Ever since I joined my engineering college, I used to see crazy people with long hair, weird beards, demonic black T-shirts with alien names printed on it and mumbling as well as growling, I don't know what. After sometime I knew that such characters were termed as "Rockers" who belonged to community of rock religion. Their population was sparse, but during any fest and especially during their religious ceremony i.e. "Rock Show", they used to gather in huge numbers from nowhere. I was really scared of them and used to stay away from such characters as well as their high decibel rhymes i.e. "Rock Music".

One fine day I saw the video of "Smells like teen spirit" by Nirvana and I don't know what was there in video, I started listening to high decibel rhymes. I got somehow interested in rock music, its history, learning about rock-stars and many things related to it. I was learning guitar at that time and because of that I got more and more interested towards rock music, after all rock is generally based on guitar, drums and keyboard. I was playing Hindi songs on my guitar and playing rock music is much different compared to Hindi songs. Rock music is all about passion and if you want to really understand what this passion is, just watch the movie called "School of Rock".

The freshers night, where first year students are openly ragged and forced to perform any musical in front of all, was round that corner. My classmate Ajay asked me whether I was interested for performing at the FE night and I said "certainly yes". Performing in front of people is always a two edged sword, a good performance can bring you name, appreciation and fame, while a bad performance can end up into criticism and humiliation. Performing in front of rock crazy people is like turning the barrel of cannon at you face. But it was an opportunity to have a firsthand experience of performing music live as well as to test my guitaring skills I learnt. Now it was fixed that we gonna perform but few things were yet to be decided, i.e. who will sing, which songs to perform and what should be our band's name.

"Rape me" and "Come as you are" were the songs decided to perform. One of the junior was picked to sing, while drummer and bassist were from the college band only. While deciding bands name we came across many names like UFO (u fuck off), men-of-pause and slytherine pneumonics. I liked the name UFO, as if we don't perform well and people say "u fuck off" it doesn't matters, as its nothing but the name of the band. Finally we thought to keep slytherine pneumonics as the other two names might not be liked by the college staff and anyway we have to think about them as well as our term-works is in their hand. When everything was sorted out we found out the chords, leads, rhythm as well as lyrics of songs and started practicing.

We used to bunk lectures and practice for our performance. The place can be anything classroom, stairs, corridors, garden, playground, gym etc, only place left for practicing was college's girls toilets. The problem we were dealing was that, we were lacking synchronization. I was going north, Ajay was going south, singer was going west, when actually we all were supposed to go to east. One incident I do remember when all of us were sitting on stairs and practicing, at that time our singer was replaced by Ajay's girlfriend. We started playing guitar and she started singing "Rape me", first the song lyric was indecent and with a female singing the song made it salacious. I remembered everyone passing-by gave us weird looks at that time.

Now just three days were left for the event and hence every evening we had jam sessions in full bloom. The complete college used to reverberate with the drum rolls, tinkle with guitar tunes and sing with the mellifluence of voices. The jam sessions were too good. We used to practice with complete band and the sounds were no more acoustic but had the electric metal effect in it. The switch for me was difficult, as I never played with electric guitar before. Everyone was impressed by the jam sessions and we were confident of performing better. Some minor problems were amended and a final touch was given to performance.

Finally, it was FE night. We had our chance to rag the FE's and even hitting them with paper balls and paper planes during their performance. Here we used to aim at the singers mouth and depending on gender of the performer, target would be some strategic area. Rock Show followed this event of official ragging. It was evening and we were supposed to perform in dim light flasher. All the performers were dressed in black studded with temporary tattoos. Our singer was drunk and we decided to make blood thirsty snake tongue face( its a combination of tongue act of dog and snake) at the end of the songs. We started our first song, with guitars making mellodious metallic sound and everyone started to sway their head. It was a good start and then the singer opened his mouth. This was the end of our performance. Entire crowd was just staring at us showing us the finger. Second song was ok but not good. Finally people got angry and started shouting the "u suck" slogan. At that time I remembered the one-day when I was shouting the same slogan for a band in one of the rock show in IIT. It certainly felt bad but what I realized is all that matters is performance.

