes, because they show reality, and other times, because they don't show reality. Either way, it's my life, and it's depressing. The only way to survive it, is to leave my body, wander like a soul, on the streets of Kolkata, after the city has gone to bed. Yes, night-walking, that's new thing I've started. It's good in summer. :)

Sikkim 2010

I can't remember what happened last. The last post named "Adventures". Yeah. Sayak was in my room, after having a whiskey-propelled night with my Dad. We talked. We decided we had to go somewhere. My student, who keeps me "busy", as I have already mentioned, went on a vacation. Sayak had just come to Kolkata that evening. It seemed perfect, though his exams were looming out in view. We googled Sikkim. We didn't sleep. In the morning, we informed my Dad. He couldn't inform his Dad, till he was in a position to prove that what he did was worth it. Somehow, we managed some money. Our budget was eight grand. He went back to his mess, to do some packing. I packed warm clothes (I had some, fortunately, most are in Durgapur). Sayak packed other necessities. We met at Howrah. We couldn't find a train, that would have space enough for us to sleep. We took a launch back to Esplanade, and booked our tickets on the overnight bus to Siliguri. To kill the time, we had food at KFC, and then McDonalds (yeah, the Park steert one, just beside the building with the recent firebreak). We walked a lot, hoping to tire ourselves enough, so that we could sleep on the bus. A phonecall on Sayak's cell threatened to destroy our excitement. But nevertheless, we were off. I couldn't sleep. I was envying Sayak, because every time I looked beside me, he was fast asleep. when Sayak woke up in the morning, he said the same thing to me. But I had something in my defense. Except for dinner, Sayak was asleep at both the stops later. He missed going to the loo at dawn; he missed the morning tea. We reached Siliguri at 11am, instead of 6am. The agents scurrying around caught us, and we yielded to one of them, because he promised a bathroom! Around 1pm, we started off for Gangtok. The journey was uncomfortable. Ten people cramped up inside a Tata Sumo. But the world outside the car compensated! We stopped at Melli, and had a packet of "Popcorn", which is as popular there, as Kurkure here, we learnt later. When we reached Gangtok, it was raining hard. Visibility was poor because of the mist. We tok a cab for 50bucks and went to our hotel (which we had pre-booked at Siliguri). We had already started spending more than intended. After a photo-session, and a long freshening up session, we left for the "market-place". Sayak observed that couples in Gangtok were lucky. Their market-place was the most romantic place in the city. It's called the Mahatma Gandhi Marg. The whole stretch of the L-shaped street was paved with cobbled stones, and bordered (and divided) by some sort of a hanging garden. We shopped for curios, souvenirs, and postcards (which we planned to send from Sikkim itself). We had dinner at a half-empty restaurant. The chowmein was good. The local beer HIT was great. The pork was awe-fucking-some! I wanted to pack some of it, and send to people in Kolkata! Later, at night, back at the hotel, we watched the movie Seven Pounds, on HBO. Me, for the second time, Sayak, for the first time. I fell asleep while he kept talking, I learnt that later. The next day, we woke up early. And, strangely, I had a bath (something I hadn't done for the past week, in the tropical climate of Kolkata!) After breaking our morning fast with junk food, we set off for the Yumthang stand, as they call it: the place from where the "jeeps" leave for the Yumthang Valley. We met and talked to the other 8 people, who'd share the same jeep as ours. They were married men, three of them, two of them had a son, and one of them were on their honeymoon tour. Sadly, it's the wife of the newly wed guy, whom me and Sayak found attractive. We set off. Within a few hours, we reached the Seven Sisters Waterfalls. The two of us completely forgot that we'd paid for a "package tour, food included". Instead enjoying the waterfall, we rushed to the food stall, and ordered all that we could find there: momo-s, noodles, etc. The driver couldn't find us when it was time to leave! Few hours later, I'd updated my Facebook status: "Too many beautiful sights for the day". It was late afternoon. We had rice and chicken at a modest motel. We were tired, not from travelling, but from being breathless at the view around us, on our way! For me, beauty is like music: it's depressing. It makes me want things that I don't have. Not yet, at least. I'm human, I realised that. We reached the Lachung valley late at night. We were given a cheap hotel to stay at, but we befriended the guy there (who claimed to be younger than us), unlike our other travel companions. We shared beer and cigarettes with him. Spending a night under a corrugated sheet-ed roof, was a first time in itself. A huge black shadow looming outside the window, added to it. As usual, I fell asleep before Sayak, I woke up before him. When we woke up in the morning, we were stunned. It was around 5am, the sunlight was dim, the mountains that had seemed scary demons at night, revealed their chests: brown rocks, dark green trees, snow-white waterfalls, snow-capped peaks. The clouds played trick with our vision, so that we could never be ready enough to take the perfect picture with our poor cellphone cameras. We ended up clicking pictures of ourselves: two people with swollen eyes (due to sleep) and shivering expressions (due to lack of clothing). By 7am, the other people had woken up. The honeymoon wife came out in a satin night-gown, and I found it hard to look at her, for the rest of the day. The driver arrived (whom we had befriended