Part 2

(by Vish)

Traveling in train can be quite an experience, if taken in the right spirit. I didnt! Nd hence every passing second was pissing me off! We werent even halfway to our destination nd I was ready to get off, cudnt handle these stupid co-passengers!

Three magazines, one pack ciggarettes nd few rounds of cards later, we were ready for dinner. Btw mum's a fabulous cook nd I can bet on my life that noone can make a better non veg dish than her. So I forgot everything nd served myself a big fat mutton piece. Mr. n Mrs. Jignesh Shah were really ticked off at the sight of me digging into the once alive creature! To be honest I was really tempted to offer them some.. Maybe tmrw I will! Hehe

It was time to get back to my third grade second class seat. Its strange how the whole look of a train changes when u walk from a 'sophisticated' airconditioned surroundings to a 'down grade' second class envionment. I mean how dare the Gujju family offer me theplas nd khakras when barely 10 minutes back two from the same culture were trying to give me a heart attack!

I was kept awake by the little monster's cries.. I think he was trying to communicate with his buddies left behind in Bombay! I wud love to know whr was he getting the energy to take his screams higher every ten seconds!
Heres an idea, why dont we make a car that runs purely on babyscreams? I mean we 'Indians' are producing these little rascals by the dozens, so why not make some use of em in the bargain? I hope no chinese hakka noodle is reading this.. Back off!

After changing my seat for the convinience of my co-passengers, I finally found one middle birth to sleep. I think I got an hours shut eye before someones laughter woke me up. This was different you know, full hearted laugh which always ended with a sad sigh! Took a peek towards the toilet area nd found 4 middle aged men having a merry time with handful of bidi's nd desi daaru. I stood there for a bit, had one ciggie before offering one to the laughing dude, he looked like a story teller. Sitting in the middle with, now, 6people surrounding him. 'Dhanyawaad baabu.. Ab aap harari bidi lo.. Specially Manali se laaye hai.. Kadwi nahi lagegi aapko' How cud I not try it after this explanation? Soon I gave my entire cigg packet in exchange of the gold leave bidi's nd within no time I was sharing the 'homemade' daaru as well. You must try this combination, with the exact bunch of people, at this exact time, in this exact train! Oops.. You cant! Suckers.. Hehe

These guys never run out of stories nd they have one for practically anything nd everything! Some you may doubt, some may leave u speechless nd then some which will make u roll on the floor laughing ur guts out!
One dude was traveling to Vaishano Devi cuz his mother wanted to visit the god herself, but she died of some kind of disease a year back. I was trying to click some snaps from my phone before he said 'Babu us wakhat hame 20 hajaar ki zaroorat thi maa ko bachane ke liye par hamare kheto ki fasal kharab ho gayee.. Bichari apne pote(grandson) ka mu dekhe bina hi mar gayee'. I had bought this phone exactly a year back nd it costed me exactly 20K!

One fairly oldish man was visiting his beloved god for the fourth occasion, this time he was sure that he would be able to muster the remaining 12.5 thousand rupees he needed to pay off the agriculture loan nd wont let it extend for another year. I lost 12.5K last friday in poker!

The youngest of the lot had quite a few stories as well. One reminded me of Slumdog Millionaire.. His name is Pawan nd he travels int he train everyday from Paanipat to Ambala nd back, cleaning the garbage that we civilized people thrown on the floor. He does this cuz his sister is too young to work, his mother works on the field nd he doesnt know who his father is or was. By default he is the man of the house now nd is very proud of making a daily average of Rs 100. He is 7 !! I will be 27 in one months time nd I blow Rs 100 on my smokes everyday!

Three of them didnt know their birthdates but the rest 5, including myself, are born in the month of July!

After the daaru nd bidi session was over, I cudnt help but feel the luckiest among this crowd. I looked arnd nd everyone was in snoring away to glory, maybe dreaming of a perfect world. I, on the other hand, I cudnt sleep at all. Am I really that lucky? Maybe.. Maybe not!

Wherabouts...

There has been absolutely no action on TTTW in the last few months.