| October, 2005 |

Rare are the days when an engineer studies and the last few days were the rarest as it was not only me but also some dozen of Instrumentation loners studying together. Sometimes we were studying for our exams but most of the time we were engaged with typical engineering work i.e. copying assingments (which we term as printing press), as it was the submission season. Engineers basically have three seasons, (1) Lukkha season (duration 3 months), (2) Submission season (duration 20-30 days) and (3) Exam season (duration 30-40 days). Complete four years runs on this season cycle. Submission season is the most active season, as during this season one can see engineers running all around to collect assignments, take their photocopies and write the assignments as soon as possible within the extended deadline. Not only this, they are also involved in the process of material collection so as to understand what basically is there in syllabus. This is a quite long process which may continue till the exam date. I think I am moving away from the main accident “sorry” incident, the great train chase.

We used to sit late till evening and usually caught the 20:05 local, from Sanpada to Thane. This route was newly established, trains on this route were just like the cuckoo of the cuckoo clock. So if we missed this train, the next train was at 22:00 hour or we had few other options like going by unreliable bus service which travels on moon like surface inspite of being an earthly service or travel my bone crunching train service via Kurla. It was like the do or cry condition as this was the easiest and the simplest option. Engineers have habit of doing everything at the 11th hour, but we were from the few punctual engineer clans who used to do work at 10th hour and 55th minute[:P]. So coming back to story would like to tell you that our chase begins once we left the college.

19:30 – 19:45 hours

It was the right time to leave the college but not the perfect environment. This year we had a prolonged rainy season. We were into the first week of October still the sky was full of vampirish clouds, roaring like dianosaurs and blazing with blue lightning. We caught a rickshaw for Juhinagar, at that time we never knew what was going to come in next half hours time. Genreally you tell a rickshaw as “Juhinagar” the driver leaves you at the Juhinagar station. But this extremely genious, with extraordinary data interpretation knowledged rickshaw driver took us to central area of Juhinagar. We were in a hurry as we wanted to catch the 19:40 local for Sanpada from Juhinagar, but all thanks to him, we missed the train and this was just the intiation of the chain reaction.

19:45 – 19:50 hours

It is well said in hindi “ teen cheezo ke peeche nahi bhagte, ladki, bus aur train. Ek gayi dusri ati hai”. We never ran behind girls but when we used to come near the girls used to run away from us. Bus was unreliable so here were we, not running for train but waiting for train. We were optimistic to catch the next train and reach the sanpada station on time. But when you enter a chain reaction you are bound to make hasty decisions. Patience of an engineer is like a zener diode, always works in reverse direction. The fear that we would have to go by other options, forced us to the highway to catch a bus for sanpada. But we still had some smartness left in us even after three years of engineering, we told one of our friend who was waiting for a train for Kurla to give us a misscall if the train arrives on luck by chance.

19:50 to 19:55 hours

Unable to hold our patience we were waiting anxiously on the highway, chanting the “F” word rythmatically like a holy rite, kicking the innnocent rain drops and trying to see through the darkness for the slightest light of hope( i.e. headlight of the Sanpada bus). All of a sudden the friend gave us misscall, the misscall was like a fire warning alaram. We were all running like blind horse whose tail is on fire. As I say blind, I mean that word seriously, we(I, Siddharth and Bushan here) lost track with platform and as a aggrevated bull we charged into the train which was destined to Bellapur i.e. in opposite direction. I came to know about others later, but here were we aboard on a wrong train, breathing harder to catch up some oxygen and posing a winner smile.

19:55 to 20:00 hours

Our smile soon turned into an embarassment like the footballer who shoots a goal in his own goal post. We have learnt nothing in engineering except one important thing i.e. never giveup as nothing is impossible, as this was the fighting spirit which always kept us going for the medical chicks who never even cared for us. We reached Nerul station and by the grace of the Laloo's railway, we got an immediate train for Sanpada station. I pledged here never to run for trains and as it is well known every rule is made to be broken, to break a pledge it is supposed to be taken.