as well, unlike the other 8 people). Sayak said that the reason why the people there are favoring us, must be our age! I agreed. We set off for snow: Katao. It took us 1 and a half hour from Lachung. As the car neared Katao, the ground started showing signs of what snow is like. I dunno why I wasn't as excited when I saw it, as I thought I would be. It stared with patches, resembling sprinkled salt on the ground. It increased to "lumps of salt", then to "limestones", then to broad patches of ground, where vegetation fought with its head to peep out of a thin snow blanket. Further up, we could see what we were approaching. Amidst all the snow, there was a waterfall, which awed me, with the though, why didn't the water freeze?! It would be greater to see a frozen waterfall, something like giant icicles hanging from the rocks overhead! Within minutes, we were on a road which was entirely white, except for the tyre marks of the tourist cars. On either side, there were snow fields. There was an army base at Katao, and their camps added to the beauty around, instead of "polluting" it, as I'd always feared. The temperature was unimaginably low. We played with snow, we posed for pictures, we froze our ass, we feared we'd have a frost bite. It was fun: slow, silent, and sad fun. Both of us imagined how it would be, if...if only... Even the driver, the hotel guy, and the married men asked us repeatedly: why hadn't we bought our girl-friends, to which Sayak always replied with a cleverly pasted smile on his lips: We wouldn't have the money to travel, if we had girl-friends. :D We came back to Lachung, had our lunch (rice again, like dinner the previous night!). Then we left for Yumthang Valley in the afternoon. I'm sure my words would never be enough to describe what we had, what we perceived. The high pressure of the altitude was affecting our bladders, and by the time we reached Yumthang, we badly needed a loo. Strangely, a tourist spot though it is, it didn't have one. People smirked at us, and asked us to go behind the trees. We didn't though. We "explored" the area, and found the bathrooms of a deserted (yet, beautiful) house. Thanks to the call of nature, we were delayed enough, to see the clouds move away, and reveal the snow-capped mountains right around us. It was colder than Katao, because it was a valley (Sayak reminded me of my school geography lessons). The stream that flowed across the valley attracted us too, but nothing compared to the view that was uncovered to us for a few moments (which the rest of the tourists missed). That brought us to another discussion about whether beauty is comparable or not. Which led to another discussion about the validity of reality. The words "There is no absolute truth.", and "Everything is maya." will always remind Sayak and me of Sikkim. After Yumthang there wasn't much left, time, or money. We returned to the hotel at Lachung, took some pictures, had our lunch, and set off for Gangtok. We reached Gangtok late at night. The journey witnessed some unpleasant moments for me, because my grandmother called, and did some awesome K-serial-tear-jerking emotional blackmailing with me. Sayak saw me close to tears for the first time, only to see me laughing at it later. Back at Gangtok, at the M.G. Marg, we found all shops closed. The only restaurant that was open, was an expensive one. It was named "GangTalk", attracting us instantly, by aesthetic needs, or culinary needs, we'll never know. The place was a feast for our eyes, with it's paintings, photographs and movie posters. The owner was friendly. We had an expensive dinner, and went back to our hotel, to claim our original room back. We didn't get it. Instead, we were given a honeymoon suite, with the word that we'd vacate it by 12 noon the next day. The honeymoon suite, as the name suggests, was great. But they had only one huge blanket for the two of us, which we tugged at, all night. Needless to mention, Sayak always suffered. The first night, it was my cellphone's "PsychoBuzz" SMs tone, that didn't let him sleep (while he watched me sleeping deaf to all noise). The second night, at Lachung, I got a bed, and he got a bench to sleep. The cold, and the wood, was painful, I heard (and believed.) The third night, at the honeymoon suite, I won the blanket fight (even if I was fast asleep). The next day, we woke up early, and spent more than hour deciding what to write on the post-cards. We jointly sent two to Sritama and Deshraj (in New Delhi and Gurgaon, respectively). He sent one to Abhishek, at Kanpur. I sent one to Romo, at Durgapur. Then, we went out, and shopped a little more. We found the post office, and posted the post-cards. We had awesome chocolate pastries at an expensive chocolaterie.We found a Mexican place for lunch, which was again, expensive. I had the worst cocktail of my life, named Sexy Triplet, which was a mixture of strawberry-flavored cream, milk, and tequila. Already late, we rushed to the Siliguri bus stand. We reached hardly two minutes after the scheduled time of departure for the last bus to Siliguri. Yet we missed it, and started talking discipline and it's variations in West Bengal. Finally, we took a "jeep" again, sharing it with 8 other people, cramped, and, separated, this time! Reaching Siliguri, we made fools of ourselves, once again, by yielding to the "bus-brokers". We had fights with one of them. Sorry, I, not we. Sayak and me strolled around for a couple of hours, and finally, boarded the bus at 8:30pm. This bus was better than the one we'd come in, so we slept, comparatively well. We reached Kolkata almost 7 hours later than the scheduled time. Heat-struck, and bankrupt, he went back to his "Paying Guest" residence, and me to my own. What followed on the days after is writing this blog, a line a day! And many more.