Reasons are life, schedules, boredom, writer's block, nose block, trips, weddings, boy friends, girl friends, recession, unemployment so on and so forth. I am suffering with a bad block. It's probably the lack of inspiration or maybe it's just certain amount of frustration.

But writing is important.
I have this realization everyday. But I can't do much...
Manavi suffers from a disease called "MediA" and she has absolutely no time. The Dawg suffers from a block, some mind games and certain peace issues.

There is this something very interesting that I found in one of the twitter posts. Please go ahead and read it...
279 days to overnight success!

http://chrisguillebeau.com/3x5/overnight-success/

It's a 79 page free e book with a lot of useful links. If you plan to make your career out of your Internet writing, it is definitely worth a read. Stories of success are always worth reading. I derive a lot of inspiration from them.

For instance, The White Tiger...I picked it up...only cuz it spoke about the journey of a big entrepreneur based in Bangalore. The story offered nothing about entrepreneurship. It was a fast and interesting read. The poverty factor of our country has become the X-factor over the book shelves.

More coming on TTTW...after all we are a surprise package!

You probably grew along with us.....if you remember these....

If you can rap to "Meri baatein sun karr tum hasna nahi....."
Govinda rocked this one with a chess board suit...
Lol...I can't believe I still remember this...

"Madhuri Dixit mili raste mein...
Khaaye chhane humne saste mein..."

You know that "WOAH" and "HOW you doing?!!" comes from Joey and that "How Rude!" comes from Stephanie from "Full House"

You remember when it was actually worth getting up early on a Saturday to watch cartoons.
Or was it Sunday....
There used to be duck tales, tales spin mornings....there used to fairy tales.....
there used to be mahabharath and ramayana which was a family ritual in all households.

You remember reading "Asterisk", "Archie's", "Tin Tin"
And also...champak, chanda mama, billooo pinky, chacha choudhary, nagaraj !!

I am reminiscing writing this.
What a topic and what memoirs!

You took cartoon plastic lunch boxes and pencil boxes to school !...(and thought that you were the coolest kid around)
My pencil box came with a piano! I was a fortunate child to get it....but in between the class someone would invariable press on a key and I would get scolded :(

You played "FLAMES" and "TRUE LOVE" to find our your love quotient.

You remember the craze of those friendship bands and slam books!

You danced to "Wanna be" by spice girls...and you guys loved it too!!
"you gotta....you gotta!"

You remember Atari, contra and super Mario as the best video games.
It was a gift to mankind and it was always hard finding those 1 rupee coins :(

You remember watching home alone 1, 2 , and 3........and tried to pull the pranks on "intruders"
"I've fallen and I can't get up"

You remember CD players being the invention of the century and marking the beginning to a new Age.
A CD used to cost 1000 bucks in those days...and 10 friends usually pooled in that much money...to give it as a gift :)

You remember New Kids on The Block and Boyz 2 men when they were cool.

You traded and collected stamps and coins.

You took your he-man/g i Joe/ barbie dolls everywhere. They were an integral part of your family.

You even saw a series called "GAYA BAYA" which was a Hindi cartoon and had a glow friend in it. Or was "glow friend" a glorified toy. I think I am a bit confused....help me kids!

Nancy Drews and Hardy boys were the best mystery books.
Before that there was, secret 7 and famous 5.
And after that, came sweet valley. I don't know, what the guys were reading then.

Natarj and Camlin pencils were competitors.

You used to wear those stick on earrings, not only on your ears, but at the corners of your eyes.

You've gotten creeped out by "Are You Afraid of the Dark?"

You know the Macarena by heart.

You rented VHS tapes and not DVDs.

When there was the Walkman

Get Over Here!!!! means something to you.

Hide-n-Seek at dusk.
Red Light, Green Light.
Playing Kickball & Dodge ball until you were crazy tired....
Hopscotch.

HELLO....HOT WHEELS!!!!!

Cadburry's
Nestle!!

Horlicks...Milo...Bournvita!

Squeezy! Those weird looking water bottles.....

Holi in the bus!

When there was wimpy's and no MC Donald's :)

"Talk to the wall" ... enough said!