The Rocky Tryst-V

A post describing the same adventure is on the Sailor's blog...that one has pictures...but this is slightly differently written.

That out of the way, onwards.

It so happened that the our birthdays happened to find us in Mumbai. One fine afternoon, I had to go meet a friend, and the sailor tagged along. He said he wanted to spend sometime by the sea. They had bonded during his short trip to Goa, and he kept getting drawn to it, like a bosom buddy he wouldn't get to meet for quite sometime. Plus, if he was out of the house, he'd be able to smoke. An added advantage. Irrelevant. The point being, we found ourselves on the promenade near my house. We got out of the auto and set out in our two seperate directions, me to meet my friend, and him to spend some quality time with the cigarette and the sea.

My meeting with my friend done, I decided to see what my dear blood relation was upto. I called.

Me: Maccha, where are you??

S: At Bandstand.

Me: Wait there. I shall join you.

One short autorickshaw ride, I strolled up to the sailor, looking thoroughly out of place amidst the couples who didn't really notice too much. We took a few pictures, stared into the horizon for a bit, and then decided that we should really be home. He protested, and I thought,"Well, we do have some more time. Why not go check out the old fort?" Now, before images come springing, this isn't the kind of fort which you find in old hamlets which smugglers use as their secret base. This run-down fort is pretty much the major tourist attraction. You got a food-court, vendors selling their wares, and other such stuff. However, the fun part is outside the fort.

Outside the fort, there is this strip of rock which seems to stretch all the way into the sea and back. After pottering about in the kiddy section(The easy portion of rock where a lot of couples were around) and observing some crabs, the sailor decided that one could get a really awesome snap on those rocks. Not one to shy away from an adventure, I agreed. "Let us go. Besides, there are plenty of couples all the way over there. Shouldn't be too bad!!"

Famous last words.

Well, not really, but I do love the occasional touch of drama.

So we set off, on the rocks, me in the lead, looking over my shoulders, occasionally barking instructions to the sailor to watch out for a particularly wet patch of rock. Thus, scrambling here, walking upright there, we reached the halfway point. A sudden urge to look up possessed me, and as I did, a wave crashed against the rocks and managed to drench me partially. I shouted a word of caution to the sailor, and he soon scrambled to stand alongside me. As far as we could see, there was none but the two of us in the entire stretch from then on. The sailor wanted to stop for a smoke, but realised that he'd be drenched before he'd taken two drags from the firestick, so he decided to postpone it. We moved on, this time, literally on our knees, trying to find footholds and handholds where there were none. The sea was starting to get furious, and I was starting to wish I'd never suggested this idea. The thought did cross my head to turn back, and as I said it to the sailor, it somehow seemed foolish to abandon the trip once we'd come so far. So we continued.

Now, here's where the rocks started to get extremely slippery, several stretches going underwater everytime a wave hit the reef. We had to scramble across when the water had receded, before the next wave hit, which meant that the rocks were still wet, mossy, and extremely slippery. So, on hands and knees, we crossed those piles of rock. We finally were close to the end of the journey, when the biggest problem presented itself. There was a break in the rocks, with no visible means of making it across. The link was underwater and two wave cycles on, showed no signs of surfacing. On a dry patch, given our heights, we could have jumped across, but I wasn't ready to take a chance with the slippery rocks. I turned back to ask the sailor what to do when he shouted "CAREFUL!!!!" the next thing I know, a huge wave has drenched me, and I slipped into the water. The sailor screamed an expletive, but I waved him back as the water was only ankle deep. I picked myself up again, and climbed the remaining portion to safety. Two minutes later, the sailor came up, soaked to the skin, but grinning from ear to ear.

We sat down, rolled down our jeans, lit a smoke, and watched the sun set over the city that never sleeps, and a few couples who really ought to have gotten a room. Just as this scene seemed like it could get no better.....

TRING TRING TRING

MOM: WHERE ARE YOU PEOPLE???? IT'S GETTING LATE!!!!!1111

So much for that.