20:00 – 20:06 hours

Our remaining friends somehow reached Sanpada in one piece with few interesting scars. We were in constant touch with them and very happy to know that train had not arrived yet. See this is the use of technology to give you hope. We passed Juhinagar station peacefully, we were in midway between Juhinagar and Sanpada. Aniket called us and gave the forecast that very soon our 20:05 train is going to reach Sanpada. Now this is what we call the use of technology, it can increase your anxiety levels without any warning. Still I had faith in railway services which are usually late by atleast 2-3 minutes.

20:06 – 20:07 hours – Photo Finish

Our train entered Sanpada station but the 20:05 train was already standing in front of us. We jumped out of the running trains, caught a breath before the final run. We were now into a hurdle race, with two railway lines to cross along with three platfroms. Using our visual senses we saw that all lines are clear and we can now run and jump like a crazy. Aniket was standing on the edge of the platform, where our 20:05 local was standing. He was encouraging us as if we gonna win a gold medal for India. Jumping on rail lines as if they were trampolin but unable to bounce used our hands and legs like a flexible acrobat. The entire train was looking at three animated characters, charging like a rhino towards the stationary train. Finally we made it. We were now aboard and hoping this train doesn't fail in between.

After effects

›››  Siddharth's cell phone got affiliated with rain and caught cold
›››  Bhushan's watch was so happy to catch the train, that its heart stopped ticking at 20:07 hour.
›››  Everyone was in one piece, but later we never sat late in college for studies.
›››  In an attempt to keep himself in one piece, Arun had to sacrifice his t-shirt. He was hanging on the door when he caught a train to Sanpada and when a fellow passenger pulled him in, his t-shirt was torn. It appeared as if our SMPS( super mallu porn star) Arun, was raped...hehe.

| October, 2006 |

I woke up late compared to bygone two days for which I attended college. Still I managed to recuperate and was on the bus-stop right on time. As usual prime queue for our, “Exotic palace on wheels: 44” was as long as a 16 wheeler hauler and the second line up was just showing its glimpse. Hence we waited for our honey: 44 by queuing in ensuing line up. The atmosphere was murky as usual and the waiting moments were spent as usual discoursing with friends and sharing perception on academics, politics, economics, media and then some bland self made philosophy. At last our solitary carter, from Dombivli to Nerul arrived after not so long protract of an hour.

Everyone had a seat and just after taking up the piece of paper that makes one legal traveler i.e. ticket, I instantly went into hibernation period. The bus was just averting the road craters, providing the unusual glee of Essel World. The driver today was Michael Sakharam, which we named after F1 driver Schumacher, as he was almost analogous to him at least in driving. The boisterous rumble of our tarnished NMMT bus engine ruined my piece of peace and after a moment there was heart-break. The tire deflated and we had to end our journey at Turbhe naka. From here we got into another bus which was totally jam pack, but it didn’t fluster us as firstly we are adapted to this and secondly journey was a short one.

After reaching college almost an hour late in spite of starting as usual made me happy, as there was certainly no need of attending any sermon as that day we had a campus interview for which I was not eligible. Now do you get enigma of my ecstasy? The whole day I spent in library reading good books i.e. not relating to académico. I was reading the “Da Vinci Code” by Dan Brown which has hit the Indian readers only after the tidings that, Tom Hanks is acting in the film which is based on this novel. After reading the whole día, we secured permission for chucking practical in order to collect identity card from BARC for project. We left college happily ditching practical, utterly unaware of cataclysm ahead.

It was raining heavily outside and there was complete chaos about trains being out of order. We never paid any attention to that as all we were focusing right now was to reach BARC and collect the damn ID and reach home after eating wada pav at Vashi. We never knew that we might be meeting a catastrophe ahead. The bus 506 left us in pretty flooded road through which we maneuvered our way to BARC main gate. Gate was awfully under rain assault as it was surrounded by ocher water. My thongs strap lost their touch and I had to reach some evacuated area to put them back in place. Por suerte! We got a rick and reached the security atrium of BARC. There the security guard with concern advised not to go inside and updated “Maine aisa barish apne pandhra sal ke naukre mein kabhi nahi dekha”. After listening to this only alternative left was tracing back our footsteps. Main gate was at about a walk of 15 min and walking in such a cloud outburst was going to be an eccentric experience. On the way we requested for lift but the BARC buses callously turned it down even in our susceptible condition. I used profanities for them i.e. the common F-letter word with some nouns ancillary to it. After coming to the half way mark I was pleased to see that the cold-blooded buses came to halt due to unwarranted water on the road. I imagined myself in front of them and showing the apt finger they deserve, but did it from a distance.