It was fun anyway though.

V

Moments-V

These are moments that, in their own little way, influenced my life.

1. K-man convincing me to collaborate with him on this blog- Agreed I only did it to shut him up and let me stare at women uninterrupted. Agreed, I ended up paying the bill for both of us tht day, and agreed that on the first, "joint" article, he changed what I had written and made it sound more like him. I'm writing a lot more regularly, and a lot of people ARE reading what I have to write about. It's probably the closest I'll ever come to having my work published. Therefore, I am happy.

2. Jazzy B's death- She may not know it, the rest of my friends might not know it, but that incident impacted me in many many ways, more than I would like mentioned on a public forum.

3. Moving to Bangalore- A change is good for everyone, no matter what direction it may take. Same in my case. Living away from home for sometime has made me realize quite a few things which I may not necessarily have realized were I still encased in my old life. Oh, and losing 21 kilos didn't hurt either.

4. Losing someone really special to me- To lose someone who still retains the right to be called my superior self because of something entirely your own fault is not something I'd really be proud of. But since we ARE discussing life-altering moments, this does find a mention.

5. The Trial- The first play that I ever performed outside of college surroundings, this play also was the most fun I've ever had on stage.

6. Realising that me cuz and me don't have to be in competition anymore- Twas the end of our tenth standard when this realization hit me, and ever since then, we buried the hatchet and have become pretty close buds now.

7. Every single relationship I've ever had- Agreed that this doesn't count as ONE moment, but to describe all of them is way too tedious, so it's grouped under one. I changed a little bit at the end of all of them, so it can be described as an alteration, in some way or the other.

That's it. Seven moments that have made me who I am today. And these are moments that will hopefully be described someday as the foundations of my personality.

Thanking you

V

Hello- A V Post

It's been a while since I blogged. Truth be told, I'd run out of things to talk about Nothing funny happened, no noteworthy conversations overheard in coffee houses, no more interesting roadtrips to describe. So I thought I'd just lie low, test the market, and generally try and be out of the spotlight for a while. Didn't work...and now I am back blogging.

I recently turned another year older. Sobs and whines about how I am growing old would be best done in person, so I won't waste precious blog space doing it. I will however proceed to reflect on my different phases in life.

I'm 22. At age five, I was going to be king of the world. At age six, I had decided that king of the world had way too many committments and would need a very efficient secretary. That plan was abandoned. At age seven, I wanted to run away from home and be one of the Seven dwarves. I even wrote a goodbye note and everything...made it five minutes away from my house before my dad caught me and dragged me back home...and that's a hiding I won't forget for a really long time. Age eight, I had decided that the world bored me, and I'd grow up and be a catholic priest. That plan ended when I found out that one of the pre-requsites of the job was being Catholic. I don't think I had too many ambitions at the age of nine, or ten, for that matter. Eleven and my only wish was that I was tall. That lasted until i was thirteen. Age thirteen, I gave up wishing I could be tall...instead, I just wished that I was popular. I wanted to be one of those guys who was liked by everyone and had women dreaming about him...dreams a normal thirteen year old would have...but one can't have everything.

I was well within my angst-filled teenage years when I decided that angst was overrated and decided on insanity as my calling card. Be it getting thrown out of class for calling my literature teacher a feminist, or flashing a girl who was bugging me instead of paying attention in a class on exhibitionism, I made my own peculiar brand of insanity and stuck to it.

Age 20, I fell in love. And fell very badly. For the first time, after a really long time, happiness had entered into my life and looked like it was going to stay there. That lasted for a very brief time. Age 21, I just wanted to fit in, somewhere, anywhere...I also wanted Italy to win the World Cup...some dreams do come through..hee hee. The latter part of 21, I just wanted to be accepted in certain intellectual circles and not be thought of as a juvenile who had no important opinions of his own.

Finally, at age 22, I just want to be ME.

Maybe, finally, I'll get what I want.

Hopefully Yours

V