Ô Mon dieu! The water level at the main gate was above waist height and the force of water was arcane. Even the mightiest vehicles were just dragged side ways. I was merely petrified by the scene. Here people were taking each others support and managing themselves to find their way out. I saw a female around 25 utterly traumatized and started crying. She was hardly moving. Taking into account her disgraceful condition some of her friends and relatives just carried her holding her in their arms. We fought our way back to the highway by walking over the divider which helped in reducing the water level irrefutably. We had a long way to go still, so we kept walking and reached Mankhurd station wrestling with deluge. Psychosomatic fatigue gripped us soon as no rickshaw was willing to go to Vashi and no one was gesturing compassion for a lift. But ¡buena suerte! We got a bus and we reached Vashi station in no time.

The first thing we did here was had a stomach-full of food as no mêlée can be won by an army with an empty appetite. Here I came to know that I had only twenty bucks remaining and if somehow I get departed from my friend then I would be completely doomed. I explained my condition to my friends and then first thing everyone did was that to check hard cash we had to subsidize our remaining voyage. Chotte Sarkar had enough cash to act as guarantor and Sarkar too had some currency. Once the currency check was over we found ourselves at tail of queue which was jaggedly 150 foot long. Gracias a Dios! An empty Thane bus surfaced and with ease we scuttled into it. At each stop bus was just wolfing down people and the number of people inside was multiplying at such a higher rate that it even exceeded its normal 19 standees in a flash. Normally it takes about 45 min to reach Thane from Vashi but as railway route was disrupted and road was the only means for transport there was total gridlock. Nevertheless our driver assiduously and perspicaciously steered us to Thane in almost 3 hours. All the time I was either sleeping even when I was standing or having a tête-à-tête with my friends. And when I was not speaking I was doing callisthenic’s to keep my body in balance which is now endemic in traveling around Mumbai and its suburbs.

Reaching Thane was identical to achieving a mountain peak and gained an upper hand in our “Mission Dombivli”. We were just scuttling through every phone booth to call at home to update them that we have reached Thane and will move cielo y tierra to reach Dombivli. ¡Dios mío! We reached Thane and got a local train for Kalyan. I thought boarding a train for Dombivli was the ultimate victory. The battle was not over yet. I wished goodbye to my friends and was now on my own after borrowing some currency from Chotte Sarkar to reach my realm. I was near zenith when no rickshaw was willing to come to my house. I have just shifted my house few weeks ago and now it was far away from station. In spite being blackout and the distance, I wasn’t scared of walking. All the way while walking I was just cursing the rickshaw-drivers for not coming to my neighborhood. When I was halfway through for my house I could find my one third part of body inside water and slowly I could feel the level increasing. Due to complete blackout in Dombivli I could not see where I was walking and was at high risk of finding myself in jeopardy. The simplest reason for my fear was that I was near a huge cesspool which was overflowing, secondly I could find a ditch which would increase the water level in a flash and the most important was that I didn’t knew swimming. But there were some people going in that directions and some enthusiastic social workers had done nice piece of work by providing support and guidelines even at this time. When I reached a temple near my house my mother was waiting for me there and I could sense the concern through her voice as I was unable to see her concerned face due to blackout. At home mom updated me that my father was trapped in CST but safe and my elder bro was sound at my cousins house in Bhandup. Instantly after my arrival she informed few concerned relatives back in my countryside. Now in the dim lights oil lamps I could see her reprieved face. I was out of a crisis but still many people I suppose still trapped in trains, buses, offices, schools, colleges and even on some odd place other than their home sweet home, as everyone is not lucky.

class="readmore">| 26th July, 2006